The Campaign Builder's Guild

Superhero world:
New or Old: Are there too many in Old?  Too few in New?
Too few = not enough people.
Too many = weight of history.
Weight => can't quite be heroes.
Don't feel like being hero anyway.
Agents?  Agents in the world of heroes?  Super-agents?
Maybe one place feels too limited.  Maybe more space = more space to be creative?

It's about too little room left to do anything in.  I can start with heroes already there, but the more there are the less there are left to do.  I want people to look up and go "Oh superhero" not "HOLY ******* ****", but not have to make all those heroes.

I hope I can pull it off.

[ic]There is a legend told about the first Wanderers.  In these legends they're call Fox and Cat.  Oh, that don't mean they're anything like any fox and cat you know.  No, these are just names People gave them because People can't think without names.

So this is a legend about them......well, it's actually a myth, and while it's about them being the first Wanderers it's also about them creating the reason to Wander in the first place.  These kinds'a stories are complicated like that.

So in the beginning Fox and Cat were doing......whatever it is that was before there could be Wandering.  And so while they were doing this they came upon a group of People.  These People, they were searching for knowledge, wisdom, meaning, all those things that People need to find, I guess because they lost them sometime.  And when Fox and Cat came upon the People the People knew who they were, and said "Great Fox and Great Cat, who know many things, will you please lead us to find knowledge, wisdom, meaning, ourselves?"

And Fox and Cat, well, they exchanged a glance, and then said "Follow our pawprints, and you shall find yourselves.  For your selves are quite near."

And they were away.  And the People followed, and tracked them by their pawprints, not matter how far they were from one to another.  See, Fox and Cat have long strides, and to find their pawprints you have to search quite long.  But the people kept at it, and they kept going and going, farther and farther.  Sometimes one of the People would call out "Is it much farther?"  And Fox and Cat would call back "No, no, your selves are very near."  And the People kept following.

Even today, they are still following.

Eh, what's that you ask?  "Are they the Wanderers?"  No, remember what I said?  Fox and Cat, they were the first Wanderers.  Not the People who followed.

A Wanderer is not someone who follows and seeks.  A Wanderer is someone who goes first and calls back "What you seek is very near."[/ic]
[ic]Some people call it the "Out-there".  The Wanderers call it the "Out-here".[/ic]

Out-here isn't a setting, it's a place for settings to exist.  Out-here is a huge multiverse, containing countless worlds, peoples, conflicts, and just plain weird stuff.  Most of it will only remain a vague background to whoever the characters are and what they do, but they'll never need to save it.  The point of Out-here is stability: it's so vast that there's not way it could all be bad.

Species Revised

Notes: Panian: Essentially means the same thing as our word "humanoid", except it isn't based upon referring to one species and thus is not considered specist.  When referring to human-like head/facial features the word hominid is used.
On hybrids: Hybrids between species happen.  Unfortunately the relative chances of success are difficult to predict, even disregarding the influence of ah'rem powers.

Tek: Perhaps one of the most fascinating, if not the most common, sentient species of the Pawprints, the uniqueness of the tek lies not in appearance or special abilities but in a peculiar genetic lefover.  During gestation a tek's genome regarding their outer appearance mutates and rearranges itself constantly, shut down only by the presence of a certain hormone.  From then on a tek's appearance remains stable, only affected by normal aging hormones.
This gestation-form-shifting means that there is no one tek look, thought they are all panians.  Tek can most often be said to resemble other creatures: feline, canine, equine, lapine, and rodent are a few of the possibilities.  Mammalian tends to be the most common, however.  Coloration varies widely, too, from muted to bright tones and in many kinds of patterns.  Extra features such as additional tails or wings are uncommon but not rare.  Tek hybridize easily with many other panian species, though because non-tech genes are not as readily malliable the resulting offspring will still resemble the non-tek parent as usual for that species, and in fact their form will be mostly from that parent.
Because of this lack if inherited form tek societies do not carry many of the notions more stable species develop: bloodline and blood power, racial groupings and prejudice, and partner choice and family make-up.  Tek are known throughout the Pawprints as a generally tolerant and accepting species, and they are often called upon to make first contact with a new culture.

Koryuu: A small species descended from rodent-hunting predators Koryuu are a hardy and adaptable race.  Their bodies are well equipped to survive in extreme environments, hot, cold, arid, and even a semi-aquatic existence.  Their digestive systems are especially tough, allowing them to eat foods that would sicken or kill other beings.  Their eyes can see into the infrared spectrum and their hearing is quite accute, allowing them to operate relatively well in conditions of no light.  But their two most important traits are their multi-pedal lifestyle: they can switch between quadrapedal and bipedal modes without trouble.
A koyruu's head is somewhat feline with a short muzzle and large eyes, though more streamlined in that the muzzle widens toward the back and smoothly joins the cheek area.  The ears are long and narrow, almost lapine, and come to points.  The body and legs are more canine, though the legs look powerful.  The tails are not long in relation to body length, and are usually covered in fur.  Coloration is often various patterns of blue-black mixed with orange, red, and/or gold, though solid coloration of those latter three as well as blue hues are known.  Eyes are mostly dark colors, red and purple being common.

