Watch Well Games #74
Special 5th Friday edition
Welcome to our community newsletter!
Today we’ve got:
A fun retro review by Wazza’s Whimsical Wanderings for the 1980s Golden Heroes from Games Workshop.
And did someone say … special discounts? Check out “What’s Up, K.J.?”
🤔What’s Up, K.J.?
by K.J. Montgomery
What was meant to be a celebration … turned out to be a disappointment. DTRPG had a bug in its system, causing our first-ever zine (released late Nov. 2025) to be incorrectly labelled as AI (rest assured, it’s 100% human-made). As a result, most folks didn’t even see the listing. All is well now, but our team worked incredibly hard on this. It’s on sale at 30% off, and I’ve included a very special discount here for YOU so it’s at 35% off! (Both offers expire February 16th.)
There’s also a bundle with the zine and loads of other content you can grab up if you’d like to support us indie creators.
(If you prefer to support us indie creators further (as DTRPG takes a 35% cut), it’s available on itch-io (who takes 0%). Enjoy 40% off until the end of January.
A free 31-page preview is available on both DTRPG and itch-io. Thank you so much for your support 🤍
Would you like us to run a free game from one of the zine’s adventures for your online gaming group?
Land of Eem Play-Through Report Continues Feb. 13th
…and with it, I aim to have the video review for the physical version of the deluxe box set ready for you to enjoy! If you missed the start of my Land of Eem play-through report, you can check it out here. I included footnotes to help you learn more about the game. NOTE: The post contains spoilers from the starting adventure from the rulebook.
In the meantime, here’s some fan art I made to connect with the game a bit more.
🎲 A Retro Wayback Review: Golden Heroes
by Warren Davidson (Wazza)
In February 1985 I was reading a review of a game called Golden Heroes published by Games Workshop in Issue 62 of White Dwarf Magazine, my only source of RPG news at that time. I was intrigued as here was a superheroic roleplaying game from a UK centric rather than a US viewpoint. Ironically this game was designed to be the official Marvel Superheroes RPG until it was pipped to the post by TSR who released their own Marvel game at around the same time.
The game came in a box comprising a 56-page Players book and an 84-page Supervisors (read GM) book and several dice all for the princely sum of £8.95! Both books had striking cover art and copious black-and-white illustrations from the leading British comic book artists of the day such as Alan Moore who famously drew Captain Britain. The game featured a fast character generation system where players randomly rolled values for their four abilities of Strength, Dexterity, Vigour, and Ego and between 5 and 10 superpowers. These included the standard super-strength, speed, flight and x-ray vision to martial arts, magic, psionics and claws (snikt!) Some powers had multiple grades which provided increased damage output and abilities, such as pugilism where a hero could deliver a Sunday punch accompanied by the immortal phrase “It’s clobberin’ time!” The random nature of super-power generation could lead to some bizarre combinations and the fun part was the player was expected to come up with the rationale behind them.
Hit points were divided into Hits-to-Kill (HTK) and Hits-to-Coma (HTC) with heroes encouraged to knock out the bad guys rather than killing them, which is perfectly in keeping with the sentiments of comics at the time. Combat was fast and fluid with heroes operating within a four-frame pattern named after the panels in comic books. A straightforward attack would take one-frame while a magic attack might take two and those with super-speed could act in half-frames. It was an innovative system and simulated the back-and-forth slugfest of comics well. There were additional systems for handling, parrying, dodging and throwing heavy objects such as cars and trucks, standing firm against attacks and punching through brick walls. Those heroes with tough skin or armour such as Iron man had damage dividers which reduced damage on a fractional basis, it worked as you always took some damage no matter how tough you were. There were no skills as such, rather your hero would have an advantageous background such as brilliant scientist, an immortal or a rich industrialist and it was up to the supervisor how to interpret their use in-game. The players book also included a small variety of weapons on the assumption that heroes rarely use such devices, and an extensive section on campaign play which was very much how the game was meant to be played. Powers were improved through campaign development during your heroes downtime when they weren’t flying around in spandex saving the city. There were a total of 15 campaign ratings such as public relations, heroism and conscience. It made for an intriguing and thought-provoking campaign backdrop with heroes expected to uphold moral principles as well as punching bad guys. The players book ended with a write up of all the superpowers and then it was onto the supervisors book.
This featured further advice on character creation and a more detailed look at the combat system. Super powers were laid out from a supervisors standpoint and scenario and campaign creation were extensively covered. The Villains and Vandals section presented 20 supervillains for your heroes to knock heads with and finally a short starter scenario entitled “crossfire” which featured an alien princess, bad-guy aliens, an alien superhero team and a final showdown in a stone circle with a starship.
Unfortunately Golden Heroes was to be fairly short-lived with only a handful of supplements published for it, namely Legacy of Eagles an adventure where the PCs learn the gruesome fate of a team of superheroes from the 1960s in their undersea base, and Queen Victoria and the Holy Grail where the a cryogenically frozen empress of India sends the heroes on a mission to stop the evil schemes of Morgana le Fey! There was also a supervisors pack which included a GM screen, a pad of character sheets and some cardboard cutout figures for heroes, villains and NPCs. There was a smattering of articles and adventures printed in the pages of White Dwarf magazine but, unfortunately, the game soon disappeared into obscurity. A shame as it was, and still is my favorite Superhero RPG, which provided many hours of unadulterated cape-wearing fun. So if you see a copy on eBay for a reasonable price I certainly recommend picking it up. Excelsior!
✍️ K.J.’s notes:
When you look at the Wikipedia article for Golden Heroes, you’ll notice this image. This is the games’ first version. “It was written by a couple of students [Simon Burley and Peter Haines] in Birmingham, England and had an extremely limited amateur release before being hawked around the major publishing houses.”
Let’s then compare this to the front cover art after Games Workshop picks it up (via GW’s Fandom page).
I always appreciate seeing the starting point of creations, especially when you see the project’s iterations over time. It’s inspiring to see that it’s okay to start simple - just start already! 🤍
What are you starting to create? What do you want to begin making?
That’s a wrap! And remember:
Spiky coat. Tiny nose. In the cold, I take a doze. Sharp armor. Tight round ball. Watch your step, for I’m quite small. 🦔
Thanks for reading Watch Well Games. Newsletters are free and drop every 2nd and 4th Friday, with special 5th Friday issues like this one.