PDA

View Full Version : Third dimension - A place without time



The Eye
2017-05-16, 09:03 PM
So for my new campaign my players will be exploring the Third dimension.

If you think about we all live in the Fourth dimension, since the 4D is time.

That makes me wonder, how does a place in the "Third dimension" looks like? It will be a place with width, height and depth, but no time.

Any ideas?

VonMuller
2017-05-16, 10:01 PM
We do not live in four dimensions.

You can move left and right.
You can move up and down.
You can go deeper or shallower.

You cannot move forward or backwards in time. Only live in the present one instant after the other.

We can see up, left, deeper, etc.

We can only see a slice of time at the time. We cannot see backwards (only remember), nor forwards.

So I don't really know how to answer.

Skelechicken
2017-05-17, 01:43 AM
Yeah I am also struggling to think of a way to handle what you are wanting to express. Right now the best I've got is a place totally stagnant. Everything always was and always will be.

I guess you could have some fun with that. Say your players being beings out of time can enact change in this land that is unchanging. They knock something over and that thing was retroactively never standing and will never stand (until they right it again). Could be fun in a, "I like explaining weird mental gymnastics" way but I am struggling to think of an adventure in this setting.

weckar
2017-05-17, 05:15 AM
Plus, the 4th spatial dimension isn't time anyway; it's 'through'.

0th: point
1st: width
2nd: height
3rd: depth
4th: through
5th: by
6th: width-through
7th: width-by
etc.

Mutazoia
2017-05-17, 05:28 AM
So for my new campaign my players will be exploring the Third dimension.

If you think about we all live in the Fourth dimension, since the 4D is time.

That makes me wonder, how does a place in the "Third dimension" looks like? It will be a place with width, height and depth, but no time.

Any ideas?

Your dimensional faux Pas aside: A place with no time would be pure entropy... literally nothing would happen, ever. It will be a very short game.

Lvl 2 Expert
2017-05-17, 05:45 AM
Yeah I am also struggling to think of a way to handle what you are wanting to express. Right now the best I've got is a place totally stagnant. Everything always was and always will be.

I guess you could have some fun with that. Say your players being beings out of time can enact change in this land that is unchanging. They knock something over and that thing was retroactively never standing and will never stand (until they right it again). Could be fun in a, "I like explaining weird mental gymnastics" way but I am struggling to think of an adventure in this setting.

I can see how you could maybe have a puzzle in those "physics", the room without time, where there is a big Rube Goldberg-esque machine with several ways to interact with it, but each interaction only results in you seeing the end result of the reaction, not the intermediate steps, something like that. And the machine can be reset by undoing the very first action.

But an adventure? Adventures are interactive, the environment has to affect the characters, almost by definition. It just doesn't work without time.

And honestly, I think it could turn bad for another reason. I always have ideas like this, setting details that give real color to the place, that make it clearly different from at least the most popular sources using similar ideas. But if an idea needs more than a minute of explaining it's probably not going to add a lot to a group activity, because you're filling the activity time with a presentation of your weird idea instead. That's what usually happened with my ideas anyway, so I learned how to cut them. The one way this could work is if you work out the setting in such a way that they can and will experience everything they need to know themselves. Make sure they try tipping something over, make sure they try affecting one thing that would affect another thing. Make sure they get that this is because there is no time here. Build a tutorial room, basically.

Another thing to do is basically run a tutorial for yourself. Even after coming up with the rules and puzzles and such you can probably barely picture how this world functions. That's when you need to figure out what kind of things a player could do to figure that out. What are they going to try to see how the world functions? And what are they going to try just because they can? Are your rules able to handle all of those situations without you having to make a new specific rule for each one of them? If so, this thing might work after all.

If that sounds like I'm being negative: I am. But I want to wish you the best of luck with the idea anyway. It's definitely different. The idea just brings some unique challenges with it.

Final point: maybe don't call the place "the third dimension". Because as I'm writing this I'm really trying to nitpick that "the third dimension" would only have only one dimension, namely the third one. It's fine to describe is as a place with three dimensions of space yet none of time (even though the players are going to immediately get in character and only the wizard or similar RP's as if he understands what you're saying), but "the third dimension" may just be asking for nitpicking.

