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Cryptozoic Announces Kickstarter for DC Heroes Role-Playing Game 40th Anniversary Edition
Posted on November 10, 2024 by Neil Cole
Cryptozoic Entertainment, leading creator of tabletop games, trading cards, and collectibles, in collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products, today announced the launch of the Kickstarter campaign for DC Heroes Role-Playing Game 40th Anniversary.
The campaign brings back the legendary role-playing game that premiered in 1985 and subsequently featured dozens of adventure and sourcebook releases, many featuring contributions from some of DC's finest writers and artists of the 1980s—Jack Kirby, Alan Moore, Denny O'Neil, George Perez, John Byrne, and many others. Thousands of gamers and comics fans are still playing DC Heroes, even though it has been unavailable outside of the secondary market for decades. The campaign is reprinting the product line in definitive archival editions that are entirely faithful to the content of the originals with upgraded paper quality and premium binding. Fans will be able to preorder the two DC Heroes box sets and choose from several bundles of the many books. Adding to the experience are premium accessories such as slipcases, oversized dice based on DC Super Heroes like Superman and Batman, a dice tray, and bookmarks.
In bringing the books to life, Cryptozoic is working with Ray Winninger, co-designer of the DC Heroes Role-Playing Game and former Executive Producer of Dungeons & Dragons. Winninger's expertise has been central to making this project possible and ensuring the final product matches the original books. The restoration process—scanning and creating high quality editions of all the game contents—is being led by Jeb Woodard and Creative Apocrypha, Inc. Woodard has run production on such acclaimed titles as Batman: Killing Joke The Deluxe Edition and Absolute Sandman and oversaw editorial for DC's Collected Editions line for over five years.
"We are excited to work with Warner Bros. Discovery to bring back a beloved DC game that fans have been requesting for decades and to introduce the incredible game to a whole new generation," said Shahriar Fouladi, Vice President of Product Development & Marketing at Cryptozoic. "Our number one priority is preserving DC Heroes in a faithful way that treats all the content with the reverence it deserves, painstakingly restoring everything. We believe Kickstarter is a great platform for fans to show their love of the RPG."
DC Heroes is an innovative and award-winning role-playing game that was first published in 1985. It allows players and their friends to take on the roles of iconic DC Super Heroes like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg, or to create heroes of their own. The object of the game is to create brand-new stories pitting these heroes against The Joker, Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Sinestro, or any of the hundreds of other villains who threaten the DC Universe.
DC Heroes is renowned for three significant innovations: Attribute Points, exploding dice, and subplots. Attribute Points measure attributes, skills, and powers, with each AP representing a doubling in effectiveness. Thus, Batman's Intelligence attribute of 12 makes him approximately one thousand times more intelligent than an average person with an Intelligence of 2. In the game, players roll two ten-sided dice to generate a total, but the twist is that a roll of doubles allows a player to reroll the dice and add their results to the previous total. As long as a player keeps rolling doubles, there is no limit to how high a roll of the dice can get, meaning it is theoretically possible for any character to accomplish any task. Finally, the subplot mechanics mean player characters might have a romance, square off against a workplace rival, inherit (or lose) a fortune, or struggle to conceal their secret identity from the ever-curious Lois Lane. Using a few simple guidelines, players can design and build subplots for their hero, while the GM adds twists and complications, working the subplots into the narrative.
Two of the bundles of books in the campaign include premium slipcases with eye-catching DC artwork, with the chance of more slipcases being unlocked as stretch goals.
For fans who want to upgrade their experience, there are four sets of oversized dice. The dice are large (37mm), feature premium effects (glitter, color swirls), and take inspiration from the logos for DC, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Each set of dice comes inside a premium hinged box with the corresponding logo in foil on the top.
Other available items are a dice tray, bookmarks, and a gamemaster's screen.
The DC Heroes Role-Playing Game 40th Anniversary Kickstarter starts today and runs until December 18, with pledge tiers starting at $60. Preorder items are expected to be delivered to backers in October 2025. Retail releases of many of the products will follow later.
Check out the DC Heroes Role-Playing Game 40th Anniversary Kickstarter Page here.
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