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Feverdream
2008-08-11, 09:22 PM
Hello all. Fairly new DM/GM here, seeking some advice for running a game, as well as criticism of a campaign idea I came up with. Well, I think I came up with it...

You see, I had a great opportunity to spend this summer in Africa. I was doing field research in linguistics for my university, but halfway through, I contracted malaria, despite the efforts of my physicians to give me medication to prevent it. During this time, I had some freaky nightmares and hallucinations, but through them, I came up with the idea that I'm presenting here.

Despite having the spark of creativity foisted upon me by a dangerous parasitic disease, I still am unsure on how I would turn this concept into a workable, playable, enjoyable campaign setting for my friends. So I come to you on this board. I hope to draw on the experience I've seen while lurking on these boards. Among the many questions I have, ones such as the best system for me to use that would best capture the concepts, and whether or not the concept itself is good for a role-playing game, are high among them.

So, without further ado, I present:

The University of Tomorrow


Welcome to the most prestigious institution of learning in all existence. If you are one of the lucky ones admitted to this illustrious academy, it is most likely because you have always been here. This great institution is the oldest university in Existance. Founded in Time Immemorial, the University of Tomorrow is fully self-sustaining, with absolutely no need for the importation of goods or services. Whatever is needed can be provided. The Board of Directors makes sure all the needs of its professors and students are met.
The University boasts the most impressive collection of research on Arcane Studies and the Divine Sciences, not to mention having majors for every known discipline… and even some unknown ones. Professors and researchers work practically around-the-clock, furthering intellectual progress exponentially. There is much in the way of academic freedom, however it is requested that all research proposals be submitted to the Council on All There Is. This group of professors abides by the Strictures of Ethical Research, a doctrine that guides all academics on campus.
However, not many professors follow the Strictures, and many engage in “illegal” activities. It seems impossible to quell curiosity, especially any curiosity that tries to answer what lies outside the Four Walls that surround the infinite acres of the University campus. As such, many shadowy cabals form for one reason or another, and all do their research “underground”.
Two such cabals have since formed around the ideas of one now-exiled professor. These groups are called “The Society for Impossible Geometry” and the “Consortium of Determined Curiosity”. It seems that this nameless professor discovered something he (or she… no one really knows about this professor) calls Improbable Worlds, and the two cabals are dedicated to exploring and cataloging every one that springs into existence.
An Improbable World is a world that spawns, as their name suggests, in the most improbable of places and times. Using the concepts of Zeno’s Paradoxes, it seems that there is a “space and time” that occurs between the change between two events. Between when isn’t happening, and when it is. For instance, an Improbable World is spawned between the time a flower bud is closed, and when it opens, or in the time between when sugar, placed over a flame, goes from being solid to caramel. These nearly-microscopic worlds have a notoriously short life, moving from creation to annihilation in a matter of minutes, but thanks to the creation of Static AEther, the rapid deterioration of these worlds can be slowed down tremendously. It wasn’t until recently that, through the use of high Arcane Science, that people could explore these worlds, and now a friendly competition between the Society for Impossible Geometry and the Consortium of Determined curiosity is on to collect and document all the Impossible Worlds, and both groups seek to lure willing volunteers to adventure, map, and collect data on each wildly different world…

Essentially, the theme is kind of a dimensional hopping game. It should be a highly magical/psionic kind of game, and I imagine the PCs would be the various volunteers that brave the harsh new worlds. I confess to not being able to understand Palladium's system, which may speak volumes of my ineptness as a GM, and that I would rather not use the RIFTS books for a game such as this one. I'm used to playing 3.5, but could it really capture the feel that I want to get across?

And would anyone truly be interested in playing in this kind of campaign setting? :)

Covered In Bees
2008-08-11, 09:25 PM
Essentially, the theme is kind of a dimensional hopping game.

This never, ever works as well as you think it does.

Check out www.sigilprep.com which lets you do something similar, but with lots of funny and lampshades being hanged on the ridiculous stuff.

Feverdream
2008-08-11, 09:26 PM
This never, ever works as well as you think it does.

