Triad for Supers! now available

At long last, the Supers! version of The Triad is available on RPGNow. Featuring new cover art by Russell Boyd, it hopefully represents a new phase for Soultaker Studios. I learned a bit from the earlier versions of this release, so hopefully the improved quality on this version will show.

Check it out here

Cover Art!

Ok, so I'm a bit late in posting this, but the delay means you get to see 2 covers for the price of one!

First up, here is the cover to the upcoming Dirty Dozen, a collection of 12 Golden Age Villains available from the Public Domain. Drawn by Russell Boyd:

The Second is the new cover for Adversaries: The Triad, also drawn by Russell Boyd. I had this done after feedback from various customers of the earlier version. I figured as I'm preparing to release this for Supers! (and hopefully M&M 3rd and maybe Champions down the road, at the very least), it was time to update the cover:

Work continues on Dirty Dozen. Got 2 new pieces of art from Darrel Miller (who did all the character art I'm using), and I got feedback on stats for all the characters from one of my proofreaders. I'll be taking a six day vacation starting this Wednesday, so I hope to do some writing during that time. Taking it slow for sure, but I really want to do this one better than I did the last one.

Cover Art coming soon!

Sent off the remaining villain stats and their minions to my proof readers. The cover is about 2/3 done. Can't wait for it all to be finished. Once it is, I'll post it here for everyone to view.. Still waiting on the art for the HQ and plane for two of the Nazi villains. But it's coming along nicely.

Minor update and some pimping...

Ok, so I sent off 4 stats to the proof readers. I got the vehicle write up done, as well as a headquarters for another villain. Just need to write up some minions for various other bad guys, and all the stats are done.

I finally settled on a cover idea, and finalized that concept with the artist. It is going to emulate an old Justice League cover from the Keith Giffen era.

The artist whose art I am using agreed to do the vehicle and hq for me, at a very reasonable price. So, I thought I'd pimp his own work. Darrel Miller is an artist. He did all the art for the rpg Supers!, but Simon Washburne (who also wrote Barbarians of Lemuria, a great Sword & Sorcery style fantasy rpg). Darrel does his own Supers! related releases, and is the most prolific supporter of the game.

All the art I'm using came from clip art packs he released of art from his Public Domain Supers line. Each one of these (14 in total as of today) feature heroes and villains from the Golden Age of Comics, all of whom exist in the Public Domain. He also has 3 adventures for Supers!, one of which is free on the Beyond Belief Games site. He also has clip art packs with all the art from Public Domain Supers, for people to use with their own projects (like I am). Check out his RPGNow product page here

Also, Aldo Regaldo, known as aka Dragonfly on many forums, has released his first product, The Freedom Ring, for both Supers! and BASH! The Freedom Ring is a super hero team dating back to the Golden Age, and besides being an interesting group of heroes, is very ethnically diverse. The book also features one villain (the aquatic Skana), and the follow up, The Iron Gauntlet, will be nothing but foes from the same universe as The Freedom Ring. You can check out TGI (Aldo's "company") on RPGNow here

Last, but far from least, is HAZARD Studio, run by Walt Robillard. HAZARD runs all the rpg material for Zenith Comics currently, as well as his own Type Casting products, written by Ben Norman, the BASH guru. Walt is also an artist himself, and also does layout work. He did the layout for Adversaries: The Triad for me. Check out HAZARD Studio on RPGNow here

So that's all for now. More to come....

Character Stats done!

All 12 villains are done. Might tweak them after I get someone to proofread them. Now I just need to write up one villain's vehicle, another ones headquarters, and various minions. Then I can lay out character sheets, and hopefully start the file for this project.

I also emailed the artist who is doing the cover with some cover concepts to go over. I emailed the artist who did the clip art about doing a new piece for the release; if they can't do it, I'll see if the cover artist can do that for me.

If I can keep this momentum going. once I get an idea of the page count, I can see if Walt (who did layout for The Triad) can give me a price quote. If possible, I want to try and do both pdf and PoD via Drivethru/RPGNow. That would be cool if my second release actually had a print version.

Off to have some Breakfast now...

Some more on my next project...

