STRANGEWAYS CHRONICLE, vol.1, no.1  ***Fabulous First Issue!***
		by Robert Dagnall, written 3/4/90

	This is the first installment in what will hopefully become a long
	FIRST, however, it has occurred to me that some campaign background
would be in order, that you may know something of the setting for these runs.
	The Strangeways campaign is set in present-day Earth.  The major change
is, of course, the addition of supers.  The first superheroic adventurers 
debuted circa 1967.  The cause of their appearance is unknown, though a number
of theories have been advanced for the phenomenon of superpowered individuals 
and other elements once restricted to the pages of comic books.  Some research-
ers believe that the coming of supers was heralded by the multiple detonations
of nuclear weaponry in the 1940s; the resultant radiation, they say, has 
mutated individuals into today's superhumans.  However, these theories have
fallen from favor in recent years with evidence from new gene-mapping 
experiments.  The DNA of superhumans does not appear to differ in significant
ways from that of other human beings, thus largely ruling out mutation as the
cause of supers.  
	A variant of the A-bomb theory is currently in vogue among 'super-
theorists'.  They cite the widespread stress on the population of the world,
predominantly in areas which had widespread media access, brought about by
the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.  Suicide rates, quantity of admissions to 
psychiatric hospitals, the erratic behavior of the NYSE:  all these patterns
of behavior are thought to be symptomatic of the stress on a species brought
to the edge of extinction.  Superbeings may be another manifestation of this
stress.  Adherents to theories of the 'collective unconscious of mankind', a
la C. G. Jung, claim that the Cuban Missile Crisis was a catalyst for a 
transformation of mankind, allowing people to tap powers which have lain 
dormant for millenia.  The mechanism by which some people are 'gifted' with 
powers is unknown, though extreme stress is a possibility, judging from the
number of supers who manifest their powers after an accident, and from the
number of supers with tragic backgrounds.  This body of thought is known in
common parlance as the Pandora school of interpretation, and supers are 
ascribed to a 'Pandora Effect'.
	This theory lends itself to interesting speculations about the gods
and heroes of myth; might they have been precursors to today's supers?  And if
so, why do the exploits of such figures cease to appear following the Fall of
Rome?  Heroic figures seem to have gone on hiatus, with only a few sporadic
examples (King Arthur springs immediately to mind, as does John Henry) between
that ancient time and the present day.  
	There are a number of other theories which have been advanced by 
'experrts' in various fields.  Students of magic and the occult claim that the
barrier between this world and other, parallel planes has become permeable in
recent years, allowing things to pass back and forth across dimensions.  Some
elements of these theories mesh well with the Pandora explanations, but 
no one theory appears to suffice for all manifestations of superphenomena.
	
	Behind the scenes:  some other elements of the campaign background
	which I'll rattle off by stream-of-consciousness:

	--No contact with alien civilizations is known by the general public 
to have taken place.  I feel that any such contacts would have widespread
repercussions on human cultures, and I'm not ready to explore that yet.  I
discouraged alien characters, telling players that if they wished to play an
alien we should sit down and work out his relationship to and implications for
Earth societies.  No takers as yet, but I have a plotline or two in mind 
which will explore the question of 'who's out there'.

	--It's easier to travel from dimension to dimension than from place to
place over long distances in the same plane, because the barriers which sep-
arate Strangeways-Earth from other, parallel worlds have weakened, and may be
crossed any of several ways.  Not that dimensional travel is *easy*, mind you:
only that players are more likely to encounter figures from other dimensions 
than from across our galaxy.

	--Costumes, whether they make sense or no, have become a tradition 
among adventuring supertypes.  The first ones to emerge looked to the only
body of information available to them to guide the use of their powers:  comic
books.  In 1967, Marvel's FF, Spider-Man, and other titles were riding the
crest of a tremendous boom in popularity; thus, life came to imitate the art of
Stan Lee's four-color characters.  Not every super subscribes to this 
tradition, though: some opt for street clothes, some for purely functional 
garb (e.g. fatigues, sweats).  But the majority recognize the convention of the
pastime they have become heirs to, and don colorful costumes as a kind of 
heraldic device.

	--Supertechnology exists, but it is not widespread.  I don't want to 
have the inconsistency which appears in the major companies' comics that every
agent has a high-tech blaster, while every cop has only a .38 special to use
against them.  I thought about using the Wild Cards series's explanation for
this, in which supergadgets are a function of an individual's powers, but that
left me unsatisfied.  I want them rare, but not *that* rare.  Some gadgetry *is*
an expression of the owner's powers, and as such does not work for anyone else;
some gadgetry is endowed with Pandora energy, in effect becoming a 'magic item'
that anyone can use but few can explain; some is manufactured by supers and
distributed, but it is not widely used because it cannot be fixed if it mal-
functions or breaks.  There are other reasons, which I will think of if I need
them, but these are the rationales I'm currently using. 

	--I haven't worked out any population estimates of supers; that doesn't
strike me as necessary.  Supers are common--there are many people who have 
minor talents and powers, and are technically supers, but they lead normal 
lives, not the lives of adventurers.  Powers of greater magnitude are rarer, 
and people who possess superpowers and who choose to use them are rarer still.
How rare?  Rare enough to draw attention wherever they appear.  People still
have not become jaded to the presence of gods that walk among us.  

	--Life as a super is not all fun and games.  Public opinion of supers
varies; some people are superhero-worshippers, some respond with fear and
loathing.  Egoists draw a lot of fire, since everyone has secrets they'd like
to protect.  Of all the various subgroups of supers one can think of, egoists
are the most vilified; in some cases this has escalated to persecution.  I
did this to keep telepaths under control without resorting to portable mind
shields or other *deus ex machina* explanations.


******* THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT CONCEPT IN MY CAMPAIGN:
	In all things, I am trying to create a world which is internally 
	consistent.  A world which treats what is inherently unrealistic
	(superpowers) realistically.  

	
	Since this installment has grown so long, I will end it here.  Stand
	by for the next issue, and e-mail suggestions for features, etc. in!

				Until next time,
				Robert Dagnall
				dagnall@ocf.berkeley.edu