On continuity and other things

[Sheller]

Whatitdo y'all, for some reason I've been lurking here a few months and haven't really wanted to post until today. Been GMing BASH!UE since summer of 2010 and still trucking!


My gaming group has never really been one to settle down and stick to a single system so that's what led us to use BASH!UE in the first place; we treated it as a game where we could make new heroes on a whim and where continuity wasn't the most important thing in the world. It has presented problems where feelings of actual lack of progress had arisen, but we've come to a conclusion for that by having a ratio of DND with the occassional BASH session.

So my question to you all is, how exactly is continuity and progress tracked in your games? I'm hoping I'm not the only one who uses it solely for episodic gaming; I'd like to hear how you all use this fine piece of paperwork for your entertainment.

[BeardedDork]

I have found that if you allow players to create the characters they want, lack of progression is not really an issue.
I do use the fame rules, and they sort of give a progression feel.
Before the third session and after a major story arch I will also allow rebuilds, which is basically consistant with a comic book run getting a new writer/artist.

[BASHMAN]

I use the optional XP rules at the back of the book for the campaign I ran for a year. I also use the optional Fame rules. I likewise am using Subplots. That campaign had great continuity, as it was a week to week campaign that ran for over 40 weeks.

I also ran an ongoing "revolving door" game at the local college gaming club the year before that. I used a bunch of pregens from an established comic universe. Between sessions people would change which characters they were playing. We didn't have the same players every session- people who were new to the club, or whose game was canceled would join in, and we had about 3-4 regulars who came every week.

For that campaign, the way I dealt with continuity was to have each session deal with a different facet of one ongoing story. So I had a plot about an evil corporation that had produced a dangerous super-metal. One session had heroes facing off against gangsters armed with weapons made of the metal. Another had (different heroes) investigating the source of the metal (tipped off by one of the other heroes). Yet another session dealt with a kidnapping plot by the head of Evilcorp vs. a hero who was a well-known rival.

So for the regular players, they got to see the story progress; and for the one-shot players, they got to have a fun session that finished in one issue.