RobMacD,

You are visiting a techie friend of yours at his apartment a couple miles from where you live, and he gleefully shows you the latest hard drive he's beta-testing for a research lab.  He's got it set up as an external drive at the moment, and he gloats about how fast it is.

"They use some new tech, real black art weird stuff. Scriff-enabled is all they will tell me, but it smokes."

After a bit, he goes to the fridge for a sandwhich, and finally lets you play with the pc.  You get into your game, and he's right it is blazing fast.

And then you hear a 'what!?' from the door to the kitchen as your friend comes back,and you turn to see sparks flying from the external drive, and before you can dodge aside or jerk the power cords, it flashes and arcs, and the universe is filled with white light.

===========================================================================

A singed feeling goes rapidly away leaving you feeling fine, and the warm substance you are laying on is comfortable, and the sunlight beating on your closed eyelids feels good.  But there's something crawling on your chest...

Playtester

I carefully look at my chest to see what it is and I also make sure everything is still attached and is in working order, I try not to move to much until I know what is on my chest, and also check to see what I'm wearing.

Everything is still attached, and without much movement you can't tell for sure, but it seems to be in working order.  Your toes wiggle.

You are wearing what you were wearing to visit a bud in the same city.  So blue jeans and a t-shirt? Slacks and a winter jacket?  You tell me.

A three inch long bright yellow and green beetle of an unfamiliar type has taken to walking on your chest.

The air is warm, the substance under your back is beach sand, and the distant noise you did not bother to note is the gentle shush-shush of waves coming in off from the ocean.

Playtester

Wearing blue jeans and T-shirt, sneakers, and a leather Jacket.
I carefully with my hand flick the beatle off of my chest and and up.
Hopefully now I can tell if everything works.
Then look around the beach to see if there is anyone here or any buildings or structures around. I have to find out where I'm at and try to figure out how I got here.

Welcome Malachai,

You are happily putting together a bomb on the kitchen table.  Its going to make quite a blast in the abandoned quarry, maybe you can finally blow down that wall of stone you've been chipping away at for the last year.

Your parents are out of town this weekend, and so you have peace and quiet.

You are using a new timer, supposed to be more capable than normal ones, and it seems cool.

You get up to get yourself a drink, and wipe your forehead.  Making bombs is nervous work.

Walking back you see the timer going, which it should not be.  You were certain that you had the power disconnected, but perhaps teh new timer has something odd in it that retains a charge.

It looks like you are going to find the typical fate of bombmakers...

====================================================

You wake up, your feet are wet, and your mouth is laying down on some gritty substance, and winds ruffle your hair.

What do you do?

=======================================================

Rob,
Since I'm just starting Mal, let me continue yours since I'm here.

You flick the beetle off your chest, and it buzzes you angrily in flight a couple times before flying off, evidently thinking its taught you a lesson.

Upon standing, yes, everything is fully functional.

There is a strand of beach, an ocean, and about fifty feet up from the ocean a jungle filled with palm trees, and banyan trees, and some others.  No buildings or structures are in sight.

But off to your right down the beach, you do feel like ...hmm...you lost something over there. And back into the jungle nearly straight you feel the same sensation, but different somehow, and now off to your left similar to the one in the jungle, but different from teh sense to your right.

Playtester

I will head over to the right first thats where I got the first feeling and take a look to see what I might find.

Rob,

You have to hike around three miles on the beach sand, and other than crabs and a stranded jellyfish you see no sign of life.

Then laying in the beach is your list of stuff that would have been at your apartment.  Its arranged such that you can visualize where it was in your apartment.  Its as if everything else vanished to be replaced by the beach, adn your listed stuff stayed where it was.

And then you hear a meow, rather desperate sounding, from further down the beach.

Playtester

I gather up my stuff and try to find a way to carry all of it, if I can't I will leave some and come back to get it.  Then I run as fast as I can to where I heard the desperate meow.

Groaning, I roll over and sit up.  Damn... what happened there?  No power or nothing.  Shouldn't of friggin blown.  I stand up, looking around, wondering where I am.

OoC: You mind if I narrate my character in third person?  I find that a lot easier and with more possibilities than 1st.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:42, Wed 09 Feb 2005.

