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Old 05-27-2019, 12:30 PM   #1
Daigoro
 
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Default [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu

The mind yearns to explore new setting ideas before the previous one fades from memory, so let us step through the shimmering portal to execute the genesis of a new multiverse and an associated campaign framework!

This is a collaborative setting construction forum game. The objective is to use our shared talents to put together a setting that combines fantasy, travel between exotic worlds, magical planes and wondrous dimensions, unique and awe-inspiring geographic wonders at every stop, and swashbuckling mercantile adventure.

To be clear, the goal is to make a campaign framework with 3 criteria:
- It's a cross-dimensional fantasy, where there is some means of moving between different worlds and planes of existence.
- It involves extraordinary geographical gimmicks, such as a settlement built on the walls of a bottomless pit or islands in a sea of lava.
- The campaign revolves around trade between these worlds and dimensions.

How exactly these elements will combine is yet to be seen.

----

The method is to answer a posted question about the setting, then post a question of your own. Build bit-by-bit on what the other posters have written, and try not to contradict anything that's been established. Questions can be anything from the very general to extremely specific, complex or simple, and can follow on from what's gone before or start off a new direction.

----

To make it easier to read through, clearly mark questions and answers in bold, and quote the question you're answering, in the below format. Also try to use line breaks to break up wall-of-text answers.

Example of post format:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daigoro
Question 42) How many dimensions are there?
Answer 42- Dimensions
Somewhere between a multitude and a myriad. The Company has catalogued 68 of them.

Question 43
Which is the Moorcockiest of the dimensions?

---

Here's a list of previous collaborations:
Spoiler:  

----

I'll kick off with the first real question in the next post.
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Old 05-27-2019, 12:35 PM   #2
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Default Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu

Question 1 - Travel
What is the means of travelling between worlds and dimensions?
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Old 05-27-2019, 08:30 PM   #3
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Default Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daigoro View Post
Question 1 - Travel
What is the means of travelling between worlds and dimensions?
Answer 1
Travel to other worlds, dimensions and realms is through a limited number of quite variable portals that predate written records. No one really understands how the portals work though many theories exist.

Each of the portals is seen to have a personality for want of a better term, the realm is centered on a portal know as "Mother Plains" which is the most reliable portal and also the one with the most gentle transition. It provides transport from right beside the seat of governance to a vast impossibly flat plain covered in a grass best described as giant wheat.
Another portal is known simply as "The Kidnapper" which appears at random and can send the unwary almost anywhere. It sometimes even returns them at a later time, though as often it brings a new resident(s).
The distorted lands are different again and surround the [area] here an adventurous sort may climb an almost impossibly tall cliff and arrive in the heaven of a deity of life, or cross a river of poison and find themselves in the land of the dead.
Tens or scores of portals exist and each is unique.

Question 2
How big is the central realm?
(And whats a better name than "central realm"?)
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Old 05-28-2019, 02:52 AM   #4
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Default Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu

I will not spoil the fun by joining in the enumerated questions and answers, but the existence of something like this in the GURPS system was precisely my purpose behind writing up my "Tomos, the Divided Land" setting for crossplanar GURPS fantasy. It was article number 6203 in Pyramid #2, December 2006.

The basics of crossworld travel in the setting are as follows. Writers in this thread are welcome to take them and run with them.

1.) Posit that any naturally maniferous world has natural gates to the elemental planes, particularly at least one stable, human-transitable gate to the Plane (or Decan, etc.) of Elemental Earth. The key is that such a plane is likely to be understood and known to almost every magical world.

2.) Posit that this Plane can be traveled between portals in a reasonable time and level of safety, that it is susceptible to the creation of permanent gates with the Create Gate spell, and that gates here can be found to and from new worlds (either unknown but associated to some token item or person, or simply seeking new gates to explore) with various divinations. (They may be very hard to find, or unusably one-way, such as the portal to Yrth.)

Voila, a system for mages to travel from one fantasy world to another.

