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...
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.
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 1st 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.
I know that not all of you were able to attend this year's New Years Day Comicon ("Welcome 1984 with comics, toys, and more!"), but wanted to make sure you still got your official Stalwart Society card. It was printed in the back of the limited edition Mighty Doc Stalwart #250 that was only available at this convention (and which sold out of all 500 signed copies in record time), but I wanted to make sure that everyone had a chance to get one of these. Cut it out and carry it proudly!
I've got the first issue for Stalwart Team Up written, and I'm almost half way into the second, with idea threads already in place for the next two to three. I am very proud of how I'm capturing comic book action and combat, writing character-driven narratives, and bringing things to a satisfying conclusion. The first issue is a tight little story, and I think I have a model in place I can replicate.
I have started to think about how this can be effectively adapted into an adventure, and how this might mechanically emulate what I've written. The Marvel FASERIP system had Karma, which was a great way to emulate the roleplaying, character-based things that happen outside combat that have a direct bearing on what happens in combat. Peter did the right thing and helped Aunt May carry in the groceries, and because of this he has just enough strength left to lift the debris that traps him.
And I was thinking a simple rule tweak for solo play would emulate this very well, and would echo how the story is working so far. It's hero points.
Rather than starting the 'issue' with your full allotment of hero points, you start with 1. You can 'earn' up to your full hero point bank in the leadup to the final battle. If you stop to help the old lady, or hold the door, or do some other relatively minor (but still noble) thing, you get to add a hero point to your bank. There might be more opportunites than your actual hero points to earn them, but the idea is that the better you 'role play' a heroic character leading up to that final battle, the more resources you have to draw upon to be successful.
Again, this is utilizing a mechanic that is already in the system in a new way, allowing me to emulate comic book 'reality' in the game in a way that feels like it's appropriate. It's a great little mechanical tweak that will make solo play much richer, I would think.
I'm looking forward to testing it out. It's a little odd to have the whole story written and then retroactively build the game experience to get there, because I had assumed I would do this process in the other direction, using the actual play as a way to brainstorm ideas to put into the actual story. I guess that the process matters less than that I get to the finish line, but I still find it interesting the way it's evolving.
The Stalwart Guide to Meridian is up as a Pay What You Want Download. You do you.
Core Rules
Stalwart Companion
World of Stalwart Volume 1
The first thing I think of is the idea of mentors. Doc Stalwart is Tipo’s first mentor, but that relationship quickly ends – Robin was my favorite character at five years old, and I cannot shake that. I love the idea of following the story of the student. It’s my go-to. The reason I was able to get into writing Doc Stalwart stories quickly is because I framed them from Mikah’s perspective; it ultimately became the story of his journey from young mutant who could read objects to starting to prepare for taking his place as the Chronicle of all Stories.
So, following the student is a good bet to give me a reason
to keep writing. Taking his mentor away on day one is going to help a lot.
As of yesterday morning, I assumed that Doc might enlist Microbe to step in and do a little mentoring – I’d like to get Microbe into a story at some point, so this seemed a good way… but maybe I could back burner that for a few issues. When he starts getting into the research and development this organization is doing, Microbe might be a great character to have along for the ride. Having them crawling through air ducts together might be fun (Tipo barely fits, and the cat who is leading them keeps wanting to eat Microbe who is only an inch tall).
Right away, I see a potential for a student/teacher relationship with this hunter. Tipo is a hunter – he’s a friggin’ cat. They’re hunters. Tipo doesn’t see them that way (which will be a revelation when he finally gets there in his own brain), but others will immediately see him that way, and the potential of that for their own ends. The Hunter who hunts heroes because they are ‘the most dangerous game’ is a bit tired. I have two initial ways this could go:
A Black Panther/Sub Mariner approach – the hunter from another land who comes here because the world of these people (and maybe this corporation) is having a negative effect in that other world. Now I’m suddenly thinking a Hawkman type from a hidden sky city that the pollution is starting to harm. That would be a bit of a twist on it (and hawks/eagles are hunters, too… so it all fits the motif).
