Darren Watts
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Posts posted by Darren Watts
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4 hours ago, mrinku said:
Darren, have you tried sending review copies to commercial sites like Rock, Paper, Shotgun?
We've sent them to a number of sites. I never heard of Rock Paper Shotgun before just now, and see no sign that they review non-electronic games at all? Are we talking about the same thing here? dw
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OK, genuinely my last try here. Golden Age Champions was a labor of love for me, and I'd have been delighted to do more like it, but without reviews and public support from fans post-Kickstarter sales simply won't happen, and without those the entire operation is pretty much non-viable. So if you have any interest at all in further Hero products like GAC, please go post a review somewhere you buy or get info about RPG products. We're more than two months in and Dread's review above is still literally the only one on the Internet that I can find.
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Hey Dread! Much appreciated, and thanks! If you have any interest, I'd be grateful if you could submit that to another site or post it somewhere else on line, particularly anywhere you personally go to get info on rpgs. dw
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Really, I don't. Whatever your favorite site might be, counts just fine. Here is cool. ENWorld, RPG.Net, RPGSite, Reddit, pretty much any place gamers gather will help. Any we get can be linked to in other places. But AFAICT we have none several weeks into the release. dw
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Gang, online reviews are quite literally the life's blood of online sales. If you liked Golden Age and have any desire to see a Silver Age (let alone a Bronze, Iron or anything else), please please please go put up a review on one or more other sites. I'd love to write more for Hero, but unless we can build a larger audience for the next book I literally cannot afford to. dw
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Hey all! Anybody here on the board a Villains & Vigilantes expert, particularly on the mid-80s scenario books and the characters and implied settings therein? dw
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So, still no luck getting any reviews out in the wild. Anybody else seen any they can link to? dw
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2 hours ago, mrinku said:
Could be that the player who they belonged to didn't want them published. I guess Darren will probably comment when he gets to this.
Nothing so ominous- the player in question dropped out of the campaign early on, and his character wasn't sufficiently different from the other non-powered heroes to be worth writing up in the book. If you want to include him, take Black Mask, drop most of the detective-y stuff and replace it with a combination of cowboy and spy stuff, and drop the specialized guns and replace with Colts and maybe a small collection of trick-shot powers (TK to disarm or knock objects on opponents, etc.) dw
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Thanks much to everybody for the kind words! Please spread it to your friends, retailers and other sites, especially if you're interested in seeing a Silver Age followup. GA will need to do well in retail and direct sales, because the Kickstart barely squeaked by and we probably can't afford to do that again. dw
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Ok..got my copy. Some early thoughts:
1)The character writeups are good...VERY good. Even if you have no intention of running a Golden Age era game, a good GM can get a lot of milege out of the plethora of characters that are in here.
2) Diversity: Not just Nazi bad guys and not all..."black and white" morality.
3) Optimus immediately evoked Oyzmandias from The Watchmen for me.
4) Art was mostly good to great. No complaints here.
5) Liquidator made me laugh out loud.
6) Good amount of background material as well(mostly in the first half of the book).
All in all, I think they knocked it out of the park and I can't wait to delve more deeply into it.
I think "Ozymandias if he never went crazy" might have been in Riley's original pitch of the character. In the end, he was played less brainy and more Cap-style inspirational, so I hope that shows in his writeup. And yes, beating up Liquidator is a storied tradition in my campaigns. Even when he gets his own back for a little while, we never let him enjoy it for long. dw
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Mitch Albala originally named him Fubar, so of course first chance I got I added all his relatives (Snafu, Tarfu and the mighty Janfu) to the story. Bohica just sort of came naturally after that. I never got Figmo into the story anywhere. Anybody mystified should simply Google the names. dw
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Actually, that reminds me of a question I have for Darren. I was hoping there'd be a vehicle sheet for Rick Royce's super-jet, the Condor, in the Secret Files, since it's not in the main GAC book. No luck, though. Does that file exist somewhere? If so, is there a chance we'll be able to see it some day?
