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Chauncymancer
2010-11-05, 08:55 AM
Obligatory link
http://www.jagsrpg.org/

It's free! Buy it!

Anyways, my question is:
In jags Wonderland, the multiverse has multiple levels of alternate reality. At some point, the PC's become "Infected", able to pass between the alternate worlds more often than they want. The PC's became infected by believing in an "Impossible Thing" (TM, Patent Pending, Copyright) and this drew them down into another layer.
The problem I'm having is, I want the game to go slow: I only want the PC's to fall to the most Earth-like alternate reality. So the "Impossible Thing" they see has to be subtle, only slightly strange, but still Impossible somehow. And I'm not sure how to do Impossible and Subtle at the same time.

Cyrion
2010-11-05, 10:32 AM
You might be able to get some mileage out of M.C. Escher. Some of the impossibiltities he builds into his pictures are subtle, and a number of people have constructed physical objects that approximate his drawings, at least from one viewpoint.

How about something like David Brin's Practice Effect (From the book of the same name), where things, like people, get better at what they do the more they're used to do the task. So your ax gets sharper and more efficient the more wood you cut with it, your computer gets faster the more you use it, etc. You could find some very subtle things there that seem reasonable but still violate the laws of thermodynamics (specifically, the conservation of energy or the increase in disorder of the universe).

A good example might be the recent hoo ha over an engine that ran on steam that was supposed to be a perpetual motion device but can't possibly work because energy keeps getting pulled out of the system to power the car. Sadly, I've lost the link, but they really had people investing in it.

Khatoblepas
2010-11-05, 10:46 AM
Obligatory link
http://www.jagsrpg.org/

It's free! Buy it!

Anyways, my question is:
In jags Wonderland, the multiverse has multiple levels of alternate reality. At some point, the PC's become "Infected", able to pass between the alternate worlds more often than they want. The PC's became infected by believing in an "Impossible Thing" (TM, Patent Pending, Copyright) and this drew them down into another layer.
The problem I'm having is, I want the game to go slow: I only want the PC's to fall to the most Earth-like alternate reality. So the "Impossible Thing" they see has to be subtle, only slightly strange, but still Impossible somehow. And I'm not sure how to do Impossible and Subtle at the same time.

I love Wonderland's setting. I only wish it used another system, rather than the one it has (CoC would be real nice. I should try conversion sometime). Anyway, to the question.

Impossibilities don't have to be Impossible at the first layer. Maybe everyone is acting a little more strange, more overt and caricatured. If you have a conversation and are walking along a corridor, the corridor loops until you stop, but the scenery doesn't change. Mess around with the player's perceptions, especially if they have really boring jobs in character, like office workers. Strange things seem off. Describe things deliberately wrongly once in a while, read off signs in a more hostile, terse manner the first time, that removes all politeness from the wording. The players walk through to the cafeteria only to find themselves back in the office. Using a multi storey building will mask this a little. Maybe the elevator is broken and took them to the wrong floor?

With the first layer, don't add in stuff that obviously breaks the laws of the universe, but a more dreamlike stream of consciousness mistake that the brain makes. Maybe even make it hard for them to orient themselves in a place that is very familiar to them. And noone around them is willing to help. At all. And as soon as they figure out something is impossible, then delve deeper.

Chauncymancer
2010-11-11, 06:37 PM
This is great advice, thanks. But on chessboard 1, what is actually going on? The books flip flop on whether the world is just off ("American History: A Non-Challenging Perspective") or actually crazy (Extra doors, orange peel people)
I like the idea of a subtler touch, but most of the hooks and factions seem to be for an all out approach.

mikeejimbo
2010-11-11, 06:58 PM
I've been running Wonderland in GURPS. I haven't really had to stat up anything except a few Twists. I haven't been running it entirely to canon, though. (I should probably read through the books again, though, since I feel like my beast might be diverging further from canon!)

Are you by any chance planning on running this online at all? I'd love to actually play in it!


This is great advice, thanks. But on chessboard 1, what is actually going on? The books flip flop on whether the world is just off ("American History: A Non-Challenging Perspective") or actually crazy (Extra doors, orange peel people)
I like the idea of a subtler touch, but most of the hooks and factions seem to be for an all out approach.

Chessboard 1 is mostly just off, but there may be rare sections of the world that have gone crazy. (And more so on 2.) At least, as far as I understand it.

dsmiles
2010-11-11, 07:21 PM
The problem I'm having is, I want the game to go slow: I only want the PC's to fall to the most Earth-like alternate reality. So the "Impossible Thing" they see has to be subtle, only slightly strange, but still Impossible somehow. And I'm not sure how to do Impossible and Subtle at the same time.

Maybe one of those 3d images. You know, the ones you have to stare at 'till your eyes cross?

Urpriest
2010-11-11, 07:28 PM
It's free! Buy it!


Am I the first one to be mildly confused by this?

Arbane
2010-11-11, 07:31 PM
I remember someone talking about a game of this they ran. I recall the PCs had fallen down one 'level', and the most obvious thing that was different was that when they got arrested, the police badges said things like "PIG" or "AUTHORITY FIGURE", and they were asking VERY strange questions.

When our heroes got back to 'reality', they were confronted with the police who'd arrested their Chessboard 1 versions, who'd acted...appropriately for their world. Ours, not so much...

Chauncymancer
2010-11-15, 02:58 PM
Am I the first one to be mildly confused by this?

They give away a very nice splat that they also sell. This should be rewarded. Preferably in tens and twenties.

Notreallyhere77
2010-11-16, 05:03 PM
Now that I've read what I can get for free, I am in love with this setting.
I probably shouldn't have read so much of it late at night, though.
If I can, I'll make a d20 modern campiagn using this as the fluff. I just need to think of some good Twists.