Smallville RPG published by Margaret Weis Productions

Over at DriveThru RPG you can now buy the PDF version of the Smallville RPG.

Margaret Weis Productions has the license for the game – they seem to do well at pitching and winning for this sort of license – and the 192-page, full-colour, hardcover rulebook is expected to be out in August 2010. That hardcover will set you back about $40 and that’s pretty usual for RPGs these days. The PDF version, however, is going for just $19.99. That’s either the launch price or will be the PDF price.

I imagine this was a hard RPG to write. Some of the possible audience may be new to traditional RPGs. Super powers make character creation a little longer. Super powers make the task of the GM all that much harder.

Even for experienced players there’s the challenge that the Smallville setting is defined by the TV/comic book characters. It may feel wrong to play those on the table top (who gets to play Clark, for example?) and it may not feel like Smallville without them.

The mechanics that Margaret Weis Productions is an updated version of Cortex System called Cortex Plus. People familiar with the Serenity RPG will have a head start at picking the rules up as ther is a large overlap.

This shouldn’t be a single hit book either. The Smallville High School Yearbook and The Watchtower Report are due out in October and December.