Power Creep and 1985

I'm working on Stalwart Phile #7, which is dedicated to technology and gear. I'm formalizing some bits about trick weapons and utility belts, and providing an alternate system for battle suit generation... I'm also creating a specific list of gifts that would be just for generating battle suits, and wanted to make sure I left no stone unturned. Therefore, I decided to check out the abilities of Iron Man's armor, and see what he can do (in current comics), to see if there was anything worth adapting. 

And... wow. The question isn't what can Iron Man do, it's what CAN'T he do? He has as much magnetic control as Magneto did in 1985. And he has as much strength as Hulk did in 1985. Maybe more. I mean, he's basically got everyone's powers from all of 1985 in one suit. I don't read any current comics, but I see this in online debates in the superhero groups on FB... can Flash beat Superboy Prime? Well, Flash can move faster than thought and can travel the Multiverse in a few seconds, but Superboy Prime can lift the entire universe and is strong enough to bend reality to his will, so it's a tough match.

I mean, really? Is this what we've come to? Thank goodness I don't read current comics. That's just stupid.

And it is impossible for gaming. I mean, you're trying to put Captain America on the same sort of scale with someone who can reshape the multiverse to his will in a heartbeat, and somehow they are on the same team? I'm glad that I set the game in 1985, because power creep was only beginning to set in. Back then, 100 tons was a LOT of weight to pick up. The heavy hitters like Thing and Colossus could lift about 70-80 tons. Now, Solomon Grundy can lift "200 quintillion tons". 1 quintillion has 18 zeroes. Mm-kay.

Plus, I just Googled this - Spiderman once held up the Daily Bugle. Um. I remember when Gladiator picked up the entire Baxter Building, and it was one of the greatest feats of strength that the world had ever seen. Now Spiderman can do that. Yeah. No. Sorry.

Anyhow, back to game design. I just needed this reminder that Stalwart '85 is set in 1985, which means that the power scaling is also set in 1985 (and specifically Marvel Universe 1985, because DC had already given itself over to ridiculous power creep, which was part of the reason for Crisis on Infinite Earths - to scale Superman back a bit, and to make him the upper benchmark going forward - that didn't last very long). Good for me, it's 1985 forever.

First of all, Stalwart Phile #6 is now available for download, so you might want to head over to DrivethruRPG and check that out...

In other news, my good friend Rob came over last night, and we had a grand time playing HeroQuest. It was my first experience with the game, and I really enjoyed it. It made me hanker for some solid solo play rules for Stalwart '85, but as I started to think about that, I immediately ran into the old bugaboo of supers RPG adventure design - the wide variety of powers that characters could have immediately puts up barriers towards concrete design. In a fantasy game, the heroes can ignore the trap, disarm the trap with a thief, or use magic to foil the trap; in a supers game, there are dozens of ways the trap could be foiled or even exploited, and a GM needs to be present to adjudicate the creative use of a power. HeroQuest always presented me with two or three viable choices in each situation, but it was only two or three - I could quickly sort through my options and pick one from a limited menu. Supers gaming theoretically blows that menu up and gives you an infinite number of options depending on your power set. Rob and I talked about cards, and maybe having a series of event cards to guide you through the adventure, but even there a supers game is wider in scope and scale than dungeon crawling; dungeons by their nature are limited environments with limited choices. 

It's something I'll puzzle over more, but it was great to sit with a friend for a few hours and roll some dice.

Aldo's Character Building Walkthrough

Aldo did a fantastic job of walking us through character building for Stalwart '85. I really appreciate the time he took to make and post this. It's really helpful, if you've had trouble wrapping your head around how character creation works.

Thanks, Aldo! 

Stalwart Phile #5

The Stalwart Phile #5 is now available, and it expands Doc's world into a new location, Port City, with a new central hero, the Skarab. While Echo City is a street-level city that is largely controlled by the criminal empire, Port City is a more 'normal' city, with a more garish and motley collection of villains. I was tempted to give Messenger a sidekick and expand Gap City, but decided instead to add a whole set of new comics to the mix. 

