MJ Young is opening up his official game website to some fan-created settings.  I know some of you have sent me various things (usually at my instigation), but I've had difficulty tracking it down.

So if you have something that could be used as a game setting, post it here, and then I can send it round to MJ under your name, and fame and glory will be yours...

PT

So what I was thinking was a slightly futuristic/modern setting however, due to a world-wide epidemic, humans were wiped cleanly from the earth, well almost cleanly. However during those last days, everyone who could do anything at all to find a cure, was. So of course, an entymology lab, backburnered their own research in order to contribute their own resources. These included some rudimentary nanotech, meant for genesplicing. So this doctor worked really hard at making a bacteria which could eat the virus, but was safe for humans. So in this effort, he combines some human DNA with the bacterial colonies, so that the bacteria would recognize human cells. Unfortunately he never saw this bacterial colony completed. Due to his efforts though the colony began to flourish.

Because of the mix of DNA, the bacteria began to develope in a similar fashion to full size humans. The twist is that since bacteria live, reproduce and die so quickly....it only takes a few years for the bacteria to accomplish what humanity took several thousand years to accomplish. Civilization. This was mostly due to the tools that had been left behind for them. The nanotech, the computers, the lab environment, and lots of DNA. Instead of developing like humans did, that is along a fire based society, these little creatures developed towards a biological base of existance. The components of cells, being easily modified and grown, were like humans and cars. So it was that they began to modify insects, which there were no shortage of in the labs, to carry their cities and transport them from one place to another, at first only in the lab. Then there was the discovery of 'Outside', that is, some brave souls found that there was a huge and vast landscape outside. With even more insects, and now...plants as well. The environment outside was usually fatal for any of the bacterium-men, unless they donned protective suits harvested from the chitin of some of their insects. But slowly this divided the society, splitting them between the outsiders, and the lab.

The Verser ports into this world as one of these bacterium, humanoid in shape and looks, but also kind of bubbly looking and he would get the chance to ride in a Dragonfly-pirate vessel.

The insect vessels use sound, visual cues and pheremones to communicate instead of radio. They would most often be grown with some kind of weapon, like pincers or claws. Some might have 'Troop Injectors' and poison stingers. Theres lots more I could go on about, just pick up a book and take a look at the insects and their arsenals.

So thats my idea, theres so much that could be done in a setting like that, and it would be awesome to play in. Let me know what you think! Any critique would be welcomed.

~McCallister

The only immediate idea I have had is a world which is a heavy verser arrival point, knows what Versers are and uses their Scriff energy to power their civilization.  They're technologically advanced, and a quirk in their universe's laws lets them exploit Scriff for all its worth inside of a living being.  There is a hidden underground movement that helps Versers, but if the Verser is caught, they're imprisoned and used as 'fuel' for 5-10 years before they're shunted out into the void of space again.

Mac,
I need to put a 'Gabby's Gate' on that.  I'll get back to your idea in a day or two.  I hope to see it used.

Day,
Hmmm, in Dr. Who there were the 'Crying Angels'...they'd send you back in time so you died in the past, and thus your potential energy of the days you would have lived is available to them for mealtime at their point in the timestream.

Something like that, in a sorta kinda way....

Another idea I've had is that versers are the needle and thread holding the Multiverse together.  You got a bunch of dimensions all bathed in slippery scriff...why don't they fall apart...well, one reason, they are held, but versers could be one of the secondary systems to keep things together.

So a verser's past lifeline is the thread.

Now, if thats true, then there is a connection between one world an dthe next, and maybe you could run power down that line and steal power from the world the verser just left.

And the process burns versers out after five-ten years.

PT

Well, let's assume that they're clever enough to realize that killing Versers is bad, because A) Some versers randomly seem to go back to another universe more than once, and the ones that show up are more likely to go back to this place and B)They don't want to BURN the thread out, so like the Wraith in Stargate Atlantis, they don't kill/burn out, they merely ALMOST kill/drain out.

In game terms, I know that the more worlds you go to, the more powerful you get with scriff, at least in terms of weight limit...so depending on how this 'draining' worked, I could see it potentially lowering that weight limit...ie...permanent consequences without ending things...though I don't know if that is a 'nono' in MV.

I LIKE it!

I'm going to run this one by MJ.

PT

The verser enters a world in which everything at first appears backwards.  The writing is backwards, the people talk backward, walk backward and do everything in reverse.  If the character does everything forward, they'll laugh with amusement.  Some will be good people, some will be bad people.  This should go on for a while, minor conflicts, but nothing the player can't handle.  After he has been there long enough to get emotionally attached to people, then a large 'doorway' should appear in which those nearby are compelled to rush through (except the Verser).  They all appear a short while later except one person, who does not return.  If the Verser runs past them, he'll find a world much like the one he left, but different.  Everything is forward in this world, and it is a much more 'generic' rpg fantasy style world....only the Verser steps through the Mirror of Opposition.

