IDW Games Roars Back With “Godzilla: The Roleplaying Game”

Nick Sampson
5 days ago
4 min read

By Nick Sampson | November 12, 2025

After five years of silence, IDW Games is storming back into the tabletop scene with a project fit for a king... or rather, the King of the Monsters. The publisher has officially announced Godzilla: The Roleplaying Game, the first-ever tabletop RPG set in the world of Godzilla. The game will debut with public playtests later this month and a Kickstarter campaign scheduled for March 2026.

The Return of IDW Games

According to License Global and GamesRadar, the new RPG marks IDW Games’ first original release in over half a decade. It will also serve as a flagship product for the publisher’s revived gaming division, drawing heavily from IDW’s ongoing “Kai-Sei Era” of Godzilla comics.

Players will reportedly take on the roles of human operatives from organizations like “G-Force,” charged with protecting Earth from towering kaiju threats. The setting will mirror the tone of IDW’s comic universe, where cities crumble, governments scramble, and humanity faces impossible odds against monsters of mythic scale.

Cards, Not Dice

In a departure from typical tabletop RPG conventions, Godzilla: The Roleplaying Game will not use dice at all. Instead, its mechanics rely on a standard 52-card deck for conflict resolution. Co-designer Jervis Johnson, a veteran of the Warhammer franchise, said this system allowed the team to “include a number of novel game mechanics” that would not have been possible with dice.

“I’ve had a soft spot for Godzilla ever since I was about eight years old and my mum took me to see Son of Godzilla,” Johnson said in an interview. “I liked it so much I made her stay at the cinema so I could watch the film a second time.”

The Dream Team Behind the Design

The design trio of Jervis Johnson, Mark A. Latham, and Gav Thorpe brings decades of combined experience to the project. Latham described the collaboration as “getting the band back together,” noting that the team was given “total freedom in developing a new system that fits the G-Force era and encourages immersive storytelling.”

Thorpe added that it was “a privilege to work on a setting as iconic as Godzilla,” and promised that the system would be “fun, intuitive and rewarding for teamwork.”

Playtests and Kickstarter Plans

Playtests are scheduled for PAX Unplugged 2025, running November 21–23 in Philadelphia. Attendees will have a chance to preview the system firsthand and pick up limited-edition merchandise, including branded playmats, notebooks, and card decks.

The Kickstarter campaign is planned to launch in March 2026, with fulfillment currently targeted for Fall 2026. IDW Games has hinted at exclusive backer rewards, limited-edition art, and collector-friendly components.

What We Know and What We Don’t

At present, details about the game’s mechanics remain tightly guarded. IDW has confirmed the use of playing cards but not how suits or values influence gameplay. Similarly, it is not yet clear whether players will ever take control of kaiju directly or remain on the human side of the conflict.

The development team has emphasized narrative depth and team-based play, suggesting that the system may prioritize storytelling and tactical cooperation over traditional number-crunching mechanics.

Speculation: How the System Might Work

While IDW has not released official rules, tabletop design trends suggest several possibilities. It is plausible that suits could correspond to different action types, such as Hearts for social interactions or Clubs for combat, while card values could determine success or failure. Some systems using similar mechanics employ deck-building or evolving “threat decks,” which could fit the escalating destruction of a kaiju battle.

Given the creative pedigree behind the project, it is also reasonable to expect a hybrid approach that blends narrative RPG storytelling with elements of tactical wargaming. However, none of these mechanics have been confirmed by IDW, and all such interpretations should be treated as speculation until playtest reports or preview materials are released.

A Major Moment for Kaiju and Tabletop Fans

For fans of Godzilla, this RPG represents the most expansive foray yet into interactive storytelling within the kaiju universe. For tabletop enthusiasts, it may signal a fresh wave of innovation within a space often dominated by dice-based systems.

With playtests imminent and a Kickstarter launch just months away, Godzilla: The Roleplaying Game is shaping up to be one of 2026’s most anticipated tabletop releases. Whether it succeeds in capturing the terror and awe of the world’s most famous monster remains to be seen, but the thunderous return of IDW Games has already sent ripples through the hobby community.

Sources: GamesRadar, License Global, KaijuUnited, GamingTrend, Mojo Nation, Licensing International l