"Welcome to the Party, Pal!"

Okay, THAT was a busy summer…

Man, for me, that was a lot of stuff going on! Comic-Con, a big Forte trip to Seattle, and my folks moving back into the area (AAAIIEEE!). And I managed to squeeze a personal vacation in there, too. I’ve planned this for so long, a whole week (Labor Day week) where I could just stay home, see no one, and chill out and get to some projects! And maybe even catch up on some TV! As I figured, the week went by much more quickly that I’d thought. I had this totally unrealistic list of things I wanted to get to, and it seemed like I barely got to any of it. The things I was working on seemed to take forever, and a lot of that stuff was just moving TOWARD finishing the goal, not actually getting them done. So not the level of satisfaction I’d hoped for, and that week, coupled with my other time off, really put me behind at work (I’m back to working into the evenings again, something I’d finally been starting to get a handle on), but all in all, it was a good experience that I wouldn’t mind repeating annually. I keep reminding myself that, though the scoreboard doesn’t necessarily show it, I did get quite a bit of stuff accomplished.

And during that time I also tried to start re-reading the Hero System 5th edition from start to finish. I think I managed about 150 pages, enough to teach me how little I remember about the rules (and all the stuff I didn’t realize had changed). I haven’t done any regular gaming in years. But I really wanted to get up to speed, mainly because Adam (who played Lightsedge in the Forte game) announced, during the Seattle trip, that he’d like to run a game for me, Randy (Anvil) and Jim (Tomarssuk). I wanted to try something different than my usual brick or martial artist (I like hitting stuff…), so I’ve had some ideas, but I’ve realized WHY I really played such simple-to-build characters. I have very little experience with all these other powers. So I’m learning…slowly. We’ll see if I can figure out how to properly put together either a magic user or an ice guy, both of which are concepts I’m working. If this game does get going, I’ll be sure to fill you in on the details.

But for now, time is short, and the ‘Times deadline loometh! So let’s get on with the zineage! Note that the patents are pending on both new words I just created there…

This Time Around

Let’s first get to what’s new, submission-wise, and then we’ll talk about the big Forte 20th thing!

And let’s start with new art on the Forte 2000 Gallery, shall we? As you can see, not as much as you usually see from me, which should tell you what my money situation is like after this summer! First, let’s start off with the shot that you already saw as the ‘Times cover this time around—the Forte 20th Anniversary shot by Sean Harrington! Sean’s a big Forte fan and cut me a ridiculously sweet deal for a seven-character color shot. It’s good to have regular artists, and a good idea to treat them right! They reward you from time to time. I wanted to get a gift for everyone who showed up at the Seattle weekend, but my money wasn’t going to let me get individual art gifts. So I thought it’d be cool to get a group shot of all the characters of the people who attended. Once I know who those people were, and what characters they’d be playing in the game, I got the info over to Sean, along with references. And as K.C. wouldn’t be playing in the game, but running it, I didn’t want to leave him out, so I made sure to add in his Forte GMPC, Eclipse. Nice work, Sean! And I cracked up at how he handled the Tomarssuk request (not an easy thing to tell an artist…“So you know this super-hero group shot you’re doing for me? Well, one of the characters is…um…well, a polar bear”). And you might recognize the Jackal part of the shot, as it was on the gallery last time. That’s because Sean threw in an individual shot of Jack (lifting him from that group shot) and sent that to me, just for the heck of it. So, yeah, I’ve had this group shot since last CTO, but held onto it to be a surprise for both the game and for this CTO’s Forte anniversary cover. I took the big art file to Kinko’s and got some nice full-sized color printouts to hand out at the game. Is it just me, or do you think Vanguard has turned to steroids to keep on his game?

