d20 Supers (Part One)

I have an idea for superpower mechanics for use with OGL Modern and other d20 OGL systems. It uses the feats and skill tree system. Here's the starting point... characters who possess one or more of these feats each representing the weakest manifestation of traditional comic book superpowers, will then be able to pick "Superpower Talent Trees" (perhaps not the best name... but they're talent trees that give access to increasimgly strong powers),

The Superpower Talent Trees will follow in a bit.

Feel free to sound off on the feats and the idea in general. That's what the comments section is for after all. (These feats are published under the Open Game License and may be reproduced according to the terms described here. Copyright 2013 Steve Miller.)

A NEW SYSTEM FOR SUPERPOWERS IN OGL MODERN AND MORE

(Part One)

THE FEATS

Minor Power: Flight

You are able to “leap tall buildings in a single bound.”
   Benefit: You can fly (Perfect) up to 250 feet vertically, or 100 feet in horizontally. If you plummet after reaching your maximum altitude vertically, you will suffer falling damage.

   Special: This feat is a prerequisite for the Superpowers Talent Trees.

Minor Power: Invulnerability

Sticks and stones DON'T break your bones.
   Benefit: Damage from blunt, piercing, and slashing weapons is reduced by 2 points. You gain a +4 bonus to rolls made to resist or reduce damage from acid, cold, electricity, heat, and falling.

   Special: This feat is a prerequisite for the Superpowers Talent Trees.

Minor Power: Speed

You move quicker than normal people.
   Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to all initiative rolls. The character can also move up to 60 ft. in a round without suffering penalties to Move Silently or Hide skill checks.
   Special: This feat is a prerequisite for the Superpowers Talent Trees

Minor Power: Strength
You are a physical powerhouse.
   Benefit: The character’s Strength and Constitution attributes increase by 3 when this feat is chosen.

   Special: This feat is a prerequisite for the Superpower Talent Trees.       

'Science Sleuths #4' brings four different series under one cover

The fourth issue of Science Sleuths is our most varied yet. It brings four different strips from the Golden Age of comics, with regular features "Jill Trent, Science Sleuth" and "Rocketman" being joined by the cross-time adventures of Ace Buckley and paranormal expert Armand Broussard, the Werewolf Hunter. And it's all behind a killer cover by Gus Ricca.

In addition to the comics, which are brimming with roleplaying game scenario ideas, Science Sleuths #4 contains matieral for use with OGL Modern (or any d20 System game that could benefit from a handful of gadget, and NUELOW's flagship game, ROLF!

Click here to see previews or to get your own copy of this great anthology.

NUELOW Heroes & Villains: Ace Buckley and Toni Stark

In Science Sleuths #4 (releasing later this week), another science-minded couple joins the line-up--Ace Buckley and Toni Stark, time-travelers. They will also appear in Science Sleuths #5, and they may or may not be the stars of a Thanksgiving-themed ROLF! supplement. I have an idea for what I think is a cute short story that I hopefully will get done in time; if not, it will show in Science Sleuths #5.

Ace and Toni visit Queen Bess's England. More in Science Sleuths #4.

Meanwhile, here are Ace and Toni ala ROLF! (created with input from L.L. Hundal) along with a time-travel oriented, never-before-seen Combat Maneuver. Other Traits or Combat Maneuvers not in the basic ROLF! rule book can be found in Science Sleuths #4, or ROLF! Christmas Special III.

ACE BUCKLEY (Male)

Brawn 17, Body 15, Brains 8

   Traits: Dead-Eye, Driver, Improv Master, Too Sexy for My Shirt

   Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Debate Philosophy, Disarm, Dodge, Driver, Murderous Mitts, Sure Shot, Time Traveler

   Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Type of Armor appropriate to time period he has traveled to (absorbs 1-3 points of damage); Medium-sized Melee or Ranged weapon, appropriate to the time period he has traveled to (deals 3 points of damage).

