Masters of the Universe RPG Reveal at Power-Con 2020

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Dumarest said:
So what does Skeletor want with the magic sword?
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The Sword is the key that grants access to Castle Greyskull, which is the source of all magical power in Eternia.

Dumarest said:
What is his goal?
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Dumarest said:
And what would an original PC do in a setting that revolves around Skeletor wanting He-Man's sword?
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It's a pretty open-ended setting, with a ton of stuff going on. It's also in-cannon connected to the DC Universe (He-Man's mother is an astronaut from Earth, and she told Prince Adam stories about Superman from her world when he was growing up). Essentially the setting isn't too far off from Kirby's Fourth World stories, mixed with a bit of Thundarr the Barbarian.
 
A ton of entertainment media from TV shows to video games have art books, DK style encyclopaedias, and episode guides. The reason I love working so much on licenses and adapting them to tabletop RPGs is that lots of people like to see how that information is presented in game terms, or see new art, or have somebody else do the work for them.

There are people making 5e stats for Marvel and DC super heroes just using comics or movies as inspiration. I don’t think it’s a big deal for folks to buy a licensed game and not use the system; a lot of the time when I buy a game, I convert it to Cortex! It works both ways.

Cheers,
Cam
 
Cam Banks said:
A ton of entertainment media from TV shows to video games have art books, DK style encyclopedias, and episode guides. The reason I love working so much on licenses and adapting them to tabletop RPGs is that lots of people like to see how that information is presented in game terms, or see new art, or have somebody else do the work for them.

There are people making 5e stats for Marvel and DC superheroes just using comics or movies as inspiration. I don’t think it’s a big deal for folks to buy a licensed game and not use the system; a lot of the time when I buy a game, I convert it to Cortex! It works both ways.

Cheers,
Cam
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I was just talking to a friend about this, Cynthia Celeste Miller, creator of Cartoon Action Hour (among dozens of other very genre-specific games.)
I was interested in her thoughts, and she said she is looking forward to it, so that's a good thing. She loves Marvel Heroic (I'm on record for not finding it all that great, personally--to little time and thought to characters' personal lives, a hallmark of Marvel; but admittedly difficult in a team book. Still, they managed with X-men and Fantastic Four in comics for years--but those were essentially families, so very specific team-oriented books.) I know I'm an odd duck here in thinking games can create and should have social mechanics (light touch ones) or at least really good explanations for such things.

I'm a fan of Leverage, and Smallville (although I wish something closer to it had been used for Marvel. It's stats map cleaner to motivations of Marvel, but still found it lacking some important explanatory bits it might have utilized.) That's me and I am picky. Admittedly MSH only touched on it with karma, and Saga only touched on it lightly in the explanations--but not mechanical aspects. I'm not sure of the other Marvel games.

I don't expect the same thing from Legends of Greyskull, but I AM kind of looking forward to it in some aspect, because of other friends' excitement.
I'm hoping for it to be wonderful, which may be my problem. I expect higher things from big group projects. Do I think Cortex and you can (and the other writer) can do it? Yes, I do.
 
Cam Banks said:
A ton of entertainment media from TV shows to video games have art books, DK style encyclopaedias, and episode guides. The reason I love working so much on licenses and adapting them to tabletop RPGs is that lots of people like to see how that information is presented in game terms, or see new art, or have somebody else do the work for them.

There are people making 5e stats for Marvel and DC super heroes just using comics or movies as inspiration. I don’t think it’s a big deal for folks to buy a licensed game and not use the system; a lot of the time when I buy a game, I convert it to Cortex! It works both ways.

Cheers,
Cam
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Along those lines, I still say that the Firefly RPG still had the best episode guide I've ever seen in a licensed RPG. Talk about utility.