Sonata: The supposed ancestors of the tek, the sonata were shapeshifters who could supposedly alter not only their outer appearance but their entire body structure and mass.  Unfortunately all of what is known about them comes from legends: they are considered to have been extinct for thousands of years at least.  Some individuals have appeared claimed to be one of them, but invariably they turn out to be mutant tek throwbacks.

Notes: Panian: Essentially means the same thing as our word "humanoid", except it isn't based upon referring to one species and thus is not considered specist. When referring to human-like head/facial features the word hominid is used.


Tek: The most common sentient species in the known galaxy, and for good reason: they are the most adventurous, cosmopolitan, and one of the most adaptable species in the known galaxy.  They owe most of this success to a genetic leftover from their ancestors: during gestation a tek's genome regarding their outer appearance mutates and rearranges itself constantly, shut down only by the presence of a certain hormone. From then on a tek's appearance remains stable, only affected by normal aging hormones.  Because of this lack if inherited form tek societies do not carry many of the notions more stable species develop: bloodline and blood power, racial groupings and prejudice, and partner choice and family make-up.
This gestation-form-shifting means that there is no one tek look, thought they are all panians. Tek can most often be said to resemble other creatures: feline, canine, equine, lapine, and rodent are a few of the possibilities. Mammalian tends to be the most common, however. Coloration varies widely, too, from muted to bright tones and in many kinds of patterns. Extra features such as additional tails or wings are uncommon but not rare.
Tek hybridize easily with many other panian species, though because non-tek genes are not as readily malliable the resulting offspring will still resemble the non-tek parent as usual for that species, and in fact their tek DNA seems to adapt so that the form will be mostly from that parent.

Humans: An unremarkable panian species upon first discovery, humans have become characterized for their genetic self-modification.  Whether adapting their physiology to colonize a new planet, boosting their systems to live longer and heathier, or simply accessorizing their bodies, humans have wielded genetic engineering so casually that the are now as distant from their homeworld ancestors as those people were from their forebears.
Humans appear mostly as they did when first contacted, those these days they sport skin, eye, and hair colors impossible naturally for their species.  In addition many have accessorized features such as animal ears and tails.

Sonata: Limited shapeshifters, some scientists aren't sure if the sonata represent an actual species so much as an inheritable condition.  This confusion stems from their reproduction: sonata can reproduce with many different panian species (especially tek, whom they are the ancestors of), and the resulting offspring at first appears to be of that species but will eventually develop shapeshifting and the perceptiveness of a sonata.  Even sophisticated genetic testing often fails to notice this trait until it has fully matured.
Sonata are capable of appearing as nearly any panian species, though the forms seen in tek are the least difficult.

Heyaafoura: A very unique species resembling mantid insects, heyaafoura are not in fact biological organisms.  Though their bodies mimic biological functions there non-bio nature can be seen in their ability to upgrade via modular parts.
The basic form of a heyaafoura is a nearly rectangular semi-chitonous torso, with appendages at each corner and one pair in the middle.  The legs each have two normal joints and one "wrist" joint, plus a "hand" with an average of six finger-like claws.  Their heads are triangular with the point toward the jawed mouth and large eyes at the other points.  They do not possess any form of antenna.
All other aspects of heyaafoura appearance depend upon what parts they have on their bodies: they can be large and hulking or smaller and thin; they may utilize four of their appendages as legs or only two; color can vary, but is usually either a sandy gold or dark blue-grey.  The parts are easy to deal with: the heyaafoura enters a "trance"  and then can just tug out a part and place in a new one.  The only limitation to this procedure is that the brain of the individual is unreplaceable.
Heyaafoura reproduction is surprisingly simple method given their "biology": each mating individual, and there can be more than one, produces a "seed part" which can then be attached together and grow into a new heyaafoura.

Koryuu: One of the more extreme-living species in the galaxy, Koryuu are capable of surviving in environments ranging though hot, cold, arid, and even a semi-aquatic existence.  Their digestive systems are especially tough, allowing them to eat foods that would sicken or kill other beings.  Their eyes can see into the infrared spectrum and their hearing is quite accute, allowing them to operate relatively well in conditions of no light.  There is one factor that limits their spread: they are quadrupedal, and their front paws do not have the manual dexterity for the complex work required to create and maintain interstellar technology.  Thus they must rely on other species for travel.
A koyruu's head is somewhat feline with a short muzzle and large eyes, though more streamlined in that the muzzle widens toward the back and smoothly joins the cheek area.  Their ears are large and pointed, matching the head in size. The body and legs are more canine, proportioned for running rather than sprinting. The tails are not long in relation to body length, and are usually covered in fur. Coloration is often various patterns of blue-black mixed with orange, red, and/or gold, though solid coloration of those latter three as well as blue hues are known. Eyes are mostly dark colors, red and purple being common.


