distant quasar
2013-11-12, 10:05 PM
Cosmos
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
- William Blake
Some scholars claim that all worlds that are possible, are. That infinity is vast beyond measure; that their world is but one part of an unfathomable whole. That not only are there are planets, other planes, but entire other multiverses - any that can be, are. All that is imaginable, must be possible in some way, accounted for in the vastness of the true cosmos. And accounting for all possibility, these worlds are - must be - totally separate.
Most of those who are even aware of such obscure theories, scoff. What evidence is there? By definition, no evidence of such an idea's validity could ever be found. Some go further, however, challenging even the logical validity of such theories. If all that is imaginable is possible, and all possibility is accounted for amongst these worlds which cannot touch, how is it that one can imagine these worlds touching?
You have unwittingly, unwillingly begun to find the answers to such questions...
______________________________________________
I've taken up the job of DMing a game for a bunch of beloved, orphaned characters. Thread. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=311405) They are all coming from different worlds, which they are free to develop virtually as they please.
I think the concept is awesome (which I can say because it's hardly my own, original idea :smalltongue:) ... but I'm lost as to how to execute it in a way that will live up to the awesomeness of the original concept.
What follows now are my ideas thus far. Please, critique me, and offer me some advice on how to run this sort of campaign. I've got some DMing experience under my belt, but I've never done anything like this before. Thank you in advance :smallredface:
I'm not. A philosopher, that is. I doubt any of my players are, or any of you. Correct me if I'm wrong on that, but let's not get bogged down in petty semantics about what a philosopher "really is," because I think you get what I mean.
I don't want some uber meta-physical framework for the Cosmos. I want something that works, meaning it isn't blatantly idiotic and helps make the game fun.
Do I really want infinity to represent all possibility? No, I don't. I don't want there to be another universe for every petty decision someone makes, much less for every quantum leap ever made :smalleek:
This is what I'm thinking: The worlds in the Great Wheel can be compared to numbers. An integer line, of 1, 2, 3... so on, is infinite. These integers represent the worlds of the Great Wheel. Fine and good.
For each of these integers however, there are also infinite possibilities... 1.x, 2.x, and so on. That's what I don't want. Screw that, that sounds nice but would wreck any game just by "oh, that didn't work here, let's go to the world it did work in." The Great Wheel is an infinite integer line. If that makes sense. If not, advice please :smalltongue:
There has to be some way to get between all of these places, doesn't there?
Good question. I'm... working on how it works.
For some reason, I keep picturing the "Wood Between the Worlds" in C.S. Lewis's the Magician's Nephew. Ok, not for some reason, because it's exactly what I need. :smalltongue:
Some sort of... stepping stone between the worlds. I'll get back to this later. (Not tonight.)
How do people get to the stepping stone? I like the idea that it's not something you can do with some simple item, it's not something that can be easily done in general... summoning something from this "stepping stone" area take massive efforts, and is a disaster. Sending things there intentionally should be difficult, but not disastrous.
Except... the player characters end up there. In fact, I want them to start off in the stepping stone (as I've taken to calling it.) Back to the original question, how do (did) they get there? I have vague ideas about boundaries weakening, threating the entire Cosmos... Perhaps the player characters just happened to slip between cracks.
Maybe. I want something better. And repeatable, without taking away from the aforementioned "really hard to get there" stuff. I have a fondness for dreamscapes, dream travel, and all that jazz. Maybe there's something special about the player characters (besides the fact that the entire Cosmos revolves around them) and their dreams. Perhaps there dreams are the key to reaching the stepping stone, and the stepping stone, all other worlds. It happens (or can happen) in their dreams, and when they enter the stepping stone in their dream, the dream becomes "real."
Hardly a totally original idea, but I'd still like some help developing it.
What sort of Big Bad Evil Guy(s) do you come up with for a game with multiple - perhaps infinite - worlds? One that exists in all of them, I'm thinking. Or in none of them, perhaps.
If anyone has read Robert Jordan's mega-series the Wheel of Time (I'm only partly through book 3 of 12 myself), you'll see that I'd probably be odd to not steal a few ideas from it. The Wheel of Time also uses multiple dimensions, many different worlds and realms of possibility; but there is only one Creator, and only one Dark One. The Dark One is imprisoned in all the worlds, but if he becomes loose in one, he is loose in them all.
