Dungeons & Dragons and Transformers

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Auntie Slag
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Dungeons & Dragons and Transformers

Post by Auntie Slag »

Was Transformers ever intended to have a Dungeons & Dragons element? I was watching a Youtube video recently about an old computer game called ‘Wasteland’ where your characters have seven traits similar to a Transformers tech spec of Strength, Intelligence, Speed, Endurance, Rank, Courage, Firepower and Skill. As far as I’m aware no relevance was ever made of the tech spec's; and only the bio (occasionally) mattered e.g. when describing Track’s attitude to life or Gears being a grumpy sod.

Bob Budianksy wrote the bio’s and tech specs (I think). Was he told by someone at Hasbro that Transformers should have a D&D angle so kids can play their wars with a dice roll? It feels like a plan that was abandoned early on and yet the tech specs remained, but for what reason? Who cares if Cutthroat's courage is one number higher than Rumble's?
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Warcry
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Re: Dungeons & Dragons and Transformers

Post by Warcry »

I have a foggy memory telling me that the tech specs were a Marvel idea. If I'm remembering right, at the time Marvel had trading cards or somesuch of their comic characters that used similar rankings, as a way to help kids/fans (and maybe even writers!) conceptualize whether Spider-Man was stronger than Mr. Sinister, or whether Storm or Thor could create stronger lightning bolts. And I think (based on that same foggy memory) that they brought that idea along when Hasbro asked them to create the bios for the Transformers line. Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

Budiansky is definitely the guy who wrote them...he's shown off the original sheets of paper where he first specced out the 1984 characters a few times.

I loved the tech specs when I was a kid. I saved all of them and I distinctly remember pulling them out sometimes to decide which of my toys would win when I had them fight one another, or decide who was the boss of whichever ragtag team I'd just pulled out of the toybox. It definitely added to the fun of the franchise for me.
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Auntie Slag
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Re: Dungeons & Dragons and Transformers

Post by Auntie Slag »

Yeah, that's really interesting. I loved the tech specs as well. Being shallow all I cared about was who was the strongest; then things started to get a bit foggy when Grimlock and Springer's specs showed they were as strong as Optimus Prime and... Metroplex! And then how much does it matter your strength if you're a crack shot? Why can't Sureshot kill Galvatron?

I remember Top Trumps being massive at the time; we'd play the Hollywood Monster set or the Super cars set etc. And I thought the TF comics were really good at the time for having seemingly outclassed toys take on mega-deluxe toys (Brawn vs. Starscream in 'The Enemy Within') and it being a pretty fair fight.

If they had made Tech specs mean something I think I'd have learnt to appreciated the depth as a kid and bothered to care how teams were mixed; a gunner with a warrior and a spy and medic tactically taking out vicious Decepticons who were about to come marauding down your parents dining room table.

I think that's why I found the Wreckers so cool; they were a seemingly random mix of characters where I couldn't see what the link was. In all other cartoons & comics the '84 cars hung out together, a combiner team would stay glued to each other's sides and the Dinobots; five guys who hate everything, everyone and each other are only ever shown sticking together. Surely tech-spec wise you'd think Cliffjumper would appreciate guys like Sandstorm and Sunstreaker and want to hang out with them
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Denyer
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Re: Dungeons & Dragons and Transformers

Post by Denyer »

Yeah, I think it all tied in with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_ ... l_Universe (copies of the vol 2 version turned up in our biggest local library and were a perennial fascination -- I'd buy the reprints in a heartbeat but they don't seem to be in colour, so scans it is).

I dimly recall other toy lines having similar stats, bios, etc and as already covered Top Trumps was such a big thing back then -- and lots of variations like the Citadel/GW card sets -- they were a good way to gets kids engaged, although as we got older it became more apparent they were being made up with increasingly little thought. The bios were probably more important. But it was all more about direct comparison than dice rolling.
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