Building Multiverses

[Chris Goodwin]

Interstitials

 

An interstitial is an accident.  Two dimensions with a transit distance of less than 1-delta, and an overall differential of less than 2.1-lambda on the Kanthari scale, create a sort of "shadow" between them.  The shadow is a non-gelled dimension (non-gelled meaning it has probability manifold ratings lower than 5.51-chi) that is made up of the commonality between those two dimensions.  (For instance: if an identical building exists in the same 3-space coordinates in both dimensions, it is a commonality, and will exist in the shadow.)  Rarely, that dimension will gel further; if its overall probability manifolds reach greater than 8-chi it is fully formed enough to generate its own 3-space matrix, and the result is an interstitial dimension.  Interstitials can be unstable; it's theorized that interstitials come and go all the time, and in fact, 11-chi is considered the minimum probability manifold rating for a dimension to be considered fully stable and self-sustaining.  (The 457 catalogued dimensions all have PMRs of 12.1 or greater.)  

 

When a dimensional transit between the parent dimensions goes wrong, the travelers (or maybe reflections of them?) are shunted into the interstitial.  This can be a bad thing if the interstitial's PMR is lower than 9.82198219821(repeating)-chi, as those interstitials can sometimes undergo catastrophic existence failure, taking with them everything in the dimension.  

 

An interstitial most commonly takes the form of a completely deserted dimension containing the common elements of its two parent dimensions.  Air, water, land, and weather formations are usually close enough to be carried over.  Person-made constructions less so; those common buildings might exist, for instance, but they might be physically unstable, being the result of two versions of a building whose orientation differs by three degrees .  Probably best to avoid anything you see there that looks man-made just to be on the safe side.  

 

As far as life forms go, usually the parent dimensions are compatible enough life-wise that there'll be a reasonable complement of plants, one-celled life forms.  It's quite possible that you'll see, for instance, a stand of trees that looks "off" somehow, the result of two forests that were not quite fully aligned.  Given time, those trees will -- probably -- either die off or live on in their partially combined states; descendants of those life forms are usually pretty normal.  

 

It's exceedingly rare for higher "native" life forms to exist.  If you see any, watch out.

 

[steriaca]

Champions Rangers Universe

 

In one universe, Doctor Destroyer was dying. Not even his mighty power suit could keep him alive much longer. So, Destroyer transferred his essence into a giant mecha. He then devastated his own dimension and sought other dimensions to conquer and salvage materials from.

 

In another dimension, another earth, Professor Harmon the 3rd discovered that The Great Destroyer (as Doctor Destroyer renamed himself) had his own earth in his sites. So, he developed mecha of his own to counter the agents of The Great Destroyer. His own son pilots the Defender. There is also the Sapphire, the Ironclad, the Kinetic, and the Witchfire. When they come together, they become the Champion.

 

They are sometimes joined by the mysterious ninja mecha the Star Seeker. He can not link up with the other mecha, but is a powerhouse in their own right. And also by the Foxbat, a former agent of the Great Destroyer who saw to much sorrow and went crazy.

 

Edit: based loosely on Ranger shows.

[bubba smith]

my idea of a multiverse is one world has pulp level heroes another has heroes that are all gun carrying vigilantes one has martial artists another has TV level supers one has NO supers as far as the public knows and one has supers that have been recuited one way or another as  FBI agents

Edited February 8, 2019 by bubba smith
addition and spellig

[megaplayboy]

Classification of dimensions is a good thing.  I think of "universes" as full-blown universes the size of our own(larger or smaller, perhaps), and quite frequently these are Earth-centric.  Beyond that, there are thematic realms(time, mind, pleasure, dreams, etc.), afterlife realms(heaven, hell, Elysium, hades, etc.), mythical realms(Asgard, e.g.), "homeland" realms(the origin realms of species(Svartalfheim, home of the dark elves, e.g.), planar "cities"(an example might be the city of superheroes from Top Ten), and so forth.  
 

[megaplayboy]

Hedonia is a plane devoted to the Epicurean pursuit of pleasure.  Food and drink, music, art, and, yes, pleasant companionship are all available here.  Distinguishable from the Garden of Earthly Delights in a number of ways--it doesn't automatically conform to whatever the visitor desires, and it's possible to leave!  There are areas of Hedonia where one can pursue...darker pleasures...but these can be quite dangerous, as the tables can turn suddenly.  

