''DC Adventures'' is a superhero role-playing game published by

Green Ronin Publishing Green Ronin Publishing is an American company based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Chris Pramas and Nicole Lindroos, they have published several role-playing game–related products. They won several awards for their games including ...

in 2010 that is set in the

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

superhero universe. It uses the same game system as Green Ronin's third edition of ''

Mutants & Masterminds ''Mutants & Masterminds'' (abbreviated "M&M" or "MnM") is a superhero role-playing game written by Steve Kenson and published by Green Ronin Publishing based on a variant of the d20 System by Wizards of the Coast. The game system is designed t ...

''.

Description

''DC Adventures'' sets out the rules for setting up and running a superhero campaign. It includes details of 14 DC superheroes, and 14 super villains. A number of notable areas from the DC universe are described, including cities such as

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big ci ...

and

Gotham City Gotham City ( ), or simply Gotham, is a fictional city appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, best known as the home of the superhero Batman and his List of Batman supporting characters#Bat-Family, allies and List of Batman fa ...

, countries such as Markovia and

Zandia Brother Blood is the name of two supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The first iteration, Sebastian Blood VIII, is a power hungry priest and the head of the Church of Blood, as well as the eighth person in the ...

, alien planets such as Oa, and even different dimensions such as

Earth-0 The DC Universe (DCU) is the fictional shared universe where most stories in American comic book titles published by DC Comics take place. Superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin, Martian Manhunter, The Flash, Green Lant ...

and

The Dreaming The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his co ...

. Both ''Mutants & Masterminds'' and ''DC Adventures'' have the same mechanical system and are fully compatible.

Publication history

DC had previously granted the license for a role-playing game to Mayfair Games in 1985 ('' DC Heroes''), and

West End Games West End Games (WEG) was a company that made board, role-playing, and war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York City, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Its product lines included ''Star Wars'', ''Paranoia'', ...

in 1999 (''

DC Universe Roleplaying Game The ''DC Universe Roleplaying Game'' is a Legend System-based role-playing game set in the DC Comics universe and published by West End Games. History The game system had several supplementary publications in print during the 1999–2002 tim ...

''). As game historian Shannon Appelcline explained in the 2014 book ''Designers & Dragons: The '00s'' that the license moved on to Games Workshop, who did not use it, then to Green Ronin, who published ''DC Adventures'' (2010), based on their popular d20-based ''Mutants & Masterminds'' system. As Appelcline noted, Green Ronin created a third edition of their ''Mutants & Masterminds'' rules specifically for ''DC Adventures'', and then produced ''DC Adventures: Hero's Handbook'' in 2010, a 280-page hard cover book designed by

Steve Kenson Steve Kenson (born June 16, 1969) is a writer and designer of role-playing games (RPGs) and related fiction. Career Steve Kenson began working as an author and game designer in 1995. Kenson co-wrote the super-hero role-playing game ''Silver Age ...

and Ray Winninger, with interior artwork by DC artists, and cover art by Alex Ross. This was followed by two ''Heroes & Villains'' books (2011-2012), and ''DC Adventures Universe'' (2013). Green Ronin also produced a non DC version of the rules titled, ''Mutants & Masterminds Hero's Handbook'' in 2011, followed by the ''Mutants & Masterminds Gamemaster's Guide'' in 2012. Green Ronin ran into a major problem when, shortly after the release of ''DC Adventures'', DC Comics suddenly rebooted their entire comic book universe with

The New 52 The New 52 is the 2011 revamp and relaunch by DC Comics of its entire line of ongoing monthly superhero comic books. Following the conclusion of the " Flashpoint" crossover storyline, DC canceled all its existing titles and debuted 52 new serie ...

, instantly making the material in ''DC Adventures'' obsolete.

Reception

Ed Grabianowski for the website

io9 ''io9'' is part of Gizmodo media since 2015, and it began as blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The site initially focused on the subjects of science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, technology and related areas but over the years has ...

said that "the four books that comprise the ''DC Adventures'' RPG present you not only with a tried and tested superhero RPG, but also an incredibly deep roster of DC characters and the most comprehensive overview of the DC universe I've ever seen". ''Superhero RPGs'' thought the artwork "is as good as it gets", but noted that the super-strength of the heroes made life difficult for the

gamemaster A gamemaster (GM; also known as game master, game manager, game moderator, referee, or storyteller) is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer role-playing game. They are m ...

. The conclusion was that this was a well-designed game. ''Flames Rising'' reviewed ''DC Adventures: Heroes and Villains: Volume 1'', and thought that the writing was crisp, entertaining and educational. Although the reviewer noted that players actually had to buy two other book books in order to play this game, the conclusion was that "it's totally worth it".

Awards

* At the 2011

ENnie Awards The ENNIE Awards (previously stylized as ENnie Awards) are awards for role-playing game (RPG) products (including game-related accessories, publications, and art) and their creators. The awards were created in 2001 by Russ Morrissey of EN World ...

, ''DC Adventures Hero's Handbook'' was awarded a Silver for "Best Interior Art of 2010". The related ''Mutants & Masterminds Hero's Handbook'' was a finalist for "Best Cover Art of 2010". * At the 2012 ENnie Awards, ''DC Adventures: Heroes and Villains, Vol. 1'' was awarded "Best Monster/Adversary of 2011".

Product list

* ''Hero's Handbook'' (2010) * ''Heroes & Villains, Vol. 1'' (2011) * ''Heroes & Villains, Vol. 2'' (2012) * ''DC Universe'' (April 2013)

External links

Official site

DC Adventures
at

RPGnet RPGnet is a role-playing game website. It includes sections on wargames, tabletop games and video games, as well as columns on gaming topics. RPGnet was founded in 1996 by Emma and Sandy Antunes, Shawn Althouse ( etrigan) and Brian David Phillip ...

DC Adventures
at RPGGeek

References

DC Comics role-playing games ENnies winners Green Ronin Publishing games Role-playing games introduced in 2010 {{DC-comics-stub