Saturday, June 19, 2021

Some Big Picture Thinking


I have a rough outline for the next couple of steps, including a 'business plan' such as it is:

The core rules (32 pages) in glorious full color is released in PDF on July 1. A print edition follows shortly.

The month of July updates the archive of Doc Stalwart's comics, with an update a day (a profile like the one I did for the Twilight Archer introduction).  It's a brief overview of a single issue from the series, with the main characters, plot, and important contributions to the larger Doc Stalwart story.

July 1 also sees a cleanup/refreshing of the blog. I'm going to use the blog as the central clearinghouse for game support. I like working in the blog, and I like how things are formatted and organized. I think I can maximize some of its features and put everything here; there would be links to resources such as:

  • Links to the store (of course).
  • Links to a character sheet. I would like to put a character sheet in the core rules; but I cannot really justify giving a full page (of my 32 precious pages) to something with so much white space. Plus, I'd like to drive some traffic to the blog; if people need to come here to download a character sheet, that's a win for building awareness and a stronger player base.
  • The issue archive: individual write-ups for all 250 issues of Mighty Doc Stalwart (and the 17 issues of The Amazing Adventures of Doc Stalwart) will eventually be archived. July will give me a head start on putting together a decent foundation (getting over 30 issues into the archive).
  • New Doc Stalwart stories (starting with Issue 251). I will clean up and re-release the existing three issues, and I should have at least issues 254 and 255 ready by then. I've figured out how the first arc works and what the larger story is here; it all ties together quite neatly, and sets Doc up for the next phase going forward. Spoiler alert: not every current character will survive!

September sees the release of the Official Handbook of the Stalwart Age, Volume 1. This is a compendium of characters, items, and locations from the comic series. These would largely reference the first 250 issues, drawing connections back to the archive pages published throughout July. (This might be pie in the sky to get this done in two months. I may have to go later... we'll see how summer goes) 

November (again, maybe a bit ambitious... we'll see how the fall goes) sees the release of The Citadel of Tomorrow. This expands the game in all directions, exploring the various sub-genres within comics, including rules for such things as supernatural, mythology, time travel, machines... the greatest hits are here.  

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