|
|
Post by Insano-Man on Sept 17, 2018 14:56:07 GMT -5
This topic is a child of the Setting Overview article directory.THE PITCHErfbound was made to be open for everyone. Its core motif is to have fun with writing, roleplaying, and worldbuilding. It's got a bit of everything tied together with a bit of everything else. That said, there are still a few walls and a few ceilings that need to be respected. Not all of them are completely solid and not all of them are as important as others, but they're there and they aren't going away. Prospective authors would do well to read up, understand the setting's limits, and take care on the drawing board. The following posts contain important information on how to go about your business with Erfbound. Some are rules, some are suggestions, some are explanations on how stuff works. Some of this can be safely ignored, some will get you stitches if you aren't careful with them. If something's not clear or you're ever not sure, don't ever hesitate to ask for help! It might be every man for himself on Set, but that's not the way it works back here on Earth.
|
|
|
|
Post by Insano-Man on Sept 17, 2018 15:05:21 GMT -5
BREAK THE RULESErf isn't Earth. It's a weird, wild, and unpredictable place so big the laws of physics are stretched to their breaking points. Reality is subjective everywhere you go. That said, for how big and bonkers it is, there are still a few constraints on what's fair game in it. The following is a general list of suggested guidelines for the Erfbound setting. Remember that these are guidelines, not stone-laid laws! If you feel it's appropriate to stretch the bounds, go for it! If there's one suggestion to go by in Erfbound, it's to make something interesting before you make sense. - TECHNOLOGY: Loose!Science in Erfbound is not exact. Mad scientists exist. Wormholes happen. Alien hiveminds rule megacity space stations in orbit. There's some guy named Jimmy who just won't die. Don't worry too much about explaining how it all works. Just make sure it's got some kind of purpose! - MAGIC: Firm.Strange things happen, but most of them come from the planet instead of people. Psionic powers and arcane sorcery are not common. That said, it's possible, and it's not out of the question that a superhero accident could happen in a terrorscape somewhere. Try to go light on wizards and keep powers tame, but never feel shy about making the world itself a dangerously-strange place. - TIME TRAVEL: Tight!Causality is a big deal. Go back and render an action moot and you've tossed the whole setting into chaos. Suddenly, the question comes up, "why not handwave everything with time travel?" Backwards time travel is explicitly forbidden in Erfbound barring very specific exceptions made with express approval from an author of authority. Forward time travel, on the other hand, is pretty much just taking a really long nap. Don't be too worried about that. Just remember that the planet might not be there when you wake up! - PARALLEL UNIVERSES: Tight!Some things were not meant for man to see. That goes for all you greyskins out there, too. Multiversal shenanigans raise similar questions to time travel. They must be very tightly monitored for quality, reasoning, and overall impact on the setting. Without explicit approval from one of the bigwigs of the setting, going beyond is a major no-no. - ALIENS: Loose!We've got everything from spider-legged EMP bombs to "humans" with missing digits. We've got talking crabs, for goodness' sake. Think on whether the setting needs a new species, but don't ever be afraid to make one if you've got one. Always go for originality in your core concept! - PSYCHICS: Firm.There are worse things than violating the innermost sanctity of a person's very being by accessing their most secure and private emotions and thoughts, right? It's not that bad. Right? Well, sort of. Psychics verge well into the realm of infringing on character integrity. All that in mind, though, a mind reader isn't impossible in the strangeness of Set. Mind control is a bit harder to swing, but, if you can make a good case for it, it'll fly. Note: Psychics in this article are distinct from psionics. Psychics are telepaths, mind readers, and mind controllers. Psionics are space wizards. Refer to the Magic section above for suggestions on how to deal with them.- ANIMALS: Loose!Demons, mutants, brain-dead clones - Erf's got it all. Find a niche and fill it. Can't find one? Invent one! The only limit here is how much you can add on before it collapses into itself. Even that might work! - LOCATIONS: Loose!Does your city not actually have a food source? Big deal. They'll figure it out. Maybe you will first. Don't worry about it too much until it's a problem. Maybe even consider working it into the concept! Temples of the damned, clone-controlled megalopolises, bunkers full of paranoid miners - not a whole lot is off-limits here.