[steriaca]

Forthean

 

Forthean is a superhero universe, much like the current Champions Universe. You have the Champions, VIPER, ECT... But basically everything is as if the 4th edition Champions Universe never ended. Enjoy.

[wcw43921]

World Of The Nightmare

 

In this reality the Cold War erupted into a full-on nuclear exchange in 1964, culminating in the detonation by the Soviet Union of several 100-megaton cobalt-jacketed bombs that shrouded the world in deadly fallout.  The only survivors are those who went deep underground beneath the Rocky Mountains into specially prepared shelters*, and that's where they've been for the past fifty-five years, cooling their heels and waiting for the radiation to diminish to safer levels.  Quarters have gotten cramped over the decades, and tensions have gotten rather high as a result.  

 

But that's not the worst thing this world has to offer.  The souls of all those billions of men, women and children who died by violence still walk this world,  and their greatest desire is to inflict their eternal agony upon the living.  While there are no flesh-eating walking corpses, the wailing of the spirits can be heard by anyone who ventures into the ruined world aboveground, and their cries slowly but surely drive anyone to madness.  Recently the psychic force of all those tormented spirits has begun to weaken the barriers between dimensions, and soon those millions of souls could find themselves upon another world, ready and eager to inflict their eternal hatred upon the living.

 

 

 

 

*There are also shelters deep underground in Australia, but the shelters in America have no contact with them--or indeed, know they exist.

[steriaca]

5 hours ago, wcw43921 said:

World Of The Nightmare

 

In this reality the Cold War erupted into a full-on nuclear exchange in 1964, culminating in the detonation by the Soviet Union of several 100-megaton cobalt-jacketed bombs that shrouded the world in deadly fallout.  The only survivors are those who went deep underground beneath the Rocky Mountains into specially prepared shelters*, and that's where they've been for the past fifty-five years, cooling their heels and waiting for the radiation to diminish to safer levels.  Quarters have gotten cramped over the decades, and tensions have gotten rather high as a result.  

 

But that's not the worst thing this world has to offer.  The souls of all those billions of men, women and children who died by violence still walk this world,  and their greatest desire is to inflict their eternal agony upon the living.  While there are no flesh-eating walking corpses, the wailing of the spirits can be heard by anyone who ventures into the ruined world aboveground, and their cries slowly but surely drive anyone to madness.  Recently the psychic force of all those tormented spirits has begun to weaken the barriers between dimensions, and soon those millions of souls could find themselves upon another world, ready and eager to inflict their eternal hatred upon the living.

 

 

 

 

*There are also shelters deep underground in Australia, but the shelters in America have no contact with them--or indeed, know they exist.

Don't tell me, the shelter is being lead by an A.I. computer who is more than slightly paranoid.

[wcw43921]

That's a possibility--although I was thinking more along the lines of Dr. Strangelove than I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream.  The whole world being haunted by the dead of all humanity would be the real threat to the PCs, one they cannot deal with by punching it into submission.  And if an evil necromancer finds his way to that world, and if he could tap into all that necrotic spirit energy---he could rule supreme over a great number of worlds.

[csyphrett]

The Elevator.

This was the basis for a mail campaign I ran for a few years. I had an elevator that went to different Earths and related dimensions. The top five floors was occupied by a hotel where floor 2 was a hotel and diner, floor 3 was a museum. floor 4 was an armory, and floor 5 was a vehicle/mech store. The other 95 floors were the various dimensions.

CES    

 

[steriaca]

CLOWN-a-verse

 

CLOWN-a-verse is a world where the group CLOWN has taken over the world. And the world seems to be running well. But what if it is really a dystopia, and IMP is fighting to free the world from CLOWN's sick joke?

[megaplayboy]

Arcana is a fantasy world/plane, with elves, dwarves, dragons, etc.  Anacra is a kind of dark mirror version, kind of a cross between Ravenloft and Dark Sun.  

[Duke Bushido]

On 2/6/2019 at 3:08 PM, Chris Goodwin said:

Interstitials

 

An interstitial is an accident.  Two dimensions with a transit distance 

 

 

 

Holy cats!  If I wore a hat, I would take it off to you, Christopher.  If I had hair, I'd take it off, too. 

