Grab Your Bat-Twenty-Sided Die, There’s A Batman RPG In The Works

Holy platonic solids, Batman! There’s an RPG in the works that aims to put you in the shoes of a caped crusader, swinging around Gotham City.

There are plenty of superhero RPGs out there. From HERO to Mutants & Masterminds to DC Heroes, there are plenty of RPGs out there that will give you the experience of donning a cape and tights to fight crime. And many, in fact, will give you the chance to play a character who has vast personal wealth (the best superpower), a cunning intellect, but little in the way of powers. You can be a crusader, caped or otherwise. But no games out there have promised to be a bat-centric RPG. Until now.

This past weekend, French publisher Monolith Edition announced a new Batman RPG: Batman Gotham City Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game. Presumably this is inspired by the board game of the same name, which Monolith also produced, garnering a successful $4.5 million  Kickstarter last year. Take a look at the Announcement:

“Gotham City. This city can do things to people. Change them. I’ve seen it happen too many times. That’s why I’m here. I’ve seen too many people become monsters.”
Batman – Gotham Knights #23 – Here Be Monsters

Let’s celebrate Batman Day by releasing exclusive news from Gotham City! Monolith’s roleplaying game set in the Universe of the Caped Crusader allows you to dive into this imposing city in depth, defending Gotham as a vigilante or a police officer. Remaining true to the essence of Batman, as portrayed in the comic books, was our overriding vision. It’s allowed him to survive 80 years as a Pop Icon, living through multiple media and platform transformations. So, with that goal firmly in our minds we have assembled a team of Batman Universe Masters and roleplaying games Masters to bring you 5 Batastic books.

• Gotham’s Heroes by François Verstraete – A fully adapted D20 System Rulebook –
• Gotham City Guide by Xavier Fournier and Alex Nikolavitch, helped by François Hercouët, editor for the French publisher of DC Comics. A mighty reference tome, detailed and exhaustive, an insight into the City and the world of the Bat.
• Gotham’s Chronicles by Nicolas Texier, Olivier Caïra and Mahyar Shakeri – A book of scenarios to test your resolve.
• And, in order to provide the broadest roleplay experience possible, the remaining 2 books will be Campaign settings revealed during the Kickstarter campaign.

You can play as the city’s well-known vigilantes and criminals, but also your own creations, or face the tough calls and grind as a Gotham City Police Department officer, who have much to be pitied for in a city like Gotham City.

Advertisement

It is an ambitious project and we’re looking forward to telling you more about it. International artists will be illustrating the books and here’s some teaser sketches for Gotham’s Map by Olivier Sanfilippo as well as rough sketches by Anthony Jean. Stunning!

Be sure to subscribe to Monolith for regular updates, coming soon…
We still have to talk about Season 3 of the Batman: Gotham City Chronicles board game, but it can wait until tomorrow, as we celebrate Batman everyday here…

So far, we don’t know much, other than it’s built around “a d20 system”, but no word on whether that means the 3.x d20 system, or some sort of 5E adaptation. We’ll be keeping an eye on this one, folks!

If only there were some kind of signal we could use to let Batman know we’re interested in this game

Author: J.R. Zambrano

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]