-----

The "home culture" of the setting was Tomos, a Greek-style democratic civilization featuring orichalcum and alchemy, on a world full of island archipelagos with no major continents. The central hub for crossplanar travel was Katakoptron, the Mirror City, sitting in the glassy border elemental region between Earth and Air (and hence featuring solid ground and breathable air). The City is the usual central site for the creation of double-wide permanent gates between worlds formally allied in the trade system, putting trade routes more convenient to one another than the haphazard placement of the natural gates. Worlds that could be reached included a few mentioned in Banestorm, namely Loren'dil, Gabrook, and Olokun, with the full complement of GURPS fantasy creatures, along with a few others of my own devising. The elemental planes could also feature an array of interesting, useful, and competition-inspiring resources.

I have long thought about proposing to SJGames that I expand this setting into a longer pdf. I have plenty of material. I know, however, that "my homebrew setting" is not an item high on their wish list.
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Old 05-28-2019, 04:39 AM   #5
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Default Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E) View Post
Question 2
How big is the central realm?
(And whats a better name than "central realm"?)
Answer 2 - Fragment and Calledron
The central realm is called Fragment, and the realm's major world and portal nexus is Calledron.

Calledron is a smallish world set in the basin formed by the hollow of the brain pan and top jaw of the upturned skull of a titan-sized crocodile-like beast. The basin is roughly 4000 miles long and 1500 wide and it floats at a steady angle to the sun. The sun rotates like a beacon, bringing cycles of day and night, and other colossal fragments of the beast are visible in the sky- a claw, floating nearby like a large moon, the thorax further away, and many more, most of them similarly inhabited.

The realm, therefore, is a sphere of space about 100,000 miles in diameter, with the surface area of the fragments equivalent to half that of Earth.

Question 3 - The Capital
Where then are the Mother Plains Portal and the seat of governance on Calledron?

Question 4 - Climate and Geography
What are the climate(s) and geography of Calledron like?
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Old 05-28-2019, 09:59 AM   #6
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Default Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu

Quote:
Question 4 - Climate and Geography
What are the climate(s) and geography of Calledron like?
Calledron receives its moisture not from rain or snow, but from clouds of mist that drift aimlessly through fragment. Most of the basin is composed of the Crocodile's jaw, and that comparatively flat surface usually has warm summer weather, fed by streams coming from the massive teeth lining the basin. The basin's weather is somewhere between tropical and an endless summer, depending on the speaker's reference point. It is covered in lush forests, farms, and gardens, fed by some of the most dependable weather on on the worlds. If not for the towering bare teeth lining the basin, one could be forgiven for forgetting they were standing on a massive skull.

The largest body of water is a long thin lake running down the center of the basin, about 1,000 miles long.

The cavity that once contained the brain is dark, and is known as the great cavern. This is as opposed to the myriad smaller caverns found throughout the former titan's bones. The Bone has a tendency to condense water on it, making the cavern, as well as the back on bones on fragment, cold, dark, and somewhere between icy and wet.

Question 5:
How does gravity work on Calledron? (and by extension Fragment)

Question 6:
What kind of flora and fauna can you find on Calledron? Feel free to include crops and domestic animals
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Old 05-28-2019, 12:52 PM   #7
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Default Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu

Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
Question 5:
How does gravity work on Calledron? (and by extension Fragment
Answer 5 - Gravity
Gravity is a repulsive force acting radially away from the sun, with a strength proportional to proximity to it. The material of titanic Bone appears to have some countering force attracting it to other Bone and perhaps to the sun, as suggested by the arrangement of fragments.

Thus, if flight between fragments is considered, flying through an outward-curving trajectory would be easier. And if it's possible to mine or work Bone, it might be used for anchors or ballast.

For inhabitants of Calledron and similar fragments, gravity is experienced as a fairly uniform 1G, and the sun is always directly above.

(Does this cause too much weirdness?)

----
Like with the Megacorp thread, how about we considered separate tagged streams of questions, one focusing on Fragment [FRG], the other on portals and the multiverse [MV]?

