Author Archives: bblackmoor

Bulletproof Blues progress report

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Great news! Artist Dan Houser has completed all of the character illustrations for Bulletproof Blues. This freaked out maniac is TickTockMan, the master of time. Like all of Dan’s artwork in Bulletproof Blues, this illustration of TickTockMan will be available on DriveThruRPG under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license after the book is published.

Speaking of characters, we are currently putting the finishing touches on the Bulletproof Blues Character Sheet Helper. The Character Sheet Helper makes it easier to write up your characters and share them. In addition to just helping you write up your Bulletproof Blues characters, the Character Sheet Helper has outputs for text (to paste into emails), wiki (to paste into articles on the Kalos Universe wiki), and print (to print out your characters for easy use around the game table). And it’s free, of course.

Ticktockman (Dan Houser)

[Attribute] Boost revision

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As a result of the playtest responses, we have revised the [Attribute] Boost power:

[Attribute] Boost

Activation: Activated
Task roll: —
Target: Personal
Range: —
Cost: 1 character point per rank

[Attribute] Boost permits the character to increase the rank of one of their attributes, chosen when this power is purchased. Once every ten minutes, the character may add their ranks in [Attribute] Boost to the rank of their selected attribute (up to rank 14 maximum). The boosted attribute remains at this increased rank for one minute (ten rounds). Once the [Attribute] Boost wears off, the attribute drops to its normal rank (rounded up). Once the character has used their [Attribute] Boost power, it may not be used again for ten minutes.

What do you think of [Attribute] Boost?

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We are going through the playtest responses, and one of the earliest was a question about [Attribute] Boost. Here is the current version of the power:

[Attribute] Boost

Activation: Activated
Task roll: —
Target: Personal
Range: —
Cost: 1 character point per rank

[Attribute] Boost permits the character to increase the rank of one of their attributes, chosen when this power is purchased. Once per hour, the character may add their ranks in [Attribute] Boost to the rank of their selected attribute (up to rank 14 maximum). The boosted attribute remains at this increased rank for one minute (ten rounds). Once the [Attribute] Boost wears off, the attribute drops to one-half of its normal rank (rounded up) for ten minutes, after which it returns to its normal rank.

As written, the cost is exactly the same as simply buying the Attribute. Why? Two reasons.

First, this power is mainly for use with characters whose increased powers come from a serum or amulet, and which only lasts for a short time. We wanted a way for people to have a power like that without stacking up a bunch of power enhancements and defects.

Second, we intended that if the GM had a specific power level in mind for the game, that the GM would allow a character with [Attribute] Boost to exceed those limits since the power is so restricted.

Of course, both of these assume that you are playing a particular style of game, and not everyone plays the same way.

What do you think? Would you make [Attribute] Boost more powerful? Less expensive? Less restricted? Would you just get rid of it entirely?

Feel free to suggest anything that crosses your mind. We want to hear your input.

Playtest deadline extended

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Due to the inclement weather affecting much of the East Coast (and Hawaii, although for different reasons), we are extending the deadline for submitting playtest reports to Monday, November 5. You can actually send us playtesting reports any time you like, but if you want to be eligible to receive a ProFantasy Software gift certificate, you will need to submit your playtesting report to support@kaloscomics.com no later than November 5. As always, feel free to post questions or comments on the Kalos Comics mailing list.

Public playtest for Bulletproof Blues

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Bulletproof Blues 1e cover

Public playtesting for Bulletproof Blues has started. If you would like to be included in the playtest, go to the Bulletproof Blues playtest site, read the game, play it with your friends, and send your comments to support@kaloscomics.com. Note page titles and section headings when you can. Send scans of your character sheets and notes if you can. Most of all, have fun!

You might also like to join the Kalos Comics mailing list. We will be answering rule questions and posting clarifications on that mailing list. It’s entirely optional, though, so if you’d rather not subscribe, then don’t.

In a few days, we will wrap up the Bulletproof Blues Character Builder, which is a LibreOffice document designed to simplify creating and sharing your characters. We’re sorry that it isn’t quite finished yet, but we will make it available to you as soon as we can.

We would like to have all of the playtesting reports back by Sunday, October 28. On October 31 we will be giving the five best playtesters a $45 gift certificate to ProFantasy Software, makers of Campaign Cartographer. Alternately, if any of the five best playtesters would prefer a $20 Amazon.com gift card, they can have that instead.

