That's That... Or Is It?

So with sessions 12 and 13 done, the Zenith Universe is rebooted.

What does this mean exactly?  It means that I have run a darn fun story arc that taught me a lot and in the end cleared up a lot of what I need to do (and not to do) with the Zenith Universe.

With the reboot, a new campaign is forming that will focus less on global occurrences and grand conspiracies, and more on local city level heroing, with occasional forays into the larger scene.

Another big change that will be happening will be the advancement of the timeline from 1964 to 2010, with appropriate changes of course.

This was an overwhelming choice from the players, and I agree.  The reason being that unless we were focusing on say the Cold War aspects of 1984 it didn't really play a big part of things, except making references to era related setting things (Regan as president, etc).

Stay tuned as more information about the new timeline/setting starts to arrive.  I have worked up a broad strokes narrative timeline and hope to make a more point based one off of that.

Also plan to start doing articles called "The Encyclopedia of the Zenith Universe" where I can put in interesting characters, items, events, etc...

All this while continuing to develop roster books (first one is in layouts now!) and the seemingly never ending work on the Zenith Comics rpg!

Cheers!

You ever have one of those games?

Your plans go out the window.

You tip your hat too soon.

Your carefully constructed campaign is revealed and it was no where as cool as you thought it would be.

These are the things that happened to me last night.

After an exhausting 2 hour combat (which was quite the kick butt fight btw) I found myself going against my instinct and revealing too much and making it go too fast.

Now as this is issue 12 - Part Two, it could be said that after five months of playing I was just a bit burned out.  Or it could be that the night was tiring, we were all exhausted after the fight, and that lead to me making some really dumb moves.

Both of these are valid reasons, but in the end I have only myself to blame.

Let me explain.

I have been running a fairly tight campaign thus far, and I have all sorts of ideas of things I want to do with the characters and the story being told.  I have plots, conspiracies and even awesome fights planned.  I have put a lot of work into this and thinking it through, the Zenith Universe is not random.

The thing is that I wanted this to be a Bronze Age campaign and, as one player put it, the big reveal and craziness of last night made it into a Modern Age as written by Mark Millar.  Now I don't mind Mark Millar comics as a general rule, it isn't very Bronze Age.  In fact it is too much and too crazy and, for lack of a better word, wrong.

The campaign certainly was doing just fine, but as I went along my reach started to exceed my grasp and I got caught up in all the crazy fun and conspiracy metaplot and less on the heroes fighting crime and doing their thing.

As another player said, referring to an old campaign, it went to the moon.

That's like saying it jumped the shark.

This has always been a problem I have as a storyteller.  I put a lot of work into my campaigns and that is good and bad.  It is good because there is always something happening and it bad because there is always something happening.

The first rule of campaigning, that I seemed to forget, is that this is about the players and their interactions with the world, not the world and its interaction with the players.  The latter is just a bad idea from the word go as it will make the players feel like passengers and not drivers.

Fortunately I have a group of players who are very understanding and tolerant.  They accept my foibles and my missteps, trusting that I can either make it better or fix it.  That's a lot of trust and something I hope to live up to with this current campaign.

So yeah, just needed to get that off my chest.

Thanks for reading.

John's Notes - The Sentinels - Session 11

Session Notes - Sentinels (New System) - July 3, 2010 - Session 11

Anthony - Monolith
Mike - Max Plastic
Robin - Tick Tock
Renzo - Kenji/Galvanos
Pat - Doc Tesla
John - Bronco

So here we are on the field of battle at the White House - what's left of it.

0G is dead. Lord Sovereign/Guardsman, too.

Lasseter King arrives. He's upset at us again. The Veep wants to put us all in jail.

He likes the 'We've got the strength to stand up to more clones' thing as an angle to keep us free.

"If you mention cloning again; I will eat you. I will grow to a larger size and actually eat you." Monolith to Doc Tesla

Elsewhere the recently released Tick Tock is watching the heroes on tv. Sees this Max Plastic dude he used to hang with. Decides to go to Washington to join in with the exciting world of heroics. Steals a car, slows time and is almost instantly (to everyone else's perspective) in DC. He strolls into the secure area where the heroes are awaiting their fate. Then resumes time. The Sentinels are more than a little surprised by a Mad Hatter-looking dude with a clock cane coming in.

He's recognized by Monolith and Doc Tesla. Doc Tesla knows what his powers can do, also knows he's out of jail from good behaviour.

