DC COMICS ROLE-PLAYING GAME

[batguy]

Will DC Comics release a role-playing game of it's own in 2023?

[Christopher R Taylor]

The way things stand right now with DC I doubt it.  I think they are going back to bare metal and rebuilding the entire operation, so everything that was in process or development has been scratched to start over.  But that's just a guess based on what I can see them doing from the outside and statements that have been made.

[Scott Ruggels]

Reports are coming in that DC Comics has been request by Discovery Warner to prepare Character Bibles for their flagship characters.  This is usually done by brand managers, in preparation for outside companies to produce licensed content.  After the internal Audit from last month, it looks like Warners is going to shutter internal comics production, and license the characters to other companies. 

[tkdguy]

What happened to the old DC Heroes rpg? I didn't have the game itself, but I have the Batman rpg, which is a variation of the system.

[Pattern Ghost]

12 hours ago, tkdguy said:

What happened to the old DC Heroes rpg? I didn't have the game itself, but I have the Batman rpg, which is a variation of the system.

 

It went out of print, then got bought by Pulsar games, who turned it into Blood of Heroes and replaced the DC stuff with house setting stuff. It changed hands a while back, and I think has remained out of print. Someone should probably buy the rights to the MEGS system, then build a better game around it. Here's a Wikipedia article:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_of_Heroes_(role-playing_game)

[batguy]

On 9/6/2022 at 8:17 AM, Pattern Ghost said:

 

It went out of print, then got bought by Pulsar games, who turned it into Blood of Heroes and replaced the DC stuff with house setting stuff. It changed hands a while back, and I think has remained out of print. Someone should probably buy the rights to the MEGS system, then build a better game around it. Here's a Wikipedia article:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_of_Heroes_(role-playing_game)

I See what you mean,i hope another game company gets the role-playing game rights to the dc comics characters soon

[unclevlad]

Well, if Scott's right, and we do know licensing fits Zaslav's pattern much better...it seems like there'll have to be a process before licensing for gaming.  If I'm a gaming company exec, first, I want to know who's getting the comics licenses, and to which products.  What's their production strategy?  I need to look at the character bibles.  I'd prefer to actually have some of their comics in production...and see what the sales numbers are looking like.  If they remain as utterly disastrous as past posts here have indicated...I might not even want to commit to a development process, and for darn sure, it will impact the structure of any license fees.  I'd also like to know what WarnDisc's movie and TV plans are, because the quality of movies and TV would seem likely to be strong influencers on game sales.

 

This is not a quick process.

[batguy]

19 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Well, if Scott's right, and we do know licensing fits Zaslav's pattern much better...it seems like there'll have to be a process before licensing for gaming.  If I'm a gaming company exec, first, I want to know who's getting the comics licenses, and to which products.  What's their production strategy?  I need to look at the character bibles.  I'd prefer to actually have some of their comics in production...and see what the sales numbers are looking like.  If they remain as utterly disastrous as past posts here have indicated...I might not even want to commit to a development process, and for darn sure, it will impact the structure of any license fees.  I'd also like to know what WarnDisc's movie and TV plans are, because the quality of movies and TV would seem likely to be strong influencers on game sales.

 

This is not a quick process.

Yeah,i see what you mean,i still hope a new Licensed DC Comics role-playing game finally becomes a reality soon

[unclevlad]

It also doesn't help that comics are a tiny part buried inside massive megacorps...there's the big thread about the issues with DC under the current regime, and Marvel's been a part of Disney for a while.  That also *seriously* complicates the process;  the lawyers AND the corporate-level marketers have to be appeased.  

 

And it doesn't help that I don't think there's a big market clamoring for superhero TTRPG material anyway...or by and large, anything not D&D.  (Counting Pathfinder as D&D.)  

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah I went into the local game store and they have tons of board games, card games, etc, and a corner with RPG stuff.  Depressing, really.

[Pattern Ghost]

On 9/10/2022 at 7:50 AM, batguy said:

I See what you mean,i hope another game company gets the role-playing game rights to the dc comics characters soon

 

There was a DC version of the Mutants and Masterminds rules, but it was short-lived. They did produce a few books that you could probably still get second hand.

 

 

11 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Yeah I went into the local game store and they have tons of board games, card games, etc, and a corner with RPG stuff.  Depressing, really.

 

I think board games are the hot thing now, driven by the popularity of the Euro style games in recent years. Unfortunately, they do have more mass appeal than RPGs. D&D continues to be the only thing the general public thinks of when it comes to RPGs, leaving the rest of the industry in an even smaller niche within a niche. ☹️

[Sketchpad]

There was the DC Adventures book that was powered by Mutants & Masterminds 3e that came out back in 2010 (wow... has it been that long?!). From what I've seen the books sell a bit pricey, but they're pretty decent IMHO. It'd also be a great starting point for conversion. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_Adventures

[batguy]

Yeah,I see what you mean,I hope a new dc comics  role playing game becomes  a reality soon.

Thanks for the reminder