Post by BadCatMan on Dec 26, 2009 3:18:08 GMT
(My PCs stay out. You don't know who you are yet, of course, but you get the idea. 
)
Having allowed potential PCs to have characters from any time and world, of any race (well, subject to my say-so), I had to wonder how to get them all together, in a speedy enough manner to have a complete gaming group. How to pluck them out of their respective times and places and bring them all together?
A Time Scoop to the Death Zone is a handy way, as is a time storm (which brought Ace to Iceworld), a Time Rift (see Torchwood), or an alien abduction. But these are all arbitrary and random, and smack of conspiracy when it happens to any more than one or two of them.
So, these is my intended plans for bringing together my assorted and as-yet-undetermined PCs. Just thought I'd share, in case others needed some inspiration for this sort of thing.
In separate plot strands (soloing for a while), each PC discovers an aspect of a broken TARDIS, the pieces scattered throughout time and space. They explore it, and in the process, activate it and find each other. Final completion leaves them in a malfunctioning TARDIS in a far distant time and place, and they must find a way home, working together and overcoming their differences.
It’s a simple object that has sat through human history without remark, such as a dusty cupboard or wardrobe, or even an old fridge, Egyptian sarcophagus, anything large enough to admit a humanoid. Even a locked room in an old building, where the architectural plans and simple measurements of surrounding rooms should show nothing. Whatever it is, it should be old and mysterious. (Shades of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe here.)
Modern day or historical characters discover this old thing (perhaps they inherit it or purchase it as an antique or a bit of old junk, or maybe UNIT/Torchwood/etc characters arrive to investigate some odd tales around it). It could even have continued on into future times, if modern or historical characters are not present.
Perhaps the character is forced to hide inside, or stumbles in. But sooner or later, they have it unlocked and opened, and discover it to be a doorway to a dark passage or a strange new world…
(This is the TARDIS’s outer plasmic shell, in disguise, but the door doesn’t lead to a control room, and often shows the expected interior, until the stars are right or what-have-you.)
In the cold depths of space drifts a bizarre metallic structure, the size of a planet. There are no doors, no signs of mechanisms or other features, and the dimensions are oddly inconsistent. Weird shapes rise up out of the surface, forming tunnels and caves and valleys, though no true buildings. It’s been there for aeons, unchanging and unknown.
Perhaps humans or aliens have had the audacity to settle on the surface of this structure, maybe they are good or villainous. Some may already have penetrated into the internal structure, forming legends or dangers to be investigated or discovered.
Space-faring characters may arrive here, or already be one of the settlers. They may be an investigator, or a treasure-hunter, or on the run from some threat. A great plan is underway to penetrate into the internal structure. At last, by whatever means, they break in.
(This is the guts of the TARDIS, all its rooms and contents and machinery, dumped in the middle of empty space, inactive and inert. Endless corridors stretch and twist in a complex maze, and some lurking monsters can be found.)
A shapeless, formless mass dwells in the Space/Time Vortex, or even in the outer Void. It’s a bubble universe, barely connected to the main universe via a slender thread of causality, and should theoretically not exist at all.* (Like the Celestis of Taking Of Planet 5.)
Time Lords, vortex-capable aliens or other time travellers of no small talent discover this anomaly, and set forth to investigate its secrets. Via advanced physics, they tunnel into the bubble universe, before it bucks and shakes itself loose, almost as if alive. It flees that outer space and time, taking away the intrepid explorer.
(This is the bubble universe of the TARDIS itself, which once contained all the rooms above, and was entered via the plasmic shell doorway.)
* By being separated into its separate components, and left outside time, this TARDIS has managed to avoid the various Time Wars and destructions of Gallifrey (take your pick), whether it has been erased from history or somehow cut off from time.
Perhaps a Time Lord (the former owner of the antique wardrobe, perhaps) did this to escape, or had some secret to hide. Is this Time Lord still around, and could it be one of the PCs?
