Hellboy is being turned into an RPG, Kickstarter this summer
B.P.RPG
Comic book series Hellboy is being turned into a tabletop RPG with a Kickstarter campaign launching later this summer.
Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game is the adaptation of the long-running Dark Horse comic series from Mantic Games, the publisher behind last year’s Hellboy: The Board Game.
While the upcoming RPG is a standalone release, it’s powered by the Dungeons & Dragons 5E system. The gameplay has been designed by Marc Langworthy of Red Scar Publishing, who has credits on RPGs including Mutant Chronicles, Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD and Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of.
Like the Hellboy board game, the Hellboy RPG will draw directly from Mike Mignola’s comic about the big red half-demon with an affinity for punching Nazis, rather than the various film adaptations of the universe. Players’ characters will be members of the B.R.P.D. - the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense - and investigate various supernatural goings-on as part of standalone scenarios or a campaign, referred to as a chronicle.
Options for character archetypes include field researchers, security agents, medics, team leaders and more, while characters’ backgrounds can see them knowledgeable of the occult or even possessed of supernatural powers of their own. It’s not yet been revealed if the Right Hand of Doom (or an equivalent) will be something the players can wield for themselves.
Miniatures from the Hellboy board game will be compatible with the new RPG. The core box included B.R.P.D. agents Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman and Johann Kraus facing off against major villain Rasputin and was followed by a number of expansions, including adaptations of the comics’ Hellboy in Mexico and The Wild Hunt arcs.
This isn’t the first tabletop RPG based on the Hellboy series. The snappily-named Hellboy Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game was released by Steve Jackson Games in 2002, based on the rules of setting-less RPG GURPS. The game has since gone out of print.
Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game will launch on Kickstarter later this summer, ahead of an unannounced release date. A free quickstart for the RPG will be available alongside the campaign, featuring six pre-made characters, the game’s rules and an adventure based on the graphic novels.