DC Heroes Role-Playing Game Gets New Reprint from Cryptozoic

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Cryptozoic Entertainment is reprinting the classic DC Heroes Role-Playing Game to celebrate the RPG's 40th anniversary. A Kickstarter pre-launch page for the new "archival edition" of DC Heroes went live earlier this week, with Cryptozoic promising a "faithful reissue" of the original game line with upgrades and exclusive dice. From the looks of a promo image for the new project, it appears that the line will be published in a single volume.

DC Heroes was originally designed by Greg Gorden and published by Mayfair Games. The game uses a 2d10 system to resolve checks, with players consulting a table to determine the success or failure of checks. Additionally, the game's attribute point system was logarithmic in nature to allow for the game to handle the immense range of powers within the DC Universe. Three editions of the game was published between 1985 and 1993, with the game incorporating various contemporaneous comics events such as Crisis on Infinite Earths and Death of Superman.

No launch date for the Kickstarter has been announced. A full description of the project can be seen below:

DC Heroes is an innovative and award-winning role-playing game that was first published in 1985. It allows you and your friends to take on the roles of iconic Super Heroes like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg, or to create heroes of your own. The object of the game is to create brand-new stories pitting these heroes against The Joker, Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Sinestro, or any of the hundreds of other villains who threaten the DC Universe!

Over eight years of product releases, DC Heroes produced dozens of adventures and sourcebooks, many featuring contributions from some of DC’s finest writers and artists of the 1980s—Jack Kirby, Alan Moore, Denny O’Neil, George Perez, John Byrne, and many others. Thousands of gamers and comics fans are still playing DC Heroes even though it’s been unavailable for decades.

To celebrate DCH’s 40th anniversary, we’re reprinting the line in definitive archival editions. Whether you’ve never experienced DCH before or you’re a long-time fan looking to plug the holes in your collection, we’ve got you covered.
 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer

I still have a 2nd edition box of this in cellophane / plastic wrap. I mostly played 3rd Ed and I loved DC HEROES. It was the super hero game we played between Marvel FASERIP and Champions 4th Ed.
That was the same for me except that we did not stick with Champions 4e for long after I returned from college and introduced it to my players. It was too much for a few of the players.
 

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It would also be great if this led to the DC Heroes material getting a PDF release. I don't know that I want to restock my limited shelves with all of the old stuff, but having it available in PDF for reference would be great.
 



I wonder how the Mayfair DC Heroes game compares to the two other licensed DC games, West End's DC Universe and Green Ronin's DC Adventures (based on the Mutants & Masterminds game).

I own digital copies of DC Adventures, but not the other two. Never played any of them . . .
VASTLY superior to WEG in handling the character power levels from 1e but especially when you get 2e or 3e. The WEG one was not great until after the DEO book and it was too late at that point. It used a variation of D6 that was similar to Shadowrun when the traditional D6 system would have been much better. They printed it on newsprint from what I recall. Some of the supplements are fantastic though.

Compared to M&M version? Much of what made M&M2e and 3e great was lifted from DCH, how it handles scaling etc but DCH is a lot less granular. M&M handles lower powered characters better but I think as great as M&M is it struggles with trying to be Champions and DCH in one game and that's why there are cracks.

DCH is very much Teen Titans to JL in scope and handles it very, very well on those scales. It's very much a heyday of DC Crisis era kind of game. Even includes pre & post Crisis stats for some characters. The boxed sets are stuffed with a LOT and the rules are pretty short. I am saving up for the 2e reprint myself since there wasn't a lot of difference between 2e and 3e that I could tell. The 3e was fairly slim.
 

DCH is very much Teen Titans to JL in scope and handles it very, very well on those scales. It's very much a heyday of DC Crisis era kind of game. Even includes pre & post Crisis stats for some characters. The boxed sets are stuffed with a LOT and the rules are pretty short. I am saving up for the 2e reprint myself since there wasn't a lot of difference between 2e and 3e that I could tell. The 3e was fairly slim.
3e was mostly a clean-up of the 2e rules with errata, but there were a few additional rules and changes. A summary of the differences can be found here
Edit: There were also new advantages and some new powers not found in the 2e boxed set. The latter include Paralysis, Shade, Snare, Vibe, Mental Freeze, Mental Illusion, Pyrotechnics and Radio Communication).
 
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VASTLY superior to WEG in handling the character power levels from 1e but especially when you get 2e or 3e. The WEG one was not great until after the DEO book and it was too late at that point. It used a variation of D6 that was similar to Shadowrun when the traditional D6 system would have been much better. They printed it on newsprint from what I recall. Some of the supplements are fantastic though.
Personally, I am on the opposite side regarding the usage of the traditional D6 system if it had been used for WEG's DC Universe. I think the die system they used was much better for superheroes.
And, you do remember correctly regarding the core rulebook being newsprint. That was such a bad decision given the usage that rulebooks go through.
 
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3e was mostly a clean-up of the 2e rules with errata, but there were a few additional rules and changes. A summary of the differences can be found here
Edit: There were also new advantages and some new powers not found in the 2e boxed set. The latter include Paralysis, Shade, Snare, Vibe, Mental Freeze, Mental Illusion, Pyrotechnics and Radio Communication).
Hey thank you for that. I left mine at a friend’s place a LONG time ago and we fell out of contact so I appreciate this immensely.
 


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