Picking a New Campaign: Part IV- The Borrowed Bits

I've spent some time covering the approach to how we select and start a new campaign. The last article explained how and why I borrow entire concepts from other works. So, that brings us to what I've borrowed for the next campaign.

In general, I don't care that much for anime. One would think I'd like it as it tends towards sci-fi and fantasy and I love good sci-fi and fantasy. But common elements of anime style and story-telling cause me no end of problems. The focus on the child hero, the interruption of a serious storyline with over the top cartoon 'reaction shots', silly power ups, and the worst- illogical and stupid story lines. I used to think that the story lines only seemed dumb to me due to cultural differences (not that this would make me like them any better), but I have since given that idea up for what is almost certainly the truth. They are simply bad stories, like much of the stuff we produce here in the states.

So it's a bit of a surprise that the core borrowed item for the new campaign is from an anime show. It's called Claymore and was something I happened across on a boring day spent browsing Netflix. The show is not without its very anime faults. The swords are too big (too thick actually, the length is fine), the sidekick is HORRID, it includes some torture scenes that are rather hard to watch, and sometimes the bridge between superhero like abilities and the gritty storyline itself threatens to fall apart.

But the background is interesting, nearly all the characters are well developed and appealing. And the underlying themes are eternal and very western in culture for anime. I really like those themes. I nearly fell in love with the show, and am able to overlook its faults.

This review is a good even-handed one although I think the Dragon-Ball Z comment was a undeserved cheap shot (the meaning and result of the two seemingly similar animated bits are vastly different), and I thought the ending was a perfect highlight of the core themes for all that came before. (and mostly because the manga the show is based on still hasn't ended itself ).

Now I had to fit this into my Middle Earth inspired time line somehow, and that means deciding where. The early ages of Middle Earth didn't seem right, the tone of the series didn't match. It certainly wouldn't be set in the future- those are very space opera settings and this is very much fantasy world tech.

So it needs to be set after the Third Age Middle, but not the future. A world that is at best falling into the trap that "the ends justify any means" (as an aside, people leave out the word 'any' in that phrase- and it loses any real meaning when that's done).

It took me a bit, but then the idea of using the Book of Genesis and setting this pre-flood just might be idea. That period is nearly undefined and what is stated offers interesting launching points for extending and expanding the setting. So the first chapters of Genesis is the second borrowed item.

The last piece comes from Shadowrun and by extension Earth Dawn. These had a interesting thing in common with Middle Earth- the idea that there was a previous forgotten age of magic. Switching that age to that of Middle Earth provided the background I needed to include my Shadowrun campaign in the meta-time line some years back. Now that concept would expand this new setting.

According to Shadowrun, the previous magical age was brought down by an outside force (this concept also exists in Tolkien's works btw), and that people only survived it by hiding in concealed sanctuaries. After the primary danger passed (i.e. the greater powers of the invaders left as the magic level decreased), they opened the sanctuaries and reclaimed the world that eventually became today's.

In time line terms, lost of the original magical ages of Middle Earth would have occurred at the end of the Fourth Age. The opening of the hidden sanctuaries would have been the beginning of the Fifth Age, and the flood of Genesis would washed away nearly any memory of the previous ages.

Thus this new campaign would be after the opening of the sanctuaries, and the rebuilding of what be city states thereafter. The most powerful of the invaders who destroyed the world would be gone, but lesser creatures still presenting great dangers would remain to be dealt with. One of these new city states turn to the Claymore concept to deal with those very dangers.

This mirrors the Claymore setting of very different cities with wilderness and wasteland between them. And allows for the 'war' between Claymore and Yoma (as the monsters are called) explaining where both came from.

It also allows the addition of city states that took a different path from the Claymore one. Perhaps one that put it faith in an order of Paladins, or another preserved wizards. The result of such different approaches meeting and interacting would interesting.

So the core idea is set. The next thing is selecting a rule set for it.

Picking a New Campaign: Part III- Borrowing the Good Stuff

I am something of a setting thief. Most people are, if they admit it or not.

Running a traditional fantasy world but with your own names for the people and places? You stole that from the masters of such, basically Tolkien but you could toss Howard in there if you want. Or some of the more modern authors- you know, those guys who pick pocketed it from Tolkien before you did.