Symphona: The supposed ancestors of the tek and sonata, the symphona could supposedly alter not only their outer appearance but their entire body structure and mass.  Unfortunately all of what is known about them comes from legends: they are considered to have been extinct for thousands of years at least.  Some individuals have appeared claimed to be one of them, but invariably they turn out to be mutant throwbacks.

low-think anime fantasy

People: The beings that feel the need to gather together in social groups and build "civilization".  Many feel the need to find "meaning", eventually leading to the need to the need to bash each other over the head because of disagreement.  They seems to have many needs.
Most are quite weak creatures, and few have any sort of inherent magic.
They like to divide themselves up into categories known as "races".
----Humans: Furless primates, humans are characterized by two things: a need to prove themselves and the further dividing up of their race into even smaller groups based upon minor physical details.  Also for being horny enough to try producing a hybrid with anything at least once.
----Nekojin: Officially the "universal symbol of hotness", nekojin have so many stereotypes swirling around them that their true nature has become obscured even from many of their own kind.  Even their name nekojin, "cat people", is an erroneous description for the vague resemblance of their top-mounted pointed ears, long tail, and fur patterns to felines.
----Half-dragons: Dragons are horny bastards.  Humans, as previously established, are also horny bastards.  Enough so that they managed to produce a distinct hybrid race before the dragons mostly disappeared.  Half-dragons just look like humans with small reptilian horns, wings, and tail.  They also act exactly like humans, except they have a tendency to think of themselves as superior to everyone because they're part-dragon.

Non-People Beings:
--Unicorns: Pretty white or black horses with an obsession for getting involved in causes, benign or malicious.  Obviously they tend to be rare.
--Demons: Universally considered the "coolest" of beings, demons just look like other creatures with extra bits added such as horns or wings.  Unfortunately the closer a demon looks to an average ideal of attractiveness for that type of being the more likely that demon is to suffer from a massive superiority complex.  They do, however, have a lot of inherent magic going for them.
--Trolls: Wise beings who live underground and have a connection to the earth and its powerful magic.  They generally appear as mounds of mud and leaves with limbs and faces, but really they can look like anything they want.
--Taur: Massive "humanoid" bovines often gifted with great cleverness and insight.  They rarely use magic, not out of any fear or hatred but simply because they prefer their wits as weapons.
--Wyverns: Creatures that look like dragons except they have only one pair of legs.  They also aren't hyper-smart or -powerful like dragons, although they are intelligent and friendly enough to be used as mounts.
--Grunts: Warped mutants used by powerful sorcerers as muscle.

This setting is intended to exist in Gold Rush Game's San Angelo setting, though with some minor modifications and borrowing occasionally from Freedom City and other sources.

Powers: "Psionic" and "magical" powers actually have scientific basis, though their users are not aware of this nor cognizant, most of the time, that their powers do not operate and affect the world as they believe.

Rarity of super-people: Super-anything isn't especially common anywhere in the world.  People who gain super-powers in any way are rare to start with, and not all of those become heroes or villains.  Most of those latter tend to operate locally anyway, leaving the final list of well-known heroes and villains short enough that ordinary people can often remember it.
For geographical distribution the prime area is California, followed by the former Soviet Union and Germany (as the result of super-soldier programs by the Soviets and Nazis, respectively).  After that it's pretty much a crap shoot.

Technological status: While limited by rarity, super-geniuses have not been completely useless.  Their contributions have allowed space exploration to progress to the point at which a colony satellite is a realistic goal being pursued by the international community.  Advances in energy technology have unleashed efficient hydrogen fuel cells and reliable fusion power plants.  Light-based technologies such as holograms and laser weapons are in use by some government agencies.  While the world still mostly resembles 2009 RL it may not for very long.

Focus Area: West Gate, "City of Sunsets".  It sits somewhere between San Fransisco and Monterey.

Title: Nexus City

Premise: Adventures in an sci-fi city.
Twist: The city occasionally seems to leak into other dimensions.

Setting Conceits Regarding 'Mental' Powers and the Like: There are no spiritual powers such as psychics/psionics, magic, or divine/spirit/chi.  Everything is scientific at its core.

Species: There are only three sentient species: humans; semi-organic AIs (shi-lin); and highly advanced shapeshifters.

Universe Backstory: At some point the shapeshifters -- a dwindling population now consisting totally of scientists -- got a hold of some humans, enslaving them for use in genetic experiments and as a labor force.  As the shapeshifters explored the galaxy they took humans with them and altered them to fit a planet's environment.  Finally the shapeshifters were spread too thin to be effective overlords, and the humans overthrew them, in the process also freeing the shapeshifters' AIs.  Most of the shapeshifters were imprisoned in far-off systems, but a few who had aided the rebellion were allowed to remain free.  But without the shapeshifters to keep them in line the humans went right back to their old habits of beating each other up over petty details.
It is several hundred years later.  While some humans still fight each other there are increasingly more who wish to find peace and have joined together in an interstellar alliance.