The as yet to be named book will now feature 12 villains, 4 of whom will be Nazis. I've been perusing their write ups at the Public Domain Superheroes wiki, and finding out that their write ups for Supers doesn't always match their descriptions. So, it looks like a few of them will be quite different in BASH than how they appeared in Supers! This is actually a good thing, imho. I've now completed 6 write ups, and am almost finished with a seventh. Will be working on some more tonight. Things are moving along pretty fast; it helps that these are characters that existed in the Golden Age, so there is background to work from, and not being designed from scratch. I'm pretty enthusiastic about the project, and hope people will find it worth picking up. More when I have time to post about it...

New project in the works...

Just got the approval from Chris for my next BASH project. It's a book of Golden Age villains, taken from public domain characters. It's based on similar products for the game Supers, released by Darrell Miller. He made all the character portraits available as clip art, so I snagged them, and plan on using some for this release. Hopefully it will be a 2 volume release, each with about 10 villains, and maybe a few hero stats. Each character will have adventure seeds to go with them, so you can insert them into a campaign. Paper Standees will also likely be part of the project as well.

I've all ready statted 4 villains, so I'm almost halfway there.

Depending on my motivation, I might attempt to try this as a PoD release as well through Drivethru/RPGNow. Have to see what the layout person I use has to say about that.

More info when I have it.

Thoughts on next project and Wayne Foundation Bundle

So I've been contemplating my next project. The one foremost in my mind is a plot point style campaign for BASH & M&M (and maybe V&V, if I ever get approval from MHG or FGU) featuring an invasion during WW2 by forces from various alternate futures. If you've read some of my previous entries, you've seen sketches for some of the art done by Russell Boyd for that. I'm also considering using some clip art of actual Golden Age comic heroes that have been release by Darrel Miller as part of his Public Domain Supers line (for Supers!, another cool supers rpg).

In addition to that, I've been looking over some old notes I had for a short game of Enemy Gods I ran once featuring a setting with Polynesian inspiration. I've been toying with possibly revising that for use with Barbarians of Lemuria, and maybe Savage Worlds down the road.

Lastly, I donated the G-Core version of Adversaries: The Triad to the upcoming Wayne Foundation charity bundle on Drivehthru/RPGNow. The Wayne foundation works to combat the exploitation of children by the sex trade industry. I consider this to be a good cause, and am glad to be able to contribute something, no matter how small, to this charity bundle. At this point, the bundle has around $200.00 worth of merchandise included prior to it's release, and will go for $20.00. The G-Core core rules will be included, which is why I submitted the G-Core version of Adversaries. Other games included are The Secret Fire and Invulnerable (another cool supers rpg whose development I followed originally on Rpg.net. The Bundle will be released on May 4th, so please, help support a really good cause. If you want more info on the Wayne Foundation, their website can be found here

The Triad now available for BASH!

So this morning I uploaded the files for the BASH version of Adversaries: The Triad. This has been a long time coming, but it's finally out! You can get it here

Here's a look at the cover; it's the same as the G-Core version, just with the BASH logo. Now to finish work on the Supers! version

Adversaries: The Triad now available for G-Core!

So RPGNow posted Adversaries: The Triad this morning. At long last, my first rpg product is available for sale! Hopefully the BASH version will follow in less than a week.

Check it out here

One more Adversaries update, and some art for another future project

Walt is making what should be the final correction to Adversaries: The Triad this weekend. He also has all the BASH character sheets/stats, so he will likely start on that when he has time after finishing the corrections on the G Core version.

In the meantime, I've been slowly putting together an idea for one of my next projects. Russell Boyd (known as Dustland on the BASH forums) has been doing some art for me, and damn if he hasn't come up with some kick ass stuff. I've been going with a retro-future vibe for some vehicles. I've got some B&W sketches he did, so I figured I'd share them:

As you can see, it's some kick ass stuff. Not sure if this will follow up The Triad, but it is in the works!

Another Adversaries update

So it's almost done. Walt finished the cover, and sent me a completed file. Got some feedback from a fellow publisher who I once worked for, and asked for some corrections to be made.  Realized I should have gotten said feedback before Walt finished the thing. Next time I won't make that mistake. Just goes to show how much of a noob I am at this.

