Renegade announces new editions of Transformers, GI Joe, and Power Rangers RPGs, using D&D 5.5E instead of Essence20

Renegade is ending support for its Essence20 game system, in favor of Dungeons & Dragons 5.5E. Today, Renegade announced it was planning on publishing new editions of its Transformers, GI Joe, and Power Rangers RPG systems. However, the new editions will not use the bespoke Essence20 game system created by Renegade. Instead, the new editions will use a modified version of Dungeons & Dragons 5.5E. Renegade will also release Essence20 to 5.5E conversion guides for free on their website at a later date. Update: Renegade said on their Discord that they were ending support for E20 releases because sales were insufficient to continue with the system.

Renegade will release a BackerKit crowdfunding campaign for the new games, with Transformers and GI Joe running first and a Power Rangers BackerKit coming at a later time.

The Essence20 line seems to have been popular for Renegade, as they've been publishing content for all three licensed properties (as well as My Little Pony) since 2022. All three properties are licensed by Hasbro, which of course also owns Wizards of the Coast, the maker of Dungeons & Dragons. One could speculate that Hasbro could have pushed for a change to their big games system, but one could also argue that Renegade is looking to expand their playerbase by switching from a bespoke game system to a system with a massive existing playerbase.

 

[Wintersbite]

It's not the system, it's the very very short text descriptions and lore around the licenses in general.

The new Ravenloft book commits the same crime with the domain information.

I miss the old school books were 90% were actually as reference book, lore-book, or in-universe.

 

[Sossij]

It's not the system, it's the very very short text descriptions and lore around the licenses in general.

The new Ravenloft book commits the same crime with the domain information.

I miss the old school books were 90% were actually as reference book, lore-book, or in-universe.

That makes me feel better that I didn't pick up the Decepticon and Cobra books just to read in the sale, as I wasn't planning to play.

 

[Belen]

I should have stopped reading this thread a few pages ago. Yikes.

 

[Prof_Dogg]

C’mon now, that’s not “capitalism”, that’s just a heavily skewed market preference.

The other games can do just fine; they just can’t expect to be huge.



I went through similar experiences with prior editions. My main group for more than 20 years played 2Ed, 3Ed, and 4Ed D&D, 1 failed RIFTS campaign, and one similarly failed Mutants & Mastered campaign.

They were initially very enthusiastic about my plan to to a campaign based on the MtG setting, but bailed as soon as I announced it was going to be done in HERO.

We had a successful MtG run using M&M as the system... But our group is more eclectic in choices of systems...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

We had a successful MtG run using M&M as the system... But our group is more eclectic in choices of systems...

Possibly would have worked for us, but this was YEARS before M&M existed.

As noted, I eventually tried M&M with that group, but it failed (for a variety of reasons). Most of those wouldn’t have been a factor in a MtG style game.

 

[Mournblade94]

Too bad. It's always sad to me when a bespoke system falls before the might of WotC 's corporate boot.

Its hasbros property. It was silly for them not to use hasbros system in the first place. The reason I didn't buy it was I didn't want to deal with a new system.

 

[Mournblade94]

WotC 's marketing and reach makes abandoning your own design in favor of the lure of D&D Beyond very tempting.

Very true. I sold all non D&D games to Noble Knight. I used the money to buy old TSR, M&M, and Traveller and Chaosium.

Im just not using systems i dont have mastery of anymore. Thats why I didn't buy transformers. I will now though. Ive reduced my menu of RPGs to TSR/OSE. 5th edition, Traveller, and Basic Roleplay/Runequest. I have all the genres I want to explore covered with that.

I managed to get all the really Rare Planscape sets that are going for $300 - $500 just by trading Pathfinder to Noble Knight. I love Noble Knight.

 

[chuckdee]

Personally, I just don't like the d20 by itself as a resolution mechanic by itself anymore on principle. That's why I've moved away from d20 based systems where it is that alone. That was the best part of essence20 to me,

 

[R_J_K75]

Personally, I just don't like the d20 by itself as a resolution mechanic by itself anymore on principle. That's why I've moved away from d20 based systems where it is that alone. That was the best part of essence20 to me,

I found that the ladder of dice modifiers easy enough to understand when reading the rules, I always had to think about for a few seconds too long at the table though. It's probably because we didn't play it often enough to really get the hang of it.

 

[DJThunderGod]

I know nothing about Essence20, not interested in these properties, but 5e was already popular in 2022, or even 2020 if you give them some time to develop their own system.

So while they may be switching due to popularity now, the question then becomes why they created their own system back in 2020/21 instead of using 5e back then already.

Being able to keep more of the profits for themselves? They probably now have to pay licence fees for both D&D 5.5 AND the IPs, whereas when they used their own system, they got to keep more of the money.