Gurps World's Largest Dungeon!

[demonsbane]

Well, because the initial Dungeon Fantasy approach, I was thinking in a more traditional mythological or fantasy frame as "Worlds Within Worlds" (Campaigns, p. 521) where "Above and Below" matters (Fantasy, p. 40), instead a "Parallel Worlds" horizontal approach, more suitable for weird science fiction (Hugh Everett).

[Gavynn]

Originally Posted by demonsbane

The mad wizard-god theme has, despite the apparent lack of originality, a chance of fabulisimilitude (in Bill Stoddard words: "the likeness of real world myths"). So I like it, too.

As far as originality goes, I think lots of fun can be had with very traditional story lines and archetypes. So, yeah, the idea may have been around for a while, but that doesn't necessarily mean one has to stay away from it.

I also really like the extra-dimensional idea. In fact the two ideas can be combined. Say the WLD is a demi-plane created by a wizard who set up a lot of doors from every plane in order for him to travel between them. Say there is some reason he doesn’t have doors directly go from one place to another. They all come out on this demi-plane. Then, in order to stop people from using these doors, he stocks the demi-plane with lots of crazy monsters from all different planes. Of course, he thought he could control them, but they ate him. Now, for those who know about this demi-plane can get from any place to any place, but have to find the proper door in a huge dungeonesque demi-plane.

[Highland_Piper]

Originally Posted by Gavynn

Of course, he thought he could control them, but they ate him. Now, for those who know about this demi-plane can get from any place to any place, but have to find the proper door in a huge dungeonesque demi=plane.

Better yet they ate him and now he is a lich looking to be one of the living again, and in walk the player characters....

[quarkstomper]

Maybe the Mad Wizard-God is suicidal, but he's become so powerful that he cannot be killed by normal means. So he's trying to buff up as many adventurers as he can lure into his "training program" so that they can do the job for him.

Of course, they wouldn't know this...

[Lonewulf]

Originally Posted by quarkstomper

Maybe the Mad Wizard-God is suicidal, but he's become so powerful that he cannot be killed by normal means. So he's trying to buff up as many adventurers as he can lure into his "training program" so that they can do the job for him.

Of course, they wouldn't know this...

Huh.

I like the idea.

[younglorax]

Originally Posted by quarkstomper

Maybe the Mad Wizard-God is suicidal, but he's become so powerful that he cannot be killed by normal means. So he's trying to buff up as many adventurers as he can lure into his "training program" so that they can do the job for him.

Of course, they wouldn't know this...

Maybe he has multiple personalities, one that takes over whenever in mortal danger and hte other that wants to die. That way, he can create this dungeon to make adventurers powerful enough to kill him, but he can't actually do the deed himself -- and when the adventurers get there, he'll put up fight.

[Atreyu_Hibiki]

Originally Posted by quarkstomper

Maybe the Mad Wizard-God is suicidal, but he's become so powerful that he cannot be killed by normal means. So he's trying to buff up as many adventurers as he can lure into his "training program" so that they can do the job for him.

Of course, they wouldn't know this...

Somebody's been reading Phil Foglio's adaptation of Myth Adventures... ;D

[tratclif]

Originally Posted by CraigR

I like the idea of a WLD as a sort of transit plane: You enter the maze and fight your way across to another access point that leads to your destination.

That reminds me of William Keith's great Pyramid article, "Tomos, The Divided Land." The Complex is a network of large lightless caverns that connect mana-positive worlds. That's been done before, but he worked out the Cabalistic cosmography of such a plane and fit it into the Infinite Worlds.

If the GURPS WLD is actually in Yetzirah or Briah that could justify the "genre convention" unreality of dungeon crawling.

Off to peruse Cabal to find the Decan for Dungeon Crawling.

[CraigR]

Originally Posted by tratclif

That reminds me of William Keith's great Pyramid article, "Tomos, The Divided Land." The Complex is a network of large lightless caverns that connect mana-positive worlds. That's been done before, but he worked out the Cabalistic cosmography of such a plane and fit it into the Infinite Worlds.

That's probably where the idea stuck in my mind.

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by tratclif

That reminds me of William Keith's great Pyramid article, "Tomos, The Divided Land."

I know it.

Originally Posted by tratclif

The Complex is a network of large lightless caverns that connect mana-positive worlds. That's been done before, but he worked out the Cabalistic cosmography of such a plane and fit it into the Infinite Worlds.

See below.

Originally Posted by tratclif

If the GURPS WLD is actually in Yetzirah or Briah that could justify the "genre convention" unreality of dungeon crawling.

Off to peruse Cabal to find the Decan for Dungeon Crawling.

Because Briah and Yetzirah aren't physical realities, but the spiritual domain and the psychic domain respectively, then the WLD would need to involve some sort of "spirit travel"...

See, I don't have GURPS Cabal, but I know something of Kabbalistic doctrine, its worldview and its ontological disposition. Kabbalah, not having relation at all with quantum physics, doesn't supports the viewpoint or belief about Parallel Worlds (1).

Instead, Kabbalah cosmography is the one of Worlds Within Worlds (2).

Parallel Worlds idea and Worlds Within Worlds scheme are very different.

I like GURPS being a generic and universal system, but when one picks a particular setting or genre for roleplaying (for instance, Fantasy or Dungeon Fantasy), I think using GURPS there for mutating it into a multigenre-inconexed thing that results in an important lack of internal consistency... For me such things are like "programation bugs", and I'm not up for that.

Cheer



(1) "This cosmology features multiple physical realities standing shoulder to shoulder" (Campaigns: Parallel Worlds, p. 521).


(2) "In this model, realities are nested one within the next -like the layers of an onion." (Campaigns: Worlds Within Worlds, p. 521).

Kabbalah division of worlds (ontological domains) corresponds to the World Within Worlds model, being the all-encompassing onion Atziluth (I), then follows Beri'ah (II) inside Atziluth, then Yetzirah (III) inside Beri'ah, and finally Asiyah' (IV) inside Yetzirah. Four worlds, not an infinite number of them.

By the way, the only physical world or reality in the Kabbalistic cosmos is Asiyah', our bodily world.