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! 

Look... What You Made Me Do

My daughter is a Taylor Swift fan (a ‘Swiftie’), and I have a running joke where I sing “Look… what you made me do” as a lounge singer. I was thinking of all y’all this morning, and that song came into my head… because you need to look… at what you made me do.

Stalwart has had a few knocks against it, and I have accepted those as functions of the system. It doesn’t do street-level supers all that well. It doesn’t have a lot of granularity. The dice get swingy (especially at the higher end).

This change addresses all those concerns.

In my proposed change, there are two ‘types’ of tiers: human and superhuman. The human tiers roll 1 die, and have SVs of half the die rating +1. Human dice range from D4 to D10 (I go back and forth on the D12, but for right now it's not there)… So if you are an enhanced human who has been given a dose of the Freedom Formula, you have D10 Might and Reflex. However, the moment you cross the line from ‘human’ to ‘better than human’, you now roll two dice, starting at 2D6 and peaking at 2D12 (with 2D20 reserved for cosmic entities). However, there are also places between these tiers where we can mix and match dice to create more granularity… For example, at the Meta tier, you roll D6+D8… for these tiers, the SV is the average of the two dice, which creates a nice, smooth scale.

Human Tiers

• Normal (D4; SV 3/1)
• Trained (D6; SV 4/2)
• Expert (D8; SV 5/2)
• Paragon (D10; SV 6/3)

Superhuman Tiers

• Super (2D6; SV 6/3)
• Meta (D6/8; SV 7/3)
• Legendary (2D8; SV 8/4)
• Colossal (D8/10; SV 9/4)
• Titanic (2D10; SV 10/5)
• Supreme (D10/12; SV 11/5)
• Ultimate (2D12; SV 12/6)

This would also change dice shifts a bit, since you would shift your lowest die up +1… so you would shift down from 2D6 to D4/6, then down one more to 2D4… you would shift up from 2D6 to D6/8, then to 2D8, then to D8/10… this mechanically distinguishes humans from superhumans, and creates a remarkable amount of granularity. I am not too concerned about balance… as a quick thought through this, Arrow is an Expert human (so he attacks with D8), but he also has Aim +3, so he’s averaging 7 to hit (max 11), which means that he can reasonably use his bow against someone with Titanic Evade (10). The numbers don’t scale to the point where they are impossible. I plan to play test the HECK out of this before making edits, but I’m seriously considering this change to the core mechanic.

Stabilizing Dice (Feedback Welcomed)

I've had a few conversations around the dice in the game, and different options for reducing the swinginess of the options. I had already published one alternative, but I've come up with a second as well... here is a picture of the working draft of this page. Feedback is welcome! (By the way, the 2 or 3 always failing on 2D keeps this statistically similar to the current rules for automatic failure).

I'm Gonna Pop Some Tags

I distributed the 47-page draft of the revised Core Rules to the Kickstarter backers yesterday, and I'm pleased with how the draft is coming along. I've expanded and clarified rules throughout, better organized the gifts, swapped out all of the art for public domain pieces (so that the entire core rules falls under a Creative Commons Share-Alike License), and revised language throughout for the concepts of Tier and Level. 

I also debated about the Character Sheet - Aldo (a.k.a. Dragonfly) has made incredible form-fillable sheets (which I keep asking him to revise, because I keep changing concepts)... but I felt like I should have the entire rulebook be my work. I felt a tinge of guilt for using something someone else had made and putting it in my book, even if it's 'only' one page. It's still his work, not mine, and he technically owns it, I don't. I will keep links to his character sheets on the new web site, and I encourage you to use his character sheets. They're great.

But there's one thing that is still bugging me. I don't like how the naming for Tags works. While there are some tags that introduce new concepts (example: Leadership gives you a specific bonus in a specific context), others just grant bonuses to existing abilities (examples: Concentrate gives you extra Force; Stalwart gives you bonus hero points). I am thinking of getting rid of the new names for all of the second type of tag, since these only require more thinking... okay... Dodge gives you extra Evade (so, why don't I just have the Tag be 'Evade' and have it give you more Evade?). I know the answer - I didn't want confusion on the player side of saying 'wait, I have Evade twice on my sheet... which one do I use?' If you have "Evade 5" written in one section and "Dodge (Evade +2)" written somewhere else, at least you know that they are not the same thing. However, just placing these under the Tags section should be enough. I think the confusion potentially created by having the same names under Tags is lower than the ongoing confusion created by 'what does Concentrate do again?'. I think it's better to have fewer names and concepts than more.

