The following is an extract from the journal of Urist Craftedhead, dwarven psychologist:
13 Felsite
I have just returned home from my regular visit to the lunatic asylum in Hammerspires and I must confess my thoughts are in a strangely confused state. I met a patient there for the first time, a violent schizophrenic whom I shall simply refer to as "Oddom." When I entered the room where he was kept, I was initially shocked by the conditions - the poor dwarf was held down to a bed with chains, his beard filthy and tangled, and the room was filled with the stink of mild miasma. His attending was quick to explain that this dwarf was given to violent outbursts that made it necessary to restrain him in this manner, that he would not allow anyone to attempt to sponge-clean his beard lest he bite them, and that if not allowed to keep an array of "pets" (deceased vermin dragged into the room by the resident cat) he would howl so terribly and unceasingly that eventually the doctors were forced to give in.
However, Oddom made no move of aggression towards me. His eyes appeared to be pleading, and, keeping a hammerdwarf nurse handy in case he should turn unexpectedly violent, I approached him to hear the words he was trying to whisper to me.
"It's the worlds," he said. "They are falling apart, crashing into each other, splitting at the seams! They are leaking! The worlds are leaking!" I remember his words with crystal clarity, for he hissed them out with such urgency. I pressed him gently to continue, to explain which worlds he meant, for surely I knew of only one. At this, he chuckled with what appeared to be amusement laced with regret. "Of course you can only see the one. You are one of the lucky ones." He then went on to describe with surprising lucidity that he was a special sort of being, an inter-dimensional creature who could see all the different threads of reality wound together, and that this was the true source of his apparent insanity, for it was sometimes impossible for him to sort out which thread he was acting in. According to Oddom, at every moment in time where a decision can be made, all possible decisions are in fact made, and the universe splits into several, so that every possible outcome of events actually exists somewhere within the reality of space and time, and while any ordinary creature exists only within their own version of reality, he existed across all of them. Following this great revelation he appeared to be taken with exhaustion and fell into a deep sleep.
Clearly, schizophrenic patients often offer very compelling alternative views of reality driven by the dysfunction in their minds, but this Oddom's story struck me in a peculiar way. Even now, many hours later and safe in my own chambers, I can't help but ask myself - what if it were true? What if there really could be other realities, perhaps one where I had become a fisherdwarf, or died in an accident as a child - or even one where my beloved Rakust had never been killed in that elephant attack?
So the proposal is a succession fort where more than one overseer takes over at the end of each turn. In the first turn there is only one "universe," but in the second there are 2, in the third there are 4 or more, etc., the exact number of splits depending on the number of interested players. Not every universe would need to split every turn. It would have to be carefully organized of course, with some sort of diagram or tree with links to each universe, which clearly shows which universe is which and how they all relate to each other. I think the actual updates would be best done externally, using Google Docs or something similar, to prevent confusion in the thread.
I always wonder how differently things could turn out if different decisions had been made earlier in the game, and this will give us a chance to find out. Though it could get complicated, I think the intelligent people on these forums could manage to keep track of it all, and the results would be worth the effort. It would also be interesting to compare forts after three different overseers have had their turns at them, see which fortresses last the longest and which crumble quickly - and it might be nice to be able to be more aggressive and daring, trying dangerous ideas early on, knowing that if that particular universe falls there are others for the next player to try and the game is not ruined. Furthermore, more than one player could be going at a time, reducing the wait time for those who want to take part.
Is anyone interested? This would be my first succession game, so I'd be perfectly fine with it if someone else wanted to start the game off or manage the details (though I'd be fine with being the manager if no one else wants the job).
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Topic: Quantum Fortress [Succession Proposal] (Read 4508 times)