As for other influences... Well, hate me, but I like some of the concepts in Elder Evils. I especially think Pandorym can fit into the Cosmos. A being that was summoned from the spaces "between the planes, perpendicular to the Great Wheel", and imprisoned as those responsible realized their mistake... sounds workable to me. I want to make it so that Pandorym wasn't originally any sort of being, but simply a bit of the "stepping stone" area brought into one of the "real universes." With disastrous, inexplicable results.
Another one I actually like more (but it's harder to work into this setting) is Atropus, the World Born Dead. I can see a way to work that in through the so-called "Prime Mover." There was only one Prime Mover, who created all the many universes there are now. The Prime Mover only had one head (which became Atropus), however, so should Atropus be in all of these worlds? In none of them, like Pandorym was?
I'd like to find some sort of way to use both of them - probably nerfing stats on Pandorym, and somehow linking the two ideas of Pandorym and Atropus together, making Pandorym a lower threat. When it comes to their signs, I want Pandoryms sign to have to do with the fabric of the Cosmos weakening (of which Atropus will be the cause), and Atropus's sign to do with, well, Atropus.
Any thoughts?
Yeah. The big one. I'm obviously not coming up with infinite worlds, and don't feel the slightest need to. I'll hopefully have a sketch of a world from each player, and some for myself. I can use campaign settings from anywhere and not feel the slightest guilt - my old games, your old games, published material, whatever.
What matters is, which worlds will this be going on in? I don't want this to be a total sandbox. Thus the BBEG will exist in the Cosmos, and be threatening the entire Cosmos. The signs will affect all worlds in the Cosmos. Should they be destroyed in one, they'll be destroyed in them all. Sounds good enough to me; it provides incentive for an overarching story, with "infinite" possibility...
But which worlds, still? Should I let the players have total freedom over that? Or what? I don't want to be constantly switching settings, I need to find a way to get them to want to limit themselves to just a few.
Thanks for reading my ramblings. I await your feedback eagerly :smallsmile:
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
- William Blake
Some scholars claim that all worlds that are possible, are. That infinity is vast beyond measure; that their world is but one part of an unfathomable whole. That not only are there are planets, other planes, but entire other multiverses - any that can be, are. All that is imaginable, must be possible in some way, accounted for in the vastness of the true cosmos. And accounting for all possibility, these worlds are - must be - totally separate.
Most of those who are even aware of such obscure theories, scoff. What evidence is there? By definition, no evidence of such an idea's validity could ever be found. Some go further, however, challenging even the logical validity of such theories. If all that is imaginable is possible, and all possibility is accounted for amongst these worlds which cannot touch, how is it that one can imagine these worlds touching?
You have unwittingly, unwillingly begun to find the answers to such questions...
______________________________________________
I've taken up the job of DMing a game for a bunch of beloved, orphaned characters. Thread. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=311405) They are all coming from different worlds, which they are free to develop virtually as they please.
I think the concept is awesome (which I can say because it's hardly my own, original idea :smalltongue:) ... but I'm lost as to how to execute it in a way that will live up to the awesomeness of the original concept.
What follows now are my ideas thus far. Please, critique me, and offer me some advice on how to run this sort of campaign. I've got some DMing experience under my belt, but I've never done anything like this before. Thank you in advance :smallredface:
I'm not. A philosopher, that is. I doubt any of my players are, or any of you. Correct me if I'm wrong on that, but let's not get bogged down in petty semantics about what a philosopher "really is," because I think you get what I mean.
I don't want some uber meta-physical framework for the Cosmos. I want something that works, meaning it isn't blatantly idiotic and helps make the game fun.
Do I really want infinity to represent all possibility? No, I don't. I don't want there to be another universe for every petty decision someone makes, much less for every quantum leap ever made :smalleek:
This is what I'm thinking: The worlds in the Great Wheel can be compared to numbers. An integer line, of 1, 2, 3... so on, is infinite. These integers represent the worlds of the Great Wheel. Fine and good.
