Cipherspace: Elemental Plane of Information

[Jkeown]

Okay... see, there's this alternate dimension, an elemental plane where wizards, mages and other beings can store documents, spell scrolls, drawings, hypotheses (sp?) and any odd data they want to save.

 

Other wizards can access the information via special Contact Other Plane spells, or simply connect to it quickly with a KS: Cipherspace roll.

 

It's the magical equivalent of Cyberspace, inhabited by the ghosts of old studious wizards turned to lore-ravenous Revenants, Info-mentals, Brain-hacking Cipherghouls and young idealistic mages called cipherpunks who want to plant Delayed Effect thaumic viruses in spells to burn out rival wizard's minds.

 

Extradimensional Movement gets one there in a special avatar form, where you can engage in magical combat with the memory-gaunts of great wizards of the past. Its all there, and at the center of the Deep Aura, beyond the Memory Palaces of ancient spell casters (complete with Data-Golem Gaurdians) waits Cypher, the God of Information, ready to reward or punish those who trespass in his realm.

 

Inspired by the real-world internet (you may have heard of it), The Great Art of Memory, Sci-Fi's Cyberspace and Terry Pratchett's excellent Library Space concept, I think this new plane offers a great deal of potential to GMs and Players alike... thoughts?

 

Would we like to see this expanded? Or am I just not getting enough sleep?

 

(I think dweomer-downloading should be represented as a VPP (active points acting as a sort of Download Limit) and general data acquistion being a simple KS roll, modified by GM Fiat)

 

Can one summon a Memory-Gaunt? "We need to talk to Kastaboondarfanok, but he's been dead for fifty years! Quick... Call up his 'gaunt, we'll question it 'til dawn!"

 

Travel in Cipherspace would be Flight Only Usuable In Cipherspace (-1), and on and on and on...

[Nuke]

Re: Cipherspace: Elemental Plane of Information

 

Originally posted by Jkeown

...waits Cypher, the God of Information, ready to reward or punish those who trespass in his realm...

 

...Inspired by the real-world internet (you may have heard of it...)

 

Shouldn't the God of Information be Al Gore since he obviously invented the Internet.

 

*GUFFAW*

[Stephen Mann]

Sure, develop to your heart's content.

 

I had something like this many years ago for a game that never got off the ground. I had the magical equivalent of computers and databases, but no internet to communicate from node to node. Less than scrupulous mages used to hide around the periphery of libary wards trying to break through the wards so they could make unauthorized copies of material in the library database crystals. Wards had captive spirits that made regular patrols looking for hackers.

 

What era of the internet would you be simulating? The early days when only certain academic sites had access (Arpanet, limited access), later when businesses joined (greater access, but still limited), or now (everybody has access)?

 

I suggest that people accessing this cipherspace need some significant material component. Now significant this is depends on the era;

1) Early - huge immobile magical access device. Located only in libraries, monasteries, palaces, etc.

2) Later - large portable devices. Located in individual wizards towers.

3) Now - small portable device, analogous to PDA/cellphone.

[Nuke]

Re: Re: Cipherspace: Elemental Plane of Information

 

Originally posted by Nuke

Shouldn't the God of Information be Al Gore since he obviously invented the Internet.

 

*GUFFAW*

 

btw, this was by no means intended to be a slam on your idea. I have played in several campaigns where the mages of old organized their knowledge into basically a "plane of existence." You have taken this concept to a highly organized level and that is very neat.

[Ternaugh]

You might want to take a look at The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump by Harry Turtledove. It describes a world where magic has replaced technology, complete with avatars who inhabit a library dimension, viewable through scrying screens. It doesn't allow mortals to cross over, though (at least not alive, anyway).

 

JoeG