Running a non-traditional fantasy world, in order to avoid anything that hints of Tolkien? You stole that. From Tolkien. After all, what you're doing is reversing or avoiding what he did- not very original if you think about it. Oh, and a bunch of people beat you to that too.

The truth of the matter is that there isn't really anything original, i.e. a concept that hasn't been done yet. And if there is, it is all but certain (I'll leave in a non-zero lightning bolt chance in there) that it wouldn't be worth doing. For our culture, there are certain concepts that speak to us, and we are well spoken to indeed.

Perhaps if we undergo a massive cultural change, it will bring with it new stuff. Unlikely IMO, because such change is likely to do nothing be return us to previous cultures and their non-original concepts. But it new stuff has happened before, perhaps it will again.

Now the bells and whistles will change. And the old ideas can be done *better* and more suited to certain people or groups just as they can done worse. Forbidden Planet is sci-fi, even if it's also a redo of Shakespeare's Tempest. I like the former and am rather uncaring about the latter, because sci-fi offers me personally a better view on the same underlying concepts.

Because of this reality, I'm rather open in my borrowing. I don't hide it. If I chose to run a Captain America clone in Superhero campaign, I'll run Captain America thank you. I'll just run him *right*, i.e. how I think the character should be- and the comic companies and their every changing writers and takes on the character be damned.

My first and central RPG campaign was based in Middle Earth, and I use same setting as a base for ever other campaign I run. Why? Because it matched my values, offered the type of adventures I desired, and sparked my imagination.

But my campaigns are not copies of the "Lord of the Rings". Never done that period actually. After all, Tolkien detailed that place and time quite well. Rather I've done games set in other periods. What was things like in the middle of the Third Age instead of its end? What about the First? What about the Sixth? Yes, the Sixth- it was part of his overall history you know.

So I borrow, and then extend and expand.

If Middle Earth was lost history, if Eru created the world and the Third Age is lost to time- what changes would that make in a future Age borrowed in part from- oh Shadowrun? It would change everything. Creating that is original enough for me.

Or to pick something I haven't done (yet), what would a Warhammer 40K setting be if everything they believed about history was wrong, but the history of Middle was correct? How do you get from one to the other, and what does options does it open up or close off compared to traditional 40k?

For me, this is in part of a way of saving really cool ideas, ruined by where the original writers took them. The stupid wimpy ending the Shadow War in B5? I can do that better. The fatalism of 40K? I can replace that with a tale of light surviving even the greatest darkness and human failings. Those horrid Star Wars sequels? Anyone could better.

In a nutshell, I borrow concepts, names, background- whatever I want. Then I change it how I want and come up with something mine. Something that for me is better than the original. Much like the old wargaming hobby often sought to develop better ways of fighting historical battles.

In a very real way, this is the core of how I play and part of the why as well.

Picking a New Campaign: Part II- What's Important

As covered in my last blog, we were picking from a number of possible campaign settings:

1. Ages of Middle Earth
2. Nephilim (pre-flood earth)
3. Hidden World (19th century up to the modern era)
4. Shadowrun
5. Year 1 (our re-imagination of silver age Marvel)
6. Morrow Project (cross off list as we just did)
7. Outreach (early sci-fi interstellar expansion)
8. Federation (original show star trek like setting)
9. Tri-Galaxy (wild sci-fi)

To end things before it begin we attempt to find out if we had any real consensus on what it should be. No such luck of course. After spinning our wheels a bit, we took a slightly different tack- define what was important to see in the next campaign and narrow things down to match.

It turned out to be a somewhat interesting list, both in what it was and in if actually influenced what we chose.

An overarching storyline like we had in the Morrow Project campaign, i.e. a planned end.

This was rather easy in any of the settings truth be told. It's really little more than defining a goal and the basic idea of what would be in the way. So, really no impact.

More niche for the characters.

This one took me a little by surprise. One of the players wanted a change from Morrow Project which featured an all military group using national weapons to a group of PCs with radically different backgrounds and 'weapons'. Now the Morrow Project campaign did have solid niches and roles for the characters (I doubt I could enjoy a game without them), so this call for even more niche, more to have those niches be more front and center.

