d20 Modern Campaign / Blackest Night Review

I feel as though, except for my Dungeon-Master style post prologues, I've been neglecting the gamer side of this blog.  That error is rectified now!  Several of my friends and I regularly play tabletop roleplaying games.  We've played 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, and recently a spectacular Vampire: the Masquerade campaign set in 1920's Chicago.  When one campaign ends, another person takes their turn leading a new campaign as the Storyteller or DM.  My turn will be coming after our next campaign, a Sabbat V:tM campaign set in present-day Seattle.  My campaign is a d20 Modern game set in the near future, with a twist.

The players are the characters.  Each player in the campaign will roleplay a version of themselves in an alternate, dystopian future.  I'm working on plot details of the campaign, and hope that writing for this blog will help jump-start the creative process.  I have a few encounters storylined and the general setting established.

This will be the first game that I have run myself, so I am a bit nervous.  Add to that the fact that our schedules are harder to line up than they have ever been.  It took us over a month to get everyone together for the final session of the Chicago campaign.  Despite all the potential stumbling blocks I may encounter, I am rather excited for my campaign, and hope my players are as well.

The DC Comics event won the review vote, so here goes.  I will be the first to admit that I'm not the ultimate authority on DC Universe lore, having only begun reading the company's works around six months ago.  Yet even with my limited knowledge, "Blackest Night" was an exciting and pleasurable read.

     

The story could certainly cause some confusion, so "Green Lantern: Blackest Night," "Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps," and "Blackest Night: Rise of the Black Lanterns" all serve to provide side stories that explain some of the plot details in the main graphic novel.  The events in the DC Universe have been leading up to "Blackest Night" since the reboot of the Green Lantern series in "Green Lantern: Rebirth."  Green Lantern story arcs leading up to this event include the "Sinestro Corps War," "Rage of the Red Lanterns," and "Agent Orange."

      

The last three of these serve to introduce Sinestro and his corps, Atrocitus and his Red Lanterns, and Larfleeze and the Orange Lantern, representing Fear, Rage, and Avarice respectively.  The Green Lanterns, of course, represent Willpower.  Filling out the spectrum of emotion are the Blue Lanterns representing Hope, the Indigo Tribe representing Compassion, and the violet Star Sapphires representing Love.  "Blackest Night" begins with the seven corps going to war with one another.  While the lanterns are embattled in the "War of Light," a black Central Power Battery begins assigning black power rings to the dead, reanimating them in the process.  The impending onslaught compels the corps to work together to eliminate this greater threat.  I won't delve further into the story to avoid any big spoilers, but this is a memorable event worthy of the accolades it has received.  Definitely a buy.