I now want him to be up in ‘the City in the Sky’ fighting bird people and constantly trying to keep himself from falling off the edges, bouncing around to avoid their arrows or blowgun darts or energy bows or whatever I come up with.
(Side note: I just opened Youtube on my phone to listen to Sloan’s People of the Sky. If you are not a fan of Sloan, you are missing out. Check out Coax Me if you don’t believe me – my favorite song of all time).
I also like that I could retroactively link these people to the old hero Condorian, who was their last representative. They have a new one, and he’s not nearly as friendly. I suddenly see a potential for Condorian’s death and funeral being some kind of key story event as well. I like having loose threads like this to start pulling at. He needs to team up with Condorian first, in order to build a relationship so that the death matters. I could give him Condorian as his next mentor, but that only lasts for a bit. It’s a team-up of one issue.
My second idea was that one of the gods of New Eternia (the child of the god Orion) is a hunter who goes against the gods to hunt humans he deems as vile. I like this a lot, but the eagle dude from sky city is kind of hard to beat, if I’m being honest. Cats and birds are sort of natural enemies. Bringing in the gods on day one seems a bit heavy-handed. That’s a story I’d want to build up to. The sky bird people thing is more and more viable the more I think of it.
Plus, the added bonus is it gives me more game and world content. If I’m at a crossroads about what to choose, I should probably side with the thing that’s going to give me more cool stuff for people playing the game to tinker around with. Sky city of bird people is definitely in that category.
I already have a character named Condorian, so this could be a title bequeathed by the People of the Condor upon their chosen representative. It’s his nephew who attacks, so it’s kind of personal for the original Condorian to step in at some point (like issue 2). At this point, all I’ve established about Condorian is that he was a hero during the Great War (part of Freedom’s Four), and that he has a brown costume (I published a picture him in the World of Stalwart Book I). I have not done anything else with him, so this is an opportunity to do that. I always assumed that his wings were part of a mechanical harness, but I never established that as canon. I always assumed that he was African American. Not sure why.
General Design Note: This is the benefit of not ‘over-designing’. Create just what you need to and leave enough wiggle room for later expansion. This is a perfect case in point. I’ve had that character out there lingering for a few years, and finally have an opportunity to do something really cool with him. If I’d rushed to establish a weak background for him just to have one in place, I’d be wrangling with how to retroactively fix it. Now I don’t have to!
I look up Condors to see if anything in research helps. I did that with Tipo’s character, and it was huge. I like using research not to bind myself to truth, but to use truth to underpin decisions. Rooting things in the real world (and ‘truth is often stranger than fiction’ is more than just a cliché), can create more story opportunities rather than cutting them off.
Here's what I find out about Condors (in no particular order)…
See? Research DOES help. I’ll never convince my 8th graders of this, but it’s true… okay, time to do more writing. Plus, I still have a city book to finish and publish (maybe today!).
One more thing I look up – the Spanish word for hunter. It’s Cazador. No lie. The universe really likes helping me right now. It’s throwing up softballs to me at the moment.
Cazador the Condorian he is.
On to blogging...
I’ve already realized a big truth about writing superhero adventures. If I try to write ‘generic’ adventures for anyone, I end up with nothing. I have no ideas. Zilch. If I write specific stories for specific characters, I suddenly have the flood gates open and ideas roll forward. I’ve already got four or five ‘adventures’ roughed out.
My plan is to do a multi-step process for each ‘issue’ I
create:
In terms of how this adapts to something playable by others,
there are going to be a few default possibilities:
It’s going to be a comic series (Stalwart Team Up) that was first released in 1984… right around the time of Mighty Doc Stalwart #251… so this is a parallel book. While it would make sense for Doc Stalwart to appear in the first issue, I feel like it should be Bronze Beacon… unless she left these things to Doc and he’s the one distributing them. I suppose that works. He could then ‘hand off’ some duties and officially bequeath some of the responsibility for protecting Meridian. He’s the one with the role now (and his name IS on everything I do), so him ceremonially handing it over in some way might matter in the bigger picture. On the meta level, the publisher would have wanted Doc to appear in the first issue from a marketing and sales perspective. If they could have sold a lot of books with Bronze Beacon as the lead, they'd have already done that. They know Doc is their money maker. I can always bring Bronze Beacon in later. She’s easier to justify later stories around; Doc is leaving Meridian, he will be off on a big adventure (that I’ve already published), so this is a narrow window between the end of the 250 and the start of 251. It's the same reason Spiderman appeared in everything for the longest time. He just sells more comics.
