Making an M.C Escher map (laws of gravity do not apply)

[Deca4531]

To start with if you dont know who M.C Escher is look here ("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_%28M._C._Escher%29)

so im trying to wrap my brain around how to create a map like this. it would be pretty complicated but i think i might have an idea of do it.

you have a room with 6 "walls"( an inside-out cube). you would have to make 6 maps for each "wall" to represent each possible direction of gravity. then you add doors that bend space to another "wall" of the room and alter the gravity that binds the player.

Am i going about this right or am i missing something. also, dose this sound like it would be a challenge or not. you know what they say " 4 hours of planning gets beat in 4 minutes while the 4 minutes of planing takes them all night."

[GenericMook]

Oh ho ho.

I love these sort of rooms. Well, my old DM gave us one, and it was awesome.

What he basically did was design six maps - all equal size, and present it as the cube's net. There was a huge legend that he had for stairs and doorways within the whole place, so that he knew which spot on one side led to another. From what he told me, it was a colossal pain in the rear to design. He had to account for flight and teleportation effects, alongside alternate modes of movement, as well. Overall, it was an awesome experience.

[navar100]

Do a tesseract. To help map it out, take 8d6 where the numbers are oriented the same and create a 3d version which is like a cross. The numbers reference the floors. Always remember that no matter how you travel, the direction of down is always towards your feet. The change of orientation that makes a floor a wall and vice versa happens when traversing to and from the arbitrarily designated cross dice.

[Deca4531]

i'm worried if it might end up being TOO complicated for the players. plus trying to think of how i could incorporate so many 3d objects like stairs into the 2d grid paper. i wonder if it would be easier to simply free hand it, but my art skills are a little lacking for that i think.

[Alefiend]

Do a tesseract. To help map it out, take 8d6 where the numbers are oriented the same and create a 3d version which is like a cross. The numbers reference the floors. Always remember that no matter how you travel, the direction of down is always towards your feet. The change of orientation that makes a floor a wall and vice versa happens when traversing to and from the arbitrarily designated cross dice.

This. Best of Dragon #2 reprinted the article "Which Way Is Up?", which is all about using tesseracts in D&D. It should be in Dragon Compendium.

[AttilaTheGeek]

What he basically did was design six maps - all equal size, and present it as the cube's net. There was a huge legend that he had for stairs and doorways within the whole place, so that he knew which spot on one side led to another. From what he told me, it was a colossal pain in the rear to design. He had to account for flight and teleportation effects, alongside alternate modes of movement, as well. Overall, it was an awesome experience.

Basically this. In terms of running it, I'd make it a move action to switch directions when you fly (so that flying straight up (side length) feet wouldn't smash your head into the (new) ground). You could include extra damage for bull rushes, because gravity helps them out. You could even have "stars" in the middle that block vision, Ender's Game style, though that might make it difficult to run.

[Gildedragon]

Another way is to allow them to move and orient themselves freely among the space (there's a path from any spot to any other spot).
For this I'd do the following movement rules:

Horizontal movement is per standard 5' per square moved orthogonally; diagonals are 5'-10' per square

Walking on stairs orthogonally works as diagonal movement, and calculate as such.

Walking on diagonal stairs either increases the cost by 5' or doubles it (not sure which'd work best)

Movement straight up or down cannot be made (without flight), but for 5' of movement they can change their orientation, and then walk horizontally; perpendicular to their previous orientation.
(I'd allow this orientation change to be a free action with a Balance or Tumble check to "fall" into a new orientation a la David Bowie, failure means an actual fall)

Upon moving to a new square the character may find themselves rotated.
Roll 1d6 to determine which face of the cube-room is the new 'down'.

A Kn. Architecture check may allow to move faster, or modify the orientation dice roll

Characters with opposite "downs" have full cover from one another
All other characters have some chance to have half cover from one another due to the many stairs.

[Deca4531]

i had planned on making the a 40' by 40' cube and make then use doors and figure out what path led to what gravity. i think allowing them to alter their own gravity would defeat the puzzle.

[silverwolfer]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Vt9R1-x_KRQ/TQuLzCa-V6I/AAAAAAAAAN0/Zw5FEtm6ziI/s1600/Tesseract_Caves.jpg


hopefully this helps

[only1doug]

you could always make your map out of Lego (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.lipson/escher/relativity-1600.jpg)...(I have this image as the background on my tablet)

Get a rigid cardboard box 2 would be better) and cut it into a half cube then reinforce all the remaining sides with tape (so it won't fall apart when handled), cut your doorways in and use leftover cardboard to make the stairs and balconies. Use cardboard cutout figures with bluetack to indicate locations.