Doc's Secret Lab

 How come it's turning out that some of the things I'm doing here at the back end to 'fill out the KS' are ending up as some of my favorite parts of the whole thing? I present to you Doc's Secret Lab...

Thoughts of KS and Marvel

The Kickstarter campaign is just about 3 days from the end, and we're nearing 250% of the funding goal, which is awesome. As we near the end, I'm reflecting a bit on some fundamental things about my aesthetic and approach, and how/why I am where I am.

I have had the wonderful opportunity to reconnect with some college friends and play the Marvel Multiverse RPG once a week. We're meeting again tonight, and I'll keep playing Skye Stalwart as adapted to a rank 2 hero in that game world. The game did a pretty good job of allowing me to play Skye as she is - her basic abilities are all about where I see them, and she's pretty capable. She lifted a car. She was able to knock out several bank robbers in a round. She can fly pretty quickly from one point to another. 

But... she's got a list of things she can do. When she attacks, she can use a few different very specific tactics that have very specific mechanical benefits and requirements. If and when she gets more powerful, she will unlock some new tactics and abilities that will give her more options. However, if I decide I want her to do something that isn't clearly delineated by one of those things - and they are pretty solid, so there are good strategic options each round - it is murky to me. Maybe it's not as murky as it feels right now.

Now, I'm only a session in, and I've only read the briefest selection of rules, but I can tell you how it feels to play. It feels like a game. Which it is. That's reasonable; it is a game that feels like a game and works like a game should work. It's a good game. Maybe it's a great game (I have no idea). But it is, first and foremost, a game set in the Marvel Universe. 

When I play Stalwart, I don't feel like I'm playing a game. I feel like I'm in a comic. Sometimes, I kind of forget that it's a game, because I don't have to look anything up and I just think of something I want to try and then roll the die for that thing (because there are only five options, it's pretty obvious most of the time which of the dice I should use), and then see if it worked, and how well. And then I keep going, moving through the comic. I don't pause to read about my strategic options and deliberate over whether to activate my 'haymaker' or 'hail of blows' or 'shock and awe' or whatever other title I decide to give this particular mechanical nuance. I just decide to do something cool - maybe something I've never thought of before - and just go for it.

The last few weeks have shown me, that out of everything about Stalwart as a game, I'm most proud of how intuitive it is, and how well it gets out of the way of the comic book story. I'm grateful that the Kickstarter has allowed me to share it with so many people.

Turning the Page

I've gone through my page on DriveThruRPG (and will hit itch in a hot minute), and I've taken down the books for Stalwart, and replaced them with the new, improved, super snazzy core rules for Stalwart '85! Thanks to the Kickstarter backers, this book is a pay-what-you-want release, and includes everything you need for ongoing play. The Kickstarter continues until September 11, and you can get you copy of the full rules (160+ pages) in pdf and print, as well as a number of cool, exlusive add-ons and nifttiness. 

Thanks SO MUCH to the backers of the Kickstarter whose support made this project possible. We still have two weeks to go! 

A Herculean Effort

I'm confident that the game you finally get (you know I'm doing a Kickstarter, right?) will have been carefully vetted. 

Today, I spent a decent chunk of time changing the rules for invulnerable and impervious, linking these to power instead of might. My thinking was that this would give greater variety to heroes, since the characters with invulnerability tend to be the big bruisers, and the might/endure combination makes them very powerful with the single stat. However, halfway into the process of initiating this change, I realized that it created all sorts of weirdness - characters who shouldn't have high power ratings suddenly needed them to justify the invulnerability they should have had (and did with the higher might). I'm hitting the point in editing and work on the game where I realize that every change I think about making ends up being a step backward - the design is pretty solid as-is. I keep reminding myself I've been working on this game for decades (in significant ways), and everything I have learned about game design has already been baked into the core system. There isn't a lot I can do 'better' without making foundational changes to the game. It's very, very good at being what it is. I'm going to let it be that.

Also, after drawing Modi yesterday, I decided to draw her Olympian parallel today, the great Prince Heracles. My 'War of the Demigods' storyline is about the children of the elder gods and their efforts to establish a new home as their old ones were dying. Modi was a leader among the Norse gods, and Prince Heracles was a leader among the Olympians. They will both appear in Stalwart '85.

Cataclysm Across the Cosmos

I've been toying with how best to approach the Cataclysm Across the Cosmos storyline for the Kickstarter campaign, and I had a few options for villains or characters who could act as the lynchpin for the whole thing... but none of them worked out just right. Then I came across a discussion of Kid Eternity... and the wheels started turning.

