Tom Day had an idea which we combined with one of mine, and then another of his to come up with a really interesting bit of speculation, and a not uncool intro to a world.
1. There is a spot where verser's arrive with heavy frequency.
2. Some spots such as this occur in hi-tech worlds.
3. Some hi-tech societies are ruthless to outsiders.
4. What if the super tech society were able to capture the verser, and use him as a power source?
1. Consider that the verser may be akin to a needle and thread. That is, part of the verser's function is to tie the multiverse together. He personally is the needle, and his lifeline is the thread. When you have a huge number of verses jostling each other, and coated with a form of interdimensional oil, such 'tying together' might be necessary to keep the multiverse together.
2. The energy can come from one of four sources.
A. As in the Dr. Who episode of the Crying Angels, there is potential energy. The verser could do certain things, but he can't so that yields energy. Block the new gravitational mass of the verser from affecting the universe, and you've got energy.
B. Or you could look at the verser as having built up a charge of dimensional energy from his travels.
C. Or you could look at the personal timeline as an energy tap into other alien dimensions which could then be drained.
D. Or you could see that the verser has the ability to drag a rather large amount of stuff with him...which is work which is energy.
One problem for the verser as Tom points out is that drawing such energy could yield a decrease in the mass that a verser can carry from dimension to dimension.!!!!
Also, as Tom points out, the hi-tech society knows that sometimes versers come back so it tries to keep the verser alive because returnees are apt to be a tad vengeful. Thus he usually survives five-ten years.
Another result might be a world that the PC visits is drained of life energy or something.
In some versions of this, the PC might suffer amnesia as the process in that version affects a mental or potential energy. To some of the exploiters, this would not be a bug, but a feature.
Imagine dropping Michael di Vars into such a setting. Ten years later, he verses out, he can't carry his beloved humvee with him because his mass limit is 100 pounds, and he knows something horrible happened to him, but he can't remember it.
I'm somewhat rambling and somewhat unclear as my brain is kinda fried, but I think there is a really cool idea buried in the mess. The end result being a logical, I think, way to mess with vversers and remove some of their mass carrying capacity.
Eric
Well, I'm kind of in the KISS school of thought (Keep It Simple, Stupid) so here's my spin on that. Versers DO possess energies that not many others have, in the form of psionics and magic powers. What if this High Tech society has the ability to drain a versers psionic powers, to run their society? The verser could try to fight, maybe go along with the plan. Perhaps there is a substantial reward for being a psionic battery? Someone there that can teach you all kinds of psionic skills, to raise your bias, and create more power. The catch is that when you do verse out, your psionic power is drained for a verse or two, but you don't know it. Or perhaps if you try to fight against it, every time you try to use psionic powers, it fuels them, so fighting back with psionics just makes them stronger. Kind of like trying to repel a hoard of Gremlins with a fire hose. Could be interesting.
I don't know, Eric. One of the key statements about scriff is that it is actually useless--it cannot really be harnessed to do anything safely other than detect more scriff or possibly travel to other universes (whether this can be done safely has not yet been determined).
One reason for that is to prevent the verser from being able to tap into something that doesn't fit into the skill system--such as an energy source that is not tech, psi, mag, or bod. Scriff is neither matter nor energy, and ultimately cannot be used for either.
I wouldn't say you couldn't do it, but I think you'd better put a lot of time into figuring out every way a clever player is going to be able to be able to take advantage of this new feature of scriff. Remember, even so simple a feature as the fact that a verser can detect scriff in his possessions and in other versers has been harnessed by the Architect to triangulate distances, create detectable straight line pointers, trace people, and much more. Give it something like the ability to generate power, and you've got people like the Architect and Peter Adams who will do exactly that, and work out how to regulate it. You're handing your players a weapon more powerful than any Q-bomb, that's certain.
--M. J. Young
Point One: I don't have a large enough breadth of understanding of the game system to know what is unbalancing, so I'll accept that you have a point.
Point Two: Scriff would fit in whatever skill system you were using. After all, in tech there are quasi-material-energy things, and so too in magic. But it would be at the highest level.
Conclusion: What I would do would be to put in a group of cases with a nice little title: "Unproven Theories about Scriff". You'd put in here things like 'weakness in the worlds walls', 'scriff puddles', 'scriff is a pschyoactive substance', 'Scriff is an Angel of God', 'versers are needle and thread to hold the Multiverse together' and this...
That way it can be left up to the discretion of the GM as to what he allows.
It is necessary to allow the game to grow...after all, I doubt if Gygax foresaw Spelljammer, Forgotten Realms, and d20....but at the same time, unwise growth can be bad. I'm not the person to make this decision.
Eric
I am quoting MJ here:
I don't know, Eric. One of the key statements about scriff is that it is actually useless--it cannot really be harnessed to do anything safely other than detect more scriff or possibly travel to other universes (whether this can be done safely has not yet been determined).
You say that traveling to other universes via scriff has never been proven to be done safely. Ummm I thought that's what the game was all about. Using scriff to travel to other universes. The Architect has traveled safely to thousands upon thousands of universes. It seems to work well in that regard.
John wrote:
You say that traveling to other universes via scriff has never been proven to be done safely. Ummm I thought that's what the game was all about. Using scriff to travel to other universes. The Architect has traveled safely to thousands upon thousands of universes. It seems to work well in that regard.Well, yes and no.
The Architect still has no control over when he goes or where he goes--and that's saying something, because the Architect created the Scriff Mail, and is the only one of the elder versers to make it work consistently. We don't "use scriff to travel to other universes". It moves us.
There have been scriff-based interdimensional travel machines. However, those who use them seem to become scriff-infected rather quickly. That would not be considered "safe".
--M. J. Young
Day----
quote:
Day,
I talked to MJ about your idea. He was quite leary of the potential to give versers vast amounts of power, but he did not say a flat 'no'.
PT
Understandably so. I intend to learn about and exploit Scriff because it is the one universal constant to each world, so if a verser is a 'battery' then that leads to potential consequences.
On the other hand, Scriff is already used in some worlds to enhance the functioning time of computers....that by definition means that it already has properties that can be exploited (and I've already got a few ideas, though I don't dare set up a workshop in any world where I'm publicly known as a Verser).
If he's concerned about game balance, that isn't too hard a problem to get around. Just say that the Scriff the verser brings with him that they want only has particularly properties that are relevant to THAT world...thus, it is true, a Verser might be able to figure out horrifically abusive things that they can do there with Scriff or as a person, but in a way that counterbalances it perfectly....
Because they're going to be tempted to stay and experiment about all the cool stuff they can do now with it, or to themselves, but the downside is that the longer they stay or the more they use their scriff powers/abilities then the more risk they have of being caught and drained.
As an aside, it would also mean that a verser could be cleansed of all scriff, which is something to which I've long objected. Many elder versers would jump at the chance to get out of this curse, and the number of ways out has been intentionally limited.
--M. J. Young