''Pawns of Time'' is an adventure published by

Mayfair Games Mayfair Games was an American publisher of board, card, and roleplaying games that also licensed Euro-style board games to publish them in English. The company licensed worldwide English-language publishing rights to ''The Settlers of Catan'' ser ...

in 1986 for the superhero role-playing game ''

DC Heroes ''DC Heroes'' is an out-of-print superhero role-playing game set in the DC Universe and published by Mayfair Games. Other than sharing the same licensed setting, ''DC Heroes'' is unrelated to the West End Games ''DC Universe'' or the more recent ...

'', the first in the four-part "Chessman" series.

Plot summary

''Pawns of Time'' is the first in a series of four adventures involving the

Legion of Super Heroes The Legion of Super-Heroes is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino, the Legion is a group of superpowered beings living in the 30th and 31st cent ...

versus the

Time Trapper This is a list of fictional characters from DC Comics who are enemies of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Legion of Super-Heroes enemies In alphabetical order (with issue and date of debut appearance). In other media See also List of Superman ...

. The

player characters A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

, each a member of the Legion, along with

Brainiac 5 Brainiac 5 (Querl Dox) is a fictional superhero character who exists in the 30th and 31st centuries of the DC Universe. He is from the planet Colu and is a long-standing member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The first live-action version of the c ...

, are ambushed by six former Legionnaires thought to have died. The "dead" superheroes are now agents of the Time Trapper, who has summoned them from the past and brainwashed them into working for him. Following the ambush, the agents successfully kidnap the comatose Jaxon Rugarth (formerly Legion enemy "

The Infinite Man ''The Infinite Man'' is a science fiction novel written by Daniel F. Galouye and published in April 1973 by Bantam Books. Plot A research project, Project Genesis, searches for evidence confirming the Steady State Theory of continuous creati ...

"). The player characters determine that the Time Trapper is trying to turn Rugarth back into The Infinite Man, and must act to stop him.

Publication history

Mayfair Games published the superhero role-playing game ''DC Heroes'' in 1985. ''Pawns of Time'', Book 1 of the ''Chessman'' series, was released the following year, a 32-page softcover book written by Steve Crow and Chris Mortika, with cartography by James Clouse, and cover art by

Ed Hannigan Ed Hannigan (born August 6, 1951) is an Americans, American comics artist, writer, and editor for both Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Career Ed Hannigan's first credited comics story was published in Marvel Comics' Brand licensing, licensed ''Pla ...

(layout),

Curt Swan Douglas Curtis Swan (February 17, 1920 – June 17, 1996) was an American comics artist. The artist most associated with Superman during the period fans call the Bronze Age of Comic Books, Swan produced hundreds of covers and stories from the 195 ...

(pencils), Bob Smith (inks), and Gene D'Angelo (colors). Three more books in the ''Chessman'' series were published in 1987: ''Knight to Planet 3'', ''Mad Rook's Gambit'', and ''King for All Time''.

Reception

Pete Tamlyn reviewed ''Pawns of Time'' for ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes fro ...

'' #88, and was ambivalent, concluding: "''Pawns of Time'' is not a bad adventure, but neither is it a particularly good one. The main thing it has going for it is that the players never get to find out who was really behind what was happening and will therefore be keen to play the next part".

References

{{reflist DC Heroes adventures Legion of Super-Heroes Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1986