It is an anomaly, a paradox, it exists outside of Gallifrey Mean Time, and may visit the Gallifrey of the past, the present, or the future, such as it is. Needless to say, there are many powerful creatures and factions that would wish to get their hands on this, and the PCs should wish to prevent them,
The characters struggle their separate ways through the endless bowels of the inert TARDIS, dodging the various threats it has accumulated, or enemy forces that have also come to claim it. The maze itself is changing around them. One by one, they meet each other, help each other through the hazards and make their way to the perceived heart of the structure – but it’s only the tertiary control room.
As they fiddle with the controls, with expertise or not, the long-dormant TARDIS awakens, and screams as it puts itself back together. Chaos ensues.
Finally, it is over, and the TARDIS is somewhat back to working order – well, malfunctioning and only capable of random journeys and basic functions. Perhaps the settlers of the planetoid were carried along with it, and now find themselves in the bowels of the TARDIS, along with the various enemies.
The travellers may wish to try to find a way home, or to take the opportunity to explore or are just trying to escape their old lives, but they’ll have to work together to overcome their differences. They face a long and uncertain trip through a strange universe, as well as hazardous expeditions into the heart of the TARDIS to make repairs and find the fabled main control console room.
The intention here was to bring together different times and places (historical/modern, spacefaring, and a highly advanced spacefaring), and genres (historical, modern, hardware SF, heavy SF, cosmic horror, and to have some reason for the wildly different PCs to be brought together.
The PCs are left with a broken TARDIS, with random trips and basic functionality, like the old days of the series. This lets them learn its simple functions, and discover more powerful ones as they repair more bits of it and gain more experience.
In the writing of this, the TARDIS itself became the setting of a number of assorted dangers and threats, and can be explored as a world of its own, perhaps with a society living in there. This makes this set-up rather like a lot of US SF television series, where the home base or ship itself becomes a common setting, due to the need to save sets, with a mix of different characters lost in space. Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate: Universe, Farscape and Lexx are good models for this sort of thing. That wasn't planned, but I like it.
)Having allowed potential PCs to have characters from any time and world, of any race (well, subject to my say-so), I had to wonder how to get them all together, in a speedy enough manner to have a complete gaming group. How to pluck them out of their respective times and places and bring them all together?
A Time Scoop to the Death Zone is a handy way, as is a time storm (which brought Ace to Iceworld), a Time Rift (see Torchwood), or an alien abduction. But these are all arbitrary and random, and smack of conspiracy when it happens to any more than one or two of them.
So, these is my intended plans for bringing together my assorted and as-yet-undetermined PCs. Just thought I'd share, in case others needed some inspiration for this sort of thing.
In separate plot strands (soloing for a while), each PC discovers an aspect of a broken TARDIS, the pieces scattered throughout time and space. They explore it, and in the process, activate it and find each other. Final completion leaves them in a malfunctioning TARDIS in a far distant time and place, and they must find a way home, working together and overcoming their differences.
It’s a simple object that has sat through human history without remark, such as a dusty cupboard or wardrobe, or even an old fridge, Egyptian sarcophagus, anything large enough to admit a humanoid. Even a locked room in an old building, where the architectural plans and simple measurements of surrounding rooms should show nothing. Whatever it is, it should be old and mysterious. (Shades of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe here.)
Modern day or historical characters discover this old thing (perhaps they inherit it or purchase it as an antique or a bit of old junk, or maybe UNIT/Torchwood/etc characters arrive to investigate some odd tales around it). It could even have continued on into future times, if modern or historical characters are not present.
Perhaps the character is forced to hide inside, or stumbles in. But sooner or later, they have it unlocked and opened, and discover it to be a doorway to a dark passage or a strange new world…
(This is the TARDIS’s outer plasmic shell, in disguise, but the door doesn’t lead to a control room, and often shows the expected interior, until the stars are right or what-have-you.)
