My RPG DNA, Part III: The Rise of Multi-Genre

(Part I, Part II)
By the end of my university days, I'd amassed an important collection of role-playing games. The question then became: What do I do with it all? Then my current pool of players finally acquiesced to play a little game from R. Talsorian based on Niven & Pournelle's SF novel ABOUT role-playing, Dream Park, and that gave me the answer I was looking for. Dream Park was a fairly simple, I'd go as far as say BROKEN, little game that encouraged you not only to play in all kinds of genres, but to merge them as well. In Dream Park, you play a player who, based on a vague invitation, selects the skills, powers and gear he thinks he'll need for a one-shot scenario put together by a GameMaster (played by the GM) in a sort of holodeck/animatronic/actor-filled environment. The players play for points that will allow them to purchase even more stuff for their next game, but risk losing them if they die, although some can be recouped if they come back as villainous NPCs later in the game. It's a nifty gimmick, and the published scenarios highlighted multi-genre concepts (1001 Nights/Star Wars, Superheroes/WWII, Postapocalypse/Zombies), though there was definitely a pulp feel about all of them.

This allowed me to adapt a lot of the adventure scenarios, setting books and RPG magazines I'd purchased over the last few years (and lead me to buy even more). I didn't stick with that particular group very long, just long enough to gauge what was missing from Dream Park as published. I would dabble with old favorites in the late 90s (DC Heroes, Planescape, Paranoia), but I would eventually return to DP when I recruited a whole new batch of players as we entered the 2000s. By then, I was almost exclusively recruiting improv players into my games. There are some very good reasons for this. 1) I was (and still am) deeply involved in improv/theater games, and most of my friends are improv players. 2) There's a natural relationship between improv and role-playing, though in the latter, you have to stay in character a lot longer. And 3) improv players tend to be naturally quick witted and funny, which makes for an enjoyable laugh-filled role-playing session. I could probably write a paper no one would read about how improv skills and flaws translate to the role-playing environment. In any case, this choice would mold my role-playing activities a heck of a lot. Playing with people who are more used to acting out scenes than the nitty gritty of rules has led me farther and farther into New School territory.

(LARP aside: In the late 90s, I tried my hand at LARPing with the improv gang, organizing two or three events that relied very little or not at all on rules, but were heavy on role-playing. Great fun, and the fewer the rules - in other words, the less fighting there could be - the more fun we had. My thanks to White Wolf magazine's diceless columns for many of the ideas. Some people have been pestering me about doing some more, and I just might. They better get their sowing machines out or it won't be the same.)

Before jumping back into Dream Park, I tried my hand at Last Unicorn's Star Trek TNG game, but it was a less than stellar success. Players shrugged off the show's conceits and played it more (too) realistically. The captain refused to get off the bridge and the department heads sent their underlings into danger. It turned the NPCs into the real heroes, and though the players seemed fine with it, I chose to end the campaign. There were other changes in the air. More people were asking me about playing, and yet were afraid of the committment a campaign represented. Everyone was either in university or working, and schedules were tight. I took ST: TNG's surviving players, grabbed a few new guys and started running Dream Park again.

I crafted a website with all the player options, so that players could pick their skills and gear beforehand. Soon enough, I'd added a lot of missing options, created new Professions, ported skills and a more granular Tech Level over from GURPS, and tons of superpowers from all those Supers games I collected. (The site is still active and people I don't even know have told me they use it.) With Dream Park, my pool of players ballooned to the teens. It was easy to assemble whoever was available for any given one-shot, while players also racked points and felt they were progressing. For my part, I got to use all manner of material from my shelves (or Pyramid Online which was a great source of multi-genre material): Call of Cthulhu (especially the non-Mythos Blood Brothers books), GURPS, In Nomine, 2300 AD, Space 1889, AD&D: The Horde/Spelljammer, Time Master, Torg, Chill, Shadowrun, James Bond 007, Weird War II, DC Heroes, Ghostbusters, and more all provided adventure material for those games. Every game was completely different.

