Soultaker Studios update

urbwar · Post by **urbwar** » Fri May 09, 2014 11:24 pm

Ok, it's been a little over 2 years since The Triad came out for BASH, and I haven't released anything yet. I have a project that's been on hold called The Dirty Dozen, and a few other ideas to follow. Figured I needed to let everyone know why there hasn't been anything new on my end.

After the hurricane bundle I mentioned in the Triad thread, my personal life hit a rough patch. As many of you know, my father passed away a few years ago. He left my sister and I a serious debt we couldn't afford to pay. We tried to work something out with the bank that held this debt, but they tried to forclose the home we lived in for over 40 years. We had to fight them in court to let us sell it ourselves (if they sold it, we could have ended up with nothing). They ended up not showing up to court (plus their paperwork was wrong), so we were able to secure a company to sell the house.

Then I started having issues at work. I won't go into details on that, as I no longer work there. To add to all this, my health suffered as a side effect of the stress and my diabetes. I'm sure you can see how this all effected my creativity and writing.

We sold the house at the end of last year, so I had to figure out what my plans would be. So after serious thought, I decided to move out of NYC. I'm currently living in the great Portland, OR, area, preparing to take courses so I can work in my profession here.

I almost didn't find a place to live until about 3 weeks before I moved here, so it was a mad rush to find a mover, leave my job, say goodbye to all my friends and loved ones, and go where I knew a total of 2 people, 1 of whom I only met once (he's a fellow game designer, and a cool person).

Anyway, the good news is that I am on track now. With the money from selling the house, I started commissioning as much art as possible. Many from my regular ones, some from new connections. I've taken advantage of artists doing special sales, so I get as much as I can for the money I spend. More importantly, thanks to ComiXology, I've gotten back into collecting comics, even if it's just digitally. I've been reading quite a bit from various sales. Between that, seeing Captain America and Amazing Spiderman 2, I think I'm finally over this creative freeze I've had.

The Dirty Dozen is around halfway finished. Dragonfly and Mr. Jupiter went over the stats for me, and helped me find mistakes. I have a cover (though when Russel has time, he needs to make a logo for it). The art was all inexpensive clip art I got, but a few pieces don't work so well for me now. So I decided to invest in a few new pieces (2 of which I showcased in the sketch pad forum) to make the product a little better. All I need to do now is write the 2 adventures for the book. One I have notes for, the other I need to work up. As soon as that's done, I need to find someone to do layout (don't know if Kroh can, as he's busy with Supers! now), then send it to BASHMAN for approval before releasing it. Those who helped me with the title and such will of course get comp copies.

After that? Not sure. I'm toying with a few ideas, but I don't want to commit to anything until I finish Dirty Dozen. I'm hoping there will still be interest in it, because I've read the original stories these characters appeared in, and I think they're cooler than when I first chose them (without knowing anything about them other than what was written on the public domain supers wiki).

Anyway, that's my long winded and somewhat sappy explanation of what is going on. I hope I didn't bore you all with my long windedness

Gramvandle · Post by **Gramvandle** » Sat May 10, 2014 3:44 pm

It's good to know that you have made it through all the problems and have been able to carry on! Congrats

Post by **BASHMAN** » Sun May 11, 2014 9:32 pm

Good to hear, and looking forward to seeing it!

As always,

Excelsior, True Believer!

MrJupiter · Post by **MrJupiter** » Sun May 11, 2014 9:58 pm

Yes, I'm glad that you are persevering and will be looking forward to The Dirty Dozen when you release it!

fairytalejedi · Post by **fairytalejedi** » Wed May 14, 2014 1:37 pm

I'm sorry to hear about all the upheaval in your life. It's good to know your creative juices are flowing again. Let us know when Dirty Dozen goes live.

Solarblast · Post by **Solarblast** » Thu May 15, 2014 1:32 pm

Sorry you had to lose your house. Glad to see you are situated now.

Post by **Kinetic** » Wed Jun 11, 2014 2:56 am

urbwar,

I'm sorry to hear about all that happened and glad you found your footing again. I recently relocated to Eugene, OR (1.5 hours south of you) for work and have found Oregon to be the promised land. I love it here (allergies aside). Hopefully that's the same for you.

