New Product: Click and Lock Folder

[TonyLB]

Y'know, there's not really a lot else to say.  You can look at the product here.  It's basically a way to spend some money and have all the power of Click and Lock character creation at your fingertips with no effort required on your part, ever again.

Those who have seen me at conventions know that I've had one of these sets for ... well, since Capes released.  And yeah, it has taken me that full year to figure out how to get the time and cost of creating the darn things (at least 20 hours of my time for that one first set) down to a level where I could afford to sell them for less than the deed to your house.

[dunlaing]

...purchased!

[Zamiel]

I'm just waiting for an Adobe Illustrator-compatible vector version of the Click-N-Lock templates to be released. PDF is nice, but my tracing is so not. ;)

[TonyLB]

Zamiel:  What, the blanks?  Like, without the art, so you can add your own?

[Zamiel]

Zamiel:  What, the blanks?  Like, without the art, so you can add your own?

Actually, without the text, so I can create my own content, yes. Sort of like the blanks on the Flash-based system, outlines with squares for numbers and that's it. Though vectors of all the components of a full sheet would be nice, what I really want to do is assemble a set of fantasy-based template Click-N-Locks for my group. Class / Persona instead of Powers / Personality, just as an experiment.

(Yes, I know, the idea of doing a D&D-esque pastiche in Capes is probably prohibited by the Geneva Convention. But I was always a rule-breaker.)

[TonyLB]

Actually, without the text, so I can create my own content, yes. Sort of like the blanks on the Flash-based system, outlines with squares for numbers and that's it.

Done.

(Yes, I know, the idea of doing a D&D-esque pastiche in Capes is probably prohibited by the Geneva Convention. But I was always a rule-breaker.)

Well, on the way to your war-crimes trial, read up on this actual play post.  There's some good thoughts about how to make fantasy work in the Capes system.

[Zamiel]

Actually, without the text, so I can create my own content, yes. Sort of like the blanks on the Flash-based system, outlines with squares for numbers and that's it.

Done.

As suspected, you are the man, indeed. And why isn't your name boldly blazened on the cover of Capes instead of just on the lead page? This is something that's always bugged me about this industry; the writers and designers never get sufficient credit ... even by themselves.

Well, on the way to your war-crimes trial, read up on this actual play post.  There's some good thoughts about how to make fantasy work in the Capes system.

Thankfully, they won't let me back in the Hague since I put "Goal: Actual Justice" on the table in front of the judge, and he couldn't make out one of the words. But I digress ...

I don't actually think fantasy has to be made to "work" in Capes. As was mentioned in the thread, the tropes of heroic fantasy (and, to be frank, anti-heroic fantasy) are almost indistinguishable from that of supers. The major difference is the props. In fantasy, you have a lot more occurrences of Angry Villagers or Zombie Hordes that manifest than in supers, and the question of "powers" as "meaningful repeated aspects of the character" takes on special prominence, but nothing much beyond that really changes.

It occurs to me that Capes, mechanically, might be good for a wholly different and unexpected venue: crime drama. Cops get "powers" which focus on their frequently used methods or contacts, and personalities and styles as usual. The introduced Conflicts build up with clues represented by Inspirations, and finally a complicated courtroom scene caps it off, with the villain trying to get out of "Goal: X Goes to Jail." Its slightly more formulaic than the usual Capes fare, and as such might be better suited to a With Great Power rewrite, but its certainly incredibly playable under Capes as stands without any changes.

Yes, I have strange ideas.

[Doc Blue]

Oh wow.

That quite simply rocks....

[And I just about finished cutting out all the click-n-locks.... Still I think I need this....]

[Bankuei]

This is so much easier than me trying to figure out how much it's going to cost me at Kinko's to set this up.  We ran through about a third to a half of the photocopied cut out Click & Locks during Kuei-Con.  Nice!

Chris

[Andrew Morris]

No additional comments here, just wanted to say these sets rock!

[Darren Hill]

Does this product include a few laminated blanks? Any duplicates? Or is it 'just' one copy of each?

Darren

[TonyLB]

One copy of each.  When we've got a bit more "stock" of these I'll be able to figure out what a reasonable price is to offer individual blanks and modules to people, a la carte.  But right now I'm about halfway between knowing the prices to prototype and knowing the prices for actual ongoing production.

[dunlaing]

I received my folder a week ago today. Sorry for not posting here earlier.

It's totally cool! I love it to bits. It's definitely worth the price, the only thing I'm wondering is whether it'd be better to have two sets since it's pretty likely that you might use the same persona for two different characters (for instance). The click and locks don't fit each other perfectly, but that's ok.

I just wish there were more of them and more blank modules and more more more!