Rob,
You sprint down the beach toting what you can, and soon see Squeaky, your cat, in a palm tree, out near the very edge of the fronds of where it will support his weight.  On the trunk of the tree, about five feet up, you see a two hundred pound cougar. It looks at you, snarls in warning that this is its meat, and delicately continues to try to climb the main trunk of the palm tree.

Squeaky looks at you, and mraows rather plaintively for help.

Malachai,

OOC: Narrating in third person is just fine.

IC: You are about a foot deep in the ocean's waves at their peak, with the imprint of your face up on the dry sand still visible.  There is a beach extending out to your right and left.  And a jungle beyond that.  And in the distance you can see a smoking volcano.

And about ten feet up the beach, you see your knife in its sheathe, point down in the sand.

"Yes!  My beautiful blade!"  Running to his knife, Malachai pulled it out of the ground and unsheathed it.  "Hmm... still sharp.  Why would it be here, anyways?  And where is here?"  Looking around, Malachai put the knife in his belt.  "Might as well head into the jungle."  Trudging down the beach, Malachai made his way to the jungle.

Rob pulls out his 45 auto and takes aim into the sky. He knows squeaky is us to this so he wont get to upset when he fires the gun. Rob hopes it will make the cougar run off.
Rob Rob makes sure it is loaded and he fires one shot into the air.

I'm going to toss in the first bit of system rules here.

The General Events roll in Multiverser is for when the GM does not have a good idea what happens next.  Its a 3d10 roll, and this, gentlemen, is a bell curve with both ends being close to 1-in-a-1000 chance.

Roughly, a "3" means unbelievably lucky, and "30" means beyond your worst nightmare.  "16" and "17" are in the middle, and those on either side scale away toward each result.

BTW, I prefer first person, but third is ok.

Rob,
The cougar has never seen such as you before,so it doesn't know you are the top predator, but you are large enough to worry it a bit.  And you are making a very loud noise.  OTOH, it doesn't think you want to tangle with it either, in its mind, a Mexican stand-off with it having the edge since its closer and a bit bigger.  And it is hungry.

I could run this using an Intimidation roll, but since we haven't made stats yet, and really this is pretty dicey anyways.

So lets do a GE roll...7,7,6=20.  Not terrible but not too good either.

It snarls at you with throat-spitting rage, and edges up the trunk some more.  Now you've ticked it off.

Malachai,

You head UP the beach from the ocean, and across teh stretch of sand, and into the jungle.

Its not that wet of a jungle, a lot of palm trees, and sand, and ferns.

Lets roll a GE roll for how well your trip goes.

A "30" means a very poisenous snake, and a "3" means ???

1,6,10=16.

You trudge deeper into the jungle, swatting off sand flies, and spotting the occasional fruit that is not at all familiar to you.

Eventually you come to the ocean again, and see land miles away.  Turn right toward the volcano, or what?

Playtester

OoC:  All right, if you prefer it, I'll do 1st person.  Haven't really done much in this before, should be fun.

^_^

IC:  I decide to head towards the volcano, as its the largest visible landmark.  I wonder why I came back to the beach.  Maybe I got turned around... I dunno.  Trudging towards the volcano, I sheath my knife, knowing it will only take a second to pull it out again.

I then decide to grab the shot gun get as close to squeaky as I can so when he falls I can catch him, then I shoot the branch the cougar is on, try to catch squeeky and then run.

Malachai,

You hike over to the volcano, and enter a clearing at the edge of the water.

A camp circle has been cleared, and some coals are on a fire, along with some fish on a metal tin plate.  A man is sitting on a freshly chopped log baking the ends of several bamboo spears in the fire.

He looks in his mid-twenties, but hard of face.

Behind him in the brush is a tarp over something, and he has a tarp set up as a primitive tent.

"Well a gather then."  he doesn't seem overly pleased. "Name is di Vars, Michael di Vars.  I guess we share this island.  There's another one of us out there. Who are you?"

Then you both hear a boom.  Di Vars tilts his head.

"Yep, he's still alive."


Rob,

You edge forward with the big cat hissing at you, and your throat gulping until you are under Squeaky, and then you shoot the TRUNK just above it, of the palm tree with a shotgun.

I could roll, but at this range, and with a shotgun, it seems pointless.  You hit the trunk sending splinters of wood flying, and making a terrific noise.