Aliens:
Base Humans

Sagittarians (humans with horse-like ears/horse centaur)
Leonans (humans with lion-like features/lion centaur)
Aresans (humans with ram horns and ears)
Aquarians (merpeople)

---- (anthro horse/horse centuar)
---- (anthro collie/collie centaur)
Duskwalkers/Sunracers (sentient wolves)
---- (sentient burrowing owls)

Zodiac Alliance setting

Game Ideas
Series Title: Primal Force
--Tagline: "Unleash the animal within!"
--Premise: "Sangushou, the shinging jewel in the crown of the Zodiac Alliance.  But in the forgotten corners of the capital Coral City rests an ancient and powerful secret, and one the iron-fisted Atlantians will stop at nothing to get.  Only the heroes of the Primal Force can stand in their way!"
--Protagonists: The Primal Force, supeheroes with an animal theme.
--Antagonists: The Atlantians, a civilization of human control-freaks who have mastered biotechnology to subjugate nature.
--Setting: Sangoshou, a tropical paradise planet.

At the trailward edge of Alliance territory sits the planet of Cali.  Sitting on the edge of the Peaceful Expanse Cali is in a perfect position as a hub of trade with the nations of the Sattva arm while remaining out of range of their conflicts.  In addition to trade the climate of Nexus is sub-tropical year-round, which makes it a favored tourist destination for the species residing within the Alliance, and contributing to the planet's grand prosperity.

However there are some who come to the planet for a different reason: phenomena of the paranormal, commonly reported on the nearby arid planets, are centered in the popular mind around Kali.  This draws truth-seekers of all types to the planet, whether in search of definitive explanations or a spiritual awakening (the latter helped by the presence of Sattva's Bodhi religion).  There are many people convinced that a galaxy-shattering secret waits to be found on Kali, especially within its capital city of Nexus.

What is Nexus City?
It's the paranormal phenomena and new age mysticism living in the southwestern US centering itself around California convinced that there is some secret key there and translated into a spacefaring setting.  Both "aliens" and "magic" will features in, and the setting has a really big secret: the Peaceful Expanse (aka the Pacific Ocean), thought to be empty but in fact contains hidden systems with their own inhabited planets, fantasy-style planets, accessable only via concealed portals on Kali.  It can do Paranormal Investigators, it can do Superheroes, it can do Pulp Adventure, it can do Loose-science Sci-fi, and whenever you feel like it you can hop through a portal for some Fantasy.

Normally when I come up with a setting I write a bunch of stuff up on a thread in the Homebrew and then wait for a response.  And don't get one or much of one.  And I think I understand why: I'm not posting anything people find original and/or creative enough that it's worth peoples' precious time to read.

So rather than do that process all over again this time I want to present the main ideas and see if they intrigue people, and if not find out what I might do to change them to make them more interesting.  I really would like questions and critiques of these ideas.

Multiple worlds linked by a ground-level method: One world feels claustrophobic, and just doesn't have enough different places to draw adventures in/from.  Can't do space-travel because space feels too open and empty.  That leaves travel by portal.  I kinda like it because it eliminates the need for the whole spaceship industry and it suggests that people (and characters) might not be able to just hop to whatever point on another planet they like, as with spaceship travel, or hide out in the vastness of space.
The portals would be naturally occurring because I like the idea that people aren't the ones responsible for creating the most important element of their universe.  However there's something to be said for people having some control somewhere in this travel method, so I'm thinking that while the portals occur naturally they have to be "activated" somehow, so they generally wouldn't open on their own.  To keep having a portal from giving you access to everywhere I'll say that most only connect to one other point.
The impact on society and economics is not something I can figure out: would it really be that different from having one world, just a huge lot more places in it?

Impersonal, unintelligent magic: I like magic.  But there's something I hate about it when it operates according to the worldview of people.  I'd rather have it work its own way and people have to figure out it, they way they have to approach science.
Also I don't like there being an intelligent force behind or controlling magic.  This applies both to gods and the "minds/souls" of people, and even to the idea that magic understands "words".  Magic should be a natural force, and like all natural forces it doesn't have an intelligence.
I like magic, and I like it this way, but I wonder if I've taken all the bits out of it that really interest other people.

High-tech and magic coexist and complement one another: This setting still advances science even with magic around.  In fact they can use magic to help science, to help technology do more incredible things and to study something with precision science alone can't match.

Magic is a part of the natural world: None of this "magic is separate/comes from another dimension" stuff.  Or the "magic is unnatural" stuff.  Magic is an integral force to this universe and allows for quite fantastic things to be part of the natural order.

Practitioners of magic fight about it's proper use: Flashy Summon vs. subtle Alter; emotional Primal vs. disciplined Soul; cyclic Green vs. draining Black.  These are a few of rivalries and conflicts that have sprung up in those attempting to understand the ways of magic.

