Masters of the Universe RPG Reveal at Power-Con 2020

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Savage Schemer said:
My parents didn't let me have He-man toys as a kid. Because Satan.
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My parents said I couldn't have bad guy figures because they would give me nightmares.

In retrospect, I now realise it was because we were poor, so I have a lot of respect for that on-the-spot excuse.

TristramEvans said:
In this one case, I'd say 2D20 would at least be better than what FASA offered up
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Who are you, and what have you done with the real TristramEvans?
 
Dumarest said:
So what does Skeletor want with the magic sword? What is his goal?

And what would an original PC do in a setting that revolves around Skeletor wanting He-Man's sword?
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Well originally, He-Man and Skeletor each had halves of the power sword, but eventually it was just He-Man who had the sword. The sword allowed Adam to transform into “the most powerful man in the universe!” and it also allowed access into Castle Greyskull, which had secrets Skeletor wanted. He-Man has allies all over Eternia and these are the Masters of the Universe.

A group of PCs would essentially be other Masters of the Universe and be fighting against the forces of Skeletor.

It really is an interesting franchise from that era. They managed to mash a bunch of stuff together and make it work.
 
I believe it also makes julienne fries.
 
Saw that in the theaters. Shouldn't have watched the trailer. It really is that easy to kill childhood memories one at a time. It's not quite rewatching The Black Cauldron as an adult, but its getting there.
 
Fenris-77 said:
Saw that in the theaters. Shouldn't have watched the trailer. It really is that easy to kill childhood memories one at a time. It's not quite rewatching The Black Cauldron as an adult, but its getting there.
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Oh, I still enjoy the Black Cauldron. It's definitely uneven and doesn't feel like a Disney movie - for better or worse - but it's got a great villain and some wonderful scenery.
 
under_score said:
Oh, I still enjoy the Black Cauldron. It's definitely uneven and doesn't feel like a Disney movie - for better or worse - but it's got a great villain and some wonderful scenery.
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It couldn't match my childhood memories at all. Maybe I'll give another try.
 
under_score said:
Oh, I still enjoy the Black Cauldron. It's definitely uneven and doesn't feel like a Disney movie - for better or worse - but it's got a great villain and some wonderful scenery.
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I can watch both Black Cauldron and Masters of the Universe. In fact, I appreciate it more now than I did as a kid. (As a kid and a HUGE He-Man fan, I lost my shit over how much they changed, and jamming in characters I didn't know in place of characters I loved).

Dumarest said:
1. My wife resembles a young Courteney Cox.

2. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is a fun movie with a good premise.
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Your wife is hot. I assume. And I mean that as respectfully as I can. Young Courtney Cox is a looker.
 
Armchair Gamer said:
On the other hand, get the reference books from Dark Horse and your favorite high-powered science fantasy or superhero game, and you've got everything you need to roll your own and don't have to worry about the licensees getting it wrong. :smile:

EDIT: And the 'special guests' suggest they might be tying this in to the forthcoming Revelations Netflix series, and I'm sorry, but I don't trust Netflix, I don't trust contemporary corporations, and I don't trust Kevin Smith. :smile:
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From all the released information so far, this is a smart stance to take.
 
Endless Flight said:
It really is an interesting franchise from that era. They managed to mash a bunch of stuff together and make it work.
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This is as good a moment as any to remember that Larry DiTillio (author of Masks of Nyarlathotep) was one of the writers for the original MotU cartoon, and so was J. Michael Straczynski.
 
The Butcher said:
This is as good a moment as any to remember that Larry DiTillio (author of Masks of Nyarlathotep) was one of the writers for the original MotU cartoon, and so was J. Michael Straczynski.
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FIlmation was one of the greatest animation companies of it's time. Both in scope and what they had to work with. As well as how they made it work.
 
People mock the animation of the cartoon series, but I really prefer the gorgeously rotoscoped fluid movements used again and again over the streamlined mediocrity of everything since. Sure, you're ging to see He-man do that same run into a room and stop, drawing his sword, in every episode with only the background cells changed, (sometimes twice an episode), but it's going to look goddamn beautiful every time.
 
TristramEvans said:
People mock the animation of the cartoon series, but I really prefer the gorgeously rotoscoped fluid movements used again and again over the streamlined mediocrity of everything since. Sure, you're ging to see He-man do that same run into a room and stop, drawing his sword, in every episode with only the background cells changed, (sometimes twice an episode), but it's going to look goddamn beautiful every time.
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Also, I think the backgrounds were some of the most gorgeous and imaginative ever seen in television animation--definitely for their time.
 