As I've made clear, I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. :grin:
 
I was able to find the minicomics all collected in one 1,232-page volume at over 50% off MSRP, so I ordered it. It better be good, you bastards!
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Now, can we get someone to collect all the Super Powers minicomics? I still have a few...
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Endless Flight said:
I think the Masters of the Universe ones generally got worse as they went on. The Alfredo Alcala comics were the best.
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I call it an inverse bell curve, myself. The Teixeira books were formative for me and make a nice middle ground between Alcala and Filmation, but the 1984 and 85 waves are generally pretty weak. They pick up again for 86 and 87 with better art and some fascinating hints about Eternia's history.
 
Armchair Gamer said:
I call it an inverse bell curve, myself. The Teixeira books were formative for me and make a nice middle ground between Alcala and Filmation, but the 1984 and 85 waves are generally pretty weak. They pick up again for 86 and 87 with better art and some fascinating hints about Eternia's history.
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They were doing a nice job of building at the end when the whole thing crashed.
 
Well, it works better with the versions of the character who are competent. It's really not needed with the first cartoon version, who couldn't catch fish with dynamite.
 
Endless Flight said:
She looked her best in 1986.
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I'm going to say 1987's Who's That Girl tour was her peak
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but the 1989 edition runs a close 2nd.
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And there's something to be said for 1994 as well.
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Endless Flight said:
I actually like it when some of the blanks aren’t filled.
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Agreed. There are a couple of unanswered questions from the vintage line I'd like to know about, but it and 200X both leave off at great spots for gaming or otherwise telling your own stories. Classics, by contrast, feels convoluted and overwritten to me.
 
Armchair Gamer said:
Agreed. There are a couple of unanswered questions from the vintage line I'd like to know about, but it and 200X both leave off at great spots for gaming or otherwise telling your own stories. Classics, by contrast, feels convoluted and overwritten to me.
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I liked the 200x cartoon better than the original. Blasphemy to some but I never really liked the Filmation cartoons. In retrospect, almost all 80s cartoons are rubbish. Even with G.I.Joe, my favorite property, the only good animation was the 1987 movie.
 
Endless Flight said:
I liked the 200x cartoon better than the original. Blasphemy to some but I never really liked the Filmation cartoons. In retrospect, almost all 80s cartoons are rubbish. Even with G.I.Joe, my favorite property, the only good animation was the 1987 movie.
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GI Joe and Transformers... loved them as a kid, the old cartoons were straight ass though, with the exceptions being the two movies (and while the animation was good in GI Joe movie, it made... questionable decisions as far as the story, TF G1 movie though will forever be nostalgia for me). Loved the Marvel comics in both cases, and what made me really love the properties (well and the toys, nothing beats TF toys for me).
 
I liked the Transformers toys but I never owned any as a kid. I actually own one of the Hot Rod throwbacks that I bought a couple years ago because he’s my favorite character. G.I.Joe is where I spent all my time and money as a kid. Infinite replayability.
 
I always only had one or two toys from each toyline - I had two Transformers (Bumblebee and Perceptor), two Sectaurs, two D&D toys (Warduke and the knight), two figures from the Black Hole (Maximillion and one of the floating robots), etc.

That all changed once I discovered garage sales. I ammased tons of star wars toys and most of my GI Joes from those, usually at $1 a piece
 
bloody-disgusting.com

Dark Concept Art Imagines ‘Masters of the Universe’ as a Horror Movie

Here’s what would happen if Masters of the Universe met Clive Barker. Last we heard, David S. Goyer was in talks to direct a brand new feature film adaptation of the iconic Masters of the Universe property, which of course originally made the leap from the toy shelf/small screen to the big...
bloody-disgusting.com bloody-disgusting.com
 
TristramEvans said:
bloody-disgusting.com

Dark Concept Art Imagines ‘Masters of the Universe’ as a Horror Movie

Here’s what would happen if Masters of the Universe met Clive Barker. Last we heard, David S. Goyer was in talks to direct a brand new feature film adaptation of the iconic Masters of the Universe property, which of course originally made the leap from the toy shelf/small screen to the big...
bloody-disgusting.com bloody-disgusting.com
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I am going to save this for the first time I play as (kinda) heroic Skeletor in Legends of Grayskull, and then I'm just going to drop one of these as my pic.
 