 

That sounded almost like _science_!   ?

 

(though if I had hair, I'd want that suave world traveler hair like Ruggels has ) 

[Chris Goodwin]

1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:

 

 

Holy cats!  If I wore a hat, I would take it off to you, Christopher.  If I had hair, I'd take it off, too. 

 

That sounded almost like _science_!   ?

 

(though if I had hair, I'd want that suave world traveler hair like Ruggels has ) 

 

Aw, shucks.  It sounds like science, sure, but it's 100%, homegrown, all natural... something else.  ?

[Killer Shrike]

The D&D 3e version of Manual of the Planes actually had some good non-D&D centric coverage on dimensions in general, and a useful set of terminology for referring to the relationships / lack of relationships between various dimensions in the first couple of chapters, before it dives into D&D specific cosmologies. 

 

I recommend checking it out. 

 

[megaplayboy]

10 hours ago, Killer Shrike said:

The D&D 3e version of Manual of the Planes actually had some good non-D&D centric coverage on dimensions in general, and a useful set of terminology for referring to the relationships / lack of relationships between various dimensions in the first couple of chapters, before it dives into D&D specific cosmologies. 

 

I recommend checking it out. 

 

Generally the Planescape setting has a ton of useful stuff too.

[Killer Shrike]

Yeah. I had most of the Planescape stuff back in the day and really loved it; a real high water mark in rpg aesthetics and production values.

 

 

 

 

 

[Killer Shrike]

I've run a lot of multidimensional campaign settings in the past. I've always liked the mish-mash of divergent ideas and the creative freedom to do literally whatever I want if the whim strikes me.

 

Back in the day I was into RIFTS (horrible system, cool ideas), TORG, Tales from the Floating Vagabond, Spelljammer, Planescape, and things like that. 

 

Fictionally I enjoyed things from Zelazny (various, including Amber and Roadmarks), earlier Feist (riftwar, the hall of worlds), Spider Robinson (Crosstime Saloon), Norton (Crossroads of Time), Weis (Death Gate Cycle) and many other stories where one or more dimensions / alternate realities was at least factored into the premise if not a main precept. 

 

For my own part I've run a "anything you can imagine, anything that has ever existed in fiction, every alternate narrative of history, every butterfly effect permutation possible, literally anything at all...there's a dimension where it's true" on occasion over the years using the Hero System for one offs and short arcs.

 

I also collaborated on several other extra-dimensional type campaign settings for various games. One was the Omninomicon, an attempt to define a system to describe dimensions, operating assumptions within dimensions (magic, tech, physical laws), finite vs infinite, etc. It didn't really take off but it was a fun exercise. Someone else completely unrelated hit on the same idea and used the name for something else so its burned now, but I really liked the name.

 

I did a thing w/ people on these boards to define some generic settings for various genres; the Worlds of Generica. The settings were things like Barbarica, Gygaxia, Esoterica, Cthonica, and so on. Some of them, Barbarica and Esoterica most notably, got very detailed and Esoterica was a cross dimensional Spelljammer-like setting built around a concept called The 'Tween...the stuff between the planes of existence which was traversed by sailing the winds of magic and was inhabited in various clusters of civilization in the vastness; adventure in the infinite dimensions one could get to from the 'Tween as well as at various well known locations in the 'Tween such as the Tears of Vrylakos and the City Beyond The Edge, and of course naval-like encounters in the vast gulfs between gates and settlements.

 

And so on. 

 

I've learned a few things in the process, which I'll share here. The first and maybe most important thing, is either do a very finite, well defined model with precisely defined particulars and a limited number of dimensions with well defined interactions and rules OR do a wide-open anything goes loosely defined model. Don't try to split the difference; this isn't a space that rewards a "Goldilocks" approach. 

 

If it's finite, keep it finite...keep the # of dimensions manageable and ideally built to a theme or strong central concept where each dimension has a reason to exist per the theme / concept.

