You Have The Power! New Masters of the Universe RPG!

Legends of Grayskull is an upcoming tabletop RPG based on the 1980s Masters of the Universe cartoon show.

The game is being produced by Fandom (the owners of D&D Beyond) who announced a Dragon Prince RPG just a week ago. Like the latter, it will use the Cortex Prime system, which the company acquired from Margaret Weis Productions last year, and it's coming out in 2021, with public playtesting in advance of release. It's a 250-page hardcover book with pull-out maps.

"In the Legends of Grayskull tabletop roleplaying game, players can customize or create characters to overcome high-stakes challenges and find epic fun in Eternia, a world where magic meets technology. The experience brings together the core roleplaying game, a digital companion and toolset, a community content creation and sharing platform, and an organized play program that gives fans the opportunity to participate in a connected, living story with other players around the world."

 

[Undrave]

My little kid self remembers the 80s version.

My family loves that show too. I was wondering if this RPG would work as well for She-Ra. I didn’t watch the original shows, so I don’t know how similar they are.

If you and the family are curious, both He-Man and She-Ra (80's version) have official Youtube channels with all the eps available for free and legally.

 

[Blue]

I recommend the 2002 reboot. Unfortunately, it was cancelled after 2 seasons but it dialed down the cheese and managed to make Skeletor a somewhat credible threat.

Do you know if this is available anywhere? Released on Youtube, on Netflix or a different streaming service?

 

[imagineGod]

3e Homebrew Masters of the Universe d20 can be found here including a list of races and stat blocks for all the characters from both Eternia and Etheria

and Wiki Grayskull

D&D 3rd Edition for Masters of the Universe? I grew up with D&D 3.5 but seriously, I cannot imagine d20 is the right style for MoTU.

 

[Sunsword]

Not to my knowledge, but if you have a sense of what damage could be based on the die face of the Effect die, then I imagine that it would not be too difficult to extrapolate and/or experiment from there a good range of hit points for characters. However, Stress in Cortex (and Fate) tends to be less a pacing mechanic of tactical attrition as per HP and more a pacing mechanic of narrative fiction.

That is an excellent point, unfortunately, I prefer games with hit points and generally won't run games without them. This could be the exception though.

 

[Sunsword]

I watched the demo video posted here and I really did not like how the GM had to roll after every player roll. Gameplay must be extremely slow this way.

You could probably have the player roll the Doom pool as part of their dice pool and it would pretty much work the same way. I'm not going to say the FFG's Genesys system was inspired by Cortex but they have similar goals.

 

[TheIdeaOfGood]

Do you know if this is available anywhere? Released on Youtube, on Netflix or a different streaming service?

Unfortunately it seems to be on no streaming service

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

You know perfectly Mattel was not going to use the d20 system created by WotC, a subsidiarie by the rival company, Hasbro. And d20 system isn't ready for characters and creatures with super-strenght. In the real life a gorilla or an elephant are very much stronger than an olimpic champion. (21 Str in d20).

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And African elephants can weigh up to 6,350kg and they can carry up to 9,000kg, the weight of 130 adult humans (28 Str in d20 system).

D20 isn't the best system to play superheroes. Even the spells with bonus for abilities scores have been banned in the last editions. No more bear strenght spell. To start from zero with a new franchise would be easier.

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Did anybody remember a 80's episode where He-man thrown to the space a castle or a mountain?

Wasn't prince Adam/He-man's mother an astronaut from the Earth?

MotU is mixing Flash Gordon and Conan the Barbarian, planetary romance, planet&sword and sword&sorcery. Cool, but in a TTRPG you can imagine the headache about the power balance between swords and other melee weapons against ray guns.

 

[Tonguez]

I recommend the 2002 reboot. Unfortunately, it was cancelled after 2 seasons but it dialed down the cheese and managed to make Skeletor a somewhat credible threat.

But the cheese is what made MoTU so awesome!!!!

(I agree though that the reboot was a better story and not just an extended advertisement for boys toys. I liked that they characters were parts of real cultures too)

 

[Tonguez]

Did anybody remember a 80's episode where He-man thrown to the space a castle or a mountain?

Wasn't prince Adam/He-man's mother an astronaut from the Earth?

MotU is mixing Flash Gordon and Conan the Barbarian, planetary romance, planet&sword and sword&sorcery. Cool, but in a TTRPG you can imagine the headache about the power balance between swords and other melee weapons against ray guns.

Yes, originally, Queen Marlena is from Earth. She was Marlena Glenn an Austronaut for NASA whose shuttle went off course, Randor saves her and they fall in love. Marlena tells her son Adam about some of Earths heroes which is why He-Man recognises Superman when they meet. Its also possible that Marlena is the one who introduces the Christmas celebration to Eternia.

and there is an episode when another ship from Earth arrives and the two astronauts recognised the famouse Marlena Glenn. They offer to take her back to Earth but she chooses to stay on Eternia - I dont know if the reboot retains her Earth origins however

MoTU is pure Space Opera, and while it was inspired by Conan it has a lineage with John Carter of Mars, Flash Gordon, Krull and most directly Thundarr and Mightor. All of which were popular in the era

 

[pemerton]

I watched the demo video posted here and I really did not like how the GM had to roll after every player roll. Gameplay must be extremely slow this way.

I believe there is an option in Cortex Prime to use static opposition or a scaling ladder. It's an incredibly flexible toolkit.

Interesting.

As a MHRP/Cortex+ GM I do enjoy assembling my pool - that's my vehicle for (i) getting to roll fistfulls of dice and (ii) narrating to the players what is going on with their opposition and broader context for action.

But I'll admit it isn't super-speedy,.