Next come three new color shots from the amazing (and slow…) Garrett Blair. As you might recall, this guy took about six months to get me my Nightsable, Dyna Girl and Moondancer shots last time I used him. I was so happy with his work, I just had to give him another shot. Back in November (yes, that’s ’06), I ordered a Tinker from him. And I waited. And waited. Every couple of months, I’d email an update request. He responded to one of them, saying the work was still ongoing. Then, no more responses, for months. I’ve already told you my opinions on that. If it’s someone I’ve never used before, I’ll be patient, but not as forgiving. If I’ve had work from the guy before, I’ll cut him some more slack. Things got busy and I didn’t get to follow up with him at all over the summer, and was thinking of dropping another reminder when, lo and behold, an email showed up with not only the Tinker shot, but with additional FREE Passport and Serenade shots, too, which he threw in just for my patience and with his apologies. Sweet! See? If you don’t start jumping all over them and getting all angry, you’re not only more likely to get good work out of them when they finally finish, but sometimes their guilt will drive them to give you free stuff. One color shot from him, if I remember right, runs about $70.00 (something I’d only pay for a guy with this skill). So in essence, I got $140 worth of art for free. He just went through the Forte 2000 page and picked out a couple of gals that he felt like trying, and they turned out to be Passport, Dr. Jackal’s daughter (who is actually about 17 right now, and that shot does NOT look like 17, so I’m just calling it a “future shot” of her), and the villainess Serenade, who appeared in issues 2 and 3 of Forte 2000 before dying. I LOVE that Serenade! The character may now have to return. Maybe as an alt-Earth heroine.

Finally, I saw that Greg Moutafis had an auction up, and since I’d gotten a Nightsable from him before, courtesy of a gifted auction from Aaron, I thought I’d return the favor and get a Dyna Girl. Love this guy’s fun, simple style! Good guy, too. Oh, and speaking of new art…I also got one new shot on the Windjammer gallery from an artist named Tony Diaz. Well, *I* didn’t get it…K.C. got if for me! Thanks, man! There’s no better surprise (if you’re a gaming nerd like me) than surprise art!

Nothing else F2K-wise to share this time, because I was spending my time, instead, on a couple of neat new things!

First off, a new Forte page! Welcome to Forte Prime. I’ve explained before that I have this big goal in mind to actually get all the original Forte campaign stuff (updates and all) online, because until now, it’s all been owned only by Forte people and shoved into folders and binders. I’ve also known what a HUGE project that is, and have been taking small steps, but there’s still a long way to go. But I figured I’d at least get something started, if nothing else than to motivate myself. So I’ve made the site a “sneak preview”. This way I can get started without having to wait until I’ve finished the whole damn thing to start sharing. Plus, I wanted to do something special for the 20th anniversary, too, and this is the least I can do.

So I’ve got the first 50 issues of the Forte updates now online. And, if all goes well, I plan to keep adding them, a little at a time, until things are done. The first 50 are the easy part. I’d typed all these up (from K.C.’s original hand-written ones we all had copies of) and had them as Word files, so I could just cut and paste the text to build some HTML pages. The rest of the issues are going to take more time. Aaron saved me HUGE amount of time, though, by actually OCR-scanning all the issues. They’re in big Word docs (many issues to a doc), and, except for a number of the starting ones that Aaron went ahead and formatted himself (thanks, man!), are a big jumbled mess. I have to go through and fix all the words that didn’t scan right (using the original typed versions as reference) and totally reformat them all. Hey, that’s what happens with the OCR stuff. I’m not complaining, as it beats the hell of retyping them all (and, thanks to Aaron, I don’t have to spend weeks at my scanner, either). I’m just saying, it’s going to take time. But it’s started! Got to have that initial push to get things rolling, moving things from a “someday” goal to an actual work in progress. Which is what this page is. Oh, and by the way? No, you’re not expected to write mailing comments on 50 issues of Forte! Just letting you check them out and browse a little. Have some fun just imagining the evenings behind those brief updates, and remember what 80s Champs gaming was like.

I wrote up (big shock) an intro page there, too, and also did a page on the Forte Index...what it is, and what it will be. There’s a link at the bottom of each update that lets you go to the Index, and since the online Forte Index will be the last thing I’ll be doing after all the updates are up, I at least wanted to have that link go somewhere. So there’s sort of a “coming soon” Index page that explains what will be, and gives a history of the Index and shows an example of what it looked like.

