Undercover Comics #1

[asphaltus]

Dec, 1946
Issue #0

You see it in your mind. The snow swirls about the first panel, obscuring the sidewalk and the uncaring passers-by. Then it closes in, and the focuses on the still silhouette standing in front of a door, a piece of paper in hand. Finally, the details become clear in the third panel. A tall and somewhat lanky

[] man
[] woman

with tired eyes and a perpetual frown (an identifier for New Yorkers, truth be told), reads a letter, eyes wide and disbelieving. The letter, or a portion of it anyway, appears on the wide fourth panel. There's no mistake, it's addressed to you -

[] Name

While some of sentences are so long that your eyes start to swim, the meaning is clear. Great Aunt Tilda, (long may she live) had made you the sole beneficiary of her will. You have just inherited 100,000$.

Gained Money: $100,000.

It feels odd, to go from scrounging for change poor to a relatively carefree rich in a moment. In the square yellow panel, a narrator would now introduce you, brushing away your twenty two aimless years of existence in a trite sentence. Just your average American - young and easily impressible, appears cynical but is deeply idealistic, passionate about a dream, but forced to toil in drudgery. The next panel would be focused on your eyes, with two words. Until now.

Now you were free to chase your dream. Whether it could reach it or not is another matter - but you were going to chase it. You were going to create the best comic book company ever.

***​

You sit at Richard's Lousy Diner, with Fred sitting across, intently poring over the multitude of documents that the lawyer had handed you.

"Well, it is looks legitimate," Fred says. "You really inherited $100,000, huh?"

"That's right. It's time to dig in." You didn't intend to set the bet, but after he had laughed in your face, it became sort of necessary.

"Okay, first of all, when I said, 'If you really get a hundred thousand, I will eat my hat,' I meant it as a joke. Second, the food here tastes worse, so stop complaining." Fred shakes his head disbelievingly. "It's really odd, you know? I mean it's like someone winning the lottery. You know it's someone, it's just not someone you know, right?" Fred hands backs the files to you. The food arrives – a messy looking pasta and coffee. There's a moment of silence as you both take a sip.

"Well," Fred speaks up after a while. "What are you going to do now?"

You raise your eyebrows. "Right." Fred exclaims. "Just checking if you had changed your mind or anything. You practiced a lot in school, I remember. Though you were only good at the –

[] Comic Writing (Coming up with an idea, making it into a plot worthy of a comic book)
[] Pencilling (Creating panels and making a rough sketch from the given plot)
[] Inking (Finishes the pencilled work, adding depth and shading)
[] Coloring (Add color to line drawings, and complete the art)
[] Letterer (Add in the words and the sound-effects, responsible for all text)

-part, weren't you?" He finishes.

"It doesn't matter now, does it?" You ask. "I'm going to create a company, not do the work myself."

"Spoken like a rich brat. Experience is always useful, and even you can help in the beginning. It only doesn't matter when you're truly successful."

"You think I won't?" You challenge the unspoken assumption.

"I think you have a long way to go." He counters.

You both eat in silence, lost in your thoughts. Fred worked at Ragamuffin, a publishing company. He knew how the industry worked, and presumably the people in it. And he was your friend since forever. All you had to do was ask.

"Are you thinking what I am thinking?" You say as you finish eating.

"If you're thinking why did we eat here when my friend is filthy rich, then yes."

"I meant a partnership."

"You know I would never say no." He smiles as you pay, then scrunches his brow in mock confusion. "Wait, there's one scenario. I guess if some other fool who is also a friend of mine suddenly wins a million dollars and asks me same question – for a movie company." He sarcastically finishes. "I might consider it then."

"That's too far." Movies were your sore spot. "Consider yourself demoted to a sidekick."

"Like Sancho to your Don Quixote? Alright! Now let's go chase some windmills, shall we?"

***​

 

[asphaltus]

Character Sheet​

Name: Emily Powers
Occupation: Comic Writer/Owner of 'Undercover Comics'
Traits:
Always Loved Them: Gain an extra higher step die when writing comic.s
Fan of The Classics: Gain Amateur Proficiency and extra bonus when writing Science Fiction, Horror or Fantasy Tales.