Mutazoia
2017-05-17, 06:34 AM
I can see how you could maybe have a puzzle in those "physics", the room without time, where there is a big Rube Goldberg-esque machine with several ways to interact with it, but each interaction only results in you seeing the end result of the reaction, not the intermediate steps, something like that. And the machine can be reset by undoing the very first action.

But an adventure? Adventures are interactive, the environment has to affect the characters, almost by definition. It just doesn't work without time.

And honestly, I think it could turn bad for another reason. I always have ideas like this, setting details that give real color to the place, that make it clearly different from at least the most popular sources using similar ideas. But if an idea needs more than a minute of explaining it's probably not going to add a lot to a group activity, because you're filling the activity time with a presentation of your weird idea instead. That's what usually happened with my ideas anyway, so I learned how to cut them. The one way this could work is if you work out the setting in such a way that they can and will experience everything they need to know themselves. Make sure they try tipping something over, make sure they try affecting one thing that would affect another thing. Make sure they get that this is because there is no time here. Build a tutorial room, basically.

Another thing to do is basically run a tutorial for yourself. Even after coming up with the rules and puzzles and such you can probably barely picture how this world functions. That's when you need to figure out what kind of things a player could do to figure that out. What are they going to try to see how the world functions? And what are they going to try just because they can? Are your rules able to handle all of those situations without you having to make a new specific rule for each one of them? If so, this thing might work after all.

If that sounds like I'm being negative: I am. But I want to wish you the best of luck with the idea anyway. It's definitely different. The idea just brings some unique challenges with it.

Final point: maybe don't call the place "the third dimension". Because as I'm writing this I'm really trying to nitpick that "the third dimension" would only have only one dimension, namely the third one. It's fine to describe is as a place with three dimensions of space yet none of time (even though the players are going to immediately get in character and only the wizard or similar RP's as if he understands what you're saying), but "the third dimension" may just be asking for nitpicking.

Technically, you wouldn't even get to see the end result of the Rub Goldbergh machine. You woudn't even be able to start it, as the lack of time in the room would prevent you from thinking (which takes time that, literally, doesn't exist). If you have a total time vaccum, doing anything, is impossible. Much like trying to light a match in a vaccum. Only worse, as you cannot even form the thought of lighting the match...

Each character would have to be encased in their own little "time bubble" or a magical S.C.T.G.A (Self Contained Time Generating Aparatus (TM)) to be able to function at all....

The other theroretical outcome of a world with out time, is that EVERYTHING happens all at once, instantaneously. The Big Bang and the Gib Gnap all at the same time....complete and utter instantaneous chaos, and instant oblivion.

Either nothing happens, because nothing (literally) has time to happen.
Or (all) **** happes all at once, and then ends in (literally) no time at all..

weckar
2017-05-17, 06:50 AM
Each character would have to be encased in their own little "time bubble" or a magical S.C.T.G.A (Self Contained Time Generating Aparatus (TM)) to be able to function at allI would personally go for SCICA (Self-Contained Interdimensional Consistency Apparatus), far more universally useful. And you can pronounce it.

SimonMoon6
2017-05-17, 07:31 AM
If there is no time, then nothing happens. Ever.

If characters go to a place without time, well, that's the end of them. They can never leave because that would require time. Something would have to happen. But nothing can happen. So they can't leave. And nothing can happen to them. It's like they are instantly paralyzed, frozen in time (or frozen in an absence of time). Congratulations, you have just ended the campaign. Forever.

But in a place without time, the characters could never enter (because that would be an event that happened, and without time, no events can happen) unless the place without time was created with the characters in that place to begin with.

weckar
2017-05-17, 07:46 AM
So you can't enter, you can't leave, nothing can change within it and it cannot be observed in any way.

Are we sure it is even there?

Lvl 2 Expert
2017-05-17, 09:49 AM
If there is no time, then nothing happens. Ever.

Sure, but we're aiming for something weird but playable here. The time stop spell would be pretty useless as well if we were trying to be realistic.

Lemmy
2017-05-17, 04:31 PM
If there is no time, then nothing happens. Ever.
Couldn't we assume the opposite and say that everything would happen at the same time? There's no time, past, present and future are all mixed and condensed into NOW. The characters are simply randomly navigating through the possibilities.

