Mayfairstivus Day 1 - Remembering the Game

Mayfairstivus Day 1 – Remembering the Game

Dec 1st, 2010

Welcome to Mayfairstivus! Mayfairstivus is a celebration of Mayfair Games’ DC Heroes Role-Playing Game! This excellent RPG was published by Mayfair from 1985-1993. Today through December 9th we’ll be remembering this outstanding game.

The more observant readers may have noticed that Mayfairstivus happens to coincide with Hanukkah. Good catch. A few of us DC Comics bloggers agreed to use this year’s Hanukkah celebration as an excuse to run a series of posts related to character cards and other items from Mayfair Games’ long-running DC Heroes line. There will be a few different blogs participating, so check the links below for more Mayfairstivus activities (with apologies to the Costanza family). Many thanks go out to mastermind Frank Lee Delano (of the blogs: Martian Manhunter: Idol-Head of Diabolu, Justice League Detroit, Atom: Power of the Atom, Wonder Woman: Diana Prince, DC Bloodlines, and …nurgh…) for suggesting this celebration! Thanks, Frank!

I gotta say, I LOVE this game! I purchased all three editions as they were coming out. While I used this system on-and-off for years, I mostly played while the second edition was the current release. The 1985 and 1989 editions were packaged as box sets, whereas the 1993 edition was a softcover volume. See the covers to all three editions below.

Mayfair Games DC Heroes role-playing game editions

The groups I played with always used our own original characters, but I still picked up quite a few of the sourcebooks and modules. Click the image below to enlarge.

DC helped support the game system with house ads in their comic books. The ad below featuring Firestorm ran in comics cover-dated April 1986. I always liked that Firestorm was labeled as a “Rising Star”. It made me feel like he was definitely going places.

Mayfair Games DC Heroes role-playing game advertisement

If you’ve ever role-played superhero games, then I’m sure you feel there was a “magical” system for you. One that sticks out in your memory as a fantastic game system. Mayfair is that system for me! It wasn’t the game mechanics that I loved, it was more about the products and accessories.

The Mayfairstivus celebration continues at the following blogs! Be sure to check them out throughout the Mayfairstivus celebration.

Finally, here are a few previously published Mayfair-related posts by friends worth checking out too!

Firestorm’s stats from Mayfair’s Who’s Who supplement – FIRESTORM FAN
Firehawk’s stats from Mayfair’s Who’s Who supplement – FIRESTORM FAN
Killer Frost’s stats from the 1989 edition of DC Heroes – FIRESTORM FAN
Blue Devil’s stats from Mayfair’s Who’s Who supplement – ONCE UPON A GEEK
Watchmen’s stats from the Mayfair module Who Watches the Watchmen? – ONCE UPON A GEEK
Superman characters from the 1985 & 1989 DC Heroes editions – FORTRESS OF BAILEYTUDE
Aquaman’s stats from the 1985 DC Heroes edition – THE AQUAMAN SHRINE
Aquaman’s stats from the 1993 DC Heroes edition – THE AQUAMAN SHRINE
Deathstroke the Terminator’s stats from the 1993 DC Heroes edition – POWER OF THE ATOM
Steel’s stats from the 1993 DC Heroes edition – DC BLOODLINES
Wonder Woman’s stats from the 1993 DC Heroes edition – WONDER WOMAN: DIANA PRINCE
Martian Manhunter’s stats from the 1993 DC Heroes edition – IDOL-HEAD OF DIABOLU
Batman’s stats from the 1993 DC Heroes edition – JUSTICE LEAGUE DETROIT
Atlas of the DC Universe – IDOL-HEAD OF DIABOLU
1985 Grenadier Models JLA & Adversaries Miniatures – … NURGH …
Martian Manhunter 1985 Grenadier JLA & Adversaries Miniature – IDOL-HEAD OF DIABOLU
Commentary on the same DC Comics house ad for the Mayfair game that I ran above – NURGH …
Another DC Comics house ad for the Mayfair game featuring the Teen Titans – … NURGH …
Siskoid’s collection of home made stats – DC HEROES – SISKOID’S COLLECTION

Be sure to come back tomorrow when we look at Firestorm from the 1985 edition of the game!

Support Firestorm (and Mayfairstivus)! Fan the flame!

liquidcross says:

December 1, 2010 at 9:12 am

I gotta crackin’ and get my Corps post…well, posted! Once it goes live, is there any chance you could update your post(s) with a permalink?

Shag says:

December 1, 2010 at 10:11 am

Thanks for the kind words! I’ll be updating all my Mayfairstivus posts with permalinks as we move along the celebration.

I look forward to reading yours! And if you want even more Green Lantern scans, let me know. I’ve got a ton of Mayfair stuff.

Firestormfan89 says:

December 1, 2010 at 2:50 pm

Wow! A Mayfairstivus for the rest of us! Merry Mayfairstivus one and all. I must also confess to being a DC Heroes gamer usually finding myself the gamemaster of my friends adventures. I always wanted to play a Firestorm adventure but it seems I am usually designing Gotham City scenarios because my rpg group is hung up on Batman. Our most recent story was eerily similar to the current back up story from ‘tec about Jim Gordon’s son James. In my story, however, Batman was investigating the disappearance of his friend and followed the clues back to Jim’s hometown of Chicago where James was a grad student at Northwestern. His thesis involved experimentation with gold kryptonite from which he was able to extract the unique element Jorelium from the alien world. Needless to say I drew heavily from the Mayfair Superman sourcebook which is not in the photo above but was one of the best books in the set. I also have two Watchmen modules not featured here but nobody ever wanted to play that with me. At the time I guess they were too obscure.

Frank says:

December 1, 2010 at 4:58 pm

Let’s see… I just got the ’89 box, and played off the ’93 book in the late ’90s. Got the Apokolips, Justice League, WWII, and Atlas books, plus the Eternity Inc. & Ambush Bug modules. Also, my own scan of that 1985 Mayfair Games DC Heroes Role Playing Game Ad, and I’ll go you one better with the Titans. Now what I’ve got to do is find which ones of mine you don’t have, so I can extend the joy back to you!