Way back in 2016, I entered the realm of publishing role-playing games, and it was a learning experience, to say the least! So with great enthusiasm, I recruited a friend to help me create the first issue of Instant Enemy and the rest is history!
By now, you are presumably wondering, what is Instant Enemy?
In a nutshell, it is a pre-generated supervillain supplement that a gamemaster can employ in their campaign. Think of it as a time saver for those who want additional characters for a Friday night campaign!
So after a few brainstorming sessions, the writer and I decided to do a Doctor Doom* type of character. Initially, I visualized what the villain would look like. He would be a large man with fiery red hair and wear an iron mask, dressed in a green tunic-like garment. Origin wise the character had to be from a foreign nation and extremely powerful and, most importantly, a challenge to any player's superhero.
Ultimately, the name Duke of Dedrakon was assigned to the character, which the writer conjured to his credit. Although my author did what he envied with the Duke, and I just let him do it because I was spread too thin doing design-related work. As a publisher, I failed to reign him in and take full responsibility for it.
After the fact, my assessment of the first issue of Instant Enemy would be that it should have been edited more diligently. In my opinion, it did not hold true to the superhero genre and was really fantasy orientated.
To conclude, Instant Enemy had a publication run of 10 issues in two years time span and is currently sold on Drivethroughrpg.com , supporting the HERO 6 system. Its long term future is uncertain and will probably be discontinued, so if you want to check it out, the clock is ticking. The early issues may not be perfect, but they are still fun villains to add to any campaign.
So what did I learn from publishing Instant Enemy Issue 1?
1 - Have a well thought out game plan.
2 - Avoid working with a friend due to possible repercussions.
3 - Stay true to the project's genre.
4 - Hire an experienced editor vs. using one for free.
5 - Try not to do everything yourself.
6 - Take your time working on your releases.
Doctor Doom-copyright Marvel Comics 2020
Supervillain, Superhero- copyright DC Comics and Marvel Comics. 2020
