The Campaign Builder's Guild

The Archives => Homebrews (Archived) => Topic started by: Loch Belthadd on October 22, 2008, 10:42:03 AM

Title: tubes
Post by: Loch Belthadd on October 22, 2008, 10:42:03 AM
This isn't really a campaign world but is something that could be in any campaign. The tubes connect every world with other worlds. The tubes are guarded by a paladin order and only know to a few people. If you enter a tube in Eberron you might come out in CeBeGia, or in any other world. You might even come out in a different version of D&D (3.5 to 4). These tubes are interdimensional portals.
I need imput on these. :D
Title: tubes
Post by: Nomadic on October 22, 2008, 03:37:45 PM
Interesting though it could play havoc with the rules systems. What I might suggest is to keep it in the realm of fluff. Have everything structured on one rules system but allow your group to enter tubes and come out in different worlds.
Title: tubes
Post by: Ninja D! on October 22, 2008, 10:06:28 PM
Just like portals from Forgotten Realms.
Title: tubes
Post by: Kindling on October 23, 2008, 05:58:21 AM
What exactly do you mean by "Tubes"? Are they literal physical tubes leading through 3-dimensional space from one world to another, or are they more mystical/extradimensional?

It may just be due to the nomenclature, but your idea gives me an image of riding the London Underground from plane to plane... "This train terminates at Eberron via Greyhawk. The next station is Ravenloft, Greyhawk branch. Please mind the gap between the train and the platform."
Title: tubes
Post by: Ninja D! on October 23, 2008, 07:16:55 AM
Quote from: KindlingWhat exactly do you mean by "Tubes"? Are they literal physical tubes leading through 3-dimensional space from one world to another, or are they more mystical/extradimensional?

It may just be due to the nomenclature, but your idea gives me an image of riding the London Underground from plane to plane... "This train terminates at Eberron via Greyhawk. The next station is Ravenloft, Greyhawk branch. Please mind the gap between the train and the platform."
You just made the idea sound cool to me.  If there were someone operating something like this...something like gods...that have all but lost interest in the worlds, that would be cool.
Title: tubes
Post by: Loch Belthadd on October 23, 2008, 08:11:35 AM
That might work, but I was thinking something like a big hole that you jump into and it teleports you to another material plane/world.
Title: tubes
Post by: Ninja D! on October 23, 2008, 08:14:25 AM
Quote from: Loch BelthaddThat might work, but I was thinking something like a big hole that you jump into and it teleports you to another material plane/world.
So, in short, you mean exactly like the portals from Forgotten Realms.  Not saying that it is a terrible idea, it can be cool sometimes, just not new.
Title: tubes
Post by: Hibou on October 23, 2008, 09:26:30 AM
One thing to keep in mind is they'll probably have to be in quite remote areas, otherwise it'll be very easy access to other settings and will probably drastically change the way each setting works... unless you want things to be that way
Title: tubes
Post by: Nomadic on October 23, 2008, 03:01:34 PM
Quote from: KindlingWhat exactly do you mean by "Tubes"? Are they literal physical tubes leading through 3-dimensional space from one world to another, or are they more mystical/extradimensional?

It may just be due to the nomenclature, but your idea gives me an image of riding the London Underground from plane to plane... "This train terminates at Eberron via Greyhawk. The next station is Ravenloft, Greyhawk branch. Please mind the gap between the train and the platform."

That has got to be one of the most incredibly awesome ideas I have ever heard.
Title: tubes
Post by: XXsiriusXX on October 23, 2008, 04:24:56 PM
Quote from: Nomadic
Quote from: KindlingWhat exactly do you mean by "Tubes"? Are they literal physical tubes leading through 3-dimensional space from one world to another, or are they more mystical/extradimensional?

It may just be due to the nomenclature, but your idea gives me an image of riding the London Underground from plane to plane... "This train terminates at Eberron via Greyhawk. The next station is Ravenloft, Greyhawk branch. Please mind the gap between the train and the platform."

That has got to be one of the most incredibly awesome ideas I have ever heard.

it is a rather cool idea. it reminds me of the subway station from the third matrix movie.
Title: tubes
Post by: Nomadic on October 23, 2008, 04:32:19 PM
Alternately, this could be a setting taking place inside the internet, which as we all know is more akin to a series of tubes.
Title: tubes
Post by: Matt Larkin (author) on October 23, 2008, 04:40:21 PM
Quote from: XXsiriusXX
Quote from: Nomadic
Quote from: KindlingWhat exactly do you mean by "Tubes"? Are they literal physical tubes leading through 3-dimensional space from one world to another, or are they more mystical/extradimensional?

It may just be due to the nomenclature, but your idea gives me an image of riding the London Underground from plane to plane... "This train terminates at Eberron via Greyhawk. The next station is Ravenloft, Greyhawk branch. Please mind the gap between the train and the platform."

That has got to be one of the most incredibly awesome ideas I have ever heard.

it is a rather cool idea. it reminds me of the subway station from the third matrix movie.

Reminded me of Gaiman's Neverwhere.
Title: tubes
Post by: Loch Belthadd on October 23, 2008, 05:04:16 PM
I was thinking extremely remote places that almost no-one has heard about deep underground, guarded by inevitables and high level knights.
Title: tubes
Post by: Kindling on October 23, 2008, 05:39:55 PM
Quote from: Loch BelthaddI was thinking extremely remote places that almost no-one has heard about deep underground, guarded by inevitables and high level knights.

If these Tubes of yours are so unheard-of, and yet there are people who guard them, these people must have a very good reason for keeping both the Tubes and themselves a secret. If these knights are high-level, what is it that motivates them to dwell underground protecting a mystical portal that few, if any, people know about, when they could gain fame and fortune with their exceptional skills in the world above.

Also, I do have to agree with other posters in this thread; the idea has been done to death in one form or another. Personally, I love Planescape (it's the one setting - although yes, it is in a way many settings - that, to me, makes D&D "work" as a combined setting and system) and if I wanted to have a planehopping fantasy game, I'd use that for it.
Title: tubes
Post by: Ninja D! on October 24, 2008, 08:36:50 AM
Kindling has a point with Planescape.  Still, I know how it feels to really want to do something your own way, even if others say (or even if you know) it has been done to death.

I'm not saying this had been done to death but it has been done.  Heck, I even planned out a campaign once that jumped from a setting of my own design to Forgotten Realms to Scarred Lands.
Title: tubes
Post by: Loch Belthadd on October 24, 2008, 10:35:50 AM
I hadn't heard about planescape before. The guards and inevitables guard it because it breaks the natural laws of the multiverse and they haven't found a way to destroy it.
Title: tubes
Post by: Ninja D! on October 24, 2008, 12:30:12 PM
Well, then...

Why would the inevitables work with the mortals?  Why wouldn't it be just one or they other?  

If these tubes go from world to world, are the guardians the same at every opening?  Are they the same because those guards have, themselves, broken the rules and travelled there?  Or has the same organization developed on its own in each world?  (Most would call that a failing in logic, I would call it something very interesting to explore.  It could indicated that there is one over power that rules over all these worlds.)

Lastly, look into Planescape.  It's pretty cool and there is probably a lot of stuff you could take from it to further this idea.  Not sold on it yet?  How about this : Giant Space Hamsters.