The game would still need some sort of time progression, because otherwise it's literally unplayable... Maybe every time the characters act, they see multiple possible results for their actions. Instead of rolling 1d20 to define how well they perform, they are just checking what possibility became reality for the character. Rather than having different results in multiple Climb attempts, it's actually the conditions of the wall being climbed that are changing, based on what possibility becomes true for the character.

Anonymouswizard
2017-05-17, 04:44 PM
Discworld spoilers, do not open if you care about such things.

The Discworld book Thief of Time has a bit where there is no time because it's been broken or something, and yet people still act.

The first class of people are those who are outside time, although I don't think that really works. Instead I'd say there's certain entities who can, if they wish, chose how they experience time, and so just decide to act as if there was still time but everything was frozen. This people have explicitly been stated to 'freeze' time from their perspective before, essentially finding hours to act within seconds, and so it going the other way isn't a massive arse pull. Most don't really know how to do this stuff, one of the ones who appears is pretty much just acting in the same timeframe as everyone else.

The second class basically has a device that can generate, store, and release time, allowing them to act normally. However the devices have to be constantly recharged, and are essentially a miniaturised version of the devices that make sure the universe's time is acting correctly.

An entire universe without time and with native life doesn't work from our understanding. I mean it might be possible, but it would be even weirder than creatures who can move through time in whatever direction they chose.

ElFi
2017-05-17, 04:54 PM
Questions of which dimension is which aside, a dimension without time would technically be completely dark because energy cannot flow, and therefore light would constantly be frozen in place. I'm not a physicist and only have a high-school understanding of the functionality of light, so I couldn't even begin to tell you how exactly it'd work, but the point is it'd be completely dark.

Eldan
2017-05-17, 05:54 PM
The numbering of dimensions is arbitrary, to a point. You cna make time the first dimension, if you want. Or the sixth. Doesn't matter. Just more or less complicated mathematically.

Lvl 2 Expert
2017-05-18, 12:54 AM
Questions of which dimension is which aside, a dimension without time would technically be completely dark because energy cannot flow, and therefore light would constantly be frozen in place. I'm not a physicist and only have a high-school understanding of the functionality of light, so I couldn't even begin to tell you how exactly it'd work, but the point is it'd be completely dark.

This is actually a decent explanation for magical darkness. It's a photonic time stop.

It works particularly well because sound is completely unaffected. Magical soundlessness would be a lot harder to create, assuming you still want the air to be able to move.

Ones you break that darkness there's going to be a massive flash of light from all the photons that ever flew in but never back out though, so maybe not.

Noje
2017-05-18, 04:23 AM
I'll be ignoring the question of what the fourth dimension actually is, because that is not relevant to your question, you are just asking about a place where time isn't a variable.




That makes me wonder, how does a place in the "Third dimension" looks like? It will be a place with width, height and depth, but no time.

Any ideas?

Exactly like our world looks like. we live and can perceive in three dimensions, the ones that you listed here. We use those three dimensions to measure the passing of time, but we can't actually see the passing of time. To attempt to describe a place where your time "value" isn't changing is basically a static place with no movement or any change at all, since time is required for those to occur. Therefore, it would be pointless to build a campaign such a world because you'd be role playing statues that cannot be aware of the place around them.

Dappershire
2017-05-18, 04:42 AM
Ugh, I know everyone's already called you on it, but Einstein's theory submitted time as -a- dimension, not as the fourth.

But, if you want to do something trippy and fun with time in your campaign, why don't you treat time as scalar, rather than vector. You'd start them off as having already beat the BBEG, or finished the quest, or what have you. The players will be confused, disorientated. Possibly angry. Then, because time is running backwards in this realm, they would be constantly dragged into the important parts in the adventure, in reverse normal order. Big fights, mooks, traps, entrance, investigation. They would see everything as going backwards, but nobody else would. For players sake, you might want everything going forward, such as actions, dialogue, etc. Then just have everything shudder backwards to the next (last) segment. Maybe have water dripping upwards, reverse the sunset/rise.
Not sure how long a campaign like this is sustainable, but it might add the uniqueness you appear to be looking for.