If the Verser does not initially step through, more and more people vanish through the mysterious (and spontaneous) doorway as the adventuring party thinks it will be a hoot to bring the mirror with them on their adventure.

Once the Verser leaves the mirror world for the generic one, he cannot return say a 'wish' spell and using the mirror as a focus.  In the 'normal' world, those who were good in the mirror world are evil, and those who were evil are now good.

This has some interesting possibilities.

Who is the one person who does not return?

What do you mean by 'only the Verser steps through the Mirror of Opposition'?  I thought everyone did.  If not, where do they go?

PT
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:59, Thu 25 Oct 2007.

AKA 'Only the Insects Survive' AKA whatever Mac wants to call it.

...The insect vessels use sound, visual cues and pheremones to communicate instead of radio. They would most often be grown with some kind of weapon, like pincers or claws. Some might have 'Troop Injectors' and poison stingers. Theres lots more I could go on about, just pick up a book and take a look at the insects and their arsenals....

1. Chitin Armor: (a Tech weapon): This is created by harvesting from insects in a hazardous operation since wild insects have harder shells for unknown reasons.: Density of Armor is 1@5: Coverage is Full, closed plate with a flexible underlayer at joints, and an open face for officers at 60%.  Coverage is full face mask for men, and otherwise as for officers with 65% coverage.

2. Pincers (A Body weapon): Damaging: NOT Ranged: DR +10: RF 2
3. Claws (A Body Weapon): Damaging: NOT Ranged: DR -10: RF 3
4. Troop Injectors (neat idea): An Injector Needle Use skill is rolled vs. the Piloting skill of the other vehicle, or against the Agility of the targetted insect.  Relative Success/5 determines how many are able to cross over per turn.  An attempt at Disengagement requires a Difficult skill roll opposed by a Simple skill check.
5. Poison Stingers (A Body weapon): Damaging (Stinger): Not Ranged: Secondary Damage Rider Dangerous (Poison): RF 1
6. Dragonfly ships
7. Pheromone communication system
8. Sonic communication system--This is easy.  Just like us, basically.

You'd probably have Dependent Symbionts as well.  Aphids as liquid producers, and ants as guard dogs and donkeys....and these might be engineered to give them useful features like 1)Will not attack boss who smells like 'so'.  2) Higher intelligence.

Special Skills:
1. Superleap (due to inverse square law you can lift many times your weight.)
2. Utilize surface tension (to walk on water, or to break through it)

Any more ideas?  Obviously this needs more work.

PT
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:22, Thu 25 Oct 2007.

Sure.  Sorry.  Basically the idea is that there are two worlds, almost identical but not quite.  One is a normal, generic, vanilla D&D style fantasy world with a polytheistic pantheon set with a gazillion humanoid races and a high count of magic items.

The other is a world that is a Mirror of Opposition world, where everyone walks backwards, talks backwards and is personality wise different from the people in the 'normal' world.  Whenever someone sees a mirror of opposition, they're pulled from the Mirror world and sent out to be magically compelled to kill the 'normal' world people, but if the Mirror person dies in the 'normal' world, they don't come back...ergo why the two worlds are similar, but not identical.

You've just seen an example of why I'm a better GM than I'm a player.

Is the Mirror of Opposition a D20 magic item? Cause Copyright Lawyers are CR 20....Even if it is, this can be worked around.

I think this could be an interesting adventure with a nice initial setting.  And it has a neat hook----save your friends from becoming pschyopathic doppleganger killers which you know they would hate if they were in their right mind.

I'm thinking it would be nice to have a bit more.

1)Perhaps a comedic element.
2)Perhaps not quite so generic D20 worlds
3)Perhaps multiple mirrors that lead to other universes with their own problems.

So, I'd make it a frontier town as the initial point with the verser arriving next to a silver sheen covered lake.  The town is called Silverton.  It used to be a silver mine, and now its a farming/hunting community.

Next world--The Valley of the Ruins.  You can't walk twenty feet without stumbling over an ancient battlesite, or hidden trapdoor into lost dungeons.  Most houses are built on stilts so that if 'Things Below' come boiling up, you have warning time to get the weapons out as they climb the greased poles.

The whole world is just this relatively small valley thats jam-packed with ruins.  Its hard to find places to grow food because there are so many stone ruins inches under the soil.

The locals talk knowledgeably about ten thousand years of ruins, and they name things by the Age (Age of Beginning, Age of Gold, Age of Water, Age of Steel...)

So give it a shot...make up a not so generic d20 world (I'll use mine elsewhere or as part of this project).

Maybe there are the Six Darque Mirror Masters, mages, who threaten the world's peace.  Their typical tactic is to open a gate, and draw forth nastiness to unleash on teh world.  The Heroic Adventuring Party killed one of the Six, and is now playing with the mirror.  The other five really want that mirror out of Good's hands, and the primary obstacle might be that each wants it for his own chosen apprentice.