Point-Based Character Building

I am playing a bit with the point-based character building rules, and trying to set up a little more of a structured approach; I personally like the randomness of character generation, but I also think that having a fixed point-based method would be helpful. One of the problems with the existing point-based method is that it's pretty heavy-handed; it basically gives you an average die of your tier. That's fine at D8, but gets problematic at D16, where you have D16 across the board (which is pretty powerful). If we go with the idea that the 'average is that you have one die of your tier, one die higher, one die lower, and one die two lower, we end up with these numbers:

D8 (10, 8, 6, 4) = 28 points (currently 36 points)

D10 (12, 10, 8, 6) = 36 points (currently 40 points)

D12 (16, 12, 10, 8) = 46 points (currently 48 points)

D16 (20, 16, 12, 10) = 58 points (currently 64 points)

It seems reasonable to set the benchmarks at D4 (16 points), D6 (26 points), D8 (36 points), D10 (46 points), D16 (56 points), D20 (66 points). This means that a D4 character is D4 across the board (well, yeah), and a D20 character might end up with D20/D20/D16/D10. These work pretty well.   

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.

Modi Play Testing

I decided at last to create Modi (who I wrote about four years ago, but never actually drew or came up with game stats for), and she's pretty awesome. I figured that she's about as powerful as a hero could reasonably hope to be (Titanic Tier, Might D16), so she would be a good one to try both weapon damage as a modifier and the dice stabalization rules with.

It went really well. The only concern is that you have two modifiers to add (she had +5 from might, since I was rolling D10+5 instead of D16 when dealing damage), and then I had the +4 from her hammer. However, since the damage was always +9, I could easily track it... and since I had her fighting a foe with invulnerability 6 (Rhonda Rekkit), damage was always D10+3. She would almost always hit (only failed on a 1, because Rhonda has Evade 4 and Modi's getting +4 to hit). 

As it was, it took two rounds for her to defeat Rhonda, and she is one tier higher, so it wasn't unexpected. Rhonda did manage to knock her down about 15 hits, so it wasn't completely one-sided. However, I really like both sets of rules, and I think they are keepers.

I especially like that the weapon gets 'bigger' as you get higher level, which is a bit better than it was before. Cap's shield is going to be a +4 weapon, just because he's a very high tier, and D8+4 is definitely better than D10 for damage.

  

Toying with a Mechanical Changes to Weapons

Throughout the rules for Stalwart (and now the working draft of Stalwart '85), I've relied heavily on the die shift to account for some bonuses. One place I did this is with weapons and weapon damage; I found (and still find) it to be an elegant solution that your weapon (claws, a shield, a sword) allow you to shift up one die for damage; if you have Might D8 and a set of claws, you deal D10 damage. This is a simple, clean solution that is easy to remember.

However, it is not particularly granular, and it starts to get messy when you have more dice shifts involved. I was thinking of swapping weapons out from a dice shift to a set damage rating. This would be based on half your tier SV. It then looks like this...

Wonder boy is Prodigy tier (D8[4]2) and Might D6. His battle staves deal D6+2 damage (instead of D8).

The Canadian Badger is Legendary tier (D12[6]3) and Might D8. His claws deal D8+3 damage (instead of D10).

The thunder god is Titan tier (D16[8]4) and Might D16. His hammer deals D16+4 damage (instead of D20). 

It makes weapons a little bit cooler, but carrying Mjolnir SHOULD make you a little bit cooler. I think maybe I scale back throwing the weapon as a -1 die shift; the thunder god deals D12+4 when he throws Mjolnir. That also makes sense to me. 

I also like how this works for found weapons; when the Brute picks up a tank and starts hitting people with it, he gets to add the full half SV to damage, but it degrades 1 point with every hit. If he's legendary tier with Might D12, he deals D12+3 with the first hit, D12+2 with the second, D12+1 with the third, and after that he drops the shattered piece of tank he's still holding, because it's no longer useful as a weapon. In a bar fight, when a normal person picks up a chair, it deals +1 damage with the hit, shattering on impact.  

I don't think I want to port this over to trick weapons, though... trick weapons do double-dip on tier (using the same die for both attacks and damage), and it might make more sense to tie damage to reflex... the archer with D6 reflex is going to deal less damage than the archer with D12 reflex. That seems logical. 

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!

 

Captain Battle

I keep posting characters to the Kickstarter page (because I cannot stop myself today), and I found the history of Captain Battle (in the public domain), and drew him. If the Kickstarter was just "Captain Battle", and you only got this character, one page of rules, and a way to fight his arch enemy "Baron Doom", the Kickstarter should raise like a billion dollars.

