Demiplane Design: Spatial Soup [Archive] - Wizards Community

Demiplane Design: Spatial Soup [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Etiquette_Gnome
03-31-07, 01:33 PM I'm trying to design this one demiplane that my party will be entering soon, one where space is much more fluid and very wonky.

For the moment, I've only come up with a few special zones to plop down on the combat grid, each varying in size.

General Rules: Crossing into any kind of zone counts as entering difficult terrain due to the change in spatial relationships that mess with non-natives. Movement within a zone does not give any such penalty. Also, all ranged attacks suffer a -2 penalty for every zone border they cross; commonly a -4 penalty if the target and attacker are seperated by a zone neither is within. Also, the entire plane creates a vertigo effect for non-natives, inflicting a constant -2 penalty to Balance checks, Jump checks, and Reflex saves.

Eternal hallway - This zone is actually twice as large than what it appears, meaning its squares count double for movement & reach.

Magnification - This zone is actually a 5' square within, even if it covers a 3x3 grid on the map. Anybody that enters this zone can exit to any adjacent square with only 5' of movement. Reach also extends from the border of this zone as if they were standing from that point. However, their AC/to-hit is altered from this to be that of the appropriately sized creature they seem to be (being in a 4 square magnification zone gives them Large penalties).

Spatial Hops - This requires a pair of zones to be linked, and are technically both zones at once. It acts as a window to where the other zone is sitting, so movement and ranged attacks can target through the zone. However, ranged attacks have a 50% miss chance when passing through this zone, as it will exit a random zone.
Zonhin
04-01-07, 07:22 AM Maybe space isn't the only thing that's distorted. How about time, or gravity? Maybe there's a zone that shifts between the different distortions? Maybe a zone where moving forward causes you to turn?
crimsonwolf
04-01-07, 09:46 PM a realm where the deck of many things gets its power from?
mythSSK
04-01-07, 10:16 PM This is a really cool concept. I don't think you should add many more weird spatial zones, otherwise it could get very confusing for both you and your players.

A suggestion: Perhaps the special zones change and shift position every so often - - what a player once through was a magnification zone suddenly becomes an eternal hallway, one end of a spatial hop location suddenly changes to a differing location, etc. Don't make it too frequent, and make it random enough to be very unpredictable - - might change after six seconds, might change after six hours. I'd also recommend making some sort of excel spreadsheet to keep track of it the areas while in combat. Or something. I dunno.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Etiquette_Gnome 03-31-07, 01:33 PM	I'm trying to design this one demiplane that my party will be entering soon, one where space is much more fluid and very wonky. For the moment, I've only come up with a few special zones to plop down on the combat grid, each varying in size. General Rules: Crossing into any kind of zone counts as entering difficult terrain due to the change in spatial relationships that mess with non-natives. Movement within a zone does not give any such penalty. Also, all ranged attacks suffer a -2 penalty for every zone border they cross; commonly a -4 penalty if the target and attacker are seperated by a zone neither is within. Also, the entire plane creates a vertigo effect for non-natives, inflicting a constant -2 penalty to Balance checks, Jump checks, and Reflex saves. Eternal hallway - This zone is actually twice as large than what it appears, meaning its squares count double for movement & reach. Magnification - This zone is actually a 5' square within, even if it covers a 3x3 grid on the map. Anybody that enters this zone can exit to any adjacent square with only 5' of movement. Reach also extends from the border of this zone as if they were standing from that point. However, their AC/to-hit is altered from this to be that of the appropriately sized creature they seem to be (being in a 4 square magnification zone gives them Large penalties). Spatial Hops - This requires a pair of zones to be linked, and are technically both zones at once. It acts as a window to where the other zone is sitting, so movement and ranged attacks can target through the zone. However, ranged attacks have a 50% miss chance when passing through this zone, as it will exit a random zone.
Zonhin 04-01-07, 07:22 AM	Maybe space isn't the only thing that's distorted. How about time, or gravity? Maybe there's a zone that shifts between the different distortions? Maybe a zone where moving forward causes you to turn?
crimsonwolf 04-01-07, 09:46 PM	a realm where the deck of many things gets its power from?
mythSSK 04-01-07, 10:16 PM	This is a really cool concept. I don't think you should add many more weird spatial zones, otherwise it could get very confusing for both you and your players. A suggestion: Perhaps the special zones change and shift position every so often - - what a player once through was a magnification zone suddenly becomes an eternal hallway, one end of a spatial hop location suddenly changes to a differing location, etc. Don't make it too frequent, and make it random enough to be very unpredictable - - might change after six seconds, might change after six hours. I'd also recommend making some sort of excel spreadsheet to keep track of it the areas while in combat. Or something. I dunno.