He can't reverse time, sorry Mr. President. Monolith is the only one really troubled by Tick Tock's appearance.

Lady A comes in. Hilarity ensues. He wants to join the team. Then Champion (Garrison) and Galvanos arrive.

Doc Tesla 'ports us all to the not-so-secret HQ.

We search for Kenji, find him on the floor of the control room in bad shape. He seems catatonic. Max wakes him up, Garrison kicks everyone out. He tries to make Kenji feel good about killing Uberman. Kenji still feels bad about it. Garrison goes on a mini-rant about Uberman's atrocities to try and bring Kenji around.

Garrison gives him a talking to about the reality of life and death with a giant sword. Kenji kicks Garrison out. Garrison points out the choice Kenji needs to make about being on board with the deal or getting off now. He then leaves and instructs the team not to disturb Kenji until he's ready.

Meanwhile in the bar with Tick Tock and Monolith...

"Oh, you're the urrrrrr (a la Frankenstein) Monolith!" says Tock in a brilliant realization of having a drink with a fellow ex-criminal.

The rest of the team coalesces. Monolith grills him on the source of his powers. Bronco moots the point and interrogation by sponsoring Tock for membership. Doc Tesla wants to kidnap Tick Tock for study. Nicolai agrees in Doc Tesla's head. Tock leaves the team to discuss matters. He liberates a hotel room for the night, planning to be back at the HQ the next day at noon.

And then Marbles, the retarded rock guy is there. And he's upset. Little Princess asks Marbles to put Tock down. They've broken out of jail. And they're putting the old gang back together specifically to kill Max Plastic.

Tock calms Little Princess down as they sit down for a tea party. Apparently Marble is immune to the power nuillifiers. Tock calls the base with Monolith's borrowed comlink. Conveniently Max is on the monitors. Tock fills him in. Then he's spotted by Mr. Bearkins, Princess' animated teddy-bear companion. Tock boots him down a laundry chute. Marbles tags Tock hard into the wall. Tock runs for it and gets away.

Time doesn't seem to work for him, as he slows down he spots a sniper from his rogue's gallery taking a bead on him.

Tock bails on stopped time and runs like hell. Then Marble catches up. The team, meanwhile is homing in on the comlink.

Doc Tesla gets Marbles' attention. He charges. Bronco takes the freight train hit. As the full bore fray begins, Doc Tesla is much distracted by Mr. Bearkins flinging itself on Doc Tesla's face. Doc Tesla in surprise and disgust fries the stuffed companion. Little Princess screams. Marbles is distracted from hitting Bronco for a moment. Bronco lays a massive hit in, causing Marble to bawl.

Tock finds Princess hiding and hits her with a rolling dumpster. She sends it right back at Tock. Marbles misses Bronco as Doc Tesla fries Little Princess. She is lifted off the ground by the zarking and lands unceremoniously in the now-ubiquitous dumpster. Bronco catches Marble in a sleeper hold and puts him down.

Belle Isle sends a retrieval team. Doc Tesla informs them of the nullifier issue with Marbles. He explains a new way to adjust the gear, which is spectacular and well received by the retrieval team.

Doc Tesla and Monolith convince Tick Tock to come back to the base.

Monolith to Max Plastic: "Keep an eye on Tesla..."

Max Plastic back to Monolith: "Keep an eye on Tick..."

Back at the base...

Lady A's back. She makes fun of us for fighting the Odd Squad. She then has a private meeting with Monolith and quits the team, again. This time for good, again. They discuss the exciting field of cloning. Lady A shuts that door hard before any real discussion can be had.

In the lab Tock refuses to use his power. Doc Tesla finally relents.

Monolith tries to console Kenji, who replies: "Thanks, Monolith, but the only person I can talk to is dead..."

Ouch.

Kenji then reveals he killed Uberman. He calls it a day and leaves Monolith to ponder that.

Cut to Belle Isle... As Marbles and Little Princess are being lead through the halls they head past a door marked Brain Flex. Van Jove is intrigued by hearing Max Plastic's name. He calls the guard over, mutters a control word and expedites his own release by casually walking out the front door...

