Serpentine Network

The shared universe has come with its own share of challenges and opportunities as a GM. Thankfully my fellow GMs are great collaborators and we all share a common vision of the type of universe we want which generally makes our "Editors' Conferences" amiable affairs - I'll take this villain, you take that one, here's an idea, etc.

We each have our own individual campaigns, but we take the others and the overall universe into account, and what happens in one campaign can spill over into others. MilkmanDan doesn't tell me how to run Thunderbolts, but I'm going to check with him before I use any "X-" related stuff. There's a player with a character (Aquatica) in the West Coast Avengers campaign with Atlantean ties, so I checked with Bill before having the Thunderbolts face off against an Atlantean invasion, and then tossed the antagonists over to him for possible use in the future. When we get stuck we bounce ideas around off of each other. It's been very enjoyable being able to benefit from this semi-collaborative GMing.

And soon, the next step, the one that has me giddy with joy and spurred me to reminisce about the universe and to post these tidbits: our first crossover! Soon the Avengers and the Thunderbolts will come together in one adventure...but will it be as friends or as foes? This is something that we've been talking about and planning for for quite some time, and the groundwork has been laid in many ways in both campaigns, lots of subplots, foreshadowing and whatnot that will all soon come to a head.

I. Can't. Wait.

I'll post more about it after it's over, but it is a real thrill for me to be involved in this both as a player and as a GM - to me it really feels like I'm gaming in the Marvel Universe, a living, breathing world with the kind of interactions that made it special and where the heroes, though flawed, are still heroes.

The Marvel Universe as it should be.

So come check it out, one and all. If you're a current player, get ready for what I hope will be a blast. If you're a player in one of the other games, check it out for a taste of what might be coming your way some day. If you're a former player who had to drop one or both of the games, stop by and poke around for old times' sake. If you haven't been involved at all before, check it out and poke around the old threads too. I hope you enjoy reading them.

And who knows what's next? There's been rumblings of Alpha Flight, Defenders and other teams. Maybe by this time next year we'll have a few more campaigns and GMs to coordinate with.

As someone once said...

Excelsior!

For a good starting point for the universe check out: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61566 - The Official Handbook (check later posts for most recent version). First post also has links to most of the campaigns on HC.