   Origin Story: Ace Buckley was an engineer and scientist who worked for the Stark Machine and Manufacturing Company. Einstein's Theory of Relativity fired his imagination, and he eventually designed what he was sure was a working time machine. Toni Stark, the daughter of Ace's boss, help fund the construction of an actual working machine... and then joined Ace on his travels through time to witness (and sometimes interfere with) historically important events. 

TONI STARK (Female)

Brawn 14, Body 15, Brains 7

   Traits: Busty, Nimble

   Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Bitch Slap, Dance Move, Dodge, Seduce, The Walk, Time Traveler

   Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Clothes appropriate for time period she has traveled to. Small Melee Weapon appropriate to the time she has traveled to (deals 2 points of damage).

   Origin Story: Although every bit as brilliant and scientifically minded as her brother Howard, their parents wanted nothing for Antonia "Toni" Stark but for her to find a socially suitable husband. Toni had different ideas, though, and she began befriending fringe scientists and researchers in the hopes of finding an outlet for her intellect and scientific curiosity. When she heard that an employee of her father's firm was pursuing time-travel technology in his spare time, she knew that she had to be part of that effort. She helped fund Ace Buckley's construction of a working time machine and became his traveling companion through the ages.

New Combat Maneuver

Time Traveler: The character has access to a time machine or some other method to travel through time. If a fight that is ended through the successful use of the Run Away Combat Maneuver, or similar game effect, the character uses his or her time travel machine to restart the fight. All characters return to their original starting position.

Madden's Boys Meet the HeartbreakerA NUELOW Heroes & Villains Battle Scenario

MADDEN'S BOYS MEET THE HEARTBREAKER

A ROLF! Battle Scenario by L.L. Hundal

Artwork by Bill Madden

Copyright 2013 NUELOW Games & Steve Miller. All Rights Reserved/

(Permission granted to copy for personal use.)

1/0: INTRODUCTION
As the NUELOW Games staff (all two of us) work on the next collection of Bill Madden comics--tentatively titled Madden's Boys--Steve Miller has been up to his usual tricks of poking fun at the stuff we're planning to publish. This panel caught his eye in one of the Yankee Boy stories, and he just HAD to put it on Facebook as part of his irregular series of Out of Context Theater posts.

 Well, this triggered an idea--a classic ROLF! battle scenario along the lines of our mid-1990s offerings that caused Frank Mentzer to quip: "The download is guaranteed virus free, but I can't be sure about the characters."

2.0: THE PRE-GENERATED CHARACTERS
Here are the characters featured in the Battle Scenario. They were created using rules from the core ROLF! game, as well as ROLF!: Something About Superheroes and ROLF!: Christmas Special II. (If this was an actual release, we'd repeat all the Combat Maneuvers and Traits not included in the core game here.)

Dynamic Boy (AKA Kent Banning, Male)

Brawn 16, Body 14, Brains 6

   Traits: Improv Master, Superpower (Super Strenth [Personal], Flight [Personal], Bonus: +2 Brawn ATT [Permanent]

   Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Pimp Slap

Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Superhero Outfit (Armor, absorbs up to 2 points of damage).
    Origin Story: Dynamic Boy almost died while saving the life of Dr. Brown's daughter. The good doctor then proceeded to save him by feeding him an unknown substance he had secured from cultists high atop the Himalyan mountains. 

Heartbreaker (AKA Katie Felmann, Female)

Brawn 14, Body 16, Brains 6

   Traits: Coldhearted, Nimble, Stone Cold Killer

   Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Bitch Slap, Castrate, Double Strike, Seduce, Strike Pose

   Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Leather Vest (Armor, absorbs 2 points of damage), Thigh-high Boots, (Armor AND Leggings, absorbs 1 point of damage). Dagger (Small Melee Weapon, deals 1 point of damage). Pistol (Small Ranged Weapon, deals 2 points of damage that ignore armor).
   Origin Story: Heartbreaker was a CIA operative who relied on "womanly wiles" to achieve siccess in her intelligence gathering missions. When her identity was exposed by a publicity-seeking U.S. senator, she barely escaped from her last assignment with her life. In revenge, she assassinated the senator, and she has been working as a high-priced, freelance hit woman ever since.

