Crisis in Multiple Games

Back in 1985, the comic book crossover wasn’t the perfunctory non-event it is today, but instead something exciting and new. We had had Marvel’s Secret Wars (1984) and Contest of Champions (1983), but then there was DC's twelve-issue “maxi-series” Crisis on Infinite Earths. Even though I was primarily a Marvel fan at the time, Crisis was out “epic-ing” everything that had come before.

In this environment, my cousin and I hit upon the idea of doing a multi-game crossover campaign. At the time, our repertoire included AD&D, Gamma World, and Villains and Vigilantes. We planned to include them all, with one of the two of us on DM/GM duties.

Unlike comic book crossovers, I don’t think it was our plan to have characters meet up--we weren’t interested in that conversion task. Instead, there would be some threat affecting the “multiverse” we took for granted that all our game world’s inhabited. I think the basic idea was borrowed from the plot of Crisis--there would be some sort of device (like the Monitor’s pylons in the early issues) that the characters had to defend to keep their world safe. Or maybe, there was some item they had to find first. Maybe we talked about different ideas at different times, I don’t fully recall.

In any case, we never did it. Maybe just because we never got around to it, or maybe we decided it would be more fun to plan than to play.  I think I did run an AD&D game once were the character's glimpsed their other character's in different game-worlds in the mirrors of an evil sorcerer's sanctum, so I didn't entirely give up on the multiverse idea.

Anybody else every attempted a cross-game crossover, or at least thought about it?

Glamorous

The City may the unofficial commercial capital of the New World, but Heliotrope is the center of its entertainment industry. The Heliotrope of the gossip rags and glitzy film premieres is only part of the story. Old and powerful magics lurk behind its sun-blinded streets and beneath the banner of the famous “HELIOTROPELAND” sign.

The first indication of its secret strangeness, is that Hesperia, the west coast territory encompassing Heliotrope, was once an island, separated from the mainland of the New World by a strait. Maps and accounts of Ealderdish explorers over two centuries are quite clear on this point. As one explorer’s narrative puts it:

“...there exists an island very close to a side of the Earthly Paradise; and it is populated by black women, without any man among them, because they lived in the way of the Amazons. They have beautiful and robust bodies, and are fierce and strong. Their island is the most formidable of the World, with its tall cliffs and rocky shores. Their weapons are of gold and so are the harnesses of the beasts that they domesticate and ride, because there is no other metal in the island."

Legend holds the Black Amazons had a queen and high-priestess named Kalifia, who was a demi-goddess, a daughter of a sun god, who was renown for her magical prowess. What became of the amazons and their queen is a mystery, because by the time the Ealderdish had reached the long-rumored island, it was no more. There was no civilization of warrior women. There wasn’t even an island!

These historic peculiarities might have been forgotten, if it weren’t for what the media has dubbed the “Heliotrope Witch Coven.” Sensationalistic confessional accounts by supposed defectors from the cult describe a secret society, dominated by women, who practice ancient rites and worship a “Black Mother” goddess with orgiastic rituals, and sometimes blood sacrifices. The goal of this cult is said to be a gynocratic magical revolution and an overthrow the the Ealderdish God. To this end, they conspire to gain wealth and political influence, aided by potent magics. These accounts always suggest that prominent citizens are involved in the cult, and that the prime movers of the film industry are either cult acolytes, or else under the glamour of the witches.

Hesperian government officials take the story seriously, and have sought to ferret out the cult.  Black-listing of suspected cult members has occurred (casting doubt on the idea that they control Heliotrope--unless it’s all an attempt at misdirection?)

It has been suggested that the Black Mother of the witch cult is no other than Queen Kalifia. The wise queen (it’s supposed) chose not to fight the invading Ealderish directly, but instead to remove her people to elsewhere, there to begin an occult guerrilla war to regain a continent.

True or not, the theory would probably make a good movie.

Tempted by the Fruit of Another

My gaming group is still in the midst of Pathfinder’s Second Darkness Adventure Path, modified for Warriors & Warlocks--something I find it difficult to generate a lot of GM-enthusiasm for as my interest has drifted over to the City, a place familiar to readers here. The difficulty comes in the fact that my player’s haven’t made that same mental leap.

This is a common problem for me, an expression of the oft-cited “Gamer ADD,” I suppose. I always seemed to be pining for the next game while sitting at the table with the current one. I'll be playing GURPS Fantasy while thinking about Transhuman Space, then half-heartedly exploring Transhuman Space while dreaming about Mutants & Masterminds.

A lot of it, I think, is the time-frame involved. As the GM and “game planner” I’ve spent a lot of quality time with the game-to-be before the player’s get there, and so I get burned out on it sooner. Also, our frequency of gaming as dictated by the difficulty of coordinating busy adult schedules, means weeks (sometimes even a month or more) between sessions, meaning there is no such thing as a “short” campaign, whatever occurs in-game.

Anybody else experience this problem? Any solutions?