Yeah, HeMan is absolutely a superhero. Secret identity, animal side kick, cross over with Superman. Oi! The things I had that I didn't keep :sad:

Oh well, who knew it'd still be a thing? Mind you, one cross over HeMan could do seemlessly is Scooby Do. Well Prince Adam and Cringer anyhow. I'm not sure how Teela would get on with Velma and Daphne. Fred and Shaggy would get on well with Adam.

I'm thinking we need an image of four meddling kids on the path up to Castle Greyskull.
 
David Johansen said:
Yeah, HeMan is absolutely a superhero. Secret identity, animal side kick, cross over with Superman. Oi! The things I had that I didn't keep :sad:

Oh well, who knew it'd still be a thing? Mind you, one cross over HeMan could do seemlessly is Scooby Do. Well Prince Adam and Cringer anyhow. I'm not sure how Teela would get on with Velma and Daphne. Fred and Shaggy would get on well with Adam.

I'm thinking we need an image of four meddling kids on the path up to Castle Greyskull.
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Trouble is they'd expose the Sorceress as a fraud and Skeletor as a dope in a fright mask.
scooby_doo_meets_he_man_and_battlecat_by_optimusbroderick83_dbh2gn4-fullview.jpg
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David Johansen said:
Yeah, HeMan is absolutely a superhero. Secret identity, animal side kick, cross over with Superman. Oi! The things I had that I didn't keep :sad:
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Megafan that I am, it has only been since this reveal that I learned that Adam's mom being an astronaut from Earth was invented for the Superman crossover to add more parallels between them.

Filmation picked it up later and ran with it.
 
I missed the news when it happened, but apparently the Legends of Grayskull RPG has been postponed indefinitely in the wake of Cam Banks transferring ownership of Cortex to some company called Dire Wolf Digital.

www.dicebreaker.com

Cortex has indefinitely paused development of He-Man RPG Legends of Grayskull after sale to Dire Wolf Digital

The He-Man licensed RPG Legends of Grayskull has been indefinitely postponed due to Fandom selling off TRPG studio Cort…
www.dicebreaker.com www.dicebreaker.com

whether it will end up as soo much vapourware I guess remains to be seen.
 
TristramEvans said:
I missed the news when it happened, but apparently the Legends of Grayskull RPG has been postponed indefinitely in the wake of Cam Banks transferring ownership of Cortex to some company called Dire Wolf Digital.

www.dicebreaker.com

Cortex has indefinitely paused development of He-Man RPG Legends of Grayskull after sale to Dire Wolf Digital

The He-Man licensed RPG Legends of Grayskull has been indefinitely postponed due to Fandom selling off TRPG studio Cort…
www.dicebreaker.com www.dicebreaker.com

whether it will end up as soo much vapourware I guess remains to be seen.
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Pretty much I think ends it.

Fandom, who owned Cortex, sold their entire tabletop gaming business to Dire Wolf Digital (who has mostly been a board game publisher at this point), but the Masters of the Universe RPG license agreement didn't transfer with the sale I'm pretty sure, so it's dead.
 
TristramEvans TristramEvans ignore this spoiler.
Damn. One of the reasons I was so keen was because I’d gotten CMON’s boardgame. So many great minis to use with such a RPG.
So what’s a great possible contender for a MotU RPG system?
 
Necrozius said:
TristramEvans TristramEvans ignore this spoiler.
Damn. One of the reasons I was so keen was because I’d gotten CMON’s boardgame. So many great minis to use with such a RPG.
So what’s a great possible contender for a MotU RPG system?
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I think Mythic D6 from Khepera could work pretty well.
 
Necrozius said:
TristramEvans TristramEvans ignore this spoiler.
Damn. One of the reasons I was so keen was because I’d gotten CMON’s boardgame. So many great minis to use with such a RPG.
So what’s a great possible contender for a MotU RPG system?
Click to expand...
Cartoon Action Hour Season 3?
 
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