10-08-2021, 11:08 AM | #11 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Portal Fantasy: Is there an ideal system for this?
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10-08-2021, 01:28 PM | #12 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Earth, mostly
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Re: Portal Fantasy: Is there an ideal system for this?
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"It is foretold that only the Chosen One can destroy the Evil Overlord! And the Chosen One shall use this weapon right here to do it!" "Have any of you tried using the weapon to destroy the Overlord?" "Of course not - that's not what the prophecy says!" "Screw prophecy. Give me that thing." <promptly destroys Overlord; Chosen One loses Destiny>
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If you break the laws of Man, you go to prison. If you break the laws of God, you go to Hell. If you break the laws of Physics, you go to Sweden and receive a Nobel Prize. |
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10-08-2021, 01:33 PM | #13 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Portal Fantasy: Is there an ideal system for this?
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Now that I think of it, that's also a question for OP. Personally, I think of "Portal Fantasy" as a subset of isekai in which the character(s) have a means of traveling back and forth between the two worlds, but I think it may be more common to think of it the other way around, where it's all Portal Fantasy but in some cases the character(s) get stuck. So, are you talking about a setting where the characters will be regularly traveling between Earth and NotEarth, or one where Something happens and they get transported to NotEarth and are stuck there unless they can find a way back? Or something else - say, a setting akin to Sliders where the characters are traveling from one NotEarth to another?
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GURPS Overhaul |
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10-08-2021, 01:39 PM | #14 | |
Join Date: Oct 2007
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Re: Portal Fantasy: Is there an ideal system for this?
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10-08-2021, 02:05 PM | #15 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Portal Fantasy: Is there an ideal system for this?
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If it's a world where Destiny really is a thing, than just not having a Destiny won't let you change things. After all even if everyone is issued a Destiny at birth, half of the people around don't have one because it's already been fulfilled for good or ill. Of course it's possible to have prophecy without destiny, a prediction of the future that will only come true if people don't act on the prediction to avoid it. |
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10-08-2021, 03:07 PM | #16 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Portal Fantasy: Is there an ideal system for this?
Depends on how destiny works. Not having a destiny could easily mean you're totally incapable of altering the outcome of anything important.
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10-09-2021, 12:23 PM | #17 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Portal Fantasy: Is there an ideal system for this?
The ancient western (Babylonian, Greek) way of thinking about destiny and prophecy was that it was the thing which had been set out by the gods in advance. It was not and never was everything in life. A wise person did not ask the gods a question unless he was prepared for all possible answers, because once they decided that was fixed.
I'm with those who say that the system should be one which works like the setting. GURPS is best for games which work basically like our world except the weird stuff.
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"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature |
10-09-2021, 01:02 PM | #18 | |
Join Date: Jul 2005
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Re: Portal Fantasy: Is there an ideal system for this?
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The incoming PCs would horrify the seers because they are not confined to the coils of fate and destiny: they can break the schemes of the Gods! Or perhaps... Hmmm. My players include 1 (one) Catholic and two (2) atheists. Hmmm, set it in a world where the Gods are dead? Where the last lot of incomers killed them? And the PCs have the chance to fix the world.... In one of several ways. Hmmm. Too cosmic? And yes, I have read Erfworld but a long time ago.
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Michael Cule,
Genius for Hire, Gaming Dinosaur Second Class Last edited by Michael Cule; 10-09-2021 at 01:08 PM. |
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10-09-2021, 06:11 PM | #19 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Portal Fantasy: Is there an ideal system for this?
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Back to the OP, though, the right system for a destination which works like Star Wars is different than the right system for a destination which works like Spiderman is different than the right system for a destination which works like a Tom Clancy novel. Something terrible happened to the Erfworld guy, I hope he / she / they can find peace. The webcomic became rambling (like a lot of self-published stories) but something bad happened to the person or couple which ran it.
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"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature |
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10-14-2021, 11:52 PM | #20 |
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: UK
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Re: Portal Fantasy: Is there an ideal system for this?
I've just been reading Erfworld, thanks for telling me about that. I'm on book 4 or so.
I'm thinking Charlie is in fact a player or Parson's memory of a player (if it is a hallucination) or from Earth (if it isn't), if only because in the epilogue of Book 2, it's revealed that
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If he is, he seems to have come down with a galloping case of Signamancy since then. As well as, very obviously, Charlie of Charlie's Angels, by the point I've got to he's at various times shown obvious resemblances to
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Anyway, back on topic, there was a thread somewhere on the forum a while ago about how portal fantasy messes with point totals (since many traits, such as Area Knowledge, Reputation or a character's TL, will be worth a different amount or disappear altogether in a different world). It suggested various ways of dealing with that, such as "buckets of points" and so on.
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Looking for online text-based game at a UK-feasible time, anything considered, Roll20 preferred. http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=168443 |
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