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Wold Newton


RexMundi

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Anyone besides me ever really Dig into this material? Just curious if there are folks out there that are familiar with it. It's structure, and linkage is very similar to the campaign structure I'm using for my 6e game, to maintain, Pulp, in modern wrappings....

 

http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Pulp.htm

 

For perusal. Some very good reading material in there anyway.

 

~Rex

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Re: Wold Newton

 

Oh yeah I dug though those, that's what prompted me to boot out another one. I'm using it as a spine structure for my current 6e campaign myself, so curious to see how it resurrects itself here and there amongst other people and perspectives.

 

~Rex

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Re: Wold Newton

 

Hmmm. Haven't looked at the Angel Forum in a long time. I notice Peregrine said, "Edited for Personal Tastes..." I suppose that is one of the elements I'm attempting to polish up. Considering the linkages and work and donations through the entire Wold Newton site, it's a matter of, what have others edited, and why, in addition to usage of, and that sort of thing.

 

I've found it to be an interesting Root research tool if anything else, and a lot of the contributors are really good. Still, I've been surprised at how many folks don't know of it in general. One of the things I have done for my current campaign for example, which is a melding of Every Genre, as opposed to Genre types (IE, yes there is the Niche of Batman, though he may not be Batman, and may lean more towards his golden age incarnation, the Niche is there though. Similar for Superman, though he leans more Hugo Danner, then Kal-El, that kind of thing. Think, Ed Brubakers Ingognito series for the glue that binds.), is have my Players go through that material, as well as read the books, etc etc ......mean thing to do, but by the 2nd session, they "got it", and then, dove into it.

 

So I've found it handy, and am of course interested in seeing how it's been used by others as well.

 

~Rex

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Re: Wold Newton

 

Wold Newton has obviously been a massive influence on my own game worlds, particularly as shown in the annual Hero All-Stars con games. The only thing I tend to drop out is their obsessive fetish for making everybody related to each other- I'm happier in a world where remarkable people just spring up all over the place, and I don't particularly need a magical meteor to explain why some people have slightly superhuman abilities. I also drop out almost all references to published comicbook heroes, but that's just a personal taste- they've got plenty of their own settings, and a world where the greatest heroes are Doc Savage, the Shadow and Tarzan feels a little fresher to me in 2009 than having to grapple with Superman and Batman again. I do love the span of it all, and in the con games tend to simply pick a year for my story and then see who's around in it and whether they might fit; crashing Steve Austin, Buckaroo Banzai and KISS into Fantasy Island in 1982 in one game, sending Doc Savage and Nancy Drew to Skull Island in another, and having Sherlock Holmes and the Lone Ranger meet a Vampire Slayer and Peter Pan in 1886 in a third. dw

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Re: Wold Newton

 

See now that's kind of how I feel about it as well. I liked the Span, the meteor is just fluff for the most part, if you peel out the mainstream guys, you're still left with a LOT to work with. There's a few angles you can go in different directions as well (anyone besides me remember Spock, as Sherlock Holmes?), but I find the project over all, to be helpful as a jump start and as a direction for filler.

 

One of the things I did like, even though it attached itself to the relations fetish, was the attention given to the B-Squad people (Patricia "Pat" Savage for example), so one can point out, Side Kick, or Secondary Character, doesn't mean Useless.

 

~Rex

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Re: Wold Newton

 

Actually, my personal edits* tend toward the following:

 

1. Dropping characters/source material I don't know well or am unfamiliar with.

 

2. Dropping some connections to open them up for GM or Player use. FREX, I like to use the "core" families (Savage and Clayton) as ancestors of contemporary PCs or NPCs, so I edit the descending family lines accordingly.

 

 

*I call this "de-cluttering". (I also "de-clutter" the Champions Universe whenever I use it, albeit using different criteria.)

