Negative Continuity in Gaming

 "As you may recall, our last episode had nothing to do with the previous episode. Or this one either."

—The Pigs in Space announcer, The Muppet Show

Last year I wrote a post about rebooting certain adventure locals in my games. 

I discussed my decades of trying to remain true to a certain continuity in my world. Such as when the Isle of Dread was explored for the first time, that locale would no longer by as in the book. The island was now a know commodity, and ships would sail to it from time to time looking to trade with the local tribes that had been placated by the original visitors. When it gets visited now there is a mainlander company outpost among the native huts to serve visitors after the long and dangerous journey. 

But in the most recent decades I stopped worrying about it so much. I mean, since around 2010 I've used the Lichway twice, making for a total of at least 3 times I've used it. And when later characters got there, no, there were no legions of undead roaming its halls. I simply reset the location. I've done the same with my long used adaptation of Runequest's Apple Lane. I've used it close to a half dozen times as is. And why not? My player roster changes fully every few years (with the notable exception of my oft-mentioned long time player "T"), so who was I fooling? Just reuse the shit, nobody cares. Most importantly me. 

So I was using the term "reboot" or "reset" for this concept, but I recently learned a new term that sounds much better to me, and most people won't even know what it means in the way the automatically do when you say "reboot."

That term/concept is "Negative Continuity."

We've seen it for years in things we enjoy in the media. We saw it in the Simpsons for decades. And my earliest experience with it was probably the evil dead movies. The second one was big time a full on reboot, but if you squinted your brain a little you could find ways to tie in the first. And the ending of 2 lead into Army of Darkness, although that was tweaked big time (Ash became a hero to the English knights he encountered at the end of 2, and at the start of 3 he's actually beaten and enslaved by them).

But my first exposure to the term was in my Lupin the Third fandom. In a previous post I talked about having discovered Lupin, and my full-bore love of the series. There have been 6 series of the show, the first in the early 70's and the most recent from last year. And though most elements stay the same (Lupins gang members Jigen and Goemon, and the betrayals and obsessions related to femme fatale Fujiko Mine), the series are very different, and often offer different origins of the characters and how they came to meet. While you cannot directly tie in each series, based primarily on the time periods set, newer episodes have given some fan service to episodes decades prior (such as Goemon and Lupin being enemies at first and scenes of their old fights). But they are different animals altogether. Each series kind of living in its own little dimension. 

And of course as a comics fan you grew up very aware of the concept, but that was kind of baked into both Marvel and DC. Fans called it "Retcon." That lead directly the popularity of the "Multiverse" both Marvel and DC movies are tapping into. Its no new idea to us old comic book wonks. 

So the Lichway, Apple Lane, its all negative continuity. Reset. Reboot. Whatever. Though with Apple Lane, I'm keeping a certain amount of continuity from past games. Years ago, in my last use of Apple Lane's Rainbow Mounds portion of the adventure, I had an enchantress become involved with the characters, and she herself entered The Mounds, to eventually be killed by the players, along with White Eye and the other inhabitants. So of course White Eye and company will be there, and the enchantress will be resurrected as well. But as she was a newer addition to the setting, I'm going to have her be vaguely aware of her situation and previous experiences, but her sort of cursed to not be able to leave the place unless she survives and White Eye and his forces are all killed. If the characters want to converse with her, I'm going to have her perhaps talk to them about her situation, and the timeless nature of Apple Lane and The Rainbow Mounds. The repeating nature of it all. It seems like it might be fun to kind of parody what I've been doing with the location over the decades. And if a character should die in there, well, he can be a part of my next use of the location (although the next game might be the penultimate and final use of the location, unless I ever run Runequest again). 

But "negative continuity." It has a nice ring to it. 

Cheers. 

Multiverses of Madness and the Comics

 

Growing up a comics kid, with a focus on Marvel, I of course loved even the C level heroes. And Dr. Strange was certainly that. But he had a certain popularity with college students, due in large part to the great Steve Ditko's psychedelic take on Salvador Dali. Doctor Strange travelled realms of crazy abstract backgrounds. 

And Strange regular cameoing in other titles got his exposure. Just like in the most recent Spider Man movie, Spidey and other heroes would sometimes seek out the wizard for advice with supernatural situations. Doc also led his own minor league hero team, The Defenders, that went on to have a long history, often without Strange appearing. But now, in the MCU, Doc Strange takes front and center. He actually seems to be the heir apparent to Tony Snark (even cracking wise at an accelerated rate). 

So as a kid the offbeat elements stood out. The crazy interdimensional backgrounds, Ditko's signature finger-bending hand gestures and body postures (made famous in early Spider Man). And Stan Lee gave Ditko credit for the character, a rare moment of generosity about character creation. 

