tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post5574819324853263190..comments2024-03-28T09:41:39.187-04:00Comments on GROGNARDIA: Alternate UniverseJames Maliszewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-32090232117704905492021-04-09T15:26:06.491-04:002021-04-09T15:26:06.491-04:00The "Tree of Time" style of multiverse/a...The "Tree of Time" style of multiverse/alt-world model shows up a lot in scifi and fantasy entertainment, although Tekumel's a little unusual in the idea of "branches" sometimes rejoining the "trunk" - which makes it more of a messy "river delta of time" than any flora I know of, but that's not as pretty a metaphor. Still, it's been seen elsewhere - Discworld springs to mind, with a timeline full of patches, loops and side-currents.<br /><br />Myself, I've never cared for the "one tree" structure, and prefer the idea of a potentially infinite number of different trees that don't interact normally but can sometimes "graft" to each others' outlying (and outlandish) "branches" to produce truly strange alt-universes that resemble mashups of their parent "tree" trunk-lines. Shadowrun might be an example of a grafted timeline between a tree without magic and one with way too much of it, for ex.<br /><br />Stretching the metaphor, you might also have "vine" timelines, very alien spacetimes that don't branch themselves due to being inherently deterministic when isolated, but which seek out "tree" timelines to attach themselves to and parasitize. "Trees" might be full of potential for existence, with their "branches" letting them transform vague possibilities into concrete reality better than the strictly linear structure of the "vine" timelines. Your really, seriously incomprehensible metacosmic threats might come from (or just be) "vines" that have attached to the "tree" you call home. Dick McGeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14521293874696659063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-90790463532265502452021-04-09T15:07:40.882-04:002021-04-09T15:07:40.882-04:00Which publishers would that be? The newer RPGs I&...Which publishers would that be? The newer RPGs I've bought over the last twenty years or so (which is "newer" to me) have overwhelmingly been genre toolkits, with a few stabs at universal game engines to let you play any genre or setting (something Chaosium's BRP still does better than later efforts). Very few have had "hyper detailed" settings, with the rare exceptions generally being licensed IPs with pre-existing canon (eg Star Wars, Aliens, the Harry Dresden RPG).<br /><br />Most of the really detailed settings I can think of off hand are older work, with decades of gaming history behind them. Tekumel, obviously, Glorantha, Traveller's "official" timeline centered around the Third Imperium. And all of those actively encourage GMs to make their setting whatever suits your campaign rather than sweating the (extensive) details. Traveller even has core mechanics that work pretty well for a multitude of divergent scifi settings and subgenres - assuming you alter tech assumptions to suit. <br /><br />There are only a few recent games I can think of with elaborate settings where "playing right" from the publisher's POV would require getting the specifics of their world down pat - most notably Legend of Five Rings and Seventh Sea, neither of which leave much wiggle rom for a GM to make major changes. Or more accurately, if you did want to make major changes, you'd be better off using more versatile rule systems. Sure, Rokugan could theoretically be attacked by kaiju and your campaign could revolve around PCs empowered by the kami to fight them Ultraman-style, but L5R's rules wouldn't help much with that. Dick McGeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14521293874696659063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-65197773204100460932021-04-09T12:36:01.388-04:002021-04-09T12:36:01.388-04:00These days, publishers would want you to worry abo...These days, publishers would want you to worry about diverging from the published version. Hyper detailed settings with an advancing official storyline are a vital part of marketing fictional game universes.Ghasthousehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07401924351959645260noreply@blogger.com