I went back and forth on what to call this page and finally decided on “Forte Prime”, as I think that describes its content pretty well. It’s the original stuff, the stuff that all these other sites are built on. If you note the “coming soon” part at the bottom of the home page, you’ll get an idea of where I plan for it to end up. I’m seeing a site where you can read all the updates, check out all the characters sheets, see a big all-encompassing Forte art gallery, learn about K.C.’s gaming world and its history, see scans of a lot of the old fun bluebooking notes and such, see a big Forte photo gallery showing pics I have over the years of the games, the Con events, etc., and a lot more. Big project, but built on big love, so I hope to get there one day. Step one is done.

And I was finishing up the Prime page when I realized I didn’t want to build yet another “news” page that updates progress. I wanted something easier to use and more casual. I’ve been thinking for a while now about starting a separate Forte blog to both talk about stuff happening on the pages, but also just have an outlet to talk about Forte stuff in general. Decided to finally do it. So “The Forte Files” is live, and is a place I can use to rap Forte stuff between ‘Times deadlines, too. Me have blogs many.

Ah, but the thing you’ve REALLY been waiting for this time around (you KNOW you have!) is an addition to the Forte Expanded Universe page…and that is Forte Forever, the write-up of the big 20th anniversary Forte game that K.C. ran for us during the reunion weekend! This update was written by both K.C. and me. See, during the game, I had my laptop up, and decided I was going to take loads of notes (I felt like a court reporter) on what happened during the game. Mostly this was me tracking combat and who did what (you never get to remember those cool fight moments…I wanted to be sure this time that were in there!), what happened in general, what was said, etc. And as I’d planned, once I got home (this was part of my vacation work) I did a rough draft based on my notes and what I remembered, which had a LOT of holes in it. Because I didn’t actually have access to the whole plot, for one thing! K.C. did. So I left whole sections out for K.C. to write, and emailed my starting version to him for additions and fixes. And we bounced those back and forth until we got what looked to be the final version. I then emailed this file off to the other players to read, giving them a chance to check for any errors and see if K.C. and I missed any big character moments of theirs (or got things totally wrong). You know how these games, go…you remember those great moments your character had, but sometimes, with so much other stuff going on, not everyone ELSE does. I wanted to make sure everyone had their say, and to make sure it was as close to what really happened as possible. I didn’t get any revisions back from the others, so I’m assuming they thought K.C. and I did a good job with it.

K.C. also mailed me a disc with all the villain reference art he had printed out for us to see at the game, and the character sheets (in Excel format). So I went ahead and created quick pages for each villain with both items of reference, and created links to those pages right off the Forte Forever write-up. So if you want to see what the villain looked like (or check out their sheet…assuming you have Excel), just click on that name in the write-up and find out. In addition to the game update itself (which I hope you’ll enjoy reading), I also wrote an introduction to it that’ll help your reading experience. So jump in and find out what happened when, twenty years later, K.C. took us all back on the great Forte adventure, and created an epic worthy of the name “Forte Forever!”

Oh, and while we’re busy celebrating the 20th anniversary of Forte here in the real world, it’s a pretty big event in the Forte world as well. Wanna know how big, and want to catch a peek at how it’s being celebrated? I got you covered. Drop by Forte.com and check out the updated Calendar and Message Board pages to give you a nice flavor for what’s happening in Seattle when F20 goes down, and also check out a special page I made highlighting the events taking place. I hope you’ll enjoy. Oh, and please note that in these pages, references to “Forte Forever” are referring to the title of a documentary about Forte premiering that week, with nothing to do with the Seattle Weekend game of the same title. Hey, speaking of the Seattle Weekend…

The Seattle Weekend gang - K.C., Jeff, Aaron, Adam, Jim, me and Randy

Woo HOO!!

