by Tyler | Nov 9, 2019 | Recursions
Sand Castle is fueled by the fanciful stories of people building sand castles across generations. The recursion consists of a massive sand castle and its inhabitants on a seemingly endless sandy shore near a vast ocean with huge waves. The inhabitants spend most of the day on frivolous pursuits but grow distressed as evening and high tide near. Almost every night, the castle is destroyed, along with its people, but starts over in the morning. The people have no memory of this cycle, instead referencing a fanciful history that never actually happened. Recursors willing to wait for high tide will commonly be rewarded with a cypher, but little time to translate away before the world is reclaimed by water. Every day, the castle is different. The core of its residents remains the same, but additional characters and plot twists randomly appear. Each evening, they have a lavish banquet of giant exotic seafood. The residents may seek help from the PCs or may blame them for the impending doom. The core residents are as follows: The King (typically a widower) The Princess Ladies-in-waiting The Knight Many guards The following are randomly determined characters (chance in 20 in parentheses beside them) and affects on the plot (randomly select if the character appears): The Wizard (5) – Prophesies that the world is ending in a great flood, king asks outsiders to help them (1-10) Believes the outsiders are from another world and shouldn’t be trusted (11-15) Believes outsiders are from a distant land and can help them (16-19)Believes he can solve the problem, but others will have to do things (20) Has...
by Lasseter42 | Mar 14, 2018 | Recursions
A world where the Zombie Apocalypse is real. The cause is unknown and any investigation usually ends badly. Hordes move like a herd of buffalo, if buffalo hunted for humans. The worst part is that even the hordes aren’t the worst. Scavengers and Z-cults move about praying on survivors and leaving them to die. The only safe place is Panacea, a mobile camp that offers safe harbor to anyone, as long as they submit to full medical examination and leave their weapons with security. the world is roughly the size of north america but the locals believe they are on...
by Midwinter | Jan 7, 2017 | Recursions
The Atlantic Authority is a stretch of America that is covered with a Tesla missile defense shield and spotted with the famous death rays and power transmitters. It’s timeline matches an alternate World War Two setting where Nicola Tesla’s shield technology is used to protect America from German invasion and German anti-gravity technology and genetic manipulation of soldiers prevents America from invading them. It is a stalemate that is being fought through spies and intrigue instead of clashing mechanized armies. New York City is the base of operations for an American government under martial law. Germany infected half of America with a plague before the Tesla Shields became operational. The shields somehow keep the plague at bay, but it was too late to save the country. One third of America perished from the German plague before the Pacific and Atlantic Authorities were created. The center of America is now a barren, lawless wasteland where gangs of hungry anarchists roam. Military technology has progressed far beyond predictions due to the lack of internal combustion engines; the power is instead provided by beamed energy from Nicola Tesla’s gigantic coils that litter the trip-state area. Hover cars, airships, and power armor comprise the American arsenal. Energy rifles that don’t run out of ammunition are the primary weapon of Authority troops. The Authority is governed by President Franklin Roosevelt, kept alive by a medical exoskeleton on Governor’s Island. Being in a state of martial law, a paramilitary force known as the Guardians patrol the streets and police the waterways. The fantastic technology is surpassed only by the paranoia and intrigue; spies are...