Yankee Boy (AKA Phil Martin, Male)

Brawn 14, Body 13, Brains 6

   Traits: Irrepressible Optimist, Nimble

   Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Bitch Slap, Deflect, Dodge, Murderous Mitts, Strike Pose

   Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Superhero Outfit (Armor, absorbs up to 2 points of damage).
   Origin Story: Phil Martin woke up one day, frustrated with the growing anti-American attitude he detected in the people around him. So, he made himself a superhero outfit and started kicking ass in the name of life, liberty, and the American Way.

3.0: THE BATTLE SCENARIO
This scenario is for two or three players, depending on how you want it to unfold. Each player controls one of the characters from above.

3.1: What Has Come Before
Heartbreaker has been hired by the Great Question to destroy Dynamic Boy and Yakeeboy. Deciding to use the youthful superheroes to take each other out, she has been posing online as a teen girl and has been flirting with them via their "social media" accounts and :"sexting"-type activities. Earlier today, she set up a meeting in a secluded spot, telling each of the boys that she wanted to take their relationship to the "physical level." Just before they are to arrive, she sends each of them a text message, apparently in a panic. "Yankee Boy is jealous of our love--he has vowed to kill me!" to Dynamic Boy, and "Dynamic Boy is jealous of our love--he has vowed to kill me!" to Yankee Boy. She now lurks nearby, waiting to see which of the boy heroes wins the fight, and then.intends to leap out and finish off the one still standing..

3.2: The Battle, Part One
The fight starts at Ranged Distance. Dynamic Boy and Yankee Boy both agrily demand that the  other leave Katie alone. They then attack each other. The fight
   Special Game Note: If Yankee Boy successfully uses his Strike Pose Combat Maneuver to halt Dynamic Boy's attack, the player of Yankee Boy can choose to either continue the fight, or he can say that Yankee Boy tries to talk to Dynamic Boy and figure out why he's suddenly turned into a psycho-stalker targeting his girl. Dynamic Boy's player rolls 2d6, and if the result is equal to or less than 6, the two teens stop fighting.

3.3: The Battle, Part Two
Once either Dynamic Boy or Yankee Boy are defeated, Heartbreaker breaker attacks the remaining hero, controlled by the player of the defeated character. If the fight between the heroes ends as described under the Special Game Note above, the player who controlled Dynamic Boy now controls Hearbreaker, while the other player controls the two heroes. (If there players are playing, each of them controls one of the characters.)
   The fight continues until Heartbreaker or her targets are defeated.

4.0: DESIGNER'S AFTERWORD
Dynamic Boy and Yankee Boy were characters that appeared in issues of Dynamic Comics and Yankee Comics respectively, published in 1941 and produced by Harry "A" Chesler's art studio. Heartbreaker is an original creation.
   Dynamic Boy and Yankee Boy were teenage characters modeled after the superheroes from which the anthology titles drew their names (Dynamic Man and Yankee Doodle Jones) but otherwise had no connection to the adult superhero in question. Curiously (although typical for a Chesler-produced strip), Dynamic Man did end up with a sidekick by the name of Dynamic Boy, but it was a completely different character than the one this battle scenario was inspired by. Yankee Doodle Jones also had a kid sidekick, cleverly named Dandy.
    Bill Madden drew both published Dynamic Boy stories, the first three Yankee Boy tales, and he may have penciled the fourth with someone else finishing the art. I think Madden's art deserves more attention than it's gotten over the years, and that's why I'm happy to be part of NUELOW Game's forthcoming Madden's Boys book--which will feature the entire run of the Dynamic Boy series, as well as the first three Yankee Boy episodes. We also may or may not include the Rocket Boy series; we're working on determining whether Madden had a hand in that one or not. I hope you'll join us for them.
   Meanwhile, check out Madden's artwork in The Unholy 3 and OGL Trickery or Mother Hubbard.

