Sentinel Comics: The Roleplaying Game

Progress on Sentinel Choices, and some words on timelines!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Mar 07, 2023 at 09:53:38 AM

Hey, everyone!

Progress continues on the Sentinel Choices, the zine mentioned last month! The author, Patrick, and our highly-skilled gettin'-stuff-done contractor Nick have both been in the Sentinel Choices mines, plumbing its depths for greatness!

In the Sentinel Choices adventure zine, three heroes known as Vaporwave, Squeezeplay, and The Forgotten follow the panels of their own playbooks to get to the bottom of the DiskDriver Raid! This Sentinel Choices adventure zine is a lightweight cooperative adventure, similar to "Choose Your Own Adventure" type experiences, but with a decidedly comic book angle. Set in the world of Sentinel Comics, the DiskDriver Raid story is self-contained, but also touches on elements — both thematic and mechanical — from other Sentinel Comics properties.

The Sentinel Choices adventure zine will be complete this year and going to all backers upon completion! Additionally, the other major books promised as part of this campaign are all in progress — as well as the rework of the SCRPG Starter Kit and the "Terror Forms" one-shot adventure — with high hopes to deliver them within the next couple years. We know we've got a lot on our plate, and you've all been very patient with us, but we're spinning up methods for getting the stuff we've been ruminating on finally out the door!

Thanks everyone for sticking with us!

-Christopher

Books in process!
almost 2 years ago – Tue, Feb 07, 2023 at 11:03:47 AM

Greetings, Sentinels fans!

In the last few weeks, we've been hard at work on the Starter Kit, the History of Sentinel Comics book, AND a new One-Shot called "Terror's New Form" that we hope (fingers crossed!) to have done in time for Gen Con this year! 

To find out more about the "Terror's New Form" playable issue, check out this episode of The Letters Page podcast, in which we create and outline the story live on the air, though with certain redactions to not just give the whole thing away...

We're also gearing up to work on the Monster Adventures book, having gathered tales both grand and terrifying from our writers Cory and Tracy, with hopes to dive in on the Urban Settings and Dark Watch sourcebooks soon afterwards. 

ALSO! We're (finally!!) putting together the long-awaited Sentinel Comics Zine! Called "Sentinel Choices", it's a self-contained light system that is inspired by both the Sentinel Comics RPG system and solo adventure books in the "Choose Your Own Adventure" style. But it's also its own thing! Patrick wrapped up writing on it some time ago, and we're finally getting around to development, editing, and (eventually) Zine-worthy art! We'll talk more about it in next month's update.

Many irons and few fires, but we're burning hot and bright and doing our best to bring you the finest in Sentinel Comics content!

-Christopher

The Loss of a Legend
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Jan 04, 2023 at 12:53:40 PM

It is with an incredibly heavy heart that I write this update. This last Saturday evening, the world lost a champion. Darren Watts passed away after having a heart attack a week earlier. Darren was an incredibly creative and passionate long time contributor to many supers and comics works, especially in the tabletop gaming industry, and his knowledge and experience was invaluable to all of us working on Sentinel Comics for the last few years. I am honored to also call him my friend. 

Darren was nothing short of prolific, known for his work on the HERO system and Champions RPGs, along with numerous other projects. Closer to home here, for those of you who are aware of the evolution of Sentinels lore, Darren was the catalyst for the "post-it note room" that became all of the spreadsheets, organizing every issue Sentinel Comics ever published. He was also the primary author of The History of Sentinel Comics, along with Christopher McGlothlin and myself. His work will continue on in many products, but also in the hearts and minds of his friends and family.

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Work continues on both the SCRPG Starter Kit rework (which is in the final stages of editing and already moving along with graphic design and layout), and my primary work is now on The History of Sentinel Comics. That work is, unsurprisingly, complicated now, but Darren and I had many meetings up until fairly recently, and I have all of his notes and writing, so the book will be completed within his vision of what it could be. Additionally, I have plans to move forward on the Dark Watch book, the monsters adventures book, and even the Sentinel Comics zine this year, but the work of finishing the History book weighs heavily upon me at this moment, making it difficult to see beyond it. I don't know what else to say here. Be kind to each other, everyone. 

-Christopher

An excerpt from the History of Sentinel Comics and a bit more!
almost 2 years ago – Thu, Dec 08, 2022 at 01:27:56 PM

Good afternoon, lovers of capes, cowls, and comics!

Work on the History of Sentinel Comics book continues, with the light at the end of the tunnel in sight! With that in mind, I wanted to show off a bit of the Sentinel Comics timeline that will be featured in that book. However, in order to do so, it seemed worthwhile to share a couple of paragraphs from the text of the book that illustrate what's going on and about to happen for the (fake) publisher called "Sentinel Comics". So! Here is the end of Chapter 1:

I chose this excerpt because it illustrates two things. First, what is about to happen for Sentinel Comics at this point in the story, which is that they're about to launch the book named Justice Comics, which catapults them into the world of supers comics. And second, that the entire first chapter takes place BEFORE what we think about as the "Sentinel Comics timeline" or, more accurately, the "Multiverse timeline". Behold, the start of that very timeline!

(Apologies for the not-terribly-high-resolution screen shot. The file of the timeline is incredibly massive, given the amount of data it contains, so opening it big enough for a sharp screen shot... well, let's just say it's risky.)

So now you know a bit about what's going on with Sentinel Comics before it starts to be the Sentinel Comics we know and love. Look at all those titles! Have you heard of any of them before? I doubt it! "Adventure of Vera"?! "It's A Lark"?!?! What's happening here? I'm excited for you to learn more about all of it soon!

Thanks for sticking with us this year. It's been a tumultuous year as we relearn how to do a lot of the things we used to do but in a new (and often better, but still challengingly different) way. I am looking forward to starting the new year with some info for you about our plans and expectations. Until then, keep up the heroics, everyone! 

-Christopher

Working on Three Things, mainly!
about 2 years ago – Thu, Nov 03, 2022 at 08:43:58 AM

Good afternoon, Sentinels!

We're into the busiest time of the year, kicked off by our time in Germany for the Essen Spiel convention. It was great to see a bunch of you there — I loved hearing about your home SCRPG games and the stuff you've come up with! I was regaled with many a tale of heroes and villains and got to meet an assortment of players and GMs alike! Genuinely one of my favorite experiences at conventions.

Right now, we're working on finalizing the SCRPG Starter Kit with a couple of fantastic contractors, Jenn and Nick, and also diving in on actually laying out the History of Sentinel Comics book from authors Darren and Chris, which is a bear and a half. (Not literally — that would be too dangerous! But it feels like it, sometimes!) 

I'm also spinning up editing on a ton of great adventures from writers Cory and Tracy, and it's awesome to see what other people do with the world of Sentinel Comics! Excited to get through those to dive into even more great writing on another book from Eric and Tim. Look, I'm surrounded by awesome people working on great things. I'm very blessed, and overwhelmed in both good and harrowing ways. And I wouldn't have it any other way!

Anyway! All there is to report right now is that we've got a lot of irons in a small but very hot fire, and we're looking forward to finishing all of these products, sending them to print, and then getting them into your hands!

Oh, and there was a question in the comments since last month's update about not being able to find the Guise book in distribution. It should be available! We have it sent out to distributors everywhere, so make your store poke their distribution connections to get copies! If any particular distributor doesn't have any, they certainly can get some and know how to buy from us! We're right here!

See you all next month!

-Christopher