MEGA TEAMS - THE SECRET TO FLEXIBLE GAMES

Tired of not being able to play when players don't show up? Worried that your campaign won't progress because of so much missed time? Do you have a player who's character dies all the time or who is fickle and never wants to play the same character? 

No problem, play a mega team! 

Mega teams are those teams that seem to have an endless membership. Justice League, Legion of Superheroes, Avengers, Defenders, or even The Green Lantern Corps. These teams usually have extensive memberships made up of an ever-changing, ever-growing roster of primary members, secondary and even back-up members. New members come, go and are and are not available as other missions take up their time or their own private lives keep them out of action. 

These sorts of teams allow for a nearly infinite flexibility in both individual adventures as well as campaign progression. They ccomplish this in a number of ways but it all comes down to allowing play to continue no matter who shows up. Three of the most common and useful to gamers are as follows - 

1) Guest Appearances: These are sessions where character who were not originally involved in the main campaign appear in one or more sessions. This can be done for a number of rreasons such as a new player joining the game or an occasional player being available on a given night. They are also useful for when a regular player has a character taken out of action. The popular Marvel Team-Up series is a great example of this but guest appearances are very common even in the main continuity of comics. 

2) Crossovers: Similar to guest appearances, crossovers have a bit more intent to them. These are best used when a GM know he's not going to have all of one or more of his regular players available for the game for a period of time allowing him to plan a crossover event that includes the characters that will be available. 

3) Spin-Offs: These games are most often played with completely new characters and are best used as palate-clensers, fill-in games, or ways to accomodate an influx of new players. Spin-offs can include characters from the main campaign but should not do so unless they take place at some other point in continuity or those characters are not involved in the main game anymore. They are also a good place to reintroduce returning regular players who may have been left behind by the main campaign. Good examples of this are Justice League International, The New Mutants, or West Coast Avengers. 

The main benefit to keeping campaigns going and enriching the overall campaign experience is that the game and thus the players' comic book universe is perpetually growing as each adventure and character comes with its own NPCs, settings, plots and world-building that grows the whole and creates feedback loop. It is also important to not get overly wound up on ironclad continuities. Comic book continuity has always been a bit loose at times using flawed logic, handwavium and retconning to explain things.