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Re: Wold Newton

 

That's a good technique actually. I do similar myself since, especially in my new campaign setting I've scribbled up for introducing my players to 6e (and they come from all over the game range really), I did find that de-cluttering (good term), and keeping some of the core relations sparked a lot of interest in a field, that many of the players are unfamiliar with. Even though my campaign is "modern" (Like Icognito), it is certainly, Pulp, and stays true to many if not all, Pulp Truisms. The dropping some connections to allow the players to fill it in, is a very good hook. Considering, that I am running, a genre specific series of events to allow the players to actually develop key points in the evolution of the world and setting as they play, leaving holes in the connections for them to fill, once they stumbled upon it, has been a great tool, to spark some serious creativity in more then a few where that trait, is often underplayed.

 

Sort of a Less is more tactic, but when taken into account, with the scale of the game and the environment, it's working very well, and keeping Genre "clingers", very happy, as everyone gets to contribute.

 

~Rex

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Re: Wold Newton

 

Wold Newton has obviously been a massive influence on my own game worlds' date=' particularly as shown in the annual Hero All-Stars con games. The only thing I tend to drop out is their obsessive fetish for making everybody related to each other- I'm happier in a world where remarkable people just spring up all over the place, and I don't particularly need a magical meteor to explain why some people have slightly superhuman abilities. I also drop out almost all references to published comicbook heroes, but that's just a personal taste- they've got plenty of their own settings, and a world where the greatest heroes are Doc Savage, the Shadow and Tarzan feels a little fresher to me in 2009 than having to grapple with Superman and Batman again. I do love the span of it all, and in the con games tend to simply pick a year for my story and then see who's around in it and whether they might fit; crashing Steve Austin, Buckaroo Banzai and KISS into Fantasy Island in 1982 in one game, sending Doc Savage and Nancy Drew to Skull Island in another, and having Sherlock Holmes and the Lone Ranger meet a Vampire Slayer and Peter Pan in 1886 in a third. dw[/quote']

 

Speaking of HERO All-Stars, Darren, any more you can send me for the archive on my site?

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Re: Wold Newton

 

Well there is always the approach that Project: Superpowers took with Captain Future.....heh. Come to think of it, both the "Project Superpowers" series from Dynamite, and Marvel's "The Twelve", could easily fit within the embrace of a Wold Newton style project.

There are definite ties and similarities there.

 

~Rex

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  • 5 weeks later...

Re: Wold Newton

 

Wold Newton has obviously been a massive influence on my own game worlds' date=' particularly as shown in the annual Hero All-Stars con games. The only thing I tend to drop out is their obsessive fetish for making everybody related to each other- I'm happier in a world where remarkable people just spring up all over the place, and I don't particularly need a magical meteor to explain why some people have slightly superhuman abilities. I also drop out almost all references to published comicbook heroes, but that's just a personal taste- they've got plenty of their own settings, and a world where the greatest heroes are Doc Savage, the Shadow and Tarzan feels a little fresher to me in 2009 than having to grapple with Superman and Batman again. I do love the span of it all, and in the con games tend to simply pick a year for my story and then see who's around in it and whether they might fit; crashing Steve Austin, Buckaroo Banzai and KISS into Fantasy Island in 1982 in one game, sending Doc Savage and Nancy Drew to Skull Island in another, and having Sherlock Holmes and the Lone Ranger meet a Vampire Slayer and Peter Pan in 1886 in a third. dw[/quote']

Ok First, repped. Second, I want to see your KISS write ups *Begs*

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Re: Wold Newton

 

Honestly, Darren's All Star material should be rounded up, updated to 6e, and then, released at least as a PDF product to the general public. The premise of something like Wold Newton (And the very good material on their site for reading), makes for an easy bootstrap for a lot of folks, that Aren't familiar with the time or the genre, and presents it in a format that makes otherwise uninterested folks with short attention spans, very attentive, and interested. DC comics First Wave material is going to be this kind of Epic in scope (and judging by what's released so far, EXCELLENT jumping on points for folks that like, Doc Savage, or The Spirit (Both two of my favorites), and will certainly offer up, a very interesting possible foundation for a campaign setting, at least in style.

 

~Rex

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