Earth 10: Getting to Now

Several of the key things I want from this campaign are a sense of the history that got the heroes to where they are as well as some of the combined openness and access to old ideas that comes from the DC Universe. The heroes may repeat from Earth 2 to Earth 1, but only the biggest villains do. So let’s define the biggest villains and come up with new ones that are either honestly new or radically re-imagined from their old names. I also don’t want to do issue by issue re-creations, so I’m backing away from original ideas of having the JAA form due to aliens suspiciously like the Parralaxians appear (or having Hitler summon Valkyries to kill FDR, which is just AWESOME as an origin for the JSA). Let’s try something new. Extrapolating from Earth 1 and Earth 2 it looks like the teams of heroes form 1000 days after the appearance of Superman, more or less, so the team forms in August of 2011; since we’ve established the new team lineup occurs right after Calendar Man’s Mayan Apocalypse story that means we’re on issue 18. Let’s take a quick look at what the trade paperbacks would look like for those issues

Book 1: Come Together, Right Now (issues 1-6)

This is the non-arc for issues 1-6. We have a series of individual stories where the team isn’t really a team yet. They grate on each other’s nerves, don’t work together smoothly and every issue involves them splitting up into three smaller teams of two or three to resolve smaller crises and then coming together to handle the big issue. All of the villains are unique to the JAA,

Issue 1 (Aug 11) The Horror of the Hodag: the heroes meet and fight in pairs against the devices of Hephaestus Odysseus Daedalus Achilles Gunner, aka Dr. Hodag, a master inventor who plans to conquer the world with his unstoppable war machines (read: Giant Robots) that are powered by a ‘unbound energy’. Once they defeat their paired menaces all find a way to Dr. Hodag’s Wisconsin base where they are trapped in a unbound energy force field and have to work together to escape and capture Hodag. Once it’s done they exchange numbers.

Issue 2 (Sept 11) Bleeding Kansas: Superman’s first stab at pulling these people into a team is dealing with an extreme weather event in the Midwest, similar to the tornados that actually struck in April 2011. These are unnatural and generated by the Blood Tornado, a ‘wind vampire’. The alert comes out, the team assembles and try to do rescue work only to face smaller dust/blood devils that fall pretty simply, while the fight against the Blood Tornado is a big fight.

Issue 3 (Nov 11) The Assembled World: the heroes first ‘official’ team meeting is interrupted with them being warped to a distant world/time/dimension by Krellak, the scientist of an insectoid race who is desperately searching for someone powerful enough to save his world from whatever is eating away at the fringes. Due to the weird physics of the place everyone can fight and move in space, but it clear they can’t win… until one of the heroes grasps that the world is a computer-generated pocket dimension made by a piece of software. They are able to stabilize the code from the inside while Superman is able to reach the real world Silicon Valley programmers in time to keep the computer from being shut down.

Issue 4  (Dec 11) Dominion: right on the heels of last issue The JAA (less Superman) exit from the Assembled World to find Earth entirely paralyzed. Everyone moved themselves to a safe position and is now just standing there. Kanjar Ro’s gamma gong has mind controlled the entire planet and only they are free for not having been present at the time, and Ro is harvesting their brainwave energy to power his weapons for an entirely different space war. The heroes split up to a) free Superman by entering his mind via the Green Lantern and b) outwit Ro and destroy his devices. Humanity barely remembers the loss of the entire day, but it does spur the US Govt to officially recognize the group.

Issue 5 (Jan 12): Ghost Stores: The team sets up their new HQ in what turns out to be the Overlook hotel of super-hero bases, with spirits present there that mess with the heroes heads, toss them into other dimensions, possess them and otherwise mess with them until Zatava can be brought in to help put them down. The issue ends with the entire building disappearing and Superman gaveling the meeting to order in t eback room of a local steakhouse.

Issue 6 (Feb 12) Teamwork: The newly officially recognized JAA has a charity/PR gig ‘completing’ against Kyle Lawrence, famed former Olympian turned baseball and basketball player. Amazingly he begins beating them – out swimming Aquaman, out-running Flash, etc. – as he is draining their powers via a scavenged piece of Kanjar Ro’s brainwave energy drainer, so that they all meet ‘in the middle (the heroes lose 1 AP, he matches their new ratings plus a smidge). He then goes on a rampage, driven mad with power as the Sportsmaster, and the team has to bring him down together. Since Lawrence didn’t realize what was happening (and he loses the powers afterwards) the whole thing is billed as part of the show and the team moves forward.

