Monkey House Games

A couple of years ago I discovered that Miami Vice was airing in re-runs on some obscure cable channel I'd never watched before. I loved Miami Vice as 14 year old kid back in 1984 and 1985. Back then I had to tape it on the family Beta Max because it aired after my bed time. (Now THAT is a 1980s memory for you!) Then I'd get up the next morning at like 5 AM to watch it in the dark in the living room (with the volume low), so that I could talk about it with friends at school. I absolutely loved the show back then. Loved it.

So I DVR'd an episode a couple of years ago, and watched it with enthusiasm and excitement. But I was so underwhelmed by it when I saw it again as a 40 year old man, after 25 years. The sets looked cheap. The acting was overly dramatic. The plot was entirely predictable, with no nuance.

I had more-or-less the same experience with the A-Team.

I like this approach, too, Dracos. One of the things I liked best about the new editions of Champions published over the last decade was that they also published companion Champions Universe books detailing how their 'house universe' continued to evolve, not only looking back historically from the 'beginning of time' to the 1990s, but even over the recent years between new editions of the game. I thought that was great. Relationships were formed and broken. Some characters were killed off. New ones emerged. Sort of like a soap opera.

Super Villains like Dr. Destroyer and Mechanon, which date back to the first Champions publications 30 years ago, continued to be written about in recent years, having gone through a number of character redesigns and concept refinements over the years. It gave the game a tremendous sense of depth and history, I thought. Like tree rings.

Rights issues may complicate something like this for V&V. But I'd be thrilled to read a section in any 3rd edition of V&V that detailed what has happened to The Destroyers and Dr. Apocalypse over the last 30 years, as well as The Force and Magnetor (a favorite of mine from the Dragon ads). Crossfire and Mirage were favorites of my friends from Most Wanted Vol. 1. Whatever happened to them? And come to think of it, whatever became of Hoopsnake and the Robot Arachnoid Marauders from Opponents Unlimited? I'd pay good money to find out...

Majestic- what Aaron Allston (no e) said about conventions of genre that dont work as well in game wasnt so cut and dried as it sounds, and he discusses them and much more in the original Strike Force campaign sourcebook from Herogames, roughly 1985.

Sounds really cool, and I was just going off of what was posted, having never read the original book.

A similar source, for any who can get their hands on it (though it's out of print and costs around $100) is the Star Trek RPG Narrator's Guide (published by Decipher around 2003). It is loaded with fantastic tips for GMs, and shares advanced GMing techniques like dream sequences, cut scenes, and foreshadowing, as well as teaching one how to do the 'three-act model' (as many TV dramas are done), as well as the basics for storytelling (the Hook, the Complications, and then the Conclusion) and the various plot twists and "pinches" and where they go in a tale. I know others with a lot of experience have marveled at it, too, and I can't recommend it highly enough!

Doug Taylor