Basic Action Super Heroes!

So with the release of "Zenith Comics Presents: Supervillains! Vol. 1" edging even nearer (1 more piece of art and we are good to go man!), my partner in crime Walt and I have started kicking around an idea. The idea is to create 1 character folios that have a complete character, with art and stats to use in your games.

There's only one catch... I was sort of opposed to the idea of selling superheroes, since to me the idea is for YOUR characters to be the stars of the setting and if I produce more villains, wouldn't that just be double-sipping on upcoming roster books?

So being completely unsure of which way to go with this, I turn to you all and ask for your thoughts;

• Would hero profiles/folios be something that would interest you?

• Should I maybe do villains instead?

• Is there another idea that I am completely missing that would bite me if it were a snake?

Thanks for taking the time and I am cross posting this on my blog.

One of my players has never made her own hero, she almost always uses one of the templates from the book, once I think her husband made her character but I couldn't be absolutely sure. So there is a market for heroes, I guess that's where I was going with that.

BeardedDork wrote:One of my players has never made her own hero, she almost always uses one of the templates from the book, once I think her husband made her character but I couldn't be absolutely sure. So there is a market for heroes, I guess that's where I was going with that.

Fair, though I am not talking about templates to be sure, I am talking about complete heroes with back-stories and such... Certainly they could serve as a template though.

I believe that would be even better for her

Imho, villains are more useful to have. I actually find the write ups of other heroes to be really interesting. And I wouldn't be opposed to having some (especially if they had really unusual back stories or powers). But for the most part, as you have said, the pcs should be the main heroes. Any other heroes would just tend to get in the way. It's good to have some npc heroes as supporting cast members. For example, other heroes do make for good "cavalry" if the pcs get into trouble, to get into occasional scuffles with etc. But a few npc heroes go a loooooooong way.

I can see the appeal to have a stable of heroes to draw from for people like the example above. I don't know though. I'd stick primarily with villains if I were you.

Oh, and may I say, I'm itchin' to pick #1 up soon. Yay!!

As you know, I have no problem with heroes being published. I enjoy reading them and at least you can skin off their backgrounds and make them villains.

I was more curious about why "1 character folios." Why not larger collections?

drkrash wrote:As you know, I have no problem with heroes being published. I enjoy reading them and at least you can skin off their backgrounds and make them villains.

I was more curious about why "1 character folios." Why not larger collections?

That's actually a very good point. Maybe the question is more towards having characters with good stories and interesting builds?

"Why not larger collections?"

Excellent question and let me answer why;

1] The idea is to release regular, smaller items that can be priced at $1.99 each. The first volume of "Zenith Comics Presents: Supervillains!" is selling for that price, but that is a special based on how long folks have been waiting for it.

2] There will be more collections, not to worry.

3] It allows us to slowly build the Zenith Universe without having huge gaps of time in between releases and keeps our name out there.

The other idea is that for every 10 of these that come out, to offer them as a combined volume POD as well for those who want POD. The PDFs would always be one at a time and never a combined PDF.

Correction on price, since both Vigilance and Brave Halfling have PDFs for under a dollar on RPGNOW, I will offer these for .99 each, every 10 compiled into a POD.

Seems reasonable no?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding. Is this $.99 for a single character?

Yes, the price of a candy bar for a character with stats, background, counters and hooks. Some will be villains, some will be heroes, some may even be neutral vigilante types.

Every 10 that get released will be packaged as one volume for POD only.

I'm curious, but FWIW, I suspect that price point is too high for my tastes. That's just me, though; others may be fine with this.

To each there own my friend, but the price of a candy bar for a complete character, full colour and with counters, seems like a pretty good deal to me.

That said, you can always wait for the POD

Looking around there is a precedent. Also... let's open this up a bit... we could always have us a little contest to produce a hero for the first "issue".

What's everyone say... in for a little competition?

Regards
Walt

well since both Green Ronin and Monkey House Games are all ready doing this, and Vigilance Press is doing something similar with their Moreau files, it doesn't seem to be a bad idea.