Rebooting the world

[TheRavenIs]

I know this has been done but what I'd like to know is how you did it and did it work. The game world I play in and the one I run might undergo a reboot and merge, I just want to know how others did it.

[OddHat]

I've done this a few times. Generally, I like to start the campaign from scratch with new characters, giving a short outline of any important changes to the PCs.

When players keep the same characters through a reboot, I ask them to revise the characters back stories in line with the new world history. It's also a good time to revise disads and do a general re-write of anything the player would like to change.

I don't do things Crisis on Infinite Earths style, though it could be fun.

[TheRavenIs]

What the other GM and I are considering isn't a total reboot more of a shift and change, mostly to clean up both game worlds and create a common one.

[OddHat]

What the other GM and I are considering isn't a total reboot more of a shift and change, mostly to clean up both game worlds and create a common one.

The least complicated approach is to tell the players that, from the characters POV, things have always been this way. Then give them a timeline and ask them to make any needed back story fixes. Make sure that any hunters are still valid, any wars a PC fought in still took place, that sort of thing.

Alternatively, there's always the Merging Dimensions massive story arc, lifted straight from the comics.

[TheRavenIs]

Yeah the other GM and I are going to do the new timeline and keep major things that happened, and yes they will think this is how it always was. But in the background the truth will be know by a few C's, mostly the ones that have powers that exist outside of time/dimension, allows us to play a bit with the backstory as needed to fix unexpected weirdness.

Thanks Oddhat, now if others hop in and add to this.

[sinanju]

I've rebooted a game world twice. The first time, I changed a fairly standard cyberpunk game into a supers game. The last "cyberpunk" scenario involved everybody and his brother chasing the PCs, who had possession of the maguffin, a genetic-engineering viral agent. Everyone had a different story about what this miracle invention did--until it was smashed open in a rooftop confrontation. What it ACTUALLY contained was Xenovirus Takis-A (aka the "Wild Card" virus from the Wild Cards novels) with the serial numbers scratched off. All the PCs and lots of NPCs acquired ace powers.

The second time I was running a "hiden magic" contemporary campaign in Santa Carla (think Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Sunnydale, only city-sized). That game eventually folded; when I decided to reboot it, I had some cultists offstage attempt a major magical ritual...and they rolled a critical failure. All of the mystical hotspots and ley lines all over the world shifted dramatically; vast numbers of werewolves, vampires, mages and other supernatural creatures were killed--some killed outright in the catastrophe, most of them in the ensuing power struggles.

The PCs joined a "land rush" to Seattle, the new center of supernatural power. Vampires tired of playing second banana in other cities flocked there. Werewolves looking to claim the newly created caerns started arriving in truckload lots. Ditto mages who wanted to tap all those newly minted sources of power. The city and it's magical power was up for grabs, and it was anybody's guess who factions would eventually rise to the top.

[TheRavenIs]

Did the 'Wild-Card' game last? If so how did the players react?

[sinanju]

Did the 'Wild-Card' game last? If so how did the players react?

It lasted for a while, though all of my group's campaigns tend to be relatively short-lived. The players liked it fine. I'd questioned them about possibly playing a supers game to gauge their interest before I rebooted the game, though I didn't tell them what I was planning. If they hadn't been interested in a supers game, I wouldn't have gone ahead with it.

[TheRavenIs]

Well my fellow GM and I are slowly figuring out what we are going to do to remake the our game worlds into one. It is actually making us go back and rewrite stories we did about the game and also the game sessions we hadn't made into stories. That is fun, I will let you know when I and the other GM have them done and we post them to our game group on yahoo. (see my sig, New_Defenders_Universe)

[TheRavenIs]

Now for news about what we are doing and going to do.

1. We are having the players help us with the reboot, they will be adding info to the mix, it is as much their world as ours.
2. The new timeline will be a mix of both worlds, one is being moved forward in time to bring them into sync, JS, it was 15 games years behind. We will be doing stories that will fill the gap. (and yes the PC's believe that it has always been this way, with some strange quirks tossed in now and then)
3. Some heroes won't make the change, others that died will be reborn, same powers but altered backstory.
4. Some heroes will make the reboot but be redone to meet changes due to the game world existing for three real world years. Some will retire, others take on new challenges.

[TheRavenIs]

Now I have a question to herodom that has rebooted a game world.

Has anyone ever blended two or more worlds together and if yes can you give me any idea's on what I might do to make this work better.

[OddHat]

Now I have a question to herodom that has rebooted a game world.

Has anyone ever blended two or more worlds together and if yes can you give me any idea's on what I might do to make this work better.

Well, one rambling thought:

Linking and merging organizations works pretty well, especially saying A is a division of B.

In my own campaign, CURE (from the Destroyer novels) and the OSI (from the Six Million Dollar Man TV series) both grew out of the OSS after WWII. The Justice Society of America (DC Comics), Invaders (Timely/Marvel), and other WWII Superteams mainly opperated under the OSS. Many later Superteams (the Justice League of America, the Avengers) opperated under the OSI.

By building these kinds of links, you can keep the number of major players in your world's Superhuman scene down to a level that makes it easier to figure out what's going on. It works for families and individuals as well.

He has a race of flying bricks called the New Gods, you have a race of flying bricks called the Eternals, and you're thinking of using the CU Empyreans? Maybe the New Gods, Eternals and Empyreans are all one group with three different names. Maybe they all used to be one group, but split a long time ago. Maybe those Kryptonians and Daxamites were both offshoots of that original group, which explains why they have almost the same power set.

He has a super strong water breathing king of Atlantis in his world and you have one in yours? Maybe they're brothers. Maybe they're both kings of cities called Atlantis that split due to a civil war. Maybe it's one guy called by different names.

If both of you have a clear idea of how the world works, it can add a lot to the feel of the campaign.

[TheRavenIs]

Thanks OddHat, we are doing something like that, I was hoping that others had and seeing that one had the same idea helps.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to OddHat again.

[TheRavenIs]

*Bump*

I have some good news the partial reboot happened, the major events of the past happened, the PC's are all in place and this Saturday, the 19th, will be the real first game will be played.

The last time we played, three weeks ago-we are in a restart mode, I was able to get the one part of the new world, the part that was 15 years out of temporal sync into temporal sync.

So far it looks as if it will work. I will update how it goes here, as we play.