Silver Age Designer's Journal #2: Time Keeps On Slippin'

By Christopher McGlothlin, M.Ed.

I'm Christopher McGlothlin. You may remember me from such Mutants & Masterminds publications as Time of Crisis First Edition, Time of Crisis Second Edition, and that one book I didn't write the way you would've written it. When we last left our heroes (which, for our purposes, will be me), we were discussing the Silver Age sourcebook for Mutants & Masterminds, coming to a game store near you in less time than Conan O'Brien was host of The Tonight Show. In this installment, we take a behind-the-scenes look at the book's second chapter, entitled "Chapter Two."

Chapter Two (or, as it will appear in the Québécois edition, "Deux") concerns Silver Age history. In keeping with the section's "two/duality" theme that I just made up, that means it's really about a couple of things: the real-world events of 1956-86, and how they were filtered through the funhouse mirror of Silver Age comic books.

Writing the reality part started simple, because (short version) a lot happened between '56 and '86. Not exactly spoiler alert material for some, but then there's that mass of people who don't know that, plus the coterie of folks who don't much care. That last group is what I call, "Welcome to my world!"

You see, when I'm not soaking in the adoration of the Internet like all game designers, I teach high school social studies. Partly for the big bucks, but mostly just because I'm the best there is at what I do (snikt). I know from experience that, much to the horror of aging ex-hippies everywhere, today's youth isn't "down with" (as they put it) Baby Boomer lore. Yes, it's true--kids these days don't know their Adlai Stevenson from their Wavy Gravy.
So facing a tough crowd and explaining the era that began with Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley popularizing rock & roll and ended with Bret Michaels & Poison killing it dead is nothing new to me. In Silver Age, you'll see the same technique I use in the classroom every day, and that's to bring the funny.

My guess is anyone who's looking for a lot of dry facts and dates probably isn't making a mad dash to the Android's Dungeon to pick up a copy of my little book (If I'm wrong and you're looking to add Silver Age to your syllabus, please shoot me an email--I'm a surprisingly affordable guest lecturer). So more than anything else, I tried to make the real-life stuff in the book a fun read for a non-tenured audience.

To be sure, there's plenty of due reverence and regret in Silver Age, but mostly it's just good fun at history's expense; just as some future writer will no doubt have with our era. Truly, "Time makes fools of us all." Some of us (like me) just embrace the role sooner than others.

Once I was done pointing out the lighter side of impending nuclear war and the Nixon Administration, it was time to explain how all this can fit in a retro M&M game. It involves a matter of degrees, and Silver Age highlights the finer points of running campaigns as grim and gritty as a search and destroy mission in a South Vietnamese jungle or as happy and oblivious as a "Duck and Cover" instructional film. Silver Age makes it possible for retro M&M series to be as stark and intense as Watchmen, or as much goofy fun as The Inferior Five. "Realism" is always a shaky thing in superhero comics, and Silver Age lets you incorporate it in your games to taste. The book also discusses how you can distort reality just as the era's comic books did, whether it be turning the global complexities of the Cold War into two-fisted All-American commie punching or looking everywhere and seeing nothing but doom, man, doom just like they did in the '70s Bronze Age. Your characters will be shouting period expletives like "Sweet Christmas!" in no time.

That's all for now, but please join us next time as our focus shifts to the final chapter of the books. Which was written by Steve Kenson and focuses on the Silver Age of Freedom City!