In some universes, there has to be a Customs Patrol which deals with arriving extradimensionals. For most of these, I'm assuming some sort of thin Second Reality (Such has planetary teleport advantages as each point on the the smaller 2R has to correspond to many points in the larger 1R.)
1. Donna's Door: Extradimensionals that arrive will have X Condition done to them. If they are able to resist (such as a Verser who is aware while travelling after versing out, they will likely find themselves unable to enter.)
--Only Non-physical Spirit May Enter to take up residence in an indig's body while he is shunted out temporarily to a holding area.
--All visitors will be women. Thus male and neutral gendered beings will 'get in touch with their feelings' if they arrive.
--All visitors will be shrunk in size to the size of Bacteria Men.
NOTE: As you can see, this offers a splendid chance to mess with the player.
2. Animated Guardian: A magical beastie is created, and placed on the edge of Reality to guard against visitors with ill intent.
--The Giant Creature of Square-Dressed Stone that Breathes Sunlight is one such.
3. Hunting Grounds: Even in the strangest places, there is an ecology. And here, there are things that hunt travellers.
--Great rocs made of shadow, and dreamstuff.
--Wolves that are all teeth on the front, and non-existent on the backside.
4. Castlegate: The mighty castle has stood for a thousand years defending its people from vandals, ruffians, and barbarians. This includes those who come from Outside. There is a gate to this fabulous castle that extends into the Ethereal. It is through this gate that you must enter.
And it is barred against the character, and the goodly folk on the inside are quite skeptical of Outsiders.
Need some tech, and psi barriers as well....perhaps a group of magi live adn work in the 2r so as to avoid their enemies elsewhen.
For Technological worlds... hmm...
T1: Scattering Field - In this universe, the light-speed barrier was defeated by using a quasi-planar technology. Starships are pushed slightly out of synch with space-time, and reappear somewhere else essentially the moment they left. A Scattering Field makes it impossible to reintegrate within it, with the side-effect of making it painfully difficult to Verse into. A merciful version just makes starships (and Versers) stall on the edge of the field, while a crueller referree could rule that the scattering field simply destroys ships that Jump into it, and make Versers verse-out if they fail to penetrate.
T2: We're "Them," We're "They," We are... - The Beureau of Interdimensional Mitigation, colloquially called the BIM. They have developed technology to monitor the arrivals and departures of interdimensional beings. They can't exactly stop you, but they know you're coming and will be waiting, appropriately armed, when you arrive.
T3: Waygates - A variation on the Scattering Field principle, in this universe instabilities in the fundamental of nature (random gravity, fluidic time, etc) make it unsafe or simply impossible to travel between worlds or dimensions except in certain places. These places, called Waygates, may generate a region of stability or simply occupy one (maybe nobody remembers which) but either way, they regulate all traffic. Some are more Draconian, others more corrupt, but you'll deal with Customs regardless.
T4: Unsafe! - Due to a cataclysm, it is impossible for organic life to survive in this dimension. When you Verse in, you indwell a robotic body, but it's part-and-parcel with this Verse - you don't get to take it with you, no matter how spiffy it is.
T5: Beurocracy - Maybe it's a literal customs house. If you're not above a certain Stage you can't get in at all, and if you are, you spend hours filling out paperwork first, because they've had a problem lately with extradimensional terrorism.
Kewl. Thanks John7!
That reminds me of a Grim Future which had 24/7 satellite coverage of the whole planet, and an idea of a world where David Copperfield was President of America, and was a real magician....the magic squad detects a gate, and goes to investigate.
And of course, Flash Gordon on Sci-fi channel right now has a Rift Sensor for detecting gates from Mongo.
As to T5----lets just say 'Bob' visited recently. If you have the Big Black Book, you can see this terror in the back.
Sadly I don't have any of the books... That's why I'm always a little afraid that I'm going to step on something already in print. But I'm a poor college kid, so I plead ignorance. (Personally the one I was happiest about was the "BIM.")