Sentient species who look kinda weird but aren't incomprehensible: Aliens with incomprehensible minds and that look really weird are okay for authors that want to show that kind of stuff, but I need the species of this universe to be able to come to understand one another (and for the players to be able to play them) and to generally have forms that people dealing with the setting will understand and will invoke associations with similar looking things on Earth.  This doesn't mean that all sentients would be humans with funny foreheads or even obviously something ripped from Earth, but could be described by referring to Earth things.

Conflict happens, but mostly locally: If something like a war starts somewhere the bottlenecking nature of the portals usually means the war itself doesn't go farther than its own planet.  Other aspects, such as spies and terrorism, might, but it's really difficult to control that anyway.  And reprocussions of the war, such as disrupted trade and refugees, might go very far.

There isn't anything that can threaten the multiverse as a whole or even large areas: No apocalyptic evils or wars that span a large number of planets.  I think this sort of stuff should exist on a bit more personal level.  And it keeps the setting intact.

Old but not stagnant: The civilizations of the multiverse often have roots that trace back ages, but that doesn't mean they've been the same all that time: technology, science, magic, and society have progressed from the ancient days.

Full of secrets and people who know them: There are secrets everywhere from the olden times.  But the multiverse is so vast that you'd lose the pieces if you searched yourself.  Fortunately there are groups that have sprung up, from societies of conquest or hording lore to one of travelers and their waystations.

For the multiple worlds thing I suppose portals could work but they're going to be pretty darn crowded, and will totally revolutionize the way commerce works (imagine London, New York, and Tokyo being instantaneously connected).  The portals would have to be housed in massive buildings (like airports) and would be dominated by vast amounts of cargo being shipped constantly in and out.  The instantaneous travel-method would lead to the formation of inter-connected super-cities which, while technically not existing on the same planets, would overlap and become essentially continuous.  Cities would of course be built around the portals: they're the most sensible places to start building.  The military implications also boggle the mind, as does the potential for terrorism.  The whole overlapping cities thing is a cool idea in and of itself, but perhaps not what you're going for??

I have three suggestions that you might want to ponder about this one:

1) Have space-ships but emphasize the ships, not the space.  Travel could be accomplished on huge spaceships that resemble cities/luxury ocean liners.  All of that darkness/emptiness/void stuff could be played down, and travel could even potentially be glossed over almost completely.  Think Indiana Jones but with the red line on a star-chart instead of a planetary map.

2) Have a big planet with lots and lots of moons, a planet absolutely enormous but low-density and thus earth-like in its gravity.  Travel between the moons could be very quick, and would be much more visually appealing than the blackness of space since the view would constantly be dominated by the surface of the planet or the moons themselves, as opposed to the abyssal void.

3) Go the Dune route and have traveling-without-moving or foldspace technique, tesseracting basically, which has to be accomplished by a trained navigator-psychic or powerful computer or something.  In Dune of course the Spice gets involved, but I get the feeling the implications of something like that wouldn't be up your street.  Foldspace technology would work similarly to portals but still requires a ship in orbit and makes travel somewhat more difficult, evading the potential problems of the overlapping-cities inevitability if you have land portals.  You could I suppose work this in with wormholes ("rifts") although the idea that all of the rifts are close to planets seems a little too convenient to me.

For the magic thing, this sounds totally cool to me, and frankly not all that uncommon an approach.  I've personally encountered lots of settings where magic isn't a sentient force and isn't particularly human-centric, but is treated like a form of energy, magical study becoming a science.  Could magic actually form part of the standard interplanetary travel-method?

:huh: Wow.  I actually expected I was going to get the full thing written up and then post it somewhere else, but I'll answer questions now.

Quote from: SteerpikeFor the multiple worlds thing I suppose portals could work but they're going to be pretty darn crowded, and will totally revolutionize the way commerce works (imagine London, New York, and Tokyo being instantaneously connected).  The portals would have to be housed in massive buildings (like airports) and would be dominated by vast amounts of cargo being shipped constantly in and out.  The instantaneous travel-method would lead to the formation of inter-connected super-cities which, while technically not existing on the same planets, would overlap and become essentially continuous.  Cities would of course be built around the portals: they're the most sensible places to start building.  The military implications also boggle the mind, as does the potential for terrorism.  The whole overlapping cities thing is a cool idea in and of itself, but perhaps not what you're going for??

Actually that all sounds perfectly fine to me, even the military and terrorist implications.  For those last two I should remind you that you can't just create portals anywhere, so unless there's one you haven't found you can pretty much control what gets onto your planet.  And the idea that the bad guys could find one you don't know about and start covertly moving in has good adventure potential.
Also in a version that actually appears in the first post of this thread the portals come in pairs that only connect to each other.  So you can't find one portal and then have access to the entire rest of the multiverse.