Book 2: Little Terrors

This book is a series of 2 parters that follow the same sort of strategy (problems that require splitting up to resolve, then back together for the solution) but we spread them over two issues with a cliffhanger in the middle and add in some inter-team sub plots. I’m going to really quick and dirty some plots here:

Issues 7-8 (Mar – April 12) Catastrophic Crash: A coal mine collapse, a potential nuclear meltdown, the capsizing of an oil tanker on the coast all are the work of the Catastrophe Twins, who are trying to corner the US energy market by fomenting panic and snapping up stock in the aftermath. Their own powers of super-feline abilities (for one) and probability manipulation (for the other) let them hold off the team for a while until once they are located.

Issues 9-10 (May-June 12): The Prince of the Power of the Air: a malevolent demonic force alters the nature of flight around Atlanta, forcing the JAA to engage in a massive number of high end rescues as planes are falling out of the sky near the Hartsfield airport. Once the planes are safely brought down it turns out their passengers and crew have become zombie-like agents of evil. The JAA has to track down Deacon Dark, the evil wizard who put these plans into motion for unknown ends.

Issues 11-12 (July-August 12): Invasion of the Body Swappers: the JAA receive an emergency request from Aquaman, but when they get there nothing’s wrong. Actually Aquaman has been replaced by robot of Dr. Hodag’s (who has escaped from jail) that is able to hit the heroes with a ‘swapping’ attack that teleports them to Hodag’s base while replacing them with a robot. Eventually the whole team is captured but ‘escapes’ only to discover that the entire city has been replaced with Hodag’s robots. Actually this is another layer of the prison designed to mess with them, but when they escape they are able to foil Hodag’s plan before he can implement it, saving the US Government.

Book 3: The Mayan Apocalypse (Issues 13-17)

This five issue run is the first time we have a long story arc that would vibe like the Grant Morrison JLA with a frenetic worldwide crisis. This involves the Calendar Man harnessing the power of the Mayan Apocalypse and there’s lots of disasters, shifted time, dinosaur attacks, people being wiped out of the timeline and other massive stuff. At least one hero made a sacrifice to stop things (call it Flash hurled through time and as to find a way back unless something happens) and the JAA is temporarily disbanded.

For example, let’s take a look at what we might do for Green Lantern villains. I’m picking GL because no one is playing her out of the group, she is really different in origins from the prevalent Hal Jordan one and because overall the GL rogues gallery is a little thin.

Hufflepuff & Ravenclaw 8

8: …and the Monster of Amristar Introduction

The remainder of the month is a detailed adventure for the first year of adventure at Hogwarts. This is based on actual play, so I’m going to quickly detail the original PCs key points and trust that a clever GM will be able to update the scenario to deal with the variation between characters

Daisy and Jasmine Fontaine: the older (5^th year prefect) and younger (first year) daughters of the wizarding theatrical couple “the fabulous Fontaines” (their mother is a muggle actress, singer and escape artist, their father is a wizard version of the same), Daisy and Jasmine have travelled the world but are educated in jolly old England. Daisy has a professor enmity with Trelawney, Jasmine has a special pet (a ghostling ferret, which can turn intangible). Both are Ravenclaws.

Castor and Pollux Dee: the twin sons of a pureblood Slytherin family that never served You-Know-Who, their father is now one of the judges on trying the captured death eaters, and earning some ire from his housemates for handing down guilty verdicts. Castor is a Ravenclaw and an accomplished liar with an interest in Dramaturgy and a deficiency in herbology. Pollux is a Hufflpuff with a Grymalkin (a cat that can mimic other cat’s attributes such as size and weight) as a pet and an interest in Magical History.

Juliette Moore is a Pureblood whose mother recently died and his being raised by her now overprotective father. She has a magical aptitude for music and a student enmity in Peri Undulata, a Slytherine first year. She is a Ravenclaw

Filler Sessions

Last week I talked about plot arcs and the correct times for the GM to trot out the sessions that advance the campaign season’s main plot, called beats. So what do you do in all the sessions that don’t advance the main plot? Those are the joy that is filler sessions!