So, the weirdo backgrounds and even the classic hand gestures made their way into the Marvel films, and the dimensional architecture as well, In spades. 

In the hands of Sam Raimi (among my top 5 favorite directors), the world of Strange just seems right. His style fits right in with the classic Ditko style. The backgrounds, the demons, the crash edits and Dutch angles. Sam brings all his best tropes into the MCU. Evil Dead and Drag Me to Hell all seem like influences here. 

Scarlet Witch is the big bad, a plotline left over from her Disney series. All she wants is her kids, but since she can't have hers, she will settle for taking over the body of a counterpart of hers from another dimension. Or something. 

I remember her pretend kids from comics in the 80's. Some of that had Al Milgrom as artist, who I absolutely hate, so I didn't read much. I don't know if Wanda using actual magic was a thing back then, or a modern invention. In my day she was a mutant who could alter probability in a random fashion that she could not fully control. She might turn a hail of bullets into butterflies with a hex, or create a shield of ice from fire hydrant water to block them. She never really knew. 

Now she is a powerful wizard in her own right, and more powerful (because of the Darkhold?) than even Doc Strange. Anyway, I don't really need to get into plot specifics. It didn't matter much to me. It was the insider elements that tickled me. 

The Darkhold stuff took me back. That book, Marvels Necronomicon, was in many titles I read as a kid. I remember it factoring into the early Werewolf by Night issues. And apparently the book was responsible for the existence of vampires. So nice to see it getting love these days. 

But its the multiverse that tickles me. As a kid it was Marvel, and to a lesser degree DC comics ("not a dream! Not an imaginary tale!"), whose mid century "Imaginary tales" eventually evolved into alternate dimensiona explanations. Earth 616 and 219 and 411 or whatnot. 

By the 70's both Marvel and DC dug deep into alternate universe stuff. I mean, I guess What If...? was the penultimate love for the concept. And its great to see it happening in the movies. in the case of DC films, it's an evolution of the company trying to salvage the poor reception of early film fare such as Batman vs. Superman and such. I mean, its giving us a chance soon to see the Michael Keaton Batman alongside the more recent Batfleck, and that tickles me to no end. 20 Years ago me being told by a visitor from the future that this would happen would have made my head explode. Even the last Spider Man film did it. Molina Doc Ock and Defoe Green Goblin? Yes please. Though I have to admit, that movie did not hold me for long. I have yet to watch enough of it to see all the Spider Man film actors together. But that has more to do with not really being a fan of the recent Spidey films. But shit, I'm glad its all happening. 

I love alternate universe stuff, and I look forward to seeing what they do with it. But especially in the case of DC. I'm unashamedly a fan of the films, even the derided ones. Batman V Supers and Suicide Squad 1 weren't quite the films I would have hoped (worst Lex Luthor ever), but I still find plenty to like in them. And I absolutley adore the Snyder Cut Justice League. I like the dark Snyder touches over the Marvel films heavy reliance on Tony Stark Snark, and essentially every character being a comedy gagster (that really should have been Spider Man and Deadpools schtick only).

So I should add you get to an alternate version of Reed Richards. I'm chomping at the bit to see what they do with an FF movie. And this is a little glimpse (I half expected Ben Grimm to come smashing in). And Fox's Doctor X played by Patrick Stewart was fanboy giggle worthy. The Illuminati. Wow. They even stuck in Black Bolt from the poorly received Inhumans show (I have yet to see it), and he was awesome. The only thing missing was Prince Namor. That would have been sweet. 

Anyway, Multiverse Madness. Can't wait to see more madness. Uh, in the Multiverse.

Oh, one final spoiler. Doc Stranges gal pal from the 70's, Clea, shows up in a credits sequence. That was a deep cut, and I almost spit out beer. And they don't explain anything, so nobody except way out in the weeds old school fanboys like me even get the significance. Awesome. 

Comic Book gaming styles

After posting about my comic book gaming history last week, I got a bit introspective about the three decades of my experience running those sorts of games. Over all that time, my GM style evolved in many ways, reflecting the changes in the comic book industry itself. I thought I would touch on that a bit more.

I grew up with comics. Even by my early teens I had quite a collection. Besides buying the occasional current issue off the racks, my folks would often return from swap meets with a pile of comics to add to my growing stock. These were special treats, because they would more often than not be 10-20 years old, so I was very much in touch with older, pre-Silver Age comics.