The year was 1987. I still had all my hair. I lived with my Mom. I liked Night Ranger and Whitesnake. The first Die Hard film hadn’t even come out yet, for crying out loud. And starting on November 5th of that year, I began spending (roughly) one night a week sitting in the dining area of K.C.’s condo in Roseville, trying out this new character named Dr. Jackal I’d made for this new K.C. game that followed up the Paragons game and the not-so-successful MidKnights game that came after it. Tim was there, playing Phantasm, a pissed-off and sarcastic ass-kicker that fit Tim’s gaming style to a “T”. Jeff did something that up until that point I’d never known any gaming buddy of mine to do—play a GIRL…a female sorceress from another dimension named Phantashia, one who knew nothing of Earth culture (a fact that Jeff had endless fun reminding us of in the game). And speaking of girls…K.C. let one in! None of us knew what to expect when, after only three runs, K.C. brought a friend of his named Kaye into our little Seatte-based hero team. Turns out we really didn’t know what to expect, because none of us could have imagined that we’d all start and create something together with her (an until-then non-gamer, even!) that would last twenty years, and that she’d still be one of our best friends when all our gaming characters we made for Forte had teenage kids of their own (and we’re pretty sure that Kaye named her second real life son after one of her character’s butlers…). Who knew that name they came up with for our team—Forte, one they decided on when I was out of town visiting my Dad in L.A.—would be such a huge part of all of our lives.

And it wasn’t just the five of us, no sir. We slowly and carefully let others into our little game that we were so protective of (I’m surprised we didn’t have an interview before admittance. Thanks for coming, we’ll call you. Leave your character sheet with the girl at the front desk). All in all we had ourselves one GM and fourteen players. Let’s see if I can map out the history of that real quick, shall we?

K.C. moved to Sac and put up an ad for Champions players in the summer of ’86. Tim found it in that game store, while shopping for chess sets, and called me (Tim and I had known each other since the 5th grade). We then met K.C. and joined his first game, where we met Jeff, and where we also met a guy named Kevin. K.C., Jeff, Tim and I reunited after the first two games ended, and started Forte. Kaye then joined. Having gotten out of the Army with a stress fracture in his foot, Kevin returned to Sac and joined up with Forte. Jeff knew a guy named Randy, and we decided to try him out. More of a perfect fit than we could have imagined. Jeff and Randy knew Jim K., and he joined up…another player who felt like he’d just been destined to be there. And during this time, K.C. had met a guy named Aaron at a Comic-Con in San Diego, and Aaron became friends with all of us and joined our APA (you might have heard of it. “The Clobberin’”…something or other). Through Aaron and that, we met Aaron’s friend Ben (and Joel…don’t want to leave him out, even though he was never an official Forte player). Kaye and Ben also met, an lo, it came to pass that Kaye and Ben became one flesh and begat Robert and Cameron. After Tim, Jeff, Kaye and I all moved away and left the game, other friends of Randy, Jim K. and Jeff joined…Andrea and Jim M. For a time Kaye returned to the game, and brought Ben into the fold. Another friend of the Jeff/Randy/Jim circle would join…Adam. As did Logan, for a time. And, finally, after years of being a friend of Forte, Aaron moved to Sacramento and created his own official Forte character (he’d had a “guest star” character already that he played when visiting town).

At the last big Forte gathering in 1995 - Forte 300 in Sacramento. (Back row): Aaron, Andrea, Randy, Mike, Kaye and Ben. (Front row): Jim K., K.C. and Kevin

After eight years (as I’m sure you know, as you’ve heard this story a number of times by now), the game finally shut down when K.C. moved back east. But just look at any Forte Universe web page and you’ll see that the end of the campaign was not the end of Forte. We couldn’t let it end, even though all of us spreading around the country seemed to logically mean that it should. Not a chance. Forte’s still going. And before we knew it, we were coming up on twenty years since it all began.

