GURPS Fantasy: Portal Realms

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by PK

Disclaimer: I
Portal Fantasy is about being bodily transported to a completely distinct new world, like Narnia or in Spirited Away. You bring possessions with you (at least what you're carrying), you cannot communicate with your old world, and there is no common reference between the two worlds except for the portal(s) connecting them.

Eh, there are exceptions to most of the statements above. John Carter didn't (initially) bring anything with him to Barsoom and seems to have left his original body behind him while forming a new one on his arrival.

Educated Barsoomians also knew things about an Earth that may or may not have ben Carter's or ours.

Ulysses Paxton left a dying body behind on Earth and the same for the hero of ERB's Beyond the Farthest Star.

Bill mentioned a Poul Anderson story that used mind exchange and that was the mechanism for all of Otis Adelbert Kline's planetary romances. Lin Carter's Green Star series used astral projection learned from Tibetan manuscripts.

So I think the genre might be not quite as limited as PK indicates.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

So I think the genre might be not quite as limited as PK indicates.

I wasn't speaking about the genre. The reason those words were in boldfaced italics was because I was speaking about (my thoughts on) the supplement.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by PK

I wasn't speaking about the genre. The reason those words were in boldfaced italics was because I was speaking about (my thoughts on) the supplement.

There is discussion of the mind projection/astral travel/out-of-body experience version in Portal Realms; it's just not the main emphasis. But I did provide for dreams and trances as travel mechanisms.

[Ninja Monkey]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I would certainly consider that as a valid trope for a parallel worlds/sideways time travel campaign; see for example the "mirror universe" episodes on Star Trek. But I don't consider portal fantasy (and its sf analogs) to be the same thing. A portal realm doesn't usually have a historical divergence point, isn't a "what if" version of Earth or an analog of it, commonly doesn't have the same geography and may not even have the same physics or cosmology; it's not a variant on our world but a whole separate creation. In an alternate history, you might well ask, "What happened to George Washington in this world?"—but the question wouldn't even arise for a secondary world like Middle-Earth or Earthsea. So it's a natural question to ask about PCs in a parallel worlds campaign, but I don't think it's so natural for a portal fantasy campaign.

(And now I'm wondering if GURPS Infinite Worlds has it. It looks as if it's not listed in the Disadvantages section. . . .)

To clarify, I'm thinking more on the lines of the Amber Chronicles, where 'shadow' worlds are imperfect reflections of Amber. The further away from Amber and closer to the Courts of Chaos, the more different the shadow world is from Amber. In shadow, the people one finds there may also be imperfect reflections of those from Amber. If one was to use this idea, the PCs could find that they are mistaken for someone else. In such circumstances, the PCs will look like (not necessarily 100%) the native version, but past experience will/may be very different. There may be some parallels, for instance a mounted policeman from Earth finds he is mistaken for a knight in the portal world - both having a mounted law and peace enforcement role. In this situation, is Zeroed available with Mistaken Identity?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Ninja Monkey

To clarify, I'm thinking more on the lines of the Amber Chronicles, where 'shadow' worlds are imperfect reflections of Amber. The further away from Amber and closer to the Courts of Chaos, the more different the shadow world is from Amber. In shadow, the people one finds there may also be imperfect reflections of those from Amber. If one was to use this idea, the PCs could find that they are mistaken for someone else. In such circumstances, the PCs will look like (not necessarily 100%) the native version, but past experience will/may be very different. There may be some parallels, for instance a mounted policeman from Earth finds he is mistaken for a knight in the portal world - both having a mounted law and peace enforcement role. In this situation, is Zeroed available with Mistaken Identity?

Amber doesn't seem to be truly a portal fantasy, though it has enough elements to justify listing it. There isn't a set of discrete worlds, each a unique statement of theme and premise; there's a continuum of worlds that resemble each other. Once Corwin had his memory back, and had walked the Pattern, he was going to deal with issues that resembled visiting parallel timelines.

I'm not sure offhand what would be the best way to represent what you're talking about, though what you propose might work.

[Ninja Monkey]

Thanks Bill. The campaign I'm thinking of running is an Earth to Harn campaign. I think is a perfect example of a portal realm, since that setting already includes portal travel examples with Terra (Earth) and other worlds. Harn canon also includes characters that are based on people from history, myth and literature. In some cases, these characters might be one and the same person, in others they're 'shadows' of the other.

For my campaign I'm toying with having the PCs visit Harn without equipment. They'd have Mistaken Identity and have the equipment and clothes of their 'shadow' selves. (Perhaps the shadow has also gone to Earth from Harn, but that won't come in to play.) The authorities may have records on shadow version, but not on the PCs. And a magic user would get a blank or confused image when looking for the Harnic shadow characters...so hence why Zeroed with Mistaken Identity. I welcome thoughts on this.

[RogerBW]

Blog review here.

[Crystalline_Entity]

I like the portal fantasy genre, and I'm really glad I bought this supplement. The first chapter was a good overview of the genre and the options available, I thought the description of Reference Societies was interesting, and I couldn't make up my mind with of the templates I'd want to play in a portal realm campaign, as more than one appealed to me. And the idea of giving travellers Charisma to explain why they're more influential in the fantasy world than at home is great.

I'm especially impressed with chapter three though, that's really useful coverage of the issues travellers are likely to find; in my opinion the three main long-term obstacles for travellers once immediate survival is ensured are language and making money, and this supplement covers both. As someone upthread noted, it doesn't discuss diesase, e.g. TL8 vaccinations, or starting an epidemic by carrying mutated diseases between worlds, but worrying about that sort of thing isn't really common to the genre (at least in fantasy).

Having read this, I'd be interested in a supplement or Pyramid article on moving from modern day Earth to a space opera setting, based on the ideas in this.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Blog review here.

Thanks! Do you have thoughts on what sorts of things portal fantasy is especially suited to doing? What would you have wanted to say about it?

[thrash]

Portal fantasies in a role-playing game are useful for narrowing the gap between player and character knowledge. Since the characters come from the modern world, they are easy for a player to conceptualize (even if their traits and abilities are different) and play consistently. (Imagine, for comparison, a fantasy character transported to the modern world, and how difficult it would be to filter out all the things the player already knows about the setting but the character does not.)

This makes it an excellent introductory genre for new players. They can concentrate on playing without having to consider whether they should be able to apply their own knowledge of germ theory or magnetism. The novel setting means that they can learn about the world as they go, rather than be expected to know anything about how it works a priori. The lack of language and customs familiarity can be a drag if played too strictly, however. A brief "training montage" at a friendly village near the portal should allow them to write off the worst effects, while giving them the chance to develop a few of the necessary survival skills for their new environment.