Art imitating Life

[Blue]

This is just one of those conversation starter questions that pop into my head every once in a while...

How many people tend to use Real lIfe current events in their games? Terrorist bombings, War in the middle-east, etc.

The question ocurred to me in a local hobby store where they had a line of miniatures of "modern commandos" that not only included contemporary marines and other armed forces miniatures, but also miniatures with titles like "Al Queda Command" (Which had a distinctly Bin Ladn figure).

How often does real life invade your games?

[Hermit]

Escapism is one of the goals of my games, so I either wait a month or two, or instead put in a situation that's different enough to keep the 'different universe' feel, while still close so as to explore some issues.

[JohnTaber]

I have NOT used real world events in the past but I am gonna try with my new Champs campaign. To be honest though I am only using the events that I want to relate somehow to the supers world. For example, if there is a war in Iraq the
US government is gonna use a villain as a weapon/defense because of his particular powers. Now of course he is gonna escape afterwards...etc etc... I only use the event that I plan to use.

That's my plan at least...

[Derek Hiemforth]

I generally don't incorporate "real life" events into my games. Maybe I'm just worried that if I incorporate a specific real world terrorist attack or something into my game world, then Doctor Destroyer will appear in the real world and start trying to take over...

[Blue]

At this point I like to use history, but not so much current events. Time has a way of turning something brutal (like the Nazis or Hiroshima) into an allegory rather than something real and vivid. These are the kinds of things that work better for me in a hero game than having the characters chase down Osama and Saddam.

[Supreme]

Escapism is too much the key word for my games as well. I can't remember putting current events into the game world in over a decade. The only exception being in the most cosmetic or necessary way. For example, if I were running a game now where part of the game required a battle at the airport, I would naturally include what's been happening with airport security since 9/11. Also, most of my games are period games (GAC, SAC, Marvel Age) so current events aren't even happening yet.

[Agent Escafarc]

Yes and no. When it fits real events are used. But in the case of something like 9/11, the WTC towers and a large part of Manhattan were detroyed during an alien invasion in 1982.(Which led to the origin of Mechanon in our universe)

[Doug McCrae]

Originally posted by Agent Escafarc
...the WTC towers and a large part of Manhattan were detroyed during an alien invasion in 1982

V?

[death tribble]

We incorporated real world stuff where it affected our campaigns based in London.
One of the characters went over to help the Chechens against the Russians for example.

[Agent Escafarc]

Originally posted by Doug McCrae
V?

A little like that, but also influenced by Childhood's End and War of Worlds. When the PCs were battling the invaders we crashed one of city-ships into the WTC (The AI evolved into Mechanon)

[Tech]

Overall, the campaign I'm in rarely, if ever, uses events in the real world in it. As I understand it, the general feel of the players is that there's enough things going on in the world to concern us that we don't need them in our game concerning us also.