Creative Cycles

I've written before about how I tend to do the bulk of my creative work (gaming and comics stuff) between about April and August... because my job as a teacher, and especially my work directing plays and musicals, has demanded the vast majority of my creative energy, leaving me sort of tapped out when it came to gaming-related stuff.

This year, obviously, is different. I was forced to retire in July due to my prognosis and treatment, so as the school year has gotten going, it's been doing so without me. I have to admit that the first few weeks, and a few benchmark events along the way, have been a bit rough. This last weekend was the high school's fall play, and that was my 'baby', so it was a little rough that the show must go on without me.

But... that also means that I have all of this bottled-up creative energy that is suddenly springing forward. First on the docket was a revision of my Army Ants game, and then it was back to Stalwart '85. Over the weekend, I put together Stalwart Phile #4, and I've already almost finished Stalwart Phile #5. I am really, really happy with my work on this, and with where my drawing is at. I put together this cover this morning, and thought I'd share it, since it's going to be nestled on page 1 of SP #5. I just have to draw a helicopter and do an editing pass, and I'll be releasing Stalwart Phile #5 in the next day or two... 

And I've already got plans for #6, which is going to be Christmas themed. I mean, you're not really a hero unless you've saved Christmas at least once... 

Next Stop... Port City

I spent some time today going through and organizing random ideas I had scattered across documents, putting them in one place so that I have my master brainstorming list together. I ended up with QUITE a list of character ideas. I mean, I have names and a quick blurb for 30 characters that I want to add to the game. The concern I have with many of them is that they don't 'fit' nicely into the world I have right now. Many of the characters are sort of odd street-level villains. I don't have a good hero to put them against; they are too low-brow for Doc. They fit scale wise in Echo City against Zealot, but he's a bit more serious in tone (more Daredevil I guess), and many of these belong in Spidey's rogue's gallery. So, I decided to create a new hero, and a new city for this hero. 

My meta backstory is going to be that this is the second generation of the PD character the Scarab, and he inherited his uncle's ring (although it gives him slightly different powers). This adds to his strength and coordination. He's also very smart and wealthy (he is an inventor who inherited his uncle's fortune), so he can have a secret lair, a cool vehicle or two, and gadgets. I picture him as a hybrid of Spidey and Blue Beetle, with a strange gallery of foes. He'll probably end up in the next Stalwart Phile or two, along with several of his villains. I can then expand them and their city over time. The meta comic hook is that his series was short-lived and published by another small publisher; Stalwart Press bought them out in the early 80s and rolled Skarab and his rogues into a background feature in Doc's book.

And, as you can tell, he uses my 'trick' of changing a letter in the name of a character to make him a little more copyright-proof... I probably do that a little too much :) 

 

Stalwart Phile #4

Stalwart Phile #4 is now available, providing an overview of the Circle of the Serpent and their base of operations. I already broke with my plan of alternating releases between PD characters and my own world; I think I'm going to lean towards expanding Doc's world more and on PD characters less, but we'll see. Some Christmas-themed write ups might be fun for next issue... hmm...

Getting Back in the Groove

This morning, I started work on Stalwart Phile #4, featuring the Circle of the Serpent, a snake-themed villain group/cult. It's coming along nicely, and I like the characters who are part of it. Here's a pic of Swamp Rattler, one of the three new characters. I'm also creating a map for the group's hideout, so you'll also get something of a mini-adventure to go with the new characters. I expect to have this done tonight or tomorrow...

In the interim, I've also updated the Stalwart Comics Database with the two issues that these characters first appear in (working on a cover now), and I've also updated some house rules that will appear in the issue as well.

I am glad that I did the Army Ants game. I feel like I got my juices flowing again, and I am back in the swing a little bit. Feels good.

  

I Love It When a Campaign Comes Together...

Mary and I have been playing for three sessions now, and I have started to have an idea for a way to turn this into a campaign (and I'm thinking of it as a comic series as well). 

