Live the Legend! The classic RPG returns in a faithful reissue with upgrades, exclusive dice, and more!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
THANK YOU, Backers!
over 1 year ago
– Wed, Dec 18, 2024 at 12:51:48 PM
DC Heroes fans,
The legend has returned! Thank you for your pledges, lively conversation, and just general support over the past 30 days. You have brought DC Heroes Role-Playing Game back!
For many of us, it’s a return to a game we grew up with and are excited to play (and share) once again. For others, it’s the start of something new… a fresh obsession that we know you’ll love.
Our mission now is to fulfill the promise of this campaign and produce amazing archival editions of all the books and make sure all the new stuff (dice, slipcases, etc.) looks incredible as well. Our friend Jeb Woodard and his team have already finished scanning and restoring 11 of the books, so we are definitely on track.
Late pledges are now available on the Kickstarter page in case any of your friends missed out. We will keep you updated every step of the way!
Before we go, Ray Winninger would like to say thank you…
Ray Says Thank You!
As our campaign draws to a close, I want to say thank you to everyone who helped get DC HEROES back into print—particularly our backers! I’m pleased we had an opportunity to preserve this interesting entry in the shared history of RPGs and DC Comics.
Revisiting work from nearly forty years ago has been a fascinating experience and again, I thank you all for that opportunity. Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity to create some new DC role-playing adventures soon!
Just because the campaign is over doesn’t mean your questions have to stop. Keep them coming in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer.
Thanks, everyone,
The Cryptozoic Team
Final 24 Hours! Future DC Heroes Products You Want to See
over 1 year ago
– Tue, Dec 17, 2024 at 12:42:05 PM
DC Heroes fans,
Just 24 hours to go! It’s been an AMAZING ride. We are thrilled to see so many long-time and new DC Heroes RPG fans join for this campaign. Thank you!
Before the end of the campaign, we have a big question for you: IF we get the greenlight to do new products in the series, what new DC Heroes products would you like to see? We’re mainly thinking of books, but open to any and all ideas.
Sound off in the comments here and in the main section.
Thanks for your support!
The Cryptozoic Team
Green Lantern Dice Revealed! Final Book Unlocked!
over 1 year ago
– Mon, Dec 16, 2024 at 10:07:37 AM
DC Heroes fans,
Just over 48 hours to go and so much excitement! In brightest day, in blackest night, the headline today is Green Lantern Dice! Backers overwhelmingly voted for Green Lantern as the fifth set of dice in our earlier poll. We hope you like it! These oversized dice are included in the Legend and Retailer Tiers and will be available as an add-on starting today.
Note: You'll get 2 of the dice.
(Sidenote: We know we initially called these dice a "social media stretch goal," but we realized there was some confusion due to how we explained the dice at the start of the campaign. The initial plan was for the 5th set to be a regular stretch goal. BUT we wanted fans to vote on the final set of dice and we needed the fan vote to happen early in the campaign since licensor approvals take at least 2 weeks. So we revealed the 5th set was coming from Day 1 in the tier graphics and reward listings, but it was still seen as a stretch goal. We made it a social media stretch goal to make it clear that there was pretty much no chance of missing out on it if fans wanted it. BUT we don’t want anyone to feel misled, so now it’s just a reveal and won’t be listed with the other stretch goals.)
The other major news is that you unlocked ALL the remaining stretch goals, starting with the final book: the Hardware Handbook for Bundle 1. The 100-page book features expanded rules for creating super-powered gadgets and vehicles.
After that, you unlocked the Bundle 7 and Bundle 8 slipcases back to back!
There you have it… the full DC Heroes Role-Playing Game collection! And it’s just in time for the final 48 hours! We hope to have lots of new fans join for the final stretch… please make them feel welcome.
Without further delay, here is Ray with his memories of his own DC Heroes campaign, which ran about 10 years!
Ray Remembers: My DC Heroes Campaign
While I was working on the game, I ran a DC HEROES campaign that lasted from 1985 until 1994. There are three things that made that campaign special. Perhaps these tip-lets will inspire your approaches to your own campaigns.
1) The Magic of DC HEROES. The players and I all loved the Giffen/DeMatteis 1987 reboot of Justice League, and shortly after that book appeared, we adopted its irreverent tone in our games. In an early adventure, the heroes were squaring off against Kobra and his fanatical snake cult. In those days, one of the things that made Kobra interesting is that he’d never been captured. He clashed with Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Outsiders, but always managed to escape justice in the end. The final showdown between Kobra himself and my players took place in an airship ten thousand feet above Metropolis.
