Saturday, September 9, 2023

TwK: Weak Points in Time and Space

by FantasyMaker
The universe is not as cohesive as you might imagine.  The fabric of space and time is patchy and frayed, with places where it's worn thin, full of rips and holes and general wear and tear. This is both highly inconvenient and terribly useful, provided you know what you're doing.  

There is a phenomenon known as Trans-Dimensional Conjunction, where two different universes will become temporarily connected through naturally occurring rifts in time and space.  Normal people refer to these as 'Weak Points'.  

You can travel through these and end up in some very strange places.  Just be careful when doing so- not all Weak Points remain open long and it's very easy to find yourself lost, a stranger in a strange land, with no way home.   

To generate a Weak Point, roll on the tables below: 

Where is it?

1d20
1- In a basement.
2- In the cupboard/closet/wardrobe.
3- Under the stairs.
4- In a sealed door in an abandoned building.
5- A door set in the last standing wall of a collapsed building.
6- In a cave.
7- Along a forest path.
8- In a Fairy Ring.
9- Along a Fairy Road.
10- In the Attic.
11- Under the bed.
12- In a Crawl Space.
13- In a tunnel.
14- Under a bridge.
15- Through a storm drain/sewer drain/drainage pipe.
16- Through a gap/hole in a wall.   
17- Through a mysterious door that appeared where a door shouldn't be.  
18- In a hole in the ground.  
19- Underwater, at the bottom of a lake/pond/river.  
20- Underwater, just submerging yourself is enough to travel through it.  

It stays open for...

1d4
1- 1d6+2 minutes
2- 1d4+1 hours
3- 1d3+1 days
4- 1d6 weeks

Where does it lead?

1d12
1- To one of the Accursed Planes.  

2- To one of the Blessed Planes.  

3- An Empty World.  The world is exactly as yours is, with the single exception of 1d3 [1= All humans are gone, as if they were blinked out of existence; 2= All humans and domestic animals vanished without a trace; 3= All animals disappear, there is only the things humans built and plants left.]

4- A Parallel World that is very similar to ours except where where 1d8 [1= The alternate party is pursuing a different goal that they share with the original party; 2= The alternate party failed the last quest the party succeeded at; 3= The alternate party succeeded on the last quest the original party failed at; 4= The alternate party committed some sort of crime that the original party did not; 5= The alternate party has lost one member, either among the party itself or among their NPC followers; 6= The alternate party has a new member or follower; 6= The alternate party is different because one member of that party is a different class; 7= The alternate party is different because one member of that party is a different race; 8= The alternate party is exactly like you, except for minor differences in clothing, hair and equipment- ie, this is what you'd look like if you finally decided to get a mullet.] 

5- An Alternate History World.  Like our world, but something different happened in history that changed the face of this world.  This world is different from our world because 1d4 [1= The Black Death exterminated the vast majority of Europeans, Muslims colonized a (mostly) empty continent.  Technological progress was stifled, the Old World is majority Islamic, except for the distant East; 2= The Romans never abandoned Britain, but the colony there survived and became an independent Empire that lasted for much longer, syncretizing with the locals; 3= The Muslims never closed off the silk road, so Europeans never sought out alternative trade routes and discovered the New World; 4= The Chinese discovered America long before Europeans ever got there and began a trading relationship that brought Old World plagues, technology and domesticated animals to the New World centuries before Columbus ever found the West Indies.]    

6- An alternate History World that is 1d8 [1= Stone Age; 2= Bronze Age; 3= Iron Age; 4= Early Medieval; 5= High Medieval; 6= Renaissance/Early Modern; 7= Colonial Era; 8= Victorian Era], but with 1d4 [1= Dragons are an intelligent species that dwells in the land along with humans; 2= Alchemists figured out how to create useful things like potions of eternal youth, formulae to turn other metals to gold, etc; 3= Prophets and priests with magical powers are still around in this era; 4= Faeries did not withdraw from the world as they largely did in this world, but instead maintained bonds with humanity.  

7- The Elflands.  A vast, semi-settled land full of beautiful, alien creatures with a great talent for magic and a low ability, or care for, reason and good sense.  This is the homeland of the Fair Folk and their various sub-races, the Fauns, the Goblins, the Cait Sidhe, etc.  A terrible, beautiful, wondrous place.  Trust nothing and no-one while you are here. 

8- To the future of your own World.  Nothing you do cannot be undone, as long as you return to the past.  To those who remain in the past, it will be as if you blinked out of history.  The future you end up in is 1d6 [1= 1d6 hours into the future; 2= 1d6 days into the future; 3= 1d6 weeks into the future; 4= 2d6 months into the future; 5= 1d6 years into the future; 6= 1d20+5 years into the future] and is an outcome that is 1d6 [1= Extremely unlikely; 2= Unlikely; 3-4= Somewhat likely, maybe a 50%; 5= Likely to occur; 6= Extremely likely] to occur.  Note that the further you go into the future, the more likely you are to encounter drastic changes.    

9- To the past of your own World.  You are sent 1d6 [1= 1d6 hours into the past; 2= 1d6 days into the past; 3= 1d6 weeks into the past; 4= 2d6 months into the past; 5= 1d6 years into the past; 6= 1d20+5 years into the past].  Be careful not to change too much, if you do, you might draw the attention of the Guardians of Time.  Each change you make has an X-in-20 chance (as determined by the Referee) of being detected by one of these Guardians, and the chance increases the closer it is to the event.  The severity of the change will also affect it.  Trying to stop an assassination will change things dramatically, while eating a sandwich in the café that Hitler and Stalin used to frequent during their activist days will probably change little, unless you try to debate them on the merits of free-market capitalism or tell them about the potential of nuclear weapons.  

10- To a "fictional setting" of the Referee's choice.  Here are a few examples 1d10 [1= Warhammer 40K; Marvel Comics/The Cinematic Universe; 3= DC Comics; 4= Star Wars; 5= The Forgotten Realms; 6= The world of the Lovecraft Mythos; 7= The World of the Wheel of Time; 8= Roshar from the Stormlight Archive; 9= The depopulated world during The Stand by Stephen King; 10= Westeros from A Song of Ice and Fire.]

11- To one of your Referee's other settings.  The Referee should list and number them, then roll an appropriately sized die.    

12- A Mirror World.  This world is a perfect inversion of your world.  Your alternate in this world is the exact opposite of you and the same goes for all your friend.  If you are a nice person and live in an ascendant Empire, your alternate is an evil son of a gun who lives in a corrupt and crumbling shell of a once-mighty Emperor.  The evil necromancer you were fighting in your world, his alternate is a righteous healer trying to overthrow the old Empire and restore peace and justice to the land.  

by Zdzisław Beksiński

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