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I've been watching the earlier seasons of sliders and the alternate worlds created by different choices people make and it occured to me that could be an interesting adventure/campaign. Take a few of the AP's and send the party hoping between realities so in this one the demons are spewing out of an opened worldwound, in that one Cheliax managed to conquer the pirates in another the world is reeling from a second darkness.
Plane shift gets to you to different planes so I'm wondering would it also move you to different realities which probably exist as there are abilities that let you glimpse them or would you need a special spell?
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Back when the Material Plane was called the Prime Material Plane, there were infinite Alternate Material Planes that were what you're looking for. You got to them through the Astral as I recall. No idea when they went away, but if you want to re-posit them a couple castings of plane shift should get you there.
IIRC each Alternate Material Plane had its own set of Inner Planes, reachable through its own Ethereal, but there was only one Astral and one set of Outer Planes for the multiverse.
Not as written it wouldn't.
But as written different "realities" don't exist. Different realities are best thought of as different "timelines".
Different planes are best thought of as physical spaces that overall and don't interact.
It's a bit like have multiple sets of 3 dimensional spaces branching off of the same 4th dimensional time line.
I believe that in the whole Pathfinder Multiverse there's only one Golarion, because there's only one Rovagug. But there are other Material Planes and multiple Earths that can be visited. It even happens in one of the APs.
It could if as a GM you wanted it to. Better might be to stick a sort of cursed item in their hands or an angered deity - level being or some such. The high level end of the campaign is removing the curse/tracking down said epic/mythical/whatever being and making it stop.
I like this idea. You could have it be a sliders-like device that they accidentally activate, complete with cooldown between jumps and/or special materials needed to fix/activate the thing. Then they have to figure out how to use the thing and get back home, while simultaneously trying to survive whatever reality they find themselves in.
Maybe they figure out how to activate it, but not how to control it. i.e. they keep randomly (is it though?) jumping through realities. Then to get back home they have to backtrack their steps.
If you do this as a PBP please let me know I'm in.
Back from my days in 2e & 3e, most of the alternate material realms were accessible through the Shadow Realm and/or the Realm of Mirrors. I once based a custom campaign of mine through an alternate reality breached through the Shadow Realm.
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I like the concept...jump from reality to reality to different adventures. Definitely home game stuff instead of rules as written, but if you are GMing, you can do whatever you want with it.
Maybe instead of a hard timer like they had on Sliders, have it be a 'next portal opens when you finish this quest' kind of like Quantum Leap?
Could make for an interesting campaign :)
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If I was the GM I'd create a specific spell for this, otherwise you'd have to explain where the forked metal rod attuned to the alternate reality came from.
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If I was the GM I'd create a specific spell for this, otherwise you'd have to explain where the forked metal rod attuned to the alternate reality came from.
Internet. You can get anything on the internet.
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Next day delivery if you use Mwangi Prime...
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Hmmm some interesting ideas there so no alternate realities just divination spells hinting at them in pathfinder. Guess I'll need to dig out the old planar cosmology books and see what they say. I doubt a campaign will come out of it I just don't have enough time these day's to play a game much less make and run one. Just random disconnected ideas.
It really depends on how you view the structure of the universe.
Do you envision multiple material planes that are all equally as valid as the "normal" one?
I certainly don't.
My view is there is only 1 material plane, along with all the other planes listed in the Great Beyond.
In order to get to a different "reality" you would have to go to a different timeline/universe. There are an unlimited amount of universes/timelines so that there are nearly infinite possibilities, but that isn't planar travel in my opinion.
However, your universe/multiverse structure could be different if you wanted it to be. Perhaps there is only one heaven, and multiple material planes. However, this makes figuring out why outsiders take a particular interest in any one material plane difficult to explain in my opinion. Seems like they would focus on a plane already predisposed to them/under their control.
If I was the GM I'd create a specific spell for this, otherwise you'd have to explain where the forked metal rod attuned to the alternate reality came from.Clearly, somebody just incrementally modifies the tuning fork until the desired result is achieved.
Sounds like a good mechanism for "the device" that players use to bounce between realities.