-END OF ISSUE-

John's Notes - The Sentinels - Session 8

Session Notes: Sentinels (BASH) - Session 8 - May 8/10

Anthony - Monolith
Mike - Max Plastic
Robin - 0G
Renzo - Kenji/Gal
Pat - Doc Tesla
John - Bronco

The trial of the century begins. A special tribunal lead by the Supreme Court Chief Justice has been called by the President. Very tight lid on the case. 0G has been having issues getting a lawyer to defend someone on trial for high treason and attempted assassination of the President. Then a lawyer arrives at his digs in the Belle Isle isolation block. His name is Jack Kane, and he feels everyone is entitled to a defense. But he thinks 0G's case sucks. He suggests 0G pleads guilty and throws himself on the mercy of the court. 0G concurs and asks to see Monolith before the trial. Really? The convicted criminal on the team? OK.

Monolith arrives to have the probably no-so-private conversation. 0G's not optimistic, but doesn't mention his intention to plead guilty.

Meanwhile the government wants Gal's hardware and recordings from the event in DC. Kenji and Eve discuss. They create a mock hard drive to fool the Man. Kenji hands over the fake.

The trial begins. 0G pleads guilty. Lady A calls Monolith to inform him. Monolith freaks. Kenji suggests we take Garth Stirling up on his offer of a lawyer. A team meeting is called. Still no Angel. Lady A strolls in and announces she's been fired. A group called Strikeforce USA has been assigned presidential detail, superseding the Secret Service.

Garrison suggests we go bust him out. Kenji objects. Just in time to help out Tori calls a press conference to quit up and join up with Garth. Very nice of her. Then Stirling himself hacks his way through Kenji's firewall and interrupts our meeting. He offers help and security information about 0G's impending transfer to Strikeforce USA's secret location. Lady A points out this is a loophole and we should break him out now.  Monolith wants to go. Kenji's down with whatever Lady A suggests we do. Max still thinks UFO is the key to this mess and exonerating 0G, negating the whole break-him-out-of-jail thing.

So Max and Bronco are going to stay behind while Kenji breaks into NATO's satellites, the rest are headed to Belle Isle.

Meanwhile, in 0G's cell... The guard bringing dinner zones out and Van Jove cones to have another chat with 0G. He berates him for pleading guilty and reminds him of his (Van Jove) intention to kill The Angel in a really painful way before he hunkers down to help 0G escape but walking him out the front door, using the guard as a cover. 0G disables the nullifiers, puts them on and they head off.

Just as they're ready to head out, in comes Strikeforce USA from one direction, and the Blue Jay from the other. 0G wrecks the landing pad, preventing either side from having access. Strikeforce USA members come in flying and a fray breaks out. Some flying spangler zaps 0G with an energy bolt. Some bug guy named Rushmore enters the fray as well, and Monolith joins in on the fun. Strikeforce USA kicks much ass, aided by the impression that they're in the right. It's Americana, Rushmore and American Eagle. They fly their shuttle at ours. Both crash into each other. The shuttle on shuttle action breaks both vehicles entirely. Steel Patriot escapes their shuttle and Lady A escapes ours as they crash. 3rd shuttle destroyed by the Sentinels in as many issues.

0G tries to tell Lady A about Van Jove. Nothing comes out.

Steel Patriot strafes the area. The fray continues, makes the news. Kenji spots the story and informs Bronco and Max before going back to his hacking.

Monolith and Lady A finally triumph with 0G's help as, meanwhile, Kenji has successfully broken into NATO.

He tracks the irregular radiation to Arizona. He radios the team. 0G drags the lot to the HQ, with Steel Patriot in pursuit. Garrison comes out to meet the Strikeforcer and annihilates the Patriot's armour.

Kenji grabs up his portable unit and mentions Eve out loud in front of Bronco.

They plan to head to Arizona. 0G rather surprisingly gravity shifts the entire team to Arizona.

So Doc Tesla... Out in the desert, stealing stuff from airplane graveyards. And conducting experiments. He spots a big spike on his meters. He suits up and heads out to see the Sentinels appear in his backyard electrical field spot. 0G puts up a shield and Lady A makes nice with the strangely dressed desert man. Fields and shields are shut down and a full conversation begins. Spikes are identified as coming from around that Native Reservation over there. Bronco gets tired of waiting for more than five seconds and takes off. Lady A, Max and 0G follow, Little Dove in the lead flying. She catches up, but veers to the res to check on people who are reportedly sick. The team catches up further upriver, just as the Earth itself is trying to attack Bronco.  They enter the fray and radio Monolith about this new development. Doc Tesla offers to get Monolith there. Then teleports him, bringing on a 'What the Hell...?!' from Monolith upon arrival.

