Mnemelos Notes

I was sorting out an old harddrive today, and stumbled across this madness:

That was a scan of a prop I made for a LARP I was briefly running. It's the notes of a raving madman, a Narcisist from the Continuum RPG. Those weird mathematical symbols followed by numbers are what is known as Mnemelos Coordinates. They define the cosmological location of parallel worlds, and the energy/vectors needed to reach them.

The prop was not, however, made for a Continuum RPG campaign. It was made for a Changeling LARP that had a lot of cross-pollination from other worlds, settings, and fandoms. Unfortunately, I do not seem to have a scan of the flip side of the document, which contained mostly more insane rambling, along with some functional universe mapping and magical sigils. You can see a little of it bleeding through the paper. I wish I had the other side, but one of the players kept it. It's been a couple years now, so it's very unlikely I will ever see that prop again.  :(

4 Campaigns at once

On top of my Continuum RPG that I run nearly every Wednesday night (and have been for 4+ years now),  I'm now adding 3 other campaigns.

On Mondays, I'll be running two games, that alternate roughly every other week, depending on which players are available.  These are with people who were in my Continuum game, but had to drop out for various reasons mainly having to do with inability to schedule everyone on the same night (and one player being unable to show up more than twice a month, regardless of day).

So, on Mondays when everyone's going to be around, we'll be doing short-shots and mini-series. The first one I'm going to run will be starting 2 or 3 weeks from now, and probably be a Scion game, but using either Fate or PDQ for the rules as those are much simpler systems than Scion's default White Wolf d10 system. Frankly, the setting and concept of Scion are great, but the mechanics were a pain in the butt past Hero level anyway. This miniseries will last 4 to 8 sessions, and then one or more of the players will take over GMing some other miniseries for a while, before I cycle in again. When I do, I'll probably try another stab at Night's Black Agents, which I like a lot but I got the impression one of my players wasn't thrilled with Gumshoe.

On the alternating Mondays (starting a week from today), when the one player just can't make it because of rotating work schedules, I'll be running 7th Sea. Again, the 7th Sea setting is better than the easily-broken system, so for this I'll be using a hybrid that is 80% PDQ, 15% 7th Sea, and 5% Fate (just character creation).  Light, mostly simple, and easy for me to improvise because I've got a lot experience with the setting.

Continuum continues on Wednesdays, though with a slightly smaller play group than it once had.

On Sundays, I'll be running a huge Warhammer Fantasy 3rd Ed campaign. We made characters yesterday, and it was awesome. More about that in a future post, I assure you.

4 games at once, using 3 and a half rules sets, 1 of which is mechanically crunchy (Warhammer), and 1 of which requires extensive multi-timeline micromanagement (Continuum). So, clearly,  I'll have zero free time in the next few weeks as I sort things out to get 3 games launched, and not many aimless days in the weeks thereafter.

It's possible I just might be crazy for trying to juggle all this at once.

Span TwoPointFive... AKA expanding to Span Seven

In the Continuum RPG, PCs progress through 5 "character levels" known as Spans.  I have to come to conclusion that these levels are not divided correctly nor mapped ideally. The hurdles, jumps, and responsibilities of the various Span levels are not evenly distributed. In this post I will document the issues I'm finding with them as we move into the fourth year of my current campaign, and propose changes to the structure that I would happily implement if I had my campaign to do again. Adopting them now, mid-campaign, would be problematic, but they'd be a huge improvement if implemented from day one.

In the default rules, you start out as a Span One who can teleport up to 1 year into the future or past, and carry about 10 lbs of mass beyond their own body weight. Each "level" beyond that expands those limits by a factor of 10. (So a Span Two PC is exhausted and needs a good night's rest after traveling 10 years, and can carry 100lbs of equipment or wardrobe with them.) This works well in the early stages, and buys the GM time to get a handle on the setting and system before having to do a lot of historical research, or stat out 23rd Century Technology.

However, in my experience, players find themselves yearning for the historical exploration portion of the game long before their characters are technically accomplished enough to undertake it. When you sign on to play in a time-travel game, you're picturing visits to Ancient Rome, Elizabethan England, or at least WWII. Per a literal read of the rules and setting, however, you have no business investigating such places until you're Span Four, Three, or Two, respectively, at which points they are still several night's travel away and thus getting there is an adventure in itself. Promotion to Span Three in Continuum takes too damn long. Which is fine from in-character perspective (you advance based on merit, and self-control is a hallmark of the Continuum), but mostly annoying from an out-of-character perspective. If you pitch me on a time-travel game, I want to be hobnobbing with Shakespeare and Caesar within a few weeks at most, not only after years of play.

What's more, certain Spans have more going on within them than others. Span One is just about screwing up, surviving your own cluelessness, and eventually learning the ropes. There's a couple basic lessons that the Player (not just Character) needs to learn, then the flip switches and they're ready for Span Two. In Contrast, S2 starts out as "Span One, With Fewer Screw-Ups," but eventually transitions into "Visit the Nearby Decades" and/or "Split Up Into Different Fraternities".  The latter transition at the least feels like a major milestone and will heavily alter the tone of the campaign, but nothing within the game clearly demarks it's borders. Which means you have a lot of territory to cover before you reach Span Three, and players feel somewhat devoid of the status markers that other games have taught them to expect along the way.

While that does leave some maneuvering room for the GM to customize their game and it's pacing, it does so at the risk of making the players feel like they aren't progressing fast enough despite a string of successes.  "We keep winning, but we still haven't learned everything we need to reach Span Three."  A kind GM can hand-wave the mechanical/XP requirements (and the players are empowered to take the reigns on that part of it), there's not much you can do to gloss over the required setting familiarity.

You get to the point where you want to play S3 and S4 style adventures long before you could possibly have seen enough of the setting to justify such a promotion. My own attempts to accelerate this process have resulted in my roster of NPCs expanding to ridiculous numbers as I try to shoehorn in Fraternal NPCs into spare scenes as I can. For most games, if the players don't feel like reading the setting sourcebooks, you can usually make do as long as the GM (and maybe one player) know the world well, but over the past several years I've found that Continuum's many buzzwords, stratagems, and subgroups really do require an in-depth comprehension of the setting in order to advance. You reach a point where the player's in-character advancement is held back if they haven't read the sourcebooks.

Here's a break-down the current system, including major milestones and responsibilities at each Span, plus some estimates of how long it might take to reach this stage.

Span Rating	Lessons Learned	Experiences, Scenarios, and Accomplishments	Minimum Duration (per the rulebook, even an experienced player should not advance faster than this)	Actual Duration (how long it took my campaign)
Span One	The Maxims. How not to frag yourself in day-to-day mundane events.	Screwing up again and again. Wrapping your head around spanning in general. Briefly visiting each year of a single decade.	12+ hours of play, across 2+ months	70 to 100 hours of play, across most of a year
Span Two	Self-reliance. The finer points of solving your frag when it does happen. Master Rank in at least two skills from a particular list, Journeyman in four others from that or another list.	Your first real adventure, and several more thereafter, each with subsequently less coaching from your NPC mentor. Your first Time Combat. Trips to nearby decades. Some sort of meaningful interaction with each of the 10 different Fraternities. Picking one of those 10 Fraternities, and joining it. Leaving the nest and joining some other established Corner. Possibly making your own new Corner. Taking a part one or more missions or adventures for your new Fraternity and/or Corner. Wrapping up any loose ends in your mundane (pre-spanner) life so you're not a missing person's case. Acquiring a huge list of skills required to qualify for Span Three.	16+ hours of play, across 3+ months (plus 2+ months as Span One)	140 to 200 hours of play?, across nearly two years (plus a year as Span One)
Span Three	A tiny bit of Hypnosis skill. (Out-of-character, the play group learns how to juggle multiple plotlines and split the spotlight in an equitable way.)	Finally getting to explore places and times more than a decade or two from where the campaign started. Your first real Time Combat without your old Mentor being there as back-up. Probably more Fraternity missions/adventures.  Creating several new Corners of your own. Acting as Mentor to a whole pack of Novice NPCs. Successfully running a Corner of your own for 100 years of Age.	20+ hours of play, across 4+ months (plus 5+ months as Span One and Two)	This is roughly where we are now (some variation among characters). It took us just shy of 3 full years to get Here.
Span Four	Many more levels of Hypnosis skill. Photographic memory.	First trip to Atlantis... which takes a minimum of around 15 teleports (and full night's rests) just to get there and is thus a major adventure in itself. This is the most likely earliest Span to accomplish a trip to any of the juicier bits of the setting (Atlantis, Vielavayana, The Engineers Crisis, The Midwives Crisis, The Hunt Of The Sun, or various real-world cultures of antiquity such as Rome/Greece/Egypt/Sumeria/3 Kingdoms China), so you can bet there'll be a lot of sight-seeing and tangential adventures. At least one of the following: Scoring 200 points in the Greatest Game. -or- Successfully running a major Fraternal Corner for 250 years of Age. -or-  Going all the way Down to Antedesertium to act as a deep cover agent.	20+ hours of play, across 5+ months (plus 9+ months as Span One/Two/Three)	We're aren't there yet.
Exalted (Span Five+)	Crazy stuff that blows your mind. Telepathy.	The Atlantean Councils. At least one major mission against The Enemy, which could range from War in the Geminid to deep cover work inside Antedesertium. Probably a trip Up to the Hour of Inheritence. Any of those things mentioned under Span Four, but dialed up to 11.	There is no guarantee your character will get to this stage. Within the setting, most Spanners don't.  The authors of the game specifically request you not even attempt this level of play until you've had (at a bare a minimum) 14 months of experience playing Continuum. Seriously.	We're aren't there yet.