In fact, here's my free micro RPG for Captain Battle.

In combat, Captain Battle always goes first. When you attack (because you don't have any other choices. The game is called "Captain Battle"), roll 1d6 and see below.

1. You disintegrate your foe with your pistol. Earn all of the experience points.

2. You defeat your foe with your American fists of justice. Earn a million experience points, and the hearts of 1d6 x100 nurses.

3. You flex your muscles and your foe runs away. Earn half a billion experience points, and also increase your popularity +1,000 (oh, never mind. You already have infinite popularity. Okay, it's now infinite +1).

4. Roll twice.

5. Roll three times.

6. Do all of these things. 

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).

48 Hour Bonus

I added a special reward for backers within the first 48 hours... and I really think you want to get this. I kept laughing at myself as I was working on it tonight. If you happen to have seen a particular blockbuster superhero movie that might be in theaters right now, you're going to want to get this.

I'm in the zone with this Kickstarter. No lie. I REALLY want to post the picture I drew, but I'm saving it for backers only.

The Strange Story of the Startling Comics Company

Some background for the Kickstarter Campaign...

***

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.

***

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.

Why it was almost Stalwart '86

As I look back at comics, 1985 was probably my 'best year' for comic collecting. This was the peak of my interest in (read: obsession with) comics and superheroes and all of it. It's also the point I've progressed to in my creation of Doc Stalwart and his world, so it makes sense to pump the breaks there - specifically in April of that year - hence, Stalwart '85.

However, I really (really) wanted to roll it forward one more year and do the game as Stalwart '86, and have the game world frozen in time on April 7, 1986. That was the day that the British Bulldogs captured the WWF world tag team championships at Wrestlemania 2. On that day, I decided that it would be the first ever "Michael T. Desing Day", and I have (literally) celebrated it every year since. It was the greatest moment of my young life (not exaggerating). The British Bulldogs were like superheroes that came to life, and to see them win those championship belts was the most exciting thing I'd ever seen - it was as cool as a superbowl championship. Since my actual birthday is the day after Christmas, I always wanted another day during the year to celebrate (since I always felt like my birthday got lost in the shuffle). April 7, 1986 gave me as good a reason as any.

But by April of '86 I'd already at that point started to divide my loyalties between comics and wrestling (and gaming), and comics were starting to move into third place. I had also started to get the first inklings of being jaded with comics - I was starting to find some of the stories a bit repetitive, and some of the events a little disappointing. I mean, this was the year Secret Wars II was in full speed - that sort of was the hallmark to me that Marvel had jumped the shark a little bit. 

But in case you care, I have Stalwart '85 locked in time to exactly one year before Michael T. Desing day, which would be April 7, 1985.

Welcome to Midvale

Over the last few days, I've been in Iowa City with my daughter for a diving camp at the University of Iowa. It's been a  little tiring, but a lot of fun. I've enjoyed driving around the city, walking around, spending some time at the waterfront, and seeing part of America that I have no experience with. It is both very similar to, and quite a bit different from, the world of Western New York that I know.

But, everwhere I go, I have the same thought - this is how I always pictured Midvale. Granted, this is a city in 2024 and not 1984, but the feel of the city, its layout and landscape and topography, is very much what I envision when I think of Doc Stalwart's home town of Midvale.

It's got this inherent dissonance between modern and traditional; it is proud of its farming heritage, but there's a Starbucks on every corner. 

Nowhere was this inherent dissonance on greater display than in a street concert we walked through last night. As we moved through a crowd of white people sipping $6 smoothies and eating $10 ice cream sundaes, the band emoted about how the heartland is hurting and the coastal elites don't care... and people nodded and sipped their smoothies. 

In Buffalo, I can drive a few blocks and see HURTING. I see it. A lot of it. Go through my school district for ten minutes, and I see people hurting. It's pretty clear. I haven't seen the whole of Iowa City, but I've gone out of my way to go out of my way driving around, and I'm not seeing it. I'm seeing a lot of comfort and peace and stability. So, I'm not sure where this mindset comes from.

But I could see it wearing on Doc. Doc is a patient man - probably to a fault. He is able to see the other's side - also maybe to a fault. But I would think that being surrounded by some people who always feel like they deserve just a little bit more than they have, and that others are others are always unfairly taking from them, would wear him down. I would think that after another meeting where the mayor asks him if he could just 'help out a little bit more' than he does he would finally decide to go someplace where the needs are genuine. 