Mutazoia
2017-05-18, 05:28 AM
I would personally go for SCICA (Self-Contained Interdimensional Consistency Apparatus), far more universally useful. And you can pronounce it.

Or Self-Contained Interdimensional Consistency Ocilator .... SICCO (Sicko)

weckar
2017-05-18, 06:05 AM
Or Self-Contained Interdimensional Consistency Ocilator .... SICCO (Sicko)

That'd be SCICO, would it not?

S@tanicoaldo
2017-05-18, 09:02 PM
Couldn't we assume the opposite and say that everything would happen at the same time? There's no time, past, present and future are all mixed and condensed into NOW. The characters are simply randomly navigating through the possibilities.

THIS is the only viable way I see.

Maybe they are like Doctor strange movie end only reversed, since they are from a place where time exists their perception is so alien to this world that their presence starts to actually alter and corrupt the world with his notion of linearity.

ExLibrisMortis
2017-05-19, 06:00 AM
Time is (marked by) the tendency of the universe to run one way only. That is, time is the progress of irreversible processes towards a more chaotic (entropic) universe. A place without time would not have any of the physical processes we know of, because it would be in a steady state that can apparently not be broken. As such, I don't recommend it as a holiday destination or a campaign setting.

Durkoala
2017-05-19, 06:46 AM
Sure, but we're aiming for something weird but playable here. The time stop spell would be pretty useless as well if we were trying to be realistic.


Each character would have to be encased in their own little "time bubble" or a magical S.C.T.G.A (Self Contained Time Generating Aparatus (TM)) to be able to function at all....

What about using Time Stop, or a magic item with something similar, to create bubbles of time the PCs can use to move around? This limits their actions in the realm with no time, so they have to plan carefully so they don't run out of time in a poor situation. If you want to be nice, give them emergency backup time devices that activate automatically when they have no time left, but only give them just enough time to recharge their regular supply of time, or shift back to the regular world, or possibly use it all up in a heroic effort to buy the party time.:smallamused:

After looking up Time Stop, it doesn't last long enough to be a reliable supply of time, so a custom magic item is probably the best way to go. Maybe the timeless nature of the place could give it a longer duration though?

As to what the timeless world looks like, I'm thinking of a world frozen at the beginning of its creation: the gods sketched it out, but decided there were more interesting worlds to play with and didn't bother starting it. There's a sun and a few planets, but their light may not have reached the surface yet (it depends on if the gods wanted to see what they were doing, I suppose). The sky is an empty blackness as no stars have existed long enough to be visible. There may or may not be life spawned in, but it's unmoving and scarce: most of the world is bare, barren stone and soil.

However, this doesn't mean it's an empty world. Perhaps other powerful beings from dimensions with time have come here and used the timeless nature as a way to keep their treasures preserved and hidden. This gives the party things to find. Some valubles will just be lying around a corner, as the owners thought that being in a frozen world would keep them safe for all eternity. Other beings have realised that if they could get into the timeless dimension and discover how to bring time with them, so could potential theives, and have set up dungeons. These could take many forms, from simple trapped tunnels that rely on the quirks of the area*, to large mazes patrolled by guardians with their own personal sources of time**.

There can also be creatures that fell into the Third Dimension and ran out of time while they were in there. The party could revive them by sharing some of their own time, but they don't know if these creatures are going to be helpful or even friendly...

*Such as an apparent path that is actually suspended slabs. Walking on these makes them part of your timeflow and they fall away, plunging the character into a spiked pit.

**defeating these and taking the time sources from them gives the PCs a greater supply of time to use as they explore the timeless world.

Lvl 2 Expert
2017-05-19, 07:04 AM
Time bubbles might actually work pretty well.

To come back to the idea of a Rube Goldberg machine: instead of it immediately going to the end position when you activate the first part, it doesn't work at all, as it should with no time, until it gets caught in a bubble. You hit a domino in the bubble and they will keep falling until they hit the edge of it. If you then move the bubble to include more dominoes they will keep running like nothing happened.

If you toss a ball it will freeze in the air just outside of your bubble (determining the effect on partial objects is probably taking it a step too far) but if you then move closer to the ball it doesn't just drop down, it keeps going where it's going.