That's right, I've been running a Continuum RPG campaign ongoing for about 36 months now, and we've only just recently (2 or 3 sessions ago) promoted most of the PCs to "Span Three".  If that seems like slow going, it is. I am thrilled to have them ascend to this level, but I'm honestly rather annoyed how long it's taken.

Partly that's because my plots are convoluted. Partly it's because I've allowed friendly NPCs to transport the players Down into history, so they haven't _had_ to advance in order to get to the plots that interest them. Partly it's because we're playing over Skype, and sometimes lose most of a session to technical difficulties. Partly it's because we're all 30-something adults with lives that sometimes prevent us from playing for a week or two. Partly it's because the players are in 3 different timezones, which restricts the length of our sessions a little.

But mostly it's because there's a lot of ground to cover before you get to Span Three. Players, as well as characters, need to get really familiar with the setting and all the mind-bending ramifications of time-travel. After all, Span Three represents the transition from Novice to Master/Teacher.

And I think that's kind of a problem. My players haven't been further down than the 16th Century, and that only because friendly NPCs were willing to take them. You're really not equipped to travel the length and breadth of history until Span Four.


It's too late for my campaign, but if I had it all to do over again, I would completely rewrite the breaks for what happens at which Span rating, so that there were more but smaller milestones and a more rapid escalation in PC teleportation range. The chart would look something more like this:

Span Rating	Lessons Learned	Experiences, Scenarios, and Accomplishments	You Can Teleport This Far
Span One	The Maxims. How not to frag yourself in day-to-day mundane events.	Screwing up again and again. Wrapping your head around spanning in general. Briefly visiting each year of a single decade.	4 years, then you need a full night's rest
Span Two	Self-reliance. The finer points of solving your frag when it does happen. Master Rank in any one Skill.	Your first real adventure, and a couple more thereafter, each with subsequently less coaching from your NPC mentor. Your first Time Combat. Trips to nearby decades. Wrapping up any loose ends in your mundane (pre-spanner) life so you're not a missing person's case.  Your first brief interactions with most of the 10 different Fraternities.	16 years, then you need a full night's rest
Span Three (More or less equivalent to the second half of Span Two under the existing system)	Master Rank in a skill relevant to your Fraternity, Journeyman in some number of other skills useful to anyone spanning outside their century of origin. (Out-of-character, the play group learns how to juggle multiple plotlines and split the spotlight in an equitable way.)	Some sort of "Career Day" to introduce any of the Fraternities that didn't rear their heads in Span Two. Picking one of those 10 Fraternities, and joining it. Leaving the nest and joining some other established Corner. Possibly making your own new Corner. Taking a part one or more missions or adventures for your new Fraternity and/or Corner. Acquiring a huge list of skills required to qualify for Span Three.	64 years, then you need a full night's rest
Span Four (Equivalent to the first half of Span Three under the existing system)	A tiny bit of Hypnosis skill.  Master Rank in a skill relevant to anyone spanning outside their century of origin, such as History, Anthropology, Acting, Etc.	Finally getting to explore places and times more than a century or two from where the campaign started. Your first real Time Combat without your old Mentor being there as back-up. Probably more Fraternity missions/adventures.  Creating several new Corners of your own.	256 years, then you need a full night's rest
Span Five (Equal in prestige to Span Three under the current system. However they have access to centuries much more like a current Span Four.)	Many more levels of Hypnosis skill. Photographic memory. Telepathy is a possibility, but not  required.	First trip to Atlantis... which takes a minimum of around 15 teleports (and full night's rests) just to get there and is thus a major adventure in itself. This is the most likely earliest Span to accomplish a trip to any of the juicier bits of the setting (Atlantis, Vielavayana, The Engineers Crisis, The Midwives Crisis, The Hunt Of The Sun, or various real-world cultures of antiquity such as Rome/Greece/Egypt/Sumeria/3 Kingdoms China), so you can bet there'll be a lot of sight-seeing and tangential adventures.  Successfully running one or more Corners of your own.	1,024 years, then you need a full night's rest
Span Six (Equal in prestige to Span Four under the current system, because we're valuing teachers more, and acknowledging that not all PCs are up to running a Novice/Mentor Corner of their own. )	Master Rank in Teaching.	Acting as Mentor to a whole pack of Novice NPCs. Between "shifts" teaching the NPC scrubs, you have more  adventures of the sort mentioned for the previous Span, but getting there and back again is much easier.	4,096 years, then you need a full night's rest
Exalted (Equal to the current system's take on Exalted. There were more steps to get here, but each step was a little smaller.)	Crazy stuff that blows your mind. Telepathy, for starters.	The Atlantean Councils. At least one major mission against The Enemy, which could range from War in the Geminid to deep cover work inside Antedesertium. Probably a trip Up to the Hour of Inheritence. Any of those things mentioned under the previous spans, but dialed up to 11.	16,384 years, then you need a full night's rest. Which means you can go from the Hour of Inheritance all the way Down to the Atlantean Councils in a single teleport.

That's my proposal for a smoother version of the game. If I were designing Continuum 2.0, that's how I'd break it up.

From Span One to Exalted is 6 promotions instead of 4, but each promotion has less of a barrier in terms of xp requirements and familiarity with the setting. The largest barrier to PC advancement, which is the sudden redirection of the campaign to the PCs being mentors themselves, is pushed to very late in the campaign, and becomes a natural divide between those that do or don't advance to the final rank. The somewhat less-daunting barrier of picking a Fraternity, which tends to split up the campaign into more subplots and less screentime per player, is delayed a tiny bit, and becomes the focus of it's own milestones in-character.  Over all, character progression should be faster and cleaner. Players have more clearly defined goals, which are spread out more evenly across the ranks.

The x4 instead of x10 spanning range at each level isn't quite as clean or easy (the same can also be said about having 7 levels instead of 5), but I think that's a fair trade off for getting to actually visit other centuries before you have to start thinking about Mentoring for a gaggle of NPC Novices.





P.S.: Sorry for the ugliness of the tables. Blogger ate my original HTML, and the process of fixing it was much easier if I just stole someone else's code (in case blogger ate it because of some error I had made.)

Recent Gaming Projects

Been a while since I've posted, but I've been keeping busy. Here's a brief statement of the gaming-related projects that have been keeping me busy:

• Death Warmed Over is a new Zombie Apocalypse RPG that I'm writing. The first playtest will be this Sunday.
• Interior Dredmorating 1.2.4, the latest version of my mod for the rogue-like Dungeons of Dredmor, has been released. It features new rooms (including new shops and zoos), vastly improved artwork, and miscellaneous tweaks and fixes. I've got some exciting news to announce soon about ID and DoD, but for now I must remain silent.
• My Continuum campaign continues ahead on it's two nights. Both play-groups are about a session away from major tangles with narcissists. Ron and Heilyn are about to rescue a fellow spanner from a narcy nest in 1998 London, while Declan and Casey are currently planning to foil a narcy serial killer operating in Basel, Switzerland circa 1530. Should be some exciting sessions in the next couple weeks.

So I'm keeping very busy on multiple fronts.

Bonus Fun Link: Nokia has patented vibrating tattoos that talk to your phone. Cyberpunk may actually be here by 2020 after all. You know this tech is will lead straight to sub-vocal mastoid communicators and Mr Studd implants. All night, every night, and she'll never -- wow, that's incredible sweetheart, where'd you learn how to -- no, wait, that's just my phone.

Continuum Conversion Overview

Just got an email from someone asking me for a few more details on my Continuum-using-Gumshoe conversion. As I typed up the response, I realized this should probably go on my blog in case anyone else wants to know what we changed to make this setting work with a different set of rules. (I think I typed something like this up a while ago, but I couldn't find it with a casual search today).

Mainly I use GUMSHOE rules, modified as needed for the setting. Here's a few things I changed that I can think of off the top of my head:

I cut the size of player character point pools down significantly (building characters from far fewer points in general than any iteration of GUMSHOE), but then made all pools refresh automatically at the start of every session. That way there's no need to remember from week to week how many points you spent in previous sessions. I figure CoNTINUUM has so much book-keeping via spanbooks and just general time-travel-related notekeeping, that I didn't want to have to waste extra effort and energy recording how many points are left over from last week.  The smaller pools are to balance that.

Off the top of my head I don't remember exactly how many points I trimmed them down to, but I've frequently thought I could have trimmed them down a lot smaller than I did without any real consequences. Gumshoe characters get so many points, since the refreshes are only at the start of entire new mysteries/adventures, and with weekly free refreshes they only need a handful of points to advance the plot. If you trim it down too far, it's pretty easy to give the PCs bonus points later, or just let them train skills via normal Continuum training over time rules. Taking points away mid-campaign because you were too generous at the start would be rather harder.