Or it could be there is just one mirror, and one master who's dead, and a murderous apprentice wizard out to do them in, and anyone else who get in his way.

Well, I mean, learning how to talk and do everything backwards is pretty comedic.  As for 'generic' its more generic fantasy at this point rather than generic D&D.  Not entirely, but becoming such.

I mean heck, the idea of a 'mirror world' is at the very least earliest from Nine Princes of Amber, which Gygax blatantly stole a lot of stuff from.  There is a reason that the SRD very explicitly states what is, or is not, considered WOTC copyright...case in point, even the names like Limbo aren't simply Limbo (because Limbo existed before them), but instead



Note that 'Mirror of Opposition' is not on there.  Why do you think they changed all the spells that had things like "Bigby's Clenched Fist" to "Clenched Fist"?

As for a more defined fantasy setting-Sure.

The Mirror of All

In the beginning there was creation, and creation was divided when the Master Make created a mirror.  At first all of the shards seemed alike, but when the Master's light shone down upon them, one was proven to be the inverse image of the other.  One by one the shards fell away until there were soon to be none left. Desperate to save something of creation, the Master bound the one to the other, through which special mirrors were able to bridge the gap between the worlds.

All magic in this world is based on mirrors, to create new objects from thin air, to scry, to travel or to reflect an enchantment back on one's enemies.  For a short time, the creations of these weaker mirrors can draw items, creatures or beasts from obscure places that barely Are, but the most powerful mirrors are those that can summon forth the Other.  But like matter and anti matter, when a being from the Mirror world enters the True world, he has little choice but to kill his other.

The mirrors do not work both ways.

Thats cool.

Now you've got me wondering how to properly describe places that are more Potential than Actuality.

PT

Potential than Actuality?

Ah! "Potential areas have a limited duration of reality based upon the core reality.  The more fantastic the deviance, the shorter its duration.  Something that is only a small amount of difference could theoretically last forever, all the way up to the Mirror Realm which only lasts as much as ten minutes."

Yah well, Limbo was Greek myth I think.

Hmmm...so where does the reversi world lie on the scale of durability?  And does that open up another can of worms when you find out that all the people you know are going to be evaporated/reincorporated into the Mirrormist to be recycled later....say at the year-ending the Festival of Breaking Mirrors?

Like, the Reversi world has a year of time, and most don't realize this, some think they die, and some think they get recycled (because the reigning deity is determined to give each of them seventy years even if he has to reboot them seventy times--unless of course they become evil and get themselves killed in the process then he doesn't feel a special obligation to reboot them)?

So...you solve problem one--stop the dops from being evil, or something
Problem two--you figure out the nature of reality in the midst of mirror mages fighting each other--your chance to learn mirror magic
Problem three--you find out about the Festival....

Sounds like that might be enough to keep you busy in a world for a while....

PT

I'm trying to think of a scale that measures how far off from Are is the new Potentiality.  Say you start with the stats of a basic terran creature, and every change you make is an hour less the creature has to exist in the Are from its one week lifespan.

One week= 7 X 24 =168 so a beastie could at most have 167 changes to have a lifespan of one hour.  That is a huge amount of change.

But I think if you wanted to take an Eagle and make it a Roc....Eagle's Four Foot wide, say, and a Roc is Forty....that'd be 36 changes.  Strength is maybe 1@5, Roc is 2@8 so thats 14 (its now as stronger than a human).  It has to have different feathers (1d6 to get 3 colors), and head shape, body shape...1d6 to get 4, and then a Chaos Dice because you're not really in control of what you're doing so 57 X .1d10 which gives a range from 6-57 for unpredicted costs and typically yields in the middlish of 30 or so for 87 for this Roc, and thus it has 80 hours to work its master's will in the Are.

However the Mirror worlders have no such limit (maybe, maybe the year I discussed earlier, but thats not hard and fast) except the need to kill the original.

PT

Of course a 3d10 roll might be the better way to do it, or a 3d10 chart with each  number being more potential weirdness.....

Which brings up the whole idea of a number based chargen system for Multiverser (by which I mean a points based one which it doesn't have.)  And I'm getting really rule heavy here.

Good night, I guess.

PT

Interesting stuff.  Also, I totally think a point based system for Multiverser might be a good idea.  Some of it was beyond my head, but the idea of a 3d10 chart and a specific numeric formula for how long produced critters could last is a rather interesting one.

Television World

This is a world where magic works, but only if it is currently being portrayed on television.  That is to say, all native spells require that there is an element of what is going on from a convention on television, but it ridiculously easy for anyone to cast it; so long as it matches what is being shown on television.