In the cold depths of space drifts a bizarre metallic structure, the size of a planet. There are no doors, no signs of mechanisms or other features, and the dimensions are oddly inconsistent. Weird shapes rise up out of the surface, forming tunnels and caves and valleys, though no true buildings. It’s been there for aeons, unchanging and unknown.
Perhaps humans or aliens have had the audacity to settle on the surface of this structure, maybe they are good or villainous. Some may already have penetrated into the internal structure, forming legends or dangers to be investigated or discovered.
Space-faring characters may arrive here, or already be one of the settlers. They may be an investigator, or a treasure-hunter, or on the run from some threat. A great plan is underway to penetrate into the internal structure. At last, by whatever means, they break in.
(This is the guts of the TARDIS, all its rooms and contents and machinery, dumped in the middle of empty space, inactive and inert. Endless corridors stretch and twist in a complex maze, and some lurking monsters can be found.)
A shapeless, formless mass dwells in the Space/Time Vortex, or even in the outer Void. It’s a bubble universe, barely connected to the main universe via a slender thread of causality, and should theoretically not exist at all.* (Like the Celestis of Taking Of Planet 5.)
Time Lords, vortex-capable aliens or other time travellers of no small talent discover this anomaly, and set forth to investigate its secrets. Via advanced physics, they tunnel into the bubble universe, before it bucks and shakes itself loose, almost as if alive. It flees that outer space and time, taking away the intrepid explorer.
(This is the bubble universe of the TARDIS itself, which once contained all the rooms above, and was entered via the plasmic shell doorway.)
* By being separated into its separate components, and left outside time, this TARDIS has managed to avoid the various Time Wars and destructions of Gallifrey (take your pick), whether it has been erased from history or somehow cut off from time.
Perhaps a Time Lord (the former owner of the antique wardrobe, perhaps) did this to escape, or had some secret to hide. Is this Time Lord still around, and could it be one of the PCs?
It is an anomaly, a paradox, it exists outside of Gallifrey Mean Time, and may visit the Gallifrey of the past, the present, or the future, such as it is. Needless to say, there are many powerful creatures and factions that would wish to get their hands on this, and the PCs should wish to prevent them,
The characters struggle their separate ways through the endless bowels of the inert TARDIS, dodging the various threats it has accumulated, or enemy forces that have also come to claim it. The maze itself is changing around them. One by one, they meet each other, help each other through the hazards and make their way to the perceived heart of the structure – but it’s only the tertiary control room.
As they fiddle with the controls, with expertise or not, the long-dormant TARDIS awakens, and screams as it puts itself back together. Chaos ensues.
Finally, it is over, and the TARDIS is somewhat back to working order – well, malfunctioning and only capable of random journeys and basic functions. Perhaps the settlers of the planetoid were carried along with it, and now find themselves in the bowels of the TARDIS, along with the various enemies.
The travellers may wish to try to find a way home, or to take the opportunity to explore or are just trying to escape their old lives, but they’ll have to work together to overcome their differences. They face a long and uncertain trip through a strange universe, as well as hazardous expeditions into the heart of the TARDIS to make repairs and find the fabled main control console room.
The intention here was to bring together different times and places (historical/modern, spacefaring, and a highly advanced spacefaring), and genres (historical, modern, hardware SF, heavy SF, cosmic horror, and to have some reason for the wildly different PCs to be brought together.
The PCs are left with a broken TARDIS, with random trips and basic functionality, like the old days of the series. This lets them learn its simple functions, and discover more powerful ones as they repair more bits of it and gain more experience.
In the writing of this, the TARDIS itself became the setting of a number of assorted dangers and threats, and can be explored as a world of its own, perhaps with a society living in there. This makes this set-up rather like a lot of US SF television series, where the home base or ship itself becomes a common setting, due to the need to save sets, with a mix of different characters lost in space. Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate: Universe, Farscape and Lexx are good models for this sort of thing. That wasn't planned, but I like it.
