Golden Heroes

Golden Heroes

Designers	Simon Burley, Peter Haines
Publishers	Games Workshop
Publication	1982 (amateur) 1984 (Games Workshop)
Genres	Superhero fiction
Systems	Custom

Golden Heroes is a superhero role-playing game that was originally written and published on an amateur basis in 1982. Games Workshop then published a more complete version in 1984. It was written by Simon Burley and Peter Haines and was illustrated by a group of artists who were working for 2000 AD at the time.

Description

The game was published in a box, the rules books features fake bar codes and Comics Code approval badges.

The character generation system is a combination of random rolling and design. Players roll some random superpowers which they can the customise and develop in various ways to create a character they want to play. A character can only keep their full set of powers if they can justify them all in a plausible origins story.

The system really strives to recreate comics, with the actions occurring in "frames" and a lot of classic comics assumptions being written into the rules. Characters are "rated" after each game and are more likely to succeed in future games if they behave in ways consistent with ComicBook tropes.

One of the original authors of the game has since revisited the genre and issued a new game - informed by the same aesthetic - called Squadron UK. http://squadronuk.co.uk/

Publication history

Golden Heroes was published by Games Workshop in 1984.

Reception

Golden Heroes was ranked 41st in the 1996 reader poll of Arcane magazine to determine the 50 most popular roleplaying games of all time. The UK magazine's editor Paul Pettengale commented: "The gameplay reflects a refined approach to the superhero genre, and roleplaying tends to take priority over combat."