Planet of the Apes Roleplaying Game Coming from Magnetic Press

Magnetic Press announced Planet of the Apes The Role-Playing Game based on the classic, long-running science fiction franchise.

The game will use the Magnetic Variant system which is a variation of the D6 System created by West End Games for their licensed RPGs Ghostbusters and Star Wars in the 1980s. From the product announcement:

Become an intellectual Chimpanzee who seeks to better apekind through science and exploration. Choose an Orangutan statesape whose weapons are philosophical debate, political savvy, and the power of the Sacred Scrolls themselves. Perhaps a Gorilla soldier is more your style—honor bound to protect Ape City and lead aggressive expansions into new territories.

What else, if not an ape? Be a time-lost astronaut struggling to grasp a world gone insane. Become a mute tribal human forced to scavenge for resources as you are hunted by murderous gorillas on horseback. The rules even allow you to play mutant survivors who use the power of their minds to turn their enemies against each other.

Your adventures in this world of madness will take you to the ruins of a world destroyed—see what remains of the Statue of Liberty, the ostentatious Ape City, the foreboding Forbidden Zone, and the mysterious mutant undercity. It is a world defined by the stark contrasts of brutality and civility. Are you ape enough to handle the truth about the world you live in or will you lose your mind to it?

The launch lineup announced so far includes the 300+ page core rulebook, The ANSA Files classic film sourcebook, The Forbidden Zone adventure box filled with game-enhancing tools, Ruins of Tomorrow boxed set of 3D resin unpainted miniatures, and additional products that will be unlocked during the pre-order campaign.

The announcement does not say this pre-order campaign will be a crowdfunding campaign, but much of the terminology used heavily implies it. No date has been announced, but there is an email sign-up for notifications on the announcement page.

 

[aramis erak]

Huh. A friend and I were brainstorming "IP" that hadn't yet been made into a licensed RPG and "Planet of the Apes" didn't cross either of our minds.

There have been a few attempts at unlicened versions. One saw formal publication: Terra Primate (Unisystem Full).
Several are on DTRPG: Apes Victorious (Labyrinth Lord variant), Aces & Apes (QAGS),
One on Itch.io: Rise of the Apes (Rise system).

Someone was, just about the time of the Secret Service Raid, working up a proposal for GURPS: Apeworld... by having it halfway written before even seeing if SJ would be interested.

Someone else was working up a CORPS setting around 2002, but I can't find it with a search, and it's been 22 years, so the fact that my webpage contains mostly the same content still makes me odd...

Anyway, all of those are adaptations of existing games, and excepting Terra Primate, I've not got them. I've read TP, and it explicitly states its inspiration being PotA...

 

[JLowder]

There's some old school biological essentialism in that first paragraph. Oof...

I've done some consulting with the people behind the new PotA RPG and players will not be limited by "biological essential" roles. So you will be able to create and play gorilla scientists and so on. The intro PR is aimed at people familiar with the franchise. Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Jim Lowder

 

[Reynard]

I've done some consulting with the people behind the new PotA RPG and players will not be limited by "biological essential" roles. So you will be able to create and play gorilla scientists and so on. The intro PR is aimed at people familiar with the franchise. Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Jim Lowder

That is good to know. Thanks.

 

[damiller]

I wonder if they can/will also include both the Planet of the Apes television series (1974) and the Return to the Planet of the Apes cartoon (1975).

According to the description of the "ANSA files" book, it will:

"filled with reference resources from all of the classic films, TV series, novelizations, and animated episodes. 272+ Pages, 8.5×11″ hardcover."​

 

[Swanosaurus]

I just received the books from the Kickstarter and am trying to prepare a quick one-shot skimming through them. It looks nice, and I like the writing, but I'm stumbling over unclear rules:

p132, Full Defense: It is unclear to me whether the reflex/instinct die code I can add to damage resistance includes the DEX/WIL base or no. If yes, full defense seems very powerful, if not, extremely weak.

p32, Reflex skill: It says there that it influences your prepared defense; however, everywhere else it says that prepared defense is simply DEXx3.

 

[Swanosaurus]

Okay, now I''v found something that really makes me question whether I understand the system - maybe there's some people who are experienced with WEG's old Star Wars, I seem to remember that dice numbers there occassionally went extremely high, and this seems to be a similar problem ...

There's a monster called to Rad Boar (mutant boar), that attacks with STR 8D+2 + Brawl 5D+1 for a total of 14D. Attacks are against static defense numbers which are an attributex3, so for PCs something between 3 and 15. Which makes it look to me as if the rad boar will practically always reach double that, which is an extraordinary success which, on an attack, doubles damage dice.

Now the rad boars damage is 10D+2. Double for 21D+1. That goes against a strength roll of the victim, which probably won't go beyond 5d+2. If the damage exceeds 3 times the resistence, its an instant-kill. From the numbers, it seems practically assured that every attack by the rad boar against any PC will be an insta-kill! (with the caveat that one Hero Point can be spent to buy down whatever damage to a stunned condition).

Now, is the idea that I just forego the pointless dicerolling and have the attacked PC spend a hero point to not die, until they run out of HP and die, if they haven't found a way to defeat the rad boar until then? Or am I missing something? because rolling 14 dice on the off chance that all of them might show a 1 so that it's only a normal success for the rad boar sounds really tiresome ...

 

[aramis erak]

I just received the books from the Kickstarter and am trying to prepare a quick one-shot skimming through them. It looks nice, and I like the writing, but I'm stumbling over unclear rules:

p132, Full Defense: It is unclear to me whether the reflex/instinct die code I can add to damage resistance includes the DEX/WIL base or no. If yes, full defense seems very powerful, if not, extremely weak.

p32, Reflex skill: It says there that it influences your prepared defense; however, everywhere else it says that prepared defense is simply DEXx3.

FULL DEFENSE
When a character’s prime concern in a Round is not getting hurt, they can go Full Defense as a Basic Action. Full Defense allows you to:

Add your Reflex or Instinct Die Code to any STR roll you make to Resist Damage (page 139). Add your Grit Die Code to any WIL roll you make to resist Mental Trauma (page 144).

For example, a character with STR 3D and Reflex 2D goes Full Defense against an attack. They’ll roll 5D (3D+2D) to Resist Damage.

Full Defense is like rolling with a hit to avoid the worst of the damage, or gritting your teeth to get through it. Full Defense has no effect on a character’s Surprised, Readied, or Psyche Defenses. If the character takes another Basic Action during that Round, they lose the benefits of Full Defense.

All formatting original. Note the second italicised paragraph.
Also note, the 2025 revision makes it increase your strength for resisting damage, not avoiding hits. This is different from OpenD6 and WEG Star Wars D6 and D6 Space.

Full Defense
A character who foregoes all of her actions for a round to completely protect herself from attacks makes a full defense. The total rolled by the skill plus 10 takes the place of the base combat difficulty from the time the character makes the full defense on her turn to her turn in the next round.

Full active defense value = any active defense skill roll + 10