Etherealite, fissure glow, and interplanar connections

Breaches of the barrier surrounding this material plane lead to a number of detectable forms of radiation in our world.  These similar but distinct waves are used by Monstrous Matters scientists to piece together details related to each planar portal.

Fissure glow is the radiation that seems to emanate from the gaps between our realm and connected material planes.  For the Monstrous Matters team, this is often the best indication of a portal requiring investigation.  While it is unclear whether the radiation actually originates from those other worlds, or rather from the tearing of interplanar barriers, fissure glow has been found in the vicinity of most of the organization's most important research sites.  As noted previously, many common Earth minerals can block the detection of these waves, creating an additional challenge for Monstrous Matters operatives seeking the doors of the multiverse.

A similar signature, often called penumbral radiation, remains within all organic beings that cross the threshold of an interplanar portal into our realm.  Scientists from Department-7 spent a great deal of time in the 1980s zeroing in the detection of these faint rays surrounding the beings they referred to as Shadowkind, improving the sensitivity of their equipment to the point that handheld imagers are now quite reliable.  Penumbral radiation has been further harnessed in the operation of the uncertainty gun, used to return outsiders to their own realms; most researchers believe that it is the critical connection that leads many outsiders to simply fade away away (and presumably return to their plane of origin) upon death.

Penumbral radiation indicating an interplanar visitor

The radiation that remains the most mysterious to parageologists is that emitted by etherealite, the mineral associated with regions hosting planar portals.  Somewhat ironically, etherealite has been studied in more detail than either fissure glow or penumbral radiation; while scientists have become very good at identifying and describing it, its actual relationship with interplanar travel is so far unknown.

Etherealite's chemical composition varies somewhat from one region to another; it is distinguished from surrounding objects by a special feature of the electrons associated with various metals and metalloids found within its structure (notably aluminum, magnesium, and silicon). These electrons consistently appear to be entangled with particles that exist outside the immediate and obvious physical realm in which we live...described by some Monstrous Matters scientists as if they are paired with with points beyond our four-dimensional existence. Amazingly, mapping these realms based upon our known physics has at times led to physical reconstructions of worlds that have seemingly existed only in the imaginations of the researchers involved. It’s all very meta and is best understood with a wink, a shrug, or a bong hit. (Maybe all three.)

A future pseudoscientific blog post will cover some of the spots around the world that have served as significant sources of these forms of radiation, as well as the extradimensional realms connected to these sites.

The Department of Monstrous Matters

Hmm.  I'm thinking about trying to give this blog more of an identity.  Something beyond "whatever I'm obsessing about at the moment."  Which, I suppose, is the beauty of a personal blog.  But...well, I wonder if a default focus might help to keep me more...well, focused...?  Hmm again.

Anyway, this is an idea that I've thrown around in my head for years...and am playing with for inspiration now...

Dragon head icon by Faithtoken, licensed via CC BY 3.0

Hopefully more to come...

Tweaking Ghostbusters to play nice with the OSR

I've now run three mini-sessions (plus a Session 0) of the "Ghostbusters meets Urban Arcana" game (which I will attempt from here on to refer to simply as the Department-7 game, since that's the organization that's the focus of it) with my friend Josh, who has been an immeasurably good sport in letting me blindly lead him through a set of mechanics and setting tropes that are being figured out as we go along.

From my seat, it's been a ton of fun.  Agents B.J. Flech and Johnny Fix have done a great job so far taking care of the giant ants invading a giant picnic and managing to also handle the group of kobolds living in the ants' lair.

They're now off to Colorado Springs to investigate some odd visitors that have made swim practice impossible the past couple of days at the U.S. Olympic Training Center (they're prepping for the 1990 Goodwill Games, y'know)...

My goal with this game has been to mash up Ghostbusters and D&D in a couple of different ways.  First, they're scrambled together thematically, as the PCs are just investigating something strange in the neighborhood, it's just that their brand of strange is stuff that's made its way to our world from a fantasy realm.  I also wanted a mechanical mashup, though, taking the basics of the Ghostbusters RPG and working in monsters from fantasy games pretty much as written.  Here's how things are shaping up thus far...

The game is still very much attribute + skill based and built on dice pools, with stats changed from Ghostbusters' Muscles/Moves/Brains/Cool to the very, very similar Might/Dexterity/Intelligence/Presence.  I like that breakdown of abilities, I like that DEX and INT can be preserved from D&D, I like Might (which is used in Mini Six) and Presence as STR-CON and WIS-CHA combos.  I should maybe just use the GB names but figure these alternatives will work fine for now.  Twelve points are divided up among the attributes, with a starting range of 1-5 for each.  We're dealing with whole dice only...no pips to "complicate" things like in later D6 games such as Star Wars.

In Ghostbusters, starting characters get a single talent (or skill) for each of the attributes.  When the talent applies to a roll, the player rolls three additional dice.  We've gone the same route with Department-7 but are only throwing two additional dice in for rolls that include the talent.  This keeps them from being so game-swinging at the start and aligns things more with "standard" D6 System games, where seven skill dice seem to be the norm at character creation.

I've dropped Brownie Points and just given the characters straight-up hit points instead...10 plus a Might roll.  Counting down on these seems like a nice way to keep the spirit of Ghostbusters' Brownie Points (a simple number rather than a wound system), and I think it adds to the D&D feel.

Task resolution, including combat, is where I'm trying the hardest to integrate the systems smoothly.  As I have now rambled on way longer than I thought I would at this point, I think I'll save that for another post to come along soon...