It leaps off the trunk, gives you one startled look, and bolts while Squeaky jumps out of the fronds to land on your shoulders with a thump, and with claws out.

You both exit the opposite direction from the cougar with you going back to get the rest of your stuff.

Once back to your stuff, Squeaky is extremely grateful to see you. Meowing, licking your nose with delicate enthusiasm, and curling around your legs enough that you can hardly walk.

1@1 Intimidate Wild Animals skill.  And a +1 to your gun skill when we get around to sketching that out since this probably qualifies as a new use for guns for you.

I sit down around the fire.  "The name's Malachai, pleasure to meet you.  What do you mean 'he's still alive'?"

I pet squeaky and say good boy.
After the cougar leaves I grab the palm tree branch and head back to my stuff.
To make it easier to carry I use my knife cut of sections of the palms and tie all the heavy stuff on to the palm. Then I head to the left where I had the other feeling, dragging the branch with my stuff.

Malachai,
"I just checked on him.  There are boars and large lizards and some good-sized cats on the island.  Any of them could kill a human.  And course there's that volcano just a-cooking.  We're all doomed." He says the last with evident relish.

Rob,
You head down the beach with your makeshift travois, and after a mile see a volcano above the treeline, and in a bit more wander into a cleared circle with two guys sitting around the campfire.  One looks rather sourly at you.

"Michael di Vars. Yours?" says the slightly older of the two.  "Fish or pig steak? Dinner I mean.You want?"

Eric

Johnny,
You are happily carving your initials into a tree in city park when a pal comes up to show you a brand-new XBox he just lifted from the store.  Its triply cool because it 1)is wireless and has its own standalone power source 2)its scriff-enabled which all the hottest game machines have now 3)It was 'free'.

So you all turn it on, and then a wrestling match starts to see who gets to play first.  You win, and hold it over your head triumphant, and one of your buds in a fit of rage throws his 44 oz. Big Gulp at you, and splatters you and the machine after its turned on.

An arc, a flash of white...

You wake up with the smell of brimstone, and the feeling of heat.  For a second you are terrified that the occasional sermon you heard was right, and you've arrived at your obvious destination, but then opening your eyes you see you are on the side of a volcano with steam vents jetting out occasionally, and below you lies a "U"-shaped island in a deep blue sea.

Were you wanting to take some of your owned items with you?  What are you wearing?

Playtester

I walk up to the two men put my stuff down then say," My name is Rob MacDonald and Thank you I will have the pig steak. So what is this place and how long have you two been here?"
I then sit down and wait for my food.

"My name's Malachai, Malachai Vanek.  I have no clue how long I've actually been here.  If anything, I'd guess an hour or two.  Last thing I remember was getting blown to hell from faulty wiring, then I just sorta popped on the beach."  Taking out my knife, I begin whittling away at a stick I'm holding.  "I'll have the pig as well, Michael."

The computer ate my first post.  Also, this will be my last post for the weekend. I'll start up again on Monday.

Michael walks over to a dead boar hanging on a rope, and shrouded in leaves, and hacks of three chunks, and grills them on an odd extendable grill net over the campfire.  Afterwards, he pulls baked greens from among the coals (they were encased in bark).

It takes thirty minutes, and five minutes for the meat to cool enough to touch.

"I've been here two days, and lets just say you can't see the Southern Cross in the sky, or either of the Dippers.  I've checked, and I think this is the only island in the hemisphere."

Playtester

OK, I'm back.  Post with manic enthusiasm, or something. :)

Playtester

I grab a chunk of meat and begin munching on it.  "Bah, I really have no clue what's going on.  All I know is that that volcano's the biggest thing here and, if we get to the top, I bet we could see for miles.  Maybe then we could figure out how to get off this damned island."

I grabbed some meat, for some reason I was starving.
Then I said," Well we really have no choice but to check out the Island and the Volcano to try to find where we might be and how to get back home."
Rob gives some meat to squeaky, and he is very happy for it.
I then say," Oh this is squeaky, say hello you big balooka."
As I scratch him under his chin.

Squeaky meows while Michael give you both a startled look.

"Drat, I didn't realize.  You must be both first-timers." He pauses, and scratches his chin.

"Um, Rob, you're not getting home, at least not as far as I can tell.  I'm really sorry man.  There is no Southern Cross, and no Big Dipper in the sky.  Think about what that means.

