Maj Space: The Belt - Veiled Worlds

This is the first draft of a proposed addition to The Belt, in
Maj Space, which potentially allows the GM to change the entire
social and political make-up of the system.


Veiled Worlds - 19/Sep/06

One of the reasons that the dwarves are cautious about exploring
The Belt is that they have so far discovered at least three
'Veiled Worlds', something which they make considerable attempts
to hide from non-dwarves.  These attempts have been mostly
successful, but there are still a few myths about there being
some very strange worlds in The Belt.

A Veiled World is one which from a distance looks just like a
boulder, at least 25 ft. in diameter.  As you get closer to one,
within about ten times its diameter, it seems to get bigger (or
maybe you get smaller, it is difficult to tell).  As you get to
it's diameter away you find you are entering the air envelope
over an entire world, typically spherical, of diameter between 10
mls (size class B (Diminutive)) and 4,000 mls (size class D
(Small)).  Landing on and leaving these worlds is just as
difficult as if they were a conventional world of that size, and
they are just as prone to have weather, so an incautious approach
with an insufficiently powerful means of travel might mean that
you are stranded there.

Leaving a veiled world by any means, whether for visitors or
locals, means that they 'get bigger' when leaving, and 'get
smaller' on arrival.  This also applies to magical travel via
things like Teleport and Gate.

The only hint that there is a veiled world around is the 'veil'
which surrounds them.  This is the sun getting very slightly
dimmer, so as to gather enough light from a large enough area of
wildspace to illuminate the world properly.  This dimming is
easily overlooked, unless you are a very experienced traveller in
The Belt - attempting to map its extent so as to guess where the
veiled world, in the centre is, would not be an easy task.

GM Option: If desired some veiled worlds may be 'locked', so that
those who are living on them may not leave until someone visits
them from the outside.  This 'unlocks' them, and the locals can
then come and go as freely as anyone else.  Cruel GMs might have
'locked' worlds that wont let visitors leave, either, until some
sort of special task is done.  Such a lock would also affect
things like Teleport, and you would need something like Gate to
evade the lock.  It is possible the dwarves are afraid to let
something really nasty free from a locked world into The Belt.

Veiled worlds allow the GM to place anything they like in The
Belt, and have the world quite difficult to find again, except to
the most skilled navigators.  Entire 'lost' civilizations that
only the exploring player-characters initially get to know about
can be placed there.  It is recommended that GMs think carefully
before adding any intelligent races to such worlds which do not
appear elsewhere in the system.

-- 
Dreamer
dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk
http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/