In a seasonal/arc beat campaign these are best known as Monster of the Week (MotW) episodes. The name comes from the aforementioned Buffy and X-Files TV shows in which any episode where they weren’t advancing either the seasonal or arc plot had them dealing with the mystery/threat of some random monster. In X-Files the MotW episodes had no connection to the campaign arc – no cigarette smoking man, no hints to the big conspiracy, nothing – and therefore were completely episodic. In Buffy there were often cut scenes to what the bad guys were up to so that each episode felt connected to the seasonal arc even if it didn’t meaningfully advance it. Just something to keep in mind when you’re putting the game together, as the former gives a more claustrophobic feel as the players/viewers have no more information than the PCs/heroes.

MotW’s are a nice break because they can have a feel or tone that is very different from the rest of the plot. As a campaign builder they can introduce places or things that clever players may draw upon later or they could be totally irrelevant moments. And by virtue of those of those things they can serve to highlight unexpected character aspects or give some characters some much needed spotlight time by focusing the session on their area of expertise. If your players are the sort who chafe at being pulled away from the ‘main plot’ you can soften the MotW anger either by making the threat something they just cannot avoid for moral (a string of bizarre killings need to be stopped) or personal reasons (one of their dependent NPCs is involved) or you can let them know that the character is furiously pursuing key plot threads in their spare time, it’s just happening off screen. (That can defuse some of the “But I’m just playing in character by avoiding your plot to work on my preferred one” arguments.)

In general the threat level of the MotWs should be a little lower – given that they serve other functions in terms of world and character illumination the players should be able to approach them with a higher degree of confidence that they’ll not be seriously injured.

If you’re running an interwoven campaign then the filler sessions aren’t so much sessions and they’re not set to last a week since interwoven plotting doesn’t work that way. These are better understood as “on the road to the adventure” (OtRttA)plots. These are the things that happen to the PCs either before the big plot starts or during lull, research or travel times in the big plot. The PCs may be in the adventure but stuff will come up in the way that serves many of the same functions as a MotW but they can be longer or shorter as the needs drive.

In an interwoven campaign it’s a good idea to have a handful of adventure seeds running to the very short (will take half a session) to the moderately long (three sessions at most) that you can drop in when needed – either the players got further than you thought they would and have run through your prepared plot (in which case crack open a half session OtRttA), you need a break from the current theme or tone or you want to slow the players down and give the villains time to advance things. The OtRttA can, like a MotW , be unavoidable for ethical or personal reasons it can also be unavoidable for travel reasons (you are on the road, after all) and can also give the players access to necessary tools or information (commonly called “Plot Coupons” ) which the players will want to go out of their way to get. If they don’t think they can defeat the dark lord without the special incantation they’ll go out of their way to get it.

The other use for OtRtta’s is to pump the PCs up before they encounter the main plot: the road starts well before the adventure so the PCs have time to bond and level up before the real issues begin. I counsel you against doing this too much, especially in a game with a 6-12 session run time. If you’re not constraining your run times the way I plan to on this blog… it’s still a bad idea. I was in a Spelljammer campaign where the campaign’s titular event occurred four years (!) after the campaign started, and my that point the player whose character was most tied to that plot had dropped out because nothing ever happened to his character – it couldn’t because that would have given up the game too soon.

Lest you think I’m just dissing another GM, I freely cop to a campaign based around the political machinations and practical problems of opening a new, dangerous overland pass to break a dwarvish trade route monopoly. Rather than having players build characters who would fit that I had them build PCs who were young caravan guards on the other side of the country. The PCs would have to travel across the country, protect the caravan from unconnected threats to impress the caravan leader and hence be in a position to earn a client status with a powerful patron who would send them on a mission to prove their worth from which they would be sent to act as agents in the patron’s attempt to claim ownership of property that would be made valuable if the new pass was opened and from there would almost be in a position to enter the plot. Needless to say the campaign didn’t make it past the caravan guarding.

The main reason that happens, and why OtRttA’s should be reined in, is because players have a pretty good sense of the GM’s engagement level: if this session is just something the PCs have to do to get to the real story they will sense it, the energy won’t be there and the game will founder. (Plus, the players have a lot higher chance to see the railroad tracks the longer the campaign goes on.)

Once you’re actually in the real adventure – and you’re using the OtRtta as a bridge between key moments – they can add  a lot to the campaign. The fact that an Interwoven campaign means they OtRtta’s can last two or three sessions give you a chance to a make them complex or give the characters time to breath, to explore their skills and interact with each other. MotW’s do the same thing, of course, but as with all episodic vs. interwoven structures can feel more contrived.

In the time constrained games that I’ll be designing here filler episodes will make up between none and one half of the sessions described.

