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GameMastery Guide / Creating a World / Parallel Words

Sample Parallel Worlds

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 168
The following are several alternate reality archetypes. Of course, these are just a smattering of different possibilities to get you thinking—literally any world you could want to play in is possible using the parallel world model.

Time Travel: Moving up and down the timestream offers PCs a glimpse of the future or a chance to observe (and possibly change) important moments in history. By far the most fun and frustration involved with time travel, however, comes from paradoxes and the unintended consequences of PC actions. If they’ve gone to the future, does their foreknowledge make it possible for them to prevent that future—and if so, have they retroactively made it impossible for themselves to have visited it? What if they bring something back, introducing it to the world before it’s even been invented? Traveling into the past is even more dangerous, as the PCs have no idea which actions will have major repercussions farther along the timestream. From accidentally preventing her parents’ wedding to stepping on the prehistoric bug that eventually evolves into an intelligent species, there’s no end to the trouble a PC dabbling in chronomancy can cause, and the return home from a visit to the past is a perfect time to introduce an alternate history setting.

Alternate History: This term usually refers to a world in which a single historical event of some importance doesn’t occur, or plays out differently than in the PCs’ own timeline.

Mirror Universe: Popularized in modern science fiction, a mirror universe can range the spectrum from a literal realm of reflected doppelgangers (including opposite-al ignment versions of PCs) to a surreal Alice-style Wonderland. For a different take on this idea, try creating a world in which the gods have different alignments— forcing PC worshipers into conflict or converting them as well—or changing the alignments of a few key NPCs.

Superpowered: A world in which the PCs acquire godlike powers can be a lot of fun, though they might be surprised by the jealousy they suddenly inspire. These superpowers might be genuine new powers, acquired mysteriously in their transition between worlds, or it might simply be that some of the PCs’ normal abilities are unique to their new world, as no one there has ever encountered a monk’s slow fall ability or a bard’s magical songs.

Different Dominant Species: Whether it’s cities of peaceful, surface-dwelling drow or hyper-intelligent dinosaurs that never suffered mass extinction, a new dominant race in a world otherwise identical to the PCs’ own can present PCs with a host of challenges.

Different Campaign Setting: An alternate reality is the perfect chance to move existing characters between campaign settings. Always wanted to see how the barbarian would fare in Victorian-era England, or run the party through a far-future space opera? This is your opportunity to make your characters track down a Great Old One in 1800s New England, or to trade in your classic fantasy for post-apocalyptic mercenary work.

Different Natural Laws: The most fundamental change you can make to your world is altering the natural laws on which it runs. Though revising gravity might be too extreme, what about a world in which magic simply doesn’t work, or spells work in unexpected ways? Similarly, what about a world in which all the gods are dead—or weirder yet, never existed in the first place? Making such changes can be dangerous to the balance of the game—after all, few spellcasters enjoy losing their abilities entirely—but when done correctly, a world that’s identical save for the loss of magic, deities, or some other crucial constant can be more terrifying than any dungeon.

Going Home

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 169
While it’s possible that your players may fall so deeply in love with your parallel universe that they don’t want to go home (in which case, you now have a new campaign setting!), for most dimension-hopping adventurers, the whole point is to finally return to the world of their birth. Yet this homecoming doesn’t have to mean the end of the madness. For instance, how do the characters know they’re actually home? After letting the party breathe a sigh of relief, try placing some doubt in their minds, little inconsistencies that might indicate that they’ve only returned to a similar world, not their true home. If the front stairs to the characters’ favorite tavern no longer creak, is it because someone fixed them while the party was away—or because they never creaked at all?

Of course, extradimensional paranoia is only one way to have fun with the characters’ homecoming. Others are more blatant—for instance, if time doesn’t pass at the same rate between dimensions, the PCs might return home to a world 30 years after than they left it, during which time they’ve been vilified for abandoning their responsibilities. Once you’ve opened the door to parallel worlds, you’ve given yourself carte blanche to play fast and loose with your world and your players’ expectations, and nothing will ever again be quite what it seems.