The Army Ants Companion

I've been plugging away at the Army Ants Companion (a living document you can access at any time) for the Army Ants RPG, and I've made a few tweaks to the game. One tweak I've made is in regards to soaking damage; I had borrowed the 'save for half damage' mechanic that is embedded into the heart of my little D+D design hangups. I've swapped that out for rolling Reflex to soak damage from grenades and areas of effect. This opens me up for a variety of other attack types, linking each type to a trait. For example, sensory damage now gets soaked by Spirit, and poisons/toxins get soaked by Body. Mental attacks get soaked by Mind. I like the variety of play options that this opens up.

I also think I've settled on a 'look' for the Army Ants. I'd been giving them heavier grays in their uniforms, but this Phil design feels a little lighter and more attuned with how I want the look to carry. 

Visual Redesigns

One of the things I'm doing is a visual re-design of the various other creatures in the world of the ants. For many creatures, I only have some sketches or a handful of drawings in my comics. As a for instance, bees only ever made an appearance in the form of General Groth, and his design was pretty weak from the get-go. I always just kept it because that was how I'd established him. I've now come up with a re-design for bees that I think makes them a little more visually interesting, and reflects where I am now as an illustrator vs. where I was thirty years ago (and might still in some way feel beholden to)... this design is both kind of cute and a little menacing at the same time, which fits the vibe of the whole thing quite well. 

These are two drawings I did this morning that might give you an idea - a Bee Soldier and Dr. Weevil. For Dr. Weevil, I think that he is a mad chemical engineer who works for the Wasp Empire, and is developing all sorts of nerve toxins or biological weapons that could be used against the ants. This opens the game up for various effects that would be more than simply dealing or resisting damage. 

I would think that any mission involving Dr. Weevil would require that he be brought back alive - I like him too much as a squirrely little nuissance to have him killed off entirely.
 

Ant Ant-Sized Update

I've done a little bit of housekeeping here on ye old blog, and I've also shifted (as you can see) to an Army Ants theme for a bit, since that is where my head is right now. Of course I've got the core rules available as a PWYW download or (if you love killing trees as much as I do), it's also available in print. 

Furthermire, I've started a series of posts following an actual play experience. You can see how the game works and following along with my silliness. 

I've also got an Army Ants Companion going. This should be a full release at some point, but for now I'm keeping everything new that I create in a separate document that you can access and use as you see fit.

Semper Formica!

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. 

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 :) 

 

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.

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.

My Other Games

My Other RPG Projects

	Dr. Mike Desing's  Army Ants the RPG Your group of Army Ants defends Hill and Queen.  Semper Formica. Core Rules       PDF (Pay What You Want)      Print Version Resources:      The Army Ant Companion      Tracker Actual Play Thread      Comic Book Vol. 1 PWYW      Comic Book Vol, 2 PWYW
Tales of the Splintered Realm $.2.95 PDF Fantasy RPG using the OGL Resources: * The Halls of Moridis - a Living Megadungeon * New Delvers of Daggerford Actual Play Report
	Shards of Tomorrow $2.95 PDF   Sci-fi RPG using the OGL
The Stalwart Age $2.95 PDF Superhero RPG using the OGL Resources: The Stalwart Age Blog is a semi-retired resource including background and character stat blocks.
	Cupcake Scouts the RPG (2E) $2.95 PDF An RPG of Friendship, Baking, and Monster Staking
Hack’D & Slash'D $1 PDF Fantasy RPG using D12   Resources: * The H&S Living Companion * Halls of Moridis Living Megadungeon * Other Resources

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.

  

Stalwart Team Up #1

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

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

Of Foolish Consistencies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The 'Best" Story

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Guide to Meridian and Other Updates

The Stalwart Guide to Meridian is up as a Pay What You Want Download. You do you.

