Slipnaught

I don't have a standard way to design characters. Sometimes, I come up with a concept for the story, and build the character that way. Sometimes, I think of a power I want to use, and build a character around that (like I did for White Hot, who I'll share later)... and sometimes I come up with a name as I'm doodling, and the interactive process of the stylus moving along with my brain tinkering comes up with a character concept. I was halfway through doodling this guy when I thought of 'slipknot', and then realized I could play with the name, and then figured he's the world's greatest escape artist, and then thought that the elongation gift with a power of D4 would effectively make him able to contort himself in dramatic ways without really 'stretching' all that far. It's the power on its lowest setting. Then if I give him high Reflex, infiltration, and profession (escape artist), I've got my own little version of Mr. Miracle going...

No idea what to do with him yet, but he's kind of nifty. He seems like he'd be a good fit for Tipo's Rogue's gallery, but it would have to be when Tipo is teamed up with a low-power hero, since this guy isn't all that much in the fighting department... I could see a plot twist where Tipo needs him for something, and then I team up Tipo with a villain he's defeated before... hmmm....

The Simian Manifesto

The Simian Manifesto

Ego feci omnes ad simia

 
You know who he is. Of course you do. The Mighty Doc Stalwart. Yes. But you may not know my story. Or how our shared stories intertwine.
 
Let me tell you.
 
While a young Nathanial Stalwart was in the third grade, recreating the Freedom Formula, the original elixir that granted Heartland his superhuman abilities, I was a common primate living a blissful existence in the jungles of Africa. 
 
And while young Nathaniel was experimenting on himself, I was a victim of experiments by members of the Final Reich and their leader Dr. Voltus. They believed that if they could grant primates superhuman abilities, they could then modify this process for men. They were wrong, and many of my family paid the price in blood for their arrogance.
 
And while Nathaniel made his discovery on the first attempt, I was subject 66 - the first 65 suffering ignoble deaths. The Super Simian Serum worked all too well on me, granting me powers and knowledge beyond their imaginings. With my newfound gifts, I drove these inhuman men from my lands. I was able to stabilize the serum, granting lesser gifts and awareness to my kin, without any concern for harming them. Now, among others with intellect and gifts like myself, I was willing to live in peace. And I did. For a time.
 
But then I learned of events in the world of men. Nathanial became the Mighty Doc Stalwart. Spurred on by the Freedom Formula, he demonstrated physical gifts and an intellect comparable to mine. And… I knew, if he could make all humans equal to himself, enhancing them as I had enhanced my kin, they could easily, with but a thought, wipe my people from the annals of history entirely.
 
I would not let humans do that to me or my kind again. So, despite my desire for peace, I prepared for war. Despite my desire for home, I knew the only path ahead was invasion. We had to strike our enemies and imprint fear into their hearts.
 
And so, I set my armies, and our remarkable technology, upon our foes. Success was in our grasp. We had made our point, dealing destruction that would be a symbolic reminder to leave us be. That the Simian Supreme would not be trifled with. And I was about to turn for home when Doc Stalwart had to interject himself. He could not let us claim this small, symbolic victory that would even the scales for what humans had already done. No. He and his kind would not be satisfied with accepting us as a comparable force. They must exert absolute domination over us. 
 
But I came to realize something more. Now that humans knew that we were their equals, that we may in fact have surpassed them, they would not - nay, they could not - be satisfied until we were wiped out. Now, I had only one choice - I must claim utter dominion over mankind, or die in the effort.
 
You may think this objective to be mad. I can see why. I am no fool. I know now that wiping out 7 billion humans may prove impossible. I am a genius after all. I recognize this, in my heart of hearts, despite some efforts I may have made to do it anyway. But there is a victory that would be symbolic for all time, and would finally convince mortals that the Simian Supreme are justly named, and that Simian Prime is their ultimate master. 
 
I must kill Doc Stalwart, and do so in such a way that leaves no doubt. I must humble him, breaking him in mind, body, and spirit. I must crush him so completely and absolutely, and so obviously, that humans have no choice but to bend their knee in subjugation.
 
