So I'm doing something interesting in my current game. I'm using my own Blood Games II, and running two campaigns in parallel with the same players. One is set in 1645 and the other in 2007, both in the Caribbean, so far. The players in the modern game are playing relations of the PCs in the earlier game, but not thier own relations.

I started off in 1645, where the PCs meet up taking shelter from a sudden rainstorm in Crown Royal. They eventually wound their way to a cay off Abaco Island in the Bahamas, where they were preparing to confront a horrible evil.

We then switched to the present, where the PCs were called to Kingston Jamaica to read the first volume of the journal of their (possibly collateral) ancestors, which ended just at the point I described above. They, too, found evidence that the same person their ancestors met was still working - an apparently immortal wizard - and set off to the same cay, where they found a casino, run by the same wizard. Hijinx ensued.

This isn't an actual play so much as it is a backgound for a question. I intend to switch back and forth between these two campaigns until things are resolved. I was wondering if anyone else had ever done such a thing. I've done similar things with Blood Games before - switching back and forth in time - but never with this wide a gulf. before it has been a matter of decades, usually with the players playing earlier and later versions of the same characters. The gang and I are finding it fascinating.

Anyone?

-clash

there was a three-part adventure in white dwarf called ancient & modern back in the late 80's IIRC.  it used ad&d for the "prehistory" era and CoC for the modern (20s, of course).  seemed neat and had some crossover between eras; never got to run it, tho.

i like how yours stays with the same system.  how are the players dealing with the switching?

I've never tried something quite so intricate.  What does happen, on a regular basis, is that some event happening in one of the 5 games I'm running somehow has a repercussion in one of the other games I'm running, a kind of "crossover" in the multiverse.

RPGPundit

Quote from: beeberthere was a three-part adventure in white dwarf called ancient & modern back in the late 80's IIRC.  it used ad&d for the "prehistory" era and CoC for the modern (20s, of course).  seemed neat and had some crossover between eras; never got to run it, tho.

i like how yours stays with the same system.  how are the players dealing with the switching?

So far, they're doing great. They had a blast modelling their modern characters after the other players' Renaissance characters, picking out personality quirks rather than abilities. We've just completed the first modern part, and are going back to 1945 to extend things forward on that track. So far, so good!

The system is explicitly designed to model anything from the 1400s on to now, so that was no sweat. I could actually go earlier by dropping firearms entirely.

-clash

Quote from: RPGPunditI've never tried something quite so intricate.  What does happen, on a regular basis, is that some event happening in one of the 5 games I'm running somehow has a repercussion in one of the other games I'm running, a kind of "crossover" in the multiverse.

RPGPundit

Heh! Now that sounds intricate to me, Pundit! How do you judge what that repurcussion will be? Seat of the pants?

-clash

Not exactly the same, but I run a post RotJ Star Wars game and my friend runs a Rebellion-era Star Wars game that are linked by events, PCs and NPCs (and their descendants), etc.  We don't run these at the same time which makes it easier to avoid inconsistencies, but it's still a pleasant challenge to maintain continuity.  It helps that the players are into it.  No one in his game has tried to invest in the galactic stock market using knowledge they gained in mine, anyway.  

Pete

Quote from: pspahnNot exactly the same, but I run a post RotJ Star Wars game and my friend runs a Rebellion-era Star Wars game that are linked by events, PCs and NPCs (and their descendants), etc.  We don't run these at the same time which makes it easier to avoid inconsistencies, but it's still a pleasant challenge to maintain continuity.  It helps that the players are into it.  No one in his game has tried to invest in the galactic stock market using knowledge they gained in mine, anyway.  

Pete

Actually, that sounds very close in concept, though it's not the same group. Awesome!

Thanks, Pete!

-clash

Quote from: beeberthere was a three-part adventure in white dwarf called ancient & modern back in the late 80's IIRC.  it used ad&d for the "prehistory" era and CoC for the modern (20s, of course).  seemed neat and had some crossover between eras; never got to run it, tho.

Hmmm... I may have actually had that issue of WD, come to think of it, beeber. If so, that was possibly what inspired this idea after sleeping two decades in my brain, though there's no way to tell now. I threw out all my Dragons, WDs, and the rest about seven/eight years ago.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmiceActually, that sounds very close in concept, though it's not the same group. Awesome!

Thanks, Pete!

-clash

No, it's the same gaming group (except he's a player in mine and I play in his).  One thing we have fun doing is exchanging unused "plot hooks."  Like one time I tossed out something about a team of bounty hunters named the Sisters of F'ilar, but the players never actually met them.  Then in his game, we rescued a young girl who sort of tagged along with a bounty hunter PC.  She showed some promise, so he trained her and she eventually branched out on her own.  A year later (in game time) we learned she had founded a team of all female bounty hunters named the Sisters of F'ilar.  

