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Post by hengest on Oct 9, 2021 23:18:12 GMT -5
Draft tables for connection-types. There always needs to be some kind of connection between what is normal and what is set into or breaks into or rubs up against what is normal (per my note here). For purposes of this thread, I will call the normal the " frame" and the abnormal the " inset." Roll 2d10, call one high. High die is the first table. Riff on the answer from the first table. That is the truth. The low die tells you what is known about that truth. Because these tables are likely to generate setting-defining answers, I suggest the use of these tables early in planning a setting or sub-setting. If you have your frame and inset ready, roll and see how much of your setting gets seeded just by that roll. Some answers will seem hard to apply to your frame and inset; be flexible. | Roll (1d10) | Connection-type | | 1 | Frame is a collapsed, ruined, or faded version of inset. | | 2 | Inset is bursting into frame somehow (fast or slow). | | 3 | Frame and inset lean on each other somehow for mutual support. | | 4 | Frame is enroaching on inset, driving it out. | | 5 | Inset depends on frame somehow. | | 6 | Frame depends on inset. | | 7 | Inset is a magical or other artifact*, created deliberately. | | 8 | Inset is an accidental artifact. | | 9 | Inset is one of several, but the others are buried. | | 10 | Frame is the artifact, a deliberately designed "lock" to keep inset stable or under control. |
*artifact not in the "powerful magic item" sense, not necessarily. | Roll (1d10) | What is known in-world about connection-type | | 1 | Complete mystery, no knowledge or even wondering. | | 2 | Various thoughts have been entertained, no central version. | | 3 | A largely false but plausible explanation is widely held. | | 4 | A deliberately false story circulates (recent or ancient: coinflip) | | 5 | A local myth, legend, or even recent history tells the truth but is not understood to refer to this matter, to be the explanation. | | 6 | As in 5, but the truth is warped for comfort. | | 7 | A force turns thoughts away from this topic. | | 8 | Knowledge of the matter exists but is completely underground or personal, is not part of public discourse. It cannot be in harmony with
public understanding. | | 9 | The truth is known but is spoken of in an edited form. | | 10 | A local understanding of the truth is widely known and viewed positively. |
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Post by hengest on Oct 9, 2021 23:18:48 GMT -5
Frame: working agricultural village and the surrounding land.
Inset: a meadow normal at the edges but towards one area, increased frequency of extremely tall, almost woody grasses. As they get taller and taller towards the "center" of this phenomenon, they have ever-larger flowers and odd fragrant fruit: varied, delicious, and never poisonous.
Rolled 2, 2. Inset is bursting into frame, various thoughts entertained but no central version.
The truth, then, is that the center represents a weak point through which the Plane of Flower and Fruit is pressing, hernia-like, into the local world. The height, fruit, and flowers that we see are not from that plane, they are merely the expression of its "weight." It is unknown what could weaken the barrier more or what would be observed if that plane itself should begin to leak through.
Some think the tall and fruity area is simply a bit of local color of which they can boast at market, others find the fruit strange and not of a piece with the world they know, they avoid it. A few entertain odd thoughts of their own about its purpose or function: the area was once blessed by a great lady and this is the faded remains of the blessing, a local spirit makes its home among those tall stems, one will meet one's true love there at midnight on one's name-day.
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Post by hengest on Jan 12, 2022 11:43:50 GMT -5
Another one I had forgotten utterly, I cannot even believe some of this stuff. Let's try another one. Rolled: 10, 1 Huh. Frame is the artifact, deliberately designed to keep the inset stable. And nothing is known about this locally. Plum Castle and Environs The environs of Plum Castle, all the natural resources, farmland, woods, and animals are managed magically from another plane. The purpose of all this is to act as a kind of lock through which the contents of Plum Castle itself may not pass. To appearances, Plum Castle looks normal, its court having a healthy king and queen, a young princess, and functional if imperfect ministers as well as the other trappings, human and otherwise. There is a wholesomeness to Plum Castle, but a strangeness as well: no one there ages and the problems and concerns seem cyclical. Even a visitor might manage to notice this. The brief story is that King Sheave and his Queen Nora, though imperfect, were a rare combination of good and charismatic. By their very existence, they threatened the dominance of everyday evil on the island. The "lock" of the environs was designed to allow King Sheave and his court to exist and to hold the place of a good castle and court without threatening to spill over into anyone else's territory, politically or culturally. To be clear: the royal family cannot pass out of the castle and are somewhat aware of this. It is they who are truly "locked in." Their ministers and servants may leave the castle but rarely do so. The peasants of the environs can pass in and out of the castle freely. They can also pass into the wider world, but rarely do so. The magical lock not only keeps the royals themselves under control, it also mutes the effects of their personalities which otherwise could be too influential. Visitors who look into recent history might notice agelessness or other effects that could cause them to suspect something. If time advances enough, it might become fairly obvious that Plum Castle is becoming a technological backwater. |
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Post by hengest on Jan 17, 2022 21:58:51 GMT -5
Rolled: 5, 8. Inset depends on frame somehow, knowledge of this relationship is hidden.
The water in the old well is clear and cool as you might wish. It also bestows temporary magical abilities whose expression is sometimes voluntary and sometimes not.