This means that this place could have projectiles stuck in mid air, with no clues as to which way they were going. Creatures are frozen in the middle of all sort of actions. The wizard you need to talk to looks like he's casting something, a spell that will probably go off as soon as you get him inside your bubble. There could be whole frozen battles the outcome of which you can decide by carefully including some projectiles and creatures in your bubble. "No time to explain sir, please step to the left before I move another inch."

This could actually be pretty fun. Not enough to run a full campaign in probably, but you could have some missions there.

I'd suggest having locations there that were ones alive, but that got transported here. Or maybe indeed the whole world has run out of time. Maybe the last bits of it have gotten trapped inside special gems or something, so the players can mine some extra time when needed...

S@tanicoaldo
2017-05-19, 10:44 AM
I love how this is starting to sound more like an underwater adventure only with time instead of oxygen.

How about instead of time bubbles we have diving suits?

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/34/c7/42/34c74234e686f50d9d4265cf7144fc26.jpg

The Eye
2017-05-19, 07:36 PM
Thanks for the ideas, this is the final product.

The group’s enemy is an evil and vain famale wizard obsessed with immortality and with a great fear of death, but she is also quite unhappy with the ways wizards normally reach such state, she has no intention of selling her soul or becoming a lich since she would still face death every day, to her one can only be truly immortal in a realm where death itself doesn’t exist.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/435257caf52f19577563840f427faeb0/tumblr_oq87qq3hlJ1veme87o3_400.jpg

After years of research she came to the conclusion that time is the real source of death and now all she had to is to escape to a place without time and live-forever.

The problem is that after finding the third dimension she decided to kidnap the high priest of the God of light as a lover and he is one of the heroes’ political ally, that’s why they had to go after her.

The third dimension was created like many other realms and dimensions, in a big explosion and a flash of light. But, since time doesn’t exists here this flash of light never stopped so the entire place is nothing but a bright white void.

Time does not move here. The presence of the characters is already straining this reality with their concepts of “past, present, and future” interfering with the local reality and making things occur sequentially when they normally do not. Nevertheless, actual time does not pass. Aging does not occur, spells that have any duration at all now last forever (while in this world, anyway), torches and lanterns never burn out, no food or water is ever needed, nor will they spoil, etc. Any timepiece carried by a character will appear to both be stopped and moving at the same time.

Clerics cannot cast spells, and Cleric spell scrolls do not function. The source of their power cannot penetrate this realm.

Magic-Users cast spells as if they were three times their actual level, and their spells are not expended when they are cast.

Any spells which involve contacting higher beings, other worlds, outer planes, or anything involving communication with or travel out of the third dimension simply do not work.

There are only three places in the entire dimension, the void, a floating island with the marble castle of the evil wizard and the infinite desert of white sands.

The infinite desert of white sands is a weird place, since time and space are deeply interconnected moving around can be a bit weird.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/e76f9dac66930d4cf881dc90b1a8d6dd/tumblr_oq87qq3hlJ1veme87o4_1280.jpg

While in the desert it would seem to be a single infinitely desert, no matter which way a character faces, all they can see is the white marble castle in the distance if the character turns his face, the castle is directly in front of him, as it always was.

The castle is always in front of them, ALWAYS. The only way to travel around the desert is by magic or a strong force of will, movement here is done by the mind, you just need to wish yourself to be at the castle and the world around you will remodel itself to fit that idea.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/1ecc18e187e40c469b6ba3df76c281d0/tumblr_oq87qq3hlJ1veme87o1_540.jpg

Inside the castle the same thing occurs. As they enter all they see is an infinite long white corridor.

No matter which way a character faces, the single corridor stretches out before him, with no turns. If the character turns in place, he will see that walls are indeed present, but as soon as the character is still, the tunnel is directly in front of him, as it always.

Even if the character intentionally stops to attempt to look at the wall, the tunnel will be directly in front of him. The walls are indeed present and quite solid if they are touched without being looked at.

A character with closed eyes (or blindfolded or otherwise impaired) becomes trapped as the corridor no longer exists for them; there are only infinite walls. They cannot move, and cannot be led by others as the blinded character cannot pass through the walls which now surround them.