by tcheser | Jun 17, 2016 | Recursions
The Campus The School is a vast complex of interconnected halls, classrooms, chambers, storage closets, dormitories, living spaces, libraries and offices, all within the confines of an immense Victorian building. The grounds, which include gardens, forests, hedge mazes, ponds, sports fields, follies and even a graveyard, extend about a quarter to a half mile out from the School and are bounded by an insurmountable stone wall topped with iron spikes. Nothing is new here, though most things are carefully maintained, only areas that have fallen out of use are covered in dust or cobwebs. Taken as a whole the School is much larger than any school on earth by a factor of 10. It has at least a dozen floors above ground and at least as many under ground. There only seems to be 3 seasons at the School; Fall, Winter and Spring, the concept of Summer being anathema. Where the necessities of life like coal, food and clothing come from are a mystery known only to those with the spark, like the Headmaster. Life in the School Newcomers will quickly find that education is taken very seriously here and discipline handled in quite an old fashioned manner. Everyone must attend 12 years of round the clock mandatory lessons, taught by rote, with frequent tests and grueling end of the year exams. Failure means they must repeat that year in its entirety. To the denizens of the School though this is normal. They spend the entirety of their lives there after all. They are born there, either children of other denizens or delivered at the front door in baskets, maturate in the nursery before attending school, become teachers, administration or other staff, then die and are buried in the graveyard. To them the greatest honor possible is to become the headmaster (headmistress) and at the very least to join the esteemed faculty. To end up as a groundskeeper or lunch lady is considered a great disgrace. Something about the School makes it confusing to even those who have spent their entire lives there. Every day feels like the first day there or that dream where you forgot to go to school all year and don’t know where anything is. Only the teachers and administration seems immune to this effect. Newcomers to the School On entering this recursion travelers will find themselves becoming students, their year level dependent on their mix of intellect and knowledge based skills. Standards are high though. It is not uncommon for college graduates from earth being placed back in junior high upon arriving in the School. As in most of your stricter earth schools, the rules must be obeyed here or else, so perusal of the student handbook upon arrival is strongly advised. The Schools detention rooms are roughly the equivalent of earth solitary confinement chambers. Laws No technology more complicated than steam power or gas lighting works in the Steam and most of what can be found there is even older. Typically only mundane items that one would commonly find in a school or country manor will be found here. Magic is also not a feature of the School, there are no wizards or sorcerers and such things are considered flights of fancy. ...
by Ronald | Mar 3, 2015 | Recursions
Crime City is an amalgmation of various cities where street level costumed crime fighters battle against equally garish villlains. It seems to be a city in an unspecified part of the East Coast. It doesn’t even seem to have a proper name, inhabitants generally just call it “The City”. It is created by fictional leakage. Specifically it embodies the tropes of the “masked avenger” crime fighting genre. As a result the technolgical level also seems a mix of eras from the 1930’s to the modern era. Cars from the 40s and 50s prowl the streets where pedestrians chat on cell phones. The architecture is very art Deco but some buildings are ultra-modern. The City is the entire recursion. Most of the citizens talk as if it is part of The USA, but eventually every road dead ends, trying to leave the city by boat results in getting turned around in the fog (though many ships just disappear and re-appear) and there is nothing beyond the city itself. Though the reality creates the illusion of being part of a larger nation. There is an FBI field office that will occasionally get orders from Washington, for instance. Crime is an everyday part of life in The City. Kidnappings, bank robberies and worse seem to be an almost every day part of life. The police force and DA’s office are corrupt, though occasionally a lone cop or official will try to clean it up. The situation is ameliorated by the presence of costumed vigilantes. Masked mystery men who, often because crime has touched their lives somehow, choose to put on a mask...
by ronaldpyatt | Feb 28, 2015 | Recursions
A volatile raging sky reminds you of your anger and pushes 15 Tribes in their constant conflict. A recursion of pitiless brutes, primal casters, war spies, mammoth hunters, poison tenders, and lore minders, lead by a Pinnacle Chief, the prime of each tribe. This is a primitive recursion in a perpetual cycle of war. Perhaps up to 1-2% of the population have the spark and are able to survive. To leave a tribe is banishment. To join another tribe is death. No tribe will accept another tribesman as one of their own. The 16th Tribe of Namoon, discovered or noticed by only those with the spark. It is the only tribe not in the cycle of war, independent, and seeking to understand the recursion they live in. The Namoon are members of other tribes that have awakened from the mundane to think for themselves. They are the ones that survived the journey to the Namoon forest. Namoon are mostly banished members from other...
