DC Heroes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| DC Heroes Role-Playing Game | |
|---|---|
 DC Heroes 1st Edition Box Cover |
|
| Designer(s) | Greg Gorden (3rd Ed.) |
| Publisher(s) | Mayfair Games |
| Publication date | 1985 (1st Ed.) 1989 (2nd Ed.) 1993 (3rd Ed.) |
| Genre(s) | Superhero |
| System | Mayfair Exponential Game System |
DC Heroes is an out-of-print superhero role-playing game set in the DC Comics universe, published by Mayfair Games. Other than sharing the same licensed setting, DC Heroes is unrelated to the West End Games DC Universe game.
DC Heroes was critically well-received, and despite its out of print status still retains an unusually large and active online community. [citation needed]
Contents |
[edit] Gameplay
The game system in DC Heroes is sometimes called the Mayfair Exponential Game System (or MEGS). DC Heroes uses a logarithmic scale for character attributes. The scale allows characters of wildly different power levels to co-exist within the same game without one completely dominating a given area. For example, although Superman is orders of magnitude stronger than Batman, Batman is capable of surviving a straight brawl with Superman for a short period. Conflicts are resolved using an Action Table and two ten-sided dice. The die rolling system involves re-rolling any double result (the same number of both dice), so that any result is possible.
Hero Points, which are used as experience points, can be spent during play to influence Action Table Results.
[edit] Editions
Mayfair Games published the first edition in 1985. During the same time-frame, DC released its twelve-part "maxi-series" Crisis on Infinite Earths, which dramatically reshaped the DC universe. As a result of this timing, both Silver Age and pre-Crisis writeups were included alongside new, post-Crisis versions of the characters. While it was groundbreaking in its time, this edition of the game is now considered obsolete by the online community. [citation needed]
The second edition, published in 1989, incorporated material from the Batman Role-Playing Game and the Superman Sourcebook. These materials included rules for advantages, drawbacks, and gadgetry.
The third edition, published in 1993, further refined the rules by revamping the point costs of various abilities.
[edit] Publications
Between 1985 and 1993, Mayfair published the following core rulebooks (or boxed sets), adventure modules and sourcebooks:
| Number | Title |
|---|---|
| 201 | DC Heroes First Ed. Rules [Boxed Set] |
| 202 | H.I.V.E. |
| 203 | Blood Feud |
| 204 | Siege |
| 205 | Batman Sourcebook (1st ed.) |
| 206 | Wheel of Destruction |
| 207 | All That Glitters |
| 208 | Project: Prometheus |
| 209 | Countdown to Armageddon |
| 210 | Doomsday Program |
| 211 | Four Horsemen of Apokolips |
| 212 | Night in Gotham |
| 213 | Legion of Superheroes, Volume I |
| 214 | Hex: Escort to Hell |
| 215 | Fire and Ice |
| 216 | Legion of Superheroes, Volume II: The World Book |
| 217 | King of Crime |
| 218 | Don't Ask |
| 219 | Lines of Death |
| 220 | When a Stranger Calls |
| 221 | Eternity, Inc. |
| 222 | Element of Danger |
| 223 | Pawns of Time |
| 224 | Knight to Planet 3 |
| 225 | Mad Rook's Gambit |
| 226 | King for All Time |
| 227 | Who Watches the Watchmen |
| 228 | Dream Machine |
| 229 | Rigged Results |
| 230 | Belle Reve Sourcebook |
| 231 | Lights, Camera, Kobra |
| 232 | Hardware Handbook |
| 233 | Superman Sourcebook (1st ed.) |
| 234 | Green Lantern Corps Sourcebook |
| 235 | Taking Out the Trash |
| 237 | Blitzkrieg |
| 238 | Moonshot |
| 239 | Strangers in Paradise |
| 240 | City of Fear |
| 241 | Justice League Sourcebook |
| 242 | Operation: Atlantis |
| 243 | War of the Gods |
| 244 | Apokolips Sourcebook |
| 245 | DC Heroes Second Ed. Rules [Boxed Set] |
| 246 | Batman Sourcebook (2nd ed.) |
| 247 | Atlas of the DC Universe |
| 248 | Come on Down |
| 249 | Otherwhere Quest |
| 250 | Deadly Fusion |
| 251 | Law of Darkness |
| 252 | New Titans Sourcebook |
| 253 | In Hot Pursuit |
| 254 | Watchmen Sourcebook |
| 255 | Magic Sourcebook |
| 256 | Swamp Thing Sourcebook |
| 257 | World At War Sourcebook |
| 258 | Superman Sourcebook (2nd ed.) |
| 259 | World in the Balance |
| 260 | Who's Who in the DC Universe (Vol. 1) |
| 261 | Who's Who in the DC Universe (Vol. 2) |
| 263 | 2995: The Legion of Super-Heroes Sourcebook |
| 264 | Who's Who in the DC Universe (Vol. 3) |
| 265 | DC Technical Manual: S.T.A.R. Labs 1993 Annual Report |
| 267 | DC Heroes Third Ed. Rules |
| 299 | Batman Role-Playing Game |
Two books, Moonshot (238) and Strangers in Paradise (239), contained both modules and sourcebooks. The Batman-Role Playing Game (299), meanwhile, was a stand-alone game.
A Sandman sourcebook (262), a Flash sourcebook (266), and a fourth volume of Who's Who in the DC Universe (268) were planned but never published.
Also, for unknown reasons, no publication was ever designated number 236.
[edit] Blood of Heroes
Mayfair Games eventually sold the rights to the Mayfair Exponential Game System to another company, Pulsar Games, which later released the Blood of Heroes role-playing game. Blood of Heroes is largely derived from the third edition of DC Heroes but without a license to use DC Comics' intellectual property. DC-brand characters were instead replaced with new characters created specifically for the Blood of Heroes universe.
A subsequent edition, Blood of Heroes: Special Edition, incorporated a large number of rule tweaks as well as lots of new material, often derived from proposals from the online community. It is often called the "fourth edition" of the system by fans. [citation needed]
[edit] External links
- DC Heroes Yahoo Group - main online community for the game
- Writeups.org – very large database of detailled character writeups for MEGS
- Character Index – MEGS statistics for and general information on DC universe characters
- DC Character Builder – character creation software
- Pen & Paper RPG Database - details on DC Heroes products