No one says that the entire valley goes gray and lifeless in patches because its vitality drains into the aquifer. It is the use of the abilities the water bestows that restores this vitality to the valley. No one speaks of the relationship directly. It is implicit in the invisible relationships the folk have with the well, its function in their rituals, and their periodically nomadic travels through the valley.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 24, 2022 14:43:00 GMT -5
Rolled: 5, 8. Inset depends on frame somehow, knowledge of this relationship is hidden. The water in the old well is clear and cool as you might wish. It also bestows temporary magical abilities whose expression is sometimes voluntary and sometimes not. No one says that the entire valley goes gray and lifeless in patches because its vitality drains into the aquifer. It is the use of the abilities the water bestows that restores this vitality to the valley. No one speaks of the relationship directly. It is implicit in the invisible relationships the folk have with the well, its function in their rituals, and their periodically nomadic travels through the valley. All of your threads seem to have seeds that should end up in games and novels someday. |
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Post by hengest on Jan 24, 2022 14:52:30 GMT -5
Rolled: 5, 8. Inset depends on frame somehow, knowledge of this relationship is hidden. The water in the old well is clear and cool as you might wish. It also bestows temporary magical abilities whose expression is sometimes voluntary and sometimes not. No one says that the entire valley goes gray and lifeless in patches because its vitality drains into the aquifer. It is the use of the abilities the water bestows that restores this vitality to the valley. No one speaks of the relationship directly. It is implicit in the invisible relationships the folk have with the well, its function in their rituals, and their periodically nomadic travels through the valley. All of your threads seem to have seeds that should end up in games and novels someday. Thanks, good to hear this. It's a lot easier to make these posts than to marshal myself for a real piece of fiction! |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 24, 2022 16:06:04 GMT -5
All of your threads seem to have seeds that should end up in games and novels someday. Thanks, good to hear this. It's a lot easier to make these posts than to marshal myself for a real piece of fiction! You come up with such powerful settings and hooks, that a ghost writer would have a field day fleshing out your ideas. |
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Post by hengest on Jan 24, 2022 16:11:59 GMT -5
Thanks, good to hear this. It's a lot easier to make these posts than to marshal myself for a real piece of fiction! You come up with such powerful settings and hooks, that a ghost writer would have a field day fleshing out your ideas. All I do is "look around" in my head and whatever seems like useless trash, I just don't write down. I try to grab the stuff that is simple enough to write down easily and ignore any over-detailed nonsense. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 24, 2022 16:15:15 GMT -5
You come up with such powerful settings and hooks, that a ghost writer would have a field day fleshing out your ideas. All I do is "look around" in my head and whatever seems like useless trash, I just don't write down. I try to grab the stuff that is simple enough to write down easily and ignore any over-detailed nonsense. I suspect that some of what you call useless trash is not. Brainstorming is when you write down every idea and then cull them afterwards and that means will help from other people. I would love to see your discard pile. |
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Post by hengest on Jan 24, 2022 16:17:00 GMT -5
All I do is "look around" in my head and whatever seems like useless trash, I just don't write down. I try to grab the stuff that is simple enough to write down easily and ignore any over-detailed nonsense. I suspect that some of what you call useless trash is not. Brainstorming is when you write down every idea and then cull them afterwards and that means will help from other people. I would love to see your discard pile. I would have carpal tunnel to the max, or else a ruined writing hand, if I tried to write down every idea! But maybe I could try culling less sometime and show the result on here. Might be worth a shot. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 24, 2022 16:19:19 GMT -5
I suspect that some of what you call useless trash is not. Brainstorming is when you write down every idea and then cull them afterwards and that means will help from other people. I would love to see your discard pile. I would have carpal tunnel to the max, or else a ruined writing hand, if I tried to write down every idea! But maybe I could try culling less sometime and show the result on here. Might be worth a shot. I know what you mean. Wish I could just think and the computer would print the results! But the people working on things like that scare me because they will take us where we don't want to go. |
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Post by hengest on Jan 24, 2022 16:21:29 GMT -5
I would have carpal tunnel to the max, or else a ruined writing hand, if I tried to write down every idea! But maybe I could try culling less sometime and show the result on here. Might be worth a shot. I know what you mean. Wish I could just think and the computer would print the results! But the people working on things like that scare me because they will take us where we don't want to go. Agreed. Five minutes later, we would all be too tired to think. |
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Post by hengest on Jan 24, 2022 16:24:38 GMT -5
All I do is "look around" in my head and whatever seems like useless trash, I just don't write down. I try to grab the stuff that is simple enough to write down easily and ignore any over-detailed nonsense. I suspect that some of what you call useless trash is not. Brainstorming is when you write down every idea and then cull them afterwards and that means will help from other people. I would love to see your discard pile. I suppose the mini-hook thread is a little like that: just whatever comes to mind. Although even there I do ignore a lot of what comes to mind because it just seems like junk. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 24, 2022 16:29:42 GMT -5
I suspect that some of what you call useless trash is not. Brainstorming is when you write down every idea and then cull them afterwards and that means will help from other people. I would love to see your discard pile. I suppose the mini-hook thread is a little like that: just whatever comes to mind. Although even there I do ignore a lot of what comes to mind because it just seems like junk. That mini-hook thread has enough stuff for a lot of gaming. That is another thing that I would like to do. The beta blocker they have me on lowers my blood pressure and slows my heart beat, but I looked it up and it also shuts off adrenaline to a large extent. It makes you very calm and it makes it hard to be creative, not impossible, but difficult. It just slows you way down and you have to fight to be motivated. I want to get off of it as soon as possible. |
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Post by hengest on Jan 24, 2022 16:31:27 GMT -5
I suppose the mini-hook thread is a little like that: just whatever comes to mind. Although even there I do ignore a lot of what comes to mind because it just seems like junk. That mini-hook thread has enough stuff for a lot of gaming. That is another thing that I would like to do. The beta blocker they have me on lowers my blood pressure and slows my heart beat, but I looked it up and it also shuts off adrenaline to a large extent. It makes you very calm and it makes it hard to be creative, not impossible, but difficult. It just slows you way down and you have to fight to be motivated. I want to get off of it as soon as possible. Good luck with that, it's great that these medications exist to help people, but that is not a fun side effect. |
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