Mayfairstivus: Celebrating The Mayfair DC Heroes Role Playing Game

I am thrilled to have Supergirl Comic Box Commentary participating in another blog crossover dreamed up by social media and comic book guru Frank Lee Delano. Frank  put together the DC Challenge crossover back in February of this year (which I loved) and maintains many fantastic blogs that I enjoy visiting (including the Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, JLA, Atom, and Bloodlines blogs linked below).

This time, Frank thought it would be great to celebrate Mayfairstivus, a holiday celebration of the Mayfair DC Heroes role playing game from the 1980s. And so a number of DC comic related blogs will be running DC heroes posts during this early holiday period. I was more than happy to jump on board because I love this game.

Back in the late 80s and early 90s I was in college and played this game. We started out with the first version of the game and then graduated to V2.0 when that was released. I played Wildfire from the Legion and had an absolute blast. Because of the makeup of the team, I downplayed Wildfire's energy blasts and made him more the muscle of the team.  The rest of the team included Guy Gardner and 2 player-created characters - an energy blaster and a telepath.

The second version of the game came out in 1989 and included some nifty character cards so you could keep stats handy. I'll be showing Superman and Lex Luthor.  The game needed to revamp some rules. For one, this was post-Byrne's Man of Steel. Since Superman was depowered, everyone's numbers needed to go down.

So Superman's strength which had been 50 in the first version was suddenly shrunk down to 25. Remember Byrne's Superman wasn't the planet-thrower of the pre-Crisis days. Since Superman is DC's strongest character, everyone else's strength and numbers needed to be diminished as well.

One thing I loved about the game was the concept of hero points. You could subtract some hero points from your total and add them to one of your attributes for one round. So, for example, I could subtract 10 from Superman's 200 hero points and make my strength 35 for one round. In this way, you could overcome greater powers with timely additions. The 'Game Master' would reward hero points after each session (sort of the experience points of this game).

This release was 2+ years into the Byrne continuity. So here we see the Lex has his bionic hand (remember the Kryptonite ring gave him cancer, requiring his hand to be amputated).

It love that Luthor is more intelligent than Superman. That's the way it was back then.

Playing these 'no powers' guys was always tricky when facing off against super-powered brutes. But there is more than just raw stats. He has some skills he brings to the table.

To pass the time, we would occasionally shuffle the cards, split the deck in half, and play a modified version of 'war'. It was always funny when it would be a Darkseid vs Robin matchup. But sometimes it would lead to some good comic discussions ... Blue Beetle vs Night Owl, etc.

Thanks again to Frank for putting this celebration together! It really was a walk down memory lane for me. I am going to have another Mayfairstivus soon ... including Supergirl's stats from Version 1.0! Stay tuned!

The blogs below are joining in the Mayfairstivus celebration and are fantastic! So please visit them as well.

The Anti-Didio League of America
The Aquaman Shrine
Booster Gold:BOO$TERRIFIC
Comic Make Me Happy
The Continuity Blog


DC Bloodlines 
Diana Prince as The New Wonder Woman
Doom Patrol:My Greatest Adventure #80
Firestorm Fan

Flash: Speed Force
Girls Gone Geek
Green Lantern Corps: The Indigo Tribe
Hawkman:Being Carter Hall 
Justice League Detroit
Martian Manhunter vs. The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Once Upon A Geek
Power of the Atom
Subject: Suicide Squad [Task Force X]