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The Stories of Sentinel Comics!
almost 6 years ago
– Wed, Feb 13, 2019 at 09:57:04 PM
Greetings, friends, family, and fans!
Today, I’m excited to talk to you about Sentinel Comics: the Roleplaying Game, as per usual. However! Today, I’m much more interested in the story of SCRPG than any of the products. I want to talk a bit about the “canon” of Sentinel Comics, but more in terms of how it relates to the players and the GMs of the game. I also want to talk about how we share that canon on our podcast, and then talk a bit about sharing your own stories. And then I have some more videos to share! So, time to get to those brass tacks!
Sentinel Comics “Canon”
So, yes, there is a proper “canon” of Sentinel Comics, created by myself and Sentinels artist Adam Rebottaro and originally established by the Sentinels of the Multiverse card game. However, when playing our games, from the card game to the RPG to other things that we’re working on (insert ominous pause here), the canon of the game is what you’re playing at your table. Feel free to use published materials and the Sentinel Comics wiki for inspiration and direction, but if you want to tweak something or even fly entirely in the face of what we’ve released, go for it. This is your game - your Sentinel Comics canon might not line up with anyone else’s, but it’s yours, and that makes it correct.
I want to share with you an excerpt from Chapter 1 of the SCRPG Core Rulebook. (This section hasn’t gone through final editing yet, so don’t be surprised if this text changes a bit between now and release). Here’s where we get into the essence of playing the game:
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In this section, we provide you with the guiding principles upon which Sentinel Comics: The Roleplaying Game was built. Keeping these principles in mind helps you focus the game to its strengths and bring out what it was designed to do: help you and your players create exciting, dramatic, and memorable superheroic stories.
Your Game, Your World
There have been other games set in the world of Sentinel Comics, and other ways to get to know the heroes, villains, and adventures set there. By default, the world of Sentinel Comics: The Roleplaying Game is set after the events of the Sentinels of the Multiverse card game and the OblivAeon event. The world has survived its biggest upheaval yet and many things have changed.
Apply as much or as little of this lore as you like to your game. Everything that happens from this point, forward in time and back into the past, is for you and your group to decide. You don’t have to take canon at face value and you are free to change anything to fit the desires of your play group (including yours) and the themes you’ve chosen.
The world of Sentinel Comics is your playground now, make it what you want!
Silver Age Tone
By default, the feeling of Sentinels Comics lies close to that of Silver Age comics of the 70s and 80s. Silver Age comics are marked by things like:
Larger than life villains executing harebrained but evil schemes while spouting dialogue that’s dramatic and cheesy at the same time
Heroes who perform amazing physical feats while delivering the perfect one-liner
Madcap action where reactors go into meltdown because of dramatic timing rather than physics, where rocket-powered dinosaurs fly out to attack while heroes are already trying to save tourists from an imminent tidal wave, where the giant cargo ships are on a collision course because of course they are.
It comes down to the game’s tone, the emotional space it occupies. While Sentinel Comics: The Roleplaying Game can handle a wide variety of tones, it works best closer to the light-hearted end of the spectrum. Yes, things go wrong and can have dire consequences, the world is also deeply steeped in the heroic tropes of action stories. The heroes’ injuries heal quickly and without long-term consequences. Villains are captured or flee when they are beaten. Heroes like Guise and villains like Baron Blade are over-the-top in the best comic book ways.
Think Like Comic Creators
A useful metaphor to explain the roles of players and the GM is that of a comics book design team. Together, all the people at the table are the writers, artists, and inkers working together to get the next issue out. In that metaphor, the GM is like an editor: part of the team and sharing the responsibility of getting the issue out. The GM is also responsible for pushing the team in the right direction, making creative calls and maintaining the team’s focus on the task.
Sharing the Creative Space
A spirit of cooperation among everyone around the table makes for the most enjoyable games of Sentinel Comics. While the GM is in charge of describing the world and the characters that populate it and the players are responsible for describing what their heroes do in it, this distinction is an intentionally blurry one.
Everyone from player to GM should consult and collaborate with each other frequently for descriptions and scene framing. Whenever the GM or a player is at a loss for finding the right word about what a given gadget does, or what a given action looks like, let others chime in. Work as a team to describe the action and the drama as though they were panels in a comic book.
The same principle applies when the GM frames a scene. While they may have their own notes or use a published issue, they also ask their players questions about the surroundings and what bystanders or other environmental elements are milling around so that everyone can share a detailed image of the setting before diving into the action.