NOTE: IF YOU WANT TO GIVE US FEEDBACK ON OUR COMICS ANTHOLOGIES OR GAME PRODUCTS, PLEASE DO! WE VALUE YOU INPUT! WOULD-BE REVIEWERS SHOULD GET IN TOUCH AS WELL... MAYBE WE CAN GIVE YOU A FREE BOOK OR TWO.
 

Coming of the Werewolf Hunter....

In celebration of Halloween, NUELOW is launching its latest series of comics retrieved from the dark, forgotten corners of the Golden Age of the 1940s to be joined with new fiction and RPG material for our own systems and those covered by the OGL.

The first issue of The Werewolf Hunter is now available from RPGNow, DriveThruRPG, DriveThruComics, and DriveThruFiction--downloadable from whichever one of the sites you prefer to shop at. This first issue features the Werewolf Hunter, Professor Broussard himself, squaring off against two nefarious werebeasts; the mysterious Lady Satan's transformation from spy to mystic as she takes on a werewolf who preys on children; and a bone-chilling werewolf tale illustrated by Lee Elias, the lead artist on Black Cat.

In addition to the comics, this issue also includes a classic werewolf short story from Robert E. Howrd, the creator of Conan, and an original piece of fiction by Steve Miller (yep... me) revealing a secret that has been buried since the end of World War II.

Finally, there is a universal RPG supplement designed to bring variety to werewolves in any RPG system.

Click here to check out previews of The Werewolf Hunter #1.

Plus, be sure to check out the Lady Satan book for the first stories about NUELOW Games' latest superstar.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/116140/Lady-Satan

Presenting the works of Bill Madden....

How do we select the comics we decide to publish in our anthologies o Golden Age reprints?

I've been asked that question a couple times now. The answer is the same that it was for the Robert E. Howard collections we produced last year... we find stories we think deserve more attention than they're gotten and we use our little vanity press here to put them before a new audience. Other things we consider is whether the material would hold any appeal to a modern reader whatsoever (who doesn't happen to be a total nerd).

Given those factors, it shouldn't be surprising we led with things like Jack Kirby's Stuntman, George Tuska's Lady Satan, and, of course, the lovely Black Cat.

For that same reason, it was a foregone conclusion that we'd want to put the work of forgotten 1940s comic book artist Bill Madden in front of modern readers. When L.L. Hundal first came upon his work, he was another creator about whom she said, "It's as if he drew these just so we could adapt them for RPGs!"

Upon surveying the dozen or so stories that she has identified as being by Madden, I agree that he was an interesting and unique talent. I can nitpick individual panels and some of his layout choices, but overall he had a dynamic style that stands out from the pack, and it seems to me that he deserved more recognition than he got.

Who was Bill Madden?

According to Jerry Bails' "Who's Who of American Comics 1929 - 1999", Bill Madden (who also signed his work as William J. Madden and W.J.M) produced comics for the Chesler Studio during WW2 and moved to the Schoffman Studio during the post-war years; these studios produced content comics magazines from dozens of different publishers. There are indications that he started his comic book career working with industry pioneer Harry "A" Chesler as early as 1937, with work for Chesler's Centaur Comics imprint, but we've been unable to verify that with any certainty.

In general, very little information is readily available about Bill Madden. He's not a Bill Draut, Lee Elias, or George Tuska who kept working in the comics field after the 1950s and into the era where fans were hungry for details about creators. By the dawn of the Silver Age, Madden was long gone from the comics field, or at least no longer working in any sort of audience-facing capacity.