Starting public playtesting for Bulletproof Blues

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Bulletproof Blues 1e cover

On Monday, October 1, 2012, we will start public playtesting for Bulletproof Blues, a rules-light superhero game. If you would like to be included in the playtest, send an email to support@kaloscomics.com and introduce yourself. We will contact the selected playtesters. We would like to have all of the playtesting reports back by Sunday, October 28. To encourage detailed playtesting reports, on October 31 we will be giving the five best playtesters a $45 gift certificate to ProFantasy Software, makers of Campaign Cartographer.

Status update — character builder, playtesting, etc.

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Bulletproof Blues 1e cover

Just a quick note to let you know how things are progressing on Bulletproof Blues. We are wrapping up the editing and getting ready to start the final round of playtesting. To encourage detailed playtesting reports, we will be giving the five best playtesters a $45 gift certificate to ProFantasy Software, makers of Campaign Cartographer.

We are writing a Bulletproof Blues Character Builder to simplify character creation and make it easier to share and print character sheets. The Bulletproof Blues Character Builder is based on LibreOffice, a cross-platform and open source office suite program. You might be asking why you would need a spreadsheet for Bulletproof Blues if it’s such a simple game system. The fact is, you don’t need one. However, the spreadsheet will make it easier to share your characters, and it will make it copy-and-paste simple for you to add a character to the Kalos Universe wiki. Both the Bulletproof Blues Character Builder and the Kalos Universe wiki will be free to use, of course.

As soon as we finish the Bulletproof Blues Character Builder, we will begin accepting playtesting applications, so watch this space for updates!

They are here, but are they interesting?

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Earth has been visited by aliens many times in its history, although few people in the Kalos Universe are aware of this. Most of these visits were well before 3000 BCE, which is when humans began recording history. Some may have even been before the evolution of Homo sapiens approximately 200,000 years ago.

For hundreds of years, modern science has endeavored to peel back the layers of ignorance, to shed light on the true nature of the universe, to replace yesterday’s myth with today’s proven fact. And it is to advance that cause that we must ask ourselves… are extraterrestrials dull?

Bulletproof Blues: Subversive organizations

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GORGON logo (old)

What’s a superhero game without subversive organizations vying for global dominance?

Subversive organizations

A subversive organization is one that seeks to transform the established social order and its structures through force and deception. In essence, subversive organizations seek to supplant traditional national and cultural loyalties. Subversive organizations are similar to criminal enterprises in that both are primarily opposed by governments (as opposed to corporations, which would happily do business with them if doing so would generate a profit). However, the goal of a subversive organization is the supremacy of a cause or ideology rather than material gain. Subversive organizations do seek financial gain, often through criminal activities and donations through various “front” charities, but this revenue is merely a means to an end.

Subversion of the power, authority, and hierarchy of an existing social structure is a labor-intensive task. For this reason, subversive organizations establish or infiltrate front groups and seek to manipulate existing political parties. Front groups may establish further front groups, and so on, to the extent that ordinary members have no idea who is actually in control of their organization. In fact, a given front group may be infiltrated by several subversive organizations simultaneously. This many-layered structure makes it difficult for the establishment to root out and eliminate subversive organizations.

Because subversive organizations place loyalty to their ideology above any respect for law and order (and may in fact be antagonistic to the existing legal structure), the use of force is always an option, and most subversive organizations prepare for eventual armed confrontation with the establishment. For this reason, they exert considerable effort to infiltrate the armed forces, the police, and other institutions of the state, as well as important non-government organizations. In some cases, the subversive organization will attempt to plant “sleepers” in these institutions, but in most cases they will use a combination of bribery, blackmail, and extortion to gain leverage over vulnerable individuals who already belong to the targeted institution.

Most subversive organizations realize that the overthrow of the existing order would be made simpler if the general populace looked upon the traditional power structure with disdain or apathy. To generate antipathy to the status quo, subversive organizations provide support to groups who generate civil unrest through demonstrations, strikes, and boycotts. Additionally, subversive organizations may infiltrate media outlets in order to shape the narrative that ordinary people use to make their political decisions.

Subversive organizations have many potential uses for posthumans and actively attempt to recruit them unless the organization has an ideology which prevents it. Because subversive organizations depend on subtlety more than on overt force, any posthumans in their ranks are likely to have abilities pertaining to deception and manipulation.