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Old 02-14-2006, 10:48 PM   #11
Ed the Coastie
 
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Default Re: Question about Reality Quakes/Shards

Quote:
Originally Posted by keybounce
This looks interesting, but I don't know enough about this at the moment. Is this system basically GURPS's version of TORG?
Not really...but you can use Reality Quakes as a means to provide a rough-and-ready "logic" for the appearance of the different Torg cosms on Core Earth.

That's what I've been doing on one of my projects...although it is taking more work than I thought it would.

I've had to (for now) disregard the concept of a cosm's axioms as "Laws of Nature" and instead fiddled around with the idea of each cosm being a portion of an Alternate Earth that has become grafted onto Core Earth. Due to the nature of the "quantapocalypse" (for lack of a better term), each alternate's natural laws remain intact within the boundaries. I still haven't figured out how to differentiate between Pure and Mixed regions.

Unfortunately, the first cosm that I tried to adapt was the Living Land..which is proving to be a real bear-kitty. (Thy mystic mist is easy enough, but I am having a bit of trouble figuring out a rules-friendly way of doing the rapid decay thing short of GM fiat.)
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Old 02-15-2006, 12:07 AM   #12
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Default Re: Question about Reality Quakes/Shards

Reality Quakes?? Cool!!!

If you want to have your characters avoid them - have them move to Cincinnati. According to Mark Twain , everything arrives in CincInnati 10 years after the fact.

Also with our Seven hills and intersection of two rivers - very easy landmark for Time Travellers and Dimension -hoppers to check where they are quickly.

- E.W. cHarlton
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Old 02-15-2006, 12:41 AM   #13
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Default Re: Question about Reality Quakes/Shards

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Originally Posted by thastygliax
GURPS Horror, Third Edition also touches on reality quakes, in "The Madness Dossier" campaign seed.
I stole that wholesale for a recent superheroes campaign also inspired by Planetary and the Wold Newton Chronicles. It struck me that the classic superheroic origin in a unique event, often with a background unrelated to generally known history, looked exactly like the turning up of a reality shard (the superhero).

Then as I was working the idea out, it cross-referenced to the mysterious origin of Jesus and to the difficulty of historians in correlating Old Testament chronology to the rest of ancient history, especially early on around Exodus and up through pre-monarchic Israel. And suddenly I had the image of Jesus as a reality shard whose origin dragged the entire nation and history of Israel into our timeline, superimposing it on an ancient Near East that had no previously existing place for it . . . Not that the players ever found out about that; they were busy enough with the copy of the Red Book of Westmarch that had turned up in an early Mesopotamian tomb.
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Old 02-15-2006, 12:48 AM   #14
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Default Re: Question about Reality Quakes/Shards

Pure and Mixed. Don't forget dominant.

Pure: Total reality energy of the area is low. Only the primary (usually the invading) realm's laws are present.

Dominant: Reality energy is higher. Although the primary realm's laws are the most common, you can still access the other realm's laws, either by being connected, finding hot spots, etc.

Mixed: Reality energy level is so high that any realm's laws can be access by a person connceted to that realm.

Without knowing the GURPS rules, I'm not sure what to suggest for the mist's decay effect, other than accelerating time for dead organic matter.

I'd just say that the L.L was the most inconsistent of all the TORG realms. In fairness, it was the first one that they fleshed out, and I think they changed their design rules on the later ones.
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Old 02-15-2006, 12:49 AM   #15
Qoltar
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Default Re: Question about Reality Quakes/Shards

You have referenced the Wold Newton Chronicles in your game ???

WAY COOL!! FraQQin MajQa !!

..wait you're also the guy who used Ayn Rand as source material (ATLAS SHRUGGED I Believe)

I want to play in one of your campaigns now...

- E.W. Charlton
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Old 02-15-2006, 07:37 AM   #16
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Default Re: Question about Reality Quakes/Shards

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Originally Posted by Qoltar
You have referenced the Wold Newton Chronicles in your game ???

..wait you're also the guy who used Ayn Rand as source material (ATLAS SHRUGGED I Believe)

I want to play in one of your campaigns now...
I'm complimented.

My working guideline for Gods and Monsters was that any character from popular fiction, drama, or myth from the 19th or early 20th century could actually exist; but their creators either didn't exist, or bore the same relation to them in reality that they were presented as bearing in the fiction—for example, Arthur Conan Doyle was John H. Watson's literary agent, not his creator. Adolph Hitler was real, but Leni Riefenstahl never existed. And so on. (You know, I ought to have done something with that noted Soviet hero the Man of Steel . . . )
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Old 02-15-2006, 11:06 AM   #17
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Default Re: Question about Reality Quakes/Shards

I love the Wold Newton chronicles...they form a significant portion of the secret history of most of my modern-day games.

Them and the Cthulhu mythos
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Old 02-15-2006, 11:16 AM   #18
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Default Re: Question about Reality Quakes/Shards

So, according to reality quakes, the shroud of tourin is either:

1. a fragment from some 'other' reality that landed in our world.
2. a fragment from our reality and a previous past that has been wiped away?

What kind of confuses me is..how? I mean their was a Jesus, right? He was buried according to jewish law in a shroud? (I would assume). The only odd thing is it's dated much later than when Jesus was around...so...is that the inconsistancy?

I mean..what makes it a shard? It doesn't seem to 'do' anything. It doesn't cause miracles or cure the sick or anything (even in second hand reports that most proported miracle objects have). Is the fact that it's been dated to like 1300 AD or something the reason it's a reality shard? And what does that mean? I really don't get it. =/
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Old 02-17-2006, 12:39 AM   #19
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Default Re: Question about Reality Quakes/Shards

Well, I'm not familiar with the GURPS rules.
If this were TORG, the idea would be like this.

First, there really is a burial cloth of Jesus. As you pointed out, he was real, he was buried per Jewish customs.

Second, the shroud of turin has been a focus for people's beliefs over a very long time. Given that the scientific dating has been demonstrated inaccurate, that cannot invalidate the large amount of belief that people both have had, and still have, in it.

So, it has lots of reality energy stored in it; the invasion of the other realms would "unlock" it.

As a result, the shroud has the effect of making "Core Earth" the dominant reality around it.

Think of it as a giant battery, storing the belief that makes a certain reality reality.

And, it gets more interesting. It's not just "Core Earth" that it makes true -- it's the "Jesus really is a source of miracles" version.

So, the shroud would have additional properties, somewhat dependent on the GM and the campaign world.

Now, what if the invader was similar? In the official game world, France/Italy was invaded by the CyberPaupacy, a world where the question of "who is the real pope" was answered with the other splinter from the cathlic church. But as both worlds have a Jesus, both have a shroud, etc, the shroud winds up with a mix of both worlds -- it has some additional properties from the invader. (It is the one on this world that is "activated" because this is the one that got the "reality shock" from the invasion.)

This is from memory. Someone that has played more recently than me might have a better post.
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