His powers allow him to live for 75 years after the U-Boat accident, but make him virtually omnipotent... and (get this), one of his key powers is the ability to summon any hero he wants! So... as he realizes that his end is nigh, he (subconsciously) starts to let his own reality fall apart, because he wants to 'take everyone he loves with him' into the afterlife. A group of villains opposes him (realizing what he's doing), and tries to steal his powers (led by Baron Doom, I think)... and then he summons heroes from a variety of realities (because the edges of his own have frayed so badly, and things are bleeding over). So... he gets the heroes to fight the villains, but then everyone will realize what's really happening, and then the heroes and villains have to fight him... and then eventually get him to realize that what he's doing is harmful. He's already damaged his own reality too much, so his final act is to allow his own reality to merge with another, before he crosses over into the afterlife.

This gives me my Secret Wars/Crisis On Infinite Earths mash up story, and uses public domain characters to root it all.

Loving it.

A Minor Revelation

As I am tinkering with the layout for Stalwart '85, I had a little bit of a revelation; I wanted the 'core rules' (40-50 pages at the front) to be totally under the Creative Commons License, and the back part of the book (maybe 120 pages) to be my copyrighted material; I realized that if I use the art of public domain characters throughout the first part of the book, and only use my original characters in the back part, I get to have my cake and eat it, too. I've been having a lot of fun playing with the public domain heroes, and adapting them. I particularly enjoyed adapting Moon Girl's Moonship. Here it is!

 

Two Creative Commons Characters for the KS Campaign

I've posted an update to the Kickstarter with two characters who will be in the KS-24 superhero pack (that is released under a Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 4.0 License... these are drawn from the database of Public Domain Super Heroes, but I'm adding my own twist to each of them (and doing my own designs largely). I've got about twenty more to come... (although stretch goals may increase this even further).

The Strange Story of the Startling Comics Company

Some background for the Kickstarter Campaign...

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The Startling Company of Comic Publishers (also called SC Comics) was a relatively minor comics company that started publishing in 1948. They launched a series of romance, war, and western comics, with titles like "Two Hearts", "Patriots in War", and "Wonders of the Wild West". However, when Kirby Jackson was looking for work after his time in World War II, publisher Gordon Richards offered him a job - launch a line of superheroes with his own title, "Startling Comics Presents". 

Running for 57 issues from July of 1951 through March of 1956, Kirby Jackson (along with several uncredited assistants) churned out superhero adventures featuring, among many more, the Powers Squad, Tribune, and the Blue Bowman. You were always aware of these characters growing up - and your uncle, who was a huge comic collector, had a particular affinity for these characters. He always had the comics around the house when you went to visit him, and he loved talking comics with you.

However, it was no big surprise when Startling Comics declared bankruptcy in 1979; they had been running on fumes for over a decade, and their superhero line never recovered from Kirby Jackson's departure in 1956 (after they refused to increase his pay per page from $10 to $12). They continued to reprint his books continually from the time he left until they went bankrupt, despite turning out relatively scant new stories in the superhero genre. A suspicious fire at their warehouse - that destroyed much of the original art - was the final nail in the company's slow decline.

In an amazing turn of events, the bankruptcy of the company caused the rights to the characters to fall into question. When Kirby Jackson decided to pursue legal action to get these rights (which he considered a longshot), he was shocked when he appeared in court and representatives for SC Comics failed to appear; the judge awarded the rights to Mr. Jackson. Many believe that the same people who could have claimed copyright had bigger problems - notably their insurance fraud case - and were trying to put as much distance between themselves and the company as possible.

Moved by the public outpouring of support for him, and for the love these characters were receiving, Mr. Jackson decided to allow the characters to be used for the Mighty Doc Stalwart Annual #2, and he would allow a young up-and-coming creator to assume the rights for $1 so that the characters could continue.

At the end of the 'greatest comics jam ever', Kirby Jackson himself appeared and, to anyone who had contributed to the issue, he offered entry to the lottery. Dozens of creators held their breath as the lot was drawn - someone would be able to build upon the legacy of these characters created decades ago by Mr. Jackson. 

You were as shocked as anyone when you won.

Hero Points and the GM Section

We're at 22 hours to launch, and I'm really look forward to the KS going live. I want to talk a bit about my mindset, because I think it's important (at least for me), to put this out there.

It doesn't matter if the campaign is 'successful'. I mean, I really (really) want it to be successful. But it doesn't HAVE to be. In the past, I've NEEDED things to be successful, because I wanted so badly to get something else from the project or campaign or whatever - validation, or reputation, or public acceptance, or some sort of score keeping 'against' other creators. I had a revelation last night while listening to Ron Talks Tabletop and an interview with the creator of Prowlers & Paragons, Leonard Pimentel. I listened with interest and spent a lot of time nodding my head and agreeing. Then, I went over and checked out Prowlers and Paragons, and read a little bit about it, and perused the quick start rules. I realized that 1) It's not much like my game at all, and 2) I have zero jealousy of his success. I mean, he's been successful at a very high level with a very polished game. I'm happy for him. I really am. Seems like a nice guy. But, maybe for the first time, I had no twinge of "must be nice" or "why isn't that ME" or some variation thereof. Historically for me, the hardest thing about being a creator is the way that the world constantly presents the success of others as a yardstick to see my own shortcomings. Walking into a comic store or Barnes and Noble or perusing DriveThruRPG has often been a 'this is your life - NOT' sort of journey, where all I could do for the longest time was see how many people had been more successful than I was.

