Watchmen

DC Heroes Role Playing Modules

by Ray Winniger, Dan Greenberg, Dave Gibbons

Watchmen game for the DC Heroes Role-Playing system by Mayfair Games.

Genres: Role Playing Games

40 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Spaghett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ray Winninger's Watchmen: Taking out the Trash is the second of the Watchmen RPG books. These are notable for being the only Watchmen spinoffs to have contributions from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons themselves. The first RPG Module, Who Watches the Watchmen? was apparently written when only the first few issues of the series were out, and while it fits in perfectly fine and does a great job letting you learn more about Captain Metropolis, I think Taking out the Trash is the fuller package. The gamebook has a lot more flavor to it, with a prologue delving into the state of America in it's setting (mentioning the Vietnam war, politics, the release of the movie Space Odyssey). It's clear that with the hindsight of all 12 issues being released, they had a lot more to work off of this time (although there are Spoilers for the original story, so make sure you're already familiar with it!). There's also an 8-page "fold out" with universe timelines and even an essay by Alan Moore and Ray Winninger going into some of the more detailed aspects (basically a prose version of the timeline). This is really intersting because it gives some info (which is presumably canon!) that you might not know from reading just the original comic. Some if it's fairly banal, like birthdates, but there is some interesting stuff in there such as the true identity and fate of Hooded Justice.

Now, this is meant to be played as a tabletop game, and I haven't tried it in that form yet, but the story and plot seem like they'd be fantastic. The game has more encounters and scenarios than the first RPG Book, Comedian gets his own subplot that's played out apart from the other characters, which sort of puts him at odds with them. There's a really cool climactic battle near the end that seems like it would be a lot of fun. While the actions of the main characters are mostly up to the players, and therefore non-canon, we do get some new Rorschach journals that are wonderfully in-character (as opposed to the horrible journals in Before Watchmen: Rorschach, which read like the writings of someone who had never read the book before). The character bios are slightly different from those in the first module, and are worth reading.

There is the occasional small goof that makes you go "huh?" The book mentions that Rorschach was inspired to fight crime after the death of "an associate", as opposed to the death of Kitty Genovese, which it was in the book. They also give Rorschach's name as "Joseph Walter Kovacs" as opposed to "Walter Joseph Kovacs", and Ozymandias's personality is more described like Matthew Goode's portrayal in the film rather than the warm, genial father-figure of the book (though it's probably taking the ending into consideration). I've also noticed that both books do refer to the characters as "The Watchmen" which technically never happens in the book, but hey, I'll roll with it.

Overall, those are small gripes. Taking out the Trash is a fascinating trinket for Watchmen fans. That it was actually sanctioned by Moore and Gibbons is very cool, and it weaves some additional flavor into the Watchmen Universe. If you're just reading it for the sake of curiousity, it's a fun read, and I bet if you actually know how to play DC Heroes it would be an amazing good time with friends. Search for this one if you can!

[Spaghett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never read an RPG gamebook before and I was reading it more to see how the story unfolded, as opposed to getting the full play experience (though I do want to try it as a game), but this was a fun short read! It's only about 40 pages and you do know the full plot outline before reading the specifics, but it's really interesting to see how everything unfolds and fits together. These RPG books were the only Watchmen Spinoffs approved by Moore and Gibbons, so if you want a canon look into some details of Captain Metropolis and his life, this is a great read. The main characters don't really get anything written specifically for them to do, since that's up the players, but Nelson Gardner's story is fleshed out very well (and some of his more negative traits seem to have influenced some of his portrayal in the "Before Watchmen" series, though I don't know if anyone writing that read this)