I can speak for Baal, Burnmaster, Bison and Black Condor and Capt. Daring:

Names I put up for the cover that may or may not appear in print. I do have concept and stats for Black Condor as an 'Omega File' write-up... so many plans and plans within plans.
Burnmaster is a player I gamed with; no plans to bring to print yet..
Baal, Bison, and Capt. Daring are concept only, but may turn into Freebies or find a home.
Plate is full right now though, so I'm not sure.
Anyone else not covered in this answer is the province of the writer.

I'm switching over to playing Mutants and Masterminds if I hear that Mercenaries has names on the cover that aren't inside the book!

AlabasterKnight wrote on Aug 7^th, 2012 at 10:20pm:


Thanks AK.

Heston wrote on Aug 7^th, 2012 at 10:43pm:


Umm...Okay, not sure where you're going with this, but isn't that a bit of an extreme reaction?

Heston wrote on Aug 7^th, 2012 at 11:09pm:


Absolutely nothing, as 1st edition M&M is the game that got me back into gaming, way back in early 03. I own a whole slew of M&M materials, and have done playtesting for a number of 3rd party Superlink products, and have been asked to help with conversions of stuff to 3rd edition, as well as playtest some new material.

I'm just wondering why you would say that if he doesn't change the cover, you're dropping V&V, and going to go to M&M. No offense intended, but to me that just seems a bit over the top. I think AK was pretty clear in his explanation, and the back cover lists all of the characters that actually appear in the book.

Display Name wrote on Aug 7^th, 2012 at 11:43pm:


I'm not, as I really don't want to see any more players jump ship.

dsumner wrote on Aug 7^th, 2012 at 9:53pm:


Hello... this is my first post on the forum, so please bear with me as I muddle through.

1) AK already answered some of this, but yes. I wouldn't reference a character or team that I had no desire to see in print. I have plans for Wild Rose, The Aegis, Jaywalker, MHR, and other new characters referenced in Mercenaries... and the same goes for Signs of the Zodiac, where I reference new characters.
2) Jaywalker and the MHR were originally intended to be in Mercenaries... but then I removed them for space and reasons of theme. Jaywalker and her crew represented another 6 characters, and I decided that in the purest sense they aren't Mercenaries. If you look at the post about Jaywalker you can see she thinks of herself as a CEO, and that to me is a completely different kind of animal from a Merc. 

AlabasterKnight wrote on Aug 8^th, 2012 at 12:33am:

Hey folks. It's the author again.
If there is enough interest in a Mercenaries II, I would happily make new characters based on some of the names that AK put on the cover. Honest. In fact, I already asked if I could get dibs on them...
Now... is seeing those names without stats false advertising? Did AK do anything wrong?

My response is this: On page four of Death Duel with the Destroyers, there is a reference to Doctor Apocalypse. In fact, he threatens the entire Eastern United States... but there is NO Dr. Porky Lips in that module. Were you pissed off when you bought that one... that some guy named Willingham teased you with an archvillain and then didn't give you any stats for him? Now, I know maybe you didn't buy V&V back in 1982... so now, in the fullness of time... you see Death Duel/Island of Dr. A. together, and the two modules make sense and you don't feel cheated. But that's because you're seeing the big picture with that piece of work. When you step back and look at my work, I hope you'll appreciate those times when I foreshadow things that have yet to arrive in print, and that I'm considering your campaign and how it will integrate with other V&V books that I didn't write. I think you'll be pleased with what I'm trying to accomplish. And AK's art work helps me do that.

Ramble / Tenor

I'll toss my vote into the ring for Mercenaries II.

Hey, Darren!  I have your Mercs book and can't wait for the second!  And for the "5 in the works" you mentioned in another thread!  And for more if you get the chance!

Can you sign my pdf?   

Okay, here's a question. For those of you who've read Mercenaries, who are your favorite characters, and why? For me, I really like White Knight, Auger, and Ronin (namely because I like armored characters), I also like the Rangers, as I've got a soft spot for government sponsored super teams.

Gerry wrote on Aug 21^st, 2012 at 10:36pm:


No, but that makes me curious... (opening PDF ... studying...)

...
...
I didn't see it looked light or anything?

dsumner wrote on Aug 21^st, 2012 at 10:04pm:


Well, I'm obviously biased, because I like them all. Now that that's over with...

1) White Knight was designed to be a blue collar super... and works best in a fairly gritty campaign where a lack of $$$ is a real issue. His origin and issues feel quite real to me.

2) Auger is the solution to all those characters with an Intelligence of 10 with super devices. How did you get it? How do you maintain it? Answer: I saw an ad, paid some $$$ and got the device along with a manual, some repair tools, and a 1-800 number for tech support. I admit it's doesn't have the glamour of building from scratch in your bedroom as a teenager genius scientist... but not all heroes (or villains) end up with that skill/mindset.

3) Ronin - He's just fun.