And Malachai, sure you can see for a long way.  But eventually that volacano is going to cook off, and pretty soon I'd wager, and then we all is dead.  But luckily enough we are a peculiar kind of immortal. We'll get zapped here, and land somewhere else in the Multiverse.

You've already started travelling.

After all, I don't expect your home universe has a planet in what I think is the Sol System with a single island in one hemisphere, like this one.  Now I know you think I'm nuts about this time, I'll try to answer a few questions before nightfall or you can just write me off as the lone nutcase.  It don't matter to me none either way."

He shrugs, and continues eating.

Playtester

I sit there for a minute trying to soak up what Micheal just said.
It made kind of sense though. He was technically killed at his buddy's house and ended up here.
Then I said,"What you said does make sense, but the physics are all messed up, at least in how I use to understand Physics. So how long have you been zapping around the multiverse Micheal?"

"Physics, well you'll have to talk to the Alchemist, or to Terrence our favorite Martian Terraformer, an annoying little know it all, for details if yo ubump into them.  As I understand the most popular theory, there's oil between the dimensions, and we call it scriff. There's other theories aplenty. It sometimes gets used by people for some of its odd properties such as ftl transmission of electrons, but its highly unstable and has a predilection for biological electrical systems, especially when electrically charged.

You get 'infected' and dead, usually all at once, and it take syour body to intter-dimensional space, and then your matter takes you out of there because your matter doesn't like that space, I guess you could say.  And then scriff, well, she remembers how you were, and puts you back together.

Um, well, this is, oh, my thirtieth world I'd guess.  Been doing it for near a hundred fifty years."

He looks twenty-five.

Playtester

"Wow you have been jumong around the multiverse for hundred and fifty years.
Do you ever go back to the same world more than once?"
I sat there petting squeaky. I try to understand the physics of what he said, but it's a little over my head for now, but I'll work on it.

I laugh and slap Rob on the back.  "Don't even bother trying to figure out the physics of this.  If there's one thing I've learnt, it's that nothing ever goes exactly as planned.  There are no such thing as our physics here, methinks."

"I've been back to the same world, two separate ones.  But I've heard from other versers that they do it a bit.  One guy came to a world, and found a statue to himself, problem was he hadn't been there yet.  Another one took a magic gate, and well me, I went back to Warplain twice to fight for the glory of Odin.  And I've been to Naja World a bunch of times, not counting those separate like.

Some people say it, Naja, is a hub world, and yet others haven't ever been there.  Every verser I've ever met has a half-dozen theories.  Me, I just think we are the Enjherar.

And Malachai, there is physics, but its just larger adn more complicated than even I understand.  And of course, there's other things than physics.  The Multiverse might be infinite.  But arguements like that make my head hurt."

He points to the glorious sunset with five different colors in teh clouds.

"Bed soon. Five more minutes, and you can do what you want, but I'm setting the ward, and going to sleep."

He damps down the fire, and scrubs his fingers with sand.

Playtester

" As Micheal said Malachi, there is always physics, it might just be physics we have no idea about yet, thats all. Loks like I might have enough time to figure it out,as it seems."
I then help Micheal with the fire and get ready for bed.
I pick up Squeaky and settle down for the night.
" Well Micheal it has been informative this evening, and I hope we are all here in the morning, good night you two."

I finish off my hunk of meat and lay down for sleep.  "Yeah, see you guys tomorrow."  Holding the hilt of my knife in one hand, I close my eyes and prepare for sleep.

He walks in a circle around the camp muttering to himself, and then falls asleep right as the sky blazes in the most lurid colors, and then darkness.  Michael's right, there are no familiar stars in the heavens.

Through the night you hear the occasional thump outside the camp, and toward morning Squeaky gets really agitated.  You look up and see a huge pair of glowing eyes out in the dark.

Playtester

I slowly and carefully raise my gun up at the glowing eyes waiting for them to move towards me or my friends.
I try to calm down squeaky with my other hand.

OOC: Its five-thirty in the morning here, and the littlest one decided that getting up and playing was the thing to do about an hour and a half ago.  So since I'm actually awake, lets get some gaming done.

Welcome to our new player, Derek.

Derek,

You've just gone into the office at the Youth Center you were helping out with, and were shocked to see some brand-new computers.  Evidently the corporate donation came through after all.

