Tattered Plot Threads

[Agent 13]

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

 

I personally would go with "this is a brand new universe' date=' which contains counterparts of your old characters."[/quote']

 

The best side effect of this past the lack of player angst, really, is you finally get to see everybody's favorite (or most reviled) villains team up (or fall out, as the case may be).

[actingkeith]

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

 

Quite frankly' date=' you won't be able to satisfy them all. If each person wants to only play their PC from another campaign and wants no changes to them and you want a new campaign, there's too many things that someone's going to gripe about.[/quote']

 

Which is why I'd suggest bringing the players into the creation process of the new campaign.

 

What I mean by that is that you should lay out the basics of the new campaign world to the players, let them know the rules (eg your characters are going to be leaving their respective worlds, they're going to a different world that has nothing in common with the one they left in terms of history (or maybe it's really similar... whatever), and you're going to be lumped together by XYZ to help with a specific problem... after that, you're going to find that you won't be able to get home...), then you turn them loose to figure out how their characters come to the new campaign world...

 

Using your players' creativity will likely lead you to some amazing results that everyone will be reasonably happy with. Remember that they know their characters much more intimately than you ever will, and if they really want their characters to play in your new campaign, they'll make things work.

 

I believe that you'll find that editing their concepts will be much easier and more rewarding than trying to create everything on your own.

 

...but then again, I'm one of those guys who has been blessed to play with creative, positive, enthusiasts. Your mileage may vary.

 

Peace,

 

-keith

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

 

1) They all wind up displaced and together in something like the Exiles.

 

2) Massive retcon that either a) weaves their histories together into one world as much as possible, or reboots them to their origins and throws them together with each other instead of their previous groups.

 

3) Maybe it's not those particular characters as much as something about those characters that they really liked, and would be willing to play a similar character. For example, instead of playing the Thing in yet another campaign, another "man trapped in a monster" character could be worked up. Or another strong rocky brick. Or another pilot who becomes a hero. Whatever angle the player really liked about the original character.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

 

2) Massive retcon that either a) weaves their histories together into one world as much as possible, or reboots them to their origins and throws them together with each other instead of their previous groups.

 

The last campaign I ran had "leftover heroes" as the primary PCs in the game, and they were from 3 different campaigns that had run before. The above method was what I used, and it went over fairly well.

[Kirby]

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

 

Which is why I'd suggest bringing the players into the creation process of the new campaign.

 

What I mean by that is that you should lay out the basics of the new campaign world to the players, let them know the rules (eg your characters are going to be leaving their respective worlds, they're going to a different world that has nothing in common with the one they left in terms of history (or maybe it's really similar... whatever), and you're going to be lumped together by XYZ to help with a specific problem... after that, you're going to find that you won't be able to get home...), then you turn them loose to figure out how their characters come to the new campaign world...

 

Using your players' creativity will likely lead you to some amazing results that everyone will be reasonably happy with. Remember that they know their characters much more intimately than you ever will, and if they really want their characters to play in your new campaign, they'll make things work.

 

I believe that you'll find that editing their concepts will be much easier and more rewarding than trying to create everything on your own.

Yes! Consider yourself repped. No, really, consider it.

[Kirby]

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

 

One thing I just thought about while reading Keith's post, you may ask your players if there's an official CU character they'd like to play (if it meets within your point requirements). You never know, someone may want to play Defender or Sapphire or even... Foxbat!

[assault]

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

 

Which is why I'd suggest bringing the players into the creation process of the new campaign.

 

This seems like the best idea.

 

It eliminates the "rude shock" aspect, which would be the thing that would annoy me.

 

FWIW, one of the best DnD games I ever played in collapsed when the DM magically transported us to the other side of the world, away from our supporting cast and everything we had built up and accomplished. It was one of a number of games being played by members of a club in a local setting, and this shift was supposed to get us more involved in the campaign's overall metaplot. Sadly, this was motivated by our groups' success - we were rising stars, and my character, in particular, was one of the highest level PCs in the campaign - and it completely drove us out. And, of course, failed to further the metaplot.

 

That experience had a lot to do with my suspicion of sudden random shifts in campaigns.

 

Of course that doesn't apply to radical changes that are previously discussed and/or foreshadowed.

[actingkeith]

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

 

It eliminates the "rude shock" aspect' date=' which would be the thing that would annoy me.[/quote']

It certainly eliminates the rude shock from the players' lives, but...

 

...players can be ten times more horrific to their characters than they'd let the GM get away with. I'm sure (and one of the reasons I made the suggestion in the first place) that we're all aware of how tortured a lot of our heroic characters' lives were in their histories/backgrounds. Well, the previous campaigns and the transitions to the new one are what will make up the characters' new backgrounds. Why wouldn't you expect that to be similar?

 

I think you'll find a lot of players visciously cutting their ties to their old lives, killing DNPCs (or worse), having them lose out to their nemeses and put into 'Death Traps' which transports them to what they've been told is Hell or the Afterlife, but is in reality the new campaign world...

 

So many evil things to do to one's own character, so little time to get it right!

 

Thanks for listening,

 

-keith

[csyphrett]

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

 

Levi, if you do stick with all of the heroes coming from a different reality, you can always use some mechanism to move them around. That way they don't have to cut them off from the history of the former campaigns.

 

I submit as an example Baron Winters's mansion. You go in present day D.C., you can come out any time any place. Just add in rooms for workshops, guest quarters, so forth

CES

[Kirby]

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

 

...players can be ten times more horrific to their characters than they'd let the GM get away with.

This is so true. I once gamed with a guy who's mentalist PC lost an eye from drinking and driving in his background. Another was very "destructive" to his own characters and their history, from parents being killed by a previous Card Shark, to a mother abducted by the aliens that hunted her. Though, all his characters had 15 pts of wealth, too.

[assault]

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

 

It certainly eliminates the rude shock from the players' lives, but...

 

...players can be ten times more horrific to their characters than they'd let the GM get away with.

 

Exactly.

 

Ease the shock on the players, and they'll do your dirty work for you.

 

[Doc Democracy]

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

 

Just in case you have an old Champions scenario and just to add something a bit different from what has gone before.

 

If you want something a bit less heavy you might throw in a multiple dimension to the Great Supervillain Contest where the villains have established a contest to decide who is the greatest across all the dimensions.

 

This allows any hero to be attacked by any villain - you could run early scenarios with one Hero and the other players sidekicks (who may or may not be killed) until you get all of the primary heroes together to discover the background to the contest.

 

You might then end up with a Trans-dimensional Justice League with the potential for all kinds of Stargate come Sliders type scenarios.

 

 

Doc

[levi]

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

 

FYI, I went with a combination of the legacy hero idea and the invasion ideas. Thanks again all!

 

Good gaming!