SCRPG GMs ask open-ended questions that require players to come up with details about their surroundings, thoughts, motivations and plans, seeking to foster a feeling of trust and cooperation so that everyone around the table feels excited to contribute.
Some examples of questions and follow-ups GMs can ask include:
Is there anyone your hero knows among the bystanders in this scene? What are they named? Why are they here? How do you know them?
How does that twist make your hero feel? How differently will your hero act because of it?
How cool is your hero with what your teammate just did? What do you wish to tell her right now? How do you plan to react to what happened?
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This excerpt from Chapter 1 speaks to both the nature of the Sentinel Comics canon and the collaborative story-telling methods of the game. Players and GMs alike are creators in this context. Just get in there and have fun with it!
The Letters Page
Just yesterday, we released the 100th episode of our Sentinel Comics podcast: The Letters Page! That episode is all about the stories we’ve received of players and GMs going through the SCRPG Starter Kit. So, if you want a feel for the type of stories that are already coming out of this roleplaying game, go have a listen!
Hero Character Sheet and more info on Hero Creation
We’ve talked a bit above but also in last week’s updates about GMs creating scenes, environments, minions, villains, and more, and players making their own heroes to tell their own stories. In response, we’ve gotten a lot of requests for hero character sheets, so we’ve crafted a form-fillable one for download on the Greater Than Game website! Here’s the hero sheet! We’ll have even more downloads as we get closer to the release of the game, but this is at least a start!
Trevor’s fantastic hero creation process video is ready, as well! Check it out!
More Overview Videos
On Monday, I shared the first of the SCRPG Overview videos that Trevor, Adam, and I created. The first one had a couple errors, so we’ve reuploaded it. Here’s that first one, again.
Additionally, we’ve got the second video now! Even more information on the world of Sentinel Comics!
Look forward to the third of these videos in Friday’s update!
Looking to the Future to learn about the Past
Speaking of Friday’s update, two days from now I’ll be here talking about the History of Sentinel Comics book! I’m eager to share more exciting details on that, plus, this Friday will be the one week left in the campaign mark, so that’s also thrilling!
Keep up the heroics!
-Christopher
Let’s Talk About the STUFF!
almost 6 years ago
– Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 09:50:18 PM
Hello, heroes!
What a weekend! Since my last update, we’ve raised over $18k - that’s amazing! We’re thrilled at how this campaign is rocketing along.
In today’s update, I’m going to talk more about the GM Kit, the Dice set, and the Special Edition version of the SCRPG core rulebook. I’ve also got a cool video to show you! So, let’s get right into it.
SCRPG GM Kit
I’m really excited about the contents of this kit. The GM screen is super useful, complete with sections on how to use each of the actions, as well as tips and tools for creating both Minions and Twists on the fly.
Making Twists on the fly is one of the most fun parts of GMing, in my opinion, but having some helpful guidelines and ideas right at hand while running a game makes it even easier!
The dry-erase elements are also incredibly useful. There’s a two-sided scene tracker: one side with the “standard” Green / Yellow / Red zone spaces, and the other with all white spaces so you can create lengths of the GYRO zones for whatever type of scene you want to run.
There are also dry erase cards for challenges, minions, and lieutenants. AND! Blank dry erase cards! Why am I so excited about blank cards? Come on, think of the possibilities! Mainly, I plan on using them to write hero names on and put them in front of each hero player to indicate when they take their turns in the action order, but the possibilities are nigh endless!
On top of all that, you also get SO MANY fillable hero and villain character sheets. One hundred of each! This way, instead of having to print them off, you get official sheets in full color.
We actually just got a “white sample” of the GM kit here in the office! (“White sample” is a print industry term. It means that this is the physical product that we’re making, but with none of the printing on it - just all white.) Check it out!
That’s a bunch of great stuff, and the box is the same height as the books will be, so they’ll all go nicely on a shelf together.
SCRPG Dice Set
Look at these dice.
I’m just a sucker for dice with comic book lettering on them. Or numbering, rather. We did dice like this for Sentinel Tactics, and they looked great - these are WAY better. They’re bigger, easier to read, and they’ve got an array of thematically appropriate colors. Also, as a little nod to the way the game works, the 10-sided dice go from 1 to 10, rather than from 0 to 9 as most 10-sided dice do. So, that’s cool.
I’m looking forward to having a set of these dice myself!
