Essence20: The New RPG System Which Powers Hasbro Licensed Games

Renegade Game Studios announced last year that it would be making official tabletop RPGs of various Hasbro properties, including Power Rangers, GI Joe, and Transformers. This week, they revealed the d20-based Essence20 game system which will power those games.

RPG For Power Rangers Coming

D&D's owner, Hasbro, owns a lot of properties -- and Power Rangers is one of them. They also have partnership with Renegade Game Studios, which has made board games for them in past. Next up? An official Power Rangers tabletop RPG, powered by the D&D 5E rules! There's also mention of G.I. Joe...

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Elisa Teague from Renegade spoke to Forbes about the system.

“The Essence20 Roleplaying System is a d20 based system that uses what I call a ‘fashion plate’ system for character design, drawing from three aspects: what type of person are they, what is their function as part of the team, and what experiences have they had in their life prior to becoming a hero?”

The system has three elements: Origin, Role, and Influence, and uses different dice for different skill levels.

"When rolling Skills Tests and Attack Rolls, a player will always roll a d20 plus the applicable die for the type of roll they are making, resulting in a total that must exceed the Skill Test’s Difficulty in order to succeed. Essence20 also includes a ladder mechanic, where if a character has specialized in a particular Skill, they may roll their Skill Die plus every other die type under it, choosing the highest die result to add to their d20 roll. A critical success is made when any Skill Die shows its highest number, giving a huge chance of rolling crits, mathematically, and of course, then being able to roleplay those epic results in the most heroic way possible!"

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

Renegade Game Studios and Hasbro confirmed to Forbes that GI Joe, My Little Pony, and Transformers will be coming as official RPGs, following the already announced Power Rangers tabletop roleplaying game. While they were hinted at in their press release this week, it hadn't been confirmed that...

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In Power Rangers, characters don't die. They can be defeated and taken out of combat, but the threats they face are not lethal. The core book covers the period of the show when Zordon was the Power Rangers' mentor. The main villains are Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa.

This weekend, at Renegade Con, they will reveal more information.

 

[stadi]

Will there be any adventure campaigns, released for these?

 

[WarlockkingNelzul]

Also a fun idea for everyone.. Angel grove is really just Dread domain in ravenloft for Rita Repulsa thats why the rangers never "die"

 

[Undrave]

Also a fun idea for everyone.. Angel grove is really just Dread domain in ravenloft for Rita Repulsa thats why the rangers never "die"

Kendrix died... for a while at least.

 

[Weiley31]

Also a fun idea for everyone.. Angel grove is really just Dread domain in ravenloft for Rita Repulsa thats why the rangers never "die"

That. Unless the GM and everybody agrees to base their Power Ranger games on the Boom! Studios take on the series. Then death is totally not off the table.

 

[Weiley31]

We could always have a Battle Unicorn though.

 

[Parmandur]

Maybe because as @Rune suggests, Hasbro is getting paid (license) for a game based on their IP instead of funding a new game or 5e based game. No cost to them, only profit.

Worth noting that the same company licenses tge same properties for board games...and Hasbro could do board games in house, as well.

 

[GaelMaverick]

Came across this new release on FB. With Hasbro behinds it, and if they do it right, I believe Pathfinder place, as the second most-played system, can be in danger in some years from now.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

That depends on the publishing of a opened licenced. Lots of 3PPs have used Pathfinder and later 5th Ed. Essence20 is better for settings after the invention of the modern firearms.

 

[GaelMaverick]

That depends on the publishing of a opened licenced. Lots of 3PPs have used Pathfinder and later 5th Ed. Essence20 is better for settings after the invention of the modern firearms.

Yeah, surely there is the OL indeed and you are right, but as I can see Hasbro open to it if this goes as good as it might be, I see the potential.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

WotC with D&D 5th Ed sells crunch (feats, subclasses, magic items, new spells..), modules and original fluff/lore/background.

Essenc20 is now mainly brand power. We know nothing about future sourcebooks beyond the core titles. Here Renegade Game Studios has to offer something better than the homebred ideas by the fandom (new characters, for example). Why not a sourcebook about an alternate timeline where martians attacked the Earth for the first decades of the XX century, the invasion failed and thanks the reverse engineering there is a different 40's where Cobra-La is the evil empire invading part of Asian Far East and North-East Europe?