Okay, that settles it.
Let’s talk about some goals from a game design and
storytelling perspective.
Right away it comes to me. As soon as he can talk to cats, they can bring him problems. Report things around the city. He has a whole secret spy network of alley cats who see and know everything that’s going on. This is going to be a HUGE benefit in terms of hooking stories going forward. He doesn’t have to sit around listing to police scanners or patrolling the city looking for criminals. He just has to chat with the neighborhood cats to see what’s up.
I honestly think it’s kind of a brilliant hook. This is already a great idea for an ongoing comic book. Furthermore, it is rife with possibility for some humor. Daredevil keeps hitting up the same two thugs. He's got a few stray cats who are particularly connected, but who are a pain the butt to deal with. "I said three cans of tuna. What's with this guy trying to short me? Can you believe this Luigi? The disrespect we get from this guy?"
As an aside, this whole thing is my chance to work out my ‘frustrated comic book creator who never got to do it for real’ persona. I really, really wanted to live this life when I was in my teens and twenties, and to finally get to realize it in this way is sort of trippy.
So, the hook for future stories is already baked into my city book (which is how I’m hoping others will end up using it), which is that an unethical corporation is dumping waste in the poorer parts of town. I like the whole ‘little guy vs. corporations’ theme. It’s a larger theme that the book can focus on. This opens up potential for politics and intrigue and those things going forward as well. Ultimately, the book will work best if it’s comprised of stand-alone adventures that have a larger narrative thread linking them. This corporate entity is probably a good way to start it.
So, a possible order of events:
A good first villain… I actually want the new villain each issue to be a big part of the draw of this. From a game perspective, having a new villain each issue makes it something worth getting to expand your game in a meaningful way. A lot of the heroes will be existing (although I’ll get through them in short order), so I’ll be making new heroes at some point, too.
I’ve already got Sludge (he would have been perfect for this – toxic waste making the villain and all), but I’ve already got him published. I’m actually writing this blog post before I’ve finished the city guide to Meridian – Bog Horror is in there, but this would be a good place to do his origin story. Parallel him with mystical energy for good (Teo) and mystical energy corrupted by waste and contamination (Bog Horror). He’s a good parallel starter villain. But I don't love him as the recurring 'arch enemy'. I feel like 'issue one' is the chance to establish a keystone character like that.
I also think a hunter might be a good villain. Teo is a cat,
so having a hunter be his first villain is a nice parallel as well. I start
thinking about how to frame him as different from Kraven in some significant
way…
Let’s talk about my character.
I look up the Spanish words for cat and find Gatito means
kitten. I kind of like this.
I also find that in Mexico, cats are sometimes called ‘michis’ because of how Spaniards would call cats. An informal way to address cats is ‘tipo’.
I am thinking like a phrase that means big little cat, so something like Gatito Grande or Grande Tipo would work. I could add a color here – maybe gold? Oro. Tipo Oro or Oro Gatito
Tipo Oro seems to have a nice ring to it, and I sort of like the irony of the name – gold is valuable, but my limited understanding implies that Tipo would be sort of like ‘mutt’ in English. The golden mutt of cats is how I’m thinking of it, which I also like.
If others call him “Tipo” as a nickname, that’s even better. Either his first or last name should have a T (or both – he’s the Mexican version of Peter Parker, so I want a name that has comparable alliteration and commonality). Tomas “Tipo” Torres is a great working name.
Tomas means ‘twin’… not sure what to do with this.
Torres has to do with towers and strongholds and fortifications. I love that. He’s a defender.
I look up less common names, and come across Teo. I have used this name for characters before (it is a variation on my middle name Theodore, which is why I like it to begin with), and it means ‘gift from God’, which I LOVE.
