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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jul 16, 2021 2:13:08 GMT -5
Ruins, dungeons, blights, piles, rubble, caverns, caves and pits are very important in my world and in world design in general IMO. These are part and parcel of the wilderness, of the untamed wild areas from before. The world is post-apocalyptic, something that has happened many times and each time a long slow climb out of it is part of the fabric of the world. The exploration of the world, the expansion of civilization, the discovery of old knowledge and of new.
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Post by hengest on Jul 16, 2021 6:09:50 GMT -5
A dungeon, network of ruins, or similar place is key. Riffing on what The Perilous Dreamer said...with each civilization there is a lot of knowledge, that knowledge is then lost with each collapse. Or mostly lost. So ruins represent not what is unknown, but what has been forgotten. This is key. |
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Post by mao on Jul 16, 2021 6:34:32 GMT -5
A dungeon, network of ruins, or similar place is key. Riffing on what The Perilous Dreamer said...with each civilization there is a lot of knowledge, that knowledge is then lost with each collapse. Or mostly lost. So ruins represent not what is unknown, but what has been forgotten. This is key. You and The Perilous Dreamer have inspired me. I want to make a setting where the dungeon is integral yet it is not a collapsed civilization. The first thing that came to mind is: Ice, Bronze or iron age heroes and a dungeon that comes from the Renaissance(from the future not the past yet at first it looks like the past). My second Idea is an active home of some kind(that's going to be way easier).. |
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Post by hengest on Jul 16, 2021 6:50:19 GMT -5
A dungeon, network of ruins, or similar place is key. Riffing on what The Perilous Dreamer said...with each civilization there is a lot of knowledge, that knowledge is then lost with each collapse. Or mostly lost. So ruins represent not what is unknown, but what has been forgotten. This is key. You and The Perilous Dreamer have inspired me. I want to make a setting where the dungeon is integral yet it is not a collapsed civilization. The first thing that came to mind is: Ice, Bronze or iron age heroes and a dungeon that comes from the Renaissance(from the future not the past yet at first it looks like the past). My second Idea is an active home of some kind(that's going to be way easier).. Time flows forward aboveground, backwards underground. |
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Post by mao on Jul 16, 2021 6:59:56 GMT -5
You and The Perilous Dreamer have inspired me. I want to make a setting where the dungeon is integral yet it is not a collapsed civilization. The first thing that came to mind is: Ice, Bronze or iron age heroes and a dungeon that comes from the Renaissance(from the future not the past yet at first it looks like the past). My second Idea is an active home of some kind(that's going to be way easier).. Time flows forward aboveground, backwards underground. also a fantastic idea |
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Post by mao on Jul 16, 2021 7:30:18 GMT -5
You and The Perilous Dreamer have inspired me. I want to make a setting where the dungeon is integral yet it is not a collapsed civilization. The first thing that came to mind is: Ice, Bronze or iron age heroes and a dungeon that comes from the Renaissance(from the future not the past yet at first it looks like the past). My second Idea is an active home of some kind(that's going to be way easier).. run Time flows forward aboveground, backwards underground. Your idea is excellent, but I think it would not work for an on going game. It would be good for like a well planned 3-5 sessions |
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Post by hengest on Jul 16, 2021 11:41:37 GMT -5
I meant that it would affect things only long term. i.e. stuff that get buried in the future drifts backwards in time. Not that it would affect the PCs directly
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Post by mao on Jul 16, 2021 13:22:04 GMT -5
but i like that better,,,,,
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jul 16, 2021 15:45:19 GMT -5
I meant that it would affect things only long term. i.e. stuff that get buried in the future drifts backwards in time. Not that it would affect the PCs directly Do you have an example or two of how this would work in game? |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jul 16, 2021 18:40:29 GMT -5
I'm just guessing but I think he means that the underground area is like a snapshot from the past - like an earlier period in civilization - and thus time has slowed or runs backwards because it hasn't advanced like the over world.