GURPS Heads, GURPS Heads, Suck 'em up, yum!
But I still wasn't using everything I owned. That, along with my desire to run something other than one-shots (as fun as they were), pushed me to come up with a GURPS campaign that could make use of the 100+ sourcebooks I had. That campaign was Shiftworld, in which we changed settings every few sessions, but the characters remained the same, except not. The frontier town sheriff would turn into a motorcycle cop and later into Mars base security chief, for example. However, he would still remember the other timeline when the setting shifted. His memories would also hold the revised timeline. Aside from the heroes (and one recurring villain), no one noticed the "shifts". So while we took advantage of the settings' potential for adventure, there was an overall arc about figuring out this mystery. Old West, Autoduel, Mars, Ice Age, Mecha, Steampunk, Vikings, Time Travel... and then too many of the key players moved away, so the mystery was never resolved. It was probably the single best campaign I ever ran though, and I'd love to get the old guys together again to put a button on it once and for all.

Between that disappointing unfinished business and an overdose of one-shots, something had to give...

In Part IV: The Mini-Series

Further reading about this era :
Remembering a Dream Park scenario
RPG award shows started in this era
Lesson from Dream Park: In Medias Res
Lesson from Dream Park: Multiple GM personalities
Nazis and dinosaurs: Part of EVERY genre
Hosting a one-shot LARP
Culling the massive collection... possible?
Profiles of my players from this era:
-The Obsessive
-The Flusher
-The Noble Hero
-The Hipster Doofus
-The Dud
-The Rest

Star Trek 1277: All of Me

1277. All of Me

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: All of Me, Wildstorm Comics, April 2000

CREATORS: Tony Isabella and Bob Ingersoll (writers), Aaron Lopresti and Randy Emberlin (artists)

STARDATE: 6618.4 (before The Trouble with Tribbles)

PLOT: With a brig full of Orion pirates, the Enterprise is deviated from its course by Starfleet to answer an urgent summons from brilliant scientist - and former classmate of Spock's - Armand St. John. When they get to his laboratory on Pollux II, they find that 1) he's gone insane and 2) he's populated the planet with versions of himself from alternate universes. He plans to take over the Federation with one of himself to govern each planet and he quickly captures the landing party and commandeers the Enterprise with the Orions' help. Scotty locks out the computers, giving Kirk and Spock below more time. Spock gets on St. John's good side and tricks him into revealing his machines don't really work. How could they? Finding St. Johns of different species and genders that are all pliable to his will hardly makes sense. Spock surmises some unknown force is creating the duplicates, and in knocking St. John out, they disappear. As they ferry him to a mental health facility, they are visited by the Djinn, a god-like being that hates humanity and wants to prevent it from realizing its full potential. He belives he's won, having taken the mind of a once brilliant man, and prevented the Enterprise from making a discovery at a now destroyed colony that would have set humanity on the path to godhood.

CONTINUITY: The Orions of both sexes appear. Armand St. John was inspired by Kirk's trip to the Mirror Universe, and some version of Mirror Spock appears (Mirror, Mirror). St. John is sent to the Elba II asylum (Whom Gods Destroy). Scotty is shown to be the source of the computer lock-out strategy (TNG and beyond).

DIVERGENCES: It seems unlikely that this would take place on Pollux II, a stone's throw from Pollux IV (Who Mourns for Adonais?).

PANEL OF THE DAY - That night, at Tribal Council...
REVIEW: In the early 2000s, the Star Trek comic book license passed to DC's Wildstorm imprint, which used it to publish graphic novels and mini-series, but no continuing series. The same model would later be adopted by IDW, so Marvel were the last to invest in monthly and bimonthly series for the franchise. All of Me is the first TOS graphic novel and though retro in many ways (a god-like being, a "fantasy world"), it has a slick modern look with many fun set pieces. It basically starts with Kirk kicking an Orion upside the head. Yay! Lopresti's art is quite pleasant (that's a fetching Orion slave girl!), and Isabella and Ingersol are "name" writers that are never less than competent. Sure, not every cast member gets a proper moment, but they're all here, and good for some gentle comedy. It's all about Kirk and Spock, with a side-order of Scotty. I was a little disturbed that St. John would have a female duplicate of himself, but as the truth of the situation was slowly revealed, it became more palatable, and "Jane T. Kirk" is a really funny idea. Best not to dwell on how the tv show would have done this... As for the Djinn, he seems to promise to return, but I don't think ever did. Not a problem. The Star Trek universe is already jam-packed with "gods", often with cultural links to Earth. We didn't really need another one. His motives and complex agenda were interesting for a one-off, but I'm in no hurry for another tale of this type to come from Wildstorm.

