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

---

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.

 

[Weiley31]

I feel like this would go great with the recent Mythological Figures and Malificent Monsters book, that Mike and the gang just got done doing, since some stuff, like the Arthurian stuff or even like Fenrir, has either been in the Hellboy series or seems like it would be/fit a part of it.

And I'm not gonna lie: A fey agent, from the Seelie Courts, fighting against Undead Nazi Clockwork abominations, sounds like a killer idea.

Plus I'm not gonna lie: I'm probably gonna base my games around the Ron Pearlman Hellboy movie universe and comic aspects.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

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

 

[univoxs]

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).

I really thought they were all in the same world. I have been reading the new Frankenstein book. The two issues or so that are out anyway.

 

[Ibrandul]

I have been reading the new Frankenstein book. The two issues or so that are out anyway.

Those two issues are all we're going to get. The rest of the series has been canceled due to Mignola severing ties with longtime Hellboy editor, and writer on that Frankenstein series, Scott Allie, following revelations of Allie's persistent sexual misconduct. (Apparently his having lied about the situation to Mignola when previous allegations were made didn't help.) The art for Frankenstein was apparently finished (or nearly finished), but they've chosen to cancel the series rather than release any new products with Allie's name on them.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

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?"

The thing about 5e is it's zero to hero situation. For Hellboy's story, he's the chosen one, and is pretty much a badass from the start (right? I've only read a few early issues). The narrative told in teh comics isn't on the same framework as a normal 5e game. So I wouldn't expect to play Hellboy anyway.

 

[Sunsword]

The thing about 5e is it's zero to hero situation. For Hellboy's story, he's the chosen one, and is pretty much a badass from the start (right? I've only read a few early issues). The narrative told in teh comics isn't on the same framework as a normal 5e game. So I wouldn't expect to play Hellboy anyway.

True, but starting at level 3 could offset some of that.

I never thought GURPS was a good fit for Hellboy and I'm a bit dubious about 5E, but it would be dumb not to use the biggest and first RPG that is currently pretty chic. I look forward to this either way.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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.)

 

[univoxs]

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.)

I think the Storyteller system would be a great fit for Hellboy.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think the Storyteller system would be a great fit for Hellboy.

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

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.

The Buffy game (and Monster of the Week) are built around balancing all sorts of characters in one fight together, which I think Hellboy somewhat requires, unless most of the characters we know from the comics are NPCs that it isn't advisable to play.

 

[univoxs]

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

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.

The Buffy game (and Monster of the Week) are built around balancing all sorts of characters in one fight together, which I think Hellboy somewhat requires, unless most of the characters we know from the comics are NPCs that it isn't advisable to play.

You could be right though a moving morality score (humanity and the like) fits nicely to me. Almost everyone except Hellboy tends to get dead in the comics as well. I am always okay with deadly combat in my games. I have never played Buffy though.

I have been saying this for years but d20 does not express all genres the best. Square pegs and round holes etc. Why shave off the corners when there is a perfectly good round peg right there. One of the great things about the hobby is enterprising folks like us can take the sourcebook and fit it to another system if we so choose. We used nWoD to play a Cowboy Bebop game for quite some time. Great fun.