• In session one, our characters were sent to a gnat encampment to recover secret plans from the gnats. They were part of a large squad, but their helicopter was shot down en route and only these two survived. The gnats had recovered these plans (among other things) from a crashed fly helicopter. Our characters were successful in defeating the gnats and recovering the plans.
• In session two, they started to foot it back to the Hill (20 meters), but Mary's character remembered that there was a ladybug safe house only two meters away. They got to the safe house and found that it had been overcome by flies (looking for the plans that had been lost), and the few ladybugs stationed here were dead. They managed to recover a helicopter, and they decided to fly this back to the Hill.
• In session three, en route to the Hill, they received a distress call from some crickets who were under attack. These crickets were in a tower defending a bridge, but were under attack by three flea-controlled armored cars. Mary and I had our characters intervene, using the helicopter to provide air support, and defeating the fleas. It turned out the fleas had been infected in some way, driven crazy by something or someone. At the end of session three, they reported back to the Hill and turned over everything they found. Mary made her rank promotion check (I failed mine), and she improved to W-2 from W-1.

Going forward, I think I have the next three sessions planned... the 'plans' they recovered are for a mutagen that turns bugs into mindless, violent berserkers. Intel is going to reveal that the mutagen was created by a fly scientist. Our characters are going to be sent to board a train in transit and kidnap the scientist (session 4). This scientist will know of the hidden fly lab where they were working on this mutagen (session 5 and session 6). I already drew a map that was going to be part of my megadungeon for my fantasy games, but it's actually perfect as the hidden lab (the map is obviously unfinished, but I thought I'd give you a peak ahead). They're going to have to clear the lab out, defeating a whole bunch of insects that have been experimented on (and the flies doing the experimenting). The collapsed passage is to a lower level where the mutagen got into the air, and that whole level is filled with toxic gas (which will require the team to wear gas masks, and will change the 'feel' of the place). 

I think maybe the finale is an assault on an old castle controlled by a fly commander from 'the old days' who wants to return the flies to glory, and who financed the creation of the mutagen. Maybe the team will also have to defend the Hill from an attack by mutated insects... or maybe the mutagen is released in the Hill while they are away, and they have to try and neutralize their own friends and family with non-lethal attacks. That would be pretty cool, too. I'm happy for how this is coming together as a mini-campaign, and I think it would make a pretty good sourcebook at some point.

Army Ants RPG is now live

The newest iteration of my Army Ants in RPG form is now available in both print and pdf (links below). This uses the same core engine as Stalwart '85, but with a whole bunch of modifications to make it work for the Army Ants and their world. Plus, I've changed the verbiage from "Michael T. Desing's Army Ants" to "Dr. Mike Desing's Army Ants", which may seem like a minor change, but to me it's an important re-branding. I'm looking at this is 'starting over' with the characters and the setting - looking at ways to tell new stories through it, merging comics and games as a 'medium' going forward. It leads off with a remastered copy of Army Ants #1, and then a spiffy game system that has all sorts of new fiddly bits rooted in the setting I've been building for 30 years.

You can order the PDF version here.

You can order the print version here.

Army Ants Character Sheets

I finished the character sheet this morning for the game, and created sheets for the characters Mary and I are using for our actual play sessions. 

I am using the 'greatest hits' from my various iterations of the Army Ants game; the character sheets I created for Army Ants: Twilight were awesome, and these are upgrades from that character sheet. I'm really, really pleased with how these have turned out. 

Two Games Diverged In A Wood...

The newest iteration of Army Ants, which I am just calling Army Ants the RPG, has officially become its own thing, mechanically shifting away from Stalwart '85 in some significant ways. I had originally ported over the rules for secondary resistant traits (Endure for Might, Focus for Mind, etc.), but realized deep into the draft that there is really no need for these. The only stat I really need is Evade, which I have replaced with a Defense stat. An ant's defense is going to be half their Reflex die rating + their level. Ants start at level 2 (capping out at level 5), and Reflex dice values range from D4 to D12... so Defense ratings will range from 4 to 11. These are the DT for landing a successful attack against you. The Army Ants game really doesn't have any need for the other passive traits; they largely exist in Stalwart '85 to provide a foundation for many of the superhuman gifts that characters have. Army Ants doesn't have any of these gifts, so there is little need for the secondary traits. You are free to take a look at the current version of the rules. I'd say that this is about 90% of the way to the finish line...

