GI Joe, Transformers, My Little Pony RPGs Also Confirmed For 2021

wingsandsword · Oct 7, 2020

bedir than said:
But GI Joe predates the 80s?

I'm talking about GI Joe: A Real American Hero, the action figure, comic, and cartoon line that began in 1982.

GI Joe, in it's original version of a 12 inch figure was released in 1964, but sales slumped during the Vietnam War. They tried re-tooling it into the GI Joe Adventure Team, with GI Joe leaving the Army and being marketed as a more generic action-adventure character, but that didn't last and they ended selling GI Joe in 1976.

When Star Wars came out, the Kenner action figures for it really popularized the smaller 3 3/4 inch action figure size. Hasbro thought that between the change in public attitudes towards the military by the early 1980's, and the new 3 3/4 inch figure popularity, they might be able to re-start a new GI Joe product line.

The result was GI Joe: A Real American Hero. As I noted, Hasbro was vague on characters, and really hadn't thought through plots and villains at first. They knew they wanted a variety of figures, and a cartoon and comic book. . .and Marvel Comics had a disused idea for a SHIELD task force they'd come up with a few years before but not made, which could easily be re-tooled into an American special forces unit, and instead of fighting Hydra, they would fight another reptilian-themed terrorist group, Cobra, which was created essentially as a Hydra copy.

MidnightBlue · Oct 12, 2020

I hope the best for the Transformers and G.I. Joe fans that the RPGs are a huge hit. Though I do have personal regrets that this wasn't wrapped in the Fandom license using Cortex Prime like He-Man. I could see Transformers and G.I. Joe running under the Marvel Heroic RPG version of Cortex Plus, that you can recreate in the new Cortex Prime. The power set format of character creation would be perfect for transformers in vehicle mode (one power set) and in robot mode (a different power set). I also think it would be a great way to make characters for G. I. Joe based off the old G. I. Joe data cards on the back of action figure packaging...with one power set for the Primary Military Specialty and a second power set for the Secondary Military Specialty of the characters.

Oh well...I can always workout those hacks for myself, but would have been nice for an official Cortex Prime version of Transformers and G. I. Joe.

Alzrius · Oct 12, 2020

LuisCarlos17f said:
My Little Pony is maybe the easiest option to be adapted into 5e but it's a too innocent franchise for teenages.

It's not that easy. Presuming that it's based on G4, the "Friendship is Magic" incarnation of the show, then it's actually closer to a superhero genre than a fantasy one. Leaving aside that the setting ranges from the 1880's to the 1950's in terms of technological progress (with certain things missing, such as telephones and television), there's also the fact that the characters' power levels are fairly static. While you can point to a few gradual instances of them refining skills that they already possess (e.g. Rainbow Dash going from barely being able to perform her sonic rainboom to being able to do it effortlessly), actual permanent power-ups like Twilight Sparkle going from unicorn to alicorn are extremely rare events. Throw in a lack of magical gear and a predisposition for ending conflicts via understanding rather than violence (though the show is about 50/50 on major villains who were redeemed versus those who were simply defeated), and it can be difficult for a 5E-based adaptation to pull off.

LuisCarlos17f · Oct 12, 2020

My theory is it will be not based in Generation4 but in G5, designed to be in the middle between kid-friendly and young adult, the classic: "for all the family", and easy to be adapted into d20 system. With lots of no-lethal spells (dreaming, grease, web, hold creature). Do you remember Hanna-Barbera's cartoon "Wildfire"?

If my memory doesn't fail Renegade said they will be compatible with D&D 5Th Ed.

Sometimes I imagine WotC game designers playing Baldur's Gate 3 with special mods to test future new ideas as monster pets, firearms, powered armours, superpowers by mutations and looking possible failures about the right power balance...

I imagine G.I.Joe d20 more close to cinematic universe than the old cartoons where cobra troops wore those ridiculous pink and purple uniforms. I wonder about players wanting those special gadgets as exosuits, powered armours and mechas and DM saying no to send those expensive vehicles to help with the missions because he says they are too secret.

Power Rangers isn't only sci-fi, but also fantasy, the own Zordon was a wizard. This means Powers Rangers use magic, but not as in D&D.

Have you thought about D&D players wanted maximals(techno-organic cybertronians) as animal companions or mounts for their rangers and druids?

What if I want to create a story about pretender decepticons infiltrated in Cobra-La?

Henry · Oct 12, 2020

I used to love my 12-inch GI Joes (Adventure Team) back in the 70s. It’s because of those and the old “story book records” that I never saw 1980s GI Joe as “real” GI Joe when I was a kid.
EDIT: I had forgotten that those did NOT age well...

zarionofarabel · Oct 12, 2020

Ahahahahahahahahahaha...no wait, this is serious?!?!?!