The world is otherwise an exact mirror of our own including what is currently on television.  The key thing here for example, is that when you pull out a Mentos, it really IS something that gives you a vast increase to all of your skills.  When you are thirsty, all you have to do is appeal to the Kool Aid man and he suddenly appears.  This is a world that works its best when it is an identical mirror to the real one, not varied with distinct historical details, despite the fact that such a presence would profoundly alter society.

The key here is the fact that while anyone can do it; most people don't.  In fact, people consistently refuse to believe in the fantastic or that magic is real, even when evidence is pointed directly at them.  The primary reason for this is the Sit Com episode effect, in which things tend to resolve themselves after 30 minutes, no matter how convoluted the effect that might be.

There are those who are not affected by this (as anyone can be) but they must actively resist the effect.

I'll post this over on GO. Thanks.

PT

I've posted

"Only the Insects Survive" under that name at GO.

"Television World" under the post name "Daytime Television" at GO."

PT

John7's reply to 'Insects'....

I imagine things like spiders and scorpions would serve the role of tanks. Or maybe Bombardier Beetles (you all remember that fire-breathing tank bug from Starship Troopers, no?).
And would the bacterium-people of this world be
a: fluid/mutable in their forms, and thus able to flow through small spaces?
b: capable of amazing feats of regeneration (kinda like how it takes forever to get rid of a cold)?
c: able to infect/possess a Verser who does survive the Donna's Door and the Wipeout and, hidden inside his physiology, colonize other Verses?

That's kinda cool PT...thanks for getting a broader perspective to think about for these.

I think some of these questions come down to scale and we'd have to define the scale of these beings a bit better. So I'd say that they would have to be either the smallest multicellular beings or amongst the largest single-celled creatures. I'd probably leave this to the particular GM to contemplate for his game depending on his tastes. However I'd thought of them as being about the height of the width of a human hair. Biologically I pictured them to look very close to human proportions and shape, perhaps a bit less defined features though. That said I would answer John7's questions thus:

a: I don't think they would be fluid in the sense of amoeba, since they are very humanoid and not sort of shape-shifters. Though they could certainly could fit into ultra narrow spaces because of their amazingly small size. I imagine that they all have an innate ability of contortion though. Keeping them humanoid would also make sure that the Verser doesn't just lose their minds upon entering this world.

b: I also sort of envisioned time as being sort of relative in terms of size of these guys. Weeks of our time, would be equal to months or years of their equivalent time, this is because they have that generation quality of bacteria, multiplying fast from our perspective. Though for them its more of a happy medium so that they wouldn't be multiplying out of control. This helps as far as gaming them. They would regrow limbs really fast though. Equivalent mortal wounds for a normal verser would likely kill them only 50% of the time, unless they are without the basic necessities: sugar/oxygen/shelter(or perfect environment); in which case it would be certain death as normal.

c: This one is I think the coolest question because it implies some other coolness. It really hinges on one thing: Is Scriff a chemical which can be ingested by a single cell/tiny multicellular creature, or is it an actual infection which is another living thing? In either case if the Bacterio-Sapiens(just came up with that) could understand what Scriff was capable of, they might inadvertently create 'versing vehicles' or try to utilize it in some other nifty way in their beasty-bots.

The scorpions and spiders as tanks is exactly the idea I had initially with this idea. The other side of that though it to think of the scale...in which a common scorpion or spider of normal size could house hundreds or thousands of these bacterio-sapiens. So then you realize that at that size that every normal sized insect could infact serve as a mobile village. Large ones like june-bugs, would be like a miniature cities, probably housed underneath those huge wing-casings...

After that I started to kind of think of them like you might look at the Enterprise in Star Trek, lots of people, but essentially a mobile community capable of combat. That's why I think that dragonflies or even moths would be an awesome setting for a verser storyline.

The Verse of the Incompotent Santa

Name a movie with Santa Clause as a major character in which he does not get kidnapped or have some other major mishap happen to him (often due to a traitor elf)

Very hard, isn't it?

There ARE movies in which it does not happen....but I can't think of any.

So in this verse....they ALL come true.  Christmas is in absolute peril every single year, and normally it is up to some random group of people, inanimate objects or talking animals to help save Santa.

However, THIS year, in Legion of Doom style, the Finch, Santa's Evil Clone, Jack Frost (who is not copyrighted), The Evil Elf, The Evil Magician, The Evil Toy Corporation, The Neptunians, several cartoon character villains, and Arnald J. Hamplemaper IV have all teamed up to defeat the Good Forces of Christmas, who are unaware of this unholy alliance, and have kidnapped or neutralized them all.

That only leaves one person left to save Christmas (because ordinary ordinary people in this world are incompotents, wheras randomly selected seemingly ordinary but more competent people are not) is....YOU!

Thanks guys.  The idea of an 'Enterprise' of a bug is great.  And the idea of 'only you' can save Christmas is an excellent seasonal world...and we do need seasonal worlds.