This removed a number of possibilities. Outreach, Federation, and Tri-Galaxy were all intended to focus primarily on what were in effect military characters, armed with military arms. Something we just did.

Sure we could focus on a different aspect of the setting, but at this time there was little appeal to that. Do these were removed.

The more we consider this, it seem that in general it was the concept of production firearms and their like that was really the core of the objection. Colonel Colt made all men equal it seems :)

This dropped us back to the two fantasy periods where sword and sorcery were the rule of the day. Ages of Middle Earth or Nephilim.

A player's background will have influence

One of players has a degree in theology. The concept of linking pre-flood Biblical accounts to Middle Earth was something of draw. Roughly on par with my interesting in modern military history and weapons causing me to often be drawn to more modern settings.

This perhaps was the turning point that removed the Ages of Middle Earth from the running.

In the end, campaign choices are made by a small subset of the players

In over thirty years of gaming, I don't think I've ever seen a group where a majority of the players felt strongly about what they're playing. I don't mean they're uninterested, just that they are open to a wide range of options.

That was the case here. Everyone was involved in making the decision, and everyone pointed out advantages and disadvantages. But nearly everyone would have been happy with any of the choices before us. So the final selection came down mostly to the just one of the players.

Next, I'll spend some time detailing the new setting.

Picking a New Campaign: Part I

The first order of business after completing a rpg campaign, is to pick the next campaign. And that's what we set out to do after the final game in our two year Morrow Project run. We spent a number of hours on it, and it will take more than one post to cover the process we ended up using.

First, a bit of background. Way back in the 80s right after we moved out of dungeon crawls for nothing more than dungeon crawls- we went straight to a concept of a meta-time line. A single time line that contained all the settings we wanted somewhere in it starting at the beginning of everything and end up with... well the end of everything.

It was a nice bit of luck that my first choice in a setting was Middle Earth, as it turned out J.R.R.T was fond of the same idea in a way. Middle Earth was *this* earth, but from a forgotten era. It made it very easy to build things out from there using J.R.R.T timeline for nearly all of the world's prehistory, only the extension into the fair future needed to be done. The basics of that was completed years ago as well (stealing inspiration from any number of sources along the way).

So it was to that meta-timeline that we turn our attention. We quickly identified a few broad areas and options. In order from earliest to latest:

1. Ages of Middle Earth
2. Nephilim (pre-flood earth)
3. Hidden World (19th century up to the modern era)
4. Shadowrun
5. Year 1 (our re-imagination of silver age Marvel)
6. Morrow Project (cross off list as we just did)
7. Outreach (early sci-fi interstellar expansion)
8. Federation (original show star trek like setting)
9. Tri-Galaxy (wild sci-fi)

Each of those cover huge ground, but they served as a guide to general concepts and feel. I think it's interesting that I left out most of human history (it's in the timeline, but not considered for campaigns). I just haven't found anything in there before the 19 century that sounds interesting to me. Odd, consider that includes the Age of Sail...

In any case, this was our starting point.

The Morrow Project Campaign is a Wrap

We finished the Morrow Project Campaign this weekend. It ran a month short of 2 years in real life and about half a year in game.

The world was saved, for the lost of one PC (Sgt Preston Walker). He died buying time for his teammates to escape, taking the master villain of the epic with him by setting off the mini-nuke self-destruct in an old project CDC/research base that had been taken off by said villain

Also missing in action was the team scientist NPC, Doctor Winston. He too may have been buying time for the team to escape an earlier event (a collapsing tower, who's fall was brought about by an overloaded dimensional portal). Or maybe he saw a technical pretty and just had to investigate it and lost track of the fact that everything was falling apart around him. Those left, will never know. But history will likely selected the heroic end.

The backup to Prime Base was located, and the Project is coming fully online. There are untold adventures left in that world. But the characters have done their primary job, and the players are moving on to a different setting in the meta-time that runs from Middle Earth of the past to the far future.

All in all, very successful and everyone had a great time.

This was the first campaign that I've done that had a planned end point. Previously I've always been more of a sandbox player and where there have certainly been arcs, the campaigns themselves were never planned to end. There is a certain joy in completing something. I see advantages to both approaches if done right.

As to what's up next? We spent a couple of hours determining just that last night. I'll be talking about it some here as I iron out the details.