I've also updated files for all of the other books based on feedback I've received (some minimal, but I wanted to get everything done and refreshed at once):

Core Rules

• Added the cover to the pdf.
• Clarified language of application/use of hero points.
• Clarified rules for subduing a fallen foe; this now requires a full round to complete.
• Trick Weapon – got rid of -1 shift for tier effectiveness; clarified that tier rank applies to all trick weapon applications.

Stalwart Companion

• Added the cover to the pdf.
• Updated language of tiers (changing reference of cosmic to ultimate).
• Refined and clarified mimicry gift.

World of Stalwart Volume 1

• Added the cover to the pdf.
• Twilight Archer – revised weapon damage to D10.

Stalwart Team Up Part 2

Let’s talk about my character. 

I look up the Spanish words for cat and find Gatito means kitten. I kind of like this.

I also find that in Mexico, cats are sometimes called ‘michis’ because of how Spaniards would call cats. An informal way to address cats is ‘tipo’.

I am thinking like a phrase that means big little cat, so something like Gatito Grande or Grande Tipo would work. I could add a color here – maybe gold? Oro. Tipo Oro or Oro Gatito

Tipo Oro seems to have a nice ring to it, and I sort of like the irony of the name – gold is valuable, but my limited understanding implies that Tipo would be sort of like ‘mutt’ in English.  The golden mutt of cats is how I’m thinking of it, which I also like.

If others call him “Tipo” as a nickname, that’s even better. Either his first or last name should have a T (or both – he’s the Mexican version of Peter Parker, so I want a name that has comparable alliteration and commonality). Tomas “Tipo” Torres is a great working name.  

Tomas means ‘twin’… not sure what to do with this.

Torres has to do with towers and strongholds and fortifications. I love that. He’s a defender.

I look up less common names, and come across Teo. I have used this name for characters before (it is a variation on my middle name Theodore, which is why I like it to begin with), and it means ‘gift from God’, which I LOVE.

Okay, he is Tipo Oro: Teo “Tipo” Torres, the golden cat. Love it. I see him as this kid who’s always out in the streets, taking care of stray cats, and so others have given him the nickname “Tipo” as a form of friendly mockery – you’re basically an ally cat sort of thing. I like giving him this empathetic connection to cats – he’s already supernaturally predisposed to the powers he is going to get.

Let’s stat him up using the point build system in the companion. As a super, he has 40 points to distribute. He’s going to have strength and speed, and I think that reflex is his top trait. I could go D16, but I don’t see him that coordinated, but D12 is appropriate. Reflex D12 set. I don’t want to use Mind as a dump stat, but there’s nothing in his background that would suggest an advanced degree (and I picture him still in high school). He’s not a science wiz like Peter Parker, but he is clever. He figures things out. I see D6 Mind as appropriate to this. I don’t know if I see him as D12 strength, but D10 also seems quite reasonable. This leaves D12 for Power, which is maybe more than I had planned on, but I could definitely make work.

Might D10 (5); Mind D6 (3); Power D12 (6); Reflex D12 (6)

So far, so good. He gets 6 gifts (!) which is a lot (but I’ll take it), and he also has 5 tags.

I start perusing the list, and look at gifts as openly as I can. I’m not going to roll – I’ve got a pretty strong character concept (he’s a cat dude), but what that means in context has a lot of options.

Gifts from the Core Rules I could use:

• Animal control: cats. Not a bad idea.
• Bolt of Feline Energy. Meh.
• Damage over time. Cat Scratch Fever (again, I have a lot of gifts I can get)
• Danger Sense. This is almost definitely a given.
• Elite tier would be quite helpful.
• Enhanced Senses seems like a gimme. This and claws are pretty much default for cat-themed characters.
• Heal is not bad. Cats licking wounds sort of idea. I like it connected to his role as a protector and helper.
• Hyperspeed makes sense.
• Jump makes sense.
• Melee (claws) are probably automatic.
• Phasing is a reach, but it’s at least cool to think about.
• Prodigy is probably too much, and would be hard to justify. He’s not exceptionally well-trained. I tend to think of this as the one who has naturally soaked up a great deal of formalized instruction. That’s not this character.
• Regenerate kind of makes sense based on the mystical nature of his totem, but I don’t know.
• Running kind of makes sense, although the hyperspeed would account for this – he’s not Quicksilver, he’s just got cat-like reflexes. Hyperspeed reflects this better than running does.
• Wall crawling wouldn’t be the worst idea, but I don’t love it. He can climb easier with his claws, but not necessarily because he can cling to walls and ceilings. He’s not moving around ceilings at all.