If I'd been running Multiverser at a con close to Christmas I might well have been tempted to run this world.

PT

For a long time, I've been thinking about this.  While Multiverser seems to be a very nice concept, and I approve of the idea of restoring lethality to the story while not making it the end of the game; the GM's hands are tied at the same time.    They certainly are for me as a player.  What I mean is, I understand that the GM has to retain a certain degree of control, but ideal circumstances would allow me to return to a world after I had died.

The following is an attempt to fix that.

There is a world in which a Verser spent literally millions of years preparing specialized crystal creatures to be recipients of Sciff.  These creatures have powerful minds and are able to direct themselves, and someone with them through psionic, magic or technological means to a world that has been sufficiently 'grounded'.

When a Verser leaps with one of these Crystals to a new world, if the world is capable of being 'grounded' the Crystal can link the Verser to that world.  This vastly increases the chances of a Verser returning to that world, thus instead of 'potentially never' the Verser returns randomly at the next 2-5 jumps.  The one caveat to this is that time is so varied that it could be anything from one second, to a year to TEN THOUSAND years between when the Verser died and when he returns to the world.  Thus, with one of these crystals he has a slight degree of control over where he jumps to, but none whatsoever upon where he returns.

Not all worlds can be linked using the crystal and the Verser may only have one crystal at a time.  They may also only have one 'saved' world to which they are linked in this status.  Observed effects note that the crystals are particularly psionically sensitive to suicide, and should the Verser deliberately verse out of a world (at least not without a VERY good reason) then the Crystal will debond with the Verser at the next jump.

Hopefully, I'll be publishing on Lulu.com some of the sketches pretty soon.  I've said that before, and gotten no where, but in the last week, I've published two worldbooks, about 155,000 words total.

I think what might be the best is for me to re-publish my Placeholder Worlds book, and add some new material to it.  I can add my vampire and weapons description as well as some sketch world stuff from you guys, and myself.

I'll call it Placeholder and Sketch Worlds, I think.

PT

Still catching up, and probably missed the boat, but...

PT, are you still interested in world ideas?

I notice you've had an interest in Singularity scenarios.  In the Vernor Vinge sense, am I correct in assuming that the path is usually driven by technology?

And I think I glimpsed in passing over at GO a reference to a world concept with a magic-driven path toward the singularity?

So my question -- do you have any scenarios based upon a psionic-driven path toward a singularity?  :)

This boat is a frequent enough tour. It is not a one-shot event.

Yes.

The Singularity is a tech based idea. The world you're in is a botched Singularity world. And yes, this is Vernor Vinge--Marooned in Real Time, and Fire Upon the Deep are some of the best intros (although Marooned is a bit of a sequel to The Peace War).

I did in one of my WAW's, a magic Singularity of sorts. This is the world Shikamaru is in.

A psionic Singularity sounds sort of like Julian May's books where Humanity is heading toward a Unity that allows individuality (I think its something like a low-level empathy and some telepathy across the galaxy for everyone).  No, I haven't been making a psi Singularity. It could be interesting.

It has been something of a long-standing view among some of the GO regulars that psi worlds are 1)hard to do 2) needed.

PT

As long as you remember that psi is usually about bending reality rather than ignoring it (like Magic tends to do), it should be easier than others have given it credit for. Dark Sun by TSR can give you some good ideas, and such worlds are likely to use symbiotes due to the fact they have minds and can be thusly manipulated.

OK, let's do this a bit more systematically, and see if anything interesting jumps out at us.

For better or for worse, Multiverser has certain defined bias areas and progressions, and we are trying to come up with worlds that work within that mechanics framework.

So, let us review...


Of course, the rules (as far as I understand them) also allow for certain areas being made easier or harder than this progression.

So there are two ways (with various forks in the road) that I can see to proceed:

(1) Suppose that a world has/gains a certain subset of the above, in the hands of few/many.  What would be the effect upon the individual and upon society?

(2) If we think of the concept of the Singularity as being the progressing of technology driving us in unpredictable directions, then we could also explore similar ideas for the progressing of Mag and/or Psi and/or Bod bias areas.

So PT, your idea above sounds like an example of #1, using telepathy/empathy in the hands of everyone.  But there are many other possibilities, inserting whatever favorite you might have.  What would a world be like where everyone had precognition, for example?

And from the Multiverser Psi Singularity point of view, suppose that there is increasingly rapid progress along the Psi axis, rather than the Tech axis.  What would happen to the individual and to the society as the Singularity is approached, and beyond?

We already have worlds involving a Tech Singularity, and perhaps a Mag Singularity... but what about a Psi Singularity?  Or a Bod Singularity?  :)

With a systematic approach, you could have a semi-automatic way of generating various interesting world scenario sketches based upon abilities or lack thereof...