MTDAA Actual Play 2 - the Need for Speed

Mary and I continued our mission last night, trying out a few new rules along the way. I really like how combat feels in this version of the game, and things flow really well. I feel a little pang of regret, because I wish that I'd crafted this system a decade ago... the rules for Army Ants: Legacy (2013) are double-edged; the core system is vaguely similar to this, but is very clunky and counter-intuitive by comparison. I've tightened and streamlined so much in the intervening years. That book is pretty to look at. I love the organization of it, the design, and all of the 'fluff'. There is very little of that I would change, but the actual mechanics of the rules themselves are worlds apart from what I'm working on now. 

I'm still planning on releasing the game in 48-page books (core rules and then sourcebooks). You can see the progress of the current rules right here.

I'll discuss one thing in a little detail... I was working yesterday on vehicle rules and travel. One of the biggest challenges I've always had with the Army Ants is the conversion of scale and movement. When you look at actual proportions of how fast insects move (and especially how fast they can fly), and then scale these things to comparable 'human scale', the numbers get way crazy. Here's a for instance... a human can walk about 3 miles per hour. In conversion scale-wise to the game, this would mean an ant can walk about 12 meters per hour (a meter is roughly a quarter mile in an apples to apples comparison). However, in the real world, a black ant can travel 8 cm per second! This is 288 meters per hour... scaled to the game, this is the rough equivalent of 72 miles per hour, or 24x as fast as a human. 

Ultimately, I decided that insect scale movement, rated on a scale of 1 to 10 with 3 being 'average', suggests that a typical ant (move 3) can sprint up to 3 cm in one action (1-2 seconds), or can patrol up to 3 cm in one round (6 seconds). This equates to patrolling 30 cm per minute, or 18 meters per hour. This 'feels' appropriate for insects and is pretty clean.   

It gets even crazier for air travel; in reality, a dragonfly can travel 35 miles per hour. This would be over 50 km (we'll round down to 50 km for convenience). This is 50,000 meters. Again, using a meter as 1/4 mile conversion to the game world, this means that a dragonfly (in game terms) can fly the equivalent of 12,500 miles per hour, or 16x the speed of sound. Ultimately, I created a hybrid of truth and fiction as I did for 'walking', setting a vehicle's speed rating of 1 as the baseline for 'slow vehicle', and scaling up to about 10 for most vehicles. Vehicle speed represents meters per round (6 seconds), which 'feels' like a reasonable speed to travel, even though it is not how fast things actually travel. A rating of 1 is still very, very fast in a direct scale conversion (being the equivalent of 150 mph). This becomes a speed that I can live with (and is much faster than ants walk). An ant can sprint 3 cm with one action, or can patrol 3 meters in ten minutes (so 18 meters per hour). I decided that for flying insects, I would keep things at insect scale rather than moving them to vehicle scale; in effect, a jeep or tank is still going to be faster than most flying insects. An insect with fly Move 6 (6 meters ) is slower than a jeep, with its Speed 1 (traveling 1 meter per round of 6 seconds, or 10 meters per minute). Land vehicles are going to have Speed ratings of 1-3, while flying vehicles are going to have Speed ratings of 4+ (capped out at about 10 for a fast jet).

Conversion: Vehicle Speed ratings in km per hour

.5 = .3 km/h (300 meters per hour); equivalent of 75 mph

1 = .6 km/h (600 meters per hour); equivalent of 150 mph

2 = 1.2 km/h; equivalent of 300 mph

3 = 1.8 km/h; equivalent of 450 mph

4 = 2.4 km/h; equivalent of 600 mph

5 = 3 km/h; equivalent of 750 mph (MACH I)

6 = 3.6 km/h; equivalent of 900 mph

7 = 4.2 km/h; equivalent of 1,050 mph

8 = 4.8 km/h; equivalent of 1,200 mph

9 = 5.4 km/h; equivalent of 1,350 mph

10 = 6 km/h; equivalent of 1,500 mph (MACH II)

12 = 7.2 km/h; equivalent of 1,800 mph

15 = 9 km/h; equivalent of 2,250 mph (MACH III)

20 = 12 km/h; equivalent of 3,000 mph (MACH IV)

