Falling Into Stalwart '85

When crafting the rules for Stalwart ’85, I somehow missed rules for falling damage (thanks to Rick H for bringing that to my attention). Hmf. Well, let’s correct that! 

A normal human has 8 hp. A fall of up to 10’ is minimal damage to most humans (you might twist an ankle, but you are likely to come away from a 10’ fall none the worse for wear). A fall of 20’ or 30’ is likely to result in a broken bone or two, and a quick Internet search reveals that a fall of 80’ or more is often deadly. 50’ can be life threatening. Okay, that helps set some context. At the other end of the spectrum, the Hulk can fall thousands of feet and suffer minimal damage; he’s soaking 10 points, and we’ll assume that making his Reflex check would net him zero overall damage, but maybe 10 points if he failed… so setting a ceiling of 20 points of damage is reasonable. 

If we say that you suffer 1 point for every 10’ fallen, with a maximum damage of 20 points (200’), and you’re allowed a Reflex check for half, that seems reasonable enough (a normal human is felled at 150’ or more even with a successful Reflex check – and probably dies). Supers are going to be felled but not die… because they’re supers. The Reflex check is DT 4, so a normal human suffers zero damage (.5 rounded down) on a successful Reflex check falling 10’, and only 1 point on a successful Reflex check falling 20’ or even 30’.

Building up that Rogues' Gallery

One of the strengths of the S85 world from a gaming perspective is that the villains outnumber the heroes, and the heroes aren't that strong or well organized. The 'problem' of stories set in Superman's Metropolis is that Superman is there - you don't really need anyone else when he's around. However, in Doc's Meridian, there are a handful of heroes, and they aren't very powerful. Doc himself is basically the Thing's power set with Reed Richards' intellect. He's powerful, yes, but not in the same league as Supes. That said, as I move forward, I do so wanting to add more villains to the game but not many heroes. One of the mistakes that I see supers games making is focusing on the heroes of the game world. In my experience, people want to play their own supers in the game world, and don't want to necessarily play the pre-generated superheroes. So, my focus should be on the villains. Players can focus on the heroes.

Parenthetically, this is one of the problems I’m running into with the Public Domain – the heroes outnumber the villains, and the villains are largely forgettable. I’m struggling to find really good villains to adapt to S85.

I spent a little time reviewing Doc’s rogues’ gallery, and it’s a really solid assortment of baddies. There weren’t a lot of gaps. I still have some iconic archetypes to fill in (there’s no ‘hunter’ villain yet, for instance; there’s no weather controller), but the biggest gap I noticed was in teams. I have a handful of both super and villain teams, but the comics are full of teams that are themed to work together, and S85 doesn’t have much of that. The good news is that the format of the Stalwart Phile is perfect for this exact need, so I’m going to devote a few Stalwart Philes to adding supervillain teams to the game. Here are a few examples of what I’m thinking:

• A Russian team that are ‘heroic’ but also 1980s Russians, so it’s complicated. This could be a team you hold your nose and work with, or that you do battle against. Or maybe both.
• An element-themed team.
• A chess-themed team.
• A snake-themed team that works for Vyperion.

Unlike most of the groups I’ve presented thus far, these are groups that always work together; they probably have matching costumes. They’ve got some team maneuvers that they’ve developed, and which can give them some other options in play. From a GM perspective, they are modular - you can design an adventure where the heroes go against a team of Russians, but you can easily sideline some of the members if needed to balance against your supers. 

Stalwart Phile #3 Now Posted

I've got the Stalwart Phile #3 now posted, and I am very pleased with this model for building the game going forward. Obviously, I based these on the old Marvel FASERIP Marvel Phile from Dragon Magazine, and it's a great format for me to work in. I can take a weekend and cobble one of these together, getting a substantive release out without feeling the burden of a 'complete' release. 

The companion adventures, of which I have done two (one is exclusive to KS backers) is working under similar conditions; these are long enough to represent an individual comic book issue, but short enough that I don't get bogged down in getting halfway through a draft and then giving up. I have a model in place that I can keep building on, and that was important to me to keep the game growing. If all I do is Stalwart Philes and short adventures, there's a solid foundation for the game to grow going forward.

Not Your Classic Time-Travel Adventure

I am looking at how Stalwart Phile #2/3 and Stalwart Adventures #2 can work together. I have the idea for a time-travel adventure that isn't a time-travel adventure at all. The idea is that there are two events that are linked by a few decades, and the adventure takes you through the linkage. Here's the idea of how these might fit together so far...

Act 1 - Decades ago, on one of their final missions, Freedom's Four defeat Doctor Voltus in his castle by trapping him in a closed cicruit system within his castle; they know it is a temporary fix.

Cut Scene 1 - In the present, the modern-day heroes (or Doc Stalwart if playing solo) meet with the retired older Liberty Lass and Bronze Beacon 2, who recount one of their final battles; we learn that Captain Reicher is up to something, and that something might be bringing back Doctor Voltus. Liberty Lass dons her gear for one last mission...

Act 2 - Travel to Doctor Voltus' old castle; a battle with Captain Reicher and minions. (Modern hero team with Liberty Lass).

Cut Scene 2 - Set up a device that can 'trap' Doctor Voltus; create mechanical keys in play that must trigger to permanently trap him so he can face trial for war crimes.

Act 3 - Final battle with Doctor Voltus with some triggered events built into the battle.

Cut Scene 3 - Funeral for Bronze Beacon 2? Something to finalize the events. Maybe have an event where the wrist bands he carried are donated to the museum his neice works for... set up the future Bronze Beacon? Historical comment about how this event was later ret-conned to include BB 3 even though that was never 

Hmm. I solved a lot of this as I was blogging. I know that I spoke about this at some point, but writing is really a thinking process as much as it can be a process of revelation; I talked to my students earlier this year about how I don't use writing to put down the things I already have in my head. Sometimes, I sit down with only the vaguest idea, but the PROCESS of writing it down and getting it out in front of my eyeballs allows me to see how the dots connect. That is exactly what happened here. What I ended up writing down is a lot more than was in my head, and much better organized, than when I started. Writing process for the win! 

Cataclysm Cover Final

Whew! I honestly have NO idea how Perez or Byrne was able to knock out covers with dozens of characters how they did. This was a really challenging piece for me, and I ended up having to make a few concessions with the layout I don't love, but squeezing all these characters in was harder than I expected it to be. Here it is... the cover for the Mighty Doc Stalwart Annual #2. The adventure is written, so I have to do final edits and should have that posted to KS backers later today... 

Cataclysm Cover

This morning I roughed in the cover layout for Doc Stalwart Annual #2: Cataclysm Across the Cosmos. I decided to go ahead and include all of the characters that KS backers had requested for their commissions - it is 19 characters in total, so I was able to fit them into my homage to Mike Zeck's cover to Secret Wars #1. If you're going to swipe a cover design, may as well go for one of the most iconic of all time. 

Stalwart Adventures #1

So... it's been an eventful few days. The bad news is that my white blood cell count crashed because of chemotherapy and I ended up in the hospital for a few days as they work to get me back up to speed. The good news is that I have my computer with me and a lot of time, so I have been able to get work done on Stalwart. I finished Stalwart Phile 2 this morning, and I finished Stalwart Adventures #1 this afternoon. They are posted on DriveThruRPG. They are both PWYW, so head over and grab them.