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The difficult part is how to force them to keep going rather than decide they like it somewhere and stay. One mechanism i came up with when thinking of a similar idea is a god placed a geas on the party to find some ancient artifact. But the god is angry and cursed them to bounce between planes, via some sort of portal hole/gate. The gate goes to seemingly random planes, and only activates every couple days. If they don't leave when it's active they start getting affected by the geas (trapped would end the campaign right away). The geas forces them to keep going or they start being penalized. Each adventure could be a totally different plane where they get a piece of the puzzle on where the artifact is. Somehow i'd have to stop them casting plane shift as well, which perhaps was part of the curse.
Why the god is angry can be part of the first adventure or part of the party background. And the bouncing around could be random just as a way to pointlessly get the party out of his hair, or maybe there is a pattern and he knows clues to the location of his lost artifact are in all those places.
We talked about it but our group hasn't done it yet merely because surviving travelling planes would require a higher level party and our rounds take so long already at 10th level we're not sure we want to try.
But when going between alternate realities you could easily start at lower levels.
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You could institute some kind of a fatigue rule, something like, because PCs are from a different reality that has slightly different laws of physics, their bodies/minds don't quite "fit" in the other realities and slowly begin to degrade. Something like Fort checks or Will checks with increasing frequency the longer they remain in a material plane other than their own. You could have the effects of fails be non-lethal HP damage, or a progression of conditions, or ability damage (or drain). Something that is tolerable at first but becomes a nuisance and then even a threat if they stay in the a different reality too long. Maybe DC = # of days in the other reality. It would be a way to motivate PCs not to stay too long somewhere else.
I'm a player in this PbP. The set up begins on Earth in the not so distant future, and the discovery of an ancient city. A group of scientists (the PCs) get zapped into a seemingly endless array of gates which lead to different worlds. Still not sure if they are alternate realities, or just different planets, or what. We're still exploring the first world, trying to find a way back to Earth. I think we're flirting with the difficulty Berti mentions, getting caught up in the mystery of one place at the expense of exploring other gates. I guess my advice would to limit the sandbox potential, taken to extremes, you have an infinite sandbox composed of sandboxes.
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The easiest way is the sliders method you need to catch the portal transition or your stuck in that world. You can also introduce global threats e.g massive tidal wave or freezing world with no food.
I've done some digging and I think I'll go with this...
Mirror Plane
Method
Allows access to any prime material if you can find the right mirror to exit by.
Steps
Enter the mirror plane travel to the desired mirror and exit.
Hazards
The usual ones for the mirror plane plus there's the risk the reached plane will be inhospitable although it obviously allows the mirror to exist.
Difficulty
High
Not only is it a dangerous and confusing plane but there's no guarantee a mirror will remain intact between visits.
Shadow Plane
Method
The plane between prime materials if you travel in the right direction/way you can reach the deep shadow and pass into the neighbouring alternate reality.
Steps
Into the shadow plane, travel through the deep shadow and exit the shadow plane.
Hazards
The usual for this plane
Difficulty
Moderate to High depending on the travellers preparation.
Note
It's necessary to find a natural portal linking the plane with the material one as plane shifting will take you back to your starting one. See plane shift. It's also important to be aware this method can only take you to the neighbouring prime material where differences are slight e.g. someone had coffee rather than tea with breakfast to reach world's where things diverged significantly it's necessary to use another method.
Sigil
Method
There are places that lead to each alternate prime material as long as you know which one to use and how to get to the city of doors in the first place.
Steps
Travel to Sigil walk to the right doorway leave to new prime material.
Hazards
The usual ones for this city in addition many doorways lead to inhospitable material planes e.g one conquered by demons or sunk under the ocean.
Difficulty
Moderate, while there are vendors willing to sell maps or directions their reliability can be in question.
Planeshift
Method
Cast Planeshift to travel to a material plane.
Steps
Cast Planeshift
Hazards
The usual risks associated with spellcasting.
Difficulty
Low
Note
In order to use this method it's necessary to first acquire a properly attuned tuning fork. Given the difficulty in reaching alternate material planes these are few and far between especially for material planes significantly different to the spellcasters home one. More commonly spellcasters carefully explore the mirror plane, travel across many similar dimensions or get lucky enough to find the city of doors and create new forks for the planes they discover. Although rumours persist of a wild shift spell that will take the caster to a random plane. Few casters put much stock in this as only a madman would use such a hazardous form of travel much less develop it after all your as likely to wind up in a demon Lords lap as an interesting and survivable plane.
EDIT
For the purposes of truly understanding how the planes interact I suggest you enrol in non-euclidian geometry courses.