I knew we couldn’t let such a milestone pass without doing something special, and I started talking about that with Aaron a couple of years ago—who had, by the time, moved to Seattle, the city of Forte’s birth. I think others of us had actually talked about this over the years, about how it would be so cool if, on such an anniversary, we would all meet up in Seattle to play another Forte game. Aaron and I decided to make it a reality, and plans began. And while we weren’t able to get ALL the Forte people there for it (that would have been a logistical miracle), we pulled it off as best we could. We picked a weekend in the summer, figuring that would be the easiest time to people to travel, and put out the notice to see who could swing it. In the end, it wound up being me, Aaron, K.C., Jeff, Randy, Jim K. and Adam. Aaron made the plans on his end, plane tickets were bought, and the Forte 20th Anniversary Seattle Weekend was on its way!

The closer it got, the more giddy all of us started to feel. You could just hear it in people’s voices and emails. This was going to be great, and we all couldn’t wait for a chance to see each other again, relive the magic again, and all game together again!!! K.C., naturally, had to run a game for us, and he’d gotten to work coming up with an appropriately epic adventure that drew heavily on Forte history. He had the hard part. The rest of us just had to show up with dice and sheets and dive back into the Forte world.

K.C. would be coming from Chicago, Jeff from Iowa, and Randy, Jim, Adam and I from Sacramento. Once us Sac guys decided on a flight, Adam jumped on it and grabbed all our tickets. Aaron took care of getting us hotel reservations at the La Quinta close to his place (hey, he’s got a nice house and all, but it’s still not QUITE capable of housing six guests…). We paired up in twos for the room arrangements—Jeff and K.C., me and Randy, Adam and Jim. Aaron (and his bride, Jeni, oh-so-gracious for putting up with this kind of full-frontal nerdity) made the plans. Friday would be a BBQ at their house so we could all relax and kick back. Saturday morning (and Sunday) would be a tour of Seattle itself, the city that we’d all spent so much time gaming in over the years. But most importantly, Saturday night would be the big game!

Forte hits Sea-Tac Friday morn'!

Me and the Sac guys decided our best way to get to the airport was in one vehicle, so on Friday morning I rose early and drove to Adam and Randy’s house. A few minutes after my arrival, Jim pulled up and parked his car, and we loaded up and headed to the airport (after a stop at Adalberto’s Mexican for some breakfast burritos for the drive. Hey…we’re Californians, all right?). We got there in plenty of time and Adam worked up a little surprise for me. He used his frequent-flyer miles and upgraded me to first class seating. If you know what a pain in the arse airline travel is for me, you’ll understand what a great and welcome surprise that was, indeed. We called Aaron to check in. The plan had been for us to take the airport shuttle to the hotel once we landed, but we found out about a little drama from the day before. K.C. had shown up a day early, and when he tried to get the shuttle, he could not…because they couldn’t find his reservation. Turns out the genius reservation person Aaron had first talked to had set our reservations for 2008. Okay… Almost a panic moment there, but luckily, they still had rooms available, so we got set up. K.C. and Jeff (who had flown in late Thursday night) got their room okay, and it was just decided that, for simplicity, Aaron would pick up the rental van we’d arranged for there at the airport, and would just pick us and all our crap up. And so it went, and we went, and we dropped by the hotel to check in, and a found whole bunch of other people that were there for a Lincoln Continental owners convention. Yeah, they have those. So as you can imagine, the parking lot was quite a sight.

We loaded up into our van (a tan minivan, which we quickly dubbed The Khaki Bullet, in honor of Forte’s famous jet copter, the Silver Bullet) and went to grab some lunch (hungry men!). I suddenly can’t remember the name of the cool 50’s-style burger joint we went to, but cool it was. After hanging out and catching up on old times and chowing down, we decided to forgo our idea of heading downtown to get in Seattle sight-seeing early (traffic and all) and just head to Aaron’s place early. We did, and Aaron cooked up some burgers and dogs, and we got to have many beverages and meet Mrs. Aaron, A.K.A. Jeni (whom I already knew, of course, having been the best man at the wedding, and whom K.C.’d gotten to meet at their California reception). Lots of fun, and a great chance to get to all hang out again, just like the old days (though with larger pants sizes and less hair…). We called it a night fairly early so we could get a fresh start for the next day’s sight-seeing. Seattle, here we…came!

