''After Midnight'' is a licensed

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

adventure published by TSR in 1990 for the '' Marvel Super Heroes'' role-playing game, itself based on the Marvel Super Heroes line of comics. This adventure was the first installment of a trilogy.

Description

''After Midnight'' is the first part of the ''Gang Wars'' trilogy, which centers on a New York City gang war fomented by the Faces of Fear, a gang of supervillains somehow controlled by the mysterious "Big Boss". The

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional Character (arts), character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters tha ...

super heroes are called to the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, where a tome titled ''A Mdman's Mutterings'' has been stolen. While the super heroes' investigation leads to confrontations with supernatural monsters, manifestations such as animated skeletons attack the city at night. During their investigation, the super heroes help a pair of mutants, Felicia Bifrost and her brother Johnny, who would later appear in TSR's 1992 release ''X-Forces: The Mutant Update''. The investigation leads to the underground lair of the Faces of Fear gang, where the super heroes find a hypnotizing machine used to control the supervillains, and face a

boss fight In video games, a boss is a significantly powerful non-player character and computer-controlled enemy created as an opponent to players. A fight with a boss character is referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stro ...

with the lieutenant of the Big Boss.

Publication history

In 1984, TSR gained the license to produce a role-playing game based on characters from Marvel Comics. The result was ''Marvel Super Heroes'', which was followed by an "Advanced" version in 1986. Many supplements and adventures set in New York City were also published, including the ''Gang Wars Trilogy''. The first installment in the trilogy, MLA1 ''After Midnight'', was written by Anthony Herring, with cover art by

Jeff Butler Jeff Butler (born February 26, 1958, in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American illustrator and comic book artist. He worked with the art department of TSR, Inc. for five years, illustrating products for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-pl ...

and interior art by John Statema. It was published by TSR in 1990 as a 64-page book and a poster, both enclosed in a cardstock outer folder. The other two installments in the trilogy, MLA2 ''Night Moves'' and MLA3 ''Night Life'' were released at the same time.

References

{{reflist Marvel Comics role-playing game adventures Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1990