And so it came to pass that Aaron Storck and Michael O'Connell moved to San Diego, and realized that they would play host to all the Clobberin' folk that would be coming in the summer for the annual Clobberin Con at the San Diego Comic-Con. And they felt this would be swell. Hey, they could even run the big game in their apartment this time, so everyone could get loud(er) without worrying about the folks in the hotel room next door beating on the wall and calling the manager. And the idea of that got them to thinking...no one was slated to run the Clobberin' On Infinite Earths game this year. Since they'd be playing host anyway, why not be GMs as well?

And that's where it started.

Welcome, 'Timers one and all, to the official zine of the ninth annual Clobberin' On Infinite Earths game...this one titled "The Jericho Effect". First, a quick history lesson for any who've missed out on this over the years. This all started, if I may take a little credit here (for an idea...not for doing the actual work), when I made a comment in the Times back in early 1990. I wondered aloud what it would be like if all us ‘Times people, Champions players all, were to somehow be able to get together and play one big game, each of us running our best-known character, and all these characters coming from their own worlds and taking part in a big Crisis-type adventure? If course, it could never happen. What were the chances of all of us, spread around the country, getting together for a game? Well, true, that wasn't going to happen, but my roommate and partner in creative crime Aaron (then just some schmuck who lived in San Diego. Hey, wait a minute. He's still just some schmuck living in San Diego!) realized that a fair number of us were going to be gathering at the San Diego Comic-Con that summer, and what better place to try such a thing than this? And there it started, with Aaron running Clobberin' On Infinite Earths I. And it was a blast. We'd been reading all about each other's characters in the 'Times for a long time, and here we were, able to run those characters in the same game. The concept was so liked, and so cool, that it was continued the following year by Scott Burnham. And heck, it showed up the year after that, too. And so on, and so on... It became a Clobberin' Con tradition, there right from the start, and a necessary and anticipated part of each year's festivities.

Aaron and I knew this year was going to be a special one. We started really selling people on the idea of making the trip, and it looked to be one of the biggest showings in years. Not only were we getting some returning old-timers (like Tim, in his first return since 1991), but some people were showing up who were making their first appearance, like Ken and A.T.--both former Clobberin' Times members who had never been able to make the Con. This whole thing spelled f-u-n to us. For years, mostly the same people had been showing up for the Con, and therefore the game. Now there was a new mix, a new dynamic, which promised to make for an exciting and unpredictable game. We knew we had to come up with something big for the occasion, and knew, also, that our planning had to be all-inclusive so that no player felt like he/she was a minor guest star in everyone else's game.

We started to toss ideas around, reclining there in our living room, and took a look at all the people who were coming, and the characters they would play. The "regulars" would play the characters they did every year--the ones we all loved, and expected them to. Of the former members of the Forte campaign, Tim would play Phantasm, Kaye would play Cincoflex, and Jeff, of course, would play Vanguard (many of us believe that Jeff actually is Vanguard). Ben would play his best-known character, Hologram, from Aaron's old M.A.G.I.C. campaign. Joel would play either Whiplash from M.A.G.I.C., or Vice Grip, his more regular con character of the two, from the Questors campaign that he, Aaron, Ben, and our friend Russ were in together. That brought up another interesting point for us. Russ would be there. Russ, while not a ‘Times member, has been a Con regular since 1991, since he lived in the area and was friends with Aaron, and is a good friend of ours and a regular at our pad now. We thought this would be the perfect year to get him in the game, and he could play Sabot, his old Questors character. This got Aaron to talking about the Questors game--its characters, events, and campaign history. And this led to a discussion about M.A.G.I.C., and that campaign as well, and all the plans Aaron had for changing things in his old game, but that he'd never had the opportunity to do.

And then we talked about Ken and A.T. Here were two guys who were members of the ‘Times at one point, but had never played in one of these games. What characters would they play? Ken was best known in my years of gaming with him for his dark character known as the Covenant. That character was part of a campaign that I ran briefly in the late 80s called Pavilion. I'd written all about it in the ‘Times back then, too. And A.T., who's created many memorable characters over the years (artistic guy that he is), but has gotten to actually play very few of them, had a female martial artist on that same team named Silent Knight. I began talking about that old campaign, and my regrets about its untimely end, and how some of my favorite players had been in it, running some of the best characters any of them had ever made. I'd had a lot of plans for that game world that never came to be.

And that's when it hit us. Forte. M.A.G.I.C. The Questors. Pavilion. Four different gaming worlds, four different hero teams, all of them, over the years, talked about in the Clobberin' Times. Forte, lasting as many years as it did, had plenty of time to tell most of its tales and develop its characters. But these other games all ended before their time. What had been happening in those worlds since their adventures were last played out? What storylines had yet to be resolved? And were we suddenly looking at an opportunity to answer some of those questions...and, at the same time, to bring together a historic meeting of four well-known Champions campaign worlds?