Friend & Partner​

Name: Fredrick Hanz
Occupation: Press house Manager/Owner of 'Undercover Comics'
Traits:
Got Your Back: Goes through a lot of minutiae to make sure the background stuff keeps working properly. Provides helpful advice during events.
Skilled Orator: Is a pretty good speaker.

Employees​

Name: Louisa Alcott
Occupation: Colorist/Inker
Cost: $7650
Traits:
I am the Brush in My Hand: ???

Name: Finn Leibeck
Occupation: Penciller/Letter
Cost: $9310
Traits:
One At A Time: ???

Other People You Know​

Alice Fitzgerald – Your friend who works at the library. Helps you research stuff.
Donovan O. Smith – A cranky old man who owns the Intellectual's Pleasure. Teaches you about marketing and stuff.

 

[asphaltus]

Money in Hand: $129,476

Creative Company Details​

Employee Costs: $16960/month

Translation Costs : $10,000/book
Simplifying/Changing Costs: $7000/book
Professional Artist For Cover: $2000/book

Publishing Details​

Comic Book Base Cost Printing For The First 100,000 copies
60 pages - $28,000
36 pages - $18,000
25 pages - $13,000
22 pages - $10,000
20 pages - $8,000
18 pages - $5,000

Paperback Books
250 pages - $18,000

Hardcover Books
250 pages - $38,000

For monochrome illustrations, add $2000 to the base price. (Book only)
For color illustrations, add $4000 to the base price. (Book only)
For adding quality paper, add $6000 to the base price. (Book only)
For adding quality binding, add $8000 to the base price. (Book only)
For every extra 50 pages, add $2000 to the base price. (Book only)

For every extra 100,000 copies, add half of the base price.

Distributing Details​

The Empire Distributors: Print a minimum of 100,000 copies. Gain 1d100 Unmodified Sales Die. Increase the size of your Genre Modifier Die. They will take a 10% cut of the profits.

Damien and Lindscott Distributors: Print a minimum of 100,000 copies and sell them directly for $25,000.

World Publication and Distributors: Print a minimum of 150,000 copies. Sell 50,000 directly for a price of $15,000. Gain a 4d25 Unmodified Sales Dies. They will take a 5% cut of the profits.

Advertising Details​

Not yet.

 

[asphaltus]

Third post to make

 

[asphaltus]

Mechanics
​

I made up the system for the quest from the scratch, so there might be some of tweaks down the line. Also, I'm not used to writing such guides, so the sentences might be a little unclear. If anything is unclear or you feel something should/could be changed for better, please don't hesitate to say it.
​

Jobs, Job Levels and Traits​

​

There are six relevant jobs:

Writer - The one who writes the plot.
Penciller - Draws the panels, the character art, the title page (basically everything).
Inker - Draws over the penciller's art to make it proper, adds shade and depth.
Colorist - Colors everything.
Letterer - Add the words and stuff.
Editor - Makes sure the finished product is not crap.

​

Every job has a level. The better your level, the more die you get to roll, and the better you are at your job. The main character has an extra die for the job chosen.
Leveling up happens automatically. There are two other options to get better leveled characters: you can pay for a special training course, or hire a better guy (both of which are not always available).
Higher leveled characters require more pay.

Every character also has traits; which is either obvious or hidden. These traits will give bonus or malus, which is added after rolling their level die. While the traits might be visible, the associated bonus/malus will not be shown.

Everyone's final values (with the exception of the editor) is added, and the overall quality of the work is determined.
​

The Creation Schedule​

We follow a month wise schedule at the beginning. Every month, you have 28 days in which to make a comic before it goes for publication (Yes, even February. March issues are slightly delayed.). You have certain phases in this 28 days, during which you can take action.)

Ideation Phase (1 day) -

In this phase you go tell your writer what to write, and your writer tells you what he wants to write, (and sometimes the artists tells you what he wants to draw) and after hearing out all their opinions, you give your final word, in a vote-by-plan like this -

[jk] Genre: Fantasy
[jk] Plot: Beat the evil guy who kidnapped hero's mother
[jk] Hero: Has a rad costume with a whip
[jk] Villain: A nazi guy
Along with a 10d10 - {4, 3, 2, 9, 5, 1, 7, 6, 6, 2}

The rolls serve a few purposes. Let's break it down one by one.
In a free-form vote like this, it may happen that no one agrees with each other. In that case, the plan with the highest total will be taken. Everybody has a chance! In case, you agree with someone's plan entirely, you can copy it and roll for it. The summation of both the votes will be taken.