It is the birthplace of Doc Stalwart, but he just cannot live there. I love that his boyhood hero is heartland - this is something that is core to his character. He is rooted in the heartland. But, he also cannot stay here forever. Because there is genuine hurting out there.

Ret-Conning Skye Stalwart

I got an idea to retcon Skye Stalwart a bit... my original thought was that she (at some point in the near future of Doc's timeline) traveled to the future and joined the Stalwart Legion of the 28th Century. I have since added a four-part appearance of the Stalwart Legion to the official list of Doc stories, in a battle against Synchronous (in the early 1970s). I figured that this version wouldn't have her in it yet, but then I thought it would be even better if I decided this was a twist; the Stalwart Legion 'always' had Skye Stalwart in it (so she is an existing character circa 1985), but Doc didn't know this was his daughter... maybe SHE didn't even know she was his daughter. So, he's already met an older version of her, thinking that this was a far future descendent, and only recently learned that she was actually his daughter who had been whisked to the future.

I like a lot about this idea, and it puts Skye into the more active continuity of other things, so I like that better, too. I like that her story is, in effect, told 'out of time', because we meet her a bit older than she ultimately ends up being in the primary continuity.

It might even be worth tying this all to Scooter James as a creative force; Skye Stalwart was his idea at maybe twelve years old, and he was the one who ultimately made the decision to add her to the current continuity as Doc's daughter. I like it that she is 'his' character.

I have decided that whatever ends up in print in Stalwart '85 is going to be the final, official word on what actually happened in the continuity of this world, and I'm going to have to build from it. Needless to say, I'll be spending some time really thinking through how all of the various pieces truly fit together before publishing that final book in a few months...

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

Another Cover Option

I worked up another cover option today... and I think I like this one better (although Mary and Grace both lean towards the other one based on John Byrne)... and by the way, I heard back that Mr. Byrne is no longer doing commissions (and it sounds like if it was meant to be used for a cover, it would be have been the entire funding goal I have for the KS... so, yeah...). The odds of the cover ending up as a commission are getting slimmer and slimmer. I just don't see a viable option for that.

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.

Channeling Byron John

I decided to try my hand at an iconic sort of John Byrne pose and built the cover around that. I cannot stop drawing like me (since I've been drawing like me for forty years now), but it at least has some JB vibes to it. Not bad for a first pass at a cover design, if I do say so myself...

 

This Alone Would Justify A Kickstarter

So I got the crazy idea this morning to reach out and see if John Byrne might be commissioned to draw Doc Stalwart for the cover of the new version of the RPG. I mean... to have an original Doc drawing done by John Byrne? That would be... I cannot even tell you. I'm tearing up just thinking about the idea of it.

I don't know if Mr. Byrne even does commissions anymore (most of the things I found are from several years ago), but I sent an email and crossed my fingers. 

The thought of sitting here with a scan of John Byrne's art trying to color it just is kind of overwhelming to me. That he would even know I and this project exist is kind of meta if I'm being honest. I would call it a full circle moment if it happens, but I don't think that would even explain it fully.

If I Was In Charge of the MCU

So this would be my pitch for FF/Doomsday/Secret Wars setup... I already own some baseball caps, so all I need is a few billion dollars...

Tony Stark in another reality (one we haven't seen yet), failed in saving the universe, stopping Thanos, and any of it. He lived, but almost everyone else died. He lost it, and learning of the TVA, created his own alternate timeline/universe where he had absolute power. This idealized universe is the 1960s version of the FF (because he wants to fix his own childhood trauma still), where he is a godlike ruler that everyone loves and adores. He creates the Fantastic Four, a perfect little family, to be like his 'lil perfect Avengers' that never were. It's the life he would want if he could dream it up. The problem is, that there's an innate corruption to the whole thing. He cannot quite figure out why, but there's a flaw, a malevolent force that wants to destroy it, that becomes Galactus. He gets his buddies the FF (who totally think he's the best) to join him on this big fight against Galactus, and they fail - their whole universe is destroyed, and Galactus is now free to go about devouring other universes as well.

Tony's horribly scarred in the process, feels betrayed by Reed (who realizes what the truth is partway through) and goes full on rage master. He's decided he needs to stop Galactus from eating universes, and he hides out in the Void for a bit to catch a breather and put a plan together. He sees that one universe was able to defeat Thanos, so he decides on a greatest hits, where he will be their 'new iron man' and lead them. Except, he's a deeply flawed one, and the heroes he gathers slowly turn against him. He finally decides to heck with them all - he's going to let Galactus wipe out the multiverse after all, and they can all just pound salt. He assumes the role of Doom at the end of Doomsday, promising to destroy everything.