Characters can move in different directions this way, even though none of them can perceive that there is more than one path. Once on a different path, they are separated from the other characters; looking back where the others “were” results in finding yet another empty featureless corridor.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/2a50e8fc67eac0e99e5b26e7dbf9f6dd/tumblr_oq87qq3hlJ1veme87o2_250.jpg

Distance does not exist here, so a character can find something (or someone) merely by wishing to do so. For example, if a character walks straight down the corridor for five hours, and then decides to return to the entrance gate, it will be directly behind him when he turns around. If characters are separated, merely by wishing to find someone will make it so. This also works for finding specific items or anything that is within the castle.

Gravity is local to the character, not the environment. If a character looks up or down (or whichever way), he will find himself standing level on the ground with the tunnel going in that looked-at direction, as “up” and “down” have no real Meaning here.

Characters that meet after being separated in the castle world will not necessarily have the same gravitational plane. Upon meeting, they might well consider each other as standing on the walls. Items passed from one character to another will retain the same “down” direction as the original owner of the item.

This effect will make the inhabitants of the castle (golems and undead created by the wizard) seem as if they can walk on the walls.

Because time has no meaning within the fourth dimension, characters can find places, people, and things at will along the Way, but it may also find them at any point in their existence.

Whatever is done in the past is actually also being done in the present, so whatever changes are made are experienced real-time without affecting anything else.

If a character wants to return to a specific point in time, even for moments that happened within the castle, it happens.

This time travels only directly affects the one who will it, but any changes made in the “Future” will also be present in the “Past” since it’s all happening at the same time. The other player characters will see this happening but won’t notice any transition, they will perceive all as if it was always that way.

Telonius
2017-05-19, 08:51 PM
Late to the party on this one, but ... I don't think that time is its own dimension. It's an epiphenomenon of existence at all. For there to be even one dimension, time has to exist. Time implies change. Movement in even a single dimension would be impossible without it.

The Eye
2017-05-20, 06:22 PM
Late to the party on this one, but ... I don't think that time is its own dimension. It's an epiphenomenon of existence at all. For there to be even one dimension, time has to exist. Time implies change. Movement in even a single dimension would be impossible without it.

I never said time was "its own dimension" I just said it was a phenomenon that happened in some places and now I have created a place where it's doesn't happen.

KillianHawkeye
2017-05-20, 11:59 PM
I never said time was "its own dimension"

Except when you totally did say that..... :smallsigh::smallsigh:


If you think about we all live in the Fourth dimension, since the 4D is time.



Regardless, I don't think a place where arcane magic is insanely super-charged while divine magic is completely non-functional is a good idea for an adventure setting. Unless you want your players to hate you and give up roleplaying until years later when they come back to some forums like this one and post about you in a "Worst DMs" thread.

Orcus The Vile
2017-05-21, 04:27 PM
Thanks for the ideas, this is the final product.

The group’s enemy is an evil and vain famale wizard obsessed with immortality and with a great fear of death, but she is also quite unhappy with the ways wizards normally reach such state, she has no intention of selling her soul or becoming a lich since she would still face death every day, to her one can only be truly immortal in a realm where death itself doesn’t exist.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/435257caf52f19577563840f427faeb0/tumblr_oq87qq3hlJ1veme87o3_400.jpg

After years of research she came to the conclusion that time is the real source of death and now all she had to is to escape to a place without time and live-forever.

The problem is that after finding the third dimension she decided to kidnap the high priest of the God of light as a lover and he is one of the heroes’ political ally, that’s why they had to go after her.

The third dimension was created like many other realms and dimensions, in a big explosion and a flash of light. But, since time doesn’t exists here this flash of light never stopped so the entire place is nothing but a bright white void.

Time does not move here. The presence of the characters is already straining this reality with their concepts of “past, present, and future” interfering with the local reality and making things occur sequentially when they normally do not. Nevertheless, actual time does not pass. Aging does not occur, spells that have any duration at all now last forever (while in this world, anyway), torches and lanterns never burn out, no food or water is ever needed, nor will they spoil, etc. Any timepiece carried by a character will appear to both be stopped and moving at the same time.

