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Piratecat's dungeon design: fun with tesseracts!
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<blockquote data-quote="Piratecat" data-source="post: 1397049" data-attributes="member: 2"><p>[h4]The Complex Version[/h4]</p><p></p><p>Add in rooms G and H, and things get a lot more interesting. Here's a 3d picture of what the tesseract looks like in such a case. The red dots are doors (or trapdoors) leading from one room into the next. The arrows show which doorways connect to which room.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=13048" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Mialee glared over at Regdar, who was trying to pick up a coin whose subjective gravity adhered it to the side wall. He seemed utterly fascinated. Then she glanced up from where Lidda danced on the ceiling 15' above her head. "Lidda! Come down here!"</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">"I'd love to," said Lidda shamelessly, "but I'm not sure how to get on the same relative gravity as you have. I ran through a couple of rooms and climbed a few poles, and look at me!" She threw a stone down at Mialee, but it hung in the air for a second right above the elf's head before tumbling back up towards Lidda. The halfling caught it effortlessly. "To me it looks like <em>you're</em> standing on the ceiling. Weird."</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Mialee rubbed her temples with two graceful fingers. She felt a migraine coming on.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>in a complex dungeon tesseract, each door is in the exact center of its wall. You'd need some way to reach the entrances that are not easily accessible. In a tesseract with 10' square rooms, you can boost one another. In a larger tesseract, you may have climbing poles in the center of each room.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=13047" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The red lines are climbing poles; each one ends by a door (six doors in each room.) In such a structure, gravity is completely dependent of how you entered a room.</p><p></p><p>When you exit through a door, it is ALWAYS as if you climbed up a trapdoor. Thus, in the above diagram, if you were on the floor (normal gravity) of room F and decided to go down through the door in the floor (F6), you would emerge in room H standing on the near wall (H1). Relative gravity would have shifted. </p><p></p><p>If you were on the "floor" of room C and wanted to get to the ceiling of room C, you would go: </p><p> Exit by C4, entering A2</p><p> Exit by A5, entering G6</p><p> Exit G2, entering C5</p><p>Voila! You're on the ceiling of C! </p><p></p><p>Alternatively, you could simply climb up the pole to G2, turn around and climb back down again. Much easier. </p><p></p><p>If you didn't want to muck around with variable gravity, you could also decide that gravity was consistent throughout, and didn't vary when going through portals. </p><p></p><p>I find the complex version fascinating, because 3d combat where some people are standing on the wall and some people are on the ceiling can be a lot of fun. in such a tesseract, room size is very important; for instance, if each wall is 40' square, you can only have ranged combat with people on the ceiling. If it is 10' square, things are a lot more intimate.</p><p></p><p></p><p>[h4]Using tesseracts in a game[/h4]</p><p>I originally used one as an "unescapable" trap designed to lure in and trap a NPC's enemies who tried the "scry and teleport" trick. The tesseract had its own ecosystem and series of powerful inhabitants, including a cannibalistic drow and his skeleton "family", a wraith who demanded life-energy in exchange for water and fungus, an insane priest with three followers who used "create food and water" to demand total loyalty, and one room that was commonly agreed to be neutral territory so that the different power factions could meet and talk with one another.</p><p></p><p>They make good jail cells as well. Powerful churches or wizards may use such things to contain their enemies, one of whom the PCs might be trying to find and save.</p><p></p><p>I think these are most useful for catching jaded players off guard, and unsettling them with something that isn't immediately intuitive. </p><p></p><p>Anyways, I think tesseracts are interesting and fun; lord knows that they've sat around in my subconscious for over twenty years. Hope this is of some interest or use to folks. Questions, comments, mistakes?</p><p></p><p>- Kevin Kulp, Piratecat</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Piratecat, post: 1397049, member: 2"] [h4]The Complex Version[/h4] Add in rooms G and H, and things get a lot more interesting. Here's a 3d picture of what the tesseract looks like in such a case. The red dots are doors (or trapdoors) leading from one room into the next. The arrows show which doorways connect to which room. [img]http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=13048[/img] [indent] Mialee glared over at Regdar, who was trying to pick up a coin whose subjective gravity adhered it to the side wall. He seemed utterly fascinated. Then she glanced up from where Lidda danced on the ceiling 15' above her head. "Lidda! Come down here!" "I'd love to," said Lidda shamelessly, "but I'm not sure how to get on the same relative gravity as you have. I ran through a couple of rooms and climbed a few poles, and look at me!" She threw a stone down at Mialee, but it hung in the air for a second right above the elf's head before tumbling back up towards Lidda. The halfling caught it effortlessly. "To me it looks like [i]you're[/i] standing on the ceiling. Weird." Mialee rubbed her temples with two graceful fingers. She felt a migraine coming on. [/indent] in a complex dungeon tesseract, each door is in the exact center of its wall. You'd need some way to reach the entrances that are not easily accessible. In a tesseract with 10' square rooms, you can boost one another. In a larger tesseract, you may have climbing poles in the center of each room. [img]http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=13047[/img] The red lines are climbing poles; each one ends by a door (six doors in each room.) In such a structure, gravity is completely dependent of how you entered a room. When you exit through a door, it is ALWAYS as if you climbed up a trapdoor. Thus, in the above diagram, if you were on the floor (normal gravity) of room F and decided to go down through the door in the floor (F6), you would emerge in room H standing on the near wall (H1). Relative gravity would have shifted. If you were on the "floor" of room C and wanted to get to the ceiling of room C, you would go: Exit by C4, entering A2 Exit by A5, entering G6 Exit G2, entering C5 Voila! You're on the ceiling of C! Alternatively, you could simply climb up the pole to G2, turn around and climb back down again. Much easier. If you didn't want to muck around with variable gravity, you could also decide that gravity was consistent throughout, and didn't vary when going through portals. I find the complex version fascinating, because 3d combat where some people are standing on the wall and some people are on the ceiling can be a lot of fun. in such a tesseract, room size is very important; for instance, if each wall is 40' square, you can only have ranged combat with people on the ceiling. If it is 10' square, things are a lot more intimate. [h4]Using tesseracts in a game[/h4] I originally used one as an "unescapable" trap designed to lure in and trap a NPC's enemies who tried the "scry and teleport" trick. The tesseract had its own ecosystem and series of powerful inhabitants, including a cannibalistic drow and his skeleton "family", a wraith who demanded life-energy in exchange for water and fungus, an insane priest with three followers who used "create food and water" to demand total loyalty, and one room that was commonly agreed to be neutral territory so that the different power factions could meet and talk with one another. They make good jail cells as well. Powerful churches or wizards may use such things to contain their enemies, one of whom the PCs might be trying to find and save. I think these are most useful for catching jaded players off guard, and unsettling them with something that isn't immediately intuitive. Anyways, I think tesseracts are interesting and fun; lord knows that they've sat around in my subconscious for over twenty years. Hope this is of some interest or use to folks. Questions, comments, mistakes? - Kevin Kulp, Piratecat [/QUOTE]
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