Comic Book Analogy

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

I have found that long running rpg campaigns tend to be a bit like comic books. mnemex says that this is because, like long running comics, long running rpgs must reinvent themselves periodically to stay fresh. Could be.

nrivkis once ran a somewhat atypical session of her Altclair game when ebartley was visiting, and I referred to it as special annual issue, somewhat outside the usual chronology. She agreed with the terminology.

Recently, I purchased and read Tatters of the King for CoC Classic. It has some flaws, notably in the extremely forced links between set pieces (as a psychaiatrist, I take along my fellow non-medical PC friends for a professional visit to an asylum where I know nothing about what I'm going to see? Why? It makes no sense.) -- but some of the set pieces are gems. And, I'm tempted to try to run parts of it for ebartley and mnemex as a Cthulhupunk time travel adventure. Why are the 2020 PCs back in the 1920s? Er, we can handwave that. The dizzying number of languages mean that ebartley could have a ball saying, "Why, yes, my genius linguist PC does speak both Nepales and Hindustani."

And, I'm currently reading the Chaosium monograph Playing with Humans, which has a 1970s adventure that I'd not mind throwing in. Hm, maybe the PCs kind of work their way a bit slowly back to the 21st century -- and I could try to throw in some Dark Ages, Victorian Ages, and maybe an Elizabethan adventure.

So, I'm thinking all of these silly thoughts, and realizing that Swamp Thing did this years ago.

And, well, I never did get to use the Tribe 8 setting. I could just work in an alternate timeline...

Should I do all this? Maybe. If it's fun for all concerned.

Is this desire a sign that I should put the whole campaign firmly on the shelf? Maybe. Maybe not. It is a sign that this is a game I've been running for a long time, even if I do have more, ah, orthodox ideas for adventures. It is also a sign that I have a lot of published gaming scenarios begging me, "Play me! It'll be great! You'll see." I've done a few pieces on running commercially published scenarios successfully for my group. I'd love to give a seminar on that.

But, mostly, I'm musing just now that rpgs that run for a while start to resemble comic books that have run for a while.

Comments

[mylescorcoran]

This is a good analogy. It's particularly true of long running campaigns where, like Brian Rogers pointed out, the subplot kudzu is growing way past your ankles. I remember reading the X-Men back in the early 90's and thinking they could really do with killing off a good 75% of all the bit parts, hanging plots lines and villains of the week just to clear the air. Some role-playing campaigns get the same way and my Tudor Talents campaign is getting that way. Helpfully the players have taken a hard line with a lot of the villains and drowned them in the Thames wherever possible.

[(Anonymous)]

Killing villains is a separate issue. In general, PCs will be less inclined to mercy if there's no pay off for it, and a lot less inclined if the people they show mercy towards go right back to trying to kill them -- or whatever other form of opposition we're talking about. Hm. In a high school game, where the villains are school bullies and nasty teachers, I wonder what "no mercy" or "ruthlessness" would constitute.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

That was me.

[mylescorcoran]

I guessed it was you. I meant that the players hard line on killing villains and their explicit statements of not particularly liking the comics staple of returning villains and the "But I saw you die!" trope has meant that I can't use that particular comic book trick. I have used the interdimensional odyssey, the alien invasion, the villan super-genius, taking away their powers, and several other tried and tested twists from the comic books.

Even if you're not running a supers game the comic book analogy is an interesting one, however. The basic point holds, in that long running stories with fixed central characters have to pull some tricks to stay fresh.