Types of Continuum scenarios
While fighting narcissists is clearly detailed in Continuum,
like any good role-playing game, variety of adventure makes for the best
experience. I suspect that a Continuum campaign that is all about
fighting narcissists would be much like a D&D game that is all
about fighting monsters: it can be fun, but you’re missing out on a lot
more.
It has been my experience, however, that thinking up good
Continuum adventures that don’t involve narcissists is awfully hard
to do. This is because the power of spanners is so vast that the stuff of
ordinary RPGs is child’s play to them. One careful novice spanner could decimate
a high-level D&D party.
Here is a list of basic spanner adventure types.
- Fight Narcissists. Further information is not necessary
here.
- Solve a Mystery (i.e., find information). My introductory
scenario “Identity Is All” belongs in this
category. Novices often create this adventure for themselves when they
accidentally frag themselves or their chronies and they have to figure out how
they did it. Most mystery adventures will probably revolve around a desire to
find out what happens to objects great or small (from the ocean liner that
disappears in the Bermuda Triangle to the teddy bear that a child misplaces)
or what happens in specific events (who really killed John F. Kennedy?).
- Physical Challenge. There are lots of adventures that
spanners can go on simply because they’re fun. What Foxhorn wouldn’t
enjoy dinosaur-hunting? Just because you’re playing a time travel game doesn’t
mean your every action has to revolve around time travel. Spanners can
participate in all the activites that levelers do, and they don’t have to cheat
at it! Friendly competitions will usually fall into this category. (Imagine a
game of spanner soccer!) Note that a “physical” challenge may not literally be
physical at all; it could be mental (say, exploring the Dreamtime). We might
call it “level challenge,” except there’s no reason why the PCs can’t span in
accomplishing it.
- Covert Intervention. Whether as a result of narcissist
actions or of things simply not adding up, it may be necessary for spanners to
take an active role in events in their localities. Thespians must take on
historical roles to replace levelers who, for some reason, can’t do what they’re
supposed to do. Engineers make sure inventors have the breakthroughs they need,
or that breakdowns occur on schedule. Physicians may find their services
necessary on battlefields, because casualties were higher than expected
considering events farther Up. This adventure category is dominated by the
fraternities, because careful covert work requires a specialist.
- Be a Mentor. As a Span Three mentor, you will be chasing
around after your novices and cleaning up after their mistakes. You fix frag a
lot, but this differs from fighting narcissists in that the frag was created
through inexperience, not informed selfishness. You will, in this special case,
get a lot of information from your elder on how to handle the situations you
find yourself in; this is something that doesn’t happen much in other
activities.
- Complete the Yet. The spanners learn some complicated piece
of their Yets and decide to try to take care of it. This differs from solving a
mystery in that it is not necessary for the spanners to lack information (though
this is always interesting). In fact, the challenge is that the characters have
too much information, and are forced to observe the First Maxim. This is also
different from covert intervention, which has more to do with levelers and
history, rather than their Yets.
These six categories will often be mixed together. “The
Death-hand of Saint No-one" has the PCs try to track down an object (solve
a mystery) before a narcissist does, who will fight them in Time Combat (fight
narcissists) to get it.
Last updated March 23, 2013