If you end up hitting GameStorm in 2015 let me know. I plan on being there.

urbwar · Post by **urbwar** » Wed Jun 11, 2014 3:02 am

Kinetic wrote:urbwar,

I'm sorry to hear about all that happened and glad you found your footing again. I recently relocated to Eugene, OR (1.5 hours south of you) for work and have found Oregon to be the promised land. I love it here (allergies aside). Hopefully that's the same for you.

If you end up hitting GameStorm in 2015 let me know. I plan on being there.

Hey Kinetic! If that's the convention that takes place in Portland, I hope to attend it. It will all depend on my work situation at the time. I'm still in non-working mode (had some health issues after I moved, and am more or less taking an extended vacation at the moment), so once I start working again, I'll have to see what my schedule is going to be.

Found my allergies kicking in the last 2 days myself. They had gone away while I still lived in NYC, so it must be this beautiful clean air bringing them back lol

urbwar · Post by **urbwar** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:31 am

Ignoring the spam bot who posted before me, here's some new news:

I'm currently working on Adversaries #1 and #2 concurrently. I'm doing the Supers! versions now, but once those are out, will be going back to do BASH versions.

#1 is going to feature four villains, with the title being "Mercenaries, Spies &....". The villains all fit the theme of being Mercenaries, spies, or others paid for their services.

#2 features the villainess Moodswing. There's 2 versions of her I'm working one; The first is when she has started out, and the second when she develops new ways of using her powers, so she becomes a greater threat (and could handle more than one hero).

I'm hoping I can incorporate some stuff from Awesome Powers in her write ups, but possibly as optional powers (for those who don't have the issue with Mental Powers in it).

So be on the lookout for those either later this month or in July 2015!

urbwar · Post by **urbwar** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 11:26 am

So 5 years later! *, my last post is woefully out of date.

It's been awhile since I've done anything BASH related, but that is about to change. Thanks to Mr. Jupiter's co-authorship/collaboration, there is going to be some BASH related material due out this year from Soultaker Studios.

First up will be Adversaries: The Dirty Dozen, featuring 12 villains (including some updated versions of Binary & Indar and The Triad), and a character created by Samuraidad, Post Haste. Since the majority of characters have been previously released for other systems, it's just a matter of putting the pdf together (art, writeups and copying the background text). I might throw in some adventure seeds if I can, but it's mainly the 12 villains (one of whom has a sort of sidekick, so it's technically 13).

Some of the characters include information on beefing them up to make them more formidable. In my Supers! versions, I'd call them 2.0 versions. Sometimes a villain modifies or increases their powers a little, and these versions cover that. It's not all of them, just some. Thought it would make an interesting addition to my projects

Once that is out, I may see about adapting over my 3 Mercenaries, Spies &... Supers! releases. I did a compilation for G-Core, so I could do that one easier, as all I'd need are stats (and Mr. Jupiter all ready did the first 4, so that's 1/3 of them finished)

For the grittier side of things, I'll see about releasing Underbelly Extra #1, which is more street level/Iron Age style (and will use that variation of the rules in the core book). That features The Black Lotus Society, a criminal organization based mainly in Asia, but is also operating in the United States. It also features the hero Night Devil, a heroic vigilante who opposes them

So that's what's coming up from Soultaker Studios in the future. Dirty Dozen is a definite, the others are good possibilities.

urbwar · Post by **urbwar** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 11:51 am

Also, if you check out my blog, my most recent one features the cover for Dirty Dozen in it

Sijo · Post by **Sijo** » Tue Mar 26, 2019 9:42 am

Always great to hear your progress. I like your material.

urbwar · Post by **urbwar** » Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:43 pm

Sijo wrote:Always great to hear your progress. I like your material.

Thanks Sijo. Mr. Jupiter deserves equal credit here; he did all the conversions. I think this will be a decent release. There's some stuff from Awesome Powers referenced in there, to make the characters more versatile.

In addition some of the villains have what I call a 2.0 build. This is where they have either gained some new powers, gotten better at the ones they had, and have become a more potent threat because of it. Not all of them have this, but a few of them do. Hopefully people will like the concept.

I started work on it this morning at work (I was going to start earlier on Tuesday, but a bout of food poisoning delayed that). Just starting on the fifth entry, the Oni crime boss Orochi