Eden Studios has announced an agreement with Cryptic Studios and the NCsoft Corporation for the design and production of the City of Heroes tabletop Role-playing Game (RPG), based on the wildly popular comic book-inspired City of Heroes massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), which boasts over 200,000 subscribers.  Jack Emmert, the lead designer of the City of Heroes MMORPG, worked on Eden Studios' first RPG, Conspiracy X, and was obviously happy to be working with them again, commenting: 'I've worked with the guys at Eden Studios in the past, and they've only gotten better since then with quality licensed games like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Army of Darkness.'

The City of Heroes RPG will use a special version of CJ Carella's Unisystem, Eden's in-house role-playing game rules.  Players will take the role of super-powered heroes with a full array of power choices and will have to take the fight to a gallery of villains from the online game including Circle of Thorns mages, Council thugs, Clockwork robots, and Vahzilok zombies.

M. Alexander Jurkat, editor of the majority of Eden's Unisystem game books, designer of the Army of Darkness CCG, and author of GURPS Conspiracy X, will write the City of Heroes Registration Manual, the core volume in the COH RPG. 

The core rulebook will be followed by a number of supplements including the Paragon City source book, the Monitor's Support Pack, and the Super-powered Operative's Dossier.

A Federal Judge recently dismissed several key claims in a lawsuit brought by Marvel against NCSoft and Cryptic Studios (see 'Marvel Sues Over City of Heroes').  The judge dismissed Marvel's claims that the defendants directly infringed Marvel's registered trademarks and are in any way liable for purported infringement of Marvel's trademarks by City of Heroes users.  In addition to the Eden Studios RPG,

Top Cow is publishing a comic book series based on the City of Heroes MMORPG (see 'Top Cow Does City of Heroes').