Make no mistake, I am proud of my work on Dramatis Personae. It was a major contributor to my current contract as Dyskami’s Creative Director. I cannot say enough about how much the upcoming BESM Multiverse means to me. So why is Absolute Power so special?
When Silver Age Sentinels first came out in 2002, I couldn’t contain my excitement. I’m a huge fan of Silver Age adventure, and the idea of a game dedicated to its ideals thrilled me. To be honest, I was disappointed at first – Empire City’s grounded setting wasn’t really a Silver Age world – but the more I read, the more it grew on me. Its Silver Age ideals in a superhero world of realism and consequence made Empire City a place worth spending time in. I fell in love all over again, and eventually got the chance to write for Criminal Intent. Alas, upcoming projects that would have expanded on the setting fell through with the end of Guardians of Order.
It was all more than a little heartbreaking, but SAS was the game I felt the worst about. There was a rich, deep setting hiding beneath the surface of its characters and stories, but it never got the chance to shine through. Its cosmos had Martian Titans and Black Hole Gods. The spirit world created beings like Iara and General Winter. Nations around the world had their own heroes and teams. There was so much setting that we never got the chance to see.
So when Mark MacKinnon gave me the keys to the empire, I threw myself into its (re)creation. There was so much to build and expand on and fill in. Between the 20 year time jump and the realms that only lived in shadow, it gave me the chance to complete the wonderful work that others began. How was the Haud Empire put together? Where was the “Islamic Camelot” of Beqaa in 2020? What is the secret of Drifter’s magi-science fantasy world of Prtzm? Why does General Winter exist? I got to answer those questions. Empire-Earth became Sentinel-Earth, and it just grew and spread until we were looking at half a galaxy, a unique realm of ideas and powers, and several alternate timelines.
Holding the book in my hand, I can literally feel that the setting’s journey back to gaming tables is at last complete. From the streets of Empire City to the farthest realms of cosmic concepts, the Sentinel-Earth multiverse is alive. The frustrating saga of NextGreatHero.com might have left the physical copy with an unusual legacy wrinkle, but I get a little misty-eyed seeing my work on paper. Reading the tales of La Madrina Bianca, the Stellar Alliance, and Ideogrammatica fills me with joy. There is still much more to do, but anyone who buys the two-book Absolute Power collection is getting a complete superhero setting. I can’t wait for fans to see what happens next.
Robin Flanagan (they/them), aka Peter Flanagan, lives in California with their wonderful wife and muse, a stepson, and a crazed feline. An occasionally too-avid player of and writer for tabletop roleplaying games, their other passion is metaphysics, which informs most of their fiction.
Sentinel-Earth comes home at last
I got my Absolute Power books today.
Make no mistake, I am proud of my work on Dramatis Personae. It was a major contributor to my current contract as Dyskami’s Creative Director. I cannot say enough about how much the upcoming BESM Multiverse means to me. So why is Absolute Power so special?
When Silver Age Sentinels first came out in 2002, I couldn’t contain my excitement. I’m a huge fan of Silver Age adventure, and the idea of a game dedicated to its ideals thrilled me. To be honest, I was disappointed at first – Empire City’s grounded setting wasn’t really a Silver Age world – but the more I read, the more it grew on me. Its Silver Age ideals in a superhero world of realism and consequence made Empire City a place worth spending time in. I fell in love all over again, and eventually got the chance to write for Criminal Intent. Alas, upcoming projects that would have expanded on the setting fell through with the end of Guardians of Order.
It was all more than a little heartbreaking, but SAS was the game I felt the worst about. There was a rich, deep setting hiding beneath the surface of its characters and stories, but it never got the chance to shine through. Its cosmos had Martian Titans and Black Hole Gods. The spirit world created beings like Iara and General Winter. Nations around the world had their own heroes and teams. There was so much setting that we never got the chance to see.
So when Mark MacKinnon gave me the keys to the empire, I threw myself into its (re)creation. There was so much to build and expand on and fill in. Between the 20 year time jump and the realms that only lived in shadow, it gave me the chance to complete the wonderful work that others began. How was the Haud Empire put together? Where was the “Islamic Camelot” of Beqaa in 2020? What is the secret of Drifter’s magi-science fantasy world of Prtzm? Why does General Winter exist? I got to answer those questions. Empire-Earth became Sentinel-Earth, and it just grew and spread until we were looking at half a galaxy, a unique realm of ideas and powers, and several alternate timelines.
Holding the book in my hand, I can literally feel that the setting’s journey back to gaming tables is at last complete. From the streets of Empire City to the farthest realms of cosmic concepts, the Sentinel-Earth multiverse is alive. The frustrating saga of NextGreatHero.com might have left the physical copy with an unusual legacy wrinkle, but I get a little misty-eyed seeing my work on paper. Reading the tales of La Madrina Bianca, the Stellar Alliance, and Ideogrammatica fills me with joy. There is still much more to do, but anyone who buys the two-book Absolute Power collection is getting a complete superhero setting. I can’t wait for fans to see what happens next.
Robin Flanagan
Robin Flanagan (they/them), aka Peter Flanagan, lives in California with their wonderful wife and muse, a stepson, and a crazed feline. An occasionally too-avid player of and writer for tabletop roleplaying games, their other passion is metaphysics, which informs most of their fiction.