Your rolls also determine how your ideas translate across to the character. There is a threshold value for every idea, and a minimum number of successes against that value to really get your idea across. Let me use an example -

[jk] Hero: I want a guy who shoots lasers from his eyes, has a hot girlfriend, and leads a rag-tag bunch of similarly powered people.

Right off the bat, you can see the character is quite removed from what any person would suddenly think of (even a comic book writer). Let's say this gets a threshold value of 9 (just for example). The character also has a lot of traits (lasers, hot gf, leader), which sets our minimum successes needed to 4.

Now, if you get no 9s, your idea fails (even if your total was highest). We take the next highest total and work with that.
If you get one 9, (1/4 success), the character gets only one part (hot gf, perhaps), and things move on.
If you get 2 9s, perhaps two traits will be taken, and so on.

You need to balance the quality and the no. of traits. A guy with a sword, a toupee and a baton, will have low threshold, but multiple successes required (lot of simple ideas) . A girl who grows stronger as the sun rises higher will have a high threshold, but low amount of success required (one complex idea).

The same applies to the plot, villain parts of the vote as well. Threshold values and successes required will be taken from only one person (so multiple voting won't make the expys more likely).

The ideation phase will get more complex later on, but the basic gist would remain the same.

After the results of the ideation phase are done, you can move onto the writing phase.

Writing Phase

Depending on the complexity of the idea, skills of the writer and so on, the writing phase varies from 3 to 7 days (or even more). The die value is rolled, and the final result is again brought to the player.
You can either discard the script and ask him to do it again, make minor/major changes, or move it further along the chain (or even go back to ideation phase).

Art Phase

In the art phase, you create a track for each script you have. A track requires you to assign at least one NPC to four jobs (Pencilling->Lettering->Inking->Coloring). A track takes 6 to 15 days (or even more), depending on number of pages. One NPC cannot be assigned to two tracks at the same time.

After a track is completed, the result is brought to the player, who can either pass it as it is, make minor/major changes, ask to do it again, or pass it along for publishing. (You can even go back to the writing phase and ideation phase).

Making Changes and Editor's Job

Making major/minor changes is trying to change an aspect of the work so that the hidden bonuses get applied (or debuffs removed). Doing it from the scratch is basically re-rolling (and applying new bonuses/maluses). In the beginning, the MC does the job, but after you get a lot of running series, you can get an editor. An editor automates this process. They won't let an work pass until it meets a minimum value, and ask for changes if they feel it can be improved. (Of course, an editor has his own traits... which may or may not play well with the work in question.)
​

Publishing
​

Every time you print something, you need to pay a flat value, which depends on the number of pages.

60 pages - $30,000
36 pages - $20,000
25 pages - $15,000
22 pages - $12,000
20 pages - $10,000
18 pages - $7000

The presses will also generate a fixed income every month for which the fixed value needs not be paid. There will be also chances to publish works of other authors/people/company, which also doesn't require the money.
​

Sales
​

The sales will be generated at the beginning of every month. You get declining sales from reprints every month (till it reaches less than 10,000). The sales will be generated with a 1d100 (with possible more die later on), along with various bonuses.
​

Costs
​

You'll need to pay your employees at the beginning of every month. Various events may also require money. Levelling up employees requires a one time payment and an increase in monthly fees as well.
​

Research
​

Research costs money, and the option appears during Creation Phase.
​

Other Events
​

We'll tackle them as we go along, okay?​

 

[veekie]

[X] man
[X] Inking (Finishes the pencilled work, adding depth and shading)

 

[araa]

[x] woman
[x] Emily Powers
[x] Pencilling (Creating panels and making a rough sketch from the given plot)

 

[Dark as Silver]

[X] Comic Writing (Coming up with an idea, making it into a plot worthy of a comic book)
It works for One. Time to write Mob Pyscho.
I don't really care about gender so instead will be voting for the best alliterative name.
It's only appropriate for comic books.