This Week in Geek (31/05-06/06/10)

Buys

A number of buys this time around. A sale on Amazon had me get MI-5/Spooks Series 7 and the first season of Chuck for cheaps. Finishing the Martha cycle (see below) made me get 4 New Series Doctor Who books (the ones after the three I still have to read): Beautiful Chaos, The Eyeless, The Story of Martha, and Judgement of the Judoon. And because I wanted to feature Michelle Yeoh in August's screening of Kung Fu Friday, I snatched Royal Warriors, Butterfly Sword and in the thematically compatible A Touch of Zen.

"Accomplishments"

DVDs: With Ip Man, Donnie Yen goes from being my favorite contemporary martial arts action star to one of my favorite actors as well. Ip Man was a Wing Chun master who taught, among others, Bruce Lee. Yen creates a wonderful semi-biographical character, much unlike his usual screen persona, who is rather serene when he fights. Until the Japanese invade, that is, and he goes all Fist of Fury on them. The action, choreographed by Sammo Hung, is incredible. I've never seen those moves before. The human drama is poignant. Wilson Yip's other directorial efforts have been good, but not incredible. This comes out of left field. The DVD has a the usual making of material, interviews and deleted scenes notable for featuring the death scenes of three main characters(!).

Books: Time, Unincorporated vol. 1 is Mad Norwegian's collection of Lance Parkin's articles from a variety of fanzines, mostly The Matrix and Enlightenment. The biggest chunk is a year-by-year review of the franchise (including the 1989-2005 wasteland), with previously unpublished material taking us to 2008. Stand-alone articles discuss everything from Quatermass to Torchwood to the novels and audios. Parkin admits to identifying with Adric when he was young, tries to find the point at which Doctor Who jumped the shark, but is most infectious in his love for the new series. As he says, "There was a war, and we won..." Because of the nature of the collection, there's some repetition between articles, but it's still a great compendium. I'll admit that I didn't read it ALL because the last section is about writing The Eyeless, and I haven't read it yet. As you can see under "Buys", I just got it. So I'll wait to read it before finishing Time, Uninc.

And I finally finished Dale Smith's The Many Hands, a new series book starring the Tenth Doctor and Martha in 18th-century Edinburgh fighting cloned hands by the loch. There are some good bits, especially near the end when things are most dire, but I felt the book was rather repetitive. The Doctor and Martha, separated, encounter the same threat, after all. There was also the problem of shifting the point of view to the ancillary characters, which would work in a longer book, but here somehow marginalizes the stars. I have little interest in a story about a British soldier who doesn't know what to think of the funny man with the wand. Consequently, this is a book I put down and only picked up again lately. Took me awhile.

On top of that, I completely read Gary Russell's first Doctor Who novel, the New Adventure "Legacy". Or as I call it, Legacy of Peladon. Russell is well known for his obsession for continuity plug-ins, which at their worst turn out like Divided Loyalties, but here, I think it stands up. It's possibly the best Peladon story in any medium (ok, the bar isn't very high, I know). There are tons of winks to continuity, as well as inside jokes, only some of which I'm equipped to get. The history of Peladon, the Ice Warriors and Bernice are all very well used, but then there are more gratuitous references like the Ogri, Goth and the Cybermen. Still, a cracking story not very much hampered by the over-obvious villain or Ace's side-lining. (It strikes me that she has become a difficult character to integrate into the action of the NAs - too competent and combat happy.) So... a 6.5 out of 10?

New Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG cards: 1 card each from each story in Sarah Jane Adventures Series 2 and each episode in Torchwood: Children of Earth. Those 11 are joined by 13 more from New Earth as I start designing cards for my Song for Ten set, celebrating the 10th Doctor's much beloved era.
Hyperion to a Satyr entries this week include:
I.ii. The Wedding Banquet - Tennant (2009)

Star Trek 1276: Splashdown, Part Four

1276. Splashdown, Part Four

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Voyager - Splashdown #4, Marvel Comics, July 1998

CREATORS: Laurie S. Sutton (writer), Terry Pallot and Al Milgrom (artists)

STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)

PLOT: As the drones swoop in to attack, Chakotay beams aboard the aerowing and then to the alien facility where he surprises the prospector and destroys the drones' control circuits. They crash into the sea. However, Chakotay's hit causes a cascade reaction that threatens to destroy the facility, and the away team in the crypts barely escapes the flooding. The gateway shows them the pyramids of Egypt, but Chakotay can't take the chance of ordering someone through in case it leads to another time as well as place. He throws a piece of his uniform into it which tourists in 2863 (the far future) ignore. Janeway plans to return the prospector's confiscated treasure to their rightful owners and to use the planet's geothermal energy to replenish the ship's power supplies.

CONTINUITY: See previous issues (Aerowing). The crypts are full of Vhnori corpses (Emanations). It is never made clear if the gateway was of Iconian origin (Contagion, To the Death).

DIVERGENCES: None.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Starfleet... They've seen it all.
REVIEW: While the action beats are strong and the ending a properly inspirational "hero" speech, there are entirely too many questions left unanswered in the Splashdown finale. Was that gateway Iconian? Why was the script familiar to Tuvok (who was sure he'd seen them in the Delta Quadrant). Why was the prospector stealing Vhnori mummies? How did Voyager recover the treasure? What did they do with the prospector? Why wouldn't he give up his identity? Is there a reason for withholding information here? Perhaps at some point there were plans to pursue all this in another mini-series, but alas, the entire line collapsed. At least Voyager ends on a relative high compared to many issues of the series itself.

And this is also the last issue under the Marvel license. I'd like to thank editor Tim Tuohy for his many contributions in the comments sections of these reviews. It was very interesting to read about what was going on behind the scenes at Marvel Star Trek. I, for one, will miss his input as we enter the next phase of Star Trek comics - the Wildstorm issues.

What If... There Were No Fantastic Four?

At first, it seems like this story isn't playing very fair with us, setting the origins of every single Marvel hero in the same week, but then I realized what writer Roger Stern was doing. By effectively removing Marvel's first superhero series from continuity, he prevents the entire Marvel Age from occurring. It doesn't really work as a timeline, but it's conceptually perfect. What we get is a Marvel Comics that's still exclusively doing monster stories (which the Thing's journey becomes). Rather interesting!What If Vol.1 #31 (February 1982)
Based on: Fantastic Four #1
The true history: Four people go up into orbit in an unprotected ship and get hit with cosmic rays. When they come back down, they have super-powers, so they band together as the Fantastic Four.
Turning point: What if Ben Grimm was unhinged by his transformation?
Story type: Deviated origin
Watcher's mood: Acne problems
Altered history: In this reality, the Thing refuses to join the FF and instead goes a little coo-coo for CocoPuffs. He's a freak! A monster! They all are! He starts a rampage across the country while the other three lay low and prepare to stop him. When he hits New York, he briefly meets Alicia Masters (oh the potential!) and then starts interfering with everyone's secret origin. He throws a truck and scares Peter Parker away from the science exhibit...
He causes a traffic jam that makes Don Blake miss his plane to Scandinavia. Thor remains legend.
The government pulls Tony Stark away from his trip to Vietnam and Bruce Banner from his gamma bomb tests to work on a weapon that can stop the Thing.
They'll never get shrapnelled/irradiated now! And that's the Baxter Building Ben's climbed up on. It gets destroyed in the battle. Thunderbolt Ross gives the Fantastic Three a few minutes to reason with Ben, but it doesn't work. And neither does the Stark-Banner cannon.
It just makes the Thing stronger, but somehow depowers the rest of the would-be FF. Ross is so angry, he promises that none of them will ever work for the government again. No Iron Man armor! No gamma bomb! No rocket back into space! It's hard to become a superhero when you don't have DoD funding.
Books canceled as a result: Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor and Incredible Hulk are all out, which by extension means we lose Avengers, Sub-Mariner and Captain America. The Watcher does make reference to Dr. Doom and the Skrulls still menacing Earth, but perhaps this time other heroes rise up. Looks like Marvel Universe would have surrendered to X-Mania 15+ years early. And Ant-Man. He's still around.
These things happen: The FF dropped to three a number of time, but it didn't put the group in serious jeopardy. They just recruited other people. Most famously, the Thing was replaced by She-Hulk for a long stretch.