We have a couple standing for the realm of Fragment, so I'll just add:

Question 7 - [MV] Problem species
What species traveling the portals of the multiverse causes trouble for other wayfarers?
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Old 05-29-2019, 06:45 AM   #8
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Default Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu

Quote:
Question 7 - [MV] Problem species
What species traveling the portals of the multiverse causes trouble for other wayfarers?
Well, if you were to ask 100 random wayfarers, the most common species complained about would be a human. But many of your wayfarers would be humans as well, so its debatable if they're more troublesome or just more common.

Several animalistic species are known to use the portals. The most notorious are probably portal drakes. These creatures hover around known nexuses waiting for portals to open. They hope to either catch creatures coming through the portals or to swoop through the portals themselves to find lands untouched by such a fearsome predator as they, though they are careful to return through the portals.

It is a matter of some debate among sages and scholars if portal drakes can cause portals, somehow sense them forming, or if they're just skilled at what they do. Some travelers regard them as a sign of good fortune, or as an indication they've found a portal nexus, but most just see them as hungry devourers of livestock and children.

Question 8:
a) What name is the bone of the titan that forms Calledron called, seeing that it has distinct properties from bone?
b) What do the inhabitants of Calledron call the titan they live on?

Question 9:
Is there a world or worlds that buys titan bone from Calledron? Why does it need the bone?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daigoro View Post
Answer 5 - Gravity
Gravity is a repulsive force acting radially away from the sun, with a strength proportional to proximity to it. The material of titanic Bone appears to have some countering force attracting it to other Bone and perhaps to the sun, as suggested by the arrangement of fragments.

Thus, if flight between fragments is considered, flying through an outward-curving trajectory would be easier. And if it's possible to mine or work Bone, it might be used for anchors or ballast.

For inhabitants of Calledron and similar fragments, gravity is experienced as a fairly uniform 1G, and the sun is always directly above.

(Does this cause too much weirdness?)
I think its an awesome answer!
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Old 05-30-2019, 01:40 AM   #9
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Default Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu

Answer 8 the most common name for it is Calledronite, since many people from other dimensions refuse to wrap their heads around the idea that this was once the skeletal structure of a planet-sized ambush predator. Calledron natives probably refer to it as homebone. The titan is usually referred to as Suchos, as those who can communicate with its spirit mostly get an overwhelming sensation of thirst from it. It doesn't appear to have been too into abstract thought.

Question 10 How long ago did the first recorded portal voyage take place?
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Old 05-30-2019, 03:33 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by patchwork View Post
Calledron natives probably refer to it as homebone.
I was considering whether to call it "crocodile rock".

Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
Question 9:
Is there a world or worlds that buys titan bone from Calledron? Why does it need the bone?
Answer 9- Calledronite Trade
Calledronite is prized across the Civilised Worlds of the Polycosm for its affinity to fertility, vitality and healing. It has its own intrinsic powers to cleanse chakras and encourage abundant plant growth, but these can be further enhanced with enchantments or alchemy. Calledronite has an appearance of luminous milky yellow swirls with ruby red vitreous highlights. It has the curious property of being a gemstone that's harder than granite, but it is malleable and can be worked like iron.

Thus, it's often found in amulets, jewellery, armour pieces, goblets and cutlery, or perhaps in the royal garden where calledronite statuary is used to keep the grounds looking well-nourished. Healing wands and altars are also often made with it, if it can be acquired.

Also, there is one world that knows alchemical processes that combine this mineral with other magical substances to thus forge life-draining or soul-capturing blades.

This mineral is difficult to mine, however, as it blunts regular iron-work tools. Therefore, the mining tools of Fragment are themselves tipped with calledronite and this increases the expense of extraction. And note that there are other mineral species available from Fragment, associated with tooth, claw and deep marrow remains and a variety of types of scales floating around the realm.

----
Question 11 [FRG]- Edge of the Realm
What happens if you fall off the edge of somewhere in Fragment? That is, what is the outer boundary of the realm? Open deep space? An orb made of some substance? The hard walls of a pocket dimension? Or, something else?

Question 12 [FRG]- Fragment's Denizens
Who are the residents of Fragment? Were they originally native or did they settle from somewhere?
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