In general, I found/ruled/converted that each Continuum skill rank above Novice is roughly equivalent one point of Gumshoe skill rating. I use 'clocks' more or less like they appear on the Continuum character sheet - each spend or roll of a skill gets you 1 step closer to the next level. If a character has no points to spend but engages in a roll anyway, they also get a clock in the skill, so it's possible to advance in a skill that you don't have or have spent all your points in already. It's not perfect, but it works well enough.

I had to add a couple of skills to cover things specific to Continuum, such as the various Aquarian Skills, and a few "better at spanning" skills to compensate for the lack of a Quick stat. 

I made Gemini into a skill you could spend to have your Elder bail you out, which allows me to throw harder challenges at the player and still give them an "escape switch" for if I overdo it. These Gemini points go away when spent, and only refresh if your Span Rating increases. I did something similar with "Mentor" and "Fraternal Favors" so each PC started the campaign with a couple of "my Mentor shows up to save me" and a handful of "my chrony in the (insert specific fraternity here) owes me a favor that I can cash in right now' points. This gives the PCs a bit more narrative control than they would otherwise have in Continuum, but that's balanced by being Graceless (thus unable to spend any of those points because of too much frag, etc) feel more dangerous.

I also added a "Range" skill, of which all players have 50 points. Spending 1 point of Range lets you span a certain amount of time and/or distance, depending on your Span Rating. This was done partly to match other Gumshoe mechanics, and partly to reduce the amount of time spent calculating the exact minutes and seconds of shorter spans - while knowing your exact Age to the second is important from an in-character performance, we found it was getting in the way of keeping the plot rolling, and Range points helped make that faster. Full details at: http://transitivegaming.blogspot.com/2010/10/extreme-range.html

Besides adding things like I mentioned above, I simplified the gumshoe skill lists a bit. Most versions of Gumshoe have more crime scene forensics and evidence collecting type skill than Continuum really needs, but you may have to "season to taste" on that. There's a really light Gumshoe book called "FEAR ITSELF" that I recommend for this. Intended for less "CSI" style Gumshoe games, it has a smaller investigative skill list. It also has some good psionics-type skills that can be easily converted to represent your Aquarian Skills by just cutting out the creepy cthulhu bits.

I use Stability per Esoterrorists / default Gumshoe, and not any of the extra bells and whistles (sanity, sources and pillars, etc) from Trail of Cthulhu. I also added Continuum-specific Stability challenges/penalties, an early version of which can be seen at: http://transitivegaming.blogspot.com/2010/10/stability-chart-for-gumshoe-continuum.html   

Time Combat is basically the same, but with various Gumshoe spends and rolls instead of Continuum's reliance on the Quick stat. Incidentally, that seems to have made time combat a lot more balanced, whereas before it could be really hard on characters that were created with lower-than-average Quick. 

Physical Combat is much easier because Gumshoe is not a combat-intensive system. I was a little worried about that at first, but honestly it's turned out just fine. Continuum's weird hit location rules were way crunchier than the original game needed, anyway. One thing to be wary of is the Gumshoe rules for wrestling over a gun or getting the drop on someone. It's just too easy to surprise someone in Continuum (span in behind them), so I had to eliminate that or else every fight would be a single roll.

Obviously, that's not everything I converted to make this game run, but it's a good place to start, and about all I've got time for today. If you've got questions, drop me an email or comment.

New Year Continuum (Cart and Horse)

I'm pleased to say that my Continuum campaign successfully jumped back into full swing after the year-end break. The sessions Tuesday and Wednesday were both really good, with opportunities for the PCs to chew the scenery a bit, and both groups made some good breakthroughs on the projects and mysteries at the top of their "to-do" lists.

I did a little reflecting on the game during the break, and thought a lot about where we were now that the campaign's been going for 2 years. I've decided I'd like to speed things up a little, but we'll see if I can make that happen. As mentioned in recent posts, in a game where all the PCs can time-travel a decade or more at-will, it's hard to put any sort of "you have to do this now" pressure on them. You can keep throwing narcissists at them, but that eventually grows old (or overwhelming, if they just keep dodging instead of defeating the enemy). So my plan instead is to throw accolades and achievements at them. They've been in "slow simmer" mode for a while, working on various projects that will gain them some notoriety within the Continuum once everything is said and done. Well, everything's been said and the doing is happening in the next session or two. With any luck, they'll be climbing the ranks quickly this year.

As I see it, they've entered a period in the game where the rewards are higher, and the risks are correspondingly greater as well. Which is a little backwards from most gaming dynamics, but that's Continuum for you. We put the cart Down from the horse.

Catalog of Continuum Corners

In Continuum, a "Corner" is a meeting place, secret lair, landing pad, fort, home or workspace for time-travelers. Some are hidden away in the middle of nowhere, others exist brazenly under the nose of the teeming masses that are unaware of the true secret history of time-travel. Corners frequently have clever nicknames, used to help spanners (time-travelers) coordinate activities in lieu of a street address. If you know a lot of Corners, it's easier to get around in time and space.

Since the PCs can travel time and space at will, the GM often needs to be prepared at a moments notice to detail a new corner. You hand the PCs a clue that's written in a dead language, and they'll suddenly go looking for Corners in remote centuries where they can learn to speak it. Which means its really helpful to a Continuum GM to have at their fingertips a list of Corners, their catchy names, and their locations in time as well as space.

The following is a lengthy snippet of the master index of Corners from my GMing files for my Continuum RPG campaign. I thought these 304 tiny summaries might be a helpful starting place for GMs launching a Continuum campaign, who want to get a running head-start on the Corners of their campaign. I have redacted all the narcissist dens and major spoilers off the list (I hope) so it shouldn't ruin anything if my players poke around on the list. The original is on a file on my computer with hyperlinks and wiki table syntax, but this version is stripped down for your use in porting it to whatever database or word processing program you find useful. In theory it's tab-delimited, but the inconsistencies of HTML and blogspot might nuke that.

You'll find there's very few corners mentioned as being in the United States, for which I apologize. It's mainly a function of the specifics of my campaign. There are clusters of corners around the times and places where the main plot has been - the UK on the Cusp, and various parts of Europe during the renaissance and reformation.

A large number of these Corners have full pages in my GMing notes which go into varying detail about the Corner and its relevant NPCs, but some Corners on the list are just a placeholder that exists as little more than the data listed below. Only a relative handful of the Corners listed here have actually been home to scenes in the game. Part of the nature of Continuum GMing is that you never really know where the PCs will go, so you have to be prepared for everything. Some are locations where my plotlines (or important events in the backstories of NPCs) have taken place, others are just moments in history that struck me as an awesome place to hide a corner.

Also on the list are mentions of every Corner I'm aware of from the official published Continuum RPG materials. The last part of each entry indicates where one can find out more about the Corner in question. "CoRPG" means the main Continuum RPG rulebook, and will usually include a page number. "FI" means the "Further Information" sourcebook, again with a page number reference. There's also a few Corners here taken from various PDF adventures that Aetherco (or fans) released, such as "Identity Is All" (which I used but heavily modified for my campaign) and "Death-Hand of St. No-One". "Short-bus" means it was a corner used in my first Continuum campaign, which may-or-may-not exist in the current campaign in the form listed elsewhere on this blog. A few entries include links to websites that cover interesting historical facts that inspired the Corner, or include search terms (such as names of historical characters) that should turn up details with a little Google-fu and elbow grease. Some include explanatory notes to help me internalize and remember the concept of a particular Corner before I got around to making a full page for it.

The list remains in its index and work-in-progress version and hasn't really been edited for public consumption (other than a quick scan for spoilers). So if there's anything on the list that puzzles someone who deems themself reasonably well-versed in Continuum jargon, just drop me an email (or comment on my most recent blog post) and I'll do my best to explain.

Entries with triple-question-marks ("???") indicate details I didn't have (or need) at the time the Corner first made it on to my list. Most have since been filled in on the individual Corner pages in my GMing notes, but if I can't be bothered to update my own index page I'm certainly not going to take the time to clean it up for this publication that might well be of zero interest to anyone. The fine art of GMing prep involves knowing which bits you need and what details you can ignore for now and improvise should they come up - and that goes double for Continuum.

Hopefully there's a couple Continuum GMs out there in the internet that will find this list useful. I sometimes fear I'm the only person running this wonderful game anymore.