Okay, he is Tipo Oro: Teo “Tipo” Torres, the golden cat. Love it. I see him as this kid who’s always out in the streets, taking care of stray cats, and so others have given him the nickname “Tipo” as a form of friendly mockery – you’re basically an ally cat sort of thing. I like giving him this empathetic connection to cats – he’s already supernaturally predisposed to the powers he is going to get.
Let’s stat him up using the point build system in the companion. As a super, he has 40 points to distribute. He’s going to have strength and speed, and I think that reflex is his top trait. I could go D16, but I don’t see him that coordinated, but D12 is appropriate. Reflex D12 set. I don’t want to use Mind as a dump stat, but there’s nothing in his background that would suggest an advanced degree (and I picture him still in high school). He’s not a science wiz like Peter Parker, but he is clever. He figures things out. I see D6 Mind as appropriate to this. I don’t know if I see him as D12 strength, but D10 also seems quite reasonable. This leaves D12 for Power, which is maybe more than I had planned on, but I could definitely make work.
Might D10 (5); Mind D6 (3); Power D12 (6); Reflex D12 (6)
So far, so good. He gets 6 gifts (!) which is a lot (but I’ll
take it), and he also has 5 tags.
I start perusing the list, and look at gifts as openly as I can. I’m not going to roll – I’ve got a pretty strong character concept (he’s a cat dude), but what that means in context has a lot of options.
Gifts from the Core Rules I could use:
From the Companion:
Somehow, I see water linked to his limitation; cats don’t like water, and maybe this is a complex he has linked to the totem...
I also, as I think about this more, like linking his origin to Bronze Beacon. I’ve already established that her gauntlets are ancient Egyptian (although probably alien before that), and the idea that his totem could be from Egypt at some point, and maybe also from an alien species of cat people, opens up a lot of story ideas.
Okay, wow. Back to gifts. I’m suddenly glad I have 6. At first it seemed like it was too many, and now it’s not enough. I know I have the limitation having something to do with water, so that will give a bonus gift or tag. I’ll probably take it as the tag… so getting my list to 6 gifts. Here are the ones I definitely want:
And that’s six. Already. DANG. Those went quickly. Okay… I’m going to take the extra gift instead of a tag from the limitation, so I’ll pick up the Serial Immortality with that. I like that concept for his character. It differentiates him a bit. Enhanced Senses are more appropriate than Danger Sense. I don’t get Elite for his tier, which I might end up regretting not taking… but I also don’t want too many characters having it in the game world – every time someone else is elite, it takes away from those who truly are. It’s the Batman gift – this dude is not Batman.
For tags, I know I want brawl and sneak. He should have dodge. There’s nothing else I need, so I put 2 each into brawl and sneak, and 1 into dodge. I’m good with that.
Tipo Orro (The Golden Cat)
Teo “Tipo” Torres, Student
Super Hero (D10[5]2); Hits 20; Move 30’; HP 5
Might D10 (5); Mind D6 (3); Power D12 (6); Reflex D12 (6)
Communicate with Cats; Enhanced Senses; Hyperspeed; Jump; Melee
(claws D12); Night Sight; Serial Immortality
Brawl +2; Dodge +1; Sneak +2
Limitation: Complex about water (Check mind DT 4 when going
into water or suffer -1 overall shift)
With Stalwart, I’ve been able to pull off a few things I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I have a set of core rules I really like. I’ve got an ‘ultimate handbook’ that I’m happy with, and that does was I wanted it to do - to set a foundation of the setting and characters of the larger game world. I’m wrapping up the city book, which should be up as a pay-what-you-want download this weekend. I’ve got the whole game rooted in some solid narrative foundations.
Now, it’s finally time to move the whole thing forward.
One of my favorite conceits of comics of the 80s was Marvel Team Up – the idea that every month Spidey teamed up with another hero to battle a wide array of foes. I suppose I liked it so much because I was a big Spiderman fan, but the hero he teamed with that month would also then bring a viable threat at their power level – the wide variety of stories and genres he could cross over was greatly influenced by who happened to show up that month to work with him.