Q1: Static (relatively stable, steady-state) or Dynamic (changing, progressing, pre-singularity, post-singularity)?

Q2: Few or Many (who has the power(s) in question, or lack thereof)?

Q3: Which Bias(es)/Ability(s)/Power(s)/Skill(s) are present and/or absent?

Q4: What are the results?

Example: Static/Many/+Retrocognition;-Telepathy/Empathy

Imagine a world where everyone can tell at a glance not just the person they see before them, but all of their past as well.  There are no secret actions.  Teachers know at a glance if students have studied or cheated; bosses know at a glance if employees have worked or shirked; spouses know at a glance if mates have been faithful or not.  The only secrets are within -- past thoughts and emotions can't be seen, only actions.

The verser arrives... and everyone can immediately discern at a glance all of the verser's past actions, and that they are from past universes!  And what if everyone can also discern that the verser doesn't have retrocognition?  At last secrets can be kept from someone, and shameful pasts can be buried.  Unless, far more frightening... what if the verser has what no one else does... telepathy and empathy?  The only place where a person can still keep secrets is now under threat.  Do the locals know the verser can do this?  How will they react?

1. Some very good ideas which I'll consider more later. Feel free for others to pitch in.

2. Singularity has the notion of the RATE of technological advances increasing (in 500 years=X progress, in 100=X, in 50=x, in 10=x, in 1=x, 1 mo.=x, 1 day=x with 'x' being a stable variable in this description.) You reach the point where 'any goal that is not logically incoherent that is physical is achievable', and then it keeps on going, and you're left with someone so superhuman that we on this side of the Singularity cannot comprehend them.

3. That said, you can do stories of psi advance or whatever (and they should be done) that don't involve a Singularity.  Those stories, like in the Babylon Five episode where a TK goes from impossible to godlike in a few hours are close to a Singularity story, I'd guess.

4. I like very much the idea of a 'world creator'.

PT

Imagine a world where people became obsessed with the internet.  This is a world with a high magic bias that simply got suppressed because anyone who knew how to do any kind of overt arcane magic got killed in the middle ages, and divine magic is kept in check by a desire not to see it used...thus the potential for magic exists at a very high level, it just isn't really there, until the Internet comes along, and suddenly everyone becomes addicted to it, spending more and more time using it, until one day, the internet is simply gone, slain by Divine retribution.

The 'normal' internet is there, but the obsession factor is gone.  I'm not sure what effect that might have.

So there is a Magic Net, which has X effects (among them 'obsession'), and this spirit entity behind the Net is attacked by the reigning power of that universe, and expelled from that universe in a very rough fashion.

Hmmm.

Well, you could use this as a metaphor on Transhumanism.  The Magic Net is offering its partners the chance to make a 'new reality with new rules'...via means that are magical...the low level people might not know it, but the high-ups are aware that things are happening in the Net that are simply not explainable by normal means.

So, Hell on Earth is about to be opened up, although the New Reality Corporation is promising Heaven. And then suddenly Michael Archangel and a Host descend on the HQ of New Reality Corp, and leave it a smoking hole in the ground.

Now there is a fight between two secret armies....one the Transhumanists mages who survived the Firefall when Heaven blasted the HQ, and two, the Righteous who have some access to divine magic.  The Righteous had a big success, but they are in fundamentally a weaker position.  And most of society does not believe in either side, but does tilt Transhumanist.

And now you have duels in dark alleys as T mages square off against R prophets, and T's try to reacquire control of their broken empire of commerce, and the R investigators track down what they are doing, and expose the dirty tricks, and bribes, and all the other nastiness the T's are up too.

Could toss in an enviromental angle too...the T's plan to dump Earth, and go to the stars so they don't care about taking care of the planet.  The R's are fairly enviromental.

There is probably a division in the R's.  Some don't object to 'improving the world' as the T's put it.  They just want to improve the world the right way.  Other R's just distrust any 'improvement' except moral improvement, and the hard work and good results that flow from that.

This offers a chance to do like a lot of movies do, and have investigations of corporate crimes, and for extra fun you can throw fire at the CEO in his boardroom.

PT

Going with Oak's idea...

Psi Singularity:

Silicon Valley for Psi's....Lets not be too obvious and make it somewhere else.  But the same factors apply.  Its a place where a lot of people skilled in psi gather.

How "Special Areas" Develop:

1. A few geniuses meet in an area. Maybe they congregate because of one brilliant teacher.

2. This draws in others who are really focused. It becomes a subset of the local young folk culture.

3. Lots of people helping each other. Not much money. Lots of collaboration.

4. Some success. The environment gets changed to benefit the successes of the new culture.

5. More people get drawn in.

6. It continues.

7. People who hate the new culture leave.

8. The hurricane strengthens.

9. You read about it in Time Magazine.

This is how Broadway, San Fran with its gay culture, and Silicon Valley develop.
Its not an accident that huge numbers of programmers live in the silicon valley.  Its a process that feeds upon itself.