Happily, you set your coffee down, and booted one up.

It had the term "scriff-enabled" on its front which was some new bit of techno-babble.  And then a rogue basketball flew past a too short receiver, and bounced into your office striking the coffee.

An arc, a flash of light...

=======================================

You wake feeling a bit fried, but the feeling fades rapidly.  What feels like sand is under your fingers, and you can feel the warm wind as it rustles the trees.

Then the ground shakes.

Whatdya' do?

Rob,

You hold your gun for a long time, not really certain how long while Squeaky sits there trembling under your hand.  Finally it goes away, and your cat relaxes, and shortly thereafter its sunrise.

Looking toward the volcano you can see its got a smoke plume coming from it.

Rob and Malachai,

Michael leaves after a coffee breakfast to go do some spear-fishing with the help of a surf board.  He points out that he won't be back until dinner, and then he heads out nearly half a mile.

The ground shakes a bit about an hour after he leaves.

Playtester
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:50, Wed 16 Feb 2005.

I stand up quickly, looking around at the forest surrounding the camp.  "What was that?"

"Sand?  When did we get sand?"  I blink my eyes a couple times and then push a hand against the soft ground, hoping to stand up and take stock of where I am.  Finally realising that I'm outdoors, I can't get past the odd feeling of disorientation, as if I had just woken up in a stranger's bed.  "Alright, what the heck is going on here..."  My thoughts are a tangled mess of words and images, but even those are interrupted when the first shake of the ground begins.

Trying to remain standing amidst the rolling of the ground I frantically look around some more at where I am, wondering if some wierd joke was played on me by one of the other staff while I was knocked out.  This didn't look like Crescent Park though and that was the closest place nearby where they could have taken me.  If it was Frank, then he's going to have to learn that some things are not funny.  With a slow shake of my head I look for anything familiar; buildings, land masses...anything.

I say to Malachai," Tat was an Earth Quake caused by the Volcano. That means it is close to erupting. So I guess we just wait and see what happens huh."
I get up from by bed trying to comfort squeaky. I grad some coffee and try to become fully awake, my arm is tired from holding my gun for so long.

I lean backwards and hit my head against the dirt.  "Great, just great.  We're here camping out near a volcano that's gonna erupt.  Hey... since we came here when we died... might we go to another place if we died here?"  Sitting up, I sheath my knife and stretch my back.

" I believe thats how it works, some how we got infected by something in the univrse when we died and now when we die again we travel to another world in the universe to start again, I think thats how its going to go down at least thats how I took it from Micheal."
I drink my coffee and wait to watch the fire works from the Volcano.

Ten minutes later the ground suddenly flexes again, and this time the whole campsite pops up a foot into the air knocking you both to your knees.  A few minutes later another shock, and further down the beach, you see the beach snap apart into two separate levels while the ground shudders for a long time.

Then fog rises as the water near the island begins to boil.

A long vivid crack in the side of the mountain appears, and a line of fountains of fire geysers out at ten second intervals.  These cracks lessen to just three spots, but out of them is flowing massive amounts of lava.

The smoke gets thick as the trees around the volcano burst into flame.

And then a noise so loud that it simply seems impossible deafens your ears, and stuns your mind.  Ejecta soars straight up from the crack in the mountain side, and then seconds later a black cloud roars down the mountain in a ring about the volcano, and hits with savage force.

Its very quick.  No one on the island lives more than thirty seconds after the pyroclastic cloud smashes outward flattening everything.  By the time lava flows cover the island, you all have versed out.

That includes Derek, Johnny who since he versed in on the mountainside was the first to get versed out, Michael who charged the volcano sword out as he thought Odin would want him to, Rob, and Malachai.

And now each person goes to his own thread, and his own world.  Feel free to lurk on each others, and to chat about your games, and to give me advice as this is supposed to be a chance for me to playtest some worlds.

Playtester
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:03, Thu 17 Feb 2005.

Johnny who hadn't said or done much since he 'arrived' on the volcano, screams in terror as the lava begins to flow. As the trees burst into flame, he yells out, "I'm sorry I didn't want to steal it. Please God, don't send me to hell. Please, please, oh noooo..."

Welcome Johnny,

And then whoom, the mountainside erupts, and for a second there is a flash of heat, but its too quick to apprehend as pain.

Playtester