HISTORY

Starting up a new DC Universe-based superhero game, the big question was what would the campaign universe look like?

This was not a simple nor even a single question. Since the original DC Heroes campaign had ended, DC Comics had rebooted their comics universe several times. So should I try to set the new game in the current iteration of the DC Universe, or more accurately in the Earth Prime universe of the Multiverse / Omniverse? The answer to that question was "no". I had not been a fan of Flashpoint and the New 52 reboot that followed. Also, I knew I wanted this new campaign to include the history of the old, which was itself fairly intertwined with the DC continuity that the New 52 had casually tossed aside. With no desire to try and reboot my own campaign continuity that was one decision out of the way.

This led to the next set of questions. What would the reopened campaign universe look like? Should it pick up where it left off, or should I advance the timeline? If I advance the timeline then how far, and what events would have transpired in between the end of the last campaign and the starting point for the new one?

It turned out I had some answers already. Back when DC rebooted their comics universe in the New 52 I had come up with a "what I would have done" concept, outlining a framework of story ideas that would, crucially, have involved not throwing out the majority of existing DC continuity. I dug out those notes and decided they would serve as the kernel of what I had decided to call DC Heroes Rebirth.

The Rebirth campaign would be set a few years (in-game time) after the end of the last DC Heroes campaign. The timeline would follow the main DC Comics timeline from the point the last game ended up to just before Flashpoint and the New 52 reboot, after which things would follow a new timeline based loosely on the "what I would have done" concept. There would be changes to what was outlined in the original idea, of course, and I'm not above cherry picking some post-New 52 DC Comics storylines, plots and character developments and adapting them to this new timeline.

Campaign History

The official history for the DC Heroes Rebirth campaign world is a mix of post-Crisis, post-Zero Hour, and post-Infinite Crisis. Some origins, especially the trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, mostly follow their post-Crisis versions, though Wonder Woman’s follows the post-Infinite Crisis timing and takes place in Year 1 rather than coincident with Legends. Certain later retcons to the broader history of the DC Universe are also ignored in favor of the ones that would have been in place when my original DC Heroes campaign was active. The Timeline for the Modern Age of Heroes, from Year 1 onward, also closely follows the one used during the later years of my old DC Heroes game, though some events may skew earlier or later than presented in the material from that game.

Starting with Flashpoint the timeline diverges from the mainstream DC Comics continuity, with the Flashpoint itself being a different story and no reboot into the New 52 happening. The timeline continues on from there resulting in the setting for this new campaign. The History timeline gives the full history of the DC Heroes Rebirth Universe setting from the Big Bang to the start of the new campaign. Other timelines will help fill in events tied to elements of the old DC Heroes game for the roughly six-year (in-game) gap in time between the end of that campaign and the start of the new one.

The Flashpoint and forward portions of the History timeline will include events with names familiar to DC Comics readers, though how these events play out in the DC Heroes Rebirth universe will not be the same as the original comics. Descriptions of these alternate events are presented as the Divergent Series.