Corner Name     Locality     Years     Type     Further Information is available…
Absolution     United States     2001 to 2152     Moneychangers     FI, pg 88-91
Abtu'o (the House of Abtu)     Thebes, Hat-Kaptah (Ancient Egypt)     1287 BCE to 1242 BCE     Midwives     FI pg 80-81
Aedes Saluto     Rome     249 BCE     Antiquarians     Short-bus
All The Globe's A Stage     Globe Theatre, London, UK     1599 - 1642     Thespians   
Alpha Error     CDC, Atlanta, GA United States     1970 to 2070     Physicians     false positive
Always Thursday Night     New Brunswick, NJ, United States     1983 to 2014     Novice Corner     FI, pg 19 & 24
An Nadaba     Biada (Northern Europe)     4927 BCE to 4413 BCE     Midwives     FI, pg 64-69
Analytical Difference     London, United Kingdom     1820 to 1871     Engineers     following up where Charles Babbage didn't
Antiquities Survey     Atlantis, and ruins of Antedesertium     12969 BCE to 12201 BCE     Antiquarians     FI, pg 40-45
Anyway     ???     2117 to 2212     Thespians     FI, pg 88-91
The Art of Warsaw     National Theatre, Warsaw, Poland     1831 to 1924     Thespian     National theatre was closed by the Russians in the wake of the November 1830 uprising led by Piotr Wysocki
Atavis Vox     Rome     96 BCE to 234     Thespians     CoRPG, pg 87
Atl echiechi Atl     Aztec Empire     1376 to 1482     Thespians     FI, pg 82-87
Avenue of the Dead     Teotihuacan (Mexico)     117 BCE to 630 CE     Engineers   
Axabeneixa     Persepolis (in modern Iran), and elsewhere with Xerxes     555 BCE to 431 BCE     Engineers     FI, pg 76-81
Baconiana     London, England, (United Kingdom)     1586 to 1626     Mixed Fraternal: Thespian, Scribe, Engineer     Francis Bacon
Barcode         Piscean-Aquarian Cusp     Moneychangers     "Barcode" is the name of one of the algorithms that automates stock transactions.
Barnaby's Undertaker Supply and Chemical Transportation Company     London, United Kingdom     1814 to 1902     Quicker     CoRPG, pg 82
Bartschious     Germany and Poland     1620 to 1638     Thespian     Personal travels and mysteries  of Susanna Kepler - Bartsch - Kowalska
Bavmaiachi     Vayana     6032 BCE to 5626 BCE     Scribes     FI, pg 64-69
Befewa     Sut (Eastern Europe)     7006 BCE to 6847 BCE     Engineers     FI, pg 58-63
Bell Telephonic     Cambridge, MA, Washington, D.C., and Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia, Canada     1875, 1876… 1922     Thespian Understudy performance of Alexander Graham Bell by Waith Go     CoRPG, pg 69
Benjamin's House     Hoboken, NJ, United States     1943 to 2011     Moneychangers     FI, pg 19, 24-25
Bernhard Bunker     London, UK     1943 to 1962     Moneychangers     Preventing and profiting from Nazi counterfeiters
Beverly Hills Copse     Hollywood, CA, United States     1947 to 2046     Thespians     CoRPG, pg 87
Big Mike     Banana Fields of Panama     1950 and the Libran Era     Moneychangers preserving the Gros Michel banana     http://www.damninteresting.com/the-unfortunate-sex-life-of-the-banana
Binocular Disparity     ???     2362 and Up     Physicians Boxed Mental Institution     Psyche
Blazon     (United Kingdom)     1127 to 1492     Antiquarians     serious heralds
Blitzguides     London United Kingdom     1940 - 1944     Service Corner run by Midwives, Scribes & Antiquarians   
Blue and white diagonal descent     Red-Aqua-white (also known as "blurred clockwise from lower right, candy red - pale aqua - dull white", a telepathic representation of the city), Upsilon Andromedae 3     1830 to 4261, and 4318 to 4319     Quicker     CoRPG, pg 82
Blue Box     Cardiff     2003 to at least 2011…     Goof-off pad for geeky Antiquarians     Dr. Who starts filming here in 2004.
Blue Jewel In The Sky     Lake Puma Yumco, Tibet     1641 to 1855     Novice Corner     Penuri Pemba, and Prop A
Blue Sky Rising     West Orange, NJ, United States     1981 to 2014     Novice Corner     FI, pg 19-26
Bluestocking     Le Marais, Paris, France     1605 to 1683     Midwives     literary salon, ruelle style
Bound Periodical     St. Pancras Library, London, United Kingdom     1971 to 2022     Scribes Overdue Brigade     The British Library
Breviograph     ???     Sometime Down from the 17th Century     Scribes   
Bull Market     Manhattan Financial District, New York City, United States     1884 to 2058     Moneychangers     CoRPG, pg 77
Buthaz     Tireken     2438 BCE to 2260 BCE     Engineers     FI, pg 70-75
Cada Bastu Detu     drifting boating communities of Cada Bastu (ocean-going people called the Basturo)     12707 BCE to 12366 BCE     Mixed Fraternal Corner, Spans 3's and 4s.     FI, pg 43-45
Cadency     (United Kingdom)     ??? Middle Ages or Elizabethan     Midwives     Cadency is Heraldry term for small elements that distinguish between arms within the same family
Caerphilly Cep     Caerphilly Castle, , United Kingdom     1989 to 2012     PC's Novice Corner     Caerphilly Cep
Canarias     Portugal     2077 to 2153     Midwives     FI, pg 88-91
Canting Arms     (United Kingdom)     1485 to 1603     Antiquarians     fun-loving heralds
Capitulus     Rome     69 BCE to 247     Moneychangers     CoRPG, pg 77
Capone's Vault     Lexington Hotel, Chicago, IL     1892-1978     Moneychangers   
Caress     South Asia     11902 BCE to 11709 BCE     Physicians Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Casa Pasadena     Hollywood, CA, United States     1842 to 1987     Thespians     CoRPG, pg 87
Cemetery Dogs     Greyfriars Kirkyard and Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom     1841 to 2022     Quicker   
Ch'ien     Chou     522 BCE to 457 BCE     Quicker     FI, pg 76-81
Cha me hedipa     Mayan Empire     997 BCE to 762     Midwives     FI, pg 76-81
Chamberlen's Machine     London, United Kingdom     1572 to 1728     Midwives     Birthing Forceps where the Chamberlen family secret.
Cheik Utba'e'     Maihur Riki     10072 BCE to 9966 BCE     Moneychangers     FI, pg 52-57
Chippies     London     Aquarian Cusp     Novice Corner   
CIA Headquarters     Washington, DC (with second cornerhouse in Langley, VA), United States     1947 to 2070     Foxhorn     CoRPG, pg 72
Circe's Dance     Paris, France     1581     Thespians     Ballet Comique de la Reine
Coal Boat     Cardiff     1903 to 1955     Engineers     Cardiff is the worlds largest Coal port for 50 years
Cold Storage     not far from the center of the Universe     Lower Capricornic Era, perilously close to the Big Bang     Quicker and Inheritors corner and containment facility. Matter that is unsolvably fragged is brought here to isolate it from Earth and the other inheritor systems     CoRPG pg 170
Coconut Reactor     Palymyra Atoll, in the Pacific Ocean     1959 to 2022     Engineers   
Conquest Slab     ("Building J" of Monte Alban), Zapotec culture, Oaxaca (Mexico)     393 BCE to 811 CE     mixed Foxhorn & Scribes     Wikipedia
Counterculture     Atlantis     12970 BCE to 12191 BCE     Thespians     FI, pg 40-45
Crystal Triangle         Piscean-Aquarian Cusp     Moneychangers     "Crystal Triangle" is the name of one of the algorithms that automates stock transactions.
Danse Peste     Strasbourg     1515-1523, 1568     Physicians     Dancing Plague
Dark Tower     New York City, United States     1872 to 1931     Foxhorn   
Delphine Tinte     Basle, Switzerland     …1568     Thespians Understudy, with some Scribes supporting.   
Dendy's House     Mrs. Dendy's Theatrical Lodging House, London, United Kingdom     1806 - 1968     Thespians     Inspired by "Tipping the Velvet"
Der Spanner     Zurich, Switzerland     ??? late 20th to early 21st Century     Engineers (Patch and Anticipare)     CoRPG, pg 70
Dheesra Yalpaht     Heerbat (Central Asia)     6534 BCE to 6312 BCE     Antiquarians     FI, pg 58-63
Dies Magni     Rome     618 BCE to 432     Foxhorn     FI, pg 76-81
Digital Divinity     Bristol, UK     Aquarian Cusp     Engineers     inspired by name of real-life Bristol technology company
Dream of the Atlantic     sailing the Atlantic     Geminid Era     Antiquarians collection of lost ships     CoRPG pg 161 - 162
Drop By Drop     Tibet     1578 to 1959     Novice   
Dust     Southeast Asia     11759 BCE to 11644 BCE     Quicker Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
E'yt Turem     Inet'tchedese     6648 BCE to 6432 BCE     Engineers     FI, pg 58-63
Ede Tre'idt     Africa     7811 BCE to 7750 BCE     Moneychangers     FI, pg 58-63
Editio princeps     Basle, Switzerland     1468-1568     Scribes     Latin for the first printed edition of a previously hand-copied manuscript
Eithechtheikya     ???     8516 BCE to 8114 BCE     Scribes     FI, pg 52-57