I'm already successful. I have a game I'm proud of. I have people who like it. I get a lot of positive feedback regularly. I have a huge sandbox I've framed in and filled with sand and buried cool stuff in, and now I get to spend a lot of time playing in it and creating for it.

If the KS gets one person who signs up for $10 and then that's it for thirty days, I'll be a bit surprised, but I will be okay. I'm still going to publish a revised version of the game and I'm still going to create some of the stuff I intended for the KS anyway (because I'm excited to work on this and expand the game in this way), but I'll just do it in a different way. I see the KS as a way for others to get more involved; if they want to, great... but if not, it's okay. I'm okay. This mindset is part of the reason I think it will be successful - because I'm not holding on as tight as I have in the past. I'm ready to ride the wave; I guess we'll see if I need a paddle board or a surf board.

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FYI, I think that for the duration of the campaign, I'll be cross posting both here and on the KS page. My regular blog entries will be on that stream as well, just to increase visibility and interactivity; but I don't want to ONLY post there and not here - so, I'll just do both. I probably won't get as personal as I did above. Going to be more business-oriented, but I thought I'd share some thoughts on KS Eve...

***

On to the Game...

While the purpose of the ruleset for Stalwart '85 is to organize, clarify and subtly tweak the existing rules, I can see two places where significant expansion is going to take place: Hero Points and the GM section. The two are closely intertwined as I'm thinking about it now...

With Stalwart Team Up #1, I introduced a concept that hero points can be earned as you go through the adventure; early encounters can give you opportunities through heroic action and role playing to earn hero points and add these to your bank; they become more of a dynamic currency throughout the adventure, and the GM will have more ways to award and manage hero points. I think that there will be suggestions for ways to spend more than one hero point at a time; I'm thinking of in X-Men '97 when Magneto 'turned off' all electricity in the world; he had to use all of his hero points to do this, set his hero points at 0 while it was off, and had to turn his power down to D16 while he was maintaining this effect. The book will give specific guidance for managing situations like this. I think that this becomes a special option that is only unlocked once you have D20 in a trait. I'm going to tinker with this a lot more, but I like the idea that the GM has a lot of specific guidance on awarding, managing, and ultimately encouraging you to spend your hero points in play. I think that this is tied very specifically to the ideas of "Series" (a campaign) and "Issues" (individual sessions).

I have a hook for this (from the backer's perspective) that is something akin to DC's aquisition of the Charleton characters in the mid-80s. Alan Moore ended up writing watchmen for them, even though he ended up having to craft all new characters (because Blue Beetle was going to get his own thing, and Nite Owl took his place in Watchmen). You just purchased this comic book company with these characters who appeared back in the day. What are you going to do with them, and how are they going to be the seeds of your new comic book universe? Or... if you have an existing comic book universe, how do you want to layer in these new aquisitions to your line? The KS is going to have some suggestions for how to emulate what I've done, launching a 'comic book company' that publishes the games that you run as the series (with the players at your table taking on roles as the comic book creators... so you're the editor as GM, but the others are the creative team working with you).

It's a whole vibe.

The Incredible Story of Mighty Doc Stalwart Annual #2

Scooter James may have had the strangest ascent in comics history. He started as ‘The First President of the Doc Stalwart Fan Club” in 1970 - at ten years old. He became a regular contributor to the letters’ column (starting with a letter published in issue #100), with a missive appearing in every column from that point forward. As of issue 150, he got a special spotlight in “Note from the Fan Club President”, that was set aside from the other letters each month. 

Scooter eventually became a creative voice as well. He sent in a story idea that served as the foundation for the “Return to the Future” storyline (Mighty Doc Stalwart #127-130), and at fifteen, started contributing story outlines (paid $3 per outline), that were adapted into backup features, almost always featuring his favorite characters, the Stalwart Legion of the 28^th Century.

So, it was somewhat appropriate that as of Mighty Doc Stalwart #251, at age 24, he was hired full time as the editor-in-chief of New Stalwart Press; he was the one who was tasked with hiring the replacements for Byron John, the brothers Mike and Theo Pretzlaff, who took over the book going forward.