The Heart of the Army Ants RPG

I've made no secret that all of my fantasy RPG work is an effort to recreate the vibe of B/X, while my supers work is always trying to evoke FASERIP. Army Ants comes from a different place, and is very much rooted in the WEG Star Wars game. I specifically loved how the core rules presented the foundation of the game world, but how each supplement fleshed out a specific era or facet. There was the Rebel Alliance sourcebook, the Empire sourcebook, one for each of the movies... it was a pretty cool way to go about building on the core game. I've always envisioned the Army Ants game in the same way; I still have a draft of the 'Ant Forces Sourcebook' and the 'Empire of the Wasps Sourcebook' on my hard drive somewhere, that I started thirty years ago. In a perfect world, I would have been publishing Army Ants supplements for the last thirty years, a la GURPS.

At present, I'm envisioning the latest Army Ants core rules being in the same format as Hack'D and Slash'D. I LOVE that little booklet - it's 48 pages, but the complete rules you need to play. Lulu helps a lot with this; I love the little saddle-stitched format, but they only print those up to 48 pages; it becomes a design challenge to get the core rules down to 48 pages, but I have always liked design challenges. However, it also means that I know a deeper Ant Forces sourcebook and a deeper Wasp Empire book (at the least) are on deck. I mean, I'll probably never get around to actually publishing these, and nobody would buy them if I did, but they're still in my imagination somewhere.

That's the funny thing about Army Ants; I literally have no reason to ever go back to it. It is, far and away, my least successful creative project of all time. I mean, people know me for it, but few people really like it very much. When I release game material for Army Ants, it always sells less than fantasy or supers work. In fact, I kind of know the trends at this point; I will sell 100+ books of a supers system (I've released a few), maybe 50 of a fantasy system, and will struggle to get to 20 copies sold of Army Ants.

But I'm also at the point in my creative process (and in life) where I don't really care how many books I sell. That used to be my primary (if not only) measure of success. Now, my primary (if not only) measure of success is how I feel about it when I'm done. I guess that makes it a vanity project, but I'm okay with that.

MTDAA AP Session 1

Mary and I did session one for my newest iteration of the MTDAA rules (that you can see here), and it went well. After their helicopter crash landed, the Ladybug Covert Operative Daisy and the Ant Ranger Nomad snuck into the Gnat Compound, took the two towers, and proceeded to machine gun the eighteen gnats and one cockroach that were stationed here. They took some significant damage (both down to fewer than 3 hits by the end), but were victorious. They managed to capture the plans for the new rifle the cockroaches were going to get, and they destroyed the facility where they had created a set of prototypes. Now they are 20 meters from the Hill, and have to find a way to get back home...

The rules are the same rules (basically) for Stalwart '85, so I was familiar with them (duh) and already knew a lot of what worked. This did, however, give me the first opportunity to play test the new rules for actions (everyone takes their first action, then everyone takes their second, then everyone takes their third)... this worked really well. I like it better than how I had it before, so this is going to be something I formalize for S85 in some way in relative soon-ness. The enemies were appropriately-scaled; the gnats they usually could one shot, but the cockroach was really, really tough to kill (because, you know, cockroaches).

I was CLOSE to getting these rules right ten year ago when I did the MTDAA Kickstarter. A lot of the numbers are the same, and character stat blocks ultimately end up being quite similar to those stat blocks, but the math to get there and the way that things work in play are significantly cleaner, simpler, and more intuitive. This is ending up being the game that I wanted MTDAA: Legacy to be. It's really a second edition of that game.

Stalwart '85 Character Advancement

I just posted about how I had to get some clutter out of the way, and suddenly I'm thinking of Stalwart '85 and character advancement... I was thinking that in the comics, characters do grow over time, but it tends to be very slow, with gradual increases in character effectiveness and power, and (once in a great while) bumps in character growth. I was thinking of something like this to tinker with for S85 and character progression...

OPTION ONE 

After every adventure, you have a cumulative 1 in 20 chance of advancing (so after the first adventure, you would have a 1 in 20 chance... after the second a 2 in 20 chance... after the third a 3 in 20 chance)... once you are successful, this resets. If after your third adventure, you roll a 2, you'd get to advance in some way, but the chances of increasing again would be reset to 1 after your next adventure. When you advance, you'd roll 1D6 to see how you advance...