Every super villain he defeats (and what a ludicrous term - super villain - as if he is the hero?) is but another step in forging his legend. I welcome each of his ‘victories’. Each only adds to a mythology around him which will be all the more devastating when the pillars of his infamy are brought to ruin. Only then can we be free. Only then can I rest. Fate has set me on this course, and fate will be satisfied.
 
Ego feci omnes ad simia.

Stalwart Team Up #1

Having just seen Deadpool and Wolverine, I'm jazzed for superhero team-ups, even though this one has virtually nothing to do with that one. But hey! It's superheroes teaming up! Huzzah.

Your weekend starts now! Head on over to DrivethruRPG and get yourself a copy. I promise it has less profanity than Deadpool and Wolverine. To be fair, pretty much everything has less profanity than Deadpool and Wolverine, but still... 

Scratching an Itch (.io)

Thanks to a suggestion from the Marvelous Matt Jackson, I now have a page on itch.io for Stalwart. Is it set up properly? No idea. Is it going to generate traffic and interest? Nary a clue. Is it going to tear a hole in the space-time continuum that leads to the eventual end of all life in this universe? Gosh, I hope not. I would free pretty bad about that. 

Is it one more place where the collective consciousness of humanity may be able to intereact the fruits of my creative loins? Uh. Yeah. I guess so. Though that is a weird way to put it...

It has a message board/community option, so that seems really cool if there are actually real human beings who actually go there and use it and stuff. I've never been there, but it seems like some of 'our people' (as in people who play old-school RPGs) hang out there, so it might be worth linking up with. 

Your mileage may vary. My mileage may vary. There may be no mileage to have variance within. 

I guess I will know when I know.   

Of Foolish Consistencies

I remember as an undergrad being struck by Emerson's quote, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds". Not only is it okay to change your mind, but people who hang on to something too far past its natural end are foolish. Sticking with something just because you said you were going to is just plain dumb.

In some ways, I've tried to live by that. And in some ways, getting my books up for sale and building a readership on Amazon seems to be starting to come under the foolish category. I've read about how there's a glut of material there, and breaking through is really hard unless you are in romance (or *ahem* adult fiction) categories, and I don't think my book qualifies there. I realized that the Doc Stalwart book link for an ebook is broken, and cannot be fixed. No idea why. I can only sell it there as a softcover, and in the three years it has been for sale, I have sold exactly two. I'm grateful for those two sales... but, um... yeah. Not exactly setting the world on fire.

The first issue of Stalwart Team Up is in my publisher list, but it's marked as 'blocked', with no additional information. It could be that I'm still in the approval process (which can take a few days I guess), but it doesn't say that... it just says blocked. 

I think my people are on DriveThru. Maybe I should just stay there with them.

I'm circling back to simply putting the whole thing in one package - the comic story of 4-5,000 words, and then the 6-8 pages adapting it to the game. It's a pay-what-you-want download anyway, and this makes the books feel more substantial and in line with the others in the game so far (since they are averaging around 14-16 pages), and this would put the book well over that. I can fret a little less one month if I don't have as much subtance to add to the game (hey - here are three new characters, but the set pieces don't need maps and there is nothing else to add to the game really this time around)... I feel like it makes for a tighter package, and a cleaner presentation to the consumer (that would be you). My big concern was that, even with different coloring on the covers, there would be some (rightful) confusion for you all over which version of the book you are getting. 

And, if I ever get the whole Amazon thing working, I can always cross post the entire same package there (with the game material in the back), and if I get a few extra sales and more visibility out of it, all the better.

I'm going to start tinkering with the packaging. I'll let you know what I end up with...

The 'Best" Story

I have the first three issues of Stalwart Team Up written, and I’ve realized something about the format. I get to tell the best story for each of these characters, or at least a really iconic one. I don’t think this is necessarily the BEST Doc Stalwart story, for instance, but it’s one I really like. I got to write a different perspective for Doc. I love how the story I have written humanizes him more and brings a hint of tragedy to his whole story that is not present in the stories I’ve already written about him. Most of my stories are about the amazing things Doc has been able to do. This story, on some level, is about the things he never got to do. The small fights he never had time to take on, but that were still important. For me, it answered the question of “if you have Superman, why do you need anyone else?” Now, I know. I’m really happy with the answer.

