Hellboy RPG

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
I'm intrigued at the design ideas (but my tastes skew a little different than yours). I might spring for the PDF, just out of idle curiosity. The "game" part of RPGs never bothered me, or I would have to burn my Savage Worlds books.
 
Well, it has one more meta-currency. Inspiration is nowhere to be found in the quick-start :smile:

One of my favorite bits of the dice mechanics from Shadowrun 3e was that you could crit-fail and crit-succeed on the same die roll. (So your lasergun could glitch out, doing a huge blast and a ton of damage, but it's destroyed in the process) and it looks like Hellboy has that built in with Doom and Ingenuity.

Not the biggest fan of rolling a second die with your main die to determine things (especially one that only triggers occasionally), but it's been around since at least Star Wars D6, so not a dealbreaker.
 
I'll crosspost my thoughts from the other thread (hope that is ok with mods, as it's unrelated to what happened there):

From an initial browse of the QS, I have to say it looks to be really well done.

The D&D core is there, so it'll be familiar enough for people who have only ever played D&D to jump right in with minimal friction... but the changes are substantial enough that I think it'll play quite differently.

As noted previously, it seems every character has at least a couple of bonus actions and reactions available (on top of the standard "shared" ones), so there will be a lot more use of those types of abilities and tactical choices at the table.
There is a nice "injury" system that does away with the "I'm ok, I'm ok, I'm ok, I'm down" nature of damage in D&D, plus a "second wind" like action, that does away with the need for magical healing and seems like it'd balance well even in a standard D&D game without clerics. Also the resting mechanics are much more appropriate for the genre than the D&D short/long rest.

The list of "origins" and the classes also seem to be pretty well done.
The ingenuity and doom mechanics I'm a little on the fence about... I kind of like the way they're used, and the fact that they introduce a bit of a "yes, but" / "no, and" mechanic to 5e... but the way they're generated by rolling an extra d10 along with every d20 roll leaves me a little cold... maybe it'll play better than it reads, I'm not sure. I definitely think I'd prefer using the boardgame dice here rather than a standard d10.

The only thing that caught my eye that I didn't like was that it (re)introduces damage reduction on top of resistance/vulnerability and immunity... that's a little bit too far into unnecessary crunch territory for me. I was tempted to do the same thing in the early days of 5e, but having played and run extensively now I just don't think it's needed.

I mean, if you hate D&D / d20 with a passion, then this likely isn't going to change your mind. But if you like 5e and/or are more system agnostic, there is a lot to appreciate in there. I'm pretty optimistic for the final game.
 
What I am interested in is that there is a section of the game that are optional rules to incorporate (more) elements from the board game. I'd like to see if I can reverse engineer that and add some more RPG elements to the board game.

I am an enthusiastic backer, whatever my reservations about the game itself, just for that gorgeous canvas BPRD bag and the dice set. They haven't done a Hellboy bag since the Golden Army in....well too many years ago than I want to think about, when they did a backpack and satchell that I still use to this day. Those unfortunately go for hundreds on the secondary market.
 
I'm playing in one of the UK Games Expo online sessions on Saturday night, so I'll let you all know how it goes.

Actually, something of a tangent, but I know there are a lot of big Hellboy fans on here. What would you suggest for 1-2 "graphic novel" sized Hellboy books to read as a good intro? You can assume I'm a complete newb to the comics. I've seen both movies (luke warm on the first but really enjoyed the second), and have played the Mantic boardgame, but I've probably only read 1 or 2 or the comics, and that was a few years back now...
 
I'm playing in one of the UK Games Expo online sessions on Saturday night, so I'll let you all know how it goes.

Actually, something of a tangent, but I know there are a lot of big Hellboy fans on here. What would you suggest for 1-2 "graphic novel" sized Hellboy books to read as a good intro? You can assume I'm a complete newb to the comics. I've seen both movies (luke warm on the first but really enjoyed the second), and have played the Mantic boardgame, but I've probably only read 1 or 2 or the comics, and that was a few years back now...