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Post by hengest on Jul 16, 2021 20:16:22 GMT -5
I meant that it would affect things only long term. i.e. stuff that get buried in the future drifts backwards in time. Not that it would affect the PCs directly Do you have an example or two of how this would work in game? I just threw this out as a suggestion / guess about how to justify mao 's proposal (as if things need justifying). What I meant was "once things are buried underground, they drift backwards in time and can be accessed in some earlier period." So you have a Renaissance crypt or dungeon or castle basement abandoned and it appears in Bronze Age time as a dungeon. Or you have a modern abandoned server room accessible through a 7th-century crypt. That's all I meant. A twist on it, however, might allow access to the other time period through the place in question. And we would remove the "abandonment" requirement. Perhaps with several "clicks" of engagement depending on time spent in the area, each amount of time spent causing a coinflip that determines whether the next "degree of engagement" is activated. Maybe like this: For each minute spent in the area, 50% chance of clicking up or down a level. Start at stage 1. | Stage 1 | Inanimate objects dusty, decayed, as in a truly abandoned ruin. | No living things apparent. | Exit to one's own time trivially easy, simply walk out. | | Stage 2 | Inanimate objects appear old but mostly normal, complex objects do not "work." | Sensory breakthroughs from other side, fragmentary. | Exit to one's own time somehow difficult, requires another minute spent to "slog" your way out. | | Stage 3 | Complex objects work fitfully. | Ghostly or semi-solid interactions possible (likely frightening to parties on both ends). | Exit to one's own time impossible, slog-exit possible as in Stage 2, but to the other time. | | Stage 4 | Complex items and period technology work normally. | Full and normal interaction unavoidable. | Exit possible only to "target" time period. |
Another idea: far in the future, a high-tech society (that later collapsed, of course) developed a method for dealing with waste: bury it and shunt it into the past. The tech was also used to "flush" honeycombed underground ruins from civilizations preceding them, and sometimes used on prisoners. The items and people "land" at scattershot points in the past. Another idea: what is perceived as time is a long, long loop. 2, 5, 7, 50 thousand years. Technological and magical changes, as well as changes in types of consciousness, do not really have historical causality as we expect them, but are keyed to "place" on the ribbon. In the end, the distant future literally wraps around to the distant past. Insert your own ideas for consequences to history, magic systems, cultural continuity. Anachronisms such as in mao 's original post are due to odd warps in the "ribbon," or possible tesseracts that allow "straight-line" travel rather than "around the rim" travel. |
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Post by hengest on Jul 16, 2021 20:32:51 GMT -5
but i like that better,,,,, If you like underground time goes backwards quickly and locally (which is not what I meant but certainly sounds cool), then go for it! My super quick guesses and thoughts: Don't have it be the whole world, limited but large area. Roll 1d6 on a table for the effective ratio for a specific area or for any given day. For each day that aboveground time moves forward, underground explorers will slide back... | 1 | 1 day | | 2 | 3 days | | 3 | 5 days | | 4 | 7 days | | 5 | 30 days | | 6 | Reroll, another 6 means 1d100 years. |
"Shift" takes effect subjectively on return to surface world, local time underground seems to move normally. |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jul 16, 2021 21:11:46 GMT -5
hengest I stand corrected! I dig your idea. Very cool.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jul 16, 2021 23:57:23 GMT -5
Do you have an example or two of how this would work in game? What I meant was "once things are buried underground, they drift backwards in time and can be accessed in some earlier period." So you have a Renaissance crypt or dungeon or castle basement abandoned and it appears in Bronze Age time as a dungeon. Or you have a modern abandoned server room accessible through a 7th-century crypt. I like this and have some ideas that may appear in game in the pbp eventually. A different idea that I will tell you about is suppose someone in the future somehow becomes aware of this and uses it to send a message and tech to the past and possibly even travel with the items back to the past. Imagine tech much advanced from where we are now, transported back a few thousand years by someone who wants to see Genghis Khan live longer and be the power behind the throne for the Khan and his sons. |
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Post by mao on Jul 17, 2021 6:56:39 GMT -5
What I meant was "once things are buried underground, they drift backwards in time and can be accessed in some earlier period." So you have a Renaissance crypt or dungeon or castle basement abandoned and it appears in Bronze Age time as a dungeon. Or you have a modern abandoned server room accessible through a 7th-century crypt. I like this and have some ideas that may appear in game in the pbp eventually. A different idea that I will tell you about is suppose someone in the future somehow becomes aware of this and uses it to send a message and tech to the past and possibly even travel with the items back to the past. Imagine tech much advanced from where we are now, transported back a few thousand years by someone who wants to see Genghis Khan live longer and be the power behind the throne for the Khan and his sons. This is a very cool addition to the idea. I may actually do something w this as I love stuff about Time Travel but I don't think this is what I am going to end up running it. At the least I will do a one thread. hengest |
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Post by simrion on Jul 17, 2021 7:06:18 GMT -5
Mao strikes "gold" yet again! Dungeons are integral to my game especially since "Dungeons" is part of the name-of-the game ;-)
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Post by mao on Jul 18, 2021 3:35:37 GMT -5
Mao strikes "gold" yet again! Dungeons are integral to my game especially since "Dungeons" is part of the name-of-the game ;-) It's really nice that once in a while, peeps say things like this to me. I thank you. |
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Post by hengest on Jul 29, 2021 0:34:35 GMT -5
More reply to the original topic.
SOME sort of wild place is of high importance. Dungeon. Ruin. Wilderness. Abandoned plane.
Because they're what's forgotten or ignored. And going to those unexplored places is the name of the game. Literally: dungeons are the deep places we prefer to forget, dragons are what we meet there.
Not to say that every dungeon has to have secret psychological import...
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Post by mao on Jul 29, 2021 3:37:39 GMT -5
More reply to the original topic. SOME sort of wild place is of high importance. Dungeon. Ruin. Wilderness. Abandoned plane. Because they're what's forgotten or ignored. And going to those unexplored places is the name of the game. Literally: dungeons are the deep places we prefer to forget, dragons are what we meet there. Not to say that every dungeon has to have secret psychological import... i think that unknown areas are paramount, something we can all agree. My setting "The Golden City and the Silver Forest(very neglected.) had the idea that evil and the unknown had long been vanquished and evil was reemerging after hiding for hundreds of years. Some like that would be cool to do once in a while but it should not be for the average game. |
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Post by Morose on Aug 6, 2021 2:29:42 GMT -5
Dungeons are almost the only thing I do, solo games work best with dungeons IMO.
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