Empty Wrench     South-Central Asia     10850 BCE to 10537 BCE     Engineers Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Ermu Ga-re-lash     Cheth-edn (West Asia)     7129 BCE to 6984 BCE     Midwives     FI, pg 58-63
Esa Thunt     Shu Siapte (Southeast Asia)     4756 BCE to 4428 BCE     Quicker     FI, pg 64-69
Eyeglass Case     Central Asia     11817 BCE to 11762 BCE     Antiquarians Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Eyo Ueiruh Reruh (“Hard Climb Penthouse”)     Maihur Riki (Virgin city whose ruins are hidden in north Siberia until 2023)     9952 BCE to 9899 BCE     Novice Corner     FI pg 55
Fall and Rise Again     Newark, NJ, United States     1951 to 1993     Novice Corner     FI, pg 19, 24-25
Fene Feleen     Ruabet     6766 BCE to 6497 BCE     Foxhorn     FI, pg 58-63
Fest deer Esel     Basel, Switzerland     1431     Thespians     Feast of the Ass
Field of Cloth of Gold     Balingham, near Calais, France     1520     Thespians stage manager     2,000 tents and a fake castle for 3 weeks
Fire Formula     Constantinople, Byzantine Empire     600 to 1099     Engineers and Thespians     Greek Fire
Five Brave Hunters     “Grey Deer Men” Neanderthal tribe, north of the Fresh-Winding River (Piscean Name: river Seine, France)     Virgin Era     Neanderthal Span 4s and 5s, most born Down of the Fields of Barabande. Here with permission.     FI pg 49-50
Flicker Fusion     Trans-Asia District 2     2152 to 2222     Physicians     Dr. Lainshaw corners Here
Flying Crow With Magic Fire     Nanyang, China     1355 to 1412     Engineers     Wikipedia on Fire Dragon Manual
Flying Squadron     Paris and other parts of France     1547 to 1589     Midwives     Catherine de' Medici
Footlights     Manhattan, NY, United States     1899 to 1975     Thespians     CoRPG, pg 87
Fortress Hanseatic     Visby, Germany     1043 to 1277     Moneychangers     CoRPG, pg 77
Fortress on the Street     Strasbourg     1349 to 1870     Foxhorn   
Fray Blue Blushing     Beijing, China     2137 to 2220     Foxhorn     FI, pg 88-91
The French Resistance     Merankea (what will be southern France)     …6231 BCE…     Engineers     Short-Bus
Frequently     Unity     2175 to 2310     Scribes     FI, pg 88-91
Frostgreen/Forestgreen/Richer Hue (This is one three-part telepathic name)     small Upsilon timeship that visits Earth frequently.     variable     Fairly typical of Inheritors spacecraft.     CoRPG pg 186 - 187
Fumo e specchi     Florence, Italy     …1504…     Engineers and Thespians. This corner spies on Michaelangelo Buonorotti and Leonardo DaVinci.     Casa Buonarroti
Galgen     Basle, Switzerland     1543     Foxhorn and Physicians    Jakob Karrer Von Gebweiler dissection
Gereg Nalgob     Uiualaga (Western Europe)     5382 BCE to 4826 BCE     Physicians     FI, pg 64-69
Geren     Urut He (South Asia)     6951 BCE to 6821 BCE     Dreamers     FI, pg 58-63
Gilt Lady     London, UK     1734 to 2152     Moneychangers     Bank of England
Givrek     Vielavayan Empire     5717 BCE to 5695 BCE     Secret Military Corner, infiltrating Vayana     FI, pg 68
Glamorgan Scrum     Cardiff (and surrounding area), United Kingdom     …2004…2010…     Foxhorn   
Goddelijke Bloesem     Amsterdam, Netherlands     … 1636 to 1638 …     Moneychangers   
The Golden Stars     Basle, Switzerland     1412 and Up     A series of Novice Corners operating out of Zum Goldenen Sternen (Golden Stars Inn)     See also Second Star, Wandering Stars, etc.
Gone Gotha Gone     London, United Kingdom     1907 - 1917     Antiquarians   
Goseck Lucidity     Goseck Circle, near what will be Berlin     4900 BCE     Short-lived Dreamers Corner that first exposed the Hunt of the Sun     Goseck Circle
Gizmonoco     St. Paul, MN, United States     1987 to 2222     Engineers     CoRPG, pg 70
The Great Librarium     Atlantis     12969 BCE to 12191 BCE     Scribes     FI, pg 40-45
Green Barn     Atlantis     12969 BCE to 12191 BCE     Engineers     FI, pg 40-45
Gret     Wurise     9153 BCE to 8832 BCE     Antiquarians     FI, pg 52-57
Groeg ydy abar a ognise bod 'n lladdedig ail a ail     Illium on the Cam     …1248 BCE to 1238 BCE     Midwives     Where Troy Once Stood by Iman Wilkens, also “Short-bus”
Gurhuen     The Nurisen     8392 BCE to 7806 BCE     Moneychangers     FI, pg 52-57
Hair Bundle     Tikal (Guatamala)     111 to 561, 682 to 812     Dreamers     Wikipedia
Happy Desertion     Watchpost cities of "Happy Valley" Pueblos (four corners region of SW North America)     1280 to 1300     Thespians     entire 4 corners region migrates out of the pueblos because farms fail at borders of the Happy Valley and the watchpost cities are emptied. Inner areas of valley collapse because they no longer have the guard/look out cities
H'iesh'håshaa-U'sÿss (Leafnest of the Visitor)     ???     106,234,822 BCE to 106,234,071 BCE     Quicker     CoRPG, pg 82
Hatchet     North America     11246 BCE to 10982 BCE     Midwives Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Hearts Singing     Well-woman clinic in West London. London, United Kingdom     1985 to 2010     Midwives     CoRPG, pg 74
Helpers Ass'n of Washington     United States (Washington, DC?)     1937 to 2017     Midwives     FI, pg 82-87
Heron Lakes Lodge     Ohio Valley, North America     106 to 1244     Foxhorn     CoRPG, pg 72
Hewing Hewer     Caerphilly     1327 and 2152, but not between them     Mixed Fraternal
Hireaunkh     Hireaunkh Forest     9869 BCE to 9723 BCE     Physicians     FI, pg 52-57
Homely     Polynesia     10762 BCE to 10544 BCE     Midwives Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Hook and Wheels     Brooklyn, New York City, United States     1993     Novice Corner     "The Death Hand of Saint No-One" adventure pdf
Horse God Thunders     Urudolyan Foothills (Russia)     5746 BCE to 5570 BCE     Foxhorn     CoRPG, pg 72
Horsemen     Cardiff, but with additional Cloisters in Clevedon, Alton Barnes, and Bristol, UK, at least     2002 to 2011     Foxhorn   
Horses and Torpedoes     Arab Syria     1271 to 1277     Engineers     The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices
The Hospice     Atlantis     12970 BCE to 12191 BCE     Physicians and Quicker     FI, pg 40-45
House of Knowledge     Fatimid Caliphate (Egypt)     1004…     Scribes     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Knowledge
House of Wisdom     Bagdhad, Abbassid Caliphate (Iraq)     762 to 1258     Scribes     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_wisdom
House of Sleep     Atlantis     12970 BCE to 12191 BCE     Dreamers     FI, pg 40-45
Hu Nar     Brudhlk (Central Europe)     8873 BCE to 8712 BCE     Thespians     FI, pg 52-57
The Hunt Club     London, United Kingdom     1797 to 1919     Foxhorn (most important Foxhorn counter this side of the Virgin Era)     CoRPG, pg 72; FI pg 82-87
Hwa     Hat-Kaptah (Ancient Egypt)     300? BCE to 2000 BCE     Physicians     FI, pg 70-75
Iakka Pneima     Kena'ani     1872 BCE to 1567 BCE     Moneychangers     FI, pg 76-81
Ie've-ya-wast     Vayana     5966 BCE to 5634 BCE     Antiquarians     FI, pg 64-69
Il Ridotto ("The Private Room")     Venice, Italy     1638 to 1774     Moneychangers     state-run casino whose dress code includes mandatory masks
Ilkad Ledash     Eridu     3108 BCE to 2999 BCE     Engineers     FI, pg 70-75
Incunabula     Strasbourg     1440-1500     Engineers & Scribes     Incunabula are pamphlets printed before 1500 AD
Interlineation     London, United Kingdom     Not far from the Aquarian Cusp     Scribes   
Intermedio     Florence (Italy)     1513 to 1589     Thespians   
Ipt Awyut     Hat-Kaptah (Ancient Egypt)     2981 BCE to 2690 BCE     Antiquarians     FI, pg 70-75
Iy     Mui O     6839 BCE to 6754 BCE     Midwives     FI, pg 58-63
Jerda Ko     West Asia     5662 BCE to 4381 BCE     Moneychangers     FI, pg 64-69
Jongleur Temperance     Lille, France     1091 to 1562     Thespians     CoRPG, pg 87
Kali Yuga Moksha     Chattisgarhi, India     1582 to 2000     Midwives     CoRPG, pg 74
Kare'i Tudo'eyi     Oyo'tu village of No'pa'a     9844 BCE to 9686 BCE     Scribes     FI, pg 52-57
Kejaweni     Yeberen (Asia Minor)     8321 BCE to 7972 BCE     Midwives     FI, pg 52-57
Keramos Asclepiadae     Isle of Kos (off Asia Minor)     990 BCE to 182 BCE     Physicians     CoRPG, pg 80; FI pg 76-81
Klaba Chebyenami     Vayana     5721 BCE to 5350 BCE     Thespians     FI, pg 64-69
King's N'cle     Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom     1834 to 1934     Physicians     Newcastle University School of Medicine and Surgery