All we've been able to learn about Bill Madden through our usual half-assed, Google-driven research methods is in the preceding paragraph, and that the majority of his published, identifiable work was done through Chesler on their short-lived B-series--things like "Carnival," "Dynamic Boy," "Mother Hubbard," and "The Unholy 3." His presence at Chesler's studio is itself noteworthy as it was an important shop in its day, where celebrated artists like Joe Kubert and Carmine Infantino got their earliest professional gigs in the comics biz. Kubert was 11 or 12 when he apprenticed at Chesler's, and since Madden did not appear to serve in WW2, he may have been too young, too old, or maybe suffered some health issues. We don't know, and at this late date, we may never know. (But if someone out there wants to share details about William J. Madden/Bill Madden--where he came from and where he went after 1954--please get in touch!)

While Madden the man is obscured in the shadows of history, his work is here for us to enjoy. As mentioned, we've identified about a dozen stories that we'll be  reprinting in our comics/rpg anthologies over the next several months. In fact, we've already released half of them. Each of our books featuring his work collect the entirety of his recognizable contribution to a given series.

Our most recently-released Madden project features nothing but his work, cover to cover. "Mother Hubbard" was a series that ran for the first three issues of Scoop Comics in 1941. The third Hubbard tale (untitled in its original presentation and titled "Eye Trouble" for its NUELOW Games release) served as a source for the notorious Frederic Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent. (Perhaps this is why Madden left the comics field; Lee Elias walked away from the industry for almost ten years after Wertham claimed his art on the "Black Cat" series for Harvey was "perverse.")

The cover of Mother Hubbard from NUELOW Games

Earlier this month, we released The Unholy 3 and OGL Trickery. Madden drew two stories about a trio of con artists and masters of disguise who have turned their talents to taking down criminal practiciners of their "craft." Inspired by the screwball comedies of the 1930s--the headlined by the Marx Brothers, Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, William Powell, and Myrna Loy--these stories should be particularly appealing to both lowers of comics and old movies. The book also contains a non-Madden adventure featuring superhero Black Cobra spending a chaotic night at the ballet, and these three stories are great examples of the freewheeling nature of comic book storytelling during the Golden Age of Comics.

The cover of The Unholy 3 and OGL Trickery from NUELOW

The first of our books to feature Bill Madden, and the one that inspired L.L. Hundal to go digging for more work by him, was Carnival. It's a collection of three circus-themed mysteries, and although it only features one story by Madden, it's a great introduction to his work. It's also an excellent place to start with the NUELOW Games comics line, because it's rife with the sense of freewheeling, no-holds-barred storytelling that attracts us to so many of the short comics features from the 1940s and early 1950s.

The cover of Carnival from NUELOW Games

We have at least one more title featuring unadulterated Madden in the planning stages. It's it working title is Madden's Boys, and it will be a collection of superhero adventures with Dynamic Boy and Rocket Boy. (There may be others--we're still researching this one.)

We're also in the process of identifying other Madden work. I think I've spotted him in at least two other stories, under the inks of other artists. I'm trying to confirm whether I am right or not before we publish. (My ID of Al Plastino in a couple of spots is a bit dodgy, and while I feel confident about my judgement that it is indeed Madden's work on a couple "Madam Satan" stories, I want to be as sure as I can be.)

Meanwhile, I hope you will choose to take a look at Madden's under appreciated work in Carnival, Mother Hubbard, or The Unholy 3. If you do, please share what you think, either on the site you download the book from, or here at the blog.

NUELOW Stock Art Collection #4 now available!

We've just released our latest collection of artwork from our archives for your enjoyment and publishing projects.

 NUELOW Stock Art Collection #4: Scenes From Yesterday's Future: contains 38 color and black-and-white drawings, most of which have been adapted from the covers of Gold Age comic book such as Planet Comics and Space Adventures. Click on the link to see previews of the set, or to get your own copy and start adorning your website or retro sci fi projects with illustrations by Joe Doolin, Dick Giordano, and others.