From the Companion:

• Alter Ego might work. He has to transform into the alternate persona.
• Boost I could make work.
• Chameleon is kind of neat for what I’ve read about… the crafts that Mexican people create to display spirit animals have all sorts of patterns and colors, and the idea that he can shift his color to blend in with his surroundings is sort of a nifty conceit.
• Communicate with cats is a keeper.
• Counter attacks makes sense with his battle senses idea, and is a little different. In terms of game mechanics, it’s a nice gift to have.
• Emotion Control (thinking outside the box here) is a projection of how cats make you feel; my cats sometimes make me happy, and sometimes make me frustrated, so they control my emotions after a fashion. Again, just thinking through the possibilities… Also, doing something with emotions or peacefulness or something might be a nice ‘friendly neighborhood’ parallel, but I feel like it’s a bit of a reach.
• Hex is more for a black cat crossing your path rather than the theme of his particular cat, but it’s at least on the first cut list.
• Immortality would be cool… the cat spirit he has assumed is an immortal force, so as long as he has the totem, he’s not going to age.
• Ki makes sense from the animal spirit angle.
• Luck makes sense from the nine lives perspective.
• Night Sight. Thematically appropriate.
• Precognition would be cool (dreams that come with the totem), and would also be helpful for plot-hookiness.
• Serial Immortality would be crazy interesting, and that is far more like the nine lives thing. This also opens up a LOT more story ideas. I like this being a gift he ‘discovers’ at some point (by dying, of course).

Somehow, I see water linked to his limitation; cats don’t like water, and maybe this is a complex he has linked to the totem... 

I also, as I think about this more, like linking his origin to Bronze Beacon. I’ve already established that her gauntlets are ancient Egyptian (although probably alien before that), and the idea that his totem could be from Egypt at some point, and maybe also from an alien species of cat people, opens up a lot of story ideas.

Okay, wow. Back to gifts. I’m suddenly glad I have 6. At first it seemed like it was too many, and now it’s not enough. I know I have the limitation having something to do with water, so that will give a bonus gift or tag. I’ll probably take it as the tag… so getting my list to 6 gifts. Here are the ones I definitely want:

• Danger Sense and/or Enhanced Senses
• Hyperspeed
• Jump
• Melee (claws)
• Communicate with Cats
• Night Sight

And that’s six. Already. DANG. Those went quickly. Okay… I’m going to take the extra gift instead of a tag from the limitation, so I’ll pick up the Serial Immortality with that. I like that concept for his character. It differentiates him a bit. Enhanced Senses are more appropriate than Danger Sense. I don’t get Elite for his tier, which I might end up regretting not taking… but I also don’t want too many characters having it in the game world – every time someone else is elite, it takes away from those who truly are. It’s the Batman gift – this dude is not Batman.

For tags, I know I want brawl and sneak. He should have dodge. There’s nothing else I need, so I put 2 each into brawl and sneak, and 1 into dodge. I’m good with that.