Tommy Brownell said:
Allegedly the action figure comics were planning to reveal the same thing before the whole thing went tits up and got rebooted as more straight forward sci-fi (or whatever happened to kill my interest as a kid).
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Yes, although there was no indication of racial difference or 'half-brother' in the original Keldor origin plans, and no one except Skeletor himself knew about the connection. All we knew for certain was that King Randor's brother Keldor had disappeared while experimenting with magic, and Skeletor feared the heroes discovering Keldor's fate for fear it could somehow destroy him. Several fans drew the inference that Keldor had somehow become Skeletor (I was one of them, and one of the first to put it out there on the Internet). It wasn't until interviews with the original creative team in 2000 that we were able to confirm it, and no one seems quite clear on how it would have happened. There are sources that a 'pre-Skeletor' Keldor would have become a villain in the planned but cancelled "Powers of Grayskull" spinoff that would have explored ancient Preternia, land of dinosaurs and giants, and starring He-Man's ancestor He-Ro, the Most Powerful Wizard in the Universe. In a further example of how things were fluid, up until the last minute, He-Ro was going to be called Grayskull.
 
Chris Brady said:
From all the released information so far, this is a smart stance to take.
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Well, I watched yesterday's demo and Q&A session, and they are leaning heavily into the multiverse/'roll your own MotU' approach, so it will at least be flexible and not beholden to any one specific interpretation of the property. However, they're also pushing Organized Play, online functionality, and their own "Legends of Grayskull canon" for those purposes, so supplements and future material may wind up being more in line with their own vision or later interpretations.
 
TristramEvans said:
People mock the animation of the cartoon series, but I really prefer the gorgeously rotoscoped fluid movements used again and again over the streamlined mediocrity of everything since. Sure, you're ging to see He-man do that same run into a room and stop, drawing his sword, in every episode with only the background cells changed, (sometimes twice an episode), but it's going to look goddamn beautiful every time.
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I agree, but I love rotoscoping. The music is epic as Hell, too.
 
Ladybird said:
My parents said I couldn't have bad guy figures because they would give me nightmares.

In retrospect, I now realise it was because we were poor, so I have a lot of respect for that on-the-spot excuse.
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Yeah I didn't have any He-Man toys because we were too poor at the time for my Mom to afford them. I was bummed as a kid but now I feel like the hardship gave me character. :clown:
 
I use to play this rpg when I was kid. Back then we used the "Move plastic dolls around and say what happens" method of resolution.

Honestly, don't understand why anyone would want the license to this now.
 
Dumarest said:
So what does Skeletor want with the magic sword? What is his goal?

And what would an original PC do in a setting that revolves around Skeletor wanting He-Man's sword?
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If I remember correctly--there are two halves (yes like Darkstar) one Skeletor had with his toy, one He-man (original) combined together they'd let him steal the power of Greyskull for himself. Notable: In the comic with the original toy, He-man and She-ra's mom was an astronaut from Earth. She-ra somehow gets exiled to another dimension.

The new version of She-ra is different, good from one people say, if you can handle overt LGBTA+ change/heavily laid onto to the characters. My friends have so far all loved it that have watched, I've gotten a few episodes in, looks like a kid's cartoon and tell's stories to that level, so about what I expected so far. One of the sad things was the original 80's cartoons wouldn't let them actually hit people with the swords. So they were more a magical tool. (Admittedly my preferred cartoon hero of similar nature was Thundarr--and he hit people, but the Sunsword didn't cut people just whacked them around, also a better defense than offense, but actually cool to me, even now.) Of course, he did pick up people and hit other people with them (or cut robots or so on.)

We're getting two (I think) new He-Man cartoons, one a reboot, the other a continuation (by Kevin Smith, so there is no telling where things go.)
 
Silverlion said:
One of the sad things was the original 80's cartoons wouldn't let them actually hit people with the swords
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I always loved the 90s Conan cartoon where his sword had teleporting magic that sent his enemies to another dimension. So he would put his sword above their heads and they'd get sucked into a portal.

One of the English dubs of Dragonball Z was censored with a similar trick where characters would say their blasts were actually teleporting spells to another dimension and they'd edit out the gibs.
 
Silverlion said:
If I remember correctly--there are two halves (yes like Darkstar) one Skeletor had with his toy, one He-man (original) combined together they'd let him steal the power of Greyskull for himself. Notable: In the comic with the original toy, He-man and She-ra's mom was an astronaut from Earth. She-ra somehow gets exiled to another dimension.
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He-Man's mom being an Astronaut is also in the first show. There was an episode where King Randor got kidnapped and she goes Rambette to get him back.

