Kickstarter - Stalwart '85 (Supers RPG)

The World's Niftiest Superhero Roleplaying Game

I've been a fan of Mike Desing and his works, such as The Splintered Realms and Army Ants, for over a decade. I did some work for Mike on The Splintered Realms WAY back in the day. Mike is passionate about RPGs, which shows in the games he publishes.

Stalwart '85 is Mike's fifth Kickstarter, and you can back for everything in PDF for as little as 10 bucks. Everything in print is 25, and that's where I'm happily at :)

Stalwart '85 is the World's Niftiest Superhero RPG. Set in a 1980s that only happened in my imagination, and based on a comic series that was published there, Stalwart '85 is the game I wish I would have had in 1985, set in the comic book universe I wish I could have created then.

It is a low/medium crunch tabletop superhero RPG system, using dice ranging from D4 to D20 (with the awesome D16 joining in the fun). A few key design concepts include:

A consistent focus on authentically emulating comics of the era. The game leans hard into simulating 'comic book action'. This is supported by a hits system where your character can be 'felled' (knocked out of combat), but can repeatedly get back up. 

A simple action management system that allows you to either take a few big actions each round or several smaller actions; you can decide from round-to-round how you are managing your actions. You can try to take out several thugs in one round, or you can land a few haymakers on Simian Prime, because his battle suit is harder to bust through.

The "In Real Life" sub-system, where the events outside of your heroic life have a direct bearing on your performance as a hero. If Uncle Marty didn't get his medicine and you bombed your physics test, it's going to impact your effectiveness.

A focus more on character building and being awesome, and less on game balance. Some gifts (powers) are simply better than others; the game makes minimal effort to ensure that wall crawling is as cool as true magic. It's not.

A simple hero point system that gives you opportunities to push your powers and abilities far beyond their normal capacity, or to use them to create unique stunts on the fly. 

Options for either random or custom character generation. You can build the character you want to play, or you can let the dice determine your fate.

 

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