Tipo Orro (The Golden Cat)

Teo “Tipo” Torres, Student

Super Hero (D10[5]2); Hits 20; Move 30’; HP 5

Might D10 (5); Mind D6 (3); Power D12 (6); Reflex D12 (6)

Communicate with Cats; Enhanced Senses; Hyperspeed; Jump; Melee (claws D12); Night Sight; Serial Immortality

Brawl +2; Dodge +1; Sneak +2

Limitation: Complex about water (Check mind DT 4 when going into water or suffer -1 overall shift)

Stalwart Team Up Part One

With Stalwart, I’ve been able to pull off a few things I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I have a set of core rules I really like. I’ve got an ‘ultimate handbook’ that I’m happy with, and that does was I wanted it to do - to set a foundation of the setting and characters of the larger game world. I’m wrapping up the city book, which should be up as a pay-what-you-want download this weekend. I’ve got the whole game rooted in some solid narrative foundations.

Now, it’s finally time to move the whole thing forward. 

One of my favorite conceits of comics of the 80s was Marvel Team Up – the idea that every month Spidey teamed up with another hero to battle a wide array of foes. I suppose I liked it so much because I was a big Spiderman fan, but the hero he teamed with that month would also then bring a viable threat at their power level – the wide variety of stories and genres he could cross over was greatly influenced by who happened to show up that month to work with him.

For a long time, I’ve had the desire to adapt this concept to a superhero game setting, but for many reasons it never got off the ground. I’ve tried to think of the right framing device and finally realized that the central character who does the team ups IS the framing device. The quality of Spiderman that made him perfect for this is that he is the friendly neighborhood Spiderman. He’s likeable. He’s kind. He’s genuinely interested in other people. He’s goofy, so others let down their guards more easily. His entire persona lends itself to the setup. He teams up with people because he likes people, and they tend to like him back. A character like Zealot doesn’t work, because he’s a loner by nature (Wolverine Team Up just doesn’t work as well). Twilight Archer is better, because he’s a mentor who seeks out others to train, but this immediately creates an uneven playing field; he’s the leader going into each of these scenarios.

But then I got an idea. And then I immediately thought of the problems with this idea.

I thought of a Mexican hero who inherits a totem that grants mystical powers in some way. He’s relatively poor (like Spidey), but he’s incredibly kind (always doing community service for others). He inherits the totem when Bronze Beacon (who is inventorying artifacts and realizing that several were gained unethically and should be returned to their original owners) gives him a family totem that grants him powers, and maybe even entrusts him with distributing the rest of these. She’s packing up for her move to the new museum, and has to leave soon. It’s a hook that creates many opportunities for teaming up in a relatively unstructured framework. I really like it.

I Googled this, and found a great resource about Mexican spirit animals, and started to think how this character takes care of homeless cats as part of what he does, so his spirit animal is this supercat with strength, speed, agility, a combat sense… so Spiderman without the webs and wall crawling. But with claws… so maybe wall crawling. Why not?

The problem is that I’m a white male, and this is a tricky thing for me to navigate. I’ve written a little bit before about how I try to process this dilemma. On one hand, I realize that superhero worlds in the 80s were largely populated by (and created by… and intended for) white males, so being intentional about expanding my game world with people who don’t share my background is a good thing. It’s a necessary thing.

I also realize that this is a field mined with traps for the unwary. I can easily veer into cultural appropriation or unintentional racism because of a well-meaning but also ignorant storyline or event or motif that ends up communicating something I don’t mean to communicate.

Case in point – I’ve decided my main character is both Mexican and poor. Does this mean that on some level I perceive that all Mexicans are poor? Gosh. That’s a tough question. I don’t think so. I was thinking that Peter Parker is poor, and that works better than Batman rich for the stories I want to do, and this character would work. Did I go ‘he’s poor, so then he must be Mexican’? I don’t think so. I was thinking that it would be cool if he was Mexican, because this is an experience I might be able to research and get some authentic understanding out of. It makes sense why he’d be living in this city at this time, but also not be white.

And when I wrote the previous paragraph is when I solved the problem. I like blogging a lot. The process actually solves problems. I’m not writing to show you what I have thought of. I write the blog to help me solve a problem in writing.

I make a mental note: I need to say that to my 8^th graders this year.