Check out www.sigilprep.com which lets you do something similar, but with lots of funny and lampshades being hanged on the ridiculous stuff.

Well, now I feel terribly uncreative. Seems like I was beaten to the punch, as it were.

Colmarr
2008-08-11, 09:27 PM
It strikes me as very akin to the old Sliders TV show.

As such, I'm not sure it's really very suited to D&D, but if you were to run it as a D&D campaign, I'd recommend doing so against an Eberron-style technology level.

It's much easier to explore Improbable Worlds if you have access to airships and elemental cars etc.

I'd play it, but you'll need to think very carefully about your campaign arc, because I think it'll be hard to capture long-term player interest with such a disjointed campaign structure.

CASTLEMIKE
2008-08-11, 09:33 PM
Add in a mix of Eberron and Planescape and you won't need to completely reivinvent the wheel. Most used ECS books are cheap on Amazon.

Feverdream
2008-08-11, 09:39 PM
It strikes me as very akin to the old Sliders TV show.

As such, I'm not sure it's really very suited to D&D, but if you were to run it as a D&D campaign, I'd recommend doing so against an Eberron-style technology level.

It's much easier to explore Improbable Worlds if you have access to airships and elemental cars etc.

I'd play it, but you'll need to think very carefully about your campaign arc, because I think it'll be hard to capture long-term player interest with such a disjointed campaign structure.

It only goes to show that an idea alone doth not a campaign make. I apparently have a lot of work to do if I were to make this workable.

I thought about 3.5, but I didn't think it would be "complete" for something such as this. I originally thought of having races that could easily use the rules of already-established ones. The three main races I had originally thought of were: human, "Gifted", and Automata. The later two could use the "Elan" rules from the Expanded Psionics Handbook, and the Warforged from Eberron, respectively... That is, if I went that route.

I had also thought of the various Faculties that the college has, and that if I used D&D 3.5 rules, the Faculties would be responsible for the domains for people who chose to be "Divine Scientists" (the Clerics). For example, the Faculty of Medicine and the Morbid Sciences would have Healing, Death, Protection, or other justifiable domains.

Then there's the whole deal with fleshing out each of the worlds... damn, this is hard work. I appreciate all the help so far.

Myatar_Panwar
2008-08-11, 09:41 PM
Nothing's better than making campains using hallucinations. Except for maybe... making hallucinations... using.... campains? Oh yeah.

dariathalon
2008-08-11, 09:46 PM
I think one of the major hinderances that you'll have to overcome is the slowing of time that you described. One of the major draws for many people to play RPGs is the action involved. It's true not everyone looks for this, but I'd be willing to bet that you'll have some in your group that will look for it. I'm not saying this is a bad idea for a campaign, you just have a few hurdles before I would believe it's ready to run.

As for a system, I would definitely get away from D&D. I think the best system I've played for such a game would be GURPS. While it is very generic, it does have a lot of support for dimension travelling games. Even their campaign setting (Infinite Worlds) is focused on dimension hopping.

Feverdream
2008-08-11, 09:57 PM
I think one of the major hinderances that you'll have to overcome is the slowing of time that you described. One of the major draws for many people to play RPGs is the action involved. It's true not everyone looks for this, but I'd be willing to bet that you'll have some in your group that will look for it. I'm not saying this is a bad idea for a campaign, you just have a few hurdles before I would believe it's ready to run.

As for a system, I would definitely get away from D&D. I think the best system I've played for such a game would be GURPS. While it is very generic, it does have a lot of support for dimension travelling games. Even their campaign setting (Infinite Worlds) is focused on dimension hopping.

I have never dealt with GURPS, so I would have to learn the system. Do you have any advice on starting up with that? I confess to having a difficult time learning directly from the books. I have to play a bit before truly comprehending a game. And if/when I start up a game using this system, anything I should hint/suggest to my players to help make the game 'work' for that?

