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Gone To Texas: A Message From Jason (Strike Force)


Jason S.Walters

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This Friday I'm going to catch a plane from Reno to Ft. Worth, rent a car, and drive to the small city of Denton. Why do you ask? Because that's where the archives of Aaron Allston's work are stored. With the help of his mother Rose, I'm going to go through those files, locate all of the material related to his decades long Strike Force campaign (including the now-famous bluebooks), copy them, and send them where they need to go so that a new Strike Force book (or possibly books) can be created.

Before his untimely passing, Aaron and I had been talking about producing a new Strike Force book for Hero Games. But we were both involved with other projects, had a lot to do, and it didn't seem like there was any particular hurry to get the project done. However, now that he's gone, his family and I believe it's important that his part of his legacy be preserved by issuing a new and expanded version of this seminal work of RPG game design. I hope you all will agree and support this project when it goes live on Kickstarter sometime later this year.

The new version of Strike Force won't formally be a Hero Games product. Rather, it's going to be a joint project between Blackywrm Games and Evil Beagle Games, with designer Ross Watson spearheading the editing and design of the book, and myself overseeing the development and production. (Or so Ross and I hope, as neither of us knows what I'll find down in the Lone Star State.) Using Blackwyrm's Larger Than Life: Tall Tale Adventures Kickstarter project as a model, we plan on producing versions for the Hero System, Savage Worlds, and Mutants & Masterminds respectively.

So wish me luck as I brave the tornadoes. Hopefully I'll come back with something that does justice to a talented author and game designer who was also our friend.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

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I am so pleased to hear that concrete steps are being taken to make this work a reality. In all honesty, I supported the LTL:TTA Kickstarter in large part because that was supposed to make an updated Strike Force more likely.

 

I wish you godspeed, Jason. And like I said before, when it's time just tell me where to send my money. :thumbup:

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A cool project I'm looking forward to!  Updating one of the most influential books in rpg history has to be both exciting and daunting.

 

I remember an early column of Aaron's in which he described a gaming group in Denton - and how munchkiny, kill and loot oriented they were - before eloquently outlining why this style of play simply didn't appeal and his character / story first philosophy.

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Of the many virtues of Strike Force, I think the outstanding one is that it chronicled Aaron's campaign, not only in terms of what happened in the game world, but what he and his players were doing as real people while the campaign progressed, how they reacted and the lessons Aaron as Game Master learned as a result. It's a unique peek behind the curtain of an exceptionally well-run campaign, and all the rich advice it lays out is so much clearer and more compelling when you read examples illustrating how these issues were clarified.

 

For me the second most striking virtue of the book is that the characters, both heroes and villains, aren't static. Their evolution over the course of the campaign is charted, and they become deeper and more vivid as products of their history, and of the growth of Aaron and his game group as players and GM.

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Would I be considered a pariah if I asked for an executive summary of what made Strike Force special?  (Other than it was Aaron's house campaign, of course...)

 

 

In addition to what the others said, the book introduced many concepts and ideas that became standard Hero rules and structures.  And in addition to that, Allston provided wonderful tips and ideas on running a long campaign, handling characters, building storylines for multiple personalities of players, how to deal with characters as they change and grow, and much more.  Its an incredible primer on running role playing game campaigns of any kind that I about wore out reading over and over.

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It's okay, buddy--you've heard of them now. :yes:

 

Will any of the original Strike Force players contribute to this project?  I don't know if any of them are professional RPG writers, or even if they still play Champions.

 

Finally--will there be action figures?  Maybe even a movie?  I could see Chris Evans as Lightrune. :snicker:

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