He had big ideas. He launched the Spectacular Stalwart Super Society. He started negotiating television and toy rights for the characters. He started to look at ways to merchandise Doc and his world, building the brand beyond its humble comic book origins.

But one of the biggest and most outlandish of his ideas was unveiled at the New Years’ Comic Con ’84, two weeks into his tenure as editor-in-chief. He organized the first ever ‘Independent Comics Company Summit’, where dozens of small publishers and independent creators met together in Ballroom B of the Grand Castle Hotel to share an idea he had.

The “Big Two” were doing huge crossover events, bringing together their major characters to battle a huge cosmic threat on a grand scale. He wanted to do something similar. He knew that New Stalwart Press, though a successful company, was nowhere near the size and scale of the Big Two, and wouldn’t be able to do such an event independently.

However… he suggested that everyone in the room, if they wanted to work together, could pull it off. His pitch was simple: The Mighty Doc Stalwart Annual #2 would be a collaborative story where dozens of creators, representing dozens of smaller companies, would come together to tell a story with each of their signature characters joining together against a huge cosmic threat. They would all continue to hold the copyrights to their own characters, granting one-time rights to publish them here.

Over the next twenty-four hours, what might be the greatest comic book jam session of all time took place, as dozens of creators worked together to build a story and crank out 64 pages. This was released to much fanfare; each creator received 100 ‘limited edition’ copies to sign and sell at conventions, and the book was released through newsstand distribution. Each creator kept a few original pages, and these were distributed in a lottery system. All proceeds were donated, and many of the creators who contributed suggested that this was a ‘launch point’ for their independent comic companies.

But, I mean, I don’t have to tell you all about this. You were there, after all.   

And the Kickstarter will reveal how it all went down.    

Kickstarter Pre Launch Page

I've got a pre-launch page up for the Kickstarter... please go and sign up (even if you're not sure you'll be able to back the project)! Even if you cannot support it yourself, I'd appreciate it if you can let other people know about it.

I expect to launch middle of next week.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1706035146/stalwart-85

Kickstarter Thoughts

I've spent some time brainstorming ways that a potential Kickstarter could end up being more than just 'here's a book you can buy'... and I have ideas.

Oh MAN do I have ideas.

Because the thing that I keep coming back to is that my whole goal is to build community. I want to have a community of fellow players who are all engaged in some way with this shared text. In some ways, I want to be the caretaker of it, but I also want it to be bigger than me. I'm excited about the idea of people having their own games that are set within the various realities connected to mine, with their own characters and campaigns and worlds and events that may or may not align with those in the 'official' game. 

I've got some really, really cool ideas for a KS that would directly and practically support this goal. 

I'm very, very excited about how this is coming together. I'll be sharing more soon.

And There I Go Again

I guess that I'm writing a new game... I started with some notes, and before I knew it I had about 15 pages of ideas on the new edition of Army Ants! Here are some of the things that have come from this:

- It's essentially the Resolute game system, although I've limited the number of core abilities (I have a list of ten I'm working from right now), and everything else is an application linked to one of those abilities. For example, stealth will not be a distinct ability; it is an application of your intuition.
- Its big deviation from Resolute is the lack of a referee; the role of narrator is shouldered primarily by one player, but other players take turns narrating scenes depending on what's happening. I've got notes in place for a system whereby you randomly generate events as you go (inspired by reading about the Mythic Game Master Emulator, although I still haven't ponied up the $ to actually get a copy of that and read it). I like how it feels so far, but until I actually play test it with other people, I won't have an idea of how it actually works.
- I'm going through all my previous edition of Army Ants and taking the stuff that worked from each edition, and trying to make it all fit. I want this to be the COMPLETE game; I want to include every foe, every predator, every vehicle, every weapon, and every option from every edition of the rules I've published in one book. The Resolute engine presents information in such a condensed form that I can pack a lot of information on a single page. I'm thinking of the 160-page range right now. That's a total guess. I want it to be a digest-sized book. I've always wanted an Ants RPG printed in digest size; it's my big chance!
- The book has to be available as both a print edition and a PDF.
- When it's finally ready, I'll also be releasing the complete Army Ant comics as a digest-sized book, assuming I can get all of that into one book (it's over 300 pages). If not, I'll have to break it over two volumes. Don't know about the logistics of that yet.
- There is NO chance this is done anytime soon (as in 2011). Look for it some time in 2012. I want to do a better job marketing this as I go, and this blog is the first step. I know that it's a bad idea to announce a project when you don't have more than a few pages of notes and a spark of inspiration, but I've written enough games at this point that I am pretty confident it will eventually get done- and I'm not looking for kickstarter money or anything (yet... although that's definitely a possibility... hmmmm). I'd really like to hear about anyone's experiences with kickstarters, and how that turned out (either as a consumer or creator).

Thanks and happy gaming.