Best single intro would be the TPB "The Chained Coffin and Others", it's a collection of short Hellboy stories that serve as the foundation of the character, as well as the mini series "The Wolves of Saint August". All in all it includes my three favourite Hellboy stories of all time, and if thatat collection doesn't get you hooked, nothing will. After that, and depending if it hits your fancy, I'd start from the beginning with Seed of Destruction, and work your way forward. Seed is the weakest Hellboy story (mainly as its the only one Mignola didn't write himself, as he didn't feel confident enough at the time), but it lays the literal seeds of the overarching plot.
 
I also find it kind of interesting/disappointing that the dice set doesn't include a special d10 to roll... especially given that the weapon all the QS pregens come with is the BPRD Sidearm that does 2d10 damage... so it means you can't make what will likely be one of the most common rolls in the game without re-rolling at least one dice (assuming you roll to hit and damage together, which most 5e groups I play with do).
Maybe as a stretch goal.
 
Best single intro would be the TPB "The Chained Coffin and Others", it's a collection of short Hellboy stories that serve as the foundation of the character, as well as the mini series "The Wolves of Saint August". All in all it includes my three favourite Hellboy stories of all time, and if thatat collection doesn't get you hooked, nothing will. After that, and depending if it hits your fancy, I'd start from the beginning with Seed of Destruction, and work your way forward. Seed is the weakest Hellboy story (mainly as its the only one Mignola didn't write himself, as he didn't feel confident enough at the time), but it lays the literal seeds of the overarching plot.
Cool, thanks. I think I did actually read Seed (or parts of it), but didn't really enjoy it super much, which is why I kind of gave up on the comics.
I'll check out the two you suggested as a better starting place then.
 
I also find it kind of interesting/disappointing that the dice set doesn't include a special d10 to roll....

I'm right there with you. I tend to roll my entire turns worth of dice at once when I play 5e (Which is like, 3d20s, 1d8, 2d6 and 3d4.) It would be nice to have a easy to read Doom/Ingenuity d10 in there.
 
I'm right there with you. I tend to roll my entire turns worth of dice at once when I play 5e (Which is like, 3d20s, 1d8, 2d6 and 3d4.) It would be nice to have a easy to read Doom/Ingenuity d10 in there.
Yeah, personally I'd love to see something more akin to WotCs mix of dice in their dice sets - 2 x d20s, d% + extra d10, 4 x d6, and one of each other die. It's not perfect, but it'd be a better starting point. Then one of the d20s and the extra d10 could be coloured differently from the rest of the dice - say black numbers on red, rather than red on black like the other dice. I think something like that would be much more usable for a 5e based game than one of each die, all in the same colour scheme.
 
Cool, thanks. I think I did actually read Seed (or parts of it), but didn't really enjoy it super much, which is why I kind of gave up on the comics.
I'll check out the two you suggested as a better starting place then.

I think Wolves is the best Hellboy story ever written, but yeah, Seeds its difficult even for me to go back and reread. It's so clumsy in comparison to what comes later. You could theoretically skip it and just read a summation, but it's only like 5 issues long. If you grab the new omnibus collections they are putting out, it's included in volume 1 with I think the next 3 or 4 minis series. By the time you get to Conquerer Worm, Mignola has hit his stride and it's all glory from then on, leading up to The Island and Hellboy in Hell, the most incredible series ending that I've ever experienced in comics (made all the more impactful in that Mignola had retired from doing art for a few years before that point, and regular Hellboy art duties were given to Duncan Fegredo - admittedly, it took me a bit to get used to his style, but I quite like it now - so when Mignola finally came back to wrap things up, he'd been doing fine art for a few years, and his stuff had evolved incredibly). Every page is a masterpiece of design.

Anyways, getting way too far ahead. The Chained Coffin and Others has examples of all the types of good HB stories - from the absurdly humorous (Pamcakes), the indulgent folklore explorations, and the heartbreaking gothic tragedies.
 
