Introduction
by Brian Rogers

I love introductions. I stated as much in the Annotated Amalgam Hall (a collection of comic strips that Jason Dressel, Vivian Norwood and I did at UConn, and I compiled and annotated two years ago. If you are someone interested in a copy and don't have one, let Bec know, and she'll let me know and I'll send you one). I love reading them, and I love writing them, because it makes me feel all published. In any case, Bec prompted me (and I agreed) that some sort of introduction and commentary on the aspects surrounding the Section Eight game should be provided for the foolish-but-brave souls who trod into this web page, find themselves entrapped in the plot mesh (mess?) that is my V&V campaign universe, and need something to do while waiting for the spider to eat them.
    When I first got to UConn (fall semester, 1989), I knew three people: Vivian Norwood, my then girlfriend, Steve Jones, and Jen Dutton, two of my close friends from high school. Through the usual corridors I met a bunch of other like-minded souls, and ran a couple games freshman year. The first was an abysmal attempt at an AD&D game in which none of the parts fell together, since the players had such drastically different styles and expectations. The second was the Tempest Game, which I'll do more with eventually, once I figure out how to have a MY GOD THEYRE TRYING TO KILL US! game end properly. The Tempest Game was run using the Villains and Vigilantes system, but not as a part of my regular world. It was also where most of the players who eventually made up Section Eight came together.
    The Tempest Game ground to a halt about a month before the end of the semester, after about 10 sessions. I had some time on my hands, and wanted to start something big. I went back to the classic V&V mold: that of having the players make characters based on themselves, but with randomly generated powers, which seemed even more fruitful given that for the first time I actually had a group of people with different origins and backgrounds in the real world, as opposed to having to come up with an explanation why my suburban high school friends all happened to get super-human powers. The hook was that they were all going to college to learn to be super-heroes, and the theme was mostly light-hearted, to contrast with the unrelenting tension of the Tempest game.
    I had them all roll up characters, which was an interesting experience—Vivian, Jason and Steve had done so before, but the Tempest characters were pre-generated, so that meant that the rest of the players hadn't dealt with that aspect of the system. It led to some interesting characters, and some minor bits that I do somewhat miss (such as Lena's crystal skeleton that could emit light when electrified, making her look like a glowing skeleton in a shroud, and gave her clawlike nails).
    That finished, I ran the first session, letting the players get a feel for the new characters and the tone before the semester ended. The details are listed under "Rampage." The reality was that we were indeed having it as a party in Vivian's room, and someone had brought some beers, and therefore over half the players were well on their way to drunk. NEVER AGAIN! The inebriation of the players only compounded the obvious power disparity between the randomly generated characters (Warped Warrior once had a 22 strength, 32 Endurance and 34 agility!). While the session was successful, it wasn't fun. I'm one of those weird people who takes my hobby very seriously.
    It was the break between the first session and the beginning of the game proper that made the Section Eight game work as well as it did. I used summer break to come up with plots (both short and long term), rewrite the combat mechanics for V&V, develop character sheets for the villains and generally do all that prep work that makes a good game. I also began what would become a long standing tradition—rewriting the characters so that they were of approximately the same power level and easier to handle mechanically, while still remaining true to the player's original conception.
    When we got back to school, everyone was excited to begin, and for the most part took the down-powering of the characters in good grace (though Jay would complain for years that I kept comparing them to Ground Zero, and how Ground Zero could kick their butts, well I hadn't down-powered ground Zero, now had I? I eventually came up with the Variant Power levels to mitigate it somewhat, although letting Jay make/play Apollyon of the Host helped too). The first semester was something of a shakedown period as well. Two of the players left and a new one joined. You don't see that in the write-up, through the wonders of retroactive continuity. The original players were:
    Scott Auden - Misanthrope
    Jason Dressel - Warped Warrior
    Jennifer Dutton - Excellent Woman/Gypsy
    Yelena Goukhbargh - Death Penalty/Arclight
    Steve Jones - Tombstone Cowboy
    Vivian Norwood - Talon
    After about a month of play they were joined by Chris Dutton -Shriekback, whose position was cajoled out of me by his sister (Jen) and his girlfriend (Lena). I had a standing rule about not having dating couples game together, since it was my experience that the personality conflicts from the relationship found their way into the game and vice versa. I wasn't going to let Chris in, but in retrospect I'm glad I did.
    Steve left the game due to personality conflicts with several of the other players, and Scott left due to lack of time. Given how quickly all of that fell out, I just wrote out Steve and Scott and added Chris to the beginning. Scott later came back as Juggler from the Penumbra/Twilight game, and Steve's history in the game universe is assured as Wildcard from Ground Zero.
