City of Heroes Tabletop RPG Announced

The full press release:

Eden Studios, NCsoft and Cryptic Studios Power Up the City of Heroes Roleplaying Game

ALBANY, New York, March 14, 2005 Eden Studios announces today an agreement with Cryptic Studios™ and NCsoft® Corporation for the design and production of the City of Heroes® table-top roleplaying game (RPG), based on the wildly popular comic book inspired massively multiplayer online roleplaying computer game by the same name. The City of Heroes (http://www.cityofheroes.com) computer game released last year to critical acclaim and continues to garner awards for its groundbreaking innovation. The highly anticipated player-versus-player sequel, City of Villains™ is due for release later this year.

(We are very excited about getting the opportunity to produce this super-powered game,) George Vasilakos, President of Eden Studios, announced. (We worked with Jack Emmert, City of Heroes lead designer, on our first roleplaying game, Conspiracy X. His imagination and storytelling have always been tremendous. He and his City of Heroes team have created a rocking good game that has been chewing up most of our free time for over a year now. We plan to translate that experience to the table-top while adding the richness of face-to-face roleplaying.)

(I started my game production career in paper-and-pencil roleplaying,) added Emmert. (It’s a great medium for storytelling and a boat load of fun. I’ve worked with the guys at Eden Studios in the past, and they’ve only gotten better since then with quality licensed games like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Army of Darkness. Their games are great and their production values are second to none. This is a wonderful addition to the City of Heroes franchise.)

The City of Heroes roleplaying table-top game will use a special version of CJ Carella’s Unisystem, Eden’s in-house roleplaying game rules, that captures the highlights of the online experience yet remains compatible with other Unisystem games. Players take the role of super-powered heroes with a full array of power choices. They take the fight to numerous villains, including Circle of Thorns mages, Council thugs, Clockwork robots, Vahzilok zombies, and others popularized in the online game.

The Registration Manual core book will be authored by Eden insider M. Alexander Jurkat, editor of the majority of Eden’s Unisystem game books, designer of the Army of Darkness card game, and author of GURPS Conspiracy X. The core book will be followed by the Paragon City source book, the Monitor’s Support Pack, the Super-powered Operative’s Dossier and other supplements.

More information is coming soon to www.cohrpg.com.

Eden Studios makes cool games. Their latest offering, the Army of Darkness non-collectible card game sold through the first print run in four months. Their licensed roleplaying games, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, received delighted gamers when released in 2002 and 2003, and continue to be strong sellers. All Flesh Must Be Eaten, the zombie survivor horror roleplaying game shambles across roleplayers’ tables world-wide. Eden also produces CJ Carella’s WitchCraft, the roleplaying game of dark secrets and magic, Conspiracy X, the roleplaying game of aliens and government cover-ups, Terra Primate, the roleplaying game of intelligent apes, and Armageddon, the roleplaying game of war and the end of days. On the lighter side, Eden Studios offers HACK!, a humorous card game based on the Knights of the Dinner TableTM comic book by Kenzer and Company, and Abduction, the fast and furious card game of alien abduction. Check out all the Eden Studios products at www.edenstudios.net.

About Cryptic Studios

Cryptic Studios, Inc., located in Los Gatos, California, was established in July of 2000 and is an independent developer of massively multiplayer online games for the PC and next generation consoles. Its first game, City of Heroes, launched in April 2004. The game takes place in a virtual world where thousands of people play simultaneously, take on the role of super-powered heroes, fight villains and help create a dynamic story in a visually-stunning, 3-D graphical world.

About NCsoft North America

NCsoft – North America (NC-NA) is headquartered in Austin, Texas and is part of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation. NC-NA, with development and administrative offices in Texas and California, launched two ground-breaking titles in the first half of 2004, Lineage® II and City of Heroes. The company also works with NCsoft subsidiaries and third party developers throughout North America to develop and publish innovative online entertainment software products. More information about NCsoft North America can be found at http://www.PlayNC.com.

NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, Lineage and all associated NCsoft logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. City of Heroes and City of Villains are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cryptic Studios, Inc. and NCsoft Corporation. Cryptic Studios is a trademark of Cryptic Studios, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.