For whatever reason, I stumbled across a number of GURPS-related play-session blogs, and started reading them regularly. As it went, as my next campaign was fast approaching, I thought it fitting to give back to the role-playing community by starting such a blog of my own—and, behold! (Who am I?)
What is the Daniverse?
Of course, no one can be told what the Daniverse is…
Many authors publish multiple stories which all exist in the same “universe,” with characters, places or events that are shared among them. Some universes are even shared among multiple authors (Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft, for instance). The same is true of many TV series or movies, and is the rule for most comic books. The Daniverse is the name I use to reference the collective universe in which all my role-playing campaigns or adventures exist.
There are several base elements that make up the Daniverse. At its heart is the original White Wolf Games’ World of Darkness setting (with some revision, and a more Lovecraft-ian twist) making up the basic framework. The second most prominent (but first to appear) element is a line of comic book series, never published, which I and several friends have participated in the creation of over the last several years. The remaining elements are made up of all the movies, books, TV series, and the like that I think are cool, and fit neatly into the aforementioned framework (usually with a little tweaking). The point of it all is that whatever story I like could have or did actually happen in my universe, in some form or another. Theme and mood still varies from game to game, but it is generally dark and gritty, with an emphasis on realism (as much as is possible in a work of fantasy). Having all campaigns occur in the same basic universe offers the Players a bit of familiarity and predictability with regard to the basic “laws” of the universe, and gives the GM a framework to start from when designing new adventures or campaigns.
One important rule to note about the Daniverse is that it is constantly being changed and refined as I am introduced to new ideas. Nothing is particularly set in stone…not yet anyway. Some campaigns or adventures have changed considerably since I first wrote or ran them. Some that have not been revisited since their inception would change considerably were I to.