Checker Book Publishing Group has announced that it has purchased the publishing rights to the classic super hero themed role playing game Superhero 2044 from Gamescience Publishing.
Superhero 2044 was the first comic book themed role playing game at the dawn of the industry appearing in 1977 shortly after the explosive launch of early games like Dungeons and Dragons and Runequest. Innovative for the time period it featured such specific rules as classifications for differing types of super heroes, melee rules unique to super heroes, a ranged combat system, point based character construction, and eventually a comprehensive defined list of super powers.
Checker BPG is a graphic novel publisher that published nearly one hundred graphic novels from 2001 to 2013. Checker BPG launched titles with such high profile licenses as Star Trek, X-Files, Flash Gordon, and Clive Barker to name a few. The publisher put the company on hiatus after the death of his fiancé, father, uncle, and the cancer diagnosis of his sister in 2015.
"Our goal is to upgrade the entire system and game to be the pinnacle of super hero gaming", said Publisher Mark Thompson." Superhero 2044 is one of the fondest memories of games from my childhood. Super heroes dominate every entertainment medium from toys, movies, television, comic books, and video games. " ,"We feel this genre is underserved currently within the industry".
Industry legend Lou Zocchi will continue to serve as an advisor on the game.
The company plans a Kickstarter program to launch the newly revamped role playing games as well as a Super Hero 2044 themed card game.
More information can be found here: //www.checkerbpg.com
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Unfortunately if the goal is to "upgrade the system," it makes me wonder why they bothered to acquire the rights instead of just making a new game. It's not like Superhero 2044 has a lot of name recognition. If I'm going to buy Superhero 2044, I want to get Superhero 2044, not some rewrite using the same name. What a lost opportunity. I hope they make a good game, though.
Quote from: Dumarest;967760Unfortunately if the goal is to "upgrade the system," it makes me wonder why they bothered to acquire the rights instead of just making a new game. It's not like Superhero 2044 has a lot of name recognition. If I'm going to buy Superhero 2044, I want to get Superhero 2044, not some rewrite using the same name. What a lost opportunity. I hope they make a good game, though.
Thanks for the post! We chose Superhero: 2044 because it had innovative rules that were replicated and built upon throughout most if not all super hero themed games that came afterward. Mutants and Masterminds even calls their fictional super hero team 'The Freedom League' too. Ironically , one of the most important game components was an aspect not copied by other games. This structural aspect is a bedrock for the goal of making a super hero theme functional. We have several interviews with industry journalists as well as play test sessions which will have videos on you tube which will demonstrate where we are going with the original rule set. Hope this helps.
I'll certainly be interested in seeing what it turns out to be. I've always wanted to see Superhero 2044.
[Q&A] #rpgnet welcomes Steve Perrin (Superhero: 2044) 07/14/2017 8:30 p.m. CDT!
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