 

[asphaltus]

Alright, bumping the thread before I go to bed. So far, we have three disparate votes (is this the fate of all original quests, or did I post at a wrong time? we shall never know). I do have a default name the character as well as a default gender in mind, so if you don't feel like voting for it, it's all cool.

Second, if it is not clear in the post, you'll mainly be managing your company and your hires will do the work. But you'll essentially be a hero type character in whatever job you choose (better than the rest of the hires), so in the beginning it'll be beneficial if you do it yourself.

Also, please don't vote for names similar or based on actual comic artists (cause they might appear later in the quest, and things would get awkward). Voting will continue at least 24 more hours. (Let me get at at least 5 votes dammit!)

 

[Nevill]

[x] Pencilling (Creating panels and making a rough sketch from the given plot)

 

[araa]

Alright, bumping the thread before I go to bed. So far, we have three disparate votes (is this the fate of all original quests, or did I post at a wrong time? we shall never know).

Click to shrink...

It's day before Christmas or already Christmas in some places, so that may have something to do with it.

 

[Scify]

[x] woman
[x] Emily Powers
[x] Pencilling (Creating panels and making a rough sketch from the given plot)

Quick question: when is this set? Because in the modern day, $100,000 isn't that much.

Alright, bumping the thread before I go to bed. So far, we have three disparate votes (is this the fate of all original quests, or did I post at a wrong time? we shall never know).

Click to shrink...

What araa said. Also, it just generally takes time for a quest to attract attention, particularly if it's an original quest and you don't have an established following from other works.

 

[Dark as Silver]

Alright, bumping the thread before I go to bed. So far, we have three disparate votes (is this the fate of all original quests, or did I post at a wrong time? we shall never know). I do have a default name the character as well as a default gender in mind, so if you don't feel like voting for it, it's all cool.

Click to shrink...

Alright, its not really a fast time. But... almost all quests are slow starters, you remember the outliers like that princess Emma Barnes thing but most of the time any quest that starts off with a lot of voters are ones where they can count on a fan base from previous quests and fiction.

Generally, expect your second post to be on the second or even first page.
As a QM you build the thread by delivering regular and interesting content. This encourages discussion which keeps the thread at the top of the forum which causes other people to see it .
Theres not really much you can do except stick at it.

As for people being on different votes... thats totally expected. This is character creation.

 

[tygerbright]

[x] man
[x] Daniel Goldberg
[x] Comic Writing (Coming up with an idea, making it into a plot worthy of a comic book)

 

[ChildishChimera]

[x] woman
[x] Emily Powers
[x] Pencilling (Creating panels and making a rough sketch from the given plot)

This looks cool

 

[AdamMButler]

[x] woman
[x] Emily Powers
[x] Pencilling (Creating panels and making a rough sketch from the given plot)

 

[asphaltus]

It's day before Christmas or already Christmas in some places, so that may have something to do with it.

Click to shrink...

Alright, its not really a fast time. But... almost all quests are slow starters, you remember the outliers like that princess Emma Barnes thing but most of the time any quest that starts off with a lot of voters are ones where they can count on a fan base from previous quests and fiction.

Generally, expect your second post to be on the second or even first page.
As a QM you build the thread by delivering regular and interesting content. This encourages discussion which keeps the thread at the top of the forum which causes other people to see it .
Theres not really much you can do except stick at it.

Click to shrink...

Well, I kind of guessed that, but it still something of a surprise. I'll keep your advice in mind.

when is this set?

Click to shrink...

It's set in 1947. But please, don't take any numbers here at a realistic value (except maybe the pages). The internal game logic is supposed to work, but it won't line up with the real world money at all.

I updated the Mechanics post today. Please free to poke holes or ask questions about it. The vote's still open, and I'll update with another post tomorrow, and perhaps tally them together late Monday/ early Tuesday (we'll see).

 

[Dark as Silver]

It's set in 1947. But please, don't take any numbers here at a realistic value (except maybe the pages). The internal game logic is supposed to work, but it won't line up with the real world money at all.