==Another process....Moore's Law. Paraphrased:
 Every eighteen months or so, available computer memory for a PC doubles. This process also feeds on itself because the greater computer power enables greater computer power.  Its also a process of expectations.

One effect of this is that in a few years, a desktop computer might have the same number of connections as a human brain.  Of course, neurons likely have more than 'on-off' which makes it more complex.  And the human mind is more than meat.

But if you can connect the humanity to the speed....wellllll....you could come up with something that learns faster than fast.  Something that can in the space of a week...invent a means of teleporting a planet to a different dimension.

This is the Singularity.

Now, how to Psi this.....

1. Location:
2. History: Renowned professor So and So invented the Mesmocon. This enabled certain talented individuals to access basic psi talents.

More young experimentalists joined the professor, got their degrees, experimented, argued, and struggled....then The War came. The Sea War was a struggle for the world's soul, and the psi's could see that if their side lost, the world would become a very unhappy place.

So, the Psi Group was formed.  It helped spy on the enemy, and in a memorable event, it caused an enemy airplane carrying a great general of theirs to crash.

Afterwards, things slowed down as the Group spread out into colleges, but still mostly in the Chattanooga area.  It helped that the Sight, one of the more basic psi gifts, seemed to be concentrated among the post-Gaelic peoples in the Chattanooga area.

And then the first portable Resonators were built.  These allowed a human to build up a pschyic charge, and suddenly more powers were available.  New insights became available, and a better set of Resonatoers was built.

===What psi abilities become available at this point? And as should be obvious, these first Resonator inventors are the Gates and Jobs of their world.

PT

Hmmmmm...  This scenario seems... familiar, somehow...  ;)

It does sound interesting.  How do you think the 'withdrawal' would affect people?  How much of society would remain intact? I could also see splinter groups between the T's and R's making things even more complicated.

Q1: Static (relatively stable, steady-state) or Dynamic (changing, progressing, pre-singularity, post-singularity)?

Q2: Few or Many (who has the power(s) in question, or lack thereof)?

Q3: Which Bias(es)/Ability(s)/Power(s)/Skill(s) are present and/or absent?

Q4: What are the results?

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

Regarding Oak's questions, I just read Mindflight by Stephen Goldin. Its probably OOP.  But it had a psi setting.

Q1: Things are Dynamic and progressing, but pre-singularity.  However, no one realizes it.  The TIA, Terran Intelligence Agency, kills its telepaths that enter 'telepause' which is a step toward Human V. 2.0 because the telepaths get unstable.  However, if the telepath has children (which most spies in teh story would not), then let's say a skill like genetic memory of the father's skills kicks in (its actually something else in the story, but genetic memory works.)  This 'gm' allows the new child telepath to start at a much higher base level, and eventually develop other psi skills like TK and teleporting.

Q2: Few: Only Earth out of the settled galaxy is aware of telepathy, and really only the TIA is aware of it. They are used as telepathic agents.

Q3: Telepath is present. Defenses by normals against telepathy are present, but the telepath himself is unable to defend himself against others thoughts.

Q4: Our hero is set to be terminated. He escapes, double crosses one group, then another group...ends up with a female telepath....lives long enough to have children, and eventually does go nuts and dies, but not before passing on the 'gm' to his son.

Dr. Dribble's Candy Factory

Our Verser appears in a house twirling high in the air that lands on a fat kid in Germany.  His feet shrivel up and it turns out that he had the Magic Key to Dr. Dribble's candy factory.  There are only five magic keys in all the world and most of them have been given to children.  Dr. Dribble does several strange and annoying things to people who enter his candy factory, but the person who is the least of a jackass gets to win his Candy Factory once he is done.

Of course, the real secret, is that he (Depending on the GM's whim-one of the following)

A)Has a cure to Scriff Infection (one use only)

B)Can produce scriff (ala the 20th century earth method that makes player characters but its in candy.)

C)Knows how to make gum that has the strength of an atomic bomb.

D)Has a great grass elevator that will take the player to one world they've visited in the past but 10 years after the fact.

Or, you can help Timmy, the hapless poor boy win the Candy factory and be an all around swell guy, while having a legitimate moral reason to make small children cry.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:47, Thu 18 Sept 2008.

Heh. Thanks. I should use this one, but I'm not sure who to torture with it.

PT

....Not me. :)

Use it as a Gather, where all the versers are transformed into children...  :D

Land of a Million Trainers

Once upon a time there was a wise master who decided that knowledge was useful and so he did everything that he could to learn everything he could.  Long and long he traveled the land until at last he had gathered much knowledge, but felt that the knowledge without application was useless.  So he taught someone else.  This knowledge made the wise master have great prestige with all, and so it was that everyone else treated him well.