You know, I'm certain I had one during the playtest, but I can't lay my hands on it. I'll have to rebuild the darn thing and post it on the boards at some point. dw
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Hey all! Still looking for reviews now that the hardcopies are out and on sale. Here is lovely, elsewhere's even better. If you'd like to see a Silver Age book we need to spread the word! Thanks, dw
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The Secret Files are still a WIP - they're mostly character sheets left out for space (like the entire Justice Squadron), and they're currently not in publishable format or anything. There's a mini-campaign, but the decision to cut it came early enough that the second half of it isn't even in complete sentences yet.
We cut less than we thought we would, so we have little material that went through any sort of editing process yet. We'll get them out, but I don't have any kind of timetable yet. dw -
Golden Age Champions is text-complete and turned in, ready for layout! Woot! Just north of 155k words in final form, with a chunk saved over for the Secret Files later (including the Golden Age lineup of the Justice Squadron, who didn't make the cut.) So, that's probably about 240 pages of text, not including the timeline and the weapons/vehicles sheets, probably about 270 all told.
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Hey all! Who's got two thumbs and has finally finished all 65 edited character sheets and .hdcs for Golden Age? All that's left are the final edits for Chapter 3, and collecting the rest of the art, and then final layout! dw
- Cancer, wcw43921, Lawnmower Boy and 6 others
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Darren mentioned on a previous post that the NPC heroes will include full write-ups (character sheets, backgrounds and illos) for six Brits.
Yup! They include John Bull (a brick), the original Scarlet Archer, Lady Lightning, The Ghost, Rick Royce (our Edisonnade teen gadgeteer) and Albion, the Spirit of Britain.
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And here's the log of the chat you missed! https://gmshoe.wordpress.com/2016/11/14/qa-darren-watts-golden-age-champions/
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Feel like punching something today? How about Hitler? dw
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One of my favorite parts of this book to write was the chapter on archetypes, which refers back to the earliest breakdowns of superheroic "character classes" from Champions. I address all of the different subtypes of Bricks, Energy Projectors, etc. present in the Golden Age, rename a couple (the "Martial Artist" is better explained as the "Mystery Man"), and add a fistful of brand new subarchetypes. Forthwith to demonstrate, an excerpt from "The Sidekick":
<4> The Derivative Kid
The first type of Sidekick to spring to most players’ minds, the Derivative Kid has more or less the same powers or skills as his mentor at a lower level, a costume either based on his mentor’s or specifically designed to stand out in contrast, and the stock standard personality for kids in 1930s and 40s popular culture: inquisitive bordering on outright nosey, brave, usually a wisecracker, and with an absolute faith in and even hero worship of the adult he’s working alongside. Robin defines the archetype the same way Batman does that of the Mystery Man, and his popularity led to a small army of clones: Bucky (Captain America), Speedy (Green Arrow), Sandy (Sandman), Pinky (Mr. Scarlet), Stuff the Chinatown Kid (Vigilante), and Dusty (The Shield.) The Guardian had an entire team of noncostumed preteens similar to the Our Gang kids of the movies in the Newsboy Legion. In a rare gender switch, Cat-Man took on a girl Sidekick named Kitten. If the mentor hero has superpowers, his Sidekick might as well. Toro had the same powers as the Human Torch, usually portrayed as being a few Active Points less. Similarly, Dan the Dyna-Mite (TNT) and Roy the Super Boy (Wizard) had similar powers to their mentors.
<4> Female Counterpart
Several superheroes of the period had their girlfriends wind up joining them in their war against injustice on occasion. Most notable was Hawkgirl, who appeared in Hawkman’s first story as Shiera Saunders, and was eventually given her own set of wings and costumed identity. (In the retconned stories of the All-Star Squadron, she keeps up protecting the homefront when her husband enlists after Pearl Harbor.) Bulletman created a second Gravity Regulator Helmet for his girlfriend Susan to wear, and she joined him in his adventures as Bulletgirl. Doll Man’s girlfriend Martha underwent a similar transformation late in the Golden Age, duplicating her boyfriend’s power to shrink and adopting a costumed identity. The Human Torch briefly teamed with Sun Girl, who had no powers but was armed with several interesting gadgets that were given no explanation, including a “Sun Gun” that fired blinding light beams.