Luckily, I didn't start writing the next project over the weekend like I had planned. At least when I do start, I can follow the good advice I just got.

In other news, I heard back from Jack Herman regarding a possible Villains & Vigilantes license. Just need to fill out a form for him, then we can proceed to discuss it. So if all goes well, that will be the fourth system to release this for, with M&M hopefully being the fifth. Need to follow up on my license application for that in a week or two.

So, although some snags due to my inexperience, we're on the home stretch at last!

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

So earlier today I attended a launch party for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, the newest Marvel Comics rpg from Margaret Weiss Productions. Unlike many of the more popular superhero rpg's, this one is more "narrativist" in style. I had preordered the game, but haven't taken the time to read the pdf. I've been following threads about it on Rpg.net, but truth be told, the best way to get a feel for a game is to play it.

So thankfully this launch party was set up by NerdNYC, a local online community for gamers and other so-called "nerds". 4 games were going to be run at the same time, with multiple gm's in some cases. I got there a bit early, but soon the place was packed with people eager to demo the game. My group consisted of Captain America (played by me), Spiderman, Mr. Fantastic, Iron Fist and Daredevil. Someone joined in later with Spiderwoman, but honestly didn't do much.

I'm not going to provide much details on the rules and such; there is plenty of online discussion about the game all ready on various forums that can provide that info. What I will say is that the game was fun, and to me, did feel like a comic book. We did utilize a lot of team work, as most of the other players seemed comfortable letting me (as Cap) come up with plans (though some good solo stuff came out in play).

We ran through a shortened version of "Breakout", the mini-event included in the Operations Manual. We only fought Count Nefaria & Carnage (along with 2 symbiotes), as well as a mob of criminals. Nefaria actually went down pretty easily thanks to some great team work and die rolls. He was defeated by Daredevil of all people, which was really awesome. More so because in the other groups, people were playing Iron Man, Colossus and The Thing, and Nefaria was kicking their asses.

Carnage on the other hand was a big problem, as he actually took Cap's shield from him (after Daredevil did an improvised sonic attack by hitting it with his Billy Club). Thankfully Iron Fist saved the day by knocking out Carnage, literally knocking the symbiote off it's host with his Iron Fist attack.

So does this mean I'm going to pimp MHR as the best supers rpg going? Nope. I like a variety of supers rpgs, each for different reasons. They all bring something different to the table, and MHR is no exception. It's definitely on my short list for wanting to play again, and for wanting to run. But it won't be the game I always turn to. I don't game that way. I like to play and run a variety of games, and as good as MHR is, that won't change anytime soon. But damn was it fun!

Minor Adversaries update

So Thursday saw Kris send the higher resolution art in, which I forwarded to Walt to lay out the G Core version of Adversaries: The Triad. He'll be working on that tomorrow, so we're getting close to finally launching! Sent copies of the Supers! stats to Russell Boyd (who did the art for the excellent Bad Sports) to review.

Also, started converting the characters to BASH UE. I've found it an interesting exercise, as some of the powers in G Core/Supers allow a wider use than what they would be in BASH. Ironically, the characters don't all come out at the same points, but still maintain about the same power level.  The three main characters are done, so that just leaves an NPC superhero, two other villains, and some mooks.

On another note, I mailed in my application for a "Powered by M&M license". Look forward to doing some M&M conversions once that's been processed. Also, just waiting to get a reply from Jack Herman regarding some form he wanted me to fill out for a V&V compatibility license. All in all, this past week has gone fairly well. Can't wait for the time next week when I finally have a release out for sale!

Adversaries update

So thanks to some proof reading by Aldo Regalado (aka Dragonfly on many forums), the text for Adversaries has now been cleaned up. He's going over the Supers! stats for me, and once he finishes that, I just need to finalize some stuff regarding his character sheet (which he is going to let me use). Past that, I'm just waiting on Kris Smith to get me copies of the art in 300dpi. Once that is done, the G Core version can be laid out, and Walt has a kick ass idea for a cover he's going to do. I can't wait to see this finally finished!

Now to start writing the next one....

You'd think rejection would bother me more...

