Marvel: Crisis Protocol – 5 Characters That Should Get An Ultimate Encounter
Marvel has plenty of characters that are massive threats. Here’s a few that should get an Ultimate Encounter of their own.
One of my favorite ways to play Marvel: Crisis Protocol is through the more narrative scenarios called Ultimate Encounters. Atomic Mass Games has a handful that you can run for free on their website. There’s also been a few that AMG has created for special events or run at GenCon and AdeptiCon. Having said that, I believe this is an untapped field of potential. I’ve used Ultimate Encounters to teach the game to new players and I’ve even got a string of three that I created to use as sort of an intro campaign, too.
Anyhow, I’m not here to toot my own horn. Today, I wanted to talk about a few characters that should 100% get their own Ultimate Encounters. A few of these are already in the game. So let’s get into the characters, why they’d be a great fit, and the type of scenario I’d setup if I got to build an Ultimate Encounter for them.
Nightmare
Nightmare is a recurring character in Marvel and is the evil ruler of a “Dream Dimension.” He’s also a Fear Lord. Doctor Strange is often battling with him but other characters have squared off against him as well.
I think he’d be an obvious option as an Ultimate Encounter with him being a Fear Lord and everything. The dude has his own nightmare dimension! Scenario-wise I think you’d want to have it take place in his home turf — where he’s the most powerful. I’d assume the characters would be there either because he’s trapped them or they are on a rescue mission.
I also think there should be a dream-like element in play. Perhaps there’s some sort of objective where you’d need to “wake-up” the victims and extract them before a timer runs out. Whatever the case, Nightmare can be an over-the-top baddy in MCP. We’re talking about the stuff nightmares are made of after all!
Kang The Conqueror
I don’t think Kang the Conqueror really needs that much of an introduction. He’s a long-time foe of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four and really just Marvel Heroes in general. He could be a massive temporal crisis waiting to happen.
As far as an Ultimate Encounter, I think you’d want to lean hard into the Time Travel Shenanigans for Kang. He’s just one man, but he’s got some seriously OP tech on his side. Oh and Time Travel! This scenario needs to find Kang attempting to escape or activate some sort of temporal device. This is another one that should have a clock or countdown element to it. Honestly, I feel like this scenario would need multiple Kangs running around so I might not be possible with just one copy of his up coming character model.
Ideally, you could even have a “Kang Army” to face off against. Maybe if we got a few more time-displaced Kang’s in the future this could happen.
Mephisto
Mephisto is a character that already exists in the game. Plus he’s got a pretty sweet model already. Mechanically, he’s all about making deals and is a tricky character for sure. That’s why I’m surprised this Demon Lord doesn’t have an Ultimate Encounter already. Bonus points if you have Spider-Man involved in some way.
For Mephisto, I think you’d need to have some sort of wager mechanic along with “deals” as a major part of his encounter. It would make a lot of sense if you had Mephisto split the Crisis Team into two teams and have them duke it out. Along the way, you’d have to trigger these wagers and deals between the two teams. As you completed these deals/wagers then the Crisis Team would gain points. But as you’re dazing/KO’ing each other to achieve these deals, Mephisto is gaining his win condition, too. So you’d have to thread the needle to score as many wagers/deals without taking out your Crisis Team members at he same time.
Doctor Doom
Doctor Doom should absolutely get his own Ultimate Encounter whenever he shows up to MCP. He’s well known for having Doom Bots that do his bidding and can even fool people into thinking it’s him. Plus, he’s not just good with technology, he’s also quite the accomplished sorcerer, too. I think that should come into play here.
While Doom needs no help, I could still see him having tempted/tricked some characters into assisting his plan. Probably something in the lines of how Apocalypse has his Ultimate Encounter setup. But I wouldn’t just want to reskin that fight into a Doctor Doom battle. Still, I think Doom having his minions distract the Crisis Team while he completes a ritual seems fitting. Depending on how far he gets in his plan we could see him then step into the fight and show the characters why you should fear DOOM!
Personally, I’d like to see what direction AMG goes with Doom (whenever that happens). I’m not 100% sure how you’d turn him into an Ultimate Encounter but if Magneto can get one, then I think Doctor Doom could, too!
The Sentry
Good ol’ Bob Reynolds is a (mentally) broken man. He’s got another side to him known as The Void. That’s really where I’d lean into if he were to come to MCP and get an Ultimate Encounter. His original story arc explores the whole idea of “who is The Sentry” quite a bit. It has to do with memory and making people forget all about The Sentry so that the Void doesn’t come back. If you watched The Thunderbolts* then you know that when Bob goes full Void he’s got some pretty freaky powers.
Considering his raw strength and power (on a good day) he’s already big enough threat to face down a Worldbreaker Hulk. But I think for an Ultimate Encounter you’d have to help him stop the Void from returning. In the comic, that involved Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Strange setting up some tech/magic to help wipe him from people’s memory. Perhaps that can be what the Crisis Team is attempting to do all while The Void is there getting stronger and attempting to stop the team from “fixing” the machine.
Ultimate Untapped Potential
I’m just spit-balling here but, again, I do think that the Ultimate Encounters are a super cool concept for Marvel: Crisis Protocol that has a lot of potential. I enjoy getting my Team together to tackle the standard missions, too. However, there’s something unique and fun about the Ultimate Encounters and I just want more of those.
I really think AMG is on to something with them. The Apocalypse one in particular shows what they can do when they are really invested in them. It’s one of the best ones they made because you can run it with or without the Terrain set, too.
There are loads of Characters that could be used for the Ultimate Encounters. I’ve talked about having Galactus as one as well and he’s just one of many Cosmic Threats out there that could be tapped as an Ultimate Encounter.
One other facet I like about the Ultimate Encounters is the way they can be designed as co-op fighters, 1v1, or even 2v1 scenarios. There’s so much untapped potential there for scaling the game up or down for player counts as well as player experience levels. There’s nothing quite like taking a new player through one of the co-op fights and watching them get into playing MCP.
What characters would you want to see get an Ultimate Encounter?
