BiFrost: BiFrost Specifics pt. 2

Last week I looked at what happens immediately when you enter the new and fancy BiFrost portals and talked a bit about what they looked like. This week I need to ruminate on what you see in the BiFrost after you pick your class.

I always imagined you'd be dropped off at the entrance to a dungeon, or you'd be dropped off at town being overrun by orcs, or something like that. Por ejemplo: You pick your class then poof your in a cavern with carvings on the walls, ahead of you are sounds of fighting, there is no way back, you must go forward. Or instead: You show up in a town of gnomes, the inhabitants busily buzzing through their lives and barely noticing you until a stampede of bandits crashes through the gates and into town, or a quest giver approaches you, etc. etc. When you finish the dungeon/quest you are sent back or a portal opens for you to go home through.

This brings up a good question. Can you leave before the quest is done or the dungeon explored? Can you choose to stay when the quest is done? I will make the decision now that time passes the same in both places, though it's not necessarily the same season or time of day. But at least this way you won't be Narnia living like twelve lifetimes or space traveling coming back young when everyone else is old. I like eliminating issues, it feels nice. Now, I used to like the idea of people basically opening up a dungeon and colonizing it. Trying to find new places to live, new worlds, new communities, getting a bit of the feel of the attempted utopian communities of early American history. However, leaving the portals might cause some problems in terms of when the dungeons "reset." Do the scenarios presented to adventurers when they enter a dungeon remain finished after they leave? Well then no one else would know what to expect when they enter, but I kind of like the idea of previous adventurer's putting info. Could you reenter a dungeon you've always been in? That would mean people could just farm the same dungeon over and over again, but I like the idea that you have to travel to keep up their "jobs" as adventurers. 

Alright, I've been working on this post for a few days by now. Lets make some hard and fast rules. 

• When you enter a dungeon you create an instance that will last until you and anyone else who entered with you has completed the quest. 
• Other people can enter your instance while the instance is open, but you can only start leaving after the quest is completed. 
• As long as there is someone still inside the instance, it will not reset. 
• You can transport an item you can carry through the instance. It has to be in your hands or touching your body. For exmaple, if you tie a car to you with a rope and try to enter, only the rope tied to you comes with you. If you try to drive a car in, only you enter, the car just keeps driving through. 

Alright. I think I've got the basics down now. I need to decide how loot will work, but then I can start using my rules to affect the world as we know it. 

BiFrost: BiFrost Specifics Pt. 1

Before I can get into how society is affected by this whole new "you can have the powers of an rpg class" thing, I have to decide how those powers actually work and how they show up. I'm not sure where to start, so I figure I'll start with the process as an adventurer would see it.

The look of the BiFrost is important. If you couldn't tell from the name, it's kind of based on the rainbow bridge from Norse Legend of the same name. Now I don't want it to be straight up a rainbow; that idea lacks any fun and brings up too many leprechaun jokes. I also don't want to just completely copy the recent Thor movies and have it be a mineral of some sort. They way I've described it before is as a white light that has short streaks of other colors. Here a white-blue, a white-green, a white-indigo. It is always a column, and it bursts from the ground, creating rubble and scorch marks around it.

When you touch a bifrost you are teleported to a dungeon, however if this is your first time going through a bifrost you go on a detour. This is the choosing area. As I described it, it is a thick and heady area, that is meant to feel dreamy. There are three portals - a forest, a market, a temple - that eventually lead to four items per portal, twelve items in total. Each item represents a different rpg class, currently it represents those from the 5e PHB, but could easily be switched to Pathfinder or a different system. The forest leads to classes that have to do with the wilderness and chaos: barbarian, druid, ranger, and sorcerer. The market leads to civilized, but perhaps corrupt, classes: fighter, bard, rogue, warlock. Finally, the temple leads to classes of contemplation: cleric, paladin, monk, wizard.

I used to have all twelve items out, but that was overwhelming. I also thought about using the basic four classes only (cleric, rogue, fighter, wizard), but that really limits the options people have. Instead there are now four basic archetypes: warrior, expert, priest, and mage. Each archetype gets three flavors. Warriors can be barbarians, fighters, or paladins. Experts can be rogues, rangers, or monks. Mages can be sorcerers, warlocks, or wizards. Lastly, priests can be clerics, druids, or bards. Alright, the bard as a priest is a bit of stretch, but honestly I think entertainment is cathartic for most modern people. So currently you pick your flavor first, then your class. Do I like this? Maybe, I could switch it to where you pick your skill set first, then your flavor. I'll think on this, however currently I like the portals to items progression.

Alright, you pick your class. Boom, you've got its starting gear, along with anything you brought in with you. But what about guns? Use the gun rules from the DMG and make them simple weapons. What about other electronics? There is no service to satellites or anything and certainly no chargers, so a lot of things become useless. Can I drive a car in? No, it needs to be able to fit on your person. So you could probably fit some pretty big things, but likely not a car.

Alright, you are in the dungeon. You've got a weapon, you might have some spells, you might have some armor, and you've got your explorer's pack. What now? What does a dungeon look like?

Good question, I'll talk about that next time.