Yesterday I sent out emails to Gareth Michael Skarka and Jack Herman about possibly releasing Adversaries for ICONS and Villains & Vigilantes. I figured it would take awhile to get responses, but GMS was kind enough to reply today. He pointed out that as there are quite a few villain books out all ready, he couldn't approve an ICONS license for Adversaries. I was a little bummed at first, but to be honest, I wasn't at all surprised. I had started on things last year, but after my father died, my creativity kind of floundered. Ideas flourished, but when it came time to actually write something, nothing would flow out of me.  Meanwhile, a lot of excellent 3rd party product has come out thanks to the great people at Vigilance Press, Rhinotaur and others.

So instead of letting disappointment take over, I look at it as an inspiration to hopefully get something written that will be accepted for an ICONS license. I think one that I have on the plate might be worthy, but until I write it, I won't know.

Gushing about my V&V group

I've been playing a bi-weekly Villains & Vigilantes game on and off for about 2 years now. Sometimes we go awhile without playing, and I've missed sessions due to other plans, health and family issues (like when my dad passed away in 2011). But I really enjoy it, more than I thought I would. I joined up to get used to the game again, as I was hoping to do some 3rd party support for it. However, the GM runs such a great game, that I really enjoy myself. It took awhile for me to get comfortable with the group, but now they treat me like one of the guys (like I always was one of the guys). We have such a diverse group of players which is really fun. I'd say my character might be weaker power wise than the others (even though he has some cool abilities through his power armor), but he's well versed in science, and tends to keep a level head.

I also like that the GM has run V&V with other genres, and without powers. He has a Weird West game I haven't had a chance to play in, but he's also run non-powered vigilantes, and we had a session of a Pirate game that was awesome. In addition, I think his house rules (which are quite long, having been developed over about a 20 year period) really flesh out the game in ways I never thought it could be.

This past Friday, not everyone showed up. Another player is going to run a fantasy game using V&V, so we made up characters for that, then had a short run in our regular game. We basically went to Japan and fought a giant monster. It was a lot of fun, though the gm was worried such an impromptu adventure wasn't that great. It had ties to something else, so I enjoyed it immensely. Especially since he has rules about supers possibly going crazy. My character is now a super because of his intelligence. I failed the roll, and had to spend xp to karma it (a house rule that lets you spend xp to adjust the roll to a success). I keep a character journal on the GM's V&V forums, and used that roll I had to Karma into a neat little rp moment.

That's another thing; I've never kept an in character journal before, and mine seems to be fairly popular. Sometimes, when the GM doesn't have time to post his own synopsis of our session, he quotes mine.

I have to honestly say that this is one of the best games/groups I've played in over the years, and I've been in quite a few. I know when the time comes that we sell my dad's house and I move out of NYC (cause I can't really afford to live here much longer), that I'm going to miss this group. It's one of the few things keeping me sane right now.

Coming Soon: Adversaries!

So the whole purpose for me starting Soultaker Studios was because I had been inspired to do my own 3rd party publishing for rpgs. So many rpgs these days allow 3rd party support, and more importantly, don't require a license fee buy in. As I've been on a super hero kick of late, I plan on starting with support for various super hero games. I'm starting with a series of pdf releases called Adversaries, which will feature some villains, and adventure seeds for said villains. Once a certain amount are released, the plan is to hopefully put together a larger compilation for pdf/print through Drivethru/RPGNow. It's all ready confirmed that the first one will be released for BASH, G Core and Supers! I hope to soon get permission for ICONS and Villains & Vigilantes versions. Mutants & Masterminds will of course be another one, but there's a few others supers games that I'm considering releasing material for.

As a bit of a teaser, here is some sketch art for two of the three villains from the first Adversaries. They are Moonstone and Hoarfrost, two members of a trio known as The Triad:

The art is by Kris Smith. You can see more of his art on his DeviantART page here

Welcome!

After avoiding it for a long time, I'm finally starting a blog. Since I'm preparing to do some 3rd party rpg publishing, I thought it best to start a blog to keep people updated on what will be going on with Soultaker Studios, as well as other ramblings I feel like posting. Hopefully it won't be too boring!