    The final member of the team, Dan Abraham - Skywalker, was added later. Dan had transferred to UConn from Carnegie Mellon, but through one of those bizarre twists of fate had met Vivian the previous year at the 1989 Worldcon. She had I bumped into him in the game room. Twists of life, I guess. His arrival gave me a chance to play with the Jimmy Olsen thing for a while, and set things up for his eventual membership. In many ways Skywalker became the linchpin to the game—like myself and Jason and Vivian, Dan takes his gaming seriously, and his character was the one who eventually became the team's spirit.
    The game was a rousing success for almost two years. With the end of Second-World War, we had hit the end of what I had planned, and what the players had thrown my way. There were some dangling threads, to be sure, but my work was pretty well finished. I planned to shelve the game, and wanted to run something else —another V&V game set in New York. My players rebelled on me. And like an idiot, I compromised —the game would be in New York, but they could keep playing the same characters after graduation, having gone pro. Tom Ladegard and Jack Zaientz, alumni of the Penumbra game, would come on board as Justin Caine and Rumble; Jason and Chris, who had either moved to other schools or were inundated under classwork, would fade to supporting cast members with occasional walk-ons.
    This was a nightmare. Again, you don't have to see it. Through the wonders of retroactive continuity, I teased out all the plot threads that had anything to do with NYC and the Manhattan Project, and rewove the rest into a pattern that resembled the Section Eight game. This is not to say that there wasn't good stuff in there, but the alloy of gritty urban NY-post Daemonwar adventure and the existing Section Eight mythos was too brittle to support its own weight. Justin and Rumble are in game limbo somewhere, but well see them again, sooner or later. The rest of the NYC plots are well and truly dead. Their places were taken by Shriekback and Warped Warrior.
    So what you're reading here isn't exactly what happened, but it is about 80%, and flows a lot better because of that 20% loss.
    In a lot of ways, the Section Eight game was a real watershed for both me and the Variants universe. Having a group of players who were wholly unfamiliar with the world's previous history let me perform massive retroactive continuity, and forced me to keep consistent with it once I'd started. Having Jason along to provide artwork (which Bec promises me will be available soon) was a great boon, and he, Dan and Viv were excellent keepers of continuity. Most of the history you see on these pages, while created from the aether during the Ground Zero and Detroit Warriors games, was forged into shape during the Section Eight game.
    Strange, but the idea of keeping everything within the game universe in the same decade of continuity (viva la 80s!) placed the section Eight game at the far end of the world's continuity—almost everything I've run since has taken place before the Section Eight material even occurs, but it sits there like an anchor, grounding the future. All of my other games now know where they're going, because I've been there. Too metaphysical? That's just how I think. The Variants Universe is my baby, and I know it inside and out. I'll be doing things with it for another decade or more, I'm sure, and it gets more real every day.
    Of course, if it's a baby, it's got a LOT of godparents!
    Where are the players? Well, Chris and Lena broke up, just as detailed in the game (but it was much messier in real life). Years later Jay and Lena started dating and got married in the summer of 95. Jay and Lena live in Stratford, and are part of my regular CT gaming group. Lena does computer programming for CBS, and Jay is still the quintessential dilettante, still working on his bachelors in fine arts from Payer.
    I have no idea where Chris is, but I hear he's gotten married. From what I knew of him, I'm sure he's doing fine.
    Jennifer married her college boyfriend, Eric DeVos, in 1994, and the two still live near UConn with their utterly adorable baby girl, Emily Tuesday, age three (I think). I don't see them much anymore, but wish them well.
    Vivian and I continued dating for several years, ending the relationship in '95. As fate continues to twist, she is now living with Dan up in Boston. Dan does computer work up there; Vivian is a legal secretary and is, like Jason, still working on her degree. I hear they're happy, and likewise wish them well.
    Me? I'm engaged to be married to a wonderful and sympathetic non-gamer (gasp!), and wonder why and how the world, and relationships, work the way they do. I was proud to have these people in a game of mine—quite possibly the best Ive ever done, and certainly their longest (in both real time and sessions). A game is only as good as the players in it, no matter how talented the GM—unlike any other art form, gaming is a synergy of efforts and ideas and inspiration. The Section Eight game had one hell of a sum of parts.
    My only problem with introductions is I get maudlin at the end.
    Move on to the stories, already.
    Oh, Rebecca?
    Thanks for putting this up, and putting up with this.

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