Next Week: Campaign #1 – A Distant Inheritence

Beat Structures

One area where I’ve done a lot of work in is studying the beat patterns of other serial media (specifically comics and TV shows) for an idea of how to translate those ideas into an RPG format.

Basically there are three different types of beat structures:

No beats: each episode is self-contained in terms of plot and the only changes, if any, are in character growth.

Seasonal/arc beats: most episodes are self-contained but a high percentage of the episodes are linked to a longer plot that has a beginning, middle and end)

Interwoven: each episode flows directly from the previous episode and into the next one rather than any sense that the episodes are self-contained.

My preference as a GM is for the middle structure with seasonal beats because I feel that those produce the best stories over the length of a campaign. There is plenty to be said for the episodic structure when it comes to adult gaming (in terms of player reliability) and for wanting to explore a setting without having a larger idea in mind. I try to avoid interwoven games these days because it is the natural resting spot for subplot kudzu, but I expect some of the campaigns I build here will lend themselves to that style.

I don’t see a great need to spend time on an episodic plot structure, but there are a few things to point out. First is that even if the campaign is episodic that doesn’t mean there can’t be any returning characters, but that they would tie themselves to individual PC subplots rather than the campaign as a whole. If one PC is hunting or being hunted by someone that can come up from time to time but each appearance should be dealt with in a single session. Dependent NPCs are a similar link that enhances the campaign but forms a personal rather than campaign arc.

The second is to point out Robin Laws thoughts on Iconic heroes. Iconic heroes are very good at what they do – so good that the usual experience point drivers don’t matter – and are so deeply imbedded in their own personality and idiom that it doesn’t change. Instead their presence acts as the catalyst for the situations or people they encounter to grow or change.  That lets us get the sense of growth or resolution that is important for common narratives without appreciably altering out heroes, which eases the episodic plot structure.

Now then, on to the seasonal/arc beats! For the purposes of this blog most campaigns will be seasonal in the sense of there being 6-12 sessions before a conclusion. This is best typified by looking at a show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer in which each season introduced a new major threat (the Big Bad) that didn’t influence every show but drove the longer term narrative tension.  In some campaigns I will recommend asides showing what the Big Bad is up to as to keep the plot on the players radar, in others I will recommend against that to keep more secrets – the latter is much more an X-Files model. (This minor distinction is one thing that makes those shows feel so different.)

Arc beats are those that run from campaign to campaign. They are similar to seasonal beats in that they serve to tie things together but they don’t have the same frequency, which lets you get some downtime from the overwhelming menace or let things percolate before becoming coming to a head. A good example of this is the Phoenix Saga from X-Men, where we witness Jean Grey getting cosmic power and using it for good in the first ‘season (X-Men issues 94-108)’, it becomes a backburner issue in the second ‘season’ (X-Men 109-121) and then having been well established becomes the driving force for the third ‘season’ (issues 122-136). I don’t know that I’ll come back to any campaigns in this blog, which makes the ‘season two-three’ structure of arc beats less relevant.

So when do seasonal beats take place? The most common structure is to introduce it in the first or second session (the big question is if including it in the first session will deform the PCs personality development), then again a third of the way in, then two third, then in the big end game. In a nine session campaign this would be sessions 1 or 2, 4, 6 or 7 and 9. This structure is pretty consistent in the media properties I’ve explored, so it’s worth hewing to as a way to capture the field. In a 12 session game that would be 1, 4, 8 and 11-12 for a big two part ending. As a standard part of my campaign design here I’m going to start with a beat analysis of the source material so that I can tailor the campaign to the source material’s feel.

Finally there are Interwoven campaigns in which there is no real distinction between the sessions. This doesn’t mean that plots don’t open and close, but it does mean that those events aren’t designed around session breaks. This makes the campaigns more organic, but also harder to control in terms of subplot kudzu unless you’re willing to do a lot of prep work. This design doesn’t mean that the interwoven campaign has no filler moments but that those – like the other parts of the campaign – start and end where and when they fall.

As I said, Interwoven campaigns are much more susceptible to Subplot Kudzu but that doesn’t make them impossible to design or run in this sense. They work well in campaigns where the players have already claimed control of the strategies (and possibly objectives) because the lack of hard, GM controlled ‘here is the end of this session’s plot’ gives the players a greater sense of control. Of course, it also means a lot more work on the GM’s part to make sure the world continues to feel real and respond properly around the players.

