Probably a pretty lame question but...

[davewoodrum]

Was just wandering if there are any companies pursuing possible rpg conversion of the new Masters Of The Universe revival? And would this effectively be fantasy, superhero, sci-fi, or an even fusion of the three?

....yeah, He-man and all is probably pretty cheesy but I still sorta like it for some odd reason or another...

 

[astralpwka]

Geez, after sitting through thirteen episodes in a row from cartoon network...

What do you think his sword would be? It would have to add a minimum of +10 to Str, Dex and Con, and maybe Cha (Teela would argue for it, I bet *wink wink*).

 

[Alzrius]

As a child, Masters of the Universe was the first stuff I ever played with. I think it'd be cool to have an RPG about them, but I don't think it can be done.

Like most shows aimed at a younger audience (mind you, I have yet to see any of the new show, so bear with me), Masters of the Universe's characters have the universe revolving around them. It's hard to have a group playing in that world when everything is revolving around He-Man and Skeletor. Throughout the series, nothing really changes. He-Man and Skeletor have their frequent clashes, but nothing is ever resolved, and no protagonists besides the ones already established emerge.

A gaming group set in that world would want to go explore, not just repeatedly throw themselves at Snake Mountain (or wherever Skeletor lives). They wouldn't be beholden to He-Man, and would soon overshadow him as they went up in level, which is off-tone for the setting. It'd be hard to justify them not getting killed when they lose to enemies (since the good guys never die in the show), and even harder to deal with it if they start killing major foes, since no new ones are available to bring in.

All in all, its a good example of what happens when you try and convert most shows, especially ones that don't go out of their way to flesh out the setting, into a RPG. It just doesn't work.

 

[davewoodrum]

Hmmm... in a way I would want to say that such bonuses were too much but on the other hand you are right on track.
It would have to be an artifact... no doubt... it's whole nature fits that mold anyways....
Yeah... add the pluses... it may also add extra damage and attack roll bonuses but I don't see them as absolutely needed since the +10 to Strength would pretty much cover that.... that would be like +5 to attack and damage pretty much....
You could probably lower the Charisma bonus to a +4 or maybe a +5... Wisdom and Intelligence probably +4 as well....

 

[davewoodrum]

As a child, Masters of the Universe was the first stuff I ever played with. I think it'd be cool to have an RPG about them, but I don't think it can be done.

Like most shows aimed at a younger audience (mind you, I have yet to see any of the new show, so bear with me), Masters of the Universe's characters have the universe revolving around them. It's hard to have a group playing in that world when everything is revolving around He-Man and Skeletor. Throughout the series, nothing really changes. He-Man and Skeletor have their frequent clashes, but nothing is ever resolved, and no protagonists besides the ones already established emerge.

A gaming group set in that world would want to go explore, not just repeatedly throw themselves at Snake Mountain (or wherever Skeletor lives). They wouldn't be beholden to He-Man, and would soon overshadow him as they went up in level, which is off-tone for the setting. It'd be hard to justify them not getting killed when they lose to enemies (since the good guys never die in the show), and even harder to deal with it if they start killing major foes, since no new ones are available to bring in.

All in all, its a good example of what happens when you try and convert most shows, especially ones that don't go out of their way to flesh out the setting, into a RPG. It just doesn't work.

I could sorta argue the point on revolving around the two main characters, though I understand that a mainstream buying public would rate these two characters as the most important... myself, it would probably rotate around Trap-jaw or a character I made my own self.
The killing off bit I can understand.... you can get away with the don't kill 'em off bit with super hero rpgs because the PCs are like a spandex clad arm of the law...their job is too simply bring the villians to justice.... in MOTU it's pretty much to stop attacks or rid Eternia of evil...
so you're thoughts are valid on this issue....
Oh well... Next franchise please!

 

[astralpwka]

I still like the idea as a concept where you have characters with the major power boost to take on super enemies. Granted, The actual characters would be pretty pointless, but consider rules for making your own Masters of the Universe, that would be cool. Take Trap Jaw. In character creation you take a template that mechanically alters you, new limbs and new face. A merman race would be simple. Etc...

 

[Darrin Drader]

Throughout the series, nothing really changes. He-Man and Skeletor have their frequent clashes, but nothing is ever resolved, and no protagonists besides the ones already established emerge.

All in all, its a good example of what happens when you try and convert most shows, especially ones that don't go out of their way to flesh out the setting, into a RPG. It just doesn't work.

I think its also a good example of what happens when you make a TV show based on toys. The He-Man, Transformers, and GI Joe cartoons all suffered from this problem. Granted, GI Joe changed as the comic book progressed, but these changes never made it to the show except as the occasional addition of new characters. There was also that not too terribly done Transformers movie, which changed everything and nothing at the same time. But, overall, shows based on toys don't want a lot of change. They want to keep producing new poses of the same characters over and over again.

I also think that the Star Wars RPG suffers from a bit of this problem as well. The Star Wars saga is really the story of the Skywalker family, and they are the most important characters in that universe. While the universe is complex and detailed, a player character can't hope to reach the same level of heroics as Luke or Anakin unless they rewrite the history of the saga.

 

[davewoodrum]

Thank you for mentioning that about the Star Wars rpg... I had been wanting to compare that myself but I was sorta afraid it would be like walking into a bee's nest and I would be flamed pretty hard for cracking down on Star Wars.. especially the rpg...
I played the older Star Wars rpg, from West End Games, and noticed the same problem. Granted I had my own little thing going on with my characters in the Outer Rim but you could still see the obvious elements coming back in.... and everyone else was bored on the grounds that it wasn't Star Wars due to the lack of the main characters... but it wasn't fun because no matter what you did, there was still this big, obvious battle elsewhere that was going to be the deciding factor and dictation to everything else.

 

[davewoodrum]

I still like the idea as a concept where you have characters with the major power boost to take on super enemies. Granted, The actual characters would be pretty pointless, but consider rules for making your own Masters of the Universe, that would be cool. Take Trap Jaw. In character creation you take a template that mechanically alters you, new limbs and new face. A merman race would be simple. Etc...

I've actually toyed with that somewhat..... but it was for something else that I didn't want high technology to get involved with and I wasn't the happiest with the results.

 

[CCamfield]

I don't think there's a direct RPG conversion out there, but there is a game called Cartoon Action Hour available, as a PDF right now and I think heading to print. There are some reviews of it on rpg.net, here's a link to I think the longest one.

http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_6529.html