I loved the iconic, God-like heroes of DC of course; Batman, Superman, Green Lantern. But I was a Marvel boy tried and true. I could connect at a deeper level with Peter Parker and his personal problems far more than Batman and his Joker-chasing adventures. Homework, girls, and bullies were part of Spider-Man’s life just like mine, and that made him more real to me. So around 1979, when I was fleshing out my comic book world for gaming, Marvel played a huge part.

I decided to set my island nation of New Haven in the Marvel Universe, except 20 years in the future. That gave me something to ground my world with, but the future setting gave me more freedom that Marvel’s modern New York would have. I didn’t really want to use Marvel characters all that much, I just wanted the setting.

Within a year or two, X-Men comics featured the famous “Days of Future Past” storyline, in which mutant-hunting Sentinel robots had rounded-up mutants, killed most of the world’s superheroes, and set-off World War 3. That was perfect for me, as it eliminated most of Marvel’s superhero roster, while leaving enough of it free for me to use in my future Marvel setting. There wasn’t much chance of Spider-Man showing up on the streets of New America City in New Haven, but if a player wanted to have “The Son of Spider-Man” as a character, then no problem. As a matter of fact, a girlfriend of mine in the early 80’s ran the daughter of Wolverine, and low and behold a decade and a half later a daughter of Wolverine showed up in the Marvel universe.

The very first superhero games I ran in the late 70’s, using the Superhero 2044 rules didn’t have any real style. With that system, there wasn’t much more to do than have your powerful hero show up, and lay waste to bank robbers and cause tons of property damage in the process. It was howling mad fun for kids to have men in power armor squash crooks into street pizza, but as we got older we wanted a little bit more than that.

So when I made the transition to Villains and Vigilantes, Silver Age Marvel comics set the tone for the goings on. Angsty heroes and anti-heroes ruled the Marvel landscape of the late 70’s, so our games reflected that. Then in the mid-eighties the X-Men comics were huge, so of course I ran my own campaign of new X-Men in New Haven’s future world. As a matter of fact, the anti-mutant hysteria popular in Marvel for decades entered my game world frequently.

But in the later 80’s two great, ground breaking comics changed the comic book landscape forever. One was The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller gritty new take on the Batman. OK, as a comic geek I know that Miller did not invent this darker Batman. In the 70’s the work of Neil Adams and others had turned Bats from a jokey Adam West dork into a noir detective who had travelled the world after the death of his parents picking up Samurai and Ninja skills. But Miller’s dark future of Gotham City had a profound effect on how I presented destitute parts of New Haven’s metropolis. I began to set more scenarios in the run-down parts of town instead of NH’s gleaming downtown spires. Street criminals became less comic, and more ruthless and dangerous. With the crack epidemic of the 80’s hammering the evening news, more scenarios involving drugs and drug dealers happened in my street-level games. Of course, being a futuristic Sci Fi world, these would more often than not be super-drugs that granted temporary super-powers to junkies.

By the late 80’s, I discovered two more comic properties that changed how I ran games and how I perceived the existence of heroes. First was, of course, The Watchmen. Alan Moore’s take on what the world would be like with real Superheroes had a profound affect on me. Suddenly Supermen were just as subject to darker and malignant human foibles and passions as the rest of us, and were more often than not driven insane by their own hubris and crapulence. This more cynical view of the superhero world was increased in me tenfold when I began reading Marshal Law. Law was a super-powered cop who hunted super-powered gang members, rapists, and killers, and was a total deconstruction of the Superhero myth.

The early to late 90’s was my heyday of superhero gaming (in terms of amount of games and frequency), and many of my players were not only unfamiliar with superhero RPG’s, but with comics themselves. So my own take on superhero deconstruction was greatly received by my players, and often hailed as a unique view on the super-powered world!

With the huge popularity of the Miller-influenced Dark Knight films, and the recent release of a The Watchmen movie, larger audiences have been exposed to the deconstruction of the Superhero myth. But in my games, it was a long-running standard.

It has now been almost 10 years since my last Champions games. With a decent D&D group going strong, I have the occasional hankering to revisit New Haven. But how will it have changed? Have dark heroes continued to violently fight crime in the ally’s and parking lots of the bad side of town? Are super-drugs and violent criminals still a raging problem, or has the possible lack of heroes swinging around the cityscape made a positive difference in New Haven? In my final games around 2000, characters dealt with a world-wide alien invasion that was defeated at tremendous cost. How has New Haven, and the future world, handled all this in the years following? A surge in space exploration? More racism against those who are different or strange? These questions and more will have to be dealt with. But how I go about it, and how my players react to it, will be the real fun. I can’t wait! Just gotta get that pesky D&D campaign over with, then…”It’s clobberin’ time!”

‘Nuff said, true believer.