Quick Example: Camelot 3000

For those of you not familiar with it Camelot 3000 was a mid-80’s DC comic book series that makes an excellent example of the sort of short campaign I’ll be doing here. And since I just reread the series, and since this blog is in part an attempt to purge vicious mindworms, here is a quick write up of how this would transfer to a game.

*Prospectus Pitch*
It is the year 3000 and the Earth is being invaded by aliens who have massive technological superiority. England is one of their first landing sites and, in response to the classic prophecy, Arthur Pendragon is rising to protect his land in its time of greatest need, rallying his reincarnated knights to England’s and Earth’s defense! This is a short, 6 session campaign for 3-5 players with each player having a primary and secondary PC. The Primary PCs are Arthur and key knights who also have positions of authority in their reincarnated selves. The secondary PCs can be selected reincarnates from any of the other round table knights who act as back up but have smaller story arcs. Expect sex and tear filled romance triangles and science fiction swordfights.

*The Character Base*
The PCs fall into four distinct types – of the main PCs we have one that is unchanged in personality since the original saga (Arthur), two that have a blending of 31st century personality and reincarnated personas (Gwen and Lance, both of whom hold important social positions in the 31st century) and one that is purely 31st century (Tom, the squire).

Arthur is clearly a Schwarzschild in that he is the key hero and his presence drives the game. While we could play his lack of familiarity with the 31st century for laughs his natural wisdom lets him acclimate very quickly, since it doesn’t do to laugh at the king.

Gwen and Lance are the head of the UN air forces and the richest man in the world, respectively, and therefore have a lot of pre-reincarnation clout. In addition the two of them, plus Arthur, make up the love triangle that should, in theory drive a lot of the plot.

Tom, Arthur’s 31st century squire and the young man who awoke him in Glastonbury Tor, is a special snowflake – he is not a reincarnated knight and doesn’t fit the initial campaign premise. He is also the campaign’s New Jersey who has to internalize the rules of knighthood and has the greatest character arc in terms of skill. This helps to minimize his special snowflake status as it gives him a clear growth arc and prevents him from claiming too much screen time.

Originally I had wondered if Merlin was also a PC, but basically he character shows up, tells the knights what to do and then vanishes again. Midway through the series he is captured by the enemy and Arthur has to start making his own decisions. That sounds like an NPC to me.

There are five other grail knights, and in order of plot importance (from smallest to greatest) they are Gawain (Hook: he’s a family man who wants to get home), Galahad (Hook: he’s a samurai who just failed his master and is driven by honor), Kay (Hook: he’s a con artist who manipulates the other knights), Percival (Hook: he’s been turned into a Neo-Man, one of the mute, brutish super-strong beings who act as foot soldiers of state security) and Tristan (Hook: he’s been reincarnated as a woman, and has his male persona take over in the middle of her wedding ceremony).

Of these Gawain is clearly the least important but Kay is the one who performs the unenviable jobs of keeping the other knights focused by being a dick to them and eventually betraying the knights to the enemy in a failed attempt to goose them into action. Unless you have a dynamic player group these sorts of steps are usually performed by NPCs, so we’ll keep him there. The other PC to player breakout – based on who has scenes with whom, is as follows

Player 1: Arthur &Percival
Player 2: Lancelot & Tristan
Player 3: Gwen & Gawain
Player 4: Tom & Galahad

Here is how the game SHOULD be broken out in a 6 session game:
Session 1: Introduce the 4 principle PCs, with Tom waking Arthur, then Arthur waking Merlin, then Merlin working the magic that wakes the other knights (once they see any of Merlin’s knight-talismans). Merlin arranges for Arthur to pull the sword from the stone on worldwide TV, then they wake the other two PCs. The Lancelot/Gwen/Arthur subplot starts.

Session 2:  the four PCs (and Merlin) split up and everyone gets a few minutes in the spotlight as they recruit someone else’s secondary. The love triangle continues, while Tom tires to talk Lance out of things and starts learning knightly skills. Merlin warns Arthur of an attack on new Camelot by ostensibly UN forces who turn out to be shape-shifted aliens, evidence that some parts of the UN are in cahoots with the aliens. Everyone gets a chance to show off their combat skills. Merlin reveals Morgan Le Fay leads the aliens.

Session 3: Arthur and Gwen’s marriage spreads hope to the beleaguered world, only to be interrupted by an assassination attempt. Arthur and Lance have to find a way to save Gwen’s life (in the book Lance’s laying on hands trick does it, but that’s not predetermined to my mind and the PCs might find another solution). The secondary PCs and Tom confront he assassin, where hopefully Tom proves his worth (he does). Kay sets himself up as the irritant that unites the rest of the secondary PCs.

