History of the Worlds Pt. I
A friendly neighborhood Game Master
My name is Robert Chase. I’m a half a century old married guy, and the father of two girls way smarter than me.I grew up as a military brat that used gaming as a quick way to make friends every time I moved. I've been playing games for longer than I can remember.
I'm inspired not just by Tolkien and Howard and Lewis, but Clark and Bradbury and Asimov, by Crichton and King, by Miller and Moore, and many others. It's an honor to host these sessions of collaborative story telling, and to walk the fine line of challenging players without getting in their way.
Over my years of gaming I've had the pleasure to game with my old school trinity of game designers Gary Gygax, Steve Jackson and Jeff Dee. I gravitate to old school play where there's no sign on the "dungeon" telling you what level it is. You'd better do your research & listen for rumors before you go in or you'll be making another character.
If you play properly then you can have hard won victories under your belt, a character driven arc unfold with the story, or hopefully both. Along with the main objective of fun, these two rewards have been earned by many a player. Some of these stories are 30 years old and get retold to this day. If this is the kind of gaming you like, or think you'd like, then I hope someday I get to tell a hard won, epic story with you.
A long time ago, far away in Kansas
I was 11 years old and my older brother let me play Advanced Dungeons & Dragons with him and his friends. They gave me a 1/2 orc fighter hireling and I joined in eagerly. Lets just say I was the character in the front checking for traps. I was determined to own a copy of the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide. If I could just understand the secrets held within I knew I could either run or ruin a game.Ironically two of the first books I managed to get my hands on were S1: Expedition the Barrier Peaks, and the Traveler role-playing game. So before I even ran a D&D Module I was firmly in the camp of Science-Fiction elements. My first Game-mastering was with the Traveler system.
I did my best to run D&D modules for some years until finally I decided to leave Greyhawk behind. In 1986 I I sat down to run my friend Mike Fenili through what is now called a home-brew campaign setting and a solo adventure. This was the start of what would eventually be come the World of Dorumyr in the multi-verse of Andermyre. That Ranger, Oberingirth, started with amnesia and gained lycanthropy while traveling with his wolf Fangface to find a missing princess. As you may have predicted, the wolf was the princess in hiding.
That one story set the stage for many fantasy stories, but eventually I played as many games as I could. Just from TSR that included Gamma World, Boot Hill, Gangbusters, Star Frontiers, Top Secret, Indiana Jones, Conan, and Marvel Superheroes. And thus the foundation for a multiversal campaign setting was set.
The Crisis on Infinite Stories
It occurred to me at the end of college that all of the stories we had told to that point took place in one of four realms: Fantasy, Earth, Space & Post-apocalyptic. That every single story could take place on one of those four worlds, at some point in their timeline. I decided that with the help of my friends we could make that happen.The One System
It's amazing to me how many different systems there are to choose from these days. We've come along way from having to choose between Villains & Vigilantes or Champions in 1981 when looking for a superhero game (Although V&V is still one of my go to systems).But when switching from setting, location and genre in a multiverse you need much more consistency. I had to pick one system. It had to be...
- genre-less (for obvious reasons)
- modular (guns, spells, superpowers all act differently)
- bell-curve resolution (no 5% chance for any result)
- class-less (advancement based on story not a 'build')
- written in plain English (no strike ranks, 1" increments, segments)
- one maneuver turns (no action economies)
- no meta-player-driven-powers (no bennies, please)
- and enough of a reality simulator that it was easy to adjudicate on the fly
This brought me to GURPS 4th Edition.
This has the added benefit of having the GURPS lite free to potential players.
If all you do is read this introduction and wistfully remember your own gaming...
then I'll have succeeded at that much at least.
If you actually sit down and read through campaign information, or even...
Gasp!, contact me, make a character then you have my gratitude.
If you give this document any portion of your valuable time...
then I will say to you "Thanks a lot". Or as we say in Andermyre....
Thank Salat
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