1. Shift Body +1 Die

2. Shift Mind +1 Die

3. Shift Power +1 Die

4. Shift Reflex +1 Die

5. Gain one new Gift.

6. Increase Tier/Level +1.

On average, you would advance once every ten adventures, and you'd advance your tier/level once every 60 adventures. The GM would (of course) set caps on such advancement (or not. Think of Jean Grey becoming the Phoenix as an example of a character who got a pretty significant upgrade).

OPTION TWO

This is a more traditional XP progression. You earn experience points (an average adventure grants 5 xp... you earn 2 xp for an adventure that you do poorly on, but can earn up to 8 xp for a very successful adventure). You bank XP and then spend them to increase traits or tier, or to purchase new gifts.

Traits are 10x the dice value you are moving to... to shift from Might D10 to D12 costs 120 xp.

Tier are 20x the dice value you are moving to... to shift from level 4 (D8) to level 5 (D10) costs 200 xp.

New gifts have a default cost of 100 xp.

My Fickle Muse

First of all, a brief health update: I had my second round of nuclear medicine treatments on October 1, and I'm feeling remarkably well for someone who was given less than 12 months to live 10 months ago. I'm looking forward to crossing that barrier (which is December 10, for those keeping track). I keep setting new objectives for myself: as of now, I want to live long enough to watch my daughter graduate high school in June. Once I accomplish that, I'll set another goal. 

On to gaming stuff. I've been feeling well enough the last week or two to work on gaming-related stuff, and I keep trying to sit down and work on Doc Stalwart. I still have a few miscellaneous things to finish from the Kickstarter before it is 'complete'. While the primary items (the game itself and the adventure; all of the stat blocks for the public domain characters, all of the original character drawings) are done, and I've finished the core items and some stretch goals, I have a few stretch goals yet to achieve. I don't have a dedicated web site (okay, I had a domain but didn't do anything much with it), I have yet to finish the 8-page comic story, and I still have to figure out some VTT support. So, stretch goals remain incomplete, and I'm aware of that. However, I have released several other things (a bonus adventure and some Stalwart Philes with stat blocks, a database of Doc's comic adventures), so I don't feel TOO bad about it - however, these items are still on my to-do list.

The things is, each time I have sat down to work on any of Doc's stuff, I struggle to focus, and the material I've been able to knock out is not up to my standard. I'm having trouble locking in on Doc Stalwart stuff at the moment.

However, my muse REALLY wanted to work on some Army Ants stuff (because that's how she rolls), so I ended up starting a draft of a new Army Ants RPG that is a hybrid of MTDAA Legacy and Stalwart '85. I have come to think that the basic engine for S85 is really, really malleable, and could be used for any sort of setting. You have a basic action ('attack') die based on your character's level, and you have four traits. Three traits are basically the same across games (might/body, reflex, and mind). However, there is always a fourth trait that is unique to that game. In Stalwart '85, it's Power for your superhuman powers. In the Army Ants game I'm tinkering with it's your Spirit (intuition and connection to the natural world). In a fantasy RPG, it would be magic (your ability to wield arcane or faith-based powers). In a Sci-Fi game, it would be whatever stand-in I'm using for the Force. The cool thing is, I can just set thresholds for 'activating' it, and then it's tiered already. For example, it would be easy in a fantasy RPG to say that at Magic D4, you can read magical scrolls, but you don't have any ability to use magic on your own. At D6, you can cast rudimentary spells, but by D20 you're throwing huge fireballs and raising the dead. The force would work similarly; you don't unlock "Jedi" type powers until maybe D8; D6 might be 'sensitive', allowing you to maybe sense things or have a greater connection to the Force than others, but at D8 you get to start minimal telekinesis, while by D20 you're lifting battle cruisers and surviving for short periods in space.

It's a very adaptable basic game engine.

That said, the newest iteration of Army Ants, MTDAA Final Frontier, uses a version of this system. I've got the playtest document that you're welcome to tinker with (as I am doing), and we'll see where this goes. I will get back to Doc stuff soon enough, and maybe I just have to get this out of my system. I often talked with my students about journaling helping writers because you get the clutter out of your mind and onto the page, and then you can do more focused writing. It might be that this is some clutter I need to clear before the next phase of Doc stuff hits me. Thanks, as always, for your support of and kindness towards me. It is truly appreciated.