|
|
|
|
Post by Insano-Man on Sept 17, 2018 15:10:47 GMT -5
RUNNING GAGSErfbound has a set of core tropes and common themes that most subjects follow. While these are by no means required, getting a good feeling for them and including them in your works will help you fit in. Some are more important than others, some are just more common than others. Remember that these are entirely up to you as to whether you want to follow them; a good story doesn't always come with an instruction manual! - FREEDOMSet's a big place. Not much of it is under control by much of anyone. Towns, cities, and other residences are sparse. Wilderness is the biggest kind of terrain out there. Everybody's usually got an out - it's just a matter of surviving out there. - LAWLESSNESSErf doesn't have very many big cities or cops running around. The rule of law usually ends by the edge of town. Bandits, raiders, pirates, and ruffians of all walks are out there. Vigilantes are usually seen as heroes. Mercenaries roam freely. Never get too comfortable with the status quo. - VIOLENCEPutting freedom and lawlessness together usually means someone's going to take advantage of that. Sometimes, it's some thing, not someone. Monsters prowl the outlands. Hungry animals might not care about how many legs you've got. The bandits might even be cannibals in these parts, too. Bring a friend whenever you're headed out - ideally, one with a very large magazine. - SCARCITYIndustry on Erf isn't exactly plentiful. Not a whole lot of places have grocery stores. Most people are living hand-to-mouth, with basic tools and primitive technology. The people who've got the big guns and the cool gadgets aren't exactly inclined to share. Things aren't easy to get - and that includes an education, too. - TRUTH IN FICTIONA lot of people on Set are slack-jawed, backwater morons who believe in god machines in the center of the planet and other nonsense. Odd as it seems, there are some big nuggets of reality in those fairy tales. Erf's mythos weaves together as much fact as it does fiction - and there's a whole heck of a lot of legends to go around. - DEEPER GETS DARKERErf is deep. It's a big planet with a big underground. There are so many tunnels and caves that nobody could ever hope to keep track of them. They usually go somewhere deadly and awful. The deeper you go on Set, the stranger things get and the angrier the monsters get. When you gaze into the abyss too long, it'll probably grow teeth and snap your head off. - NO POLITICSErf is not kind to the concept of countries. It does not like it when you carve it up into territories. It's a bit on the fence about the whole map thing, too. Nations on Set suffer from all the problems a nation on Earth might suffer, amplified tenfold by suicidal cultists, suspicious grunts, and angry meat monsters. Not many live to get much done. The ones that survive usually stay small and unambitious. - NON-PERMANENCEThings like to move on Set. Things like to die out, run off, or just plain disappear. Towns can move, villages can burn, monsters can starve, and even entire sentient species can die off. Entire continents like to play musical chairs when no one's looking. Don't get too used to things being in the same place all the time. - STRANGE STUFFIn the dark corners of the Earth, strange things like to happen. On Erf, they like to happen everywhere. Some places are just inexplicably on fire, no reason at all. Some places are covered in poetry-spouting fungi. Some places are full of monsters that can throw things at you with their brains. The "laws" of reality are really more like guidelines down here. - FEAR OF THE UNKNOWNSure, they might speak English, look something like us, and actually be quite nice when you get to know them, but they're aliens, for God's sake! People on Erf don't like things that don't look like them. A lot of those things try to kill them, so it's only natural. Even outsiders get funny looks. Xenophobia is the name of the game. - EXCEPTIONALISMEvery story on Set is different. Not every town started the same way, not every bunker rose up from the depths of nothingness. Things get so weird in places that you might get two of the exact same things going four different ways. The best stories are ones you haven't heard before. Remember that everything here is a guideline! Even gravity is just a strong suggestion! If you can make it interesting and swing it right, just about anything can get through. Just remember that it's going to get harder the more you diverge from the setting's core values.