In my game, one of the PCs was being hunted by a person known as "the Immortal Dark One" who was capable of tremendous physical feats and could supposedly shoot lighting from his fingertips.  Everyone assumed he was a Dark Jedi.  In reality, he was a droid.  The hunted character's ancestor (another player ) was exceptionally cruel to a 3PO droid in the other game, and eventually left the droid stranded on a barren rock world with the instructions to hop around on one leg until he returned (which he never planned to do).  I had already introduced an AI "virus" into my game that could be transmitted through connection ports, so I decided that someone had eventually found the 3PO droid and it had gained AI.  Years later, it had outfitted itself for survival and combat and decided to hunt down the descendants of the character who had humiliated him for so long.  

In most cases we (the GMs) will ask each other  "are you going to do anything more with ___ " before we use an NPC or event from the other game.  It'salways  fun to see what he comes up with.  I also think these crossovers are really cool in play.  They do a great job of helping to portray the fluidity of the setting and make the players think about what the possible consequences of their actions might be down the line.  

Pete

It involves two groups instead of one, but I just started a Mandate of Heaven (Exalted Nation-building stuff) online that I'll be using to drive the political interations of the Scavenger Lands in my face-to-face Exalted game. If my players get involved in politics or war I'll seperate the two, but otherwise I've got a setup that should churn me out a year or two of country interactions every other week.

Quote from: flyingmiceHmmm... I may have actually had that issue of WD, come to think of it, beeber. If so, that was possibly what inspired this idea after sleeping two decades in my brain, though there's no way to tell now. I threw out all my Dragons, WDs, and the rest about seven/eight years ago.

-clash

th-th-th-threw out?!

:flop:

[/drama] i did the same thing around 15 years ago with all my dragon issues.  of course i regret it now.  kept all the white dwarf issues, tho.

pspahn, yours sounds cool too.  i've always wanted to do a shared world thing with another ref in my group.  traveller would've been the easiest--there's enough space for everyone

Quote from: pspahnNo, it's the same gaming group (except he's a player in mine and I play in his).  

[CLIP]

In most cases we (the GMs) will ask each other  "are you going to do anything more with ___ " before we use an NPC or event from the other game.  It'salways  fun to see what he comes up with.  I also think these crossovers are really cool in play.  They do a great job of helping to portray the fluidity of the setting and make the players think about what the possible consequences of their actions might be down the line.  

Pete

That sounds like a blast, Pete! I'd love to try that with another GM!

-clash

Quote from: James McMurrayIt involves two groups instead of one, but I just started a Mandate of Heaven (Exalted Nation-building stuff) online that I'll be using to drive the political interations of the Scavenger Lands in my face-to-face Exalted game. If my players get involved in politics or war I'll seperate the two, but otherwise I've got a setup that should churn me out a year or two of country interactions every other week.

Another neat spin on the concept! Cool, James!

-clash

Quote from: beeberth-th-th-threw out?!

:flop:

[/drama] i did the same thing around 15 years ago with all my dragon issues.  of course i regret it now.  kept all the white dwarf issues, tho.

I don't regret it. I had like five or six shelves of the stuff clogging up everything. I've finally filled those shelves up - now I'm eyeing my shelf of AD&D books I haven't used in seven years... I could use that space! :O

-clash

Quote from: beeberthere was a three-part adventure in white dwarf called ancient & modern back in the late 80's IIRC.  it used ad&d for the "prehistory" era and CoC for the modern (20s, of course).  seemed neat and had some crossover between eras; never got to run it, tho.

I ran it. I don't think I ran it as the author(s) really wanted it to work, but I reckon it got close. It was great, but a lot of hard work. I was very lucky to have some great players that really got into it - and it was a little after the time we'd ditched AD&D because we'd (I'd?) had enough of it, but I think that actually helped the whole thing work.

When I moved to the SE of England and had got a group together, we played Stormbringer, Cyberpunk, and Golden Heroes. I ref'ed all three, and started to introduce NPCs and ideas from each game into the others (with appropriate twists for the setting). It culminated in a Golden Heroes session that crossed over all the settings (very Zenith inspired, when Morrison really got into his Multiverse vibe), including the GH characters taking on their counterparts from SB and CP. It was a blast, and was left very open-ended, but as tends to happen, various players went their various ways and we (I?) never got to resolve that story.

Good times.

- Q