Searching for the Beginning of Frontier

[Sylus Thane]

In searching for a way to bring my version of the multiverse (Frontier) to life I have been searching for a way in which to present my different settings. In doing so I came across an idea for doing so that I felt I should put across to everyone here. In short, by going by my own criteria that a Multiverse provides settings that are either easily enjoyed seperately or conjunctly, I decided that I would offer up the various Frontier settings in a timeline format.

The timeline would roughly go as thus:
Modern Day: This setting isn't fleshed out as yet but I am leaning towards something goes in depth of secret government agencies and conspiracy theories.

fast forward at least several decades (I think)

Genome: A setting based on people with super human powers unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. Powers would not be quite to the extreme of most comic books but would definitly be superior to any normal human being. The cause I have used is current modern day debates over genetic engineering, chem warfare, cloning, and other such controversial issues I can conceivably see causing a change in our world if taken to an extreme.

Fast forward possibly a century and some decades(I haven't really determined an exact amount of time as I feel it may create problems for players to create their own dynamic influences in history.)

Jupiter Rising: This is my Apocalyptic setting in which the premise is that Earths solar system suffers a near eradicating meteor storm is which a gigantic meteor strikes with enough force igniting Jupiter subsequenting turning it into a second sun. (I know this may not be scientifically sound but it sounded fun and unique enough to give a try.) Leaving Humanity in the position of trying to rebuild after the cataclysm.

Fast forward at least several centuries.

Lost Horizons: Humanity has once again begun to look to the stars and begins to explore discovering several races along its path of conquering space. But, as with all things they have not always learned from histories mistakes. Genetic engineering and other things will have made a permanent mark.

Fast forward at least a couple millenia.

Dawn of the Magi: Man in his forging for the stars has failed to listen to history and not repeat his mistakes. After a climactic final battle between all the races for what is believed to be the last viable planet all is left is survivors and burning hulks of once mighty starships. After the loss of their technology and possibly several more millenia their once mighty empires Fallen, the survivors of these many races return to their spiritual and mystical roots and try and start over in peace. (This is essentially my Sword and Sorcery setting with small elements of leftover technology thrown in. As well as reason to use non-standard races.)

It is my belief that supernatural aspects, such as vampires and the like can easily be thrown into any one of these various settings or used by itself in modern day.

My main questions about all of this would be:

1. Does anyone see any glaring problems as to why things could not presented this?

2. Has this ever been done before? If so by whom, and can their mistakes or successess be easily pointed out?

and
3. What do people think in general? Do you see this as a viable and unique option or something better left untried? Or does it maybe hit some visceral thrill button giving you ideas of what you could do with this kind of setup?

Thanks ahead of time for any comments or questions.
Sylus

[Mike Holmes]

I'm trying to see what the framework is that you're referring to. Is it just the idea that these are all, in fact, the same universe but at different times? That seems pretty doable. And would have the advantage that some material from one setting might be usable in the other in the form of ruins and ancient civilizations, etc.

OTOH, this would then not really be a "Multiverse" by your or anyone else's definition.

Or is there something here I'm not gettting?

Have you looked at Multiverser, yet?

Mike

[Sylus Thane]

Hey Mike, unfortunately no I haven't had a chance to look at Multiverser, I hope to soon though.

I'm thinking that (it may become something different entirely) by introducing things within a timeline people could keep things seperate, by playing them only within their own timeframe, or combine them together as they see fit. Concievably they could choose only one or two things that continue to be relevant within the game time history or combine all of them. Hopefully in this way I would be keeping with my definition of Multiverse, if not, then it has become something else entirely, which I'm fine with to. Going back to previous questions have you ever heard of anyone attempting this and if so what were the definable outcomes if any?

Sylus

[Mike Holmes]

Sounds pretty original to me. Actually, Contracycle and I tried to put something together a while back that had some similarities. Basically, it was set in ancient Mesopotamia and the idea was that you played through the lives of many people through the centuries. And I heard that he's working on something called "Dynasties" now that probably is similar in some ways.

Aria has some similar ideas.

But I think it's mostly uncharted water you're sailing for.

Can you describe the idea in any more detail?

Mike

[szilard]

Well... outside the realm of indie games, White Wolf did something that seems at least superficially similar with their Aeonverse (Adventure! - pulp action, Aberrant - superhero, Trinity - sf/psionic) games.

Stuart

[Sylus Thane]

Can you describe the idea in any more detail?