Tallis
2008-08-11, 10:14 PM
It's an interesting idea that I'd be interested in trying out. It could make for a really interesting game.
However you're talking about a lot of work to do it right. It's a lot of work to design a good campaign world. You have to design multiple unique worlds. If each one doesn't have a unique flavor the campaign will come off as flat. You need to come up with unique situations on each world to be dealt with. If each world has the same difficulties they will seem repetitive and bland.
You might consider having a villain that can also travel between worlds who is causing problems. This gives you a way of tying your campaign together and also gives you a fallback when you can't think of a truly unique situation for next weeks game. Maybe the 2 groups from the school need to team up against the villain occassionally. Other times they are competing again each other, causing problems that aren't meant to hurt anyone, just to slow them down.

Feverdream
2008-08-11, 10:31 PM
It's an interesting idea that I'd be interested in trying out. It could make for a really interesting game.
However you're talking about a lot of work to do it right. It's a lot of work to design a good campaign world. You have to design multiple unique worlds. If each one doesn't have a unique flavor the campaign will come off as flat. You need to come up with unique situations on each world to be dealt with. If each world has the same difficulties they will seem repetitive and bland.
You might consider having a villain that can also travel between worlds who is causing problems. This gives you a way of tying your campaign together and also gives you a fallback when you can't think of a truly unique situation for next weeks game. Maybe the 2 groups from the school need to team up against the villain occassionally. Other times they are competing again each other, causing problems that aren't meant to hurt anyone, just to slow them down.

I do have a lot more in mind, but I'm not sure I want to reveal that kind of information before a game ever started, lest I get metagamers who immediately go off "discovering" that.

As for the worlds, yes, you are right. I had some ideas for three different worlds that have been "collected", and I would need to populate them. I would ask for help from people here in doing just that, but is that a courteous thing? "Hey, make up stuff for 'my' world and let me rip it off!" Plus, I'm sure people have their own ideas and would rather not spend time working on someone else's campaign setting. :)

But here's the general idea for a couple of bizarre Improbable Worlds:

IW-2V-CK: Discovered when a professor was making her prize custard. Formed in the time between the sugar to be melted in the saucepan and the caramel-formation, this world is essentially a Candyland gone horribly, horribly wrong.

IW-1Y-IK-U1: A morbid, necro-cosmopolitan world that I can only describe as "Tim Burton-esque".

So on, so forth... Yadda, yadda, yadda...

On the GURPS note, would it be best to have 'races', or should everyone be humanoid, or be allowed to make up any kind of critter that the University campus mysteriously spawned?

Jayngfet
2008-08-11, 10:35 PM
I like this idea, If you're doing dimension hopping you could use some existing settings, and some homebrewed ones from here if you need things.

dariathalon
2008-08-11, 10:53 PM
GURPS (http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/) can be a little intimidating. It stands for Generic Universal RolePlaying System. It is exactly that, I think you can do almost anything imaginable with it. Some types of games work right using the basic rules, if you want something a little different it also includes alternatives for things like giving the game a more cinematic flair. Its biggest strength is its flexibility, but that is also a bit of a hinderance. There are just so many options available. My biggest piece of advice is to KEEP IT SIMPLE. Let your players know in advance what you will and will not allow in terms of abilities. Keep the list of abilities you will allow short at first, if you feel like adding more later as you become more comfortable with the system, you can do that later.

A little more about the system. GURPS is a class-less, level-less system. Players use a set number of points with which they buy attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Health), secondary attributes (Hit Points, Will, Fatigue Points, and Perception), advantages (specific abilities similar to feats or class abilities) and skills. They can also gain a few extra points by taking disadvantages. After characters are created, pretty much everything relies on the same simple mechanic. Players roll 3d6, trying to get less than their skill (adjusted for any unusual circumstances).

If you are interested, there is an introductory document called GURPS Lite containing everything you really need to play the game. It is available for free (http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=SJG31-0004). I would read through that to decide if you like the system, but I'd recommend getting a copy of the two-book Basic Set if you intend to run a game using the system. Feel free to ask if you have any other questions, I'm not an expert with the system, but I'll try to answer them.