Soon, the desire to impart knowledge to others, like fire, spread through out the land.  This trend continued from village to village until finally many who preferred willful ignorance left their ranks.  Thus the peaceful Empire of Knowledge was formed.  Beyond them lay the Barbarians of Ignorance, who attacked from time to time, but who were always soundly defeated by the superior techniques of the Empire.

Social status is not determined by how much you know, or what you do with your knowledge or even who you know but how much of your knowledge that you have imparted and the quality of that training.  Once, there was a war in which several clever people taught but refused to learn thinking that this gave them an advantage, but the others who both taught and learned gained more knowledge in the aggregate and destroyed the rebel faction.  Now all know that they must teach and learn; so new ways are constantly found of doing things to gain an edge that others do not have that they may teach it.

And then a stranger arrived.  All were eager to learn whatever secrets he might teach and yet all were also eager to teach him for he was a stranger who had learned nothing that was certified as being taught.  All the greatest masters of the land, many of whom were equal in status sought to teach the stranger in hopes of gaining that little bit of extra prestige.

I like the idea a lot, and it could be especially interesting for someone like Hadrian.

A few questions though.

Which time setting does the world have?

Which level of technology?

Is there, or could there be, magic? Or; is magic absent but possible?

...

Basically what I am saying is that a low tech medieval world with no magic but a possibility for it could be a very profitable/volatile world for a verser with some worlds behind him; as opposed to a high tech/high magical world that would be fairly spent in terms of learning new technologies or magics. A verser in world possibility # 1 could either do very well, or it could be decided that he simply had the capacity to teach too much, and no capacity to learn, and was therefore an anomaly along the same lines as the faction that were unwilling to learn.

In any case, I'd love to see Hadrian in a world like this.

When I originally conceived it, it was basically a 'good' place for a Verser to go to counter balance a lot of the more horrific ideas that I've inspired (such as, I'm pretty sure, the world you're in) but when I write it; it comes out more of a Chinesish Empire, which should have Max Bob, probably midling Psi, Some Magic and Steamtech.

At least that's my opinion.

What if One Made it Home?

The odds of a verser returning home are often set as essentially impossible, but one, Jerimiah T. Stout ACTUALLY did.  It took him roughly 20,000 years subjectively.  Of course, 10,000 of that was spent on his second to last world learning the dimensional traveling spell with such accuracy that it would allow him to get where he was going.

Now he is in a 20th century earth, 1999 to be exact and a national celebrity.  He's conducted a thousand tests, including magic to make sure it is the right place.  He is now functionally immortal, has the power of a 'god' and technology to install a new utopia.  He's kept some things himself but at the same time he has laid down all kinds of precautions to stay behind.

The companies manufacturing the 'scriff enhanced' devices have been sued for billions of dollars by bereaved families and major criminal trials have instituted.

but Jerimiah has been back for five years now.  Some people are frightened of him, some people are awed by him and some people want to send him back to whence he came, though a lot of them are afraid he'd just use his dimensional traveling spell to return.  It isn't good for all worlds, just HIS home world so he can get back without much problem (in theory).

The world has begun to advance magically, technologically, psionically and in body modification.  It's only been five years so it is still recognizable, but for how long?

Scriff use is banned of course, but it was so ubiquitous that many people have turned themselves into versers, confident that they can duplicate Jerimiah's feat.

Some dictatorships have taken to using the new enhanced technology to place cortex bombs into their worst offenders and then lace them with scriff so they die not only once but a thousand thousand times.

These nations have also begun sending out 'Verser' teams, tight knit units that can theoretically verse together from world to world and bring back advanced technology for their homelands.

Kinder nations have 'verser readjustment programs' to provide funds for people who are proven to be versers, including attempts by major coorporations and governments to recruit them.

One or two alien versers have shown up but thus far, no one has duplicated Jerimiah's feat of returning, though it is estimated that as many as 700 people 'versed' before Jerimiah returned and revealed what was going on.

Some are arguing that the death penalty, with scriff, isn't really the death penalty at all and that the worst offenders can be sent out to let some other world deal with it while 'cleaning up' the homeworld.

I like it.

I've put a good bit of thought into the verser returning home thing, and I don't think its as dreary or as unlikely as MJ makes it out to be.

This is a good demonstration of how it could work.

There are a few things I'd pick a bone with, but I can do that later. In general, quite good.

PT

Well the most interesting thing about it to me isn't actually the world but the potential things it represents such as:

1)Innocent/not so innocent person with the cortex bomb set to go off in 1 hour desperately trying to remove it runs into the PC.  Explains their background.

2)Team of versers sent out to retrieve technology for the homeland, either early on and ideologically fanatic or later on and very jaded.

3)Desperate 'self inflicted' verser who has gone to 40 worlds now and found out that it wasn't what they thought it would be and getting back is harder than they thought it was.