With the game rules and the character creation methods complete and
finalized for publishing in 2008, I was able to spend the next three GenCons
increasing my efficiency when preparing for the convention. Instead of just 12
pregenerated characters, I increased the pregenerated character stable to
the current 24 and am able to
accommodate player requests within a matter of minutes. With my development of a
module template, I only have to lay out my storyline, outline my action scenes,
stat out my baddies, and format the module for Game Director consumption. With
this preparation efficiency in place, I have been able to spend more time tying
each convention adventure the next and creating a story arc.
Scenario Design and Title Selection
Only as recent as 2015 did I realize a story arc starting to form as the
game progressed. Now, with the emergence of a canon (as several of you have
noticed), I started naming the games as “Reduxes”. This was to both give a
taste of what players can expect with each game scenario title and
to denote that each of the stories from GenCon to GenCon has been connected
with the scenarios both previous and upcoming. The flavor text usually helped
the players connect the stories, however, each scenario was written so that it
could stand alone on its own. I think many players will agree that not having
played a previous adventure has had no effect on enjoyment of the game at
any of the conventions.
The GenCons from 2009 to 2013 involved the heroes dealing with a portal
that allowed the traversing of alien invaders between our own world via a
Stargate-style, uh, gate, and the world of my home campaign that I once
referred to as Namenlos Welt (I recently renamed to fit the mood of it as I
retool it for the HiBRiD game release. Those of you curious to the new name,
hit me up on Twitter…)
The Macrossé Story Arc Begins….
The gate first appeared in 2009. It was created by a sentient
cyanobacteria in an attempt to escape a massmind organism who had tried to take
over the city-state of Macrossé, and inadvertently created a radioactive zombie
apocalypse in the process. The game ended on a bit of a somber note. The
zombies took over the city, the cyanobacteria was reduced to a flood of
glowing aquamarine silica crystals, and the massmind continued its plans. Realizing
the tool it had at its disposal, the organism began sending its thralls to our
own world in an attempt to also escape the zombies.
Canyonside Becomes Entangled…
In 2011, the rift originating from the technology in Namenlos Welt formed
just outside the small town of Canyonside, who started to feel the effects of
the portal as the psionic mutant übermen invaded through. The mutants had
time to establish a new massmind and moved into the town Red-Dawn style. The
game ended with the rescue of the small town of Canyonside, and the killing of
the massmind in the fiery destruction of the complex by the heroes. The gate,
however, was salvageable and the government began work on reconstructing it.
Canyonside Strikes Back…
In 2013, the gate had been completely
repaired and backwards engineered by the U.S. Government, and the party was
sent through to do reconaissance. The city of Macrossé was overrun by competing
tribes of snakemen and lizardmen whose scales made them impervious to the
radiation emanating from the zombies. The groups formed an uneassy coexistence
under a leader that went by the name of Rotenbach. Rather than doing simple
recon, however, the party went through and killed everyone in the place except
Rotenbach, who seemed to disappear in the chaos. The party hanglided back to
the portal, set a MOAB on the place, and went home. The portal and complex were
completely slagged, as was the entire city of Macrossé.
With the story on the Namenlos Welt side closed, I realized there was a
second story worth telling. The repurcussions of the alien technology on the
little town of Canyonside that began in the 2013 story seemed to be worth exploring.
In 2015, we began to tell that story…
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