In Secret Wars, the heroes have to work together to both stop Galactus' rampaging throughout the universe sniffing things out (Doom took out the TVA already, because they kept getting in his way), and has undone the mechanisms that allowed for time travel (that whole quantum zone thing was more trouble than it was worth. Good thing he tricked Galactus into eating it). 

At the end of it all, Doom and the remaining heroes have settled in what remains of Earth 616 (When Galactus ate the void, it destroyed him because it is a place of nothing, so it actually consumed him - or they sort of consumed each other). The multiverse is shut down for good, there is no more TVA, there is no more quantum realm, and we can go back to telling smaller stories set in one universe for a while. I'd even let the celestials take part in all of this (as they rise up and go to various universes to save them, only to die in the attempt against Galactus). I'd want to get that whole dangling plot thread of Celestials out of the way for good.

IRL

One of the things that the comics do well (when they do this well) is that they have the superhero's performance closely tied to their drama outside of super life. When Peter is fighting with MJ and forgot to stop and get bagels for Aunt May, he's suddenly struggling against the Green Goblin more, because things just sort of spiral out of control on him. Tony Stark's personal life is in shambles, and suddenly he cannot remember how the repulsors work. One of the great things about FASERIP was that it had Karma, which actually created mechanisms for this stuff to directly impact your super-heroing.

I've got an idea for a mechanic called In Real Life (IRL) that would have a direct bearing on your superhero life, and emulate Karma (after a fashion).

Your IRL starts at zero. Everyone is pretty chill. No drama. But then you get a call that your sister needs your help just as the alarm goes off at First National Bank. You don your mask and ghost your sister. You take a -1 hit to IRL. At the beginning of the adventure, your GM requires you to check mind (DT 4). You fail. It was your mom's birthday. Oh, shoot. I mean, you kind of got her world peace for her birthday, but that's not going to make up for missing the luncheon. -1 to IRL. As long as your IRL is at 0, things are okay. People might be a little annoyed or a little extra pleased with you, but it's not affecting your superhero life.

But... once you get into positives or negatives, things change.

At -1 (or +1) you receive a shift to your hero points, moving either up or down one die rating. At IRL -1, your hero points (normally worth D10) drop to D8.  At IRL +1, your D10 hero points are now rolled using D12.

At -4 (or +4), you receive a -2 or +2 shift to your hero points, moving either up or down two dice ratings. 

At +10 or better, you're on top of the world. You get the +2 dice shift, and +1 bonus hero point. Go you! But... you can also hit rock bottom. At -10 IRL, you've watched your life totally fall apart. You cannot use hero points at all, and you suffer -1 edge to all of your checks. EVERYTHING falls apart. You cannot focus, you keep dropping your weapon, you cannot get your powers to work. 

I think this would be a rare thing, but I also think it could be a cool way to build a character arc that is supported mechanically. I think of Daredevil's Born Again storyline here.

Your GM would have a lot of autonomy in deciding this, and could even deal bonus IRL damage for huge events. You forgot to get the medicine for your grandfather (-1 IRL), but he ended up having a heart attack and went to the hospital as a result (oof. That's another -3). And... while you were off saving Meridian again, he kind of died (yeah. That's another -5, so you're at -9 from this one series of awful things). You're living on the edge of everything falling totally apart on you. When Uncle Ben dies, Peter Parker hits -10... and realizes he can never let himself feel this way again. It's a character-building moment because the weight of his life choices ended up costing him dearly.

I like that this sytem:

1. Emulates comics (always good).
2. Can be plugged in easily or totally ignored (always good).
3. Is very easy to manage, track, and implement (more goodness).
4. Puts a heavy focus on roleplaying and character work without adding much. Character stat blocks don't need to add this (because everyone is assumed at zero). It's something you could choose to use for your character (Rogue TOTALLY has this), or ignore (Wolverine is Wolverine whether or not he's madly in love with Jean, and whether or not she loves him back). Some characters wouldn't worry about their personal lives, because being a super is all it's about. A player who wants to curate this gets a benefit from doing so (the bonus to hero points for success), knowing that the risk of messing up is always out there for the GM to tinker with. I almost think that a character like Captain America has this turned off entirely. He's going to always put his country first, and personal sacrifices are going to be necessary. He won't let the personal disappointments of his life interfere with his job performance. That's a character-based decision right there that has in-game consequences (because he cannot get the hero point bonuses either - no matter how much good he does, it never really makes much difference - he soldiers on anyway).
5. This 'replaces' XP in some measure. Your character can 'grow' and get 'better' over time in a meaningful way without the power creep of leveling. It's more organic, but also creates a sense of change in your character over time. It rewards ongoing play.