Special Edition SCRPG Core Rulebook
So, first thing first: the content of the Special Edition core rulebook is the same as the content of the standard core rulebook. There isn’t anything I’d want left out of the rulebook - the text is as it is. So! Everything special comes in the physical elements of the book.
The thick leather cover stands out and feels weighty, and the blue foil printing really makes this book pop off the shelf. And on the inside front and back cover flap pages that are usually just blank in hardcover books, we’ll be printing sweet Sentinel Comics art.
But the real workhorse of the special edition is the ribbons.
Those ribbons are going to find their homes quickly. If you’re primarily using this book for hero creation, they’ll likely live at the master list of Powers and Qualities (which is immediately opposite the page showing the overview of the guided hero creation process, so that ribbon’s pulling double duty), the “how to calculate health” page, the start of the list of Principles, and the section on hero advancement. If you’re more using this book for GMing, they might live at the part of chapter 4 on twists, the section on doomsday devices, the Bullpen section about minions, and the Bullpen section on villains. And that’s just some of the options - those ribbons are going to be so helpful. Also! I talked to Jenn about it, and we’re going to get the colors of the ribbons to be Sentinel Comics appropriate: Green, Yellow, Red, and Sentinel Comics blue.
Personally, I’m probably going to have a copy of the Special Edition for me to use while GMing and another copy of the standard edition to hand out to players.
Overview Videos
Recently, Adam and I sat down with our phenomenal videographer Trevor and made a few overview videos, each talking about a part of the creation of this game. Here’s the first one!
I’ll share another one of each of the videos on Wednesday and Friday later this week!
More Hero Character Creation Preview with Dave!
Dave’s done it again! He’s shown off the hero creation process to another fine set of folks! The Dragon’s Demize podcast had Dave on and they made a team of heroes together! Check it out!
I’m looking forward to talking about our story plans on Wednesday, and I hope you are, too! See you then!
-Christopher
Elaborating on Environments! (And more!)
almost 6 years ago
– Fri, Feb 08, 2019 at 08:56:10 PM
Hey, everyone!
As mentioned in yesterday’s brief update, we blew past that $200k mark and are still moving right along! But before we can talk about the recently unlocked adventure book and the current state of stretch goals, let’s get to the promised coverage of Environments and more! Starting with the “and more!”!
More from The Bullpen
I talked a bit about Chapter 5: The Bullpen in Wednesday’s update. Today, since we’re talking about environments, I want to dig into how the tools in that chapter help you build your own exciting settings!
When you’re building an environment, you start with a name and a concept (which of course can change over the course of creation if you get a different idea as you go). Based on those, you establish its three traits and assign dice to them based on their severity (for more info on those, check out any of the environments we’ve already released as part of the SCRPG Starter Kit or the Stolen Legacy or Urban Infestation one-shots).
Then, using the tools in this chapter, you create specific GYRO-based twists and threats for the environment, giving it a life of its own. The twists and threats in an environment are what make it react to the actions of the heroes and make it feel like an interesting place, not just a boring blank slate for superpowered fights to occur.
Now, combine your environment with some foes - minions, lieutenants, and possibly even a solo villain or a team of villains - throw in some challenges, and have some twists ready for when the heroes attempt the challenges. With all that, you’re ready to run entire scenes of your own!
Environments of Sentinel Comics
Of course, there are many canonical environments from the pages of Sentinel Comics, and we wanted to make sure you had a few juicy ones to pick from in the rulebook. That doesn’t stop you from creating any other environments using the Chapter 5 tools, but these at least are fully statted out in The Archives:
Megalopolis, the city of the future, complete with a giant, power-generating tree!
Freedom Plaza, the new home to the Sentinels of Freedom where they train the next generation of heroes!
Wagner II Mars Base, still being rebuilt near the site of the original Wager Mars Base, including a portal to the Wagner Space Center in Megalopolis!
Magmaria, deep under the surface of the earth, featuring magmen, their stalag-homes, the occasional crystalloid behemoth, and LOTS of magma!
Ruins of Atlantis, now an active scientific research site. Something terrible happened recently here, and its effects are still under study...
Mordengrad, the home of Baron Blade. The people of Mordengrad believe in their leader, even if he is currently incarcerated (after the events of the SCRPG Starter Kit).
The “Diamond Book of Monsters and xxtz’Hulissh” Adventure Book!
For hitting the $200k stretch goal yesterday, we unlocked the Diamond Book of Monsters and xxtz’Hulissh Adventure Book! Now, wait, is that the name of this book? No, that’s a ridiculous and misleading name. Let me break down what’s going on here.