Click to shrink...

Thats fine but depending on what time might help up line up story plots after all. No reason to make something edgy and leather if its not the Nineties.

 

[edboy49]

[x] man
[x] Daniel Goldberg
[x] Comic Writing (Coming up with an idea, making it into a plot worthy of a comic book)

 

[asphaltus]

Dec, 1946
Issue #0 (2nd Part)

"I officially quit my work today," Fred announces as soon as he enters the small office. "So there's no backing out now." He flops down on the chair. "This place looks nice. You sure you got the right address?"

"I bought it myself during the War for a pittance. Still had to borrow money then, but at least it's all paid off now." You take a look around the place. While the office is barebones, it's close to –

[] A Public Library - Writing Research costs reduced.
[] A Fine Arts Institute - Colorists hired will be more talented than usual.
[] A Typography Club - Letterers hired will be more talented than usual.
[] A Publishing Hub – Sales will slightly increase. Publishing costs will be slightly decreased.
[] A Major Bookshop – Market Research costs reduced.

-and that is quite useful in your eyes. "So, this is the right place, partner." You take a seat behind the big office table, trying to familiarize yourself with the feeling. "What about your side?"
Fred places an envelope on the table. "That's all I managed to scrap up. I even had to visit Dad." You take a look at the receipt inside. "If you had to go fishing, you have my condolences. Here's mine." You place yours on the table.

Gained: $30,000
Gained: $20,000

"Well...." Fred draws out the word. "That just about cuts it." He reaches into his bag and pulls out a stack of papers. "Barnabus Publications." He begins to explain as you leaf through the pages. "The owner's Joseph Lewis Abott. Printed every variety of the Bible, along with some religious tracts and Sunday magazines. Sold very well too."

"And he agreed to do business with us?"

"Let me finish. Abbott sold well, cause he set really low prices. Wanted to spread the word of our Lord to all, I guess. He was barely scraping by during the war, and then he went ahead and bought color printers for an illustrated Bible. Long story short, he's deep in debt, and is willing to sell." He grins at you.

"How's that for pulling my weight?"

"What's his price?" You impatiently ask.

"Fifty thousand." Fred laughs. "Which leaves us right where we started. Except I went ahead had a tour of the place. It's functional, barely so. We'll need to more money to make it up to standard."

"How much?"

He thinks for a moment. "Ten thousand dollars to make it not suck. Fifteen to fix most of it; only thing left would be the toners. Twenty to make it bring it up to standard. What to do you propose?"

"I think we should –

[] Leave it as it is (Greatly increased printing base value; reduced sales)
[] Invest $10,000 (Increased printing base value; slightly reduced sales)
[] Invest $15,000 (Slightly printing increased base value; no effect on sales)
[] Invest $20,000 (normalized printing base value; no effect on sales)


"Sure, let's go along with that." Fred agrees with you.

"But with this," You pause. "We're really a publishing company, now aren't we?"

"Three may make a crowd, but two doesn't make a company. We'll need more people."

***​

"Alright," You hand over your list to Fred. "These are the ones."

Fred reads the list seriously. "You know I can't tell how good any of them would be, don't you?" He hands them back to you. "You should handle the comic side?"

"What are you going to do?"

"Look over the presses, meet the people, get them working." Fred nods. "For the moment, I think we can manage it by selling the Bibles at a proper rate. Might even kick back some if the public feels particularly religious."

"I'll make my pick then." You say. "Don't complain later!"

"Wouldn't dream of it. But don't be too extravagant though," He says as he walks out the door. "One or two is fine, but any more might bleed us money more than we can make."

"I'll keep that in mind." You call out after him. But as you look over the list, you see it's going to be a tough choice...