Bronco breaks free as Gal's coming in hot. His Geiger counter's going crazy. Plants are attacking, too. 0G tries to fight the plants, finds the roots go deep, and deduces the villains must be underground. Bronco, hearing mentioned they might be underground, solves the questioning by groundpounding the shit out of the local terrain. He causes a full-scale cave in.

0G catches Bronco before he falls in with the avalanche of landscape. Max, spotting an opportunity, Flattens the newly revealed Flora in one shot. Monolith stomps Obelisk. Doc Tesla kazarks Uranium. Hard.

Uranium declares his newly found desire to kill Doc Tesla. For that declaration, he earns another kazark. Just as hard. Third time's the charm when backed up by Galvanos jumping in with his giant sword to fell Uranium with a massive hit. 0G locks them all in a forcefield and detente is reached. EAGLE is called.

The lot of us head back to DC. As we land 0G hears Van Jove say in his (0G's) head that we owe him. Once we touch down UFO spontaneously and gregariously confesses their crimes.

Being now all squared with the law, we head back to HQ, with Doc Tesla in tow. Garrison's bar-b-qing when we get back. Introductions are made all around. And he's drunk.

After dinner 0G hears, then astrally sees Van Jove. Walter reminds him that real threats are coming, and he should start getting really ready...

-END OF SESSION-

I'm Living In the 80's!

I had made a passing comment on wanting to set my new Ultimate Guardians game in 1985. I never expected my players to like the idea, but so far a couple of them do and now I am looking at it realistically.

I am rereading Watchmen and the Elementals to get myself back into that 80's superhero headspace.

I am also reading a bunch of alternate history stuff to see if there are any events I want to change, ala Watchmen-style.

Of course the big upside to this is that in 1985 I still have my Soviets! The 60's weren't so long ago. Lots of heroes can have tours in Vietnam in their backgrounds. Oh and the music Rocks!

So any ideas or suggestions you might have to make this even more fun would be very much welcome.

Cheers.

Campaigns of 2010

As the new year is upon us and on the 16th of January the Ultimate Session of Book 1 of the New Dawn of the West (wow that's a mouthful) will be occurring, I have to think about what 2010 will mean roleplaying wise.

For certain I have Ultimate Guardians on the plate, as well as my ongoing Final Age playtest group. The main thing though is that the Fortknights, the group that has been playing New Dawn of the West, are my oldest and primary group. One player has been gaming with me since grade 9!

So Ultimate Guardians for sure. Superheroes is how this group came together, and super heroes is still their favorite game.

I am also thinking of a Star Trek campaign, but I can't decide what flavour yet. I know for sure I will make a SAGA version of Star Trek though, using cards and such. It just seems like a natural mix to me.

I like TOS, but my "Trek Sweet Spot" is Star Trek 2 - 4 with cherry pickings from everything after. Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock and Voyage Home are the sweetest Trek trilogy ever and frankly my view of what Star Trek should be. Very FASA Trek I know.

That said there was a lot I liked about the new Star Trek (Abrams-Trek) and a lot I really really didn't. It is funny how when I walked out of the theatre I was simply blown away by that movie. Every subsequent review I have disliked it more and more. I find giant plots holes or logic-fails in the story (1 super nova is going to destroy the whole galaxy? WTF?) and like it less and less. I really hated the bridge and the "utility" look of the engineering. Arrgggh! I just reminded myself of more stuff I didn't like! Peh! Enough of that.

And don't even get me started on TNG.

So yeah TOS or Movie Gen? That is the question.

After Trek I need a third choice. One that works with a group of 6 players. Cyberpunk, while fun as hell, is not realy good longterm stuff for me. I kill characters far too easily and often for that to happen.

Horror rpging has never gone well with my groups. Smaller ones yes, but big groups no.

Western Horror might be fun though, some seriously toned down Deadlands could be a hoot.

Any suggestions?

Hold The Presses!

I've always wanted to shout that at the top of my lungs.

I just did... in an empty house... highly overrated... moving on.

"Who knows where thoughts come from? They just appear."

That quote from Empire Records has always been one of my favorites as it is pretty much spot on for how my creativity works on a fairly regular basis.

Well inspiration has struck once again and I now know what my new superhero campaign will be!

The problem is that I have done every kinda of campaign you can imagine, from Golden Age to actually playing in the late Silver/early Bronze Ages.