As far as issue 2, it is, far and away, the best possible Condorian story I could ever have written. I absolutely love it. I have no need to write a Condorian novel (or even another Freedom’s Four story), because I found the perfect story to tell about both Freedom’s Four and Condorian, within the world of Tipo… I cannot tell you how much I love this little story. The fact that it expands the game world out in a nifty way is icing on the cake.

As far as issue 3… it is not necessarily the best Twilight Archer story, but it is absolutely an iconic sort of Twilight Archer story. I like how much it feels different from the first two issues, because he’s such a different character. It's also a very traditional sort of street-level adventure, which the other two are not.

My original thought was that I’d get to play with different genres by telling stories featuring different characters, and that is true, but I didn’t think about how the tone and themes would subtly shift as different characters came into and out of the narrative.

I also feel like the stories thus far have the right balance of character, moving the story forward, and action sequences. I’m very pleased with the story I’m telling so far. I’m looking forward to seeing what you all think of it. They also feel very rooted in the existing comics universe; I’m not doing a lot of world building; the world is already built, and now I’m just shining a flashlight into corners of it and examining those corners more closely.

The first issue should be up on Amazon in the next day or two (once it moves through Amazon’s pipeline), and I’ll release the RPG adaptation (which is already done) as soon as that goes live, so you can get them at the same time. I think I’m going to stagger releases to once a month going forward, just so I can place things through the school year and have some updates to keep releasing. I might even wait until August 1^st at this point (which is only a week away), because then I can get on a ‘monthly’ release schedule that I can maintain. Getting two or three more of these done and ready to go before the end of summer is a reasonable goal and will give me a way to keep publishing and supporting my game for the foreseeable future, which is vital to its continued growth and success.

I still envision a ‘complete rules’ as a collection that includes all of the books so far along with some extra material that would be a single pdf and print book release… but that’s definitely on the back burner right now. I think that I’m in a position to let the game grow organically for a little while, and maybe build a stronger following, before taking that next step. I’d LOVE to do a Kickstarter, but I’d also want to have a big enough audience to support that, and enough reason (i.e. new material to add) to make a collection like that worth everyone’s time and money.

Taming the Muse... Or the Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men...

I had a plan. I really did. I wanted to build Stalwart Team Up by fleshing out a general narrative structure, playing through the scenario, posting notes, and then using those notes to compose the actual stories for publication.

My mind decided it didn't want to do that. Instead, I have already written the first two and over half of the third issue, and have yet to pick up any dice. The stories are just naturally fitting together, and the 'team up' model is giving me a very organic progression from one partnership to another. The first three issues feature Doc Stalwart, Condorian, and Twilight Archer, and I already know the plot of issue 4, and the character who will appear, Microbe. 

It looks now like I will get the first three stories done and up for sale, and then get to the work of adapting these into game supplements. I suppose the order doesn't ultimately matter, as long as there is a synergy between the paired releases. It is helpful to have this in mind as I write, because it is challenging me to write sequences that are also viable as game-based scenarios. 

This is a different process from when I was writing Doc Stalwart stories before. For those, I was entirely focused on the characters and the story I wanted to tell, and if an entire issue was two people sitting in a room talking, then it was. It didn't much matter that there were set pieces and interesting combat sequences for actual play. Now, this is a factor in my thinking, and the stories have a little more action and move a little quicker as a result. 

I've also drafted a chunk of the first game supplement for this, and realized that I can build this as three scenes with two cut scenes between, a prologue and an epilogue. So, a structure of four story-based situations and transitional cut scenes (layered with roleplaying) with a three-act structure of combat/encounters nested inside. This feels like a very workable model. Ultimately, I am giving myself freedom to deviate from the comic in the game adaptation because I want there to be a bit more action. For example, I add a sequence where Trash Talker and some Goonsquad members take part in an armored car heist. This is nowhere in the story, but is a side quest that gives the players another enounter before the big fight at the end. 

The only other challenge I see is with covers - I want the books to have the same covers (so you know that they are telling the same story), but I want it to be clear for you all which one is which. I have added a label of either 'for the world's niftiest superhero rpg' or 'a superhero story' at the bottom, so you know which is which. I think that should suffice. I also changed the banner color on the stories as well from yellow to dark red just as another visual indicator.