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Post by hengest on Sept 8, 2020 16:30:20 GMT -5
*Idea stolen, with permission, from mao * I don't know what these are, proper microplanes or what. Some were dreams that broke away from the dreamer, or wishes abandoned. Some may be proper planes or at least worlds. Or aspects of our world. *** A place where all you can sense is sleepy warmth. Nothing can be accomplished or planned. Consciousness rises and falls. If you struggle out, the plane spits you back to the entry point, fully healed and with your most recent spells restored. You can never enter again. |
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Post by hengest on Sept 8, 2020 16:37:28 GMT -5
Abilities lost to illness or injury come here. If you come here, you can see your own strengths as a set of familiars that follow you around. You are tempted to befriend some of the local beasts and add them to your retinue. Who knows what power they might confer at home?
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Post by hengest on Sept 8, 2020 16:42:27 GMT -5
A plane apparently the size of your home plane. It is always black night. Everyone in the world is fast asleep. If you scratch the surface of this world, there is nothing inside. You see straight through to the other side of the dome of stars. If you crawl through the hole...
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Post by hengest on Sept 8, 2020 16:50:18 GMT -5
Another negative aspect of your home plane. Not dark, but unlovely where you expect beauty. A tree in bloom makes you shudder. A graveyard fills you with sublime joy.
You feel yourself being sapped of vitality simply by being in this unworld. You must find the undead, here as vital as you thought yourself to be at home, and drain what you can from them. You feel certain that you will come away laden with power.
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Post by hengest on Sept 8, 2020 17:00:57 GMT -5
The Ladder
You come to already struggling up the ladder. Your mind catches up with your body as you realize that your weight is much greater. You can barely move up a rung at a time. If you look down, you see the ladder sloely dissolving below you. You must climb.
Every so often, you see between one rung and the next a miniature scene of great import: a frightened child, an archmage bent over his workbench dreaming of his greatest campaign, the wedding of true lovers, a promise made in haste. You know that all you have to do to escape the ladder is reach into one of these scenes.
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Post by hengest on Sept 8, 2020 17:11:31 GMT -5
The Third Day
There is no sun. The rich light seems to some from the musky air itself. All around you is a level field of flowering plants in bloom. Cornflower, primrose, columbine, thrift, teasel, sweet violet, pimpernel...each seems to have some virtue beyond words.
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Post by hengest on Sept 8, 2020 17:22:36 GMT -5
The Wizard's Perch
The entire plane is a stone room with a balcony. The room contains a small library and many fresh herbs. From the balcony, you see events whirling below. Mighty armies, lone travellers, the unthinkable lands without Men. You see them for a second or an hour and they pass away. If only you could look closer or climb down into them. Sometimes a middle-aged woman watches with you.
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Post by hengest on Sept 8, 2020 21:43:11 GMT -5
The CavesThe stone walls are beyond solid and impenetrable by any means. The caves are alive with breath, the air always moving, rhythmical but a little irregular. The various chambers are connected by narrow but entirely passable openings. There is good traction and it is hard to slip and fall. Magical light fails. Your torches and lanterns give heat but no light. Even their flames can be seen only in the faint light from a lichen that covers many walls. There is also a bit of light, variously colored, that seems to come from the water that trickles here and there through the caves. Water collected in a clear or open container glows just a little. The caves are potentially mappable, but the absence of landmarks makes the task difficult. One chamber contains a small pool of water that glows brightly enough that it cannot be missed and the room is relatively well-lit, although the ceiling here is high enough that you cannot make it out. One who drinks from this pool becomes able to see a huge human figure standing at the pool, a woman half again as tall as any man, dressed in a purple garment. Her hair is wild, her eyes lively, and her mouth without a trace of smile. She may lay a hand, strong but light, on your head. You cannot tell whether she possesses the gift of speech. This plane can be passed into by accident without a specific or obvious access point. For example, one might wander in by pushing past the bounds of good sense in exploring the passages under The Town (although there are plenty of passages under The Town that are simply part of regular space). One cannot, however, wander out the same way. Doubling back, once you have entered The Caves, will only bring you to a new part of The Caves.
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Post by hengest on Feb 23, 2021 12:04:11 GMT -5
The Abandoned Workshop
Every shelf is filled with animals in various states of assembly. They are alive but inanimate. Most still need something: fur, claws, bones. They seem expectant. The windows, on two sides of the workshop, look out onto nothing at all. The only thing other than the workshop is a grassy path that leads into the distance. You cannot see where it would take you.