Forte's in the house! In Aaron's house, to be exact.

We loaded up early at the hotel and took the Khahi Bullet down the freeway right into downtown Seattle! I’d had this moment once before, when I first visited Aaron in Seattle a couple years back…that moment of coming around the corner and seeing that familiar skyline, the Space Needle standing tall amongst it, and all the buildings that our Forte heroes had been in, flown over…or destroyed (oops). It’s a magical nerdy moment that’s hard to describe, but it meant more this time with so many of the Forte pals there with me. We were home…for the first time. We had decided on starting first down at the waterfront, so we found ourselves a parking lot beneath a freeway and headed out on foot. I knew this neighborhood that we began in, so I got to point out the sites of interest to the guys…this was Forte 2000 territory. Aaron and I had hit this last time. We passed up Dyna Girl’s loft (a building Aaron had picked out before moving to Seattle, as I recall) and headed down to a good spot to not only take in the breathtaking sight of the Seattle Sound, its islands, and the mountains for forests beyond, but also look at the pier where Seahawk lives! Yes, we found Seahawk’s boat. Very cool. We got in some photos around the area and some wandering before heading to one of our destinations, Pike Place Market. This is a Seattle tourist must-see, of course, and hundreds of tourists, like us, were roaming in and out of it. Before going in, we passed Starbucks. I know, that’s not really hard to do, is it? Ah, but this was the very first Starbucks (the place where the evil was first born). It was easy to find because so many tourists were in front of it snapping pics.

We headed into the market and checked out the wares amongst dealers of edibles, pretty much something for everyone’s fancy. K.C. got some awesome chocolate-covered cherries that he passed around, and Jim…bought fish. What’re ya gonna do, he’s a polar bear. He grabbed some salmon for snacking at the game later that night. Jim also really wanted to see some of the famed fish-tossing going on, so we took that in as well. And I tried to remember some famous fights that took place around the Market in the Forte game (I believe one of them happened during the first appearance of Tripwire. I could look that up and verify it, thanks to the Forte Index, but let’s move on…). I had to get a shot of the guys in front of the famous Pike Place Market sign as well. After some more wandering we needed to head on, as our next destination was a good walk away. Uh…I don’t think we realized HOW far. Believe me, a hell of hike (not that I had any issues. I was the one sitting down…). Our goal was to get in on the tour of Underground Seattle, another landmark both famous with tourists AND Forte players (we wanted to see if the Abyssians, a race of plant people, might still be living down there, and if, like his character Phantashia, Jeff might be forced to be their queen…). I say “we”, but I wouldn’t be able to go, due to access issues (uh…it’s underground?), but that didn’t bother me a bit. A chance to chill out for an hour or so in downtown Seattle? Yeah, HEAR me complain.

Hanging out Pike Place Market.

We finally got there and had missed one tour, which was good, because while waiting for the next one to start we could grab some lunch. We chose a little BBQ place nearby. We got there just as it opened, which was funny, because inside, their faces kind of dropped when they saw us. They were all rushing to get a catering order done for a big group picnic thing. So there was a wee bit of a wait that made us nervous at first, with the clock ticking and all, but they hooked us up in time…and with some great chow! That being done, the rest of the guys descended into the depths of Seattle, whilst Aaron and I found a nearby Irish pub, had a couple of pints, smoked a couple cigars and enjoyed late morning/early afternoon weather. And talking a little Forte, of course, plotting out our next great plans to overthrow and rule K.C. world via the web. AH ha ha! Once the guys got done (Jeff appeared with no crown, thankfully), we started heading back toward our car. Which, not only being far away, was all uphill this time (ugh!). Everyone worked off the lunches quite handily. Along the way we found the Seattle Mystery Bookstore, K.C.’s original inspiration for the Unusual Bookstore, which was a part of Forte history from the beginning right on through. And we also found the Seattle Post-Intellinger’s building…you know, the newspaper where the retired Dr. Jackal is the editor? Forte comes to life!

