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Post by hengest on Mar 17, 2021 21:21:48 GMT -5
Intended for possible use in connection with this material, but that use has not been described yet. And the portals decsirbed in this thread could be used anywhere. The basic idea in this placeholder post is what I call the non-portal portal. So, it is a portal that you do not notice is a portal to another world, another "surface," another type of area that cannot be reached by normal means (by any means but the portal). For the moment, I am thinking of landscape features: - a wood, when you cross it, you enter...
- a lake whose far shore appears continguous with the space you are in, but once you reach it...
- a field, crossed at the witching hour when there is no one watching, leads to...
The spaces reached by these portals might be pocket dimensions, mini-planes, entire other worlds, or simply one "fairy tale" character's homestead.
More to come.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Mar 17, 2021 22:55:26 GMT -5
Intended for possible use in connection with this material, but that use has not been described yet. And the portals decsirbed in this thread could be used anywhere. The basic idea in this placeholder post is what I call the non-portal portal. So, it is a portal that you do not notice is a portal to another world, another "surface," another type of area that cannot be reached by normal means (by any means but the portal). For the moment, I am thinking of landscape features: - a wood, when you cross it, you enter...
- a lake whose far shore appears continguous with the space you are in, but once you reach it...
- a field, crossed at the witching hour when there is no one watching, leads to...
The spaces reached by these portals might be pocket dimensions, mini-planes, entire other worlds, or simply one "fairy tale" character's homestead.
More to come. I have used this in a variety of forms. One is when you step into a tapestry.
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Post by hengest on Mar 26, 2021 22:18:14 GMT -5
I like the tapestry idea a lot but would never have thought of it, ever. Why I like the landscape features is that the players can go through a portal and have no idea it was a portal until (maybe) later when they try to get back and - it turns out the portal doesn't exist from this side
- they need to go around but can't because you can move only through the portal, otherwise, there is no access to the source area
- the portal leads somewhere else entered from this side -- it's two way, but the two ways are not reciprocal (I suppose this could happen with any portal, but I was thinking about it.)
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Mar 27, 2021 10:35:09 GMT -5
I like the tapestry idea a lot but would never have thought of it, ever. Why I like the landscape features is that the players can go through a portal and have no idea it was a portal until (maybe) later when they try to get back and - it turns out the portal doesn't exist from this side
- they need to go around but can't because you can move only through the portal, otherwise, there is no access to the source area
- the portal leads somewhere else entered from this side -- it's two way, but the two ways are not reciprocal (I suppose this could happen with any portal, but I was thinking about it.)
Portals are a lot of fun, because there are so many variations possible, an infinite number in fact. I have also done stuff with mirrors too. You are looking in the mirror and you see someone behind you. There is only 10 feet behind you to the wall, but in the mirror you see an open field and someone a couple of hundred yards away is approaching you and they do not look friendly. They are moving rapidly and will be on you in a very short time. What do you do?
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Post by hengest on Jan 12, 2022 10:57:17 GMT -5
I like the tapestry idea a lot but would never have thought of it, ever. Why I like the landscape features is that the players can go through a portal and have no idea it was a portal until (maybe) later when they try to get back and - it turns out the portal doesn't exist from this side
- they need to go around but can't because you can move only through the portal, otherwise, there is no access to the source area
- the portal leads somewhere else entered from this side -- it's two way, but the two ways are not reciprocal (I suppose this could happen with any portal, but I was thinking about it.)
Portals are a lot of fun, because there are so many variations possible, an infinite number in fact. I have also done stuff with mirrors too. You are looking in the mirror and you see someone behind you. There is only 10 feet behind you to the wall, but in the mirror you see an open field and someone a couple of hundred yards away is approaching you and they do not look friendly. They are moving rapidly and will be on you in a very short time. What do you do? Never replied to this, just forgot, I guess. I press myself into the mirror and if I pass through, I break into a run to meet the challenge head on. But as to portals, I have still been thinking about them. Overdoing it means the world is just a knotted mishmash of places that all bleed into each other, but that doesn't mean you can't have a million ideas for portals and use them judiciously. Was thinking also about semi-portals that don't change your location when you pass through them, but change your relationship to the surrounding area. The old Phantom Zone projector in Superman stories might be like this. But here, for example, if you passed through a portal-doorway (looks like a normal doorway), you might find yourself inaudible. Or if you passed through or into a mirror, you might find that your senses have changed, sounds are muffled but you can see a great many things you could not see before, although you cannot touch them.
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portals
Jan 12, 2022 19:04:59 GMT -5
Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 12, 2022 19:04:59 GMT -5
Portals are a lot of fun, because there are so many variations possible, an infinite number in fact. I have also done stuff with mirrors too. You are looking in the mirror and you see someone behind you. There is only 10 feet behind you to the wall, but in the mirror you see an open field and someone a couple of hundred yards away is approaching you and they do not look friendly. They are moving rapidly and will be on you in a very short time. What do you do? Never replied to this, just forgot, I guess. I press myself into the mirror and if I pass through, I break into a run to meet the challenge head on. But as to portals, I have still been thinking about them. Overdoing it means the world is just a knotted mishmash of places that all bleed into each other, but that doesn't mean you can't have a million ideas for portals and use them judiciously. Was thinking also about semi-portals that don't change your location when you pass through them, but change your relationship to the surrounding area. The old Phantom Zone projector in Superman stories might be like this. But here, for example, if you passed through a portal-doorway (looks like a normal doorway), you might find yourself inaudible. Or if you passed through or into a mirror, you might find that your senses have changed, sounds are muffled but you can see a great many things you could not see before, although you cannot touch them.I like the idea in bold. My portals are mainly found in dungeons. Some lead elsewhere nearby, some lead to other levels of the dungeons, some will take you somewhere else outside the dungeon - some nearby and some far away, some go to other worlds etc. I can't recall them bleeding into each other. My players always want to go through them.
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Post by hengest on Jan 13, 2022 17:39:30 GMT -5
By bleed into each other, I meant what would happen if I just had portals all over the place leading bidirectionally everywhere. The places would just bleed into each other in a third-rate Stargate kind of way. I also am getting very into the idea of portals.
Yeah, I like the idea of a portal that does something to you, or refuses to transport some of your items or certain kinds of items, or lets your personality get hung up in transit while your body is teleported instantly. Something like that.
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Post by mao on Jan 14, 2022 5:43:24 GMT -5
By bleed into each other, I meant what would happen if I just had portals all over the place leading bidirectionally everywhere. The places would just bleed into each other in a third-rate Stargate kind of way. I also am getting very into the idea of portals. Yeah, I like the idea of a portal that does something to you, or refuses to transport some of your items or certain kinds of items, or lets your personality get hung up in transit while your body is teleported instantly. Something like that. I have used a relatively large amount of portals in Mysantia. I have always thought that a lot of portals would most affect merchants and military situation and need to be taken into consideration.
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