Knight Fisching     Yugoslavia, Japan, and Iceland     1992, 2004, and 2005 - 2008, respectively     Thespians, with some Midwives     Following Bobby Fischer
Kopros Athenoi     Macedon     360 BCE to 294 BCE     Antiquarians     FI, pg 76-81
Ks'ara yti N'stana     Pacing the traveller Tsantatur on his worldwide journeys     2725 BCE to 2661 BCE     Quicker     FI, pg 70-75
Kwi-yche     Kohyo'a-e-e (Southeast Asia)     8026 BCE to 7754 BCE     Thespians     FI, pg 58-63
l'innocence galvaudé (Overused Innocence )     Catacombs, and Saint Innocents cathedral/graveyard/fountain area, Paris, France         Quicker   
Lalys Bailey     Palestine     1100     Engineers     Lalys is a semi-mythical Byzantine crusader castle maker
Landscape Heraldry     (United Kingdom)     10th Century to 19th Century     Dreamers     dream-time fantasy realm
Laserwort     Cyrene, Northern tip of Africa (Libya)     circa 5th Century BCE to 1st Century     Midwives source of Silphium     http://www.damninteresting.com/the-birth-control-of-yesteryear
Lawton Cathouse     Reno, NV, United States     …1982…     Novice Corner
Lenore     Iberia (Spain)     11065 BCE to 10899 BCE     Scribes Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Let It Be     London, United Kingdom     (1963 to) 1969     Thespians     Beatles Rooftop Concert, Jan 30 1969
Level 1     United States     1932 to 2002     Engineers, Foxhorn, Physicians, and Quicker     FI, pg 82-87
Library of Congress     Washington, DC, United States     1790 to 2122     Scribes     CoRPG, pg 84
Litchfield Hills Pediatric     Bantam, CT, United States     1992 to 1998, 2043     Physicians     pertaining to a CDC containment “hot zone” in 1993
Lost and Foundation     high in the Andes mountains, (South America)     Cancerean Era     Antiquarians collection of lost buildings     CoRPG pg 161 - 162
The Louvre     Paris, France     1844 to 2045     Antiquarians     CoRPG, pg 67
Llywelyn's Head     Caerphilly, Wales, United Kingdom     1268 to 1326   
Long Land Dreaming     Northern Australia     13021 BCE to 1683     Dreamers     CoRPG, pg 68; FI pg 40-87
Lundy Lines     Chicago, IL, United States     1891 to 1979     Engineers   
Macbeth     North Asia     10969 BCE to 10628 BCE     Thespians Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Maison Rousse     Neufchateau, France     1330 to 1572     Novice Corner (where Jeanne D'Arc is a novice)     CoRPG, pg 184
Mandala     Asia     ???     Quicker   
Maquahuitl Apex     Aztec Empire     1519 to 1521     Engineers     Maquahuitl = obsidian "sword"
Mercury     East Asia     11679 BCE to 11482 BCE     Moneychangers Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Middle Span     Central America     11983 BCE to 11842 BCE     Engineers Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Morse Mill     speak easy in Chicago, IL, United States     1878-1936     Novice Corner     Public name was Pop Morse's Gardens till 1914, public name changed to Green Mill thereafter.
Mosquito     Atlanta, GA United States     1942-1946     Physicians     Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities
Mound Monks     Cahokia, Mississipian culture (Illinois, North America)     892 to 1270     Moneychangers   
Mraiset Jet'th     Mrasiset     10849 BCE to 9881 BCE     Physicians     FI, pg 52-57
Mref Kafa     Afaset     9154 BCE to 8923 BCE     Quicker     FI, pg 52-57
Mreten     Uen Tae (North America)     7841 BCE to 7532 BCE     Physicians     FI, pg 58-63
Musei Vaticani     Vatican City, Rome, Italy     1503 to 1778     Antiquarians     CoRPG, pg 67
Museum, Sarapeum et Caesareum     The Great Library of Alexandria, Alexandria, Hat-Kaptah/Egypt     285 BCE to 690 (with burnings at 48 BCE, 265-270 AD, 305, 391, 415, and 686 CE)     Scribes     CoRPG, pg 84; FI pg 76-81
Mut Haat     Lake Region (where Vielavaya will be)     7529 BCE to 7218 BCE     Quicker     FI, pg 58-63
MWPP (Medieval Witness Protection Plan)    Strasbourg, Alsace (border of France and the Holy Roman Empire)    1515 to 1550    Service Corner created by the PCs of my campaign, relating to the dancing plague and actions against a narcissist serial-killer in Strasbourg (and Basel Switzerland)
Nate's Hardware Store     Akron, Ohio, United States     1932 to 2001     Engineers     CoRPG, pg 70
National Palace Museum     Taipei, China     1958 to 2043     Antiquarians     CoRPG, pg 67
New You     Hollywood, CA, United States     1949 to 2043     Physicians     CoRPG, pg 80; FI 82-87
The Niagra Twelve     Planned Parenthood in Buffalo, New Jersey, United States     1972 to 2018     Midwives     CoRPG, pg 74
Nmetseshi     Ur     3986 BCE to 3662 BCE     Midwives     FI, pg 70-75
No Fu Go     Washington, DC, United States     1943 to 1945     Scribes (with bomb-disposal help from Engineers)     keeping Japanese attacks out of the papers
No Laughing Matter     Kashasha, Tanganyika (Tanzania)     1962 to 1963     Physicians     Tanganyika laughter epidemic
Nonsuch Knick-Knacks     Nonsuch Palace, England     1538 - 1547, 1670 - 1683     Antiquarians     Henry VIII's dream palace, torn down by Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine
North of the Moon     Northernmost plaform of Huaca de la Luna, Cerro Blanco, Moche culture (Peru)     186 to 536     Midwives     "Ayapec" ("All-Knowing") and "Wrinkle-Face" appear in oldest murals. Built by over 100 teams of laborers.
Notae Socratae     Athens, Ancient Greece (Greece)     roughly 400 BCE to 350 BCE     Scribes     Socrates, Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle, Aristophanes, etc
Nuen Djaret     Zaraja (Central Asia)     9824 BCE to 9399 BCE     Foxhorn     FI, pg 52-57
Nurgush Karinesh     Mesopotamia     3877 BCE to 3014 BCE     Foxhorn     FI, pg 70-75
The Nursery     Atlantis     12969 BCE to 12191 BCE     Midwives     FI, pg 40-45
Nuruch Heng     Heng     9436 BCE to 8976 BCE     Antiquarians     FI, pg 52-57
Nuts!     Bastogne, France     1944 - 1945     Thespians     See "Band of Brothers" for more ideas.
Oasis     In the Sahara desert     Leonid Era     Antiquarians collection of lakes, is a common stopover for Foxhorns heading to attack Antedesertium     CoRPG pg 161 - 162
Objective Reticle     ???     Aquarian Cusp     Foxhorn Strike Team   
Old Berm     Atlantis     12970 BCE to 12191 BCE     Foxhorn     FI, pg 40-45
Oraklos Dalphe     Delphi (known as Pyth prior to 617 BCE), Ancient Greece     4228 BCE to 394     Dreamers     CoRPG, pg 68; FI pg 82-87
Pethah Htakep     Hat-Keptah (Ancient Egypt)     3156 BCE to 2795 BCE     Scribes     FI, pg 70-75
Phle'chea     Ibrag's Tribes     9308 BCE to 8955 BCE     Thespians     FI, pg 52-57
Pie Police     Hayfork, CA, United States     1995 to 2006     Quicker?   
Plastic     South America     11560 BCE to 11429 BCE     Antiquarians Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Present Moment     ???     ???     Quicker or a spiritual Retreat
Puma Plan     Qusqu, Kingdom of Cusco / Inca culture (Peru)     1207 to 1532     Engineers   
Punch In II     Unity     2162 to 2269     Engineers     FI, pg 88-91
Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent     Teotihuacan (Mexico)     161 to 298     Physicians   
Rag & Bones     London, United Kingdom     1945 - 1959     Novice Corner     Chloë Timblin
Red Carpet     then-warm expanses of Siberia and Central Asia     Virgin Era     Thespians     CoRPG, pg 87, this is the most popular private party spot for high ranking Thespians
Rentes Nouvelles     Strasbourg, France     1481 to 1524     Moneychangers   
The Repository     Colon, Germany     1822 to 1937     Antiquarians     CoRPG, pg 67
Restful House     Edo, Japan     1683 to 1794     Physicians     CoRPG, pg 80
Retry     Australia     1968 to 2014     Scribes     FI, pg 82-87
The Rousers     Britain (United Kingdom)     1597 to 1616     Novice Corner to future Scribes     FI, pg 82-87
Safe House     Safehouse Nightclub, Milwaukee, WI, United States     1966-2010...     Foxhorn     safe-house dot com
Scenic View     Southern Brookhaven Township (near Brookhaven National Laboratory's particle accelerator), Upton, New York, United States (60 miles east of Manhattan, New York City )     2001 to 2020     novice (in my campaign, changed to Engineers)     vanilla "Identity is All" adventure
School of Dreaming     Thebes, Hat-Kaptah (Ancient Egypt)     2216 BCE to 891 BCE     Engineers     CoRPG, pg 70
School of Night     London (United Kingdom)     1503 to 1601     Scribes     CoRPG, pg 84
The Scribal Librarium     Jerusalem     2101 to 2400     Scribes: more Scribes here than anywhere else in the Societies     CoRPG, pg 84
Scuola Cecilia     Milano, Italy     1447 to 1620     Engineers     CoRPG, pg 70