For your three space suggestions they're each good ideas but I don't think I'm going to use any of them.  Each has aspects that don't quite work for me
Suggestions 1: I tried this in the earlier version of Pulp-Dream, but it's just not enough of an elimination for me to feel comfortable.  Plus I do like how the portals eliminate the need for people to have their own ships in order to travel how they want.
Suggestions 2: This one is actually really, really intriguing, and I'd use it, but I feel like it eliminates the adventure possibility of finding totally new or forgotten places that you have to have multiple unconnected points for.  It seems to me that a civilization with space-faring technology would have been able to explore the surface of an entire planet, even a giant one.
Suggestions 3: I actually had a version like this at one point, where you had to get on a ship, go far enough from the planet, then "jump" or whatever.  It just seems silly when I don't care about the intervening distance.

Quote from: SteerpikeFor the magic thing, this sounds totally cool to me, and frankly not all that uncommon an approach.  I've personally encountered lots of settings where magic isn't a sentient force and isn't particularly human-centric, but is treated like a form of energy, magical study becoming a science.

Good.  The whole point is that magic doesn't need to be this restrictive thing like the laws of physics, but that like all natural things people can only manipulate it, not control it.

Quote from: SteerpikeCould magic actually form part of the standard interplanetary travel-method?

In fact in the very first version of all this, way back when, the multiverse's earliest method involved special mages who could open the portals, and this was the only way until someone found space-warping ore that could create portals.  At that point in my process there wasn't the "you can only open these in certain places", but that was back when being able to travel was more important than the implications of that travel.

Totally off topic but I just had an awesome thought pop into my head. Something bad is about to happen, perhaps someone is about to set off a "nuke" in the city or something similar. The players hijack a small air speeder and barrel it through the portal buildings big front window and fly it through the portal right before the bomb goes off.

And this has been another edition of 'crazy things PCs would totally do'.

Yes, they could do that, so long as they don't mind blowing up whatever's on the other side. :P

But I can see that if I'm sparking those sorts of ideas I do have at least a grain of something good on my hands.

Now that I've got the basics of a setting to use it's time to make up some random campaign ideas:

Premise: A mild-mannered city rests on the site of an imprisioned magical entity.  This entity causes periodic outbreaks of random magical stuff and occasionally tries to get out often with the help of some power-hungry nut.  The heroes must protect the city.
Twist: The entity's existence isn't a secret, the entire city knows.  They treat the magical outbreaks like infestations of particularly annoying vermin.  The city even has a special division assigned to neutralize the messes and stop anyone who'd let the entity out.  For one thing it's a tourist attraction!

Premise: Adventures at a magic school.
Twist: It's a school for Primal, the magic that's all about screaming and waling on people with your fists.

Premise: Cold war espionage in a border region.
Twist: Both spy agencies are tired of the whole affair and instead have joined forces to protect the entire region against greater threats while simultaneously fooling their bosses.

Premise: Fantasy adventure is a region of warm oceans, sweltering jungles, and baking deserts.
Twist: These environments exist in forgotten corners of one city suburb.  All the PCs are teenagers who live in the neighborhood.
Title: Forgotten Corners (no, this is name is not a rip-off of "Forgotten Realms")
Setting: In a seemingly normal city outskirt/suburb the places where hardly anyone goes have become a unified fantasy realm microcosm.
Adventure motivation: Elements of the fantasy realm get out or threaten to get out.  Elements of the outside world threaten to get in.
What the PCs do: Keep everything in order.

Premise: The place is Nexus City, a city unique in the multiverse in that via portals it extends over 9 different planets.

Premise: Elite troubleshooters in the employ of a peaceful monarchy undertake missions to stop evildoers on their home turf and nearby worlds.
Adventure Ideas:
Spear of the Lioness Queen: A daring robbery of the new Treasures of the Moon Court exhibit sets the PCs on the trail of four leonan amazons and a weapon that can control the minds of all men.
Pirates of the Broken Land: Lately the pirates that appear along the trade route crossing the Canyon Sea have become strangely organized and effective.  It's up to the PCs to track down the pirates' secret before this important economic artery becomes impassible.

Premise: A seemingly ordinary city hides gateways to alternate worlds, leading to a secret community of offworlders.  Guardians must protect both the community from the outside world and the outside world from offworld threats.  Annoying community politics doesn't help much.
Factions:
The 12 Great Clans: Beings gifted with the powers of animals: Rat, Auroch, Big Cat, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Antelope, Monkey, Jungle Fowl, Wolf, and Wild Boar.  (There is also a 13th clan, the clan of the Fish, but it members generally seclude themselves deep in the oceans and thus not counted.)  Members of each clan have the ability to transform into their clan's animal as well as any hybrid form between that and human.  When among those in the know they often go around as humans with animal accessories such as ears and tail.

