A bit into the important bits of some of the existing characters to see what we need to keep and what can be gotten rid of:
Iconoclast: The more important bit with her is that she dislikes the status quo of superheroes and wants to break the system. This makes her a great parallel for Mercury, since he comes from a strong lineage of heroes and has a legacy to live up to (also why I usually marked Iconoclast as Mercury in particular’s rival/nemesis).
Sablestar: I feel like we deviated enough from the established character where we could probably change the names and get away with it. Doesn’t hurt that I did redesign the character’s look already.
Troll: Annoying strong guy? Elite minion? Perhaps nothing is lost from not converting him over. (I did do one piece of artwork with Troll and Iconclast in it already, but as we’ve established I am probably going to have to do that artwork over again anyway.)
The Dread Queen: Ruler of an interdimensional totalitarian state. Probably could make the move to change over some of the names to be more Icelandic since we’re working backwards at this point.
Carbine: Rogue AEGIS agent-turned-mercenary. (Should we also worry about AEGIS? I know of three RPGs that use AEGIS as their SHIELD stand-in, so I feel like we’re safe using that acronym still but I’m willing to hear out concerns.)
Magus Everard: The Magus title is probably safe, but a replacement for its current holder (before Ghost Girl) is definitely needed. As a bonus, I finally get to redesign that annoying staff. (Its design is so weird to replicate.)
Facet: I don’t feel like enough happened with her where we couldn’t just replace her with another Rook/Tyran minion and anything would be lost. A slightly sympathetic story would be helpful, not not necessary.
The Farlander: So fun story, I’m playing the Farlander with the serial numbers filed off in a Sentinels RPG right now because someone put a dumb thought into my head. When I didn’t give a name for the character, the other players decided to call the character Space Bug, so that might be a good starting point. I also redesigned him for it.
And that’s all the characters from the Deck of Villainy we used (unless I managed to miss one).
EDIT: Forgot a noun that’ll also need to get swapped:
I’ve got proposed replacements for all this in the doc linked above. If @Dave or @doyce or anyone else feels like reviewing, adding to this, or suggesting something different, please feel free to use that doc to add suggestions and comments
Okay, let me take a look. I’ve kinda been through this indirectly through my pondering over my Jalycia novel (which is being appropriately hammered by my writing group, and taking me in better directions), so I’ve given some of this thought already.
Okay, I’ve read through and added some comments. A couple of added thoughts:
Since you’ve approached Magpie on this, and they’ve rejected it, the inevitable changes require more than just filing the serial numbers off. Bill’s come up with some very serious (and excellent) twists and reconceptualizing on a number of the chars that work to that end.
Yes, this means reworking some illustrations, which is a serious pain in the ass. I feel that hard. Which means … what character re-imaging excites you? That excitement makes this (as cliche as it sounds) an opportunity, not a setback.
I bought the villain deck, but never read it, so while I knew that some of the opposition were from the deck, I had no idea what was, or wasn’t, canonical. Which I mention to say, I really don’t care if it’s Troll or if it’s someone else who hits those emotional beats (ego-challenging, irritating). The real core here are the PCs.
(I would say my own PCs were, at their core, inspired by the pulp tropes that inspired other IP. That said, if there are aspects there you feel the need to further change, let me know – that’s something I’ve already been doing much cogitation and re-creation over.)
I have definitely looked at this as a good opportunity to both clean up a couple of things as well as design some of the visual elements I wasn’t very happy with (the Magus’ Staff was always a pain in the butt to draw, so I won’t be sad to see that go).
That actually is an interesting question. For the most part, the Deck of Villainy spells out a rough outline of a character that Doyce then fleshed out during the game. For instance, can you see the Sablestar from the game in this information (this is all the info the Deck of Villainy provides, except for a picture):
You can certainly see the shape of the character in that description, but the personality and implementation was all us.
Honestly, the Quill/Chin stuff has been a joy to work with and tinker with mentally. Wouldn’t change anything for the life of me.
Working through character designs on this project. Realized while most of the Menagerie were safe from the design pass, Ghost Girl needed a bit of work (especially that Magus version).
With the change of the Magus from being the Sorcerer Supreme to more of a traveler of the many worlds, I felt changing the staff to more of a walking stick fit the theme. Thinking about having part of the effect of casting make the head of the staff bloom into a tree, but that might be more distracting than useful.
Also, previously I had Ghost Girl wearing Everard’s cape as a sash as part of the hand off from one Magus to another. Someone on the SotM discord suggested the replacement Magus wearing a scarf, both practical for a traveler as well as a shout out to another traveler of the infinite.
An interesting question. I know at least three different things use AEGIS as its SHIELD stand in (Masks even references them in their copyright spiel at the beginning of the book) so I feel like that is something that can be gotten away with.
That said, one of my friends from the Sentinels card game offered up his SHIELD stand-in–The Division–to replace AEGIS if we wanted it. Their version is an FBI off-shot that grew beyond its original purpose and have several different sub-division. For instance, Division 2 was originally in charge of Nation Affairs, but over time has shifted to handling superhuman relations.
Their character, Tucker (from this deck) is a member of Division 6, which handles Supernatural Affairs, and is a bit like a combination of the X-Files and the BRPD. Anything that isn’t Division 6 hasn’t been too fleshed out beyond a high level.
All that said, I am more interested in whatever everyone else thinks (in particular Bill and Dave since this change more greatly affect their characters). Keep it AEGIS, go with the Division, or come up with something original?
I’m more concerned as a real person who appreciates IP rights and problems. Leo and his friends can function with any moderately bureaucratic Fed type agency
Agreed. For Alycia, the specific labels don’t really matter. The Agency, as former opponents, as inevitably corrupt defenders of a rotten power structure, as a last refuge when personal convictions shift (and custody ensues), is pretty protean.
Had some free time and decided to noodle out a bit of stuff. In particular, I took a stab at some Netherwarden designs. As I tried different silhouettes with a large coat and such, one thing did come to me: the more I change the character, the less the existing deck and artwork works for them.
With that in mind, I thought “hmm, what is the minimum design alterations I could make so folks could look at the two characters and say ‘they certainly come from the same base archetype, but they are different characters’?” This is the end result of that design session:
Even as just a first attempt there are a few elements I like (the red hair making the green energy stand out more), but it certain has more of a “punk teen” vibe than “experienced necromancer” feel that Ghostheart and Bill’s description of Netherwarden gave.
Thoughts? As always, willing to scrap this idea and start over to get something that works better.
The Netherwarden I wrote up doesn’t have to be an experienced necromancer - in fact arguably they aren’t, they were just at the center of a very bad incident. But ultimately, I think you should draw & write the character that comes from your heart.
For example, she’d talk about “my butterflies” the way you might say “my fingers” - they’re a part of her body, not separate entities. On the other hand, she’ll definitely give names to the technical foundations for such things, so she can have easy conversations about them.
She’d name specific things that she does with her powers, the way a magical girl’s attacks are named, and your SOTM cards have already covered a lot of those bases.
Quite the anti-Harry in a lot of ways. Mercury hates attention, she loves it. Mercury has a classic superhero outfit, she has a Civvie Spandex look. Mercury naturally has an unusual hair color, hers came in a bottle.