Next week: What If the Avengers Had Become Pawns of Korvac?
My guess: Everybody dies (when in doubt...).

Star Trek 1275: Splashdown, Part Three

1275. Splashdown, Part Three

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Voyager - Splashdown #3, Marvel Comics, June 1998

CREATORS: Laurie S. Sutton (writer), Terry Pallot and Al Milgrom (artists)

STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)

PLOT: As Voyager continues its slow climb to the surface, B'Elanna fights anti-gravity fires in engineering. In the alien facility, an alien prospector comes out of a teleporting portal. He's made it his base, and has learned to control its transport system and the drones. He slips from the away team's grasp and Harry trips a defense system that shocks them all into unconsciousness. The prospector locks them in the crypts and in order to protect his claim, commands the drones to ambush Voyager as it rises out of the water...

CONTINUITY: See previous issue (Vorik).

DIVERGENCES: None.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Playing at Wasted or Busted
REVIEW: The villain of the piece provides some humor, as it's basically a misunderstanding, but a dangerous one. The disaster movie elements are still there, though the firefighting sequence doesn't work very well. Engineering seems much bigger than it should be and we often lose landmarks to orient ourselves. The cliffhanger with the drones waiting for the ship have much better visuals. Continues to be an enjoyable action-driven mini-series. Everything seemed too easy on the show itself, so it's nice to see Voyager's crew really put to the test.

Kung Fu Fridays in June

The month's new poster features probably my favorite contemporary martial arts star, Donnie Yen. The image is from the promotional material for Ip Man, for which he got many accolades, even though the Donnie Yen movie I planned to show was Dragon Tiger Gate. And then I was given Ip Man as a gift, so guess what change I made to the line-up of films shown at my house every Friday this month?

Ip Man - The name (and story) of Bruce Lee's master, the first man to openly teach the martial art of Wing Chun (so it has nothing to do with Internet Protocol). Donnie Yen partners with his usual director, Wilson Yip, as well as Kill Zone co-star Simon Yamm and action choreographer Sammo Hung. This is all good news.

Above the Law - A strong dose of 80s cheese should come with this Yuen Biao/Cynthia Rothrock vehicle about a lawyer who takes the law into his own hands. Some guys take you to People's Court. Yuen Biao kicks your ass with his kung fu. Note that this KFF will actually be on Saturday, because most of us are walking the Relay for Life.

Dog Bite Dog - I think a KFF regular complained that we hadn't seen any "pure fight" movies recently (in favor of police tragedies and wuxia, presumably), so I've really loaded the dice in June. Which seems unnecessary after Fist of Fury/Fist of Legend last week. But here we are. Dog Bite Dog looks to be big on fights, but I expect it to be a violent noir police thriller as well. Apparently so dark as to be called nihilistic. Leave your joie de vivre at the door.

Battle of the Warriors - And we end the month on a historical "Warring States of China" picture featuring one of my favorite Chinese actors, Andy Lau. The better Hong Kong title is "A Battle of Wits" and it has a convoluted pedigree, being based on a manga, in turn based on a Japanese novel inspired by Chinese history.