[/size]

[ic]Opening swoop shot, coming around a towering metropolis in the air.  Except as the view moves the lighting changes, from day to night in the sky but the light spilling everywhere.  And if you take time to notice the architecture you maybe can make out 6 or 7 different style groups and functional builds.  And there are different horizons: desert canyons, gleaming oceans, tropical jungles, frigid mountains, sweeping savanna, and ancient ruins.

This isn't any ordinary city.........[/ic]

The Silverse is my own take on a 4-color superhero Earth.  I think of it as a setting where the superheroing is less extreme than most but no less heroic.  The uni/omniverse in this case, and Earth most specifically, does not experience the sort of major events that characterizes other settings (such as Freedom City's Terminus Invasion).  If a supervillain or event becomes threatening it's generally more localized such as on one city or directed at a group such as a corporation (all supervillains follow this plan outline: 1. Take first step in evil scheme; 2. ???; 3. WORLD DOMINATION!).  If a mastermind actually does manage to threaten a large area (say the entire Earth) the scheme never gets to the public before it's foiled.
But the setting still has aliens, lost worlds, ancient magical artifacts, ancient magical artifacts that were left in lost worlds by aliens, evil bad-guys Hell-bent on doing something evil, and lots of fistfights.


Setting Overview

Earth

West Gate City: A major metropolitan city lying on the west coat between San Fransisco and Vandenburg AFB, West Gate has been known since its earliest days for being the focus of strange phenomina.
----Sunset Bridge: Lying across the straights that lead into Vista Bay the Sunset bridge frequently becomes the gateway to other dimensions.

(insert name of secret organization that deals with aliens and covers up their existence): Too many conspiracy theorists postulate the creation of alien cover-up agencies as occurring concurrent to or just after "flying saucers" entered public consciousness.  Yet they also believe aliens have been visiting Earth since humans evolved.  These people never manage to spot the error.
There have always been shadow groups working to keep aliens a secret.  The Egyptians, the Indians, the Chinese, the Romans, the British, the Americans, there has always been one group, someone whether supported by a government or not.  They keep ordinary people from knowing the truth, and keep aliens from messing the world up.


Outer Space:

The Star Alliance: A standard benevolent-yet-heavily-armed space republic.

The Atlantian Empire: A racist state focused on the superiority of the human species over all others.  Not actually Atlantians, the Empire is made up of extraterrestrial humans influenced by displaced Atlantis believers from Earth's early 20th century.

Aliens (overview):
Notes: Panian: Essentially means the same thing as our word "humanoid", except it isn't based upon referring to one species and thus is not considered specist.  When referring to human-like head/facial features the word hominid is used.
----Extra-Terrestrial Humans (ETH): Humans resettled on other planets by unknown aliens sometime between the end of the last ice age and the beginning of recorded history.  In appearance they are usually indistinguishable from Earth humans except they possess genes that cause impossible hair and eye colorations.  They are sometimes referred to as Eths.
----Tatu:  Aquatic panians with skin scales so fine that when wet they blend together and give the tatu the appearance of having smooth cetecean skin instead, and combined with their whale-beaked heads and fluked tails causes most to believe they are related to dolphins.  However unlike ceteceans tatu are cable of breathing in water.
----Tek: Minor shapeshifter ancestry causes the individuals of this species to vary radically in appearance.  To Earth humans they seem to be anthropomorphic animals, though sometimes featuring colors, patterns, and extra body parts not seen in their terrestrial reflections.  They are the most common species in the Star Alliance.
----Sonata: Either a species of shapeshifters or a genetic condition.  The original species were the ancestors of the tek.
----Heyafouraa: Biological machines with insectoid appearance and the ability to trade out modular parts of their bodies without harm.
----Koryuu: Small, hardy predators that can function effectively on two legs or four.


The "Supernatural" World:

Díyú, aka Bureaucratic Hell: The place that enforces the laws of the supernatural world, sending out agents to undertake such missions as collecting souls that have escaped their afterlife or correcting some obscure error in proper mythological operation.  The rest of the supernatural world lives in audit-like terror at the thought of Diyu coming down on them.  Despite it's title including the term "Hell" Diyu is really a place of pure bureaucracy, not caring about the morality of the mortal world so long as procedure is followed.
----King Yama: Overseer of Diyu.  He's got red skin, a profusion of black hair, two small horns, and wears a business suit.  Also he's a giant.
----Dispatcher: The guy who gives out the missions to Diyu agents.  That's not a title, that's his name.
----È Mó: Diyu's best agent.  A white-skinned anthropomorphic demonic-mare with red hair and a red dress.  The cross-dressing gay son of the mythological Ma Mian ("horse-face").

Organizations

The 13 Great Clans: A significant power within the mystical community of West Gate, the 13 are combination mob families and ethnic groups, whose roots stretch far back in Asian history.
Each of the clans has an animal as their sign: Rat, Auroch, Big Cat, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Antelope, Monkey, Jungle Fowl, Wolf, and Wild Boar.  Members of each clan have the ability to transform into their clan's animal as well as any hybrid form between that and human.  When among those in the know they often go around as humans with animal accessories such as ears and tail.  (There is also a 14th clan, the clan of the Fish, but it members generally seclude themselves deep in the oceans and thus not counted.)