Session 4: Merlin says he is turning his attentions to Morgan and the PCs are on their own to plan. The PCs free a bunch of Neo-Men to use as soldiers, which brings them again into conflict with alien troops. The romance sub-plot continues as Lance and Gwen have another tryst; Arthur banishes them(not that it sticks). One of the knights breaks into Merlin’s chambers and shatters his anti-Nyneve charm. Nyneve returns, dominates the wizard and spirits him away as Merlin wars the Pcs to start wearing their talismans. There is a brief mystery as to the guilt party until Kay is identified. Kay’s execution is interrupted by an alien attack, and he gets to redeem himself by saving someone’s life. This is a more dangerous attack and people can start to lose PCs. (In the book Tom is seriously wounded by radiation from a blaster, prompting the heroes to start questing for the grail, which as a GM might have floored me or been completely predicable, I’m not sure which… but at least I have until next session to figure out how to handle it.)

Session 5: The PCs put on the charms from session and suddenly the bad guys can’t scry on them anymore. They split into two groups, with one set searching for the grail and the other stealing a space ship to reach Le Feys’ planet (out past Neptune). The Grail searchers find the grail, overcome the guardian’s tests, save the wounded PCs and possibly have one PC ascend into heaven. The most righteous of the remaining knights is named grail guardian, but alien troops working for the UN mole (who is revealed to be Mordred) steal it in a blatant dick move by the GM.  The other PC team steals the ship, powers with Excalibur and heads to le Fey’s planet.

Now, if it were me I’d figure the two groups would stay separated, with Arthur and the space group tying to defeat Morgan in space with the others trying to defeat Mordred on earth and recover the grail for a pair of linked climaxes. The PCs pull a fast one – Lancelot brings the grail-searchers to the lady of the lake and begs passage through her magical waters to the waters of Le Fey’s planet, reuniting the PCs. So the GM has Morgan and Mordred teleport to her planet so the whole endgame takes place there. My read is that in a game group this would be another lovely bit of player initiative, and as such is rewarded with working, even if it does kind of minimize the other group.

Session 6: Endgame – the PCs are able to make common cause with the aliens that aren’t under Le Fey’s dominion – something only the female PCs can do, giving them a special moment –  and make their final climactic, it’s the last session and I can kill all the PCs I want fight to defeat Morgan and Mordred, recover the grail and rescue Merlin. The origins of last session GM dick move are revealed when we discover that Mordred has forged the grail into a suit of armor that makes its wearer immortal, so the whole sword-fighting thing is tricky. The heroes likely succeed and save the Earth, with the survivors being teleported home by Merlin to lead the rebuilding.

This is a little bit of a railroad but it follows a clear pattern – the first couple session are pretty scripted with introducing the PCs and the setting. The next session is less so as the players decide how to approach their problems with some NPC advice. In the fourth session the NPC advisors/GM mouthpieces remove themselves from play, the enemies lose their predicative advantages and we have the back half of the campaign where the players have all the initiative, as long as their paths eventually take them into conflict with Morgan on Planet Ten, where they learn the secrets of the aliens and have a climactic fight. It’s not a bad campaign design for a short game where everyone knows that the goal is to save the world in six sessions.

The fascinating bit about the comic book is that it has a serious Schwarzschild in Sir Tristan: the idea of a male knight reincarnated in a female body – especially the knight best known for his epic romance with Isolde – is such a cool idea that it warps the rest of the story around it. Tristan becomes the knight being tempted by Morgan and the red herring making a mystery of Sir Kay’s betrayal; she becomes part of a love triangle with Isolde (who is unknowingly working for Mordred) and Tom; as a physical female she horns in on Gwen’s GM created ‘meet the queen of the aliens’ plot; her jilted fiancé becomes the leader of the UN forces attack in session 2, the assassin in session 3 and a major threat in Morgan’s castle in session 6. The character just sucks up screen time. At least some of it is shared with Tom’s romance plot and Gwen trying to get Tristan to accept that being a woman isn’t that bad, but it does leave poor Arthur as a bit player in his own book sometimes.

Technically Tristan is not a special snowflake – the PC creation rules just said reincarnated knight, and she is that. The same is true for Percival the Neo-Man, but his condition doesn’t warp the campaign nearly as much. Let this be a warning and a lesson to GMs about what a powerful Schwarzschild can do!