The first hero to act in the very first round of that battle targeted Kobra with a gun that fired powerful blasts of compressed air and rolled an astonishing 82 to resolve the attack. (In DCH, remember, as long as you keep rolling doubles on your 2d10 roll, you can roll again and add the new roll to your total.) A confrontation that was months in the making suddenly turned into a Looney Tunes cartoon. Kobra was blasted through ship (leaving the requisite Kobra-shaped hole in the hull) and out into the sky, where he fell—Wile E. Coyote-style—two miles to the ground below. Confused heroes and cult members alike gathered at the window to watch him fall, and when he struck the ground, his minions were so stunned and demoralized that they simply gave up.
The game system gave us a great gift. That single crazy die roll inspired a long series of entertaining plots and subplots that unfolded over the next four years. Finally capturing Kobra (yes, he survived the fall) turned the heroes into celebrities. A beer company hired them to recreate their feat in a series of popular commercials. A rival beer company convinced the undead Green Lantern Driq to serve as its mascot, bringing our heroes into conflict with the Green Lantern Corps. Later, the heroes discovered that the “Kobra” they so unceremoniously defeated was an imposter, and tried to cover that up to preserve their merchandising empire.
2) The Daily Planet. When I began the campaign, I had just acquired one of the first Apple Macintoshes. I used the Mac to produce a front page of the Daily Planet I distributed at the beginning of every game session. I mostly used the newspaper to deliver amusing summaries of previous sessions, but I also planted subtle clues and hints of things to come in various stories. Players loved it; eventually, they wrote much of the material themselves.
3) Switching up PCs. To convey the epic sweep of the DC Universe, I’d often schedule sessions in which the players would assume the roles of the Justice League, the Suicide Squad, or other established characters from the comics. The stories in these sessions were always related to the campaign’s ongoing plotlines—in fact, they usually delivered vital clues that would assist the players in their “own” adventures. Hero Points earned playing comics characters were transferred to the players’ own heroes. This approach was very successful. I wish I’d suggested it in the printed rules.
Ray Winninger is the co-designer of the DC Heroes RPG and former Executive Producer of Dungeons & Dragons.
Thanks for backing,
The Cryptozoic Team
Social Media Stretch Goal… and One Book to Go!
over 1 year ago
– Fri, Dec 13, 2024 at 10:28:37 AM
DC Heroes fans,
As we enter the final weekend, we have lots of fun stuff for you! First, the results from the last poll were overwhelming (about 90% of you agreed)… no loose leaf pages for you! The copies of the Who’s Who in the DC Universe (Bundle 7) in this Kickstarter will be bound. Thanks for voting!
Because of all the amazing support, we’re almost out of stretch goals! You unlocked The Law of Darkness for Bundle 6. In this module, the New Gods must foil Darkseid's latest attempt to discover the Anti-Life Equation.
After that, there’s just one book to unlock! On Monday, we hit the 48-hour mark and we’re crossing our fingers that by then we can have ALL the books unlocked and maybe even the last two slipcases. Almost there!
Now’s let check out the Social Media Stretch Goal and Ray's gadget-filled look at the game.
Social Media Stretch Goal!
Do you want to spread the word about the campaign AND help unlock the mysterious 5th set of dice that YOU voted for. We hope so! If we hit the goal over the weekend, we will reveal the dice (included in the Legend Tier and available as an add-on) on Monday!
Here’s your heroic mission:
Facebook: 100 likes of this post & 50 friends tagged in the comments
Instagram: 75 likes of this post & 25 friends tagged in the comments
DC HEROES was a smash hit from the moment it debuted, but there was one aspect of the game some players struggled with—super gadgets like the Batmobile, the Phantom Zone projector, and Oliver Queen’s trick arrows. Some found DCH’s gadget rules a bit obtuse. Originally, DCH assigned any and all gadgets a number of “Uses” and a “Duration.” The obvious problem is that while it’s obvious how Uses and Duration might apply to some types of gadgets, it’s not clear how they apply to other types of gadgets. The Batmobile, for example, was originally assigned nine Uses and a Duration of about eight hours, but what exactly does that mean? Reading the rules carefully tells us the Batmobile can run for eight hours on a single tank of fuel, but Batman can only use it nine times before it needs a tune-up. Okay, what counts as a “use?” Driving any distance at all, or driving for the equivalent of eight hours? If the latter, do we really have to keep track of exactly how long the Batmobile is kept running? Because of problems like this, Greg Gorden, the designer of DC HEROES, was never really happy with the gadget rules himself. He talks about this in his Designer’s Notes to DCH’s first edition.