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Post by Admin Pete on Feb 23, 2021 15:03:48 GMT -5
*Idea stolen, with permission, from mao * I don't know what these are, proper microplanes or what. Some were dreams that broke away from the dreamer, or wishes abandoned. Some may be proper planes or at least worlds. Or aspects of our world. *** A place where all you can sense is sleepy warmth. Nothing can be accomplished or planned. Consciousness rises and falls. If you struggle out, the plane spits you back to the entry point, fully healed and with your most recent spells restored. You can never enter again. That sounds unbearably sad. |
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Post by Admin Pete on Feb 23, 2021 15:08:52 GMT -5
You have some great ideas here running the full spectrum. The Caves are terrifying.
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Post by hengest on Feb 24, 2021 20:03:35 GMT -5
The Library at the Edge of the World
The entrance to the Library is smaller than normal. You have to stoop to get through the door. Inside, the structure is vast. There are thousands of shelves with grammars and tomes of every color. Looking off to the left and right, you cannot see where the rows of shelving end.
As soon as you enter, you see dozens of small men muttering to themselves and pulling items from the shelves, tossing them into wheelbarrows, and rolling them towards the back. The building is not very deep. Following the men back, you see that the building simply ends, without a fourth wall, at the edge of a cliff. If you look over the cliff, you cannot see anything below.
If you take a book from a shelf or even from a wheelbarrow, no one stops you. The pages are covered in writing that seems to swim before your eyes. You cannot make sense of it, but each book has a scent like that of a fragrant wildflower. If you lean in close enough to identify the smell, you can see nothing but the pages and the contents of the book are merged with your mind.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Feb 24, 2021 21:59:48 GMT -5
The Library at the Edge of the WorldThe entrance to the Library is smaller than normal. You have to stoop to get through the door. Inside, the structure is vast. There are thousands of shelves with grammars and tomes of every color. Looking off to the left and right, you cannot see where the rows of shelving end. As soon as you enter, you see dozens of small men muttering to themselves and pulling items from the shelves, tossing them into wheelbarrows, and rolling them towards the back. The building is not very deep. Following the men back, you see that the building simply ends, without a fourth wall, at the edge of a cliff. If you look over the cliff, you cannot see anything below. If you take a book from a shelf or even from a wheelbarrow, no one stops you. The pages are covered in writing that seems to swim before your eyes. You cannot make sense of it, but each book has a scent like that of a fragrant wildflower. If you lean in close enough to identify the smell, you can see nothing but the pages and the contents of the book are merged with your mind. Wow, that has to be something I can use facets of in my game. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Feb 24, 2021 22:02:16 GMT -5
The Abandoned WorkshopEvery shelf is filled with animals in various states of assembly. They are alive but inanimate. Most still need something: fur, claws, bones. They seem expectant. The windows, on two sides of the workshop, look out onto nothing at all. The only thing other than the workshop is a grassy path that leads into the distance. You cannot see where it would take you. This one is pretty scary too, I will have to use it in game sometime. It just needs to percolate for a while first. |
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Post by hengest on Jun 21, 2021 18:57:16 GMT -5
The Honeycombed Mirror Ball
You stand in the middle of utter blackness. If you use a light source, your understanding takes a while to be illuminated. You are on a platform equidistant from the ball that surrounds you on all sides. You cannot quite get oriented since there is little for reference, but you are sure the ball is more than 10 and less than 30 feet away. It seems to be a near-sphere made of roughly hexagonal sections. They appear reflective but not exactly shiny. The platform you stand on has a similar appearance but without the hexagonal shapes.
You are not sure how to get out of here, but you realize that the platform is rotating very slowly.
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Post by mao on Jul 30, 2021 14:56:41 GMT -5
The Honeycombed Mirror BallYou stand in the middle of utter blackness. If you use a light source, your understanding takes a while to be illuminated. You are on a platform equidistant from the ball that surrounds you on all sides. You cannot quite get oriented since there is little for reference, but you are sure the ball is more than 10 and less than 30 feet away. It seems to be a near-sphere made of roughly hexagonal sections. They appear reflective but not exactly shiny. The platform you stand on has a similar appearance but without the hexagonal shapes. You are not sure how to get out of here, but you realize that the platform is rotating very slowly. This is one of the only posts of your that I don't particularly like. It's way not enuf |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jul 30, 2021 16:01:50 GMT -5
The Honeycombed Mirror BallYou stand in the middle of utter blackness. If you use a light source, your understanding takes a while to be illuminated. You are on a platform equidistant from the ball that surrounds you on all sides. You cannot quite get oriented since there is little for reference, but you are sure the ball is more than 10 and less than 30 feet away. It seems to be a near-sphere made of roughly hexagonal sections. They appear reflective but not exactly shiny. The platform you stand on has a similar appearance but without the hexagonal shapes. You are not sure how to get out of here, but you realize that the platform is rotating very slowly. This is one of the only posts of your that I don't particularly like. It's way not enuf What does "way not enough" mean? |
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Post by hengest on Jul 30, 2021 16:53:34 GMT -5
mao The Perilous Dreamer I think I see what mao means, it is just a little too spare for his taste. I'm not sure what else I can do with it but will consider revisiting it. This is the danger of the hengest method of composition, I am glad to hear when it doesn't work for someone. But say whatever else you want in response to PD, mao, I am interested to hear more.