Mike

Sure, I don't know if your familiar with any of Robert Heinleins books but he developed what is known as the Future History, in which he started at one particular point in time and then extrapolated his views on how he felt the world would develop from many different viewpoints. In a way my idea is similar to this in that I took a point in time, modern day, and then extrapolated as to how i could fit in what I call the five major genres, being sci-fi, apocalyptic, super heroes, sword and sorcery, and then horror, in at least their basic forms. In this way it was my intent to in a sense evolve the world to include my genres and also leave them in a state in which they could be played seperately as a genre/setting/style all to themselves or easily combined in the fact they continued to evolve with the rest as the group playing them saw fit. Also making easier for to integrate all of my rules cohesively and make so that genre specific areas were more easily removed or added as nescessary as they were all developed together but not dependent of each other. I also applied this principle to the settings so that they were easily added together or used seperately. Hopefully this is a little more detailed for you but please feel free to ask more questions and I'll try and be as specific as I can.

Sylus

[Harsh Attack]

White-wolf studios actually has a game that utilizes a timeline to create different genres with the same universe.  That would be their Triniverse, don't know if you've played them because it's not as popular as their world of darkness, but theirs Adventure, set in the 1920's and 30's, Abberant set in the near future(rather shortsightedly, actually cause now we're pretty much in the thick of when it takes place, but when it was written it was near-future), and Trinity, which takes place in the far future.  After that there's millenium's edge(still in progress of being written) which takes place in the faaaaaaaaaaaaaar future at the dawn of the next millenium.

The major difference between your timeline and theirs is that each section is a different book, and a different game.

There's definately an awesome advantage that you can take any time period separate to itself, or you can utilize your knowlege of past or future events to design a campeign that fits into the "bigger picture" which is always a very fun thing to do.

I'd be interested in seeing the completed project when your through with the writing.

[Mike Holmes]

Stuart, had no idea that these WW games were linked that way (makes sense having only played them). Does this seem to have been pre-planned, or does it seem to be something that was tacked on after the fact? Also, fine, it's the same universe, but does that have any impact on play? Are there any suggestions in, say, Adventure! to do time-travel or anything (particularly interested because I'm playing that right now with Josh Neff et al).

Mike

[szilard]

Honestly, I don't know how exactly much built-in interaction there is. I've only played Aberrant (and that only once or so).

I do know that there are Novas (Aberrant PCs) in the Trinity setting (as NPCs). I know that some people have played Aberrant and advanced the time (either through time travel or long-lved PCs) to the Trinity setting (where Novas are thought of as monsters rather than heroes, and generally for good reason). I also know that there is extensive meta-plot and conspiracy-stuff that runs through all three games (including some NPCs who seem to be present in all three). I don't know enough to comment on the quality of it, though.

Stuart

[Harsh Attack]

Direct interaction:

The whole thing was defininately pre-planned.
The character of Maxwell Mercer from Adventure is a time traveller.  Doctor Primoris(if you read the subtext in the adventure and aberrant books) later actually becomes divis mal.  Mercer actually sees the age of novas and later the psions in his travels through time(that's how he was inspired to form aeon).  In milleniums edge, mercer comes back to fight a final battle against mal and colony that spans the whole universe.

As all meta-plots in WW, these aren't necessary for your game, but you can incorporate them if you want.

I've loved the triniverse since trinity came out... ;)

[Allan]

Sylus, will time travel between the different settings of your Multiverse be possible for PCs.

[Sylus Thane]

I'm not sure, I hadn't gotten that far but it sounds interesting. I'll post more later after I've fleshed it out.

Sylus

[Sylus Thane]

Ok, I would assume that time travel should be more than possible within the Timeline setting. In fact it could be that overall that instead of being a bunch of settings lumped together to form different stages of one long one, it could instead be one setting in which time travel is possible. I would assume that characters are made the same no matter what. I'm just not sure how the time travel part would work. Thanks Allen I'll definitlyhave to work up a means of time travel now. Muhahahahahaha!!!!

Sylus

[richks]

In all, I can't see any major problems with this, but there is the question of "why bother?".  What you're talking about is a bunch of different settings, all of which are interesting in their own right and then you shoehorn them together with little or no interaction.  This has been done before in Shadowrun & Earthdawn, as well as the above mentioned Triniverse (which I'm not really familiar with).  

One way to keep all this working and also "mesh" it together is to have them all as Parallel Timelines(TM).  They're all identical timelines, but they start at different points.  So as a result, you can arrange for characters to travel between the worlds without there being too much "changing history" to worry about.  A neat campaign idea in this situation would be a dimension spanning conspiracy, with the PCs traveling between the settings and investigating/writing wrongs etc.  You could have mixed parties quite easily.  the general population would be totally ignorant of the fact that there are these parallels and it's all very secret.  Different organisations from each period probably vie for control of it all.  There might be rival factions within each period as well, and the players might start out not knowing that there are other timelines at all.  Are these lasers the product of a secret lab in the antactic?  No, they were just bought locally in 2783 for 8$ from Sears.

Otoh, this might end up being a cross between Conspiracy X and The Adventures of Luther Arkwright...

I'm sure there are other ways to do this sort of thing as well, but that's the one that occurs right now.

[Mike Holmes]

Many, many pitfalls of this sort of thing, and lots of good advice can be found in GURPS Time Travel.

Mike