So in the past I’ve tried to do the “April A to Z Challenge,” with limited success. In 2013 I tried to do one on the then-obscure-now-a-Netfix-series Altered Carbon, specifically the third book Woken Furies, but petered out after “E” and instead just wrote daily posts on whatever I wanted to. But that even failed at “W” for “What I talked about at lunch today” which should give you an idea of how that was going. I tried to do a whole month’s worth of supervillains for the rather obscure superhero RPG The Ultimate Hero by Paragon Press in 2016 but only got as far as “G.”

My only vaguely successful attempt was in December 2013 doing a thing called “The 25 Villains of Christmas” which was a series of supervillains for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying which actually managed to get to 24 (not 25, oddly enough). This was not only an attempt to make up for my dismal failure the April before, but also formed the core of the MHRPG campaign I ran for almost a year following.

So it is 2021, I’m back here, instead of my previous RPG blog (of which this actually was the first) and I’m pondering the April A-to-Z challenge again. Some of my interest is just finding inspiration for this blog. Other interest is from missing superhero RPG’s. Finally there is, well, the challenge itself–can I be creative enough, and focused enough, to finish this? In the past, the answer is no, but I’m a different person now (sort of) and I might be able to make it work. Especially if I figure out what I want to do in advance to get a head start.

I’m really thinking about another roster of supervillains again, but as usual I am a little stuck on which game system to use. Prowlers & Paragons just came out with their new edition, and it would be a chance to get to know that system better. I also just picked up the softcover of Union City Heroes, a system my kids really liked when I ran it for them earlier in the pandemic. Sentimentally, I wouldn’t mind taking another stab at The Ultimate Hero, which for those who didn’t click the link is a quirky sci-fi/superhero mash-up featuring guns, aliens, and superpowers side-by-side. I could even do the gritty Cold Steel Wardens, but that’s a lot of very similarly-styled characters.

That’s on top of the slew of other superhero RPG’s that I have purchased in the last few years, including Champions Now, Champions Complete, Silver Age Sentinels, Bash!, and others. Picking the game in some ways matters because it will dictate how easy or difficult the challenge will be. Low-crunch RPG’s will be easier to create stats and attributes, and more universal thematic systems will allow for a wider variety of characters. I need to find that balance between feeling a sense of a challenge and being overwhelmed and failing.

Let’s see how this pans out. In the meantime, feedback appreciated.