Cobbling The Book Together

After binging the rest of X-Men '97 (I couldn't help myself), I spent a few hours this afternoon and evening moving everything for Stalwart into a single document, and then started to work on formatting and organizing. I plunked in everyting that I think is necessary, and left a few spots for expansion/clarification where I have a few ideas... and the book is 83 pages and almost 40,000 words! Dang. The 'rules' are only about 24 pages, and then the rest is setting, characters, and background. Still, it's a bit of a beast. By comparison, Stalwart Age was 87 pages and 23,000 words overall. I increased the font one size (from 10 to 11), so the pages don't feel quite as jam-packed (and as my eyes get older, I need larger fonts - I am my target audience). That said, this is a much more complete package than anything I've done in a long time. 

I like the smaller format of the 6x9 book, but I think that a traditional 8 1/2 x 11 book (saddle stitched) is the best for gaming; I'm constantly bending pages in my trade paperbacks, but the big books lay nice and flat and are easier to manage. The bigger book also leads to more variety in page layouts, so that the whole thing ends up a little more interesting and varied throughout. The layout of the Stalwart books has been very easy, since it's a single column in a smaller space; this takes more management of the space, and I've already got a few pages I really like (and a few that bother me and will need work).

All-in-all, off to a good start.

I still don't know what to DO with this (like, is a Kickstarter even a viable option), but I figure I can probably have it done in a few weeks.

X-Men 97 and In Medias Res

So I have had a little time this week - summer school is done, and the girls are at a diving camp on the other side of the country... so I've had some time. I went for the longest bike ride of my life (somewhere around 40 miles), spent a few hours with my friend Bob making characters for a game of Swords and Wizardry that he's starting (and which I am incredibly excited to play in), and watched the first five episodes of X-Men 97.

I've told you about my first comic book character - the Renegade (from like 1984), but I've never told you about the follow-up book. It was called "Phoenix Force", and it was entirely and completely inspired by Byrne's run on Fantastic Four, but it was all X-Men character swipes. The team was led by "Pulsar" (Cyclops with Reed Richards' brains), with a girlfriend called "Mind Girl", and two other characters named "Frostbite" (who happened to be able to make his ice into huge slip and slides, of course) and "Borg" (who looked like Colossus but who had the Thing's "I'm such a monster boo hoo" persona). They lived in the Phoenix Tower and battled a scientist/sorcerer called the Overlord, who was ruling a different Eastern Eurpean nation from a different castle, so therefore a completely original character. 

Yesterday, I'm watching X-Men 97 and halfway hoping the Overlord just made an appearance. Just for a second.

I could write a full review, but I'll just say this - it's everything I could want it to be. The pacing is fantastic, the characters are compelling, the conflicts have high stakes, and the emotional connections I'm building to the story are legit. It's just really, really well done.

But I stopped watching at episode 5 and I'm just going to let it marinade for a bit (maybe until tomorrow if I can help myself)... because I know now that this is the sweet spot. I haven't read an X-Men comic since about 1988, so I know of half the characters just from their images and other things, but know next to nothing about their stories; the characters I do know have grown up a bit since I last saw them. So, it's all new to me. As a result, I was genuinely surprised by the events of episode 5. I thought the show was going one direction, and it zagged on me. Now, I'm sitting here with the world in ruins, the bad guys seemingly too big to overcome, and with no clue what happens next.

It's awesome.

This is how I felt the whole time between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It is how I felt between Infinity War and Endgame. It is how I really, really hope I feel between Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. There's a big difference between feeling as though I'd like to see what happens next and knowing that I NEED to see what happens next. After Jedi, I wanted to see more, but I also understood that if I never saw anything else, that was enough. I was going to be okay. I was not okay after Empire. If Jedi never came out, I would have had significantly more childhood trauma to work through.

And from a gaming perspective, this is where I would want to be as a player. You've set up this rich world with great characters, and then blew the whole thing up. Now, you hand it off to the players and let them figure it out.

I want to move Doc's story forward. Kind of. But there's a part of me (maybe a bigger part) that just wants to sit here (here being 1985), and let things sit where they are. Skye Stalwart has just been rescued from the Null Zone. Meridian is rebuilding. The world has been shaken by the Null Incursion and now the (impending) discovery that there may be aliens among us.