<4> Comic Relief
Several superheroes in the Golden Age had Sidekicks who were mostly suited to slapstick comedy rather than serious superheroing, even if the hero himself was generally not portrayed as particularly lighthearted. Green Lantern was frequently aided by a portly taxi driver named Doiby Dickles, who would drive his cab “Goitrude” into dangerous situations armed only with a ludicrous approximation of a Brooklyn accent. Captain Marvel, who had already acquired a superpowered “family” consisting of his long-lost sister Mary and best friend Freddy Freeman (better known as Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Junior) also had a recurring sidekick named Uncle Marvel, a “lovable old fraud” character who claimed to also have superpowers that his various physical ailments prevented him from showing off at that particular moment. Plastic Man was regularly aided by Woozy Winks, a doltish ex-con who once saved the life of a wizard and was rewarded by being gifted with invulnerability.
<4> The Boy In Charge
A similar archetype to the Sidekick is the Boy In Charge, a teen (or even younger child) with no or limited powers but who has access to a much more capable ally who for whatever reason is bound to the young hero and follows his orders. The ally can vary widely in power level, from a cheerful adult bruiser of a chauffeur to a magical genie who can grant wishes in a wink. Examples of this type include Star-Spangled Kid & Stripesy, Johnny Thunder, The Boy King, and Kid Eternity (who summoned any number of temporary Sidekicks from the mists of history.) Two players can work together to create this sort of partnership if the characters themselves are of approximately the same value (perhaps one is smart and skilled while the other handles the rougher stuff.) Otherwise, it’s best to have the player build the more powerful servant as their primary PC, with appropriate limitations to reflect that the “sidekick” is actually the one in charge. Perhaps the more powerful ally can only appear for a limited amount of time each day, or is inconveniently sized for some activities (like the Boy King’s giant statue.)
<4> Unusual Sidekicks
Some comicbook Sidekicks defy any sort of categorization. The Vigilante was occasionally assisted by an ornery old cowboy named Billy Gunn, who the hero had met when he was running an arcade at Times Square and persuaded to come out of “retirement.” The Crimson Avenger, who in many ways resembled the radio show hero the Green Hornet, further appropriated the idea of an Asian sidekick like Kato, called Wing. Unfortunately, where Kato was an impressive combatant, skilled driver and inventor of Green Hornet’s souped-up car, Wing mostly told jokes in pidgin dialect while his mentor did the crimefighting. Captain Marvel had yet another occasional sidekick in Tawky Tawny, an anthropomorphic tiger who wore a loud suit and hat. An actual tiger who had been given a serum that allowed him to walk and talk like a human being, Tawky became friends with Captain Marvel after accidentally causing a panic in the city, and took a job as a docent at the Museum of Natural History when he wasn’t helping his pal fight criminals...
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Of course, in the above I did not mean to suggest that existing supporters were not greatly and whole-heartedly appreciated. This is what happens when you post tired.
There will be additional excerpts and whatnot posted for everybody, and if we do make it you'll all get to see the whole thing! dw -
Darren,
I think I failed to make my point. I wasn't asking for an excerpt for me here on the board (but thanks for that). My point is the KS is very slow, earning a few dollars a day, with no comment in a week. Interest needdb to be generated here, on the M&M and SW boards but even more do on KS. How about you post your excerpt as an update? Wait a few days and post the character sheet of one of the characters on the cover? Than another excerpt. Than a M&M sheet? Than how about an update with shipping rates estimate?
My point is the KS needs to be actively supported. If the creators don't bother to show up why would potential backers?
Anyway, apologies about the critics. I really want this to succeed at the hardcover level.
DD
Hi DD! I appreciate the concern, but I can tell you I'm working myself to exhaustion posting all over the internet. KS updates only go to the people who've already supported the campaign, and so they're a *lower* priority to posting elsewhere on social media. (That said, this one will be going out there too shortly.) I've got two conventions upcoming, a couple of interviews and at least one podcast hitting in the next ten days. So, I take some exception at the idea that I haven't "shown up."
As for posting sheets in other systems, again you're asking for things the kickstarter itself is intended to finance. None of that is done yet.
Golden Age Champions Discussion Thread
in Champions
Posted
Very kind! Thanks, John - glad you liked it after waiting so long! dw