Anyway, this is the solution – I am making these stories with this character in order to better understand a culture other than my own. I am not sitting here telling YOU about the Mexican-American experience (because I have no idea)… I am sitting here letting you watch ME as I try to better understand the Mexican-American experience through the process of creating this narrative.

I feel better about this now that I understand my own intentions. I also am less concerned about a mis-step, because it’s a learning process. If I really screw up, someone will point it out to me and I’ll grow from it. Nice. Problem solved.

Onward and forward. Or, I would say up, up, and away if that wasn’t already taken.

Get Yer' Stalwart Updates Here!

I've got two new documents that are both quite rough around the edges...

The World of Stalwart Volume 2 is my first work on expanding the game world that was presented in Volume 1. Volume 1 was largely a collection of the material that I had thus far (revised and re-aligned to fit into this world and this game). However, Volume 2 is largely new ideas and things that I've only hinted at in the past. FYI, I've left the original notes for the appendix in the back, but I'm adding new catalogued Doc comics to a new list (before the old list)... I've just kept the old list in place temporarily so I can refer to it and align new back issue discoveries to the existing list.

The Stalwart Guide to Meridian is already shaping up nicely. I expect it will be relatively brief (maybe 16 pages)? but will have enough to start an ongoing series of your own with this as a base. I am not putting a lot of game information here; that is going into the World of Stalwart Volume 2. So, when I mention a new character, I will talk about their role in Meridian in the Guide to Meridian, but will give their game stats and comics history over in the World of Stalwart Volume 2. While it's tempting to have everything right where you'd want it, I think it's better to keep things organized for later use; if I have some character stat blocks that aren't in the World of Stalwart collections, then things can be harder to find later on. I'm also going to put in a bunch of plot hooks, which may or may not get built upon later as I develop some adventures.

My plan is to finish these two books (at least the Stalwart Guide to Meridian), and then start releasing adventures set in and around the city. I can already see a possible long-term campaign or two here, so those might end up being books as well (but there are only so many hours in the day).

One final thought... I've had several themes emerge as I've been working on Doc stories for the last while here, and some of them have surprised me a bit.

1. I have found that Doc Stalwart is largely a peace maker. So many of his stories end with him figuring out how to call a truce and have people dwell in relative harmony. I like the irony that a guy who can throw a tank and is constantly fighting everyone and anyone wants peace more than anything. I like that conflict in him.

2. One of the emerging core themes of the series is the role of machines in human experience. I guess that AI has me thinking about this more and more, but I've now got two storylines where Doc gets into philosophical debates with robots; he gets Zero to stop killing people by having Zero consider that creating is more powerful than destroying, and to be a truly powerful creature, Zero must find a way to create (since that is the primary role of God... the thing to which Zero aspires). The second debate is with the Stalwart Sentinel (no he's not my take on Vision, why do you keep saying that?) who was created by Project Javelin to be their own 'version' of Doc Stalwart (they were able to use brainwaves they had taken from him in his younger years while he was being studied and trained at the Tomorrow Project).  When they realize that he's missing something, Doc meets with the Sentinel (who he didn't know existed) and ultimately argues that the Sentinel cannot 'be' like Doc until it truly has the ability to think and create, not only to apply algorithms to replicate what Doc would do in situations. Doc is able to craft a program that gives the Sentinel the opportunity to learn and grow, and possibly become human at some point.

Meridian Base Map Complete

I've had a busy 4th of July... we are road tripping tomorow, so today is a low-key day of hanging out at home. I'm making videos and maps, and Mary is setting up an Instagram for my game (I HATE Instagram and don't really like Facebook all that much, so Mary is doing the heavy lifting on those for me... which is VERY sweet of her to do). All that said, I finished my base map of Meridian, and I really like it. This is the foundation I'm going to use going forward.

A video introduction to Stalwart

I assume I'll get better at this as I do more of these, but here's an introduction to the basics of how Stalwart works. I think I'll make one for character creation next...