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WarKitty
2010-06-09, 11:40 AM
I'm planning on having the PC's explore an old wizard's tower. Once in they realize they have stepped into an M.C. Escher type world. Any ideas how to make this interesting/workable?

Moose Fisher
2010-06-09, 12:20 PM
I'm planning on having the PC's explore an old wizard's tower. Once in they realize they have stepped into an M.C. Escher type world. Any ideas how to make this interesting/workable?

Tesseracts. I believe there have been articles written about how to run them for a dungeon crawl.

One idea is the players standing on one surface of the room can try to grab items on the other surfaces, but the orientation of gravity will still be toward the origin surface. Pick up rock off of the wall, rock falls to the wall when you let go.

I imagine it would be very frustrating for your players... I had a hard time wrapping my head around it as I was reading the article!

EDIT:Well, here's something that would help in some ways. (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19573430/Hypercubes_Made_Easier)

Owrtho
2010-06-09, 12:48 PM
Make an area like the House of Stairs (http://library.thinkquest.org/25459/learning/escher/houseofstairs.html). If you look at it, the place can be extended infinitely. As for mechanics, you could make gravity relative to the surface you're on, and have a penalty to attacks against creatures that are using a different orientation than you. Also might reduce range increments of weapons with the exception of rays as the changing gravity would mess up aim.

You could also make the place an infinite loop, with the side doors either going to other side doors along its length or to the tesseract that Moose Fisher suggested.

Owrtho

Mulletmanalive
2010-06-09, 12:51 PM
It depends entirely whether you wish to use the "Relative Gravity" concept. The Dragon Compendium had an article about Tesseracts with relative gravitation but i personally couldn't figure it out [and considering i've been doing stuff like using computer programs to turn non-Euclidian geometry into usable maps for years, that's saying something].

The simplest method is to simply design each of the floors of your building and then simply make notes where all the doors go. You can combine this with four maps for the outer walls if you like, too. Escher paintings are always open plan, so the map would come out somewhat like a stack of cubes, making things a little simpler.

Best way of doing it is probably to decide how many "cubes" high you want the area. Then draw each of these cubes as a net [the cross shaped thing that boxes fold out into]. Then mark with numbers where all the doors go. To make your own life simpler, you might like to put opaque illusion screens over all the doors to avoid having to describe the next room without them entering it.

Altair_the_Vexed
2010-06-09, 12:53 PM
Check out this Escher-inspired by tower (http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/mad-mage.pdf), by the Alexandrian (http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html).

Owrtho
2010-06-09, 01:04 PM
It depends entirely whether you wish to use the "Relative Gravity" concept. The Dragon Compendium had an article about Tesseracts with relative gravitation but i personally couldn't figure it out [and considering i've been doing stuff like using computer programs to turn non-Euclidian geometry into usable maps for years, that's saying something].

Not sure how Dragon did it, but all I meant was that any surface your standing on counts as the ground for you.

Owrtho

Mulletmanalive
2010-06-09, 01:15 PM
Not sure how Dragon did it, but all I meant was that any surface your standing on counts as the ground for you.

Owrtho

They had this insanely complex thing involving a rolling key and the door possition of the door from your perception causing the gravity in the next room to be altered. I couldn't figure it out without a set of maps that made the average map-maker cry himself to sleep and only my borderline obsessiveness kept that going.

I was still typing while you posted so it wasn't directed at you Owrtho

Lysander
2010-06-09, 11:17 PM
Maybe this will give you ideas:Echochrome (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfICeBtVv8U)