On the races question, GURPS can handle characters of different races if you want them. It is up to the GM to create the race (basically a package of attribute adjustments, advantages, disadvantages, etc. that they player purchases out of his or her starting points, or gets extra points if the race is sucky enough) and provide them to the player as an option. Without taking a racial package, the characters are assumed to be human. The Basic Set has a chapter on how to create racial packages as well as a few examples already worked up. Some of the other books have additional races in them, though it is just as easy to create them yourself so they are exactly the way you want them.

Feverdream
2008-08-12, 04:26 AM
Thank you for the link!

Let's see... I imagine even your "lowliest" citizen, likely the level a volunteer on an IW mission, would be even more advanced than most people that actually live on an IW, so they would be considered Heroic to Larger-Than-Life, and those that have made it to "Scholar" level (NPCs, that is...) would be Larger-Than-Life to Legendary. However, not knowing the complete system, having such advantaged characters might tempt others to try and take advantage of me and make a tweaked-out character, which I believe others call "munchkins".

Or, perhaps I shouldn't be paranoid and let them be the munchkins, so long as they allow other party members to shine. Something I've noticed in many of the players I've played with is that they don't like to talk to other players before a game starts. I can't tell you the number of times I've pulled back my submission of a character because someone jumped in with a Paladin, and so much as working with my character would make him lose his Paladin status They often make their characters with no effort to consult the other players.

Maybe I should run this online if I'm expecting that kind of behavior. However, two months of me being gone MIGHT have changed that...

Whoops! Sorry for rambling there.

Tormsskull
2008-08-12, 06:04 AM
Actually, this would be a great setting for antsy players. If they start to get bored with a world, wooosh, pull them away and present a new one that they can hop into.

The only problem I could see is if you intend to have any significant level of roleplaying, the players may find the lack of permanent fixtures in their adventures as an issue. Sure, they might be able to develop relationships with people at the school, but beyond that all of those potential people they meet will be gone very quickly (if I am understanding this correctly).

dariathalon
2008-08-12, 12:36 PM
Yes, that can be a danger. I would suggest setting some ground rules to prevent munchkinism. These rules could be waived after the game begins, spending experience points to get better at things, if you like. Letting them have free reign to begin with could be dangerous. Things like...


No skill higher than 14 (or perhaps allow 2 or 3 skills at 15 or 16).
No attribute score higher than 14 or lower than 8.
Definitely set a total number of points available in disadvantages (half the total points given for the character is suggested, I'd recommend fewer though).
No more than 3 levels of any multi-leveled advantage (talents, magical aptitude, natural attack, reputation, wealth, etc.)
Be sure you understand how enhancements and limitations work, players sometimes try to do things with those that aren't really legal.
Have a set list of advantages and disadvantages you'll allow. Don't just open the book to the players and let them choose from the smorgasboard. As you read through the book you'll certainly notice things that players shouldn't be able to do in your game world (or at least not without magic), keep track of those and create a handout of what you will allow.


There could be a good many more, these are just the ones I thought of off the top of my head.

To help with your non-communicating players problem, I'd suggest taking a session that you don't intend to play in to create characters. This is always a good system, but especially when you use a new system. Talk the players through the game world and a rough outline of how the rules work. Give them the handout of what they can and can't do, then open up communications. Have each player go around the table describing the type of character they want to play on first impression before even cracking open the books. Then as you allow them to work, keep the lines of communication open. Their concepts will likely change and grow. You'll likely be looking over their shoulders, helping answer questions. Anytime you see someone change something that might make a difference to other people, you can casually mention it. Also encourage them to help each other. Get them asking questions to each other like "Is it better to take an extra point of Dex to get all the benefits of that, or specialize a little more by putting those points into this maneuver?"

Oh and as far as starting points, give them the smallest number that feels like it might be right to you. It is easy to give them more through experience, but very difficult to take them away. So err on the side of weak.

Feverdream
2008-08-12, 08:08 PM
I truly appreciate the help. I've started writing up some ideas and the like, and I'll post them a little later. I've contacted a friend who has the books, and will be picking them up tomorrow to give them the once-over.

Again, thanks for the help.

More later...