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Post by mao on Jul 30, 2021 16:58:38 GMT -5
Mostly what I feel is wrong w this is that normally Your stuff evokes a response that I can go with, this is just a little too generic
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Post by mao on Jul 30, 2021 17:00:09 GMT -5
I've actually only read a little of this thread, I'm gonna have to add this on the list. I think I need to look at this thread as a whole, not one read at a time it will make me like it more I think.
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Post by mao on Jul 30, 2021 17:15:28 GMT -5
*Idea stolen, with permission, from mao * I don't know what these are, proper microplanes or what. Some were dreams that broke away from the dreamer, or wishes abandoned. Some may be proper planes or at least worlds. Or aspects of our world. *** A place where all you can sense is sleepy warmth. Nothing can be accomplished or planned. Consciousness rises and falls. If you struggle out, the plane spits you back to the entry point, fully healed and with your most recent spells restored. You can never enter again. Ok, this one I like a lot |
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Post by mao on Jul 30, 2021 17:17:15 GMT -5
Ok I like the first bunch a lot, The later ones seem a little aimless. It might be that I just don't get "it"
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Post by hengest on Jul 30, 2021 17:22:39 GMT -5
mao Fair, I will review these sometime and try to see the difference, thanks for reading!
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jul 30, 2021 17:48:34 GMT -5
mao The Perilous Dreamer I think I see what mao means, it is just a little too spare for his taste. I'm not sure what else I can do with it but will consider revisiting it. This is the danger of the hengest method of composition, I am glad to hear when it doesn't work for someone. But say whatever else you want in response to PD, mao, I am interested to hear more. I love what you have do here, great ideas and you leave plenty of room for the individual ref to interpret it and take it many different directions. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jul 30, 2021 17:49:28 GMT -5
Mostly what I feel is wrong w this is that normally Your stuff evokes a response that I can go with, this is just a little too generic. I don't think it is all that generic, but I like it because it gives me more freedom to do something with it. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jul 30, 2021 17:50:56 GMT -5
Ok I like the first bunch a lot, The later ones seem a little aimless. It might be that I just don't get "it" Where they speak to me. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jul 30, 2021 17:51:55 GMT -5
mao Fair, I will review these sometime and try to see the difference, thanks for reading! , please don't revise any of these posts, if you make changes please make a new post as a variant. |
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Post by hengest on Jul 30, 2021 19:05:18 GMT -5
mao Fair, I will review these sometime and try to see the difference, thanks for reading! , please don't revise any of these posts, if you make changes please make a new post as a variant. Exactly what I planned (if I can make any change at all). |
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Post by mao on Aug 1, 2021 3:54:23 GMT -5
hengest , please don't revise any of these posts, if you make changes please make a new post as a variant. Exactly what I planned (if I can make any change at all). Yea, no reason to change them. I am starting to warm up to the rest of them, I think I almost get them! Gonna read thread again and then give another opine, I kinda don't understand why I am not fond of these. To be fair my rule of thumb is that a game product has to be 15% usable to make it worth while. Overall hengest , You are at least 60% for me. Prob more like 80%. Even this thread, that you know is not my fav, is at least 40% so if I bought it as a product I would have considered it a big hit for me! |
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Post by hengest on Aug 2, 2021 8:05:55 GMT -5
You stand in the middle of utter blackness. If you use a light source, your understanding takes a while to be illuminated. You are on a platform equidistant from the ball that surrounds you on all sides. You cannot quite get oriented since there is little for reference, but you are sure the ball is more than 10 and less than 30 feet away. It seems to be a near-sphere made of roughly hexagonal sections. They appear reflective but not exactly shiny. The platform you stand on has a similar appearance but without the hexagonal shapes. You are not sure how to get out of here, but you realize that the platform is rotating very slowly. If you speak, a voice responds. It seems somewhat confused, almost sleepy, but neutral in its orientation to you. It advises you to "choose and receive" but cannot explain further. Another very light edit for mao. |
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