Proposed monograph: BRP supers; playtesters and critical appraisal needed

[leonmallett]

Hi folks. I have recently begun assembling my material for a proposed monograph which has been accepted with an aim to be ready for September 2009. I am about 25-35% into the first draft writing and would really appreciate playtest and/or critical appraisal of the material.

I have been in discussion with our generous host on this board and he has agreed that I can have a playtest subforum as long as I get sufficient people signed up to do so. So what I need is a few willing volunteers to go over and hopefully make use of the work I produce, offering feedback along the way.

If you can help, either in playtesting as material appears or simply to critically appraise, then let me know by signing up in this thread.

Leon.


Covenant of Justice

The world is not the one we know. Brightly clad figures hurl themselves through skies to face menaces to their fellow man. Heroes abound, pursuing justice, vengeance or other motivations, expecting little obvious reward or thanks for their efforts. But the citizens of the metropolises which they patrol and protect recognise their feats of daring and heroic endeavour, and give their thanks anyway. Yet little do those unsuspecting citizens know of the true nature of the gravest threats to their world and their way of life. Few know of the things that lurk in the darkness and so the heroes of the Covenant of Justice bear a burden, to combat unknown forces with the ignorance of those whom they protect maintained for fear of the terror that would ensue were the truth publicly known. A heroic legacy has been maintained of costumed adventurers stretching back across more than a century, culminating in arguably the greatest age of heroes. It is ironic that at the time of the greatest assemblage of heroes there is the greatest need for their presence.

The setting is a hybrid of four-colour ethos and sensibility (so eschewing grim and gritty on the whole) juxtaposed with 'dark forces about which man was not meant to know', and so plays a little on assumptions built into Basic Roleplaying (such as if it involves eldritch horror and SAN rules it must be Lovecraftian - well not quite so, but you get the idea). This latter facet is intentionally to play on the Basic Roleplaying-Call of Cthulhu connection since the reason for supers existing in the world inverts the idea somewhat. It is against this backdrop that the Covenant of Justice has been formed, as a loose affiliation of heroes across the United States and originally formed in the midst of the Cold War. Many of the characters will have a degree of the mystical or mysterious in their origins, but some science-based characters will feature as well. It is not a Call of Cthulhu product.

I say four-colour sensibility in terms of having bright costumes, the codenames etc, as well as the general heroes’ code of honour that lasted until at least the silver age, if not now: protecting the weak and vulnerable, not killing and so on. Now that is sketchy, I know, but intentionally so since it is something that is examined more fully in the text. The default power level is superhuman which I think at its limit is around the Spider-man level and should hopefully offer an interesting gaming experience. No reference to any existing settings or published comic book characters will be made in the published text, however.

I plan to include additional game-mechanic material such as new powers and modifiers to supplement the setting-specific material (the latter comprising timeline, NPC heroes and villains, central hero organisation and at least one fictional city - Riviѐre Noire, Louisiana). The anticipated length of the book will be between 60,000-80,000 words, of which approximately 21-22,000 words are already written in first draft form (25-35% of expected length). Work has begun to source artwork. Anticipated date for completion is September 2009, possibly earlier.

[Trifletraxor]

Great Leon! I'll get a blurp up this weekend at the latest. :thumb:

Cheers!
:beetle:

[leonmallett]

Great Leon! I'll get a blurp up this weekend at the latest. :thumb:

Cheers!
:beetle:

Thanks for the support. Now to crack on and use my last annual leave day for some more writing. :thumb:

[rob_bresnen]

I love this idea- very exciting! Super hero role-playing games are very much my thing, and I am keen to know more about your ideas. Mixing the CoC elements into a supers game in inovative and fresh, and a bit scary! :eek:

[ORtrail]

I'd be happy to "peer review" your work, as Superworld has always been one of my favorites BRP genres (time/dimensional travel is #1 by a bit).

[Arch0n]

Out of curiosity, where is the information on how one submits a monograph and what rights the author retains, royalties, etc.?

[soltakss]

As some people have had more experience with Monographs than others, would it be worth making a Sticky Monographs thread that contains a Monographs FAQ?

[cjbowser]

Out of curiosity, where is the information on how one submits a monograph and what rights the author retains, royalties, etc.?

You can find most of the information you need on Chaosium's site.

I've been involved in several monographs... as lead author, co-author, and even in an Alan Smithee capacity.

The ratio of work to reward is not one that would stand up to a cost benefit analysis. It has to be something that you're doing because you absolutely love it, and I probably won't do another.

[Arch0n]

Ah, makes sense. I once wrote a tabletop miniature wargame (Modern Spearhead - Official Website) and it was 2 years of work that definitely wasn't worth it from a financial point of view!

[leonmallett]

You can find most of the information you need on Chaosium's site.

I've been involved in several monographs... as lead author, co-author, and even in an Alan Smithee capacity.

The ratio of work to reward is not one that would stand up to a cost benefit analysis. It has to be something that you're doing because you absolutely love it, and I probably won't do another.

A lot of truth in this. I expect to break even on my costs (after soiurcing some - cheap - art ), so it is a labour of love, certainly.