Days of Future Past

So, let me tell you a little story, which has quite a bit to do with our forthcoming update to the Raptor Squad site, and a lot to do about ambition and over-extending yourself.

See, we opened the doors to the site back in March, 2001. Now, that was over seven years ago and needless to say that is a nice chunk of time. Thing is, when we rolled out the site, we also introduced folks to the members of the current Raptor Squad team at the time, which was comprised of: Vic Palisades, Klux Martin, Baal, Koort Ter’chon, Xander Paddox, Khara Doone and Jonus Kable.

And that was all cool, as, at the time, those PC’s were being played by folks around the gaming table. Now, obviously if you are going to go through the time and effort of rolling out a new website focusing on your current RPG campaign, you are going to want to highlight the players in the game- it just makes sense (Don't be excluding people, that's just rude...).

So cool…we roll out the site and everyone gets their own little bio page.

We also, at the time, had the grand idea of posting “Gamelogs”- these would be small little summaries highlighting the important parts of our gaming sessions. If you’ve ever looked at any RPG campaign site worth it’s salt you’ve seen these write ups. The problem? They usually suck.

Ours was no different.

The Gamelogs, while conveying the appropriate info, also reads like a instructional pamphlet put out by the government on how toothpicks are made. While informative, it’s also boring as piss.

Granted, it would be easier and quicker (and in the beginning it was-sorta) to post the gamelogs and be done with it, but there were a couple of problems that arose when we did this:

First, we had been running this game for two years prior to rolling the website out. Which means for any of the current gamelogs (circa 2001) to make any damn sense, we would have to go back in time and post game logs detailing the games from the last two years- and considering we played at least once a month we are talking about up to twenty-five of these puppies.

Second, as has been mentioned before- writing these things was boring…and not something folks would have any kind of real fun in reading (except for those really, really bored). See, I was in charge of writing these things up, and I realized early on that you simply cannot convey the raw emotion and character interactions that I was seeing played out around the table in this tiresome, lifeless format.

Basically, I felt these boring, by-the-numbers gamelogs were, if anything, doing our wonderful game a major disservice.

So, after posting a few gamelogs, I got the bright idea of “Hey! I’m not a terrible writer, and I’ve got some halfway decent ideas and creativity (and time) - I’ll write fiction instead of just a boring point-by-point synopsis of the games!

So with Gamelog # 7 (I think- we’ve renumbered the sequence since then) I let my writing muscles flex and fictionalized the gamelog…complete with plot, dialog, the whole deal. And while shorter than later fiction I would write, it was nonetheless a vast improvement over the gamelog format.

And it was a big hit.

I enjoyed writing it, our GM really dug seeing his game come to life as an actual story and the players enjoyed seeing these characters live, breath and interact on the computer screen.

There was only one problem. Like I mentioned before, we were easily 2+ years behind our current adventures…and, as I have known for years in dabbling in writing, writing takes a long time. A long time. And while I could knock out a gamelog in a few days or a week, writing fiction detailing the same events, creating plot, developing the story so it fit in with future events…hell that could take months, even years in some cases.

So, you probably see where this is going.

Because the group and myself chose to fictionalize our adventures, I was always going to be way behind in where our game was compared to where the fiction was. And considering that over half of our group (Koort, Khara, Jonus and Xander) hadn’t even joined until a few years in, introducing them in the fiction was going to be a few years out.

Seven years out to be exact.

Now, that’s a long time to wait (and for some too long even). But, being stubborn, part Irish and as hard-headed as a brain-damaged rhino, I’ve refused to compromise the fiction and go back to gamelogs. I have fun writing it, and folks have a good time reading it (now that the fiction is actually read by folks in the SWRPG community, not just our former/current gaming group I feel like I actually have an obligation to all of the readers to keep producing the fiction- to go back to the cheap gamelogs would be lame and quite frankly, below our site’s standards-yay standards!).

So, that brings us to the forthcoming update.

I’m happy, thrilled and elated even! To announce that the forthcoming update will feature the first piece of fiction introducing characters that first graced the Raptor Squad site oh-so many years ago. Yes, Koort, Xander, Jonus and Khara will be getting their day in the sun, and their introduction will actually introduce what the group once came to refer to as “The Golden Age of Raptor Squad”. It was a time when we were having the most fun around the table and the group just seemed to “click”. This was also a time that saw some of the strongest storylines, team drama and introduction of some of the most colorful and lively NPC’s.

Needless to say, I’m excited as hell.

Now, it will likely be this time next year before all of the above PC’s are introduced through the fiction, but I can tell you it will certainly be worth the wait. Over half of the fiction is already written and the stories will be posted in pieces, but it’s some good stuff, and worthy of the characters who really made the game shine.

Oh, and remember I said I started fictionalizing the gamelogs starting with gamelog # 7? Yeah, well that means that 1-6 still haven’t been fictionalized yet. But don’t worry, I’m also working on that concurrently while writing the “current” fiction…so….with any luck you’ll be seeing the “early adventures” of Raptor Squad posted sometime soon (maybe the holidays?) The reason that has taken a back seat is because the group was smaller at its start and writing the current fiction is sort of a priority right now.

So! Keep your eyes open, as the update should be hitting this summer…with more to follow thanks to a loooooong vacation I have planned in a nice, comfy remote cabin out in the woods which will prompt much time writing (as well as hot tubbing to sooth those tired writing muscles). And who knows, I might just post some goodies here for you all to check out pre-rollout. So watch for that too.

It’s a pretty exciting time, and Raptor Squad’s “Golden Age” is on the horizon. You won’t want to miss it!