DC Comics dabbled into the tabletop role-playing games (RPG from now on) three times in all its existence, being Mayfair Games in 1985 the first to claim for DC Comics a piece of the pie from the fast growing superhero RPG market. While the RPG market for the fantasy genre was growing at a good pace in the late 70's, the market for the superhero genre started slowly with precursors such as "Villain and Vigilantes" (1979), "Supergame" (1980), "Champions (1981)" but it was in 1984 when the market was fueled with the addition of the first licensed RPG "Marvel Superheroes". The money was there to be collected so immediately Mayfair secured the rights for the use of the DC Universe and released "DC Heroes RPG".
For many DC fans who also are RPG players and for a lot of RPG critics, this has been the best game ever created with DC properties, the reason?, the game's system that later was known as MEGS (Mayfair Exponential Game System). The term "system" in the context of RPG refers to the rules used to resolve the different actions inside the game and unlike the Marvel RPG, this system was deeper and more intricate but even kept a low learning curve so children did not have any problem to learn it and play alongside older players, however the box recommends 11 as the minimum age to play (an advertisement reduces to 10 the minimum age).
Marvel Superheroes RPG's system and many other out-of-print systems published through the last four decades have been preserved to the public domain thanks to the retro-clone movement, the Mayfair exponential game system, in the other hand, has remained very difficult to clone since his complexity is such it would be a headache to present the rules in a way you do not infringe copyright law as RPG cloning takes advantage of the fact you cannot copyright game rules but only the way you present them.
The DC Heroes RPG could be considered the golden age of RPG set in the DC Universe, not only for all the years the game ruled (1985-1997) being polished through three editions but for the plethora of sourcebooks and supplements published for the game. DC Heroes was moreover the only RPG that gave Metamorpho full exposure as he was included in several books (although he was not featured in any of the three editions of the core book).
If you are in the Metamorpho completionism wagon you could be interested in collecting these books:
Batman Sourcebook
Among Batman allies, the Outsiders are listed with an entry for every member of the team, the entry for Metamorpho declares he is the most powerful member of the team. In the skill list, the entry endow a score 6 for the skill Charisma which allows a character to intimidate, interrogate or persuade, this score equals those of the Green Lantern's but is lower than others (Changeling 7, Joker 10, Darkseid 15, Superman 20, Bother Blood 20) which makes me think most of the scores assigned to stats are arbitrary.
Come on down!
An adventure module totally dedicated to the Justice League Europe. Metamorpho is on the cover alongside other members of the team.
Lights, camera... Kobra.
An adventure module conceived for the players to role-play members of the Outsiders. The book comes with stats and role-playing notes for every member of the team and the players choose one to embark into the adventure. The cover features a colorful elongating Metamorpho.
Justice League Sourcebook
Rex is part of the cover among a bunch of members of both branches for the time: America and Europe/International. The entry for Metamorpho is perhaps the most complete in the whole line as it describes extensively his background and personality, including some reference comic-books as endnotes.
Who's Who #1: Backgrounds of Characters and Places #1
Contains the stats block for Metamorpho and a detailed drawing of the Orb of Ra. There is a complete list of appearances up to publication date at the time, the book considers all pre-crisis appearances of Metamorpho (and all other characters) out of continuity.
Who's Who #3: Backgrounds of Characters and Places #3
Contains the stats block for Element Girl with the observation she is deceased. The entry also includes a map of her apartment.
The icing on the cake for this legendary RPG was the metal miniatures Mayfair sold in 10-piece sets according to teams and their adversaries for the players to use as tokens to represent their characters on the gaming table. Between 1985 and 1989 were produced six different sets featuring the Justice League, the Legion of Superheroes, the Teen Titans, the Watchmen, Batman vs. Joker (for the Batman RPG using the same rules) and the Outsiders (#6504), this last including Metamorpho.
No other RPG based on DC properties could reach such a "cult" status this one reached, the amount of material created for this game and that you can find on the Internet could have you and your gaming group playing for years. My only complaint with this game is there are not stats for Metamorpho's supporting cast other than Element Girl.
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