Passing Me By...

I received an email advert for the new D+D adventure, and figured I'd clicky click and see what the new game was all about. I immediately met this picture on the other side of my teleportation across the Internet...

I assume that someone (or rather lots of someones) somewhere look at this and say 'heck yeah - that is the game I want to PLAY'. I look at this and go 'oh. So that's what D+D is now. Ugh'...

Because if my character gets married to a blue fay creature, I guess that would be okay. But I don't want that to be the, you know, POINT of the adventure. And, I mean, I guess the dragon is kind of cute and all, but I don't want to PET a dragon. I kinda want to fight one and take its stuff. And, like, there is nothing inherently wrong with being in a wheelchair, but if I'm in a wheelchair in the real world, I don't think I'd want to be in one in my fantasy world, too. As someone who has struggled with cancer for over a decade, the LAST thing I'm EVER doing is giving my character a terminal illness on purpose - I role play that enough.

I mean, getting married and petting a cute animal and being in a wheelchair are, I don't know, things I can sort of do in the real world. I don't need to do these in a fantasy game. I have always been under the strange delusion that I play a fantasy game to do something I CAN'T do in the real world. 

I was almost considering dropping $15 just to see what the new game was about, but (for the first time in my experience), the art actually sold me OFF of a product purchase - not because it's bad art, but because it depicts a world I have no interest in playing in. If the Keep on the Borderlands has handicapped parking spots and non-binary bathrooms, I have no interest in adventuring there. It should have cramped over-priced rooms at the top of rickety stairs with a bucket you can piss in next to a mattress crawling with vermin.

I wish the newest iteration of D+D the best of luck, I won't be along for the ride.

A Huge Sigh of Relief

This might sound a little crazy, but I have been afraid to sit down and draw anything for several months... the last time I did a drawing was in the beginning of April, and in the time since, I have seen a significant detioration in my penmanship. I often find it hard to hold a pen steady enough to write legibly, and my hands shake a bit. My father had this condition (not sure the scientific term, and I decided not to look it up)... and I watched him in the last decade or two of his life struggle to write anything neatly. Towards the end of his life, he could barely hold a pen. I was deeply concerned that I too had lost the ability to draw altogether, and I was very hesitant to even attempt a drawing for fear of what my stylus would emit...

This afternoon, I finally decided to give it a go, attempting to re-create one of the more iconic Superman images with Doc. And, while I can see there are places where I have lost a little bit of control of some of the finer points, the overall drawing is still (to my mind) up to a standard I can live with. I also presume that this drawing carries more than a little rust, because again it's been about four months since I even tried to draw. We're going to chalk today up as a win, and it has also inspired me to start actual playing Doc's adventures starting with issue one, and just going in order. It gives me something to do... and I already have an idea for how the first issue plays out (heavily inspired by the first ten minutes of The Incredibles), so I'm looking forward to giving that a go.   

Superhero Team Concepts

In the middle of the night, I was thinking about superhero teams, and how to build them with archetypes that fit roles. I started to think about re-framing this; instead of thinking about 'roles' (mentalist, tank, damage dealer, speedster...), I would think about building a team from a storytelling perspective, in terms of origins. I realized that part of the reason the New Teen Titans work so well is because they frame things from an origins perspective, and it provides so many more storytelling opportunities. I haven't thought about this too deeply yet, but here are some examples:

• Technology (Cyborg). Bring in stories about technology and the impact of new technologies. 
• Supernatural (Raven). Stories focused on magic, other realms of existence, and supernatural powers.
• Mythology (Donna Troy). Ancient gods and monsters.
• Cosmic (Starfire). Other planets and alien races.
• The Sea (Aqualad). Stories set in underwater environments.
• Villainous Past (Beast Boy... kind of). The former allies now enemies hold a grudge.
• Under the Shadow (Robin). You were a sidekick, and are trying to establish your own identity, but a lot of the villains that your mentor has still hold a grudge against you.  