And there was the basis of "The Jericho Effect". Instead of creating some great cosmic menace that plucked a bunch of random heroes from the multiverse and teamed them together for a few hours, we wanted a story that involved all of these worlds on a personal level. We needed villains from each of these games, drawn from campaign histories and character experiences. The basic idea was simple: four master villains from four different worlds, working together at something that threatened all of these worlds...and every other world, for that matter. So we'd still have the great Crisis-sized menace that's the staple of the COIE game, but our goal was make each of these players feel like they were playing in their old campaigns once again. Only this time? They had company.

The story itself went through many incarnations and changes, but along the way, the four campaign worlds were studied, discussed, and updated. Aaron already knew what had been happening in the M.A.G.I.C. game. He simply had to write all the information down for his old-school players Ben and Joel. While Aaron hadn't run the Questors game itself, he knew the world, and, since the GM himself was no longer around to do the job, he put its history and current events down on paper, too. Who had ever thought The Questors world would be up and running again? I felt the same way about Pavilion, and hadn't thought about my old game in a long time. So long, in fact, that I had to go back and look up a lot of what took place. Using what had happened in its far-too-few runs, and the plans I'd had for the game's future, I put together a timeline of events, describing what had been happening to these characters. Along the way, the team named changed to Crusade (because I always hated "Pavilion", and still can't remember why we chose that name. If you'll read the history that follows, you'll notice a little retroactive continuity on that point. GM's prerogative). And as for Forte? That game, of which I was but a player, needs no one to add any history to it. It's got plenty. But time has passed since K.C.'s campaign closed up shop, and I thought this would be a fun opportunity to catch up with what's been happening with these well-known characters. But there was a chance for change here, too. Original ‘Timester Kevin Jones and I, about a year ago, had started developing a new incarnation of a hero team we played in--The Paragons, an earlier campaign that took place in the Forte world--and still plan to do something with the stuff we worked on. This seemed a perfect time to introduce the team into the Forte world, along with another twist on an old Forte team that Aaron and I came up with months before the planning of this game started—Armor Security. Again...this wasn't just to be a game for us. This was a good housecleaning for these Champions games, and a chance to breathe new life into them.

So after a long period of planning, re-planning, researching and writing, the 1998 Clobberin' Con came around this past August, and so did the game called "The Jericho Effect". We played it at our apartment, as expected, borrowing a long folding table from Aaron's folks to somehow fit us, Aaron "A.T." Thompson, Ken Wood, Tim Watts, Kaye Bellot, Ben Bellot, Joel B. Levy, Jeff Baumgardner and Russ Williams into our dining room for a Saturday evening of good old-fashioned Champions. And as expected, we had a blast. There was laughter. There was loudness. There were plenty of Red Vines ingested. There were sarcastic Phantasm comments from Tim, militaristic Sabot platitudes from Russ, the ever-familiar Cinco accent from Kaye, Hologram/Whiplash camaraderie from Ben and Joel that they fell right back into with remarkable ease, a "the fact of the matter is..." from Jeff that led to spontaneous cheers from the whole table at the appearance of the old Vanguard-ism, the proposal of "DeadZoneAid" from A.T., a crowd-pleasing Covenant performance by Ken, and as many smart remarks, character-to-character insults, and constant interruptions as a proud pair of GMs could dream of.

See, Aaron and I did work up this big, complex story and all. But we've both been gaming long enough to know what gaming's really all about. It's not the story. It's having a good time. It's about hanging out with your pals and laughing it up and drinking a whole lot of soft drinks and letting loose. As much fun as we had with the plot and the characters and seeing it all come together? Grand as it was, the memories that will last will be Tim sticking out his arms to pantomime Phantasm's glider wings, and Russ throwing enthusiastic salutes around, and Jeff picking up on the Slayzer joke, and Joel's "I like this guy!" comments about the Covenant. Those, and many others like them. For Aaron and I both, this game was a clear reminder of everything we love about Champions...and that's the people, throughout the years, we've played it with. Having so many of them in one place was a rare treat, and one we won't soon forget. Thanks to all of you who showed up, for making this a great game, and a great Con.

Now...as for what follows.

In the pages to come, you'll find campaign breakdowns for M.A.G.I.C., Crusade, and The Questors. Not everyone here in the 'Times has been around long enough to remember these games...and those of us who have have probably forgotten most of it! Are these required reading to understand the game write-up? Well, no, but I think you'll find that familiarity with the characters and where they come from will increase your enjoyment of it.

As for Forte, I'm afraid there's just a little too much history to break down in these pages, seeing as the game went well over three hundred runs before it ended. But what I have included is the plot summary for "D'Arque Dominion", a story that got included in the backstory of the Con game. This is even less important required reading, but I thought some of you might enjoy it, and again, it does give a little flavor of the campaign itself. Hope you like.

And, finally, we've got art, baby. Our special fold-out cover was designed by Aaron, with faces by Ben Bellot. Ben also contributed the back cover of this section, which captured a memorable game moment, and is of Phantasm, The Covenant, and Confessor. And to go with the Ben, we gots the Tim....Tim Watts, that is, who provided scattered art for the zine.

And away we go! We hope you enjoy reading all about "The Jericho Effect" game, and hope, even more, it might inspire a few more of you to make the trip to San Diego next year for the big Clobberin' Con X, and to let your character become part of the magic as well. Read on, true believers!