I have done Marvel campaigns, DC campaigns and fusion Marvel/DC/Whatever campaigns.

But none of it... not one moment of it has ever compared to the original Guardians campaign from back in 89 - 91. That campaign was magical and so fresh. It started with V&V and ended with MSH. It was the original line up to!

Doc - The mad scientist with the cybernetic arm, that he himself chopped off his perfectly good arm to add. What a dude! He had force fields, which would eventually be the end of him. He was a strange character played by a guy who wasn't into supers, but made the most of it.

Galvanos - The walking-talking Japanese Robo-Samurai. He was originally in the model of Goldorak but once the player saw the Ingram from Patlabor his look changed and never went back. For my money I prefer the original, though the player still doesn't.

The Osprey - The first character that this player ever played with me and frankly one of his best. A strange birdpowered man who was the comic relief of the team, in the vien of the Blue Beetle/Booster Gold hillarity of the JLI.

Cyberknight - A techno swordsman who was played by a friend who soon went off to the armed forces, but he played long enough to cut the power cables on Frostbite's icepack and set off one of the most oft repeated moments in any campagin thereafter.

Then there were two NPCs, Gyro and Cascade.

Gyro was my character in my buddy's V&V campaign in High School and I brought him into this game, warts and all. In modern vernacular he would be called a GMPC, but let me tell you when I killed him in the 3rd session, everyplayer confessed that's when they knew it was for real.

Cascade was from some GURPS Supers supplement, Super Scum I think, and was essentially an aquatic heroine. Truely the only thing that made her stand out as a character was her gentle nature and Australian accent.

That campaign world, Earth Alpha (which grew out of the aformentioned friend's V&V campaign which I inherited) would go on for 3 years and have some truely memorable moments. Characters would die, new ones take their place, other reborn... it was heady stuff for us in our late teens/early twenties.

And I have spent every campaign since then trying to recapture it.

Trying and failing of course. The only campaign that ever came even close was the PONY (Protectors of New York) campaign that last an unfortunate 4 or 5 sessions before I paniced and tanked it. Long story.

So if I look at the original Guardians campaign, what made it work? Well for sure part of it was the age and the times. The late 80's were an interesting time to be alive. For sure. But I suspect it was more than that.

Certainly the random character creation of V&V made a big difference as it forced the players to have to be creative when they made their characters. There were no "concepts" to be worked on, instead they took what was given, and formed a ccharacter out of that and then asked to reroll or change what they needed to as their character idea formed. That was an important part of old school campaigns and something that has been lost for the most part in modern rpging.

The other thing that contributed to it being an amazing game was that it was the first. The first long term campagin I ran. The first time I was the GM. The first time I was in control and not sharing a universe with another GM or just being a player.

So where does that bring me to today?

I can never, ever have that back. Those days are gone and I accept that. It is a hard pill to swallow but I will nonetheless.

But that doesn't mean I can't try something that is a little bit old, a little bit new and a little bit crazy.

The first rule will of course be the need for random characters. No matter what. That spark of creativity is what really pushed the original campaign and allowed for the players to help create the feeling of the team as a group and not in individual vaccums, with little or no contact with each other.

Second, it isn't the Silver/Bronze Age anymore. Hell it isn't even the Iron Age anymore. We have moved beyond once again where the Modern Age is falling in onitself and the next age is looming, but no one knows what that will be.

I think Marvel came damn close though.

The Ultimate Universe was a breath of fresh air, it had the costumes and the wow factor of the Modern Age but the grittiness of the Bronze/Iron Ages and right up to the end of the Ultimates series 2 it was perfect.

So there it is.

The Ultimate Guardians.

What does that mean? It means my old universe through the Ultimate lens.

The Golden Age came and went, there was no Silver Age.

This leads me to believe that BASH does not do what I need it to do.

I need that randomness and that anything-can-happen factor.

As it stands right now, Villains & Vigilantes does address that. I may just have to reconsider.

Arrrggghhhh! Damn my creative brain!

And The Winner Is?

After reading and skimming about a dozen superhero RPGs, I have decided that BASH Ultimate Edition will be the system I will use for my new campaign.

I feel that BASH does an excellent job of mixing fast action with fairly in depth character creation.

While a couple of rules don't sit right with me, and there is room for a lot more Advantages and Disadvantages, I think in the end a House Rule here or there and I have what I need.

More on that as I develop it.