Having such a wide range of origins gives the GM a variety of hooks that personalize adventures to the characters while giving a grand scope to the game. If all of the characters are teenagers who were transformed in the same lab, you immediately have fewer options for built-in ways to progress the story. Conversely, if each character has a unique origin and also has three pieces of 'unfinished business' in their origin, all the better. For example, my technology character could have a rival inventor whose tech ended up in my cybernetics, a bug in my software that could be exploited (and which I'm trying to have fixed), and a previous participant who 'failed' to adjust to the cybernetics, and who went mad. Instant adventure seeds that are personalized to the characters.

This comes up because I have really wanted to start a solo campaign, and while I feel like it should be focused on Doc, I'm just as intrigued by starting a "New Teen Titans" or "New X-Men" sort of game. I also kind of want to go a little more Doom Patrol with weirdness and a little less prototypical heroes like Doc or a Justice League. I could see New Stalwart Press witnessing the success of the X-Men and Teen Titans in the early 80s and deciding to start a comparable series... something to ponder. I also like the idea of the whole team being 'under the shadow', as this team would replace a team from the previous generation who had disappeared. Rooting the campaign in an unresolved mystery gives an instant hook ("Whatever happened to the Force of Five?") and matches the vibe of both New Teen Titans and New X-Men, since both replaced earlier teams with the same moniker.

Some Work of Noble Note May Yet Be Done

My oh MY but it's been a few months... I thought I'd give a personal update, and then hopefully get back into some gaming stuff sooner than later.

I last checked in some time around April... since then, we've learned that the chemotherapy treatments I was receiving (even after they adjusted to a more aggressive chemo treatment) seemed to be having little effect; the tumors on my spine, pelvis, and ribs have continued to grow, with new tumors appearing in the last few months. Treatments may have been slowing it down a little, but not much. My doctors at Roswell suggested I get a second opinion, and after Mary (who has been a super hero) called around, we ended up meeting with a specialist in Pittsburgh, who decided to move from chemo to a newer nuclear medicine called Lutothera. The problem was that it's a more expensive treatment, and our insurance company REALLY didn't want to pay for it. Fortunately, the doctors in Pittsburgh are tenacious, and at the end of June I got approval for the treatment. I received my first treatment on August 1, and tolerated it well enough. Initial scans showed that the nuclear medicine went right to the tumors, and seemed to be getting to work. The idea here is that the nuclear medicine should be able to destroy the tumors, so I am also on a regimen of meds that are supposed to re-grow the bone, because the tumors are going to leave weak points in my bones, leaving me susceptible to fractures. So, I am taking it relatively easy, walking at least 15 minutes a day, and feeling some genuine hope for the first time in months. There is a very real possibility that my prognosis has changed from months to years to live. We'll see. I will receive three more treatments of the Lutathera, once every 60 days. I should receive my final treatment on February 1st. and we'll do a scan shortly thereafter to see how effective this has been. I'm hoping for 'very'.

Unfortunately, at the same time Mary's mom had a recurrence of her own cancer, and it ended up taking her life at the end of June (on Grace's birthday, and the day before Mary's birthday...). So, while Mary has been battling to get me treatments, she has also had to bury her own mom. She's been through a LOT. 

Far less importantly, but not insignificantly, I've gone through the process of retiring due to illness, and have had to navigate that whole process about seven years earlier than I expected to... 24 years is a pretty good run, but I had wanted to get to thirty. I'm proud of my career and what I've accomplished, but it's also difficult to say goodbye to a huge part of my life when it hasn't been on my own terms. Our teacher's union hosted a wonderful retirment party for all of the retirees, but it felt like they spent a lot of the evening focused on me, which was a bit overwhelming. 

Yesterday, Mary sorted the last of the things that she had received from her mom, we finished re-organizing our closets, and I was notified that my retirement paperwork is completed, and 'the check is in the mail' for my retirement benefits. My principal and vice principal also stopped by and brought me a retirement gift that they had for me - it was genuinely nice to see them. It felt like the end of many things.

This morning, I woke up feeling like I'd turned a significant corner. As Mary and Grace begin the ritual of gearing up for the school year, I am sitting here sipping my coffee and thinking about the world to come. I contemplate the final verses of Tennyson's "Ulysses"...

Death closes all: but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,

'T is not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

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.