interrelated worlds / many-dimensional spaces

[hengest]

***This thread is under construction***

Note: This thread, "incorporating fairy tales," and likely a split-off thread on dragons (created 2/28, here) will be moved into a new subfolder, "Fairy Tales," once it's created by our kind Admin (done). For now, this post is more or less a placeholder.

So, three threads.

1)The original "fairy tales" thread, which moved into dragons and semi-alternate universes (variously mythical areas on one planet or living surface) was to address the possibility of incorporating fairy tales in some form.  I still want to address that more practically.  Of course, fairy tales and fiction are nontrivial sources for published gaming materials and homebrew materials, but I want to consider how to have something that has some of that feel in-world.  That is, at least a chance for the characters to interact with something that is qualitatively different from their regular experience.  (In general, I am interested in the possibility of recursion or semi-recursion in gaming.  Minigames for the PCs to play, and so on.)

2) Dragons come up, as The Perilous Dreamer said, because they are the major fairy tale creature.  The idea of their having a foot in more than one world is very attractive to me.

3) This thread, after editing and further posting, should be about my ideas for a homebrew multiverse, drawing on AD&D planes as little as possible. (still to come)

[The Perilous Dreamer]

I will add two things for you here, one is that dragons are both a fairy tale monster and a fantasy monster. There are ways in which the two overlap and ways in which they do not.

Also second is something that I wrote back in January of 2015 when the forum was only a few days old.

Contrary to what most believe, the universe in which Murkhill lies is not the only universe, but only one infinitesimally tiny part of the infinitely, vast, highly complex, interlocking, woven, web of existence that results in an infinite, conglomeration, of parallel universes, alternative universes, quantum universes, infinite dimensions, interpenetrating dimensions, parallel dimensions, parallel worlds, alternative realities, alternative timelines, dimensional planes, long worlds and fictional universes that make up the infinite number of multiverses, metaverses, xenoverses, hyperverses and omniverses that make up all possible and impossible realities.

Therefore, when you go through a magical portal it can take you literally anywhere, anywhen and anywhat. This does not even include the theological complexities that can alter any and all of the above in an infinite number of impossible to foresee ways.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Oh and here is a link you might check out ruinsofmurkhill.proboards.com/post/6535 from older days on the forum.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Oh and have an Exalt!

[hengest]

A bit of material to go into this thread once I restructure:

Central "surface" of world (land and water that can be traversed by normal means) is affected by the "fairy tale geology" described briefly here: ruinsofmurkhill.proboards.com/post/46280/thread

Portals also occur. They lead to other such "surfaces" that cannot be reached by normal travel. For this post, a "surface" will mean a world that (absent travel through portals) is finite, allows travel by normal means from any point on it to any other point, and does not allow travel to other surfaces.

However, the portals do not function simply as specialized doorways, "bottlenecks" that grant or restrict access to a certain surface.

Portals can have several strange features:

1) In the "garbage chute" type of portal, the travel is trivially easy in one direction and very difficult, "longer to traverse" in the other direction. For example:

Portal at Location A on Surface 1 leads immediately to Location B on Surface 2. Entering the portal at Location B, however, does not return you to Location A on Surface 1. Instead, it pushes you to Surface 3 which may require non-trivial travel and struggle before allowing a return to Location A on Surface 1.

2) Transformation of travellers, or apparent transformation relative to surroundings. For example: travellers pass through and find themselves "phantoms" on the destination surface (think the depiction of the Phantom Zone from the Superman stories, roughly, although many variations are possible). This might not be a feature of the portal itself, but simply how substantial bodies from the source surface are when on the destination surface. The opposite is possible: travellers find themselves "too solid" for the destination surface, and that all matter feels soft, soupy, wispy, or entirely intangible.

3) Time dysfunction. Not only the familiar "time slower in fairyland" setup, but also the following possibility: portal at Location A, Surface 1 leads to Location B, Surface 2, but always in a certain range in Surface 2's history (generate at random within that range). This might cause significant effects during that history, if strange visitors from other surfaces always show up in the same place during a fixed range.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

hengest I love "portals" and they have always featured prominently in my worlds.