A year or two into the first edition, Troy Denning took a stab at redesigning DC’s Gadget rules in the HARDWARE HANDBOOK, which happens to be our final book stretch goal. Troy’s system was a lot more comprehensive than Greg’s and got rid of Uses and Duration. The HH assigned the Batmobile 28 “charges.” The new system cleaned up the ambiguities in the original but required a lot of bookkeeping.
I took a third stab at gadgets in the DC HEROES Second Edition. My system took partial inspiration from similar rules in Hero Games’ CHAMPIONS RPG. Further, to eliminate bookkeeping, I introduced a brand new concept known as “Reliability.” A pistol might have a Reliability of 4, meaning the moment you roll a 4 or less while using the pistol, you are now out of bullets. That might happen on your first shot, or your fifth, or your twentieth; there is no need to track exactly how many bullets you’ve fired. Not only is this system easy to use, I’ll argue, but it does a good job of recreating the way gadgets are treated in the comics. Comics writers don’t seem to pay much attention to the number of shots Green Arrow fires. He usually has access to enough arrows to do everything he wants, but once in a while—always when he least expects it—he runs out. In the comics, Sgt. Rock running out of ammunition or the Batmobile malfunctioning aren’t governed by measurable limits. They’re basically just plot complications that happen at seemingly random intervals.
In any case, you can use any one of DC HEROES’s three Gadgetry systems—pick your favorite!—with any version of the game.
Ray Winninger is the co-designer of the DC Heroes RPG and former Executive Producer of Dungeons & Dragons.
Thanks for backing,
The Cryptozoic Team
ONE WEEK to Go! Who’s Who Poll and Remembering Those We’ve Lost
over 1 year ago
– Wed, Dec 11, 2024 at 10:53:58 AM
DC Heroes fans,
One week to go! As we approach the final stretch, we are getting close to unlocking all the books. Since our last update, at $360k, you unlocked the Who Watches the Watchmen? for Bundle 3! In this 32-page module, Captain Metropolis has been kidnapped and his fellow Crimebusters are on the case.
It’s poll time! The original versions of the Who’s Who in the DC Universe books in the DC Heroes RPG line came in a loose-leaf format. Why? DC’s own Who’s Who series in the comics included loose-leaf pages. The Mayfair books were meant to be a companion to this series, matching it with a corresponding page containing DC Heroes game info. Players could place the DC Heroes pages in the same three-ring binder as the DC pages to form a comprehensive reference to all the most important characters.
For this reprint, we’d like to hear from you: Do you want loose leaf pages or do you want your Who’s Who books bound? Take this POLLand share your opinions in the comments!
Finally, per a backer request, we’d like to provide a closer look at the Premium GM Screen, which measures 36” x 12” when unfolded and is included in the Legend Tier and available as an add-on. Check out the front, featuring Jim Lee art from Hush, and back!
Ray Remembers: In Memoriam
As we approach the 40th Anniversary of DC HEROES, I want to recognize a few colleagues who made huge contributions to DCH and are, sadly, no longer with us.
Darwin and Peter Bromley co-founded Mayfair Games, the publisher of DCH. It was Darwin who convinced DC Comics to work with Mayfair to produce an RPG. Together, the Bromley brothers amassed a near-complete collection of DC Comics that was invaluable to those of us who worked on the game. Peter passed away in 2016, and Darwin passed in 2019.
Since I started preparing to launch this Kickstarter, my old friend Tom Cook has been in my thoughts. Tom was the senior editor at Mayfair who collaborated with me on the Second Edition expansion and re-design of the core game in 1988. He later wrote the match-play adventure DEADLY FUSION, included with Bundle 6. Tom was an all-around good guy and a cheerful collaborator. I threw plenty of curveballs at him when we were working on the DCH Second Edition and he caught them all. (Ray: “I want to hire a bunch of DC writers to contribute mini-essays to the 2E Background book. Robert Kanigher can write about the DCU in World War II, Kirby can write about Apokolips, Neil Gaiman can write about magic! See where I’m going?” (Tom: “That’s going to be a nightmare to manage, Ray, but I love it and it has to happen!”) Tom left us much too early in 2023.
Ray Winninger is the co-designer of the DC Heroes RPG and former Executive Producer of Dungeons & Dragons.