[] Greg Mathews - A hopeful writer and penciller who wants to try his hand in the comic book industry. He is enamored by action oriented stories featuring mainly soldiers or hard boiled men. While his ideas seem interesting, his pencilling is that of a complete beginner. Cost – $8650/month

[] Louisa Alcott - A former worker of Disney studios, who quit when she couldn't bear to paint thousands of nearly same paintings everyday. Her skills lie in inking and coloring. (but mainly coloring.) Cost – $7650/month

[] Daniel Redman - A fiery youth with a somewhat forceful personality, Daniel boasts of being able to do it all. A quick test shows that while he can do it, he really shouldn't. A complete beginner in all aspects. Cost - $4000/month

[] Finn Leibeck - A somewhat stoic man, Finn has an impressive resume of being a creator of his own newspaper strip. He quit because his 'Boss got annoying', and applied here because, 'The job looked good.'. He has better than average pencilling and lettering skills. Cost - $9310/month

[]Emmanuel Foretta - A young artist in every sense of the word. Pretentious and angsty, but really talented in coloring, with good pencilling. Cost - $16970/month

***
​

A/N:I'll tally this and first vote together. Nothing's closed yet. Also, please vote for the employees in a plan format.​

 

[araa]

[x] Invest $15,000 (Slightly printing increased base value; no effect on sales)
[x] Greg Mathews - A hopeful writer and penciller who wants to try his hand in the comic book industry. He is enamored by action oriented stories featuring mainly soldiers or hard boiled men. While his ideas seem interesting, his pencilling is that of a complete beginner. Cost – $8650/month

 

[tygerbright]

[x] man
[x] Daniel Goldberg
[x] Comic Writing (Coming up with an idea, making it into a plot worthy of a comic book)

[x] A Publishing Hub – Sales will slightly increase. Publishing costs will be slightly decreased.
[x] Invest $15,000 (Slightly printing increased base value; no effect on sales)

[x]Plan Art and assistant.
-[x] Louisa Alcott - A former worker of Disney studios, who quit when she couldn't bear to paint thousands of nearly same paintings everyday. Her skills lie in inking and coloring. (but mainly coloring.) Cost – $7650/month
-[x] Daniel Redman - A fiery youth with a somewhat forceful personality, Daniel boasts of being able to do it all. A quick test shows that while he can do it, he really shouldn't. A complete beginner in all aspects. Cost - $4000/month

And while you said that the prices aren't going to be fully grounded in realty the monthly salaries look well crazy high for 1946, $4000 would be equal to about $45,000 in today's money, while 7650 would be about $88,000. These are more comparable to yearly salaries for veterans in the field rather than monthly salaries at a fledgling business .

 

[Dark as Silver]

And while you said that the prices aren't going to be fully grounded in realty the monthly salaries look well crazy high for 1946, $4000 would be equal to about $45,000 in today's money, while 7650 would be about $88,000. These are more comparable to yearly salaries for veterans in the field rather than monthly salaries at a fledgling business .

Click to shrink...

It's worse, you read it wrong.
$4000 a month is $48,000 a year in 1940's money.

 

[veekie]

[x] woman
[x] Emily Powers
[x] Comic Writing (Coming up with an idea, making it into a plot worthy of a comic book)

[X] A Publishing Hub – Sales will slightly increase. Publishing costs will be slightly decreased.
[x] Invest $15,000 (Slightly printing increased base value; no effect on sales)

[x] Louisa Alcott - A former worker of Disney studios, who quit when she couldn't bear to paint thousands of nearly same paintings everyday. Her skills lie in inking and coloring. (but mainly coloring.) Cost – $7650/month
[X] Daniel Redman - A fiery youth with a somewhat forceful personality, Daniel boasts of being able to do it all. A quick test shows that while he can do it, he really shouldn't. A complete beginner in all aspects. Cost - $4000/month

Daniel is pretty much the main pick for not going broke. He covers everything weakly, which is good, we'd have to sell on a catching story written ourselves(because there really aren't much choices for hiring writers), so he gets to do beginner everything producton until we can hire dedicated staff.
Louisa is cheap, but she can make it look good even with a noob doing the lines.

 

[Dark as Silver]

Daniel is pretty much the main pick for not going broke. He covers everything weakly, which is good, we'd have to sell on a catching story written ourselves(because there really aren't much choices for hiring writers), so he gets to do beginner everything producton until we can hire dedicated staff.

Click to shrink...

He is a beginner in everything. Basically thats the same as saying everyone else is better than him at something and as good at the rest.
Also who won char creation. Not so much point voting for the expensive artist if we already qualify as a hero penciler.