DC Heroes Role-Playing Game Gets New Reprint from Cryptozoic

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.

 

[Thomas Shey]

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).

There was also the ongoing attempt to make Gadgets work right, which arguably they didn't in any of the three editions.

 

[Thomas Shey]

• Mayfair used the DC Heroes system in another game called Underground back in the 90s. I recall reading but not playing it; my memory is that it was a worthy homage to the distinctly subversive comics of the era, like Hard Boiled and Marshall Law

Underground had a related system, but they weren't the same.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

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.

I get it. Champions is a system that takes some patience to learn especially with character creation. But once you stick with it was vastly more versatile than any other superhero system at that time. Which is why we stuck with it through 4th and 5th Edition. We had some AMAZING games using champions, four color, street level, cosmic, you name it we did it.

But before that, we ran some crazy games in the DC universe with heroes of our own making. I think my favorite was helping Superman by clearing Kryponite-infused Para-Demons so that he could get to a Doomsday clone infused with Motherbox tech sent to Earth by a nearly defeated Darkseid as retribution for us helping the Justice League defeat Darkseid ON Apokolips.

Fun Times...

 

[dbolack]

Both DC and Greg Gorden have claimed ownership of the system mechanics in the past (with current Pulsar's licensing of the mechanics being caught in the middle). As I understand it, both DC and Greg Gorden are involved. Cryptozoic, as mentioned, has ties with DC and Greg Gorden has been working alongside with Ray Winninger.

If that is accurate, sounds like the best of all possible worlds.

 

[teitan]

If that is accurate, sounds like the best of all possible worlds.

It's the official word from Crypto and Winninger.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I have fond memories of playing this back in the day. Though, I also vaguely recall that the character generation mechanics weren't as robust as, say Marvel Superheroes. Does anyone remember whether that's a correct assessment or not?

 

[dbolack]

I have fond memories of playing this back in the day. Though, I also vaguely recall that the character generation mechanics weren't as robust as, say Marvel Superheroes. Does anyone remember whether that's a correct assessment or not?

It was more like a lighter Champions 3rd. However, I cannot say how it compared to Ultimate Powers Handbook-based generation.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I have fond memories of playing this back in the day. Though, I also vaguely recall that the character generation mechanics weren't as robust as, say Marvel Superheroes. Does anyone remember whether that's a correct assessment or not?

Its a point-build system in a system where not all the care that could have been taking in evaluating overall value was done. Its also got a leg each in effect-based and exception-based design (some powers are pretty generic and some very much not) so its entirely possible for some character builds to be undesirably robust.

 

[Thomas Shey]

It was more like a lighter Champions 3rd. However, I cannot say how it compared to Ultimate Powers Handbook-based generation.

Its really going to be hard to compare a point-build system to a random roll system fairly. The expectations people go into each of them with is not going to be the same.

 

[Anon Adderlan]

Wish them the best of luck, but these nostalgia bait 'remasters' just strike me as lazy.