DC Heroes - History

History

Mayfair Games published the first edition in 1985. During the same time-frame, DC released its twelve-part "maxi-series" Crisis on Infinite Earths, which dramatically reshaped the DC universe. As a result of this timing, both Silver Age and pre-Crisis writeups were included alongside new, post-Crisis versions of the characters. While it was groundbreaking in its time, this edition of the game is now considered obsolete by the online community.

An simplified version of DC Heroes, called The Batman Role-Playing Game was released in 1989 to coincide with the Batman film.

The second edition, published in 1989, was a boxed set which contained a "Read This First" introductory booklet, a "Rules Manual", an introductory adventure "Exposed", and a "Background/Roster Book" with game statistics for almost 250 DC characters. The set also contained "GM Screen", an "Action Wheel" for resolving gameplay, two decks of cards with statistics for DC Comics characters, and dice. The rules incorporated material from the Batman Role-Playing Game and the Superman Sourcebook. These materials also included rules for advantages, drawbacks, and gadgetry.

The third edition, published in 1993, further refined the rules by revamping the point costs of various abilities. Since the release coincided with the Death of Superman and Rise of the Supermen story arcs, it included ratings for all four variant versions of Superman that appeared in that story arc - at least as DC envisioned them at this stage.