|
|
|
|
Post by Insano-Man on Oct 9, 2018 7:00:02 GMT -5
A CLOSER LOOK: MAGICPsionics, too. Erfbound is more science-fiction than fantasy, but they're all the same in practice. Whether you're drawing from the warp, the void, spirit essence, or the depths of insanity, it's all unexplainable. Whether you're farting lightning or grabbing rocks with your brain, you're doing things that don't make any sense. We can futz around with the notions of hyper-advanced technology, genetic manipulation, and yadda-yadda-yadda, but we're not fooling anyone here. Magic is magic. It doesn't make any sense. Now, is that necessarily a bad thing?Nope! Not at all. Erfbound isn't meant to be a strict interpretation of reality. It's not meant to be hard sci-fi - in most places, anyways. Erfbound is meant to be open and free; logic submits to creativity here. There's nothing wrong with having a few wizards here and there. With all that said, the wild whackiness of Set has its own kind of flavor when it comes to these things. While you're not going to get the table flipped on you if you want to bend the trends, it's always a good idea to think over the setting at large while you're working. WHERE TO FIND ITOne of the main focuses in Erfbound is that magic is mostly in the world itself. The planet's a bit nutty on the inside. The laws of physics are whimsy's playthings. Anomalies, ghosts, and other kinds of environmental magic are the star players in Erfbound's magical theater. The kinds of natural things that are mostly local to a place, and rarely ever a character. Walls that whisper. Winds that go up. Places that are on fire for no reason at all. Floating islands, sentient statues, and carnivorous dust motes. It's more about normal people dealing with the freaky stuff instead of freaks dealing with the normal people. HOW TO GET ITNow, this doesn't mean that wizards are locked down in red tape. What it does mean is that finding powers isn't something you can just learn. People on the planet don't have any innate magical powers beyond hate and stupidity. For someone to start casting death rays, they need to be born with it or get bitten by a radioactive spider. Anomalous interplay is the name of the game here. Work in the planet's kooky nature with it. Think on what happened to the person, their parents, or their hometown that gave them their special powers. Were they born next to a radiation volcano? X-ray vision! Did they get lost in a gravitational minefield? Telekinesis! For more juicy ways of acquiring magic, please refer to the Cult of Meat's Practices article. Reader discretion advised. HOW TO USE ITWhen it comes to how magic and space powers are put into action, it's all on you. There's no centralized arcana or runes of power. You'll probably be lucky just to figure out you've even got powers, much less how to use them. How a character casts their magic missiles is as custom as custom gets. Maybe it requires tapping in to a familiar anomaly, maybe it's a subject of fancy choreography and angry eyes. Give it a good thought. Make it your own. Consider some technological involvement; cybernetics, interface devices, or just channelling instruments built off an object of significance. HOW TO SUPPLY ITWhen it comes to mana or life essence, it's a trickier subject. As always, Erfbound hinges more towards the plausible than the incredible. There's no special reservoir of magical energy for living creatures. Unless you're that one crazy exception, all you've got is the chemical energy of your body, and maybe any power sources you've got in your gear. All things have to cost energy in some way, so firing lightning bolts might just drain some of that zappy juice that runs your brain. Being a psyker can be seriously exhausting. WHAT TO DO WITH ITRemember that space sorcerors are all well and good in Erfbound's eyes until they start sinking battleships with mean words alone. Death-ray thunder-gods that can bend space and time to their whims are not okay. Keep it on the tame side. Emphasize the magic as more of a supporting asset, instead of it being the sum of the character's significance. A few telekinetic punches and lightning bolts are all just dandy. An army of spirit clones is pushing it, but you might be able to flex it. Time travel, railgun-dodging bullet time, laser-deflecting mind shields - that's where you start getting stern looks. WHAT IT MEANSJust as it was implied above, magic tends to come with the strange people. It tends to come with the freaks and the mutants. You don't have to be a three-headed muscle monster with tumor fingers and stalk eyes, but the mainstream mystic doesn't quite look normal anymore. If you're dead-set on keeping your character pretty, make it something on the inside. If you're not fussed or want to stick with the setting standard, add in a few tumors in relevant places. Give them lightning glands, magnet moles, and an extra eye to set people on fire with. Make it all in proportion to how powerful they are, and try to bias the mutations to something that feels relevant to their powers.