Second Language     Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom     1963 to 2120     Thespians and Scribes     Newcastle University, School of Modern Languages
Second Star     Basle, Switzerland     …1512 to 1532…     Novice Corner operating out of Zum Goldenen Sternen (Golden Stars Inn)   
Secretary Hand     ??? - (Could be in England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, United Kingdom, or maybe even Germany)     16th Century and 17th Century     Scribes     Available for GM improvisations
Seras     Yeberen (Asia Minor)     9348 BCE to 8978 BCE     Midwives     FI, pg 52-57
Serekh     Ancient Egypt     6000 BCE to 332 BCE     Antiquarians     Serekh is the word for predynastic Egyptian heraldry, a box around heiroglyphs that indicates the combined symbols are a royal name.
Seventh Belt     Amazon Basin, South America     11843 BCE to 11762 BCE     Thespians Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Shih Tuan     Ch'in     260 BCE to 210 BCE     Thespians     FI, pg 76-81
Shrift     Saxony     997 to 1216     Moneychangers     FI, pg 82-87
Sideways     Madagascar     11532 BCE to 10876 BCE     Quicker Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Silicon Valley     Silicon Valley, California, United States     1919 to 2103     Moneychangers     CoRPG, pg 77
Silver House of the Second Ring     Atlantis     12969 BCE and various locations in spacetime     Quicker     CoRPG, pg 82
Skivvy     West Africa     10552 BCE to 10364 BCE     Scribes Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Small Change     Mesopotamia     11246 BCE to 11243 BCE     Moneychangers Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Smithsonian Castle     Washington, D.C.     1847 to 2065     Antiquarians   
Smithy Ice Folds     Unity     2203 to 3651     Quicker and Inheritor     FI, pg 88-91
Snomalshee Lodge     Pacific Northwest of North America     4238 BCE     Individual spanners sweat lodge, arguably a Quicker corner     transitive
Soigne Démasqué     Roman Baths at Reims, France (Now gone and replaced by the Notre Dame Cathedral)     511 to 751     Midwives and Thespians,    Short-bus had rough draft, successful in this campaign
Solfjellhytte     High in the mountains of what will be Norway     …2244 BCE…     Engineers     short-bus
South Seas Bubble     London, United Kingdom     1711 to 1784     Moneychangers     CoRPG, pg 77
Speedy Danfoniad     Wales, United Kingdom     1990s     Scribes
Spelling Bee     Southern Europe     11624 BCE to 11466     Foxhorn Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Spiral Teeth Wandering     Central Asia     9824 BCE to 9399 BCE     Foxhorn     CoRPG, pg 72
Sponge     Northeast Africa     11144 BCE to 10858 BCE     Physicians Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Star Garage     Atlantis     12970 BCE to 12191 BCE     Engineers     FI, pg 40-45
Stratford Grammar School     King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon, England (United Kingdom     1553, 1564 to 1585     Foxhorn, posing as Scribes     Protecting young William Shakespeare from narcissists.
Studio One     Caerphilly, United Kingdom     1990 - 2000     ???     Gwilym Pearson
Styx     Port Jefferson, New York, United States     1985 to 2005     novice     vanilla "Identity is All" adventure
Sublime Gate     Constantinople (Istanbul), Ottoman Empire (Turkey)     1522 to 1676     Midwives     "Sultanate of Women" era
Sunrise     Zhugguo (District Zero)     1997 to 2116     Dreamers     FI, pg 88-91
Sunstreak     Fort Meade, MD, United States     1976 to 1995     Dreamers and Quicker     CIA Project Stargate into Coordinate Remote Viewing
Surveillance State     London, UK     1991 to 2046     Foxhorn     Starting with IRA bombs in 1992, London sets up a Ring of Steel and slowly transitions into a Police State. These guys take advantage of everything that entails.
Swap Meet     Gary, Indiana, United States     1933 to 2019     Antiquarians     CoRPG, pg 67; FI pg 82-87
Swordplay     Higgins Armory Museum, Worchester, MA, United States     1978 to 2027     Antiquarians sword and armor collection   
Tangent 1     Atlantis     12970 BCE to 12191 BCE     Quicker, plus Inheritor/Late Aquarian     FI, pg 40-45
Tenez! (Take that!)     a monastery somewhere in France     around 1200     amusements corner? novice?     Tennis was invented by French Monks, who'd shout "Tenez!" ("Take that!") while playing. By 1200 AD, there were over 2000 tennis courts in france. Early courts were hour-glass shaped.
Tennis Anyone?     Lisle's Tennis Court, London, United Kingdom     1661 - 1705     Thespians   
Theatreland     West End, London, United Kingdom     1967 – 2012     Thespians   
Thiss Tered Aga     The Nurisen     8408 BCE to 7790 BCE     Engineers     FI, pg 52-57
Threadneedle     London, United Kingdom     102 to 2140     Antiquarians and Moneychangers Service Corner     Lord Quentin Whitbread
Three Cocks     Strasbourg     1352-1354, 1547-1574, 1838-1843     Engineers     Strasbourg Astronomical Clock
Thrn Ghedl     Brudhlk (Central Europe)     9014 BCE to 8785 BCE     Foxhorn     FI, pg 52-57
Tiger     Northern Africa     10261 BCE to 10021 BCE     Foxhorn Waystation     FI, pg 46-51
Tour la Jetée     Paris, France     1555 to 1720     Novice and Foxhorn, mentor is Jeanne D'Arc     CoRPG, pg 184, further developed in Short-bus
Trade Secrets     Atlantis     12969 BCE to 12191 BCE     Moneychangers     FI, pg 40-45
Tui Lung     Hsien Chen     999 to 1317     Thespians     CoRPG, pg 87
Tulpen Knop     Amsterdam, United Netherlands     … 1634 to 1638 …     Novice Corner   
Twelve Lucky Apes     British sector of Shanghai, Manchu China     1850 to 1911     Quicker     FI, pg 82-87
Umbris Dei (the shades of God)     Espana     419 to 710     Novice growing into mixed Fraternal     FI pg 86-87
UMDNJ - University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey     Newark, NJ, United States     1984 to 2133     Physicians     CoRPG, pg 80
Undercroft     Aberystwyth, Wales, (United Kingdom)     1110 to 1221, 1282 to 1294, 1307 to 1408     Engineers   
Unt Stenel'a (“Light Ascending”)     Hehang Bei, Ohistla (Mexico)     7464 BCE to 7320 BCE     Quicker     FI pg 61-63
Uroczystości     Gdansk, Poland     late 1500s, early 1600s     Novice corner     translated from Polish it means roughly "celebration", and is pronounced oo-row-shih-stow-see
Ut Torabata     Heghur     3571 BCE to 3314 BCE     Moneychangers     FI, pg 70-75
Vadistokli Arkun     somewhere in the Baltic     5236 BCE     Novice Corner     short-bus
Valves     Great Harbor     12970 BCE to 12191 BCE     Engineers     FI, pg 40-45
Ventura Rosehips     Hollywood, CA, United States     1890 to 2007     Thespians     CoRPG, pg 87
Vielavayan culture     Vielavayana / Vayana     6120 BCE to 5583 BCE     Whole culture that's in league with Antedesertium.     FI 64-69
Villa Lewaro     Just North of New York City     1919 - 1931     Personal residence of A'Lelia Walker
Wandering Stars     Gypsy caravan across Europe     16th Century     Novice Corner on wheels  
The Watchman Society     London, United States     …1843…     Quicker     "Plum Pudding and Other Such" adventure pdf
We Shall Be Spartacus     Berlin, Germany     January 1919     Thespians     Rosa Luxembourg
Weekly Paper     Strasbourg     1605-1681     Scribes     Johann Carolus
Whalton     Philadelphia, PA, United States     1883 to 2077     Moneychangers     CoRPG, pg 77
When the Silence Speaks     Asia     ???     ???   
Windsor Watchers     London, United States     1917 - 1997     Midwives   
The Womb     Kish, Sumeria     …3241 BCE     Dreamers     short-bus
Words Under Water     Somewhere in Poland     around 1580 to 1670     Thespians & Scribes   
Worshipful Company of Barbers     London     1308 to 1940     Physicians     Barber-Surgeon's Guild
Yasdge     Tderegan     6532 BCE to 6086 BCE     Scribes     FI, pg 58-63
Yed dal-heht     Indus valley     7644 BCE to 7235 BCE     Foxhorn     FI, pg 58-63
Yeet     Singapore     2099 to 2140     Antiquarians     FI, pg 88-91
Yenmurta (“Moments of the Moon”)     Ethuvan I     2990 BCE to 2914 BCE     Novice Corner     FI pg 74-75
You'll Catch More With Honey     Keokuk, Iowa United States     1824 to 1849     Antiquarians engaged in the Greatest Game     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_War
Yssisha     Ikarne     4068 BCE to 3772 BCE     Thespians     FI, pg 70-75
Zedabek     Durdeka     10172 BCE to 9776 BCE     Engineers     FI, pg 52-57
Zoom     Chosen     2110 to 2210     Physicians     FI, pg 88-91
Zsidi nhi     Zsidi     8348 BCE to 8033 BCE     Quicker     FI, pg 52-57