As an author I was stunned that many of these names were not taken already by other authors (Ronin, White Knight, Silencer, Spartan, etc.). So was Mr. Bizar... and this led to the formation of the V&V master name list so that authors can see the current names with a glance.

Ramble

Illerejug wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2012 at 1:58am:


Dude... you're brain is massive!
Pixel-icilious!


Ramble

Illerejug wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2012 at 1:58am:



The source images were pen & ink scanned at 300 dpi. and then reduced in scale by about 5%. Whatever else is seen is in the manufacture of the PDF.
No problems there

The first pic was probably initially scanned at 600+
just a guess. And you have the zoom set on 400%?
I don't produce any art with the intention of someone zooming in to 400%... The human eye doesn't need to zoom in to 400% does it? I mean I could go back and scann all the pieces at 1200 DPI so they could survive the 400% test.

But... I do not want to embed imagery to be reproduced without permission either, and putting ultra high res art in the product might lead to that sort of 'piracy'. There a reason stock illustrations cost so much. 

Not trying to be snarky, but I think people are setting an expectation a bit high here.
EDIT: BHardison might also be drawing his figures really big as originals

Display Name wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2012 at 7:40pm:


That's a question for me...

Hired Muscle was meant to imply someone who you've got hanging around for their muscles (COMBAT) abilities. If you look at Troll , Hurtsickle, Silencer, Ronin, White Knight, etc. you'll notice that they all have a very distinct combat bent to them.

Specialists are not probably going to be hired for their combat skills. You'd hire Auger because you needed a device, Weaver because you want a super costume, Crash because you need a pilot who's not afraid of anything, Express because you need to send some information (memories) to a friend, Hound because you want to catch someone, and Rad because no radioactive place is too hot for him. Specialists not only have something else going for them, they want work that caters to that specialty.

And none of the folks in Hired Muscle or Specialists are teams... those are just rough groups of individual operatives.

Make sense?

Ramble

Majestic has it right. 400% was just to more clearly show why our eyes perceive the Mercenaries art as gray, faded or blurry.

Alabaster, you're right that the Great Bridge example is much higher resolution. It's roughly 1200 dpi in fact.

I re-counted the pixels in the Mercenaries example, and it's definitely 150 dpi as a base.

Just to make sure I wasn't going crazy, I also counted the pixels in the art from some other gaming pdfs I have handy (recent old school D&D products), and they were 300 dpi. (I can post them if you're interested.) Seems like most publishers go with ~300 dpi images in pdfs and don't worry about image theft.

I don't visually perceive a problem at normal size with those 300 dpi images, but I do perceive a problem with the 150 dpi Mercenaries example.

I'd love to see the original scan for the Hurtsickle. Either there was a glitch that caused it to get scanned at 150 dpi (instead of the intended 300 dpi), or some other part of the layout process or pdf generation process caused it to get downsampled. I suspect the pdf generation step wasn't at fault; the pdf generation/export step probably did that additional 600+ dpi antialiasing pass on the image (based on whatever "image quality" option you chose when doing the export, assuming your software gives you that option).

AlabasterKnight wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2012 at 1:45pm:


Most rpg publishers put high res art in their pdf files. Look at any of the 40K releases from FFG, Pathfinder books, even stuff for Mutants & Masterminds. People expect a certain level of quality for their money; not giving it to them is a good way to lose sales

I buy stock art on rpgnow all the time, and I don't see it being over priced. I also don't get the piracy comment. So you'd rather short change a paying customer on the off chance of stopping someone from extracting your art? That's kind of ass backwards.

AlabasterKnight wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2012 at 1:45pm:


I simply was asking why the art looked lower resolution compared to other releases. The resolution of the art in my copy of Sands of Time is much better than this one. It's possible that the file didn't upload properly, which is why it's an issue. Since no one who bought it direct from FGU brought this up, it seems that the version on Drivethru/RPGNow.

I buy V&V books to support the game, not because I need/use them. So yeah, I have certain expectations about product quality. As a consumer, I think I'm entitled to some. I can only spend so much on game material, so if I find the quality lacking, I spend my money elsewhere.

To get back on topic: Other than my issues with the art in my copy, I like the book. You did a good job Ramble showcasing a nice mix of characters on both sides of the fence (and those sitting on top of it).

Gerry wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2012 at 10:51am:


I'm glad the issue came up... honestly I'm a technopeasant about pixel and dpi stuff, so I appreciate it when people who do understand such things bring up the topic - for every person who mentions a problem, there are 5 who don't or won't.

I'm glad you like the book. It's designed to give the good guys and bad guys a leg up, as required. And I like the fact that it's potentially even something a player could utilize. There aren't enough V&V tools for players.

Keep your stick on the ice!

Ramble

I asked this quite a few years ago, but... I'll ask it again:

How much interest is there in a MERCENARIES II?

RAMBLE

Yay!  When is it coming out?

Ramble wrote on Feb 15^th, 2016 at 12:12am:



A good mix of American and "international" characters, as well as some of the characters mentioned on the first cover.