Hmm... Let's see Psionic...
P1: A Dream Within a What? - You Verse into what is literally where nightmares come from. See? That's Satan right over there, drinking coffee with the Prince of Thieves. Or is she a Princess this season? Well, anyway, if you're going to join the cast, you'd better be scary enough, or creepy enough, to pass an audition, or we're not broadcasting you into ANYONE's mind, and you're certainly not getting paid... (A variation of this is that you Verse into a world that is entirely one person's dream, and occasionally have to convince his subconcious mind to let you stay.)
P2: One of Us... - Everyone here is psionically regulated in a sort of hive-mind, and then can tell that you're too quiet. You're going to have to explain yourself to the Overmind, unless you want to spend a chunk of your immortal lifetime as a drone...
P3: I Say Thee Nay! - The Universe has an appointed Guardian, by whose will all interdimensional travel is controlled. A merciful Guardian may regard you as a routine passer-by, or maybe he doesn't like the smell of your Scriff and has taken a set against you...
P4: Very well handicapped! - Everyone here is equally limited in how intelligent they can ever become. One version is that it's simply not possible to be smarter than that, and so the Verser's IQ drops to that of a radish. Another is that it's possible but not legal, and the Customs House may require you to wear an IQ-limiting crystal.
P5: By Decree of the Council - A Council of seers, probably 5 in number, is constantly watching the future. If 3 out of 5 confirm the presence of a criminal thought (thoughts of murder, suicide, robbery, etc.) you can be detained until the time of the incident has passed. Better keep yourself in line, now, citizen...
Bob believes the Verse is a VR game he is imprisoned in, and if he slaughters enough 'people' in the game, he will be yanked by the game designers as a troublesome influence.
I like the examples you've given. This works pretty decent.
Note: Donna's Door is in the nature of a powerblock, I guess, so its not exactly 'magical', more 'divine act of direct intervention' which is magical, but...
This needs to be integrated, and expanded here and there (like Stats on the Square-Dressed Stone Guardian and on the Psi Guardian), and occasional examples to give color. Maybe some more explanation of how the whole thing is set up. But this looks like a good quick article.
This is a partially integrated project that is not that complicated, and is moslty complete, I think. Anyone is welcome to help John7 and I work on it.
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In some universes, there has to be a Customs Patrol which deals with arriving extradimensionals. For most of these, I'm assuming some sort of thin Second Reality (Such has planetary teleport advantages as each point on the the smaller 2R has to correspond to many points in the larger 1R.)
1. Donna's Door: Extradimensionals that arrive will have X Condition done to them. If they are able to resist (such as a Verser who is aware while travelling after versing out, they will likely find themselves unable to enter.) This is a powerblock creation, and as such may not be broken, but depending on the block could be potentially evaded.
--Only Non-physical Spirit May Enter to take up residence in an indig's body while he is shunted out temporarily to a holding area.
--All visitors will be women. Thus male and neutral gendered beings will 'get in touch with their feelings' if they arrive.
--All visitors will be shrunk in size to the size of Bacteria Men.
NOTE: As you can see, this offers a splendid chance to mess with the player.
2. Animated Guardian: A magical beastie is created, and placed on the edge of Reality to guard against visitors with ill intent.
--The Giant Creature of Square-Dressed Stone that Breathes Sunlight is one such.
3. Hunting Grounds: Even in the strangest places, there is an ecology. And here, there are things that hunt travellers.
--Great rocs made of shadow, and dreamstuff.
--Wolves that are all teeth on the front, and non-existent on the backside.
4. Castlegate: The mighty castle has stood for a thousand years defending its people from vandals, ruffians, and barbarians. This includes those who come from Outside. There is a gate to this fabulous castle that extends into the Ethereal. It is through this gate that you must enter.
And it is barred against the character, and the goodly folk on the inside are quite skeptical of Outsiders.
M5. group of magi live and work in the 2r so as to avoid their enemies elsewhen. They have houses crowded close upon each other with little room to get past them to the 1R.
