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!