And I've realized what Doc would do next. He would want to destroy Null the Devourer and close all access to the Null Zone forever. It has taken his wife, it took his daughter's childhood, and it took the peace and security in Meridian that he had fought for years to maintain. I could see him being somewhat obsessed with this, and I could see this taking him away from earth for a 12-issue run in his own book. Earth has just awakened to the presence of aliens, the Hall of Victory is closed, and the Victory Legion is scattered to the four winds.

This is where the game just sits. April, 1985: The Mighty Doc Stalwart #265 ("Turning the Page", where Doc sets off on a solo mission into the Null Zone to destroy it forever), Skye Stalwart: The Girl Who Fell From Earth #1, and Stalwart Team Up #8 (which was a bi-monthly series at the time). I know that this is what I have room to 'backfill' to. I keep thinking of the 'back issue bin' of expansions where I do for Doc's older stories what I have started to do with Team Up - tell the story and then stat it out in game terms. I've already written a pretty cool Doc Stalwart invading Simian City story that goes somewhere in the continuity, but I haven't figured it out yet - but it's a chance to flesh out the city in more detail, outline some of Simian Prime's tech, and add to that facet of the world a little bit. 

Just for reference, these actual books came out in April 1985: Secret Wars #12, Crisis on Infinite Earths #1. So, it's a good place to sit for a while. Amazing Spider-Man 260 (with one of my favorite covers of all time), had just come out in January. This is my 'golden age' of comics collecting - I'm getting back issues as much as I'm getting the new issues, absorbing all of this story at once. I remember I was reading the reprint series of the original Amazing Spider-Man books (Marvel Tales) while also collecting the ongoing Amazing SM and Peter Parker books, and loving how long and rich the history of this character was. It was later into Byrne's run on FF, Spidey was still dealing with the drama of the alien symbiote costume, and all was right (and by that I mean wrong) with the world.

When I launched Stalwart only a few months ago (but what in some ways feels a lifetime), I did so under the belief that I'd start to roll the clock forward in this world. But I want the game to feel like I did collecting both the Amazing Spider-Man and his reprint book at the same time. 

   

ALL of this got me thinking that it might be time to start putting EVERYTHING together in one big book. It would be all of the Stalwart game stuff I've released, some notes I've got going for GM advice and expanding/clarifying how to use Hero Points (Cyclops using his consussive blasts to fall safetly in Episode 1 was a great example of how I want hero points to work - you use your power in some very stunt-like way that you cannot just do all the time - you create a cool storytelling moment for your character without suddenly amping up their powers exponentially). I've got SO much stuff at this point that getting it all under one set of covers, unifying and simplifying it, and putting all of the miscellaneous references (and a lot of stuff from the Stalwart Age blog that nobody has ever seen but which fleshes out the game world in so many ways) into this one book seems like it might be worth the effort. 

And this time, Doc Stalwart finally ends up on the cover. For a game centered on him, I'm kind of surprised that he's never been the cover character for any of the game releases... and I think it's called Stalwart '85. Just 'cause. 

Transparency Report: Some Numbers and Business Model Talky Talk

The last two months have been, far and away, the best two months of RPG sales I have had in a decade, and have generated more enthusiasm than I have ever had for anything I've done in comics or RPGs. You can see the sales at the bottom (because I just cut and pasted the reports right out of DriveThru for your reference).

Why am I sharing this?

I suppose because this is the reality of being a self-publisher. I talk to a LOT of friends, family, and students about this, and their shared belief is that you go through a three-step process: A) Create something that's pretty good, B) Put it up for sale, C) Buy a yacht and set sail around the world, because you can do that now. You're a 'published author' = 'you must be rich' (or, you'd be rich if you were working for one of the big companies rather than doing this stupid independent thing you are so fixated on, but that's a whole other discussion - I have no numbers but do have a lot of anecdotal evidence that suggests I am probably better off where I am right now).

This begs the question - why don't I just come out with another game like Stalwart? Except do that every two weeks? Forever? Wouldn't I then increase these sales all the time? Like... duh. The only problem is that ... A) Stalwart somehow finds one of the remaining sweet spots in the industry where the supply has not quite caught up to the demand (supers systems of low/medium crunch), and B) Stalwrt took me forty years to finally get right. I've been trying to write this game since I was eleven. I don't think I can do that again next week. If I start now and live to 90, I might squeeze out another one of these. Everyone has their go-to fantasy game, and most people don't need another one. For some reason, many people are still looking for that holy grail of supers games.