As for She-Ra, this was explained in a TV movie, but Hordak, Skeletor's Boss, kidnapped Adora and raised her as a child soldier in his Horde army as an FU to any resistance to his attempted invasion.

Silverlion said:
We're getting two (I think) new He-Man cartoons, one a reboot, the other a continuation (by Kevin Smith, so there is no telling where things go.)
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The problem with the Kevin Smith one is that one is supposedly focusing on Teela as the main lead, who was a minor character at best in the original series, which is setting off alarms in fan's heads. Mr. Smith is also known as a shill, who cries at everything saying it's 'Wonderful'. He's also known to have lied on multiple occasions, so a lot of the denials he's made about his version of He-Man being 'faithful' is highly suspect.

Hopefully, all the reports and rumours that his show will change the canon too much are wrong and it'll be a great one. Here's hoping.
 
Chris Brady said:
The problem with the Kevin Smith one is that one is supposedly focusing on Teela as the main lead, who was a minor character at best in the original series, which is setting off alarms in fan's heads. Mr. Smith is also known as a shill, who cries at everything saying it's 'Wonderful'. He's also known to have lied on multiple occasions, so a lot of the denials he's made about his version of He-Man being 'faithful' is highly suspect.

Hopefully, all the reports and rumours that his show will change the canon too much are wrong and it'll be a great one. Here's hoping.
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Smith made a surprise appearance at one of the Power-Con panels today, and while he was shilling for the show, he did imply that the folks at Mattel and Netflix are keeping him on a tight leash. (By contrast, the Netflix She-Ra was an operation that was running without Mattel's involvement or control, as I understand it--there are complicated rights issues related to how the original She-Ra cartoon was created that mean that people who own the rights to the Filmation library can do it without Mattel's approval, and Mattel had to use loopholes or make special arrangements to do action figures based off of the Filmation cartoon.)
 
Armchair Gamer said:
Smith made a surprise appearance at one of the Power-Con panels today, and while he was shilling for the show, he did imply that the folks at Mattel and Netflix are keeping him on a tight leash. (By contrast, the Netflix She-Ra was an operation that was running without Mattel's involvement or control, as I understand it--there are complicated rights issues related to how the original She-Ra cartoon was created that mean that people who own the rights to the Filmation library can do it without Mattel's approval, and Mattel had to use loopholes or make special arrangements to do action figures based off of the Filmation cartoon.)
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That sounds good.

As for the New She-Ra, what I had heard from my sources was that Dreamworks had the rights to the NAMES, but nothing else, and couldn't actually tie it to MoTU franchise, which is why it's so different.

Other rumours were also persisting that Mattel had no faith, and felt it was justified, in the new show, because as a Toy/Doll making company they barely put out any dolls for the show. Unlike the Original Series (both of them) when they had dolls and figures already out in some cases before the show even aired. There was like, what? Two runs, one of which was a convention exclusive from a company that wasn't affiliated with Mattel, and a second near the end of the series?

Back in the 80's it was REALLY rare to get a Thundercat's situation, where there were almost no toys for it at the start, but the show was immensely popular anyway (It got syndication, which was unheard of for a cartoon, if I remember correctly.)

Again, I hope both He-Man shows are good. And I hope that the lore for the RPG is as comprehensive and interesting enough that I can divorce the system from it. I am, as I'm sure I've pointed out too many times, not the biggest fan of Cortex.
 
I like the property but not enough to buy an RPG for it where I don’t really like the system.
 
Yeah, I'd honestly use Cartoon Action Hour S2 or S3, but that's me. Although 1E had the best random generator for character combos.
 
If the RPG uses a bunch of Earl Norem art and serves as a good reference book for the various continuities, I might purchase it as just that - a reference.

But as far as gaming goes, I plan to use the CMON miniatures and run it using Phaserip, which seems a perfectly fine fit to me.
 
TristramEvans said:
If the RPG uses a bunch of Earl Norem art and serves as a good reference book for the various continuities, I might purchase it as just that - a reference.

But as far as gaming goes, I plan to use the CMON miniatures and run it using Phaserip, which seems a perfectly fine fit to me.
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I'd just hunt up a used copy of the Dark Horse character compendium, then. Be nice if that would come back in stock...
 
Tommy Brownell said:
I'd just hunt up a used copy of the Dark Horse character compendium, then. Be nice if that would come back in stock...
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Yeah, I've got that, and the World Compendium. So it may be superfluous at that.
 
Yeah, I don't see how this is going to add much, other than possibly character updates of the last couple of years.
 
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