We decided to save the rest of our tour for the next day so we could get back and get started on the game early. After a quick stop at our hotel (and at a Jack in the Box drive-up…the official food of gaming!), we headed to Aaron’s place. Jeni and Aaron had set up all manner of gamer chow for us, from chips to candy to cookies and beverages (and, of course, a big tub of Red Vines! It ain’t a game without those!). I got my laptop set up at the table. Aside from just having my character sheet on it (in Designer format) and the rulebook in PDF, I also had plans to do my Forte historian job. I was going to go all court-reportery and take notes during the game. These things can always be such a blur, especially with a number of players, and a lot of great moments get lost to history. So I set out to take as many notes as I could, right down to what each person did in combat. I figured I could then team up with K.C. and write the game update for the ‘Times, and make it as all-inclusive as possible.

And so it began. Twenty years later (okay, just shy), K.C. pulled out his villains, set up the battlemat, got out the figures, and began running the Forte game once more. It was like we had never left. It felt completely natural. Everyone fell right into their characters without hesitation or a hint of dust. You could feel the history. The game started on Randy, and his character Anvil. Here we were talking about his wife (Erin O’Day) and his daughter (Bree). Erin had been a regular NPC in the game before Anvil ever joined Forte, and he met her under dubious (do we trust her?) circumstances, and was never quite sure about her. Their relationship took time…and it grew and flourished, right there in the game, in real time. The two were an item by the end of the campaign, and we had them marry in the post-continuity timeline. And Bree, his daughter from his first marriage, had been an NPC kid in the game. Now, here she was, a grown woman not too far away from her thirties. These characters had been with us all that long. As I said…the end of the campaign never ended the world of Forte. It went on, and still does.

The Forte Forever game in progress!

Obviously I won’t go into all the game details here, as you can read them all (if you haven’t already) in the Forte Forever write-up. But it ended up being everything it needed to be. Appropriately true to Forte, and more than epic enough for such an event. Everyone got to have their character moments and shine. There was fun. There was drama. There was action. There were shocks. And it took a long time!!! There were several distinct combats, involving different people at different times, but no one minded a bit waiting their turn. And no one cared a bit about it running late into the night. Please, can you imagine we’d want it rushed after waiting all this time? It was glorious, and the old magic was definitely still there. Like the great milestone games of the Forte campaign—the race across time in #50, the final showdown with the Dummy in #75, the final battle with Intercrime in #122, the tragic finale of the D’Arque Bloodlines epic in #150, the showdown with the Almighty ending the great Saoshyant invasion in #175, the journey to Hell and the final sacrifice of Phantashia in #200, and so many more—there was that feeling again of making Forte history. And we did. Kind of literally, actually… We all fell into the old routines, the old (mostly Vanguard) jokes, and knew that we had done what we’d started planning two years before…taken part in the biggest anniversary game yet, and made it one of the best ever.

We dragged ourselves back to our hotel, where, naturally, Randy and I were awake for a good deal longer talking about the game and how its events would shape future Forte fiction. VERY litlle sleep that night. But we managed to somehow rise on Sunday morning—our final day of the trip—and load up in the trusty van again for our biggest Seattle landmark trip of the weekend! We were heading for Seattle Center, and the Space Needle! The place where so many Forte tales, big and small, had taken place, and where Dr. Jackal had taken a rather famous fall. We’d actually considered fitting the Needle stop in the day before, but a drive-by showed us there was a monster line for it, and we (wisely, it turned out) chose to start the gaming early instead and wait on the Needle. Today, we drove up and made use of the handy valet parking there. We paid for our tickets and found out that, thanks to the wheelchair, we didn’t have to wait in the big line, but just wait until the next blue elevator came down. So while we waited, folks got to roam around the big gift shop and pick up Seattle and Space Needle goodies. I bought my swag last time, so none for me (my pewter Needle still sits atop my computer desk). And we took the long ride up with our handy and friendly tour guide. There’s a great part where you don’t really realize you’re in a mostly glass elevator for a while, as it’s all enclosed, and then FOOM…there’s Seattle spread all about below you as you’re shooting to the top. Very cool.