This book is an adventure book. This means it has 12 issues of adventure in it - that’s a lot! There are some adventure books that we’d like to make some day in which all 12 issues in the book are one adventure, but more commonly, we’ll break up the book into two arcs that aren’t specifically related, but are at least thematically similar. (It might not surprise you that Adam and I have charted out a TON of potential content for this game - will it all get made? Seems unlikely! But anything’s possible…)
So, in this book, there is a 6-issue adventure all about the Diamond Book of Monsters. This is a book we revealed in an episode of The Letters Page a few months ago. It’s a book with info about monsters and worse that was handed down to NightMist from her grandfather. I don’t want to get into too many details - you’ll just have to play the adventure to find out more - but in this adventure, the book has been lost from Harpy’s library in the aviary… in the wrong hands, it could be quite dangerous!
The Diamond Book of Monsters adventure is being written by Tracy Barnett, who is a great storyteller that has done a lot of cool things in the industry! Tracy Barnett is a genderqueer (they/them) game designer with something like fifteen publishing credits. In addition to writing their own work (School Daze, Iron Edda Accelerated, One Shot), they have also done work for Evil Hat Productions, Paizo, and Galileo Games. They produce an actual play podcast called TheOtherCast, and spend most of their free time thinking about games. They're excited to be writing for Greater Than Games, and to have the chance to work with the design team to bring The Diamond Book of Monsters to life! (not literally... well, half-literally).
The other adventure in this book is a 6-issue adventure all about xxtz’Hulissh. That makes sense, right? You know everything you need to know now, correct? Oh, are you not familiar with xxtz’Hulissh? Fair. No one really is. It’s a new… thing. There’s not a great word to describe what it is. I really can’t say too much about it right now - it’s not so much that xxtz’Hulissh is unknowable, but that you don’t want to know xxtz’Hulissh. More accurately, you don’t want xxtz’Hulissh to know you. Ignorance is bliss, right?
The xxtz’Hulissh adventure is being written by Cory O’Brien, who is strangely and delightfully the absolute correct person to be writing it. Cory O'Brien has written many things, including a few websites (Myths RETOLD, Face a Week, Swear of the Month Club), a few video games (Monster Prom, Max Gentlemen: Sexy Business), and a dystopian robot board game (Inhuman Conditions). He is currently the proud owner of 28 of his own teeth, and absolutely does not stalk the night as an abyssal terror with a hunger for the nightmares of the very young.
Now, on both of those adventures, I’m also writing/consulting, mainly to keep the stories within the canon of Sentinel Comics. However, these two fantastic writers are doing all the heavy lifting - I’m just there to help out. One of the big things that we’re excited about in the world of Sentinel Comics going forward is starting to have the width and breadth of talent working on it that we’ve always pretended to have. It’s not just me doing the writing anymore. It’s not just Adam doing the art anymore. Get excited to see lots of new things!
This adventure book, full of bizarre monsters and otherworldly horror, is now on the add-on list for this campaign. This means that you can get the physical copy (that comes with the PDF of the book as well for free) by adding $29 to your pledge, or you can get just the PDF for $12. It will be a full color, hardbound book of the same quality and dimensions of the core rulebook (but not the same page count, thankfully). And even if you’re not the sort of GM to run adventures from a book, it’s still a great resource! Both adventures will have lots of cool environments, challenges, and so many foes and twists. Not to mention all the amazing art! As we continue work on it, we’ll update you folks here about how things are going (with this book and other books), as well as occasional sneak peeks at what we’ve completed so far.
Stretchy Goals!
Where are we now?
Looking good! The next stretch goal is a one-shot adventure (like Stolen Legacy or Urban Infestation) that leads up to the events of the Sentinels of Freedom video game by Underbite Studios. If we hit that stretch goal, we’ll create that adventure and send it to all backers, free of charge! (Same thing as other free stretch goals here where you get a physical copy and a PDF if you’re backing at any level with a physical product, but you get only the PDF if you’re backing this campaign just for PDFs.)
I hope we get there! We have some very cool plans for that adventure, and so much more!
Hero Character Creation Preview with Dave!
Before I sign off, I want to share a cool video that just got posted yesterday:
The fine folks at The RPG Academy recently had Dave Chalker - lead designer of the Sentinel Comics RPG - on their Show and Tell livestream, and they went through the hero creation process together! So, if you want more info on how that works, check out that video!
Have a great weekend, everyone! See you next week!