Mecheon · Oct 12, 2020

zarionofarabel said:
Ahahahahahahahahahaha...no wait, this is serious?!?!?!

I mean, there were at least two unofficial MLP based ones

There's a space in the market

LuisCarlos17f said:
I wonder about players wanting those special gadgets as exosuits, powered armours and mechas and DM saying no to send those expensive vehicles to help with the missions because he says they are too secret.

If you're not prepared to deal with transforming tanks, eco-destroying villains, flesh-crafting Yuan-Ti, an accountant who dresses up like a bird, and an entire army of ninjas, then you are not prepared to GM a GI Joe campaign

LuisCarlos17f · Oct 12, 2020

Raptor was one of the coolest Cobra villains. It should be a skin for Fortnite.

In the Spanish 70's years, before Cobra, it was Geyperman the name of the Hasbro licenced toy, and other brand sold the famous Madelman. And today the war toys, soldier figures have got a bad reputation because it is linked with the violence. Sci-fi heroes and fantasy warriors without firearms are tolerated better.

The RPGs by Renegade games should have got their exclusive continuity. I imagine Cobra as a secret lodge, like those from the conspiracy theories about the deep-state (and we add reptilian aliens). The dreadnoks could be an international crime gang with anti-system propaganda. I also would add the other factions (S.K.A.R, Red Shadows, I.R.O.N army..). And I would suggest alternate settings, for example someones where Cobra was an alien invader who conquered some nations on the Earth.

Now I start to wonder if there was a G.I.Joe-Street Fighter "crossover", why not Fortnite? Hasbro should talk seriously with Epic Games.

It would be a very unpleasant surprise if PC Joes discover their favorite war vehicle is a decepticon spy, or the coil (a Cobra spin-off) is a lovecraftian cult what can summon the daikaiju monsters from Power Rangers.

* How would dare for a Gamma World/M.A.S.K crossover?

Kitsune Inari · Oct 12, 2020

Mecheon said:
I mean, there were at least two unofficial MLP based ones

Plus a 100% official one.

Weiley31 · Oct 12, 2020

Undrave said:
Street Fighters also had a recent crossover with... Power Rangers, where Ryu and, later, Chun-Li, gained Ranger powers.

According to the Project X Zone games, even before we get into space-time hopping shenanigans (which would lead, among others, to the world of Fire Emblem!), Street Fighters is in the same universe as:

Tekken
Rival School
Fighting Vipers
Yakuza franchise
Streets of Rage
Resident Evil
House of the Dead
Dynamite Cop (AKA the sequel to the Die Hard arcade game!)
Dead Rising
Darkstalker
Phoenix Wright
Bravoman
Wonder Momo
Namco X Capcom (it is the home dimension of Xiaomu and Reiji)

Furthermore, Xiaomu knows of 'The World' the virtual MMORPG that is the setting of the entire .Hack franchise! Xiaomu and Reiji are also aware of Segata Sanshiro!

And the characters of Darkstalker seem to have connections to Vallkyrie of Legend of Volkyrie and Arthur of Ghosts & Goblins!

Tekken, incidently, includes a character who is descendant from a character in Soul Calibur.

It's also possible that SNK vs Capcom is canon to that universe as well.

Also, the Transformers used to be in the Marvel canon! In fact, that's where space bounty hunter Death's Head originated from! And in those strip there was a Decepticon that had a friggin' Dalek shell as an alt mode!

I could probably spiral out from there even more but I'll stop from now.

I LOVE The NamcoXCapcom/Super Robot Wars OG Endless Frontier/Project X Zone series.

Don't forget that Super Robot Wars is also technically connected to it as well since Haken, from Endless Frontier, also appeared in Super Robot Wars: The Moon Dwellers as well. And Kos-Mos herself as also appeared in both NamcoXCapcom and Endless Frontier, technically making her somewhat a part of the Super Robot Wars series as well.Endless Frontier is a Spin-Off of Super Robot Wars. While Project X Zone 2 is also a sequel to NamcoXCapcom since Reiji and Xiaomu are the Main OG Characters of that game. (they were ALSO the Main OG Characters of NamcoXCapcom AND party members in Endless Frontier, linking them to Super Robot Wars as well.)

And since Go Lion(Voltron) was in Super Robot Wars W IIRC, then technically that means Transformers and Sentai can also be considered potential candidates for the series too. In fact, I'm surprised by the fact that Transformers or even Zyruranger's Megazord have yet to appear in Super Robot Wars.