Uh, Jim...Seattle's BEHIND you...

We spent a good amount of time up there on the observation deck, either enjoy the view out the windows, stepping outside to the more-open walkways, using the handy telescopes or checking out some of the interactive displays. You can just wander around in a circle up there and check out the entire city from above. Really awesome. And really nerdy, if you’re part of Forte! Got to spot some landmarks. K.C. and Aaron discussed where they figured the Forte base was located in a warehouse area below. We got a good view of the big globe atop the Post-Intelligencer building. Everyone took in the views, took lots of pics, and soaked up the last big view of Seattle we’d have…this being our final day.

Finally, we headed back down and took the walk around Seattle Center, checking out the other attractions there. Like Key Arena, not only where the Sonics play, but where a couple of the famous Forte charity basketball games happened. But more importantly, we got to go hang out at…The Forte Museum!! What in REAL life is the Pacific Science Center exists in the Forte world (as Aaron and I decided a couple of years before) as the Forte Museum, where Seattle locals and tourists from around the world go to learn about Forte history, check out lots of cool interactive Forte displays, watch Forte and other Forte-world hero documentaries, and even meet real live Forte heroes during autograph days. So naturally we all had to get a shot in front of that. Hey, it was a museum about US, after all!

Outside the Forte Museum!

That being done with, we said good-bye to downtown and took the van back toward Aaron’s side of town, where we had decided to kill the last of our pre-airport time by checking out a big summer movie together…and Jeni showed up to join us. We saw Transformers, but, I must admit, the lack of sleep the night before caused me to doze off for most of the final act of it (yes, even a movie THAT loud). I’ll have to see it again all the way through, but what I saw of it seemed pretty damned cool. After the film, we gathered in the mall parking lot for one final group photo (with Jeni there to take it, thankfully). One last shot of the ol’ Forte gang to commemorate the trip that we couldn’t have imagined making all those years ago. Really…who knew? Who knew we’d still being all hanging out together and still keeping Forte alive in 2007?

Then we had to split off and say our good-byes. K.C. and Jeff would be flying out later that night, so we bid them farewell, and us Sac guys got a ride to the airport from Aaron. Sadly, first class was booked this time around, but Adam and I at least got to sit right behind first class (with Randy and Jim somewhere behind us) on the trip home. And we got in late! We got into my van and headed back to their house near midnight, where the four of us agreed we’d have to get together more often, and definitely get together for Adam’s Champions game (which is coming up soon). I got home and didn’t bother unpacking, as I had to work a few hours later (ugh). I managed to grab about four hours of sleep before heading back to the office, and back, sadly, to the real world.

Amazing trip enjoyed immensely by all involved. We were all so glad we’d made the trip happen, and so grateful for the chance to step back into our 20s again and reunite with the guys we spent so many, many weeknights with over the years, hanging out with, laughing with, saving the world with. Chance brought us all together, but friendship kept us united, and together we created something so special that it’s been with us, for many of us, almost half our lives.

So a final thank you here to everyone who made it for giving of your time (and money) to make the dream come true. Thanks to Aaron and Jeni for being the awesome hosts that made it all happen, and to K.C. for running one more game for the ages and letting us all back into his world again, giving us a chance to travel to Seattle both literally and figuratively to be the teammates, once more, that the Forte game turned us into. And don’t worry, those of you that didn’t make it. I have a feeling you’ll get the chance again. The Forte 25th really isn’t that far away…

Happy 20th, everybody. Forte Forever.

View the Forte 20th Seattle Weekend Photo Gallery

Next Time...On "The 'F' Word"...

Well, as I’ll be noting on the board after this posting, there may not be a whole lot from me next time around, but we’ll see what happens. Just know that I spent part of the big vacation working on the prelims for the continuation and conclusion of the Forte 2000 Anubis saga, and that a good chunk of the next Windjammer chapter is done. We’ll see what comes together. In the meantime, hope everyone had a great summer, and I’ll catch you when the holidays roll around!

Michael O’Connell
Forte fan from the beginning. Quite literally.