For a long time, I’ve had the desire to adapt this concept to a superhero game setting, but for many reasons it never got off the ground. I’ve tried to think of the right framing device and finally realized that the central character who does the team ups IS the framing device. The quality of Spiderman that made him perfect for this is that he is the friendly neighborhood Spiderman. He’s likeable. He’s kind. He’s genuinely interested in other people. He’s goofy, so others let down their guards more easily. His entire persona lends itself to the setup. He teams up with people because he likes people, and they tend to like him back. A character like Zealot doesn’t work, because he’s a loner by nature (Wolverine Team Up just doesn’t work as well). Twilight Archer is better, because he’s a mentor who seeks out others to train, but this immediately creates an uneven playing field; he’s the leader going into each of these scenarios.
But then I got an idea. And then I immediately thought of the problems with this idea.
I thought of a Mexican hero who inherits a totem that grants mystical powers in some way. He’s relatively poor (like Spidey), but he’s incredibly kind (always doing community service for others). He inherits the totem when Bronze Beacon (who is inventorying artifacts and realizing that several were gained unethically and should be returned to their original owners) gives him a family totem that grants him powers, and maybe even entrusts him with distributing the rest of these. She’s packing up for her move to the new museum, and has to leave soon. It’s a hook that creates many opportunities for teaming up in a relatively unstructured framework. I really like it.
I Googled this, and found a great resource about Mexican spirit animals, and started to think how this character takes care of homeless cats as part of what he does, so his spirit animal is this supercat with strength, speed, agility, a combat sense… so Spiderman without the webs and wall crawling. But with claws… so maybe wall crawling. Why not?
The problem is that I’m a white male, and this is a tricky thing for me to navigate. I’ve written a little bit before about how I try to process this dilemma. On one hand, I realize that superhero worlds in the 80s were largely populated by (and created by… and intended for) white males, so being intentional about expanding my game world with people who don’t share my background is a good thing. It’s a necessary thing.
I also realize that this is a field mined with traps for the unwary. I can easily veer into cultural appropriation or unintentional racism because of a well-meaning but also ignorant storyline or event or motif that ends up communicating something I don’t mean to communicate.
Case in point – I’ve decided my main character is both Mexican and poor. Does this mean that on some level I perceive that all Mexicans are poor? Gosh. That’s a tough question. I don’t think so. I was thinking that Peter Parker is poor, and that works better than Batman rich for the stories I want to do, and this character would work. Did I go ‘he’s poor, so then he must be Mexican’? I don’t think so. I was thinking that it would be cool if he was Mexican, because this is an experience I might be able to research and get some authentic understanding out of. It makes sense why he’d be living in this city at this time, but also not be white.
And when I wrote the previous paragraph is when I solved the problem. I like blogging a lot. The process actually solves problems. I’m not writing to show you what I have thought of. I write the blog to help me solve a problem in writing.
I make a mental note: I need to say that to my 8th graders this year.
Anyway, this is the solution – I am making these stories with this character in order to better understand a culture other than my own. I am not sitting here telling YOU about the Mexican-American experience (because I have no idea)… I am sitting here letting you watch ME as I try to better understand the Mexican-American experience through the process of creating this narrative.
I feel better about this now that I understand my own intentions. I also am less concerned about a mis-step, because it’s a learning process. If I really screw up, someone will point it out to me and I’ll grow from it. Nice. Problem solved.
Onward and forward. Or, I would say up, up, and away if that
wasn’t already taken.
Are you on Instagram? I guess I am, too (at least, that's what they tell me).
My instagram handle is @the_world_of_stalwart
See you there. Maybe. Or not. I'm not really sure. :)
I assume I'll get better at this as I do more of these, but here's an introduction to the basics of how Stalwart works. I think I'll make one for character creation next...
I showed Mary the map I had started for Meridian, and she was... not a big fan. She doesn't think it should look like a GPS map, but an isometric view like the Disneyland and Batman LEGO maps that follow... but to do something on the scale I'm thinking would be... massive. It would be a HUGE project. It would be awesome, but man that would take a few weeks (not that I have a lot of other stuff I NEED to do... but still).
(Augury is mind controlling you... go do that... go do that...)
Thanks!
.png)
.png)