|
|
|
|
Post by Insano-Man on Oct 9, 2018 7:01:38 GMT -5
A CLOSER LOOK: PSYCHICSPsychics are a lot like sorcerers in Erfbound. They're not common, they're not well-known, and they get it rough with their powers. They're not the stars of the show and their effects are mostly environmental as compared to personal. To top it off, they hit on a notion that science-fiction and fantasy often seem to forget. Having your mind invaded is horrifying. Having your deepest privacy shattered is crippling. Having your body stolen out from under you is something as traumatic and life-changing as being chained up in someone's basement. Character sanctity is big in Erfbound. Psychics aren't big on character sanctity. With all those scary words of doom out of the way, none of this changes the fact that Erfbound was made for exceptions. Psychics are fair game in the setting no matter how many people they send to the looney bin along the way. They exist, they work, and they're actually a decent bit more common than space wizards. Try not to get too ambitious with your mind-benders, but always remember Erfbound's guiding rule; make it interesting before it makes sense. WHERE TO FIND THEMAs it's been said, psychics don't grow on trees. Most psychic effects come from the environment or hardware, instead of the people themselves. Psywaves, ghostly phenomena, and unionite neural networks are but a few examples. Likewise, there isn't some specific, setting-wide trigger that turns an average Joe into a mind-taker. They come from weird families, weird birthplaces, and weird hometowns. If they weren't born a mutant, they picked it up along the way, through cybernetic implants, meaty mutations, or paranormal infusions. It might even be a magical power in itself - which has implications on some of the ordinary restrictions involved. For some of the meaty implications, snoop around the Cult of Meat's articles and the post on meat monsters in the Creatures: Monsters topic. HOW THEY GET INWhen it comes to the baseline psychic in Erfbound, it's hard to tell they're even psychic at all. Mind reading involves actually having access to the mind you want to read. That means having some way to tap in to the central nervous system. There's no quantum brain entanglement or unified spirit of the species to commune across. You've got to get the information from the source. Consequently, most psychics are contact readers - touch the skin, get the nerves close enough to talk to eachother. Distance telepathy usually requires some kind of atmosphere involved, usually with an electrically-conductive medium to take advantage of. Extra methods are useful, like pheromones, sound, or even radio waves. Social skills and good perception are vital. WHAT THEY CAN DOReadings are tricky. Reception is a touchy business. Once that hoop's been jumped through, it's a matter of figuring out how the other person's mind works. What thoughts are junk, what thoughts are useful, and what thoughts are really just chatter between the brain and the body. Everyone's different, so even a newborn toddler knows their nervous system better than a grandmaster psychic - there's a learning curve with every brain. Once all that's been taken care of, there's nothing that can keep the information from passing along - unless the target knows how to encrypt their thoughts. When it comes to taking control, psychics have a lot of the same problems as a beach landing. The defender is always going to be stronger, better entrenched, and better aware of the terrain. A mind-controller has to hit hard with everything at their disposal to start locking out limbs and stealing away brain stem activity. Even once they've gotten control, they've got to keep the effort up - it's a game that never ends. WHAT HAPPENS TO THEMThe disappointment doesn't end there. Not only do psychics have a hard time getting their job done, they usually have to look ugly doing it. Engorged brains, crazy skulls, freakish spines, or even exposed nerve endings - if you're doing it on natural hardware, you're not going to be winning any beauty contests. Mind-jacking cybernetics tend to be poorly received unless you're hooking into a hivemind. At the same time, tapping into someone else's consciousness is a draining effort that puts an immense amount of stress on the nerves. It's not impossible to be a bombshell brain-buster, but it is most certainly not easy. Remember to go easy on those mind powers unless you're ready to slap your character with the ugly stick. For the people on the receiving end, it's just as ugly. Sending contrary nervous impulses can have some dangerous effects, especially if the psychic in question doesn't know what they're doing. Hearts can stop. Strokes can happen. People can start punching themselves just to get the voices to shut up. The entire body can shut down if a telepath's trying their first at mind control. Naturally, if the intent was to kill, that's all fine and dandy, but it's never going to be a fun ride for the person taking the brain bruising. The psychological trauma inherent to it all is just par for the course.
|
|