 

If it's infinite / wide open only get concrete when necessary, and stay abstract as much as possible. Which is to say, don't try to put limits on what's possible by concretely stating numbers (exactly X number of dimensions), or trying to impose consistency in the form of an underlying metasystem of "how things work" applicable to all dimensions, putting complex mechanics to it, or even trying to explain how it all works (many sentient beings will have their own cultural and personal theories of course, but none of them are forwarded by you the GM as "correct"). Keep it as loose as possible. Try to avoid immovable object unstoppable force conundrums in the form of incompatible invariants between clashing dimensions. Remain flexible. Each dimension will of course function according to its own particular reality, but that doesn't impose any restrictions upon any other dimension. And pragmatically speaking, be very careful around dimensions where magic or tech or any other kind of ability justification that affects the PCs "doesn't work at all", dimensions that can't be escaped, dimensions that are inimical to life or existence, and similar hard stop absolutes...have a clear plan in mind before introducing them. Logically if anything is possible such places must exist, so be prepared for players figuring that out and introducing such things onto the narrative. Decide up front how you want to handle paradoxes...either authoritatively (paradoxes can't happen and anything that would cause one doesn't happen) or permissively (paradoxes happen and life goes on...perhaps one or more new dimensions are formed to accommodate the paradox) or destructively (paradoxes cause damage to reality or even dimensions affected by a paradox cease to exist) or punitively (regardless of how a paradox is handled bad things happen to whatever caused the paradox); personally I prefer accepting paradoxes usually as creating new dimensions make more logical sense in an "infinite" model than getting rid of dimensions (what is inifinity minus 1?).

 

Anyway, I could natter on, but hopefully there's something helpful hidden in that word dump.

[archer]

My most memorable world diverged from the main superhero universe during the Korean War when the US used tactical nuclear weapons in response to the Chinese People's Liberation Army entering the war on North Korea's side and smashing US and allied forces close to the point of extinction.

 

When the dust settled at long last, the US had lost South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines to Chinese mutants who were born in the radiation. The British had lost its Asian holdings to China. Australia fell to China as well. The Communist government of China fell to internal forces and was replaced by a Chinese mutant oligarchy based loosely around a traditional Chinese form of government. The USSR was destroyed as a political entity and replaced by a smaller and mostly European Russian Empire with China controlling the former USSR territories of Siberia and large swaths of land to the east.

 

There was a huge influx of Asian refugees into the West in general and into the US specifically. This changed US culture significantly, in particular, the US adopted theJapanese tradition of teaching martial arts in public schools which the War Department saw as a step forward in having recruits prepared for basic training. After 70 years of martial arts being taught in schools, most Americans (male and female) would be considered to have a belt in some martial art if measured by our standards.

 

The new Cold and, on occasion, Hot War generally revolves around US martial artists, gadgeteers, and its sparse numbers of mutants facing off against Chinese infiltrators, secret agents, and China's superior numbers of super-powered mutants.

 

The big foreign battlegrounds, or at least areas of contention, are the current and former British holdings in India and the Middle East.

[Hermit]

Rule #34 Universe is amazing because...

 

CENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSOREDCENSORED

 

AH, more seriously, one alternate universe I put players in was "Right Origin, Wrong Person" in theme. The Superheroes with DNPCs found that in this universe, they weren't the superheroes, their DNPCs were... the guy in the lab accident wasn't the scientist hero, but his dear old Aunt Mildred... the guy who wanted to avenge his lost love found in this universe his lost love wasn't the one who died, he was.. and she had become what he was etc. For those without DNPCs I looked at the rivals or even their non powered hunters for ideas. It was fun for me, and freaked the characters out while the players claimed they had fun.

[Dkap]

I am working on a story arch where like Vandal Savage sends his younger self the technology to win WW 2 (JL animation style)Dr. Destroyer pulls the same thing and the only ones to stand against him  is a Freedom Fighters type of group.Like Earth 4(i think that was the#).One of the members get a hold of the time travel tech but instead opens a dimension rift to my currant world.

[megaplayboy]

Transcendents are beings/species who evolved beyond the limitations of their native universes and moved on to other planes of existence.  The foremost Transcendents are the Colonizers, who dwell in the space between the outer planes and the Great Beyond.  Multiple Colonies exist, in a kind of hive society, each ruled by a Monarch, a being of immense power.  The Colonizers are theorized to be the "gardeners" of the multiverse--they remove dead or damaged universes, create new ones, and observe others for signs of positive development or irrevocable decay.  

Sometimes the Colonies come into conflict with each other.  No war is more spectacular than one on this scale.