If you’re anything like me, you’ve been in nerdvana these last few years as Marvel and Sony have been pumping out superhero movies like crazy. While they haven’t all been hits, it’s safe to say that Marvel has dominated the theaters in recent years. For along time, it seemed like DC’s only presence in the theater would be Batman…but that’s all about to change!
It won’t be too long before we get to see Batman and Superman together up on the big screen and with all the movies DC is getting ready to put out and all their quality television shows on now, and coming soon, it got me thinking back to the old Mayfair DC Heroes game! While this wasn’t the first game I played, it was the first game I owned and I ran this game for many, many years!
The version of the game I got was that beautiful black box set with the images of Batman and Superman along with the old DC bullet logo dominating the cover. Inside the box, you got separate booklets for character creation, rules and a roster book with the history of the DC Universe. This was around the time of Crisis on Infinite Earths, so the history and setting information was a great help. The set also included dice, a deck of cards with the characters stats as well as a GM screen.
The mechanics of the game were simple. You compared your stat against a difficulty or the stat of your opponent on a chart to find your target number. If you rolled that number or above, you succeeded! There were, of course some things that would modify this process, but that was the basic idea. The mechanics were so simple, it left LOTS of room to spotlight your characters, the setting or the plot instead of having to fuss over every minutia of a particular rule!
As far as support for the game, there were some great sourcebooks, adventures and even a few solo adventures, which read like a choose-your-own-adventure book. In some cases, you would follow a path based on a decision and others where your path was determined on whether you succeeded on a roll or not. The game ran through three editions.
The first edition cover looks like a free-for-all among several different heroes and villains and features the Teen Titans as does the content of this box set. This edition of the game features the pre-Crisis setting and this is most evident in the ultra-inflated statistics of the characters. The quality of this set never really impressed me except for one item; the GM screen; this thing is beautiful!
The second edition I talked about above and the third edition breaks the mold by being the first to be sold as a single paperback book. The third edition is set around the time of the Death of Superman and even includes stats for Doomsday and the four [SPOILER ALERT] false “Supermen” that appeared to take his place, though I should say that these statistics aren’t very accurate; they probably didn’t want to spoil the story for us readers.
After my books finally disintegrated, I moved on to other games, and in my absence, the game was discontinued, but revived as Blood of Heroes. This new version of the game was heavily influenced by the ultra-cool anti-heroes of the 1990’s, but the rules system was relatively the same, and sported some nice rules revisions. The art was passable at best and set a new bar for “worse.”
The game itself is fast, fun and gives you plenty of opportunity to tell your stories. If you can find one of these games, I’d recommend you snap them up, particularly if you can get your hands on the second or third editions. If you just want to try out the rules; it should still be easy enough to locate a copy of Blood of Heroes ( I found mine cheap on Amazon). I’ve spent some of the best hours as a GM behind these screens and I hope you’ll give it a try as well!
Alex Montoya
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