Okay, Let's Crunch Some Numbers

1. First of all, I also launched the itch.io page, and have 27 core rules downloads (I put it up PWYW there because I had no idea how the model worked there really) and have had 10-20 downloads of the other books, and zero total sales. I'm not loving itch. It's got a different set of people (that's good) but they don't seem to really be as invested or care as much (that's bad). I'm competing with a wider and not-necessarily-compatible set of products for space. I'm meh about it so far. I'll keep it up (because why not) but I don't see much value in it right now. Maybe that will change.

2. I am a pretty active blogger, and I talk about my game a LOT (I think). Even when I don't have new releases, I'm trying to continually keep people aware that I'm working on the game, and I produce a lot of tertiary stuff that ties into or adds to the game in some way. I have been blogging for 14 years and this is post 1,290 ... and an average of about 25 people read any post I put up (posts with images end up in the 30s, posts with no images end up in the teens). I have NO idea how people make any money blogging (maybe they're a little more broad than 'niche game I produce in the darkest corner of the internet'), but still. You'd think I'd be able to get more traffic after 14 years and 1200 posts :) I added an image to this post just because I hope it gets some traffic (and full disclosure - this post is part of my business model, too. People might not know or care much about my game, but people are interested in reading about publishing if they want to do it, and more eyeballs is more eyeballs).

3. I ran a banner for Stalwart, thinking this would be a home run, and it was BY FAR the weakest banner I have ever run (20,000 impressions with 8 clicks - so .04% - that is very, very bad). I don't know why, but I suspect part of it was the high number of people who visited the Stalwart RPG page to begin with. They didn't click the banner because they had already seen the game's main page. That's the best I can figure.

4. My core 'business model' - a few foundational books in my back catalog along with frequent smaller releases as PWYW to keep new eyeballs on my stuff, is the winning formula. Over these two months, my sales break down into these three categories (broken down by sales, not by my earnings, which are 2/3 of this, so out of 400.62 on the two months my earnings are 260.40):

• Stalwart Core Rules (the thing I am trying to sell): 119.00 (29.7%)
• The PWYW releases for Stalwart (the things that support the thing I am trying to sell): 102.15 (25.5%)
• The back catalog (just other stuff I've done that I'm not actively promoting at all): 179.47 (44.8%) 

In the broadest strokes, it's the three-headed monster with roughly a quarter the core book, a quarter the PWYW supplements, and almost half the back catalog (the back catalog is the strongest overall performer)... Here's why this model works (I think):

First, I have produced some good content (that's kind of the most important thing). The back catalog accounted for a significant chunk of my sales (44.8%). If people like my new game they got for $1, they are far more likely to throw another ten or fifteen my way to get the other stuff I've done. That's HUGE.

Second, I set very modest price points. I think my games give good value for the money I ask. I could double my prices across the board and nobody would be too angry at me for trying to gouge people, but how far down would sales go? I understand that raw economics says as long as I sold 51% or more, I'd be ahead. However, two things work against this: 

A) Getting more eyeballs on my games is always better. The more people who get it, the more people might like it, and the more they might talk about it. Another reason to keep the itch.io page up - maybe the 'right' youtuber or blogger gets it there, says nice things about it, and suddenly I'm looking up yachts for sale on Google.

B) You guys are pretty awesome. For real. The reality is that each of you sets a value in your mind of what the game is worth to you, and you make sure to pay accordingly. Some of you felt that the World of Stalwart was worth $3 (and some of you more than that), but then decided that the Guide to Meridian was going to be the 'free one' you had already helped pay for. You felt like you'd made a pretty good investment in the game, and this supplement was a 'bonus' you should get for your support. I have no issues with that at all. I trust that at some point, I'll release something else you feel strongly about paying for, and you will. The model trusts you to set the value, and you collectively respond appropriately. Some people (who I very much doubt would happen upon this blog) have decided to fill several external hard drives with every free RPG they can ever get. I don't think those peeps are ever going to be a dedicated base, and that's fine. I am not going to change what I do so that someone doesn't have file 3752 on Drive F in a drawer someplace. It's why I like Patreon as a model (people pay you what they decide things are worth), but it's sort of a closed space (a lot behind the wall), so I think it ends up limiting itself. Setting up a Patreon at this point would be double-dipping on people - if you want to support me more, there are lots of ways to do it already.

Anyway, here are the sales charts:

Edit: By the way, here are the sales reports for March and April, so you can see what 'typical' months look like. I figure that context matters, and without the context of my regular sales, it's hard to see what I see in the numbers above...