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.

 

[Birmy]

I'll slide in before all the 5E complaints start to say that Hellboy is a natural fit for an RPG, with tons of great characters and lore to choose from. The franchise is probably not at its peak anymore, with the last movie bombing and HB himself (mostly) dead in the comics, but it's a very rich and compelling universe.

 

[Ibrandul]

My first thought was "But who gets to play Hellboy? And won't they be having, you know, a lot more fun than the other players?"

Most games of this nature, based on source material with very prominent main characters, take the approach where no player gets to play the "star of the story" because everyone has to play original characters. Title characters are NPCs only, if they show up at all, and you're really just playing in the universe, not playing as the established team. The excellent Prince Valiant Storytelling Game works this way, as does the Conan game that the designer of this new Hellboy RPG worked on.

I hope we will see options for playing versions of the classic BPRD team—Red, Liz, Abe, Roger, and Kate, at least. It just seems like a missed opportunity if you can't play those characters.

On the other hand, it would seem to me to be a big problem if there aren't also options for playing (say) a team of BPRD grunts who've been sent out to investigate odd goings-on without the backup of the superheroic famous agents.

I wonder whether they might even treat these two options as separate game modes, for different types or levels of play—because playing original creations with a regular-person power level in the Mignolaverse sounds like a lot of fun to me, but it doesn't sound nearly as fun if the player to your left is Hellboy.

 

[univoxs]

My first thought was "But who gets to play Hellboy? And won't they be having, you know, a lot more fun than the other players?"

Most games of this nature, based on source material with very prominent main characters, take the approach where no player gets to play the "star of the story" because everyone has to play original characters. Title characters are NPCs only, if they show up at all, and you're really just playing in the universe, not playing as the established team. The excellent Prince Valiant Storytelling Game works this way, as does the Conan game that the designer of this new Hellboy RPG worked on.

I hope we will see options for playing versions of the classic BPRD team—Red, Liz, Abe, Roger, and Kate, at least. It just seems like a missed opportunity if you can't play those characters.

On the other hand, it would also seem to me to be a big problem if there aren't also options for playing (say) a team of BPRD grunts who've been sent out to investigate odd goings-on without the backup of the superheroic famous agents.

I wonder whether they might even treat these two options as separate game modes, for different types or levels of play—because playing original creations with a regular-person power level in the Mignolaverse sounds like a lot of fun to me—but it doesn't sound nearly as fun if the player to your left is Hellboy.

The BPRD has a long history that included many other strange characters not to mention the entire expanse of the Mignolaverse including other super natural beings. I would like to see it be a period game, maybe even pre WWII, and before the summing of the boy in red. How about a campaign set around such exploits as Baltimore? Vampire hunting is fun.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I don't watch movies or teleseries since a lot of time ago, I don't read novels, and let's say my hobby is thinking about "conspirancies" by companies, for example the ideas about A buying B. My theory is Dark Horse Comics and Hasbro want a good relation, and they are worked for a D&D/Stranger Things comic, or a Transformers vs Terminator.

Maybe we will see more tittles like this.

 

[Ghost2020]

Did anyone ever play the first Hellboy RPG? The one powered by GURPS?

Hellboy Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game

www.sjgames.com

The BPRD has a long history that included many other strange characters not to mention the entire expanse of the Mignolaverse including other super natural beings. I would like to see it be a period game, maybe even pre WWII, and before the summing of the boy in red. How about a campaign set around such exploits as Baltimore? Vampire hunting is fun.

I'd be down for some Baltimore action!
(ok that sounded weird)

 

[Ibrandul]

How about a campaign set around such exploits as Baltimore?

Baltimore and Joe Golem are part of a different, much smaller shared universe called "The Outerverse." It's not the same world as Hellboy's (and the BPRD's, and Frankenstein's, and Witchfinder's, and . . .). I'm sure the Hellboy RPG won't include them (and the rights to those series would probably be a separate IP license anyway).

 

[darjr]

I own the GURPS version but never got it to the table.

This looks fun!

 

[dave2008]

I'm surprised it has taken so long to make an RPG on this franchise.

 

[Von Ether]

I'm surprised it has taken so long to make an RPG on this franchise.

A second RPG for this IP.

I would have thought that PL 5 or 6 Mutants and Masterminds game would be natural for this. Especially since they already did Nocturnals.

I wonder whether they might even treat these two options as separate game modes, for different types or levels of play—because playing original creations with a regular-person power level in the Mignolaverse sounds like a lot of fun to me—but it doesn't sound nearly as fun if the player to your left is Hellboy.

I'd be up to run a low level game as BPRD grunts and also a higher level agents game. I'd also dig it if PC levels were effectively capped at like 12 or 15. It seems that only in dire moments of need can some of the character do big booms, most of the time they seem to rely on investigate skills with a supernatural power or two to make sure they aren't instant monster lunch.

I'd also dig making up my own funky monster investigator.