Time Trap and Avengers Assembled
Marvel Super Heroes Modules

Game Review

Reviewed by Mike Dawson


Written by Bruce Nesmith
TSR Inc. P.O. Box 756, Lake Geneva, W1 53147
Released: August, 1984
Catalog No. 6853 adn 6854
Price: $6.00 each
Complexity: Beginner
Solitaire Suitability: None

Time Trap and Avengers Assembled are two of the many support products recently released for Marvel Super Heroes. Time Trap is a 16-page multiple adventure scenario featuring the Avengers as protagonists, and Avengers Assembled is a 32page reference work containing complete descriptions of everyone who has ever been an Avenger and several of the Avengers' most challenging foes.

Both products come shrink wrapped in loose cardboard outer covers. Time Trap includes a double-sided color scenario map with the booklet describing the action. Avengers Assembled uses the interior of the cardboard cover to present floor plans, elevations, and descriptions of the Avengers' mansion as reprinted from the Marvel Universe series of comics.

Artwork in both varies from the generic to the wonderful, since several Marvel artists of differing skill have done illustrations for the products. interestingly enough, Marvel or TSR seems to have established a policy of not crediting an artist tor his specific work in the product. Credits for art are listed in the back of the books, and list only names without linking a name to a specific piece. The interiors on Time Trap are particularly uninspiring.

Avengers Assembled is a very well done product. Each of the characters is presented alphabetically and has an illustration. Standard Marvel Super Heroes character format is used, and where new powers are used, they are explained well enough to be played without any problems. The selection of villains is a bit odd, however. Excluding more of the dead villains, omitting the ones presented elsewhere, and not using uninspiring villains such as Living Lazer would add more excitement. Nevertheless, most of the villains are arch foes of the Avengers who probably won't be showing up in other published scenarios anytime soon.

On the other hand, Time Trap suffers from an overly complex plot that has been forced into simplicity. Whenever time travel is a part of a scenario, things are likely to get very involved, and Time Trap does not handle that complexity very well. The antagonist involved in the plot against the Avengers shows enough power to permanently strand the Avengers, but instead chooses to involve them in mini scenarios that focus around fights with villains from the past in an attempt to change history in the villain's favor. This lacks credibility.

To say more would give away too much of the plot. The Time Trap scenario is a not-tooclever deus ex machina to force the Avengers to fight a bunch of villains at separate times in different places. There is really little that the player- characters (PCs) can do inside the battles in the way of problem solving or roleplaying. The only chance of this comes in the times between the battle sections where it helps to actually wonder what is going on.

However, until deus ex machina number two shows up, there is not too much that the Avengers can do about the situation. If they somehow did manage to solve the secret early, the rest of the scenario pack would dissolve into uselessness.

Time Trap is designed to be a shoot-em-up scenario, and unlesss thiss kind of mindless action appeals to you, it won't be much fun.

Avengers Assembled should serve refs as a major reference work for a Marvel Universe campaign. The heroes presented there are just about the most powerful and most accessible in that game world. They are the heroes that the government calls when things get tough, and many of their members had not been published elsewhere until Avengers Assembled came out.

Since the nature of a Marvel Super Heroes campaign is likely to be one of team play, the huge active and former membership of the Avengers offers many different character possibilities without radically changing official Marvel history. Between east, west inactive and reserve members, a player can easilv find a character he is interested in piaving, and the associate status of all these characters assures a reason for them to be adventuring together.

Marvel Super Heroes scenarios all seem to suffer from the author's or editor's unwillingness to let the characters fail. Just as in the introductory .scenario included in the basic Marvel Super Heroes set, the Time Trap scenario has built-in plot devices that will keep the players from being too horribly defeated.

This might seem like a wise choice for younger players, but it has the effect of cheapening any victories that the players do achieve without the aid of the unknown allies waiting in the wings to save the day. Where it is impossible to really fail, it is impossible to have a real sense of victory.

Time Trap therefore presents the Gamemaster and players with a "catch 22." It is hard to stay true to the Marvel genre without involving heroes in events of worldwide or cosmic significance, but the nature of role-playing games (RPGs) is such that victory is only worthwhile when it is not certain. The authors who face the horns of this difficult dilemma will be recognized as having created excellent Marvel Super Heroes scenarios, but Time Trap is not one of them.

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