Judge Dredd: The Role-Playing Game

Judge Dredd: The Role-Playing Game

Cover of Boxed Set
Designer(s) Marc Gascoigne and Rick Priestley
Publisher(s) Games Workshop
Publication date 1985
Genre(s) Science fiction
System(s) Custom

Judge Dredd: The Role-Playing Game is a role-playing game published by Games Workshop in 1985.

Description

Judge Dredd: The Role-Playing Game, was published under license by Games Workshop in the 1980s and used a rules system created specifically for the game, which resembled GW's Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Players create a starting character by rolling eight Characteristics: Strength (S), Initiative (I), Combat Skill (CS), Drive Skill (DS), Technical Skill (TS), Street Skill (SS), Medical Skill (MS), and Psi Skill (PSI). Strength is rolled on a table using a 10-sided die and is a value rated from 2 to 4: 2 is "Average" (1-6, or 60%), 3 is "Strong" (7-9, or 30%), and 4 is "Very Strong" (10, or 10%); this stat also doubles as the character's Hit Points. The other stats are derived by rolling two 10-sided dice and adding 20 points, generating a result between 22 and 40; there is a maximum of 100 points in each Characteristic. A character who rolls a starting score of 30 or more in a Characteristic starts play with a Special Ability (like Quick Draw Lawgiver Pistol or Jump Lawmaster Cycle) and gain an additional one per every 10 points above 30. Characters who score a natural or enhanced 40 or more in the Technical, Medical or Psi Skills may start as Specialist Tech-, Med-, or PSI-Judges and gain unique Special Abilities.

The box set rules came with a Game Master's Book (game rules and background data), a Judge's Book (player's manual), 2 maps and a set of cardboard figure sheets, and a set of five polyhedral dice (one each of 4-, 6-, 8-, 10- and 12-sided dies). The Judge's Companion (1987), featuring artwork of PSI-Judge Anderson on the cover, was a rules expansion and adventure anthology that came in softcover and hardcover editions. The later hardbound edition of the Judge Dredd rulebook (1989) combined the Game Master and Judge's Books into one volume and added some content from the Judge's Companion.

Games Workshop stopped making and supporting the game system in 1992 and dropped it from their catalogue. They later lost the license to the property in 1995 and had to destroy all non-sold stock in their warehouse.

Support

Games Workshop also published a Judge Dredd / Warhammer 40,000 map expansion detailing a housing block called Citi-Block, and another set in Mega City 1 based on the "Block War" storyline called Block Mania.

Their in-house gaming magazine, White Dwarf featured articles and adventures for the RPG. They also published a rules supplement and sold limited-edition themed miniatures for their Blood Bowl game (a fantasy version of American football) which included a team of Judges and a team of Fatties.

Additional material for the RPG included the adventures Judgement Day and Slaughter Margin.[1] Judgement Day concerned a plot by traitors and brainwashed sleeper agents both within and outside the Justice Department to destroy Mega City One. The Judges have to find them before they release a weaponized virus that was made immune to current treatment. Slaughter Margin's plot was about a cell of Nippon City survivors avenging the destruction of their Megacity during President Booth's Atomic War by nuking Mega City One in retaliation. The Judges have to work with Judges from Hondo City before the terrorists set off their bombs.

Games Workshop also produced a range of licensed figures for the setting. Citadel Miniatures made Judge Dredd figures and sold them in 3-piece blister packs. Judge Dredd and PSI-Judge Anderson figures came in two-piece "hero" packs featuring them standing or seated on a Lawmaster cycle. A special limited-edition 77-piece box set for use with the Slaughter Margin adventure module was also available for ₤40; many were later reused for their Warhammer 40K line. This was then taken on by Wargames Foundry who continues to produce a range of paints figures for the system.[2][3]

References

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