Who Watches the Watchmen?

Who Watches the Watchmen?

Cover art
Author	Dan Greenberg
Illustrator	Dave Gibbons
Cover artist	Dave Gibbons John Higgins
Language	English
Series	DC Heroes
Genre	Superhero
Set in	DC Universe
Published	1987
Publisher	Mayfair Games
Media type	Tabletop role-playing game
Pages	32

Who Watches the Watchmen? is an adventure published by Mayfair Games in 1987 for the superhero role-playing game DC Heroes that features the Watchmen.

Plot summary

Who Watches the Watchmen? is an adventure featuring the DC Comics characters from the Watchmen comics, set in an alternate world in 1966, before vigilante activity was made illegal by the Keene Act. The player characters, representing people who have been mulling over whether to become crime fighters, have been summoned by Captain Metropolis following a series of kidnappings of retired superheroes and people associated with them.

Publication history

Mayfair Games published the superhero role-playing game DC Heroes in 1985 under license from DC Comics. Who Watches the Watchmen?, published in 1987 as a 32-page softcover book, was written by Dan Greenberg, with cartography by Jerry O'Malley and Ike Scott, and cover art by John Higgins (color), and Dave Gibbons (sketch, pencils, and inks), who also did the interior illustrations.

Reception

Marcus L. Rowland reviewed Who Watches the Watchmen? for White Dwarf #91, and wrote that "although this isn't the complete Watchmen sourcepack that I would have liked, it's a lot better than some previous DC material. At 32 pages, with moderately large type, it isn't the best value I've seen in roleplaying games. On the other hand, it isn't as disappointing."

In the October 1987 edition of Dragon (issue #126), Ken Rolston initially liked the "intriguing" premise of the setting, and said: "If this were a Watchman source pack, it would be pretty interesting. Unfortunately, it's not — it's just an adventure, and one with a rather thin plot". He noted that players had to use one of the not-very-interesting pregenerated Watchman characters rather than generating their own characters. Speculating that the designers had been "encumbered by restrictions imposed by the established plotlines and characterizations", Rolston did not recommend this product and said that they should read the comic series and skip the licensed role-playing adventure.