Chris Sims over on ComicsAlliance has written an interesting article about what he calls “The Problem” — DC’s envy of Marvel. Of course, like most such articles it completely ignores the pivotal role that Kalos Comics played during the Golden Age and Silver Age, but it is a fun and interesting read, nonetheless.
The Bulletproof Blues Character Pack 002 contains eight brand-new pieces of high resolution, royalty-free character artwork by Dan Houser, along with the characters’ Bulletproof Blues character sheets in PDF and Bulletproof Blues Character Sheet Helper format. Eight brand-new characters are included:
The image sizes vary, but are generally around 3000 pixels x 4000 pixels.
Everything in this pack is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/.
Thanks for playing!
The Colorado Flood Relief Bundle has come to an end. With your help, we raised just about $5500! If you didn’t get an opportunity to participate, you can still donate at the Great Colorado Flood Relief Project.
Elsewhere on the Internet, John Taber has written a very comprehensive review of Bulletproof Blues over at Kingbeast’s Lair. He went into some detail on what he liked and what he didn’t, and it’s worth your time to read it.
I will share with you some of the reasons behind a couple of the things John didn’t like. This doesn’t mean John is wrong: there is room in the world for everyone to like what they like. But I thought you might appreciate an explanation.
The layout is intentionally simple: a single column of black text on white background, with the text being slightly larger than one usually finds in roleplaying games. We did this for two main reasons. First, the book is primarily intended to be read on a computer screen, especially a tablet. We wanted to make it as easy as possible to read. That’s why it’s in a single column, and why there are very few colors and images behind the text. Second, there are many gamers with vision impairments. We wanted to make sure that the game is accessible to everyone.
John is right that the game has much less art than you will find in most other games of similar quality. The main motivation behind that is a prosaic one: cost. Art, particularly good art, is expensive. We tried to make the book as attractive as we could while keeping the cost as reasonable as possible. Would we like to have a “deluxe” version, with more art? Certainly. But it would be more expensive — much more expensive. It was more important to us that the game be affordable to everyone who might want to play it. If the game becomes hugely popular, and makes us many thousands of dollars, virtually all of that money will go toward art. In the meantime, we hope that people enjoy playing it. 🙂
Could the game be organized better, and could the layout be improved? Absolutely. We went through many iterations of the sample character layout, for example, and we’re still not entirely happy with it. And as John pointed out, the wide tables are a problem that we never did find a satisfactory solution for (although we tried). If you have suggestions for improving the layout, or the game itself, we are always happy to listen (although listening doesn’t mean we will necessarily follow your advice!).
One thing John didn’t mention, which I personally think is particularly important, is that Bulletproof Blues is a completely open game. The game is dual-licensed under both the Open Game License and the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. Anyone can write supplements for it, or even base a whole new game on it. Choose the license that best fits your purposes, and go to town! We will cheer you on with the greatest enthusiasm.
Go read John’s review, and poke around the rest of his web site. He has some interesting stuff over there.
Gentle reminder: the Colorado Flood Relief Bundle will only be available for seven more days. This is a great opportunity to help victims of the Colorado floods, and pick yourself up some nifty superhero games in the process (including Bulletproof Blues).
The flooding of Colorado in September of 2013 destroyed over 1500 homes and damaged over 19,000 and, unfortunately, the US government shutdown has hampered official rebuilding efforts. Many people are still recovering from the devastation.
Kalos Comics has joined with other RPG publishers to give gamers a way to help out while getting some great games at the same time. If you haven’t already picked up Bulletproof Blues, this is a great way to get it.
Pick up the Colorado Flood Relief Bundle.
Christopher Cortright, author of “The Worlds of Hard Luck Ink”, was kind enough to write a review of Bulletproof Blues. Check it out!
Brandon Blackmoor was invited to chat with Jonah Knight, Michael Mason, and Jeremiah Lee on the Pros and Cons podcast. The topics was indie game design (past and present). Check it out!
Do you review roleplaying games? Do like superheroes, or “light” rule systems? Then maybe you would like a free copy of Bulletproof Blues! If you would like a review copy, reply to our post on the Kalos Comics page of either Facebook or Google+ with a link to your previous reviews, and if you’re on the level we will send you a free coupon for the PDF. (Remember, post your link on the Kalos Comics page of either Facebook or Google+, not as a reply to this post!)
Brandon Blackmoor was invited to chat with Dan Davenport on #rpgnet about Bulletproof Blues. Check it out!
Just a quick update:
The minor changes we mentioned on 2013-04-23 are finally in print! If you bought the current print version and would like to buy the updated version, let us know and tell us what email address you used to order the book, and we will send you a coupon for around $5 off the price of the book (basically, you get the revised book at our cost).
Thanks again to Sean Patrick Fannon of Evil Beagle Games for his input and suggestions.