M6. Daffyd Silverfield, President of the Skillful States of Columbia is Skilled. That is, he has magic, not just sleight of hand. Columbia is the greatest, most powerful nation in the world. Its not because of a vast military. Its because of people like President Silverfield. Accidents happen to people who annoy Columbia.
People fall up stairs, and break their necks. Rabid squirrels sneak into houses, and bite the enemies of the Skillful States.
And President Silverfield has a watch set on arriving interdimensionals. A scrying pool is 'womanned' at all times to watch for arrivals. Most arrivals are assumed to be up to no good, and dealt with expeditiously by a team of mages who are low calibre fire throwers. The Skillful don't get such low status jobs. They get to plan the perfect assasination.
For Technological worlds... hmm...
T1: Scattering Field - In this universe, the light-speed barrier was defeated by using a quasi-planar technology. Starships are pushed slightly out of synch with space-time, and reappear somewhere else essentially the moment they left. A Scattering Field makes it impossible to reintegrate within it, with the side-effect of making it painfully difficult to Verse into. A merciful version just makes starships (and Versers) stall on the edge of the field, while a crueller referree could rule that the scattering field simply destroys ships that Jump into it, and make Versers verse-out if they fail to penetrate.
T2: We're "Them," We're "They," We are... - The Beureau of Interdimensional Mitigation, colloquially called the BIM. They have developed technology to monitor the arrivals and departures of interdimensional beings. They can't exactly stop you, but they know you're coming and will be waiting, appropriately armed, when you arrive.
T3: Waygates - A variation on the Scattering Field principle, in this universe instabilities in the fundamental of nature (random gravity, fluidic time, etc) make it unsafe or simply impossible to travel between worlds or dimensions except in certain places. These places, called Waygates, may generate a region of stability or simply occupy one (maybe nobody remembers which) but either way, they regulate all traffic. Some are more Draconian, others more corrupt, but you'll deal with Customs regardless.
T4: Unsafe! - Due to a cataclysm, it is impossible for organic life to survive in this dimension. When you Verse in, you indwell a robotic body, but it's part-and-parcel with this Verse - you don't get to take it with you, no matter how spiffy it is.
T5: Beurocracy - Maybe it's a literal customs house. If you're not above a certain Stage you can't get in at all, and if you are, you spend hours filling out paperwork first, because they've had a problem lately with extradimensional terrorism.
T6: Grim Future: Surveillance Society
Hmm... Let's see Psionic...
P1: A Dream Within a What? - You Verse into what is literally where nightmares come from. See? That's Satan right over there, drinking coffee with the Prince of Thieves. Or is she a Princess this season? Well, anyway, if you're going to join the cast, you'd better be scary enough, or creepy enough, to pass an audition, or we're not broadcasting you into ANYONE's mind, and you're certainly not getting paid... (A variation of this is that you Verse into a world that is entirely one person's dream, and occasionally have to convince his subconcious mind to let you stay.)
P2: One of Us... - Everyone here is psionically regulated in a sort of hive-mind, and then can tell that you're too quiet. You're going to have to explain yourself to the Overmind, unless you want to spend a chunk of your immortal lifetime as a drone...
P3: I Say Thee Nay! - The Universe has an appointed Guardian, by whose will all interdimensional travel is controlled. A merciful Guardian may regard you as a routine passer-by, or maybe he doesn't like the smell of your Scriff and has taken a set against you...
P4: Very well handicapped! - Everyone here is equally limited in how intelligent they can ever become. One version is that it's simply not possible to be smarter than that, and so the Verser's IQ drops to that of a radish. Another is that it's possible but not legal, and the Customs House may require you to wear an IQ-limiting crystal.
P5: By Decree of the Council - A Council of seers, probably 5 in number, is constantly watching the future. If 3 out of 5 confirm the presence of a criminal thought (thoughts of murder, suicide, robbery, etc.) you can be detained until the time of the incident has passed. Better keep yourself in line, now, citizen...