Aliens

Extant Species

Tek: The most common sentient species in the known galaxy, and for good reason: they are the most adventurous, cosmopolitan, and one of the most adaptable.  They owe most of this success to a genetic leftover from their ancestors: during gestation a tek's genome regarding their outer appearance mutates and rearranges itself constantly, shut down only by the presence of a certain hormone. From then on a tek's appearance remains stable, only affected by normal environmental and aging influences.  Because of this lack if inherited form tek societies do not carry many of the notions more stable species develop: bloodline and blood power, racial groupings and prejudice, and partner choice and family make-up.
This gestation-form-shifting means that there is no one tek look, thought they are all panians. Tek can most often be said to resemble other creatures: feline, canine, equine, lapine, and rodent are a few of the possibilities. Mammalian tends to be the most common, however. Coloration varies widely, too, from muted to bright tones and in many kinds of patterns. Extra features such as additional tails or wings are uncommon but not rare.
Tek hybridize easily with many other panian species, though because non-tek genes are not as readily malliable the resulting offspring will still resemble the non-tek parent as usual for that species, and in fact their tek DNA seems to adapt so that the form will be mostly from that parent.

Sonata: Limited shapeshifters, some scientists aren't sure if the sonata represent an actual species so much as an inheritable condition.  This confusion stems from their reproduction: sonata can reproduce with many different panian species (especially tek, whom they are the ancestors of), and the resulting offspring at first appears to be of that species but will eventually develop shapeshifting and the perceptiveness of a sonata.  Even sophisticated genetic testing often fails to notice this trait until it has fully matured.
Sonata are capable of appearing as nearly any panian species, though the forms seen in tek are the least difficult.

Heyaafoura: A very unique species resembling mantid insects, heyaafoura are not in fact biological organisms.  Though their bodies mimic biological functions there non-bio nature can be seen in their ability to upgrade via modular parts.
The basic form of a heyaafoura is a nearly rectangular semi-chitonous torso, with appendages at each corner and one pair in the middle.  The legs each have two normal joints and one "wrist" joint, plus a "hand" with an average of six finger-like claws.  Their heads are triangular with the point toward the jawed mouth and large eyes at the other points.  They do not possess any form of antenna.
All other aspects of heyaafoura appearance depend upon what parts they have on their bodies: they can be large and hulking or smaller and thin; they may utilize four of their appendages as legs or only two; color can vary, but is usually either a sandy gold or dark blue-grey.  The parts are easy to deal with: the heyaafoura enters a "trance"  and then can just tug out a part and place in a new one.  The only limitation to this procedure is that the brain of the individual is unreplaceable.
Heyaafoura reproduction is surprisingly simple method given their "biology": each mating individual, and there can be more than one, produces a "seed part" which can then be attached together and grow into a new heyaafoura.

Koryuu: One of the more extreme-living species in the galaxy, Koryuu are capable of surviving in environments ranging though hot, cold, arid, and even a semi-aquatic existence.  Their digestive systems are especially tough, allowing them to eat foods that would sicken or kill other beings.  Their eyes can see into the infrared spectrum and their hearing is quite acute, allowing them to operate relatively well in conditions of no light.  There is one factor that limits their spread: they are quadrupedal, and their front paws do not have the manual dexterity for the complex work required to create and maintain interstellar technology.  Thus they must rely on other species for travel.
A koyruu's head is somewhat feline with a short muzzle and large eyes, though more streamlined in that the muzzle widens toward the back and smoothly joins the cheek area.  Their ears are large and pointed, matching the head in size. The body and legs are more canine, proportioned for running rather than sprinting. The tails are not long in relation to body length, and are usually covered in fur. Coloration is often various patterns of blue-black mixed with orange, red, and/or gold, though solid coloration of those latter three as well as blue hues are known. Eyes are mostly dark colors, red and purple being common.

Tatu:
There is an important Tatu colony on the seafloor lying within the region of sea sometimes know as the Dragon's Triangle.

Extinct Species

Symphona: The supposed ancestors of the tek and sonata, the symphona could supposedly alter not only their outer appearance but their entire body structure and mass.  Unfortunately all of what is known about them comes from legends: they are considered to have been extinct for thousands of years at least.  Some individuals have appeared claimed to be one of them, but invariably they turn out to be mutant throwbacks.

You may wish to ignore the following stream of consciousness.

space planet tropical future high-tech modern-tech fantasy monarchy giant-wolves lots-of-really-weird-science city-on-the-coast fantasyland-in-arid-inland lot-of-water-around-city city-built-on-water ancient-secret-under-water

sea-coast-with-crashing-waves-and-breeze fantasy-shall-an-alien-device-be-responsible can-it-exist-unsecreted-without-guns