An Official Hellboy RPG Is Coming!

Red Scar is set to produce Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game, powered by D&D 5E, to be published by Mantic Games (who already make the board game).

"A brand-new Hellboy roleplaying experience, based on the visionary Hellboy graphic novels by Mike Mignola and powered by 5th Edition."

It will be coming to Kickstarter later this year, along with a Quickstart containing 6 regenerated characters. It's being head dup my marc Langworthy, who's also the line manager for EN Publishing's Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD.

More information coming soon, but you can sign up for Kickstarter notification now.

 PRESS RELEASE

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Mantic Games is excited to announce that it is partnering with Dark Horse Comics and visionary creator Mike Mignola to bring Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game to Kickstarter this summer. Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game will be a whole new way to explore the Hellboy and B.P.R.D. universe while creating your own spectacular one-off stories or action-packed chronicles.

Powered by the world’s most popular RPG ruleset, Fifth Edition, Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game gives you the tools to step into the shoes of a B.P.R.D. agent, ready to face the forces of evil. You can become a field researcher skilled in the study of the occult, a hard-nosed B.P.R.D. security agent, a rookie with hidden supernatural powers, and more…. The choice is yours.

Developed by Red Scar Publishing, Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game is being led by ENnie Award-winning writer and game developer Marc Langworthy, who has worked on Mutant Chronicles 3rd Edition Roleplaying Game, Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD Roleplaying Game,and the Conan: Adventures in An Age Undreamed Of Roleplaying Game.

Once the Kickstarter launches, you will be able to try the roleplaying game for yourself with a detailed quickstart that features six pre-generated characters, all the rules needed to play, and a unique adventure inspired by the Hellboy graphic novels, written by Red Scar.


“We can’t wait to bring Hellboy back to Kickstarter,” said Ronnie Renton, CEO of Mantic Games. “The roleplaying game is going to be a fantastic new way to experience Hellboy on the tabletop. The team at Red Scar has done an amazing job of capturing the feel of the Hellboy universe. Plus, your miniatures from Hellboy: The Board Game will be compatible with the RPG, which will bring a whole new lease of life to your awesome mini collection.”

Mantic Games launched Hellboy: The Board Game on Kickstarter in 2018 and raised almost two million dollars during the campaign. The board game is a co-operative experience in which players face off against some of the comic’s most famous foes. Up to four people take control of iconic B.R.P.D. members––Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, and Johann Kraus––before exploring gothic locations, uncovering ancient artefacts, and battling one of Hellboy’s most notorious foes, Rasputin! After launching at retail last year, the game is now available in multiple languages (French, Italian, Portuguese, and Russian) and is on its fourth reprint after selling out worldwide.

 

[Voadam]

I think it will be great to get 5e stats for the bad guys, a lot of Hellboy elements can translate well flavorwise into a D&D game.

 

[Ibrandul]

I think 5e can work very well for this. It will require some clever design choices to be made regarding classes, alterations to the way magic works, etc. But an original system might be an even dicier proposition from a design success POV, and using an existing non-5e system is definitely a much dicier proposition from a commercial success POV. I think the biggest design challenge overall will be replicating the arc of most (but not all, see below) Hellboy stories: moody investigation, leading up to a single climactic combat. D&D 5e can do combat well (YMMV) but investigation is less well supported mechanically. Home-run-level design success for this project might require a few clever additional mechanics. We'll see if they manage it, but I'm hopeful.

I haven't read everything Hellboy, but I remember it having much bigger, more superheroic action than Storyteller/Chronicles of Darkness supports.

That's true, up to a point. There have been a number of different kinds of stories set in Hellboy's world. Many, perhaps most, are definitely superheroic—for example, at the most recent moment in the timeline,

Spoiler: spoilers for BPRD: Hell on Earth

Liz's abilities have advanced to the point where she is an even more superpowered version of the Fantastic Four's Human Torch, complete with flight and nova powers

—but others are very low-key, moody stories with no heroics at all.

If you have a foe capable of punching Hellboy through a building, everyone else in the game is basically instantly dead in CoD, which doesn't feel like a great experience for everyone.

That's why I think the game ought to have two modes: a low-level-PC mode where the major characters might not appear, and at least aren't playable; and a high-level-PC mode where you get to be Hellboy, Liz, Johann, etc.

 

[Morrus]

That's why I think the game ought to have two modes: a low-level-PC mode where the major characters might not appear, and at least aren't playable; and a high-level-PC mode where you get to be Hellboy, Liz, Johann, etc.

This isn't exactly the first licensed RPG. Star Wars, Star Trek, The One Ring, Doctor Who, Judge Dredd, there's thousands of them. Generally you play your own characters.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Personally, I agree with @Whizbang Dustyboots that Monster of the Week would be the best system for Hellboy.

 

[imagineGod]

Being a GM, obviously, I am happy to see D&D 5th Edition used to power this. Though, to be honest, I expected another system more common in the superhero genre when I first heard of this new game.

 

[Ibrandul]

This isn't exactly the first licensed RPG. Star Wars, Star Trek, The One Ring, Doctor Who, Judge Dredd, there's thousands of them. Generally you play your own characters.

That's true, of course. As I also observed earlier on in this thread, most such games don't include options for playing the canonical main characters, unless perhaps as a variant option. (I mentioned Prince Valiant and the currently active Conan RPG.)

Nonetheless, I'd be pretty surprised if this game doesn't break that mold. Just a hunch. We'll see.

 

[Ethawyn]

I added it to the The world's most complete directory of tabletop RPG depictions of fictive worlds which originated in other media

Along with GURPS Hellboy: Hellboy Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game

This is a really cool list to put together. Have you considered turning it into a wiki so others could contribute/help keep it up to date?

 

[JPL]

Hopeful for a cool take on a modern 5e. The likely problem is that a lot of characters in Hellboy seem like unique creatures . . . which is actually easier to model with something like GURPS.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

This is a really cool list to put together. Have you considered turning it into a wiki so others could contribute/help keep it up to date?

Thank you Ethawyn! I have thought of making it more presentable in some fashion (such as a table), but I hadn't quite thought of a wiki. Good idea! I'm kind of slow to figure out tech stuff. Could you point me to the simplest, easiest-to-use wiki site?

 

[Aldarc]

Count me in as someone dubious about this being a good fit for 5E, although I can understand the business case for doing so.

It will be hard to beat doing Hellboy by playing Monster of the Week with the Hellboy wiki. It's the gold standard of the modern day monster hunting genre. (Hunter: The Vigil is also good but tells very different sorts of stories and, ultimately, is best suited to stories about how the hunt destroys the hunter, rather than being a monster hunting game itself.)

Personally, I agree with @Whizbang Dustyboots that Monster of the Week would be the best system for Hellboy.

Monster of the Week is a good choice but I would also probably look to something like Atomic Robo first.