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.

 

[teitan]

It's not Cyberverse, it's the Evergreen Designs. Cyberverse was heavily based on them, though. Cyberverse Windblade doesn't have the same chest and I don't think she has the sword either.

Close enough for me though.

 

[Undrave]

Close enough for me though.

I just don't think it's meant to be any specific incarnation of the Franchise.

 

[Undrave]

I hope the Metabomb is in the equipment list for the Transformers game.

 

[Ranger REG]

Wow. I would thought that since Hasbro own WotC they would utilize them, even if they could think up a different d20-based rules system for their properties. Or would consumers be confused between the two?

 

[aramis erak]

Wow. I would thought that since Hasbro own WotC they would utilize them, even if they could think up a different d20-based rules system for their properties. Or would consumers be confused between the two?

I suspect...
It's risk management. A license assures income, with limited risk. In house puts all the risk on HasBro.
Further, doing it in WotC would threaten the "good name of WotC" - if it flops, an internal (=WotC) version would cast doubts about D&D.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

And a licenced partner gets of lot of effort for a good work to earn prestige, allowing to sell more products later.

Now I wonder if Hasbro could use the essence20 system for RPG videogames, for example an adaptation of Zoids (collectable monsters as Pokemon or Digimon, but also mecha-kaijus, nice combo!).

Hasbro has tried to use IDW comics to promote other forgotten franchises but this hasn't worked too much. I doubt about future crossover with other Hasbro franchises in these TRPG lines.

What about other factions: the red shadows, International Robotic Operations Network (I.R.O.N) or S.K.A.R. (Soldiers of Kaos, Anarchy and Ruin)? Some G.I.Joe cartoon episodes were about some supernatural element, like the Excalibur sword or three ghosts summoned by Cobra.

I remember the C.O.P.S cartoon in the first years of private TV channels in my land.

 

[aramis erak]

And a licenced partner gets of lot of effort for a good work to earn prestige, allowing to sell more products later.

Now I wonder if Hasbro could use the essence20 system for RPG videogames, for example an adaptation of Zoids (collectable monsters as Pokemon or Digimon, but also mecha-kaijus, nice combo!).

We'd need to see the contract to tell; I strongly doubt either side will list such details.
And if they did use it in videogames, the player wouldn't see the math.

 

[Argyle King]

Power Rangers don't use their blasters, they don't form Megazord until the situation is dire, and they don't die. It's the rules of the show.

When's the last time you saw a G.I. Joe be tortured and thrown into a POW camp by Cobra agents? It's a kid's cartoon, and they're pushing these games for children and nostalgic Millennials who want to relive Saturday morning cartoons.

I'm probably in the minority, but I'd go to the theater to see a Tarantino version of Power Rangers or GI Joe directed by Eastwood.

The Joe dice set looks cool.

 

[Emirikol Prime]

PDF is in the hands of those who preordered. First impressions are that it’s a good narrative system with some good crunch. Equipment and Zord rules are especially crunchy and quality. Excited for GI Joe now.

 

[barasawa]

Those games are not developed by WotC, so I don't think that they will be related to the development of D&D.

True, but game mechanics are not copyrightable, even if the documents they are in can be.
(The adding a skill die to standard die isn't a new thing, it's been used in several games, though some aren't d20 based.)

Hasbro probably has a whole department of lawyers that's larger than Renegade Game Studios, and Essence20 is based on d20, so it could get really ugly in court if Hasbro wanted it that way, though I honestly don't expect anything to go to court.

I've been looking for something on the Essence20 system, but still haven't found more than the tiny bits repeated in this article. I'm guessing that these will be the first games to use it them, and if I'm wrong, I'd love for someone to tell me what else uses it.