Information Is All - and sometimes that drives me crazy!

As some of my readers know, I'm running this time-travel game two nights a week. It's the setting of the out-of-print Continuum RPG, but with mechanics derived primarily from the Gumshoe system (Trail of Cthulhu, Esoterrorists, etc.)  It's a game where PCs can teleport and time-travel at will, in a deterministic universe where the past (and future) is unchangeable and set in stone, but you can often reverse-engineer alternate explanations to the events that have already been witnessed. (Sort of like when Doc Brown puts on the bullet-proof vest to survive that time when Marty saw him get gunned down by the Libyan terrorists. You can't stop the established events from happening, but you can finesse the unknown details.)

1. Information Is All

Upon whether I know or not know a thing, depends my existence. If I know a thing is to happen, it is my foremost responsibility to see that it happens. This is my Yet, or Required Future, and it is the price I gladly pay to span time. Change of the known is resisted by the Continuum ceaselessly so that our greater liberties and lives will be fulfilled.

- The First Maxim, CoNTINUUM: roleplaying in The Yet, by Adams / Fooden / Manui

I'm constantly working on the myriad small details of this campaign. It's got a huge cast of NPCs spanning centuries, and multiple interwoven long-term plotlines. While Gumshoe is a pretty rules-light system, converting the very heady and esoteric concepts of Continuum's "Time Combat" (not to mention Narcissist's "Mnemelos Scale" of "Map Coordinates") into Gumshoe has also produced a fairly lengthy body of text. I'm really proud of the hard work I've been putting into it for the past two years.

And yet I am continually frustrated by my inability to share most of that work Here. The bulk of the mechanical conversion work would push the boundaries of "fair use" to just post it on the wide-open internet. More to the point, the plot- and character-related material often runs into spoiler territory. Given that it's a game where the PCs can hop down to 1518 on a whim (as they've done recently to check out the dancing plague), the GM has to spend a lot of time prepping things that may or may not get used, any of which would totally wreck the mystery (of a very-much puzzle-and-mystery-driven campaign) if they were leaked to the players out of sequence. I'm sure all GMs of mystery-based games get a certain amount of this "keep the plot to myself" anxiety, but it is most definitely intensified by the non-linear nature of time travel (the PCs can pursue plot threads in any sequence and with no time-pressure to keep them on-task) and the particular deterministic wrinkles of the way Continuum's in-game consensus reality is formed. There's never really a moment where you can definitively say that a specific piece of unrevealed plot twist is no longer relevant. Every piece of information the characters have determines things that are set in stone and cannot be altered except by fiddling with the details that they clearly didn't observe. This means spoilers don't just undermine dramatic tension, they also force the wave-form of the universe to collapse into a particular resolved quantum state. Disentangling in-character vs out-of-character information is harder than in most other games, which provokes a paranoid degree of caution and silence when discussing the game other than in-character and "at the table".

Sometimes that need to play things close to the vest makes me feel like I'm going to burst at the seams. That's my recurring bugaboo that nags at me no matter how much fun the game is -- in fact this specific frustration gets worse when the sessions and plots are at their best. Despite two years of continual experience with it, I still haven't grown comfortable with the feeling, and the growing body of work I can't really share without ruining future surprises just about gets the better of me at times.

I really need to figure out ways in which I can share a larger portion of the data, work and writing without undermining the ongoing campaign. I've been saying that for two years now - it's about damn time I make good on it.

Recent Gaming Shenanigans

I haven't gotten around to much blogging lately, so here's a quick run-down of recent games I've played or GM'd. Probably any of these could have been an entire blog post unto themselves, and a few might still be if I find the time and energy.

• I played Lacuna at the Emerald City Game Fest. This nearly became part of my "A good GM can save a bad system" post, but after a couple weeks of keeping it warm on the back burner of my mind, I've decided I don't like the taste of it after all. It's certainly unique, and an admirable experiment, but not one I plan to subject myself to again any time soon. Reviews I've read since suggest that PCs can perform all sorts of crazy stunts, but our game was rather more restrained than that. Ours played more like a mystery or detective story in which all the PCs had amnesia and expectations of cause and effect were upended. I had too many questions about the setting, and the GM (not just the NPCs) had too few answers; I found it frustrating. I guess I was hoping for Inception meets The Prisoner, and would have been totally okay with The Matrix meets Blue Velvet, but what I got was more like Memento meets Eraserhead. Interesting to watch, but damn hard to game in.
• The day after that, our Truth & Justice campaign wrapped up. I was likewise never quite rocked by that campaign. I really wanted to be challenged more. The plot was a little slow, the villains not as colorful as they could have been, and just not enough tension or drama to really engage me. I would have preferred to have the baddies be a bit more "in your face". The players (myself included) share some of the burden as well, as we never really worked together well and didn't chase plot threads perhaps as well as we could have. I guess I wanted less dysfunction, and more action. The game thankfully didn't meltdown or implode, but it also never seemed to get beyond a simmer.
• My Continuum campaign has had a few out-of-character hurdles. Individual sessions have been really good, but since it's a game where Information Is All, I can't really blog about any plotline (like the basilisk deaths near the 1527 Paracelsus symposiums, or the part where Derren Brown was posing as Christopher Marlowe) that's still in process. And they've been in-process for a long time, as we've only been getting half as many sessions as expected. Normally, I GM twice a week for two different playgroups in the same timeline/universe. The Wednesday night group had to take a month off from play because of one player doing a lot of summer travelling. Just before the Wednesday group returned to the game, the Tuesday group also had to take a month off because a huge work deadline hitting a player. So I had a couple weeks without GMing my Time-Travel game, preceded and followed by less GMing than normal.

Knowing in advance about the month-long gaps in my Continuum group's schedules, I planned to GM as often as possible for our Thursday night one-shot group. However, between my wife getting a promotion that totally rearranged our home schedule, a friend at that game coming down with chicken pox, and me getting sucked into a video game, then mired in a short patch of writers block... well, the month shot by with me just GMing once. That puts me in withdrawal. It gets ugly. My wife came home from work one day, and found me passed out in the bathroom with 3d6 sticking out of my brachial artery.

• The one time I did get to GM on the one-shot night was Og, which I totally only ran because I couldn't quite get the pregens finished for the Cyberpunk scenario I was planning on running. Og is a very goofy caveman game. I've run it a couple times before, more than a year ago, and worked in some Land-of-the-Lost references and time-travel nonsense which seemed to go over well. This time, though, I think I bit off more than I could chew. The PCs scattered every chance they got, and I was left with too much plot for their limited caveman vocabularies. I started grasping at straws, and pulled out of my belly  The Great Gazoo, an intervention team from the Planet of the Apes, [a Slip-and-Slide, the Beach Boy's Pet Sounds] and about half a Roman Legion. I felt like it was a huge cluster-failure, but most of the players seemed to laugh their way through it.

This past week, however, the gaming has swung back around and apparently I've been on fire (or just really obnoxious).

• Thursday night we played Lady Blackbird. Honestly, I lack confidence in Lady Blackbird's mechanics, and I think a bit more definition to the setting (and magic) would be a huge benefit. Leaving so much up to the players is dangerous, especially when I've been role-playing deprived for a week or two. I played Snargle, the shapeshifting goblin pilot, and I hammed it up to no end. There was way too much discussion of goblin-porno and the proper inflating of boobloons.  I'm quite certain it was nothing like what the designer of the game intended, and it may very well have undermined what the others at the table wanted too, but at least it entertained the bystanders at the game store.
• Then the night after that, dinner with friends lead to an impromptu game of Microscope. Our setting was an alternate earth with urban fantasy elements, where famous fictional literary figures became real. Dracula, Lilith, and Dr. Jeckyl all made appearances. There was this scene where I played Dr. Jeckyl (which I pronounced Gee-kell with a thick scottish accent so I could sneak past the initial round of character declaration without most people realizing who I was really playing till the scene got going) and turned into Mr. Hyde and crawled around under the table in some very inappropriate LARP-ish antics with my secretary. What happens under the table, stays under the table.

I am definitely looking forward to getting my regular fix of plot, puzzle and drama sometime soon, in hopes that it will pull me out of this over-the-top perverted character-actor spiral.