Anyways, getting way too far ahead. The Chained Coffin and Others has examples of all the types of good HB stories - from the absurdly humorous (Pamcakes), the indulgent folklore explorations, and the heartbreaking gothic tragedies.
Great, thanks for all the explanation. So you'd recommend chained coffin, wolves, and then start on omnibus vol 1?
 
Great, thanks for all the explanation. So you'd recommend chained coffin, wolves, and then start on omnibus vol 1?

Oh, sorry, if I was unclear, Wolves of St August is included in Chained Coffin. So yeah, just The Chained Coffin & Others, and if you like it, get Omnibus 1.
 
Would you say the Omnibus collections are the best format to get the whole comic in?

Unless you're a pretentious collector like me and will only settle for the overpriced, oversized Deluxe "Library Editions"...yes, absolutely. The Omnibus collections of both Hellboy and The BPRD are absolutely fantastic, cheaper than individual trades, and a very readable format that colelct EVERYthing.
 
so, newest stretch goal may be of interest to folks in this thread...

0899627ac162f368c18658faa7bea616_original.png
 
I'm...I dunno, kind of on the fence based on the QS. I really don't like the "roll an extra d10 that has no effect 80% of the time" for generating Ingenuity and Doom. Surely there are more elegant ways of adding "yes, but" or "no, and". At least the Wild Die in Star Wars d6, or the Stunt Die in AGE, is added into the pool to calculate your total. But ditching the Doom/Ingenuity mechanic seems to short-circuit other features of the game. Damn.

Some of the abilities, while thematic, seem a bit...same-y (there's at least two that let you push prone someone to get them out of the way of an attack) and at the end of the day I'm just not sure that I'm up for a new 5E game. I don't think the QS gives me enough info to judge.

The (now-upgraded) rulebook sure looks nice, though, and I guess the question is whether the book's going to have enough in there to either change my mind on the system, or enough to scavenge as material for other games. Well, I've got a couple of weeks to make up my mind.
 
Yeah, system-wise unfortunately there's not much to excite me here. I'm trying to focus on the positive in the KS comments section, but it's an odd situation for me. What I'm hoping at least is that the book will be a well-researched overview of the setting, as the GURPs game is horribly out-of-date, as is the Hellboy Companion. The Mignolaverse has really expanded in recent years, to the point it feels like a micro-version of the Marvel Universe at the peak of the Bronze Age, and it's definitely a setting with tons of role-playing potential.

They have been discussing conversions to other systems, such as Savage Worlds.
 
Oh, if they add conversion notes for other systems, that would definitely convince me to back it. Savage Worlds would be a reliable choice.
 
If the run it like the Board game KS, once a week they'll be revealing a bunch of new add ons. Wouldn't be surprised if one of those is a complete digital comics library at a nice discount
 
Well, I am on the verge of backing it...
I caved in. Adding the GM Screen as an add-on. I don't really like the dice and you can't get the bag as a separate add-on, so that will be it*.

* Also, I already have an Achtung! Cthulhu bag lying around here. It's a nice bag, but it turns out I'm not as psyched about Achtung! Cthulhu as I anticipated and I'm thinking of selling my books. These days, I don't think it's all that interesting to add the Cthulhu Mythos to each and every significant historical event.
 
Last edited:
so, newest stretch goal may be of interest to folks in this thread...
I am in two minds... both happy I'll be getting it for free, and a little miffed that I now have to wait until after the campaign to pick it up and start reading... :smile:
I guess I'll have to go back and re-read the one I got for free with the boardgame KS...
 
I also find it kind of interesting/disappointing that the dice set doesn't include a special d10 to roll...

I don't know if you've been following the comments section, but they are going to be doing 2 special D10s for advantage/disadvantage dice, with a BPRD logo on the 10's and Mignola skull on the 1's
 
I don't know if you've been following the comments section, but they are going to be doing 2 special D10s for advantage/disadvantage dice, with a BPRD logo on the 10's and Mignola skull on the 1's
I would like the design to be more readable from across the table.
 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top