Mirror Mondays: Afterimage

 I didn't plan this post today. In fact, I wasn't planning a post at all today. I have some projects I have to finish up, and posting will take a back seat for a bit.

But today I wanted to talk a little about my "Carbon Vale" campaign. Though it is less of a campaign and more of a collection of ideas I have had for my Jackson, IL game that I later rejected.

There is a Doctor Who episode from the Matt Smith-era, "The Almost People," that deals with these created doppelgängers, or just Gangers, who are discarded but may or may not be real. In one scene, all the discarded Ganger flesh is left in a refuse pile, yet it/they are somehow still alive. 

That has been Carbon Vale's relationship with Jackson. All the leftover, rejected ideas thrown in a pile, yet somehow still have a life of their own.

I have spoken about the nearly symbiotic relationships all my campaigns have, and they all exist in a loosely collected multiverse. A good example is how I have yet to figure out how vampires would operate in Jackson, yet it has given me a good idea of how I will do them in Sunny Valley. Though to fit that square peg into the round hole of Sunny Valley, I had to trim off the sides, as it were. Those shavings went to the Carbon Vale pile. Some West Haven ideas have been taken from my Chicago 1992 game, and both can be considered sequels (even if West Haven saw print first) to the Jackson game. 

Carbon Vale doesn't suffer from a lack of ideas. It suffers from a lack of focused vision. Sunny Valley, Valhalla Alaska, Jackson, Chicago 1992, and West Haven all have very clear, very focused visions. All can live in the same universe.

They all share something else in common. While the horror elements of each one are different (on purpose), NIGHT SHIFT can handle each one very well. In fact, Valhalla, Jackson, and West Haven all get mentions in published NIGHT SHIFT books. West Haven gets its own Night World write-up. 

Now. I do like using Sunny Valley as a Dark Places & Demogorgons setting. It is where it began, but in truth, much of Sunny Valley's foundation was laid with ideas while we were working on NIGHT SHIFT. West Haven began with D&D; Chicago is, well, Chicago. Valhalla in its current form is pure NIGHT SHIFT. Jackson grew out of ideas I was working on in the late 1980s. So those ideas and ideas for NIGHT SHIFT were all bundled up together. 

Carbon Vale is different. 

Its only identity right now is "Not Jackson."

The idea began with "What if Larina never moved to Jackson? What if she had foreknowledge of the fire that would burn down her mother's spice shop?"  That is a good enough idea. Especially for an episode/adventue where I have a crossover. But is it enough for a campaign? 

I don't know.

I am of two minds here. 

Do I continue with the idea of Carbon Vale as I have been using it, as a collection of ideas that don't fit elsewhere and just use it as my own personal "junkyard"? That is rather derogatory to the setting, to be honest, and not really fair. Plus, things that don't work in, say, Valhalla, might not work there either. 

OR. Do I find Carbon Vale's own voice, vision, and direction?

And regardless of what I figure out, do I keep it as a parallel world to the Jackson Universe or fold it in with two other NPCs to take the place of the Jackson-alternates there?

AND THEN...do I stick with NIGHT SHIFT or find another system for those adventures?

Lots of questions for a setting I barely think about in comparison to all the others. 

I suppose there is one other thing I could consider. 

Sitting in the dark recesses of hard drives and on a shelf in my game room are notes I have for a Horror/Sci-fi setting called "Völlig Losgelöst." The title comes from the Peter Schilling song of the same name, which in America was translated to "Major Tom (Coming Home)." The line is "Völlig losgelöst von der Erde." Meaning "completely detached from the Earth." MY Völlig Losgelöst was going to be 1980s sci-fi through a horror lens. Much of what I did for that setting ended up in "Thirteen Parsecs." This is why I use the German version of the song. It is much darker. 

Maybe my Carbon Vale is a Sci-Fi setting. Sci-fi with a horror element. 

I think I'll spend some time in 2027 figuring this one out. 

I have a bunch of "Universal RPGs" here. Some I recently picked up at the last Games Plus Auction, and a few more I am giving a second shot. I think I'll explore some of these and figure out a good vision for Carbon Vale. 

In any case I have some ideas. Not full ideas. But some ideas all the same.