-Christopher
Quick Update: We hit $200k! Woo!
almost 6 years ago
– Thu, Feb 07, 2019 at 11:09:02 PM
Hey, everyone! Just a brief note to celebrating hitting the $200k mark! That's amazing!
I'll tell you all about the Diamond Book of Monsters and xxtz'Hulissh Adventure Book in tomorrow's update, but now we can definitively say that it's happening! Congrats, everyone!
Here's where the Stretch Goal chart is now:
Just so you know, the $250k level is another free stretch goal... and the book that comes after it is one of the most demanded products we've teased leading up to this point!
With the Adventure Book unlocked, we've got a new look to the Add-On Chart, as you can now Add on the DBoM/xxtz'Hulissh Adventure book for either the physical copy and PDF, or just the PDF!
OK! See you all tomorrow for an update about Environments!
-Christopher
Validating the Villains!
almost 6 years ago
– Wed, Feb 06, 2019 at 10:21:28 PM
Hello, all you heroes of Sentinel Comics!
Without you, the day could not be saved! But saved from whom? Why, the villains, of course! Those dastardly devils have pernicious plans that lead to horrifying hopelessness! Let’s learn more about them now.
Villains of Sentinel Comics
To go in opposite order of what we covered on Monday, I wanted to start by talking about the villains who will be in the Archives of the Core Rulebook. There are quite a lot of them - many you may immediately recognize, but some of them are much newer or have experienced substantial changes. Anyway, without further ado, here they are!
The newly reformed villain team, The Slaughterhouse Six
Including:
Glamour
Desert Eagle
Re-Volt
Hippo
Kismet
Ray Manta
And of course, Baron Blade!
More villains than you could shake a stick at! No, really - don’t shake a stick at these foes. They’ll take it personally and then unleash their doomsday devices or tear a rift in reality or something equally awful.
The Bullpen
Chapter 5 of the SCRPG Core Rulebook is called “The Bullpen”, and it’s all about how to make the elements of adventures (or “issues”). There, you’ll find info on creating challenges, laying out scenes (action, social, and montage), building and using environments, coming up with compelling twists (in advance and on the fly), and more!
Possibly most importantly are the sections on creating minions and lieutenants, and the section on creating villains. For minions and lieutenants, you decide how strong of a threat you’re making and select a die size for them, given them a special ability (or abilities, in the case of lieutenants), and some tactics to help them know how to behave in scenes. Slap a name on them and you’re good to go!
For villains, the creation process is in some ways similar to hero creation, though not quite as in-depth. You start with the concept of what sort of villain you’re making. Pick an Approach based on that concept, giving your villain Powers, Qualities, and Abilities. Then, you choose their Archetype, which gives them their Status Dice and the method by which their Status changes, as well as a few more Abilities related to that Archetype. Finally, if they’re a solo villain or at least acting alone against a group of heroes, you equip them with various Upgrades and finish them off with a Villainous Mastery, which is roughly equivalent to a Heroic Principle.
Their Health total comes from their Approach, Archetype, and any Upgrades, and then you’re good to go! You’ve got a villain ready to make heroes tremble in their boots!
I really look forward to you GMs out there getting your hands on Chapter 5 and coming up with all manner of exciting foes!
To Add-On or not to Add-On
We’re getting closer and closer to that sweet $200k stretch goal! We’ve talked about how to do add-ons, and it is true that waiting and doing the add-ons during the post-campaign backer manager thing will be possible and straight forward. However! You can add-on for products right now, if you want! If there are any add-ons you’re interested in, you can increase your pledge by that amount - just like anything else on Kickstarter, you still won’t be charged until the campaign ends, but you’ll have allocated funds for the add-ons you’re interested in for when the post-campaign backer manager takes over! Now, you might be asking, “Why would I do that?” Here’s the secret: if you do, it’ll get us closer to that next Stretch Goal, and the cool stretch goals beyond that! The funds gathered during the post-campaign thing don’t count towards stretch goals - only the money collected on Kickstarter. So, this is a way to vote for what you want with your dollar.
In another reality...
Last, I wanted to mention this update that Paul just posted to the Sentinels of Multiverse: OblivAeon campaign. He gets real honest about how things went there, and the lessons we learned from it. I’m not going to rehash his words here, but I thought you might appreciate his tour of what the last couple years have looks like for us here at Greater Than Games.
On Friday, I’ll be here again talking about Environments, Challenges, and Scenes! I hope you’re looking forward to it as much as I am!