Clerics cannot cast spells, and Cleric spell scrolls do not function. The source of their power cannot penetrate this realm.

Magic-Users cast spells as if they were three times their actual level, and their spells are not expended when they are cast.

Any spells which involve contacting higher beings, other worlds, outer planes, or anything involving communication with or travel out of the third dimension simply do not work.

There are only three places in the entire dimension, the void, a floating island with the marble castle of the evil wizard and the infinite desert of white sands.

The infinite desert of white sands is a weird place, since time and space are deeply interconnected moving around can be a bit weird.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/e76f9dac66930d4cf881dc90b1a8d6dd/tumblr_oq87qq3hlJ1veme87o4_1280.jpg

While in the desert it would seem to be a single infinitely desert, no matter which way a character faces, all they can see is the white marble castle in the distance if the character turns his face, the castle is directly in front of him, as it always was.

The castle is always in front of them, ALWAYS. The only way to travel around the desert is by magic or a strong force of will, movement here is done by the mind, you just need to wish yourself to be at the castle and the world around you will remodel itself to fit that idea.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/1ecc18e187e40c469b6ba3df76c281d0/tumblr_oq87qq3hlJ1veme87o1_540.jpg

Inside the castle the same thing occurs. As they enter all they see is an infinite long white corridor.

No matter which way a character faces, the single corridor stretches out before him, with no turns. If the character turns in place, he will see that walls are indeed present, but as soon as the character is still, the tunnel is directly in front of him, as it always.

Even if the character intentionally stops to attempt to look at the wall, the tunnel will be directly in front of him. The walls are indeed present and quite solid if they are touched without being looked at.

A character with closed eyes (or blindfolded or otherwise impaired) becomes trapped as the corridor no longer exists for them; there are only infinite walls. They cannot move, and cannot be led by others as the blinded character cannot pass through the walls which now surround them.

Characters can move in different directions this way, even though none of them can perceive that there is more than one path. Once on a different path, they are separated from the other characters; looking back where the others “were” results in finding yet another empty featureless corridor.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/2a50e8fc67eac0e99e5b26e7dbf9f6dd/tumblr_oq87qq3hlJ1veme87o2_250.jpg

Distance does not exist here, so a character can find something (or someone) merely by wishing to do so. For example, if a character walks straight down the corridor for five hours, and then decides to return to the entrance gate, it will be directly behind him when he turns around. If characters are separated, merely by wishing to find someone will make it so. This also works for finding specific items or anything that is within the castle.

Gravity is local to the character, not the environment. If a character looks up or down (or whichever way), he will find himself standing level on the ground with the tunnel going in that looked-at direction, as “up” and “down” have no real Meaning here.

Characters that meet after being separated in the castle world will not necessarily have the same gravitational plane. Upon meeting, they might well consider each other as standing on the walls. Items passed from one character to another will retain the same “down” direction as the original owner of the item.

This effect will make the inhabitants of the castle (golems and undead created by the wizard) seem as if they can walk on the walls.

Because time has no meaning within the fourth dimension, characters can find places, people, and things at will along the Way, but it may also find them at any point in their existence.

Whatever is done in the past is actually also being done in the present, so whatever changes are made are experienced real-time without affecting anything else.

If a character wants to return to a specific point in time, even for moments that happened within the castle, it happens.

This time travels only directly affects the one who will it, but any changes made in the “Future” will also be present in the “Past” since it’s all happening at the same time. The other player characters will see this happening but won’t notice any transition, they will perceive all as if it was always that way.

I liked the "close but just out of reach" thing you got going own, very alien and mirage like. keep it up.

Bohandas
2017-05-27, 04:56 PM
So for my new campaign my players will be exploring the Third dimension.

If you think about we all live in the Fourth dimension, since the 4D is time.

That makes me wonder, how does a place in the "Third dimension" looks like? It will be a place with width, height and depth, but no time.

Any ideas?
Then by definition nothing can happen. It's a static instant. At best you can have characters that somehow have their own alternate timestream that they carry around with them like in the Discworld novel The Thief of Time or the Twilight Zone episode where the couple gets trapped between two moments in time ("A Matter of Minutes")


But better to go with 2 spaces plus one time like Flatland