Okay, this is where the Forte Index WILL go. When it's done. Someday.

Once we had accumulated a LOT of Forte updates (issues), K.C. (the gamemaster of Forte) realized he needed a way to easily go back into past issues and find things...like, when did that villain he's thinking of using last appear, and what happened during the last appearance? Things like that. Continuity was always a huge part of Forte, so he couldn't properly write new adventures without this kind of research. So by the time we'd hit about 100 or more of these things, he started something, for himself and for us, the players, called the Forte Index. It was a database of sorts, but really, it was just a text file that listed every character (good, bad, and otherwise) that appeared in all the Forte updates, plus certain important locations, and listed which issues they appeared in. As he wrote each new update, he would just add new names as needed to the ever-expanding Index, or add new issue appearances to existing entries. This Index became invaluable for him as a GM, and for those of us who started writing Forte fiction and continuing the Forte timeline after the game ended. About every fifty issues or so, he'd print his Index file out and bind it and hand out copies to all of us for our use, allowing us to refer to it and go through all the Forte update copies we already had for whatever research (or just memories) we needed.

When I was going through my process of typing up the original 50 handwritten Forte updates (yes, he hand-wrote them and copied them off for us before he had a computer. Hey, it was the 80s, okay?), I decided I wanted to create a final Forte update. A final one had never been done when the game ended. So I OCR-scanned the last available Index, got it all in a Word file, and went through the final issues that hadn't been added yet (I think there were like 50 of them...) and created my own version that could be changed and added to as need. Here's a cut-and-paste to show you what part of its first page looked like, to give you an idea of what K.C. did with it:

A

Abdul, Paula; Neutral; Pop singer, dancer – 155
Abim Anant; Neutral; Indian SHIELD agent assigned to Monte Carlo – 185, 186
Abra Cadaver; Enemy; Hellishly powerful, rhyming evil magician – 59, 62, 63, 217, 218, 223, 224, 261, 262
Abrams, Major Calvin; Neutral; Col Ravenscroft's right hand man – 158
Abraxas, Ambrose; Neutral; Owns the gypsy Abraxas Circus – 217
Abyssia; Place; Underground empire of plant creatures – 15, 16, 17
Abyssians; Ally; Underground empire of plant creatures – 15, 17, 18, 105, 122, 152
Acaju; Enemy; The big werewolf in Group LaRoux – 317, 319, 320
ACE Security; Mostly Ally; NRG super security (see ARMOR) – 61, 131, 152
Acolytes of the Emperor; Enemy; Group of magical servants of the Emperor of the Sun in 1869 – 303
Adam, Peggy; Neutral; Seattle TV newswoman – 16, 127, 133, 148
Adonis, Marc; Neutral; Painter and art thief – 82, 180, 192
Aegis; Ally?; Midwestern supergroup of the mid-80s that burned down Parliament – 278
Aerie; Ally; Loose alliance of outlawed British heroes – 184, 185
Aerojet; Company; Makes motor parts for the Space Shuttle, among other things – 42
Agent Orange; Enemy; Prizm's powerhouse – 167, 275
Agua Obscuro; Ally; Mexican hero killed by Almighty – 174
Air Wave; Ally; Young radio powered hero killed in Twin Peaks – 158, 285
Alcatraz; Place; The Rock…prison where a bad Nick Cage movie was made – 291, 292
Alexander the Great; Neutral; Ancient conqueror – 254
Allana; Neutral; Latverian gypsy moon goddess – 76
Allen, Tim; Neutral; Host of popular home improvement show – 253
Almighty, the; Enemy; Senses shattering sentient starship – 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 182, 225, 250, 270
Alter Ego; Enemy; Prizm's meddling mentalist – 167, 275
Amendariz, Lt. Maria; Neutral; SHIELD space plane pilot – 187
Ameritech; Company; Company owned by Max Ravenscroft – 308
Anemone; Enemy; Mysterious long-fingered representative of Nexus – 291, 293
Angel Flight; Ally; New York based superheroine team – 168, 169, 202, 208, 226, 266, 272, 300, 315
Angel Flight (alt); Ally; Heroines killed by Blackjack – 162
Angel Shark; Enemy; TK-using villainess of the Deep Six – 293
Angle Man; Enemy; The Man With All The Angles – 29, 32, 33, 73, 97, 174, 275
Angler, The; Enemy; Guy who took up the mantle with Angle Man’s Anglegram. Kind of a loser – 275
Ani Men; Enemy; Beastomorphs – 54
Annihilator; Enemy; Nasty armored villainess – 283, 325
Anubis; Neutral; Egyptian Jackal headed God of Dead – 198
Anvil; Forte; Super strong metal man – 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 259, 260, 263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308, 309, 310, 311

Yes, the Forte Index begins with Paula Abdul. Don't ask.

As you can see, it showed the character name, their standing (ally, enemy, neutral, etc), and a quick (sometimes tongue-in-cheek) description to help jog the memory. Plus, of course, all the issue appearances. Some characters were minor ones and only appeared once or twice. Some had multiple appearances. As you can see from the entry of Forte's armored hero Anvil, Forte heroes, naturally, appeared a whole lot more.

What you'll be seeing here one day (once I finally get all 328 issues posted, for starters) is a new, online, interactive Forte Index. Each of those issue numbers will be links that will take you directly to the issue in question. And I'm sure the format will look a bit different, too. But, as I said, I'm waiting on that until all the issues are up, which is going to be a bit of a wait in itself, of course.

So stay tuned, and hopefully one day in the not-TOO-distant future (maybe I'll have time to work on it while my flying car is in the shop), you'll have an online Forte Index to play with.