[Masters and Minions] Statement of Intent

[Tav_Behemoth]

This is from a draft of the intro of Horde Book 3. Comments appreciated.

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WHAT IS MASTERS AND MINIONS?

It's 2004, and the children of fantasy roleplaying are thirty years old. There's no one left that a good hippie can trust. From this moment on, everyone will be growing up under the influence of RPGs. And, at the turn of the millennium, the Open Game License unleashed the primal monsters of the original RPG to replicate like a virus in the seething minds of fans everywhere. Welcome to Masters and Minions.

Many of the newest generations of players had their first encounter with these monsters in front of a computer screen. At Behemoth3, we think this is super cool. If you'd told us in 1980 that PCs and the Internet were about to spread RPGs throughout the world so thoroughly that more than a billion people play RPGs in 2004, we probably would have gone crazy from wanting the next 24 years to pass in the blink of an eye.

We also think it's cool to be old school. Everyone in our generation got infected by the original RPG; wasn't there a Saturday morning cartoon, and a movie that got nerds pathetically excited? But many of us really knew what was going on. Sitting around a table using books, paper, pencils, and polyhedrons, we have created other worlds together. Some of us stayed true to roleplaying throughout the better part of our lives. A billion people played RPGs this year. A million of us celebrated the way the game was originally played, and reaffirmed that it's just gotten better with age.

Not all of the children of the RPG era are pretty. Some are monsters. But we've all grown up together. And if you think you've outgrown the creatures of the original fantasy roleplaying game, you've in for a surprise. They're not alone any more. They've got a Horde. It's time to believe in monsters again.

[Luke]

hi tav,

i like it. it's got a witty tone and a nice nostalgic flair. is that what you're going for?

the last paragraph is a bit muddled, though. I might try something more direct:

And what was the best part of those late night RPG sessions of yore? Monsters! Crazy, bizarre creatures from the depths of the imagination spewed out onto the table top: Claw, claw, bite! 24 years is a long time to gestate and grow, those monsters are no exception. So we've brought some good ones back. They're smarter, stronger, and they've got friends. Welcome to Masters and Minions.

or somfin like that. Just a suggestion.
-L

[Tav_Behemoth]

mmm, claw claw bite. well said!

complete purity of intent will require an unhealthy obsession with goo:

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The Monsters & Treasure volume of the original 1974 edition presented creatures drawn from three sources: classical mythology, fantasy literature, and pure imagination. This last category consists of the purple worm, invisible stalker, ochre jelly, black pudding, green slime, gray ooze, yellow mold, and gelatinous cube.