For each of these integers however, there are also infinite possibilities... 1.x, 2.x, and so on. That's what I don't want. Screw that, that sounds nice but would wreck any game just by "oh, that didn't work here, let's go to the world it did work in." The Great Wheel is an infinite integer line. If that makes sense. If not, advice please :smalltongue:
There has to be some way to get between all of these places, doesn't there?
Good question. I'm... working on how it works.
For some reason, I keep picturing the "Wood Between the Worlds" in C.S. Lewis's the Magician's Nephew. Ok, not for some reason, because it's exactly what I need. :smalltongue:
Some sort of... stepping stone between the worlds. I'll get back to this later. (Not tonight.)
How do people get to the stepping stone? I like the idea that it's not something you can do with some simple item, it's not something that can be easily done in general... summoning something from this "stepping stone" area take massive efforts, and is a disaster. Sending things there intentionally should be difficult, but not disastrous.
Except... the player characters end up there. In fact, I want them to start off in the stepping stone (as I've taken to calling it.) Back to the original question, how do (did) they get there? I have vague ideas about boundaries weakening, threating the entire Cosmos... Perhaps the player characters just happened to slip between cracks.
Maybe. I want something better. And repeatable, without taking away from the aforementioned "really hard to get there" stuff. I have a fondness for dreamscapes, dream travel, and all that jazz. Maybe there's something special about the player characters (besides the fact that the entire Cosmos revolves around them) and their dreams. Perhaps there dreams are the key to reaching the stepping stone, and the stepping stone, all other worlds. It happens (or can happen) in their dreams, and when they enter the stepping stone in their dream, the dream becomes "real."
Hardly a totally original idea, but I'd still like some help developing it.
What sort of Big Bad Evil Guy(s) do you come up with for a game with multiple - perhaps infinite - worlds? One that exists in all of them, I'm thinking. Or in none of them, perhaps.
If anyone has read Robert Jordan's mega-series the Wheel of Time (I'm only partly through book 3 of 12 myself), you'll see that I'd probably be odd to not steal a few ideas from it. The Wheel of Time also uses multiple dimensions, many different worlds and realms of possibility; but there is only one Creator, and only one Dark One. The Dark One is imprisoned in all the worlds, but if he becomes loose in one, he is loose in them all.
As for other influences... Well, hate me, but I like some of the concepts in Elder Evils. I especially think Pandorym can fit into the Cosmos. A being that was summoned from the spaces "between the planes, perpendicular to the Great Wheel", and imprisoned as those responsible realized their mistake... sounds workable to me. I want to make it so that Pandorym wasn't originally any sort of being, but simply a bit of the "stepping stone" area brought into one of the "real universes." With disastrous, inexplicable results.
Another one I actually like more (but it's harder to work into this setting) is Atropus, the World Born Dead. I can see a way to work that in through the so-called "Prime Mover." There was only one Prime Mover, who created all the many universes there are now. The Prime Mover only had one head (which became Atropus), however, so should Atropus be in all of these worlds? In none of them, like Pandorym was?
I'd like to find some sort of way to use both of them - probably nerfing stats on Pandorym, and somehow linking the two ideas of Pandorym and Atropus together, making Pandorym a lower threat. When it comes to their signs, I want Pandoryms sign to have to do with the fabric of the Cosmos weakening (of which Atropus will be the cause), and Atropus's sign to do with, well, Atropus.
Any thoughts?
Yeah. The big one. I'm obviously not coming up with infinite worlds, and don't feel the slightest need to. I'll hopefully have a sketch of a world from each player, and some for myself. I can use campaign settings from anywhere and not feel the slightest guilt - my old games, your old games, published material, whatever.
What matters is, which worlds will this be going on in? I don't want this to be a total sandbox. Thus the BBEG will exist in the Cosmos, and be threatening the entire Cosmos. The signs will affect all worlds in the Cosmos. Should they be destroyed in one, they'll be destroyed in them all. Sounds good enough to me; it provides incentive for an overarching story, with "infinite" possibility...
But which worlds, still? Should I let the players have total freedom over that? Or what? I don't want to be constantly switching settings, I need to find a way to get them to want to limit themselves to just a few.
Thanks for reading my ramblings. I await your feedback eagerly :smallsmile: