>>8408931
The Ocean proper is a moderately dangerous place. The terrain of the area often appears slightly different (a door might appear that leads somewhere only in the minds of those that try to cross through it, a floor might seem to exist where there is a hole, and walls might appear in a field that aren't really there). Psychofauna here is considerably more diverse and dangerous - some predators feed on memories and emotions, others simply cause psychosomatic injuries (which are best cured by leaving the Ocean or by some kind of Faith Healing). Invasive creatures, which can completely alter another being's thought patterns, are the most dangerous, as they are often 'riding' humans or animals and can cause real, lasting wounds. The Rapture is also a concern for those who spend too long in the Ocean, eroding at their sanity slowly but constantly.

Most dangerous of all are the Depths, like deep sea trenches, wells of psychosis. They are completely inhospitable, inducing high levels of the Rapture almost instantly in all but the strongest or best-protected minds. It is almost impossible to explore the psychic terrain of the Depths - even mechanical probes break down quickly for reasons that are hotly debated, and they can only show the physical area. Those few who have stumbled into the Depths and returned sane speak of things made purely of feelings, of places that couldn't possibly exist, and feelings of being watched by god-like beings.

Hmmmm... Go on.

>>8408944
The world came to be like this after a terrible accident at a laboratory in southern Colorado. While the exact details of the experiment are unknown, due to the facility currently sitting in the middle of the deepest 'Ocean Trench' on the planet, it is known that during experiments in hypnosis, sleep-deprivation, and remote viewing, something must have gone horribly wrong. The psychic 'landscape' of the world suddenly went through a violent upheval, and where once the world's psychic 'landscape' was almost entirely flat (with some slightly deeper areas that most considered 'haunted', 'cursed', or 'holy'), it was now as rough as a mountain range.

Unforunately for many people, some of the places that went really 'deep' were heavily populated - major cities seemed to act as weights, sinking farther and faster than what was around them. It's impossible to say how many people died in the immediate aftermath of the Mindquake. Many of the cities still seem to be inhabited, if in a very limited way, but the people in them are almost universally insane or have been hollowed out mentally for some hostile Psychofauna to use as a physical body. The most reliable estimates attribute over two billion deaths to the Mindquake, and that number again as effective casualties, rendered insane or worse.

Well, you've got me sold. But what is this a setting for, exactly?

Today, five years later, the situation has largely stabilized. Most people have resettled in the shallowest parts of the 'Ocean' in small towns - very few are willing to live in a city for fear of it 'sinking' during an aftershock. The most important thing to most people is learning about the 'Ocean', and how to live with it as a constant force in their lives.

Players would typically play as researchers and explorers, 'diving' to explore the psychic terrain and study the psychofauna.

I see there being a few obvious character types: The Soldier, trained in dealing with hostile Psychofauna, especially ones that have taken over a physical body; the Scientist, who would have the most knowledge about what to expect and methods of dealing with non-physical manifestations; the Remote Operator, who would use a remotely controlled probe, probably a treaded bot, to provide an objective analysis and help the team avoid dangers hidden by the psychic terrain; and the Parapsychologist, trained in faith healing (because fake healing works wonders for fake wounds) and possibly able to tame some types of psychofauna.

This is...pretty damned cool, actually.

Also, OP's pic is made of FFFFFFFFFFFFFF

>>8408979
A game, naturally. I've had this setting idea bouncing around for a while, and wanted to see what other people thought before I went much deeper into it.

sounds like an m night shyamalan movie

Cool idea for a setting. Not too crazy about the "secret government experiment gone awry was behind the cataclysm" bit (kind of overdone, IMO). But everything else is some real top-notch gaming goodness. Well done.

This is actually pretty badass and i can say with the utmost certainty that if i were to see this sitting on a shelf, i would not hesitate in buying it just because of the sheer awesome of the setting.

if you were to flesh it out some more i think you got yourself a money ticket

>>8409062
In all honesty, I think its the weakest part, too, and I'd be more than open to suggestions on what else I could use as the triggering event.

>>8408931
sounds like delta state to me

>>8409094

Just don't have it be "secret". Have it be a privately-funded project that was in the public eye for several years and hotly debated, like the LHC. It just so happened the naysayers were right.

It reminds of an indy game that did the same sort of thing but with forests that overwhelmed the world. The PCs are among the handful of people that can resist the call of the woods and as such have jobs like guides and couriers.

>>8409094
I wish I could help. I'm crap at coming up with ideas.

The only thing I can think of is some sort of darkly ironic thing where some kind of "enlightenment cult for rich people" (think Scientology or something) is trying to attain a higher level of consciousness and, thanks to throwing large piles of money at the problem, accidentally succeeds, thus getting devoured by the deeps and dooming the rest of the non-enlightened mankind who couldn't afford to join their cult..

I like it!
Mind if I help? Fluff, purely - if we get mechanical I'll just adapt Strange Times, and no one wants that. Sadly.

>>8409094

Ley line storm... oh wait, that sound is Kevin Siembieda rushing to sue me.

Mayan apocalypse? Self-actualization cult with nefarious backers kicked it off? It's hard not to stumble over an existing trope when it comes to psychic cataclysms.

>>8409156
>>8409179

SCIENTOLOGYMIND

this is fucking amazing

as for how it happened, you dont even need to address that and just have some places where it might have happened

>>8409199
Not at all. One of us was time traveling. It's obvious to anyone who has been cleared of body thetans.

>>8409135
Alright. That's simple enough. I kind of like some elements of >>8409156, though. I think I'll meld the two so that the two sides blame each other for what happened.

>>8409166
Sure. I'd love all the help I can get. Mechanically, I'm working something up that uses d% and sliding scales.

rolled 6, 3, 6 = 15

The Dreamer dreamed. His dream became a nightmare. His mind, gripped by fear and pain, called out for deliverance, and received it. The Dreamer awoke.

The world's nightmare began.

>>8409290

I'd be willing to help too. pretty sure you're the same Lawful on the tggame IRC channel.

>>8408931
>picture

>>8409328
That's me! The same sadistic person who puts the G-Virus in a werewolf game.

>>8409307

That's damned close to a word-for-word reading of the back cover of some random-ass fantasy novel I have at the house.

>>8409290
Cool! I got to be (a tiny) part of something awesome.

>>8409365

Yeah. One of the lurkers there.

So this would be a horror game? Would it be possible that if faith healing works, that belief in general can be used as a weapon in the Ocean? Also, for the same reason, how hotly debated is the nature of the Ocean? I could see post-millennialist Evangelicals saying that this is the Second Coming, and as usual fighting science, or various religious groups saying this is Heaven, Aborigines referring to it as The Dreamtime coming again, and of course Scientologists.

rolled 6, 4, 1 = 11

Regarding the Ocean, for the most part, 'it's all in your head'. Machinery is not affected by it. Cameras cannot see anything out of the ordinary. Only minds, belonging to humans or animals, can be reached by the Ocean.

In the deeper parts, nightmares are made manifest. The Ocean becomes something real, capable of reaching all things, man or machine. What's really frightening is that the Ocean, like its namesake, has waves. And God help you if there is a big one.

rolled 3, 4, 6 = 13

>>8409399
I'm not surprised. It is by no means an original idea.

>>8409438
Belief counts for a lot - I plan on it being one of the most important skills in the game. Unfortunately, it can make you more vulnerable to psychosomatic wounds and non-physical entities.

As for what the ocean actually is, there is hot debate. Scientists variously believe it's an alternate dimension intruding on our own, a 'program' that runs on the human mind, or quantum. Parapsychologists often bring up the ideas of a psychic gestalt, the collective consciousness, and ESP. Religious types say it's either the end of the world (a Flood, of sorts), or the Kingdom of Heaven. Or perhaps Hell.

>>8409459

Nope, but like I said above, psychic cataclysm's been done in so many different flavors that you're all but guaranteed to be ripping SOMETHING off.

>>8409525

This would probably be a good place to use the Tri-stat system (Body, Mind, Spirit). Body is obviously the physical, mind is knowledge, and spirit is regarding the Ocean.

Are animals affected by the Ocean?

A bit about the Psychofauna:

First, you've got the Floaters. You see them everywhere. They look like butterflies, or motes of light, or crystals. Whatever. Point is they don't do much except float around and avoid people.

Then, you have the Ghosts. It's a general term, for psychofauna with no real physical form. The difference between them and floaters, aside from sheer size, is that Ghosts are psychologically straining on the mind. They exasperate the effects of the Rapture, can damage minds directly - eating memories, stealing emotions. They can even cause psychosomatic injuries, which can be just as dangerous as the real ones if you're far from the Shallows.

Then you have the Invasive psychofauna. They'll hollow out your mind and make you dance like a puppet. Scientists say they change brain patterns to match their own, and that they reproduce like that. The important thing is to know that someone stumbling around with a dull look in their eyes might not be human anymore where it counts. In the deeper parts, they'll even look less human - some look like demons, others like they're rotting away.

>>8409615
>Are animals affected by the Ocean?
Yes. Wild animals possessed by Psychofauna are bad news bears. Sometimes literally (and fatally).

>>8409684
How do you fight such things?

>>8409919

You believe them dead. Possibly some sort of fetish/focus-esque weapons that would actually damage them? Or it's survival horror, and you GTFO as hard as you can.

>>8409919
Ah, well that's the interesting thing - you have to believe your weapons can hurt them. A soldier, who is trained that his gun makes him a superhuman killing machine, will find that it is surprisingly good at killing the psychofauna - as long as he believes it can. Tell him the bullets are blessed and it might work even better. People who are properly trained can even manifest attacks directly - you might crudely think of it as a kind of magic.

>>8409961

I see this as a Survival horror type thing, but Lawful did say those with strong enough belief/faith can combat the psychofauna, but are also more susceptible to being hurt by them. So every team probably has a priest with them. Possibly two.

>>8410002

So there'd be some that have such a strong presence that you may slow them down for a bit, but you're damn sure not going to kill them on your own. Others, keep a clear head and you'll do just fine. Some are quick to run, but persistently circle and must be repeatedly driven away. Some are dead still until they're triggered by some means, and then they come at you like a juggernaut.

>>8410002
Definitely more survival horror than anything else - as you spend more time in the Ocean, accumulating psychological damage, you lose the ability to fight and will eventually succumb to madness.

>>8409729

>possessed bears

Is this ocean fixed? Or does the shoreline move? And why on earth would anyone go into the deep ocean? With that shit swimming through the air, I wouldn't leave the psychic safety of my house. (It's safe in here because I believe it is!)

warriors trained to bend the ocean to their will, like in the matrix

>>8410196
>And why on earth would anyone go into the deep ocean?

Because it's there.

>>8408931

Sweet idea OP. What's that pic about?

Orders of life:

Organic
Machinic
Memeoid
Psychic
Theoretical.

Have fun.

>>8410196
There are occasional 'aftershocks' that change things in limited areas, sometimes by a lot.

>>8410254
You know what else is out there? Chlamydia. Just because it exists doesn't mean I want any part of it. See, this is why I can't play Cthulu games. I'm always the one person in the party saying "Let's not try that spell" or "Shouldn't we get out of this spooky house before something happens?"

Awesome idea for a game brewing in this thread. I'm just saying that I would never leave my house if I lived in this world.

>>8410196
>And why on earth would anyone go into the deep ocean?

That's where all the convenient tools of civilization lay rusting. Generator's on the fritz? Lucky for you the big industrial warehouses were largely unpopulated and sat on the edge of town. Get to scavvin'.

So you're entering the Warp?

Find out which one is Gork and which is Mork for us.

>>8408931

One of my favourite things about his idea is that, if I understand correctly, the physical world is still mostly the same, but geology of this psychic "Ocean" is completely different so it creates this interesting duality in your mind when you try to picture them both at the same time, overlapping.

>>8410254
Imagine your heart's greatest desire. It's out there, in the ocean, if you believe enough in it. A quantum computer, the meaning of life, someone you lost in the mindquake. But you can't bring it home - the things in the depths can't survive the 'decompression'. So you have to keep going back even if you find it.

>>8410316
Take Scoob and check out the kitchen, you pussy.

>>8410316 You know what else is out there? Chlamydia.

One word for you: Tetracycline. Now leave the house.

Also, fuckwin awesome ideas in this thread. Good work, /tg/. Once again you have proven yourself the best board on 4chan.

>>8410391

Deep research facilities where teams of psychoscientists believe into existence Things Which Should Not Be... Old hippie communes, remade into neo-druidic groves...

Gentlemen, we've tapped a deep well of potential here.

>>8410391
So the deep ocean is the last place in America I can find Mello Yello soda? But I can't bring a case of it back with me?

And also Christina Hendrick's naked boobies are out there too?

This sounds like a very cool idea for a game.

>>8410471
And Chocodiles. Don't forget those. This place sounds like a wonderland!

>>8410511

If you believe that the Ocean can make you the little girl, and you identify as the little girl enough, you can turn into the little girl.

Plus, this means most furries will have gone mad while in here because they stayed so they could be their fursona and yiff each other forever.

What the hell is OP's pic about?

>>8410629
Magnets destroy floppy disks

>>8410589
That's why you bring real guns with you. There are no doubt a lot of people who have succumbed to the temptation to simply stay in the ocean with what they found there. Some are harmless. Others... not so harmless. God help you if you come across someone who lives only for their guro fetish.

>>8410629

Floppy disc. Magnet. Put two and two together.

You obviously never used a computer before the A:// drive became obsolete.

>>8410629
dude was looking for the disk, but she used a magnet to pin it to the fridge so it's wiped.

You know what this reminds me of OP?

Gilgamesh. the anime adaptation of it.

At least the atmosphere and such. This actually seems like a genuinely creepy setting.

>>8410677

Yeah, pretty much. Totally forgot about that.

>>8410674

How would multiple people with disparate beliefs play out? Would the most powerful personality win out, would there be a subtle blending, or would there be a constant flux as the two (or more) ideas attempt to overwrite each other?

>>8410677
Oh god. Had to hand in an assignment in Highschool on a floppy they'd provided. Walk past the Chalkboard with magnets everywhere...
*SNAP* as one of them flies off the ledge and onto the disc.

>>8410261
There's absolutely nothing wrong in the OP's pic. Just someone's helpful German friend being helpful.
Here, have some condoms.

>>8410826
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

>>8410783
I'd largely come down to the stronger mind eroding away the weaker, though it is possible that the same space could have different 'overlays' - the same door leading to two different places depending on who uses it.

>>8410898

What about permanent alteration of the 'ocean'-space, picking up the imprints of long-term residents or incredibly powerful events?

>>8410937
Oh, definitely. Don't go to Auschwitz.

It's Dennou Coil with psychic instead of virtual.

>>8410511
i googled chocodile and found out that its a chocolate covered twinkie. if the oceans could make those real then i would live in that ocean.

>>8410977

Oh God.

Any tenative names for this setting?

>>8410992


sounds like it

This thread had better be fucking archived.

>>8411018
I am total rubbish at naming things, lol. At the moment I just have it labeled as 'psychic ocean' in my notes.

Some bad ideas:
Dungeons and Dreamers
Psychofauna: The Maddening

Some better ideas:
Rapture
Psyea

http://www.rpg.net/columns/wushuskidoo/wushuskidoo8.phtml

>>8411163

How about Living the Dream? Mind's Tide? Idunno

>>8411163

BLOOOOD OCEAN.

Oh, and codpieces had better be required adventuring equipment.

>>8409993
I would think that this would be incredibly taxing, though. Like, when you first saw a magic-eye poster and strained your eyes until it worked. You feel pretty drained by that. The same principle should apply here, only you can't so easily learn to think things to death.
With that in mind, "magic" abilities would be like doing advanced calculus in your head without a calculator. You could learn to do it, and even be damn good at it, but each time would be like driving nails into your skull.
Well, just my two cents, anyway. Can't say much about how these things work until you develop the system.

>>8411185
The Rapture is a kind of erosion on the mind, combined with the mind becoming more in sync with the Ocean. It tends to stretch and tear at your personality - the perceptions of others about you slowly take over the 'real' you. As an example, let's say you're generally a depressed person, and you put on a happy face and make others think you're a happy person. As the Rapture hit you, you'd actually become that happy person. But people don't know about your hopes, dreams, how you really feel about them. You become a cartoon, a caricature of yourself. Some people don't recover from that, get stuck as something less than a real person. It can easily break a mind as it loses important bits, driving the person insane.

Look guys! /tg/ is getting excited about a cool setting!

I give it two weeks before we get bored with it, and another week after that before it's forgotten.

>>8411357
I'm not sure how I'm going to do it in the system yet. Currently I'm considering psychological triggers learned under hypnosis, but that's dangerously close to Vancian casting, which I want to avoid.

hrmm how about for a name something like..

DementiaeKinesis. movement by madness essentially.

Actually that doesn't roll off the tongue at all.

Dementiae?

>>8411398

As compared to /b/, which has a hardwired 30-second attention span.

>>8411416

I'd place it along the line of Call of Cthulhu magic and Dark Heresy Psyker powers.

I cast my vote for "Mind's Tide"

>>8411398

Thanks, Debbie Downer! (I'm actually currently playing a character inspired by a /tg/ thread. It's just hard to get an entire group to sign on to a random setting someone pulled out of their ass. On the internet. More specifically, 4chan.)

>>8411438

Latin names are the kiss of death.

>>8411498

agreed. Nothing says "pretentious shit" like pseudolatin.

>>8411452
Hm. Psyker powers might be the way to go, at least as a jumping-off point. There should be the potential for terrible things to happen.

>This thread

I FEEL THE WARP OVERTAKING ME

>Most of the psychofauna at this level consist of Floaters
>Floaters
>Floaters
Uhuhuhuhuh.

So:
Rapture
Parapsychological healing
Beliefs made real
Psychotropic reality intrusion

Did you listen to Holy Diver while watching South Park "Imagination Land"?

>>8411576
Last thing a setting about fighting *imaginary* imaginary creatures in an *imaginary* imaginary world needs is to be pretentious sounding.

Anyway, I need to start getting in on specific setting details. I'm thinking the default is that players work for a University that is perched near the edge of the shallows, and is heavily invested in research. For the most interesting variety of terrain, it should be near a major population center. Well, former major population center, now a deep hole in the psychic ocean.

>>8411576
I can see your point.

On a slightly different note say someone believed this whole ocean thing was just a scam of some sort and believed it was just someone spiking food or what not. How far could someone go into the ocean before finally getting hit by things that aren't physical?
"Nah that's not a ghost in front of me. Johnny musta put somethin in mah drink again!"

>>8410661
>>8410677
>>8410698
Most magnets won't destroy floppy discs, unless they're ceramic supermagnets, possibly as >>8410825 mentions. Fridge magnets are definitely not strong enough to mess with a floppy.

>>8411398
hundreds, perhaps thousands of minds spending a few hours or a few days each working on the same concept.

you forget how much power is bound up in that.

>>8408931
LawfulNice, well done.
for some reason it reminds me of Real Drive, though ive seen very little of that.

deep diving as a simulation for network interface vs ocean and depth as a metaphor for the mind's interaction with a real (if intangible) field effect.

I like this setting/concept.
So millions/billiosn perished in those first days, either finding themselves suddenly in the deepest darkest depths, or perhaps worse, in the quickly sinking megacities. The remainder of mankind has dragged themselves up into the shallows (any dry "land"?) where the distortion is almost.. almost.. harmless.

Can the effect be mechanically measured in any way? like anomaly detector in stalker?
Or perhaps some half-horrible cobbled together device, like a mouse in a portable cage with wires in its head to perceive the distortion in a living media.

Or perhaps its more of an art then a science. Think of truck convoys with a leading car carrying a blindfolded and half-entranced "sensitive" to detect shifting currents before they can be blundered into with an effect like the brain hitting a wall.

Towns and settlements rigged with blaring horns and public address systems, ready to blast the area with sounds and lights to wake any sleepers before a Wave sweeps over the town. To the awake and wary it is only a horrible feeling of shock, to the sleeping and weak of mind the Wave and its Rapture may be enough to leave them in a dream that will never end.

>>8411163
Just name it "Psyche"
It covers kinetic and somatic interaction.

>>8411672
This is an honest question.

>>8411719
If you believe something can't hurt you, that gives you some limited protection against it. The problem is, the second it *does* hurt you, you lost *all* of that protection. They aren't just in your head, they're in everyone's head, and the vote is not going in your direction.

>>8411744
>any dry "land"?
I'm debating that. If there is dry land, it would mean you're completely away from something that might be the collective consciousness. It could drive you insane in a completely different way, turning you into a p-zombie.

>Can the effect be mechanically measured in any way?
At the moment, I'm considering an EM field might be correlated with the depth of the ocean, if only so people back home can see how deep you are and as an excuse for communications and probes to break down in the depths.

>...ready to blast the area with sounds and lights to wake any sleepers before a Wave sweeps over the town...
I like that.

>>8411816
The answer is no, lol. I came up with this a while back, when I was doing research into consensual reality and dream states.

Oooh! PEACOCKS. As they exist in a permanent state of lucid dreaming, they function much like a psychic canary in a coalmine. Taking one with you will help with early warning of shenanigans, but only so long as you're staying in the shallows. Too deep and you'll kill it outright.

This is starting to sound a little too Avant-garde too be accessible or a plausible campaign setting.
Could you image what the core book would look like?
I'm picturing nWoD style books for this.

>>8412042
Are you kdding me, all of the stuff that's been said so far is easily do-able rules-wise.

>>8412042
That's the reason I've had it on the back burner for a while. I've been working to push it back to something more accessible. Part of it is just the terminology, I think. If you express it simply as "Parts of the world are dangerous. Monsters live there. They can only be harmed if you believe in yourself. Don't stay in those dangerous bits too long, because they're dangerous."

>>8411919
Ahh, but you do see what I'm referring to right?

I like this idea, but think it could use some more work. For example, the cause of the event. I think a collective unconscious "awakening" would be the best scenario, but as far as its trigger, I'm not sure. I mean, what could reasonably be a trigger but still suspend disbelief? Did everyone BELIEVE it was so, and that's what formed it? It would be a cascade effect, then, not a sudden violent shock, at least until a critical mass was reached.

Another thing Holy Diver made me think about is tides. Do they coincide with night, and therefore sleep, therefore caused by dreaming? Do the deepdwellers surface at night, as some ocean fauna does? If so, then the Midnight Sea would be serious shit, and it would be prudent to have people sleep in shifts rather than all at night.

>>8412087
>>8412095
Don't get me wrong, I'm loving the idea.
As a product though, it's going to be either Fluff-heavy or totally hands-off. Thing of all the effects "The Ocean" can have on people, animals, plants, topography, weather, time, dreams and spirituality.

As a rule though, so sort of scale/stats will be needed to gauge the' depth' of the ocean in game terms.

>>8412096
>Did everyone BELIEVE it was so, and that's what formed it?

This could create a Mayan apocalypse variant.

December 21st, 2012. A perfectly fucking normal day. No comets, no polar shift, no Planet X, no nothing. The most notable thing is the four remaining shopping days until Christmas. Except that the meme that something drastic will happen on this day has buried itself deep in our collective unconscious. Enough people believe to kindle the spark of apocalypse, and once the fecal matter starts impacting the rotary impeller, countless more start believing in a chain reaction that alters the world forever. Ironically, the very act kills the countless millions of people needed to fix the problem they've created.

Have you ever heard of a game called Psychonauts, Lawfulnice?

If not, look it up, and bask in its glory.

Its basically what a foray into the deep areas might be like.

>>8412096
>I think a collective unconscious "awakening" would be the best scenario,
Which is what it might be. In the setting, it's left deliberately unknown. Currently, the likely culprits are a high-profile series of deep psychological experiments that were conducted with funding from a cult of enlightenment (think Scientology). There was a lot of publicity and money thrown into it, a lot of doomsayers about it that said the experiments were 'playing god' and 'dangerous'. Then something snapped, and BAM, huge mindquake. They still don't know exactly what caused it - the scientists say its because of the meddling of the cult, the cult says its because the scientists weren't careful enough, and that they didn't interfere at all. As for the ocean... no one knows what it is, except that it's full of ghosts and madness.

>>8412216
Good... but how many in Europe thought the Black Plague was the apocalypse?

Don't mind me, I'm just nitpicking for continuity's sake.

As far as name goes, I like "Mind's Tide". As far as "magic" or "powers", why not label them manifestations? As is a PC manifests an effect on anothe pc or psychofauna. For mechanics, oWoD mage had its spheres you could combine in different ways, depending on your level of expertise. A freeform system with limits based on expertise/experience seems to work the best here. If the PC's mind is the limit, then have a stat that governs the maximum power, and let the players' creative limits be the guide.

>>8412096
Look into Noetics. Yeah, it works. Humanity finally did a bit of research, and worked out how to TAP INTO the human mind, develop their OWN powers. Unfortunately, it woke the world up too.

>>8411887
hmm.
>p-zombie.

So the deeper one gets the more they are overwhelmed by thoughts from the Outside. Outside of their own mind and conceptually outside of reality. This overwhelming force has been found to subvert and distort self-perspective and there are unconfirmed reports that alien thought patterns are overwriting those of "Divers" in the Psyche

And on the other side of the spectrum, in some rare "ridges"(?) this outside pressure falls away, and just as the body cannot survive without air and pressure, the conscious( /sapient/organic mind of any complexity) begins to ossify and decay, leaving an increasingly dysfunctional biological machine.. researchers are calling it the Slash-Be Effect, after parapsyche researchers Johann Slásh and Be Nyugen.

short version:
too deep and things get squeezed into your head.
too shallow or dry, everything important leaks out of your head.
>?

>>8412248
There were also substantially less people around during that time period.

>>8412246
I'm getting very strong C-Consciousness vibes from the whole thing. Maybe as a shout out make Chernobyl a hot-spot that both Ukrainian and Russian governments guard against would be explorers.

>>8412248

Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions. But certainly not the hundreds of millions whose end-of-world scenarios conveniently dovetail with the 2012 prophecy, nor the billion-and-change that witnessed the beginning of shit popping off.

>>8412305
Exactly. In addition, it's far easier to be creative in the ocean - bright new ideas seem to just pop into your head. In the shallows, you just become... flatter. Less vibrant. Safer, though.

>>8412345
Sure. It does, also, seem like the kind of place that might be 'heavy' - while there isn't a large population in the area, it has been in the public eye for a very long time, with a lot of strong beliefs and thoughts about it. Psychosomatic radiation poisoning would be nasty.

>>8412347
so the "kicked off by everyone" idea is two parts?
step one, a media-fueled mass of people Really think the world is ending. So many people thinking the same thing makes a weird ripple, in a time measuring much less then a second and impossible to detect by normal means.

The ripple suddenly makes everyone on the planet think "oh shit, the mayans were right" in their local dialect, which makes a critical mass and.. and shit falls apart?
interesting, though i would stay away from it for two reasons:
1: i bet a majority of the worlds overall population has no idea what this 2012 mumbo jumbo is anyhow, and 2: the whole thing is so overdone in the Western world, tying anything to 2012 just looks lazy from a design/theme standpoint now.

>>8412442
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

THAT FUCKING SPIRAL THAT HAPPENED A WHILE AGO IN RUSSIAN AIRSPACE

IT WAS ONLY THE OPENING ACT.

>>8412387

So the collective conscious goes both ways? The "deeper" you are in the ocean the more you open your mind to the horrible things that could destroy your mind or you entirely, but on the other hand the more you open yourself to the joy, imagination and sense of spirit of the collective conscious.

I think that part of the setting needs a little more exploring, yes I can honestly say I believe that such a thing would be mostly filled with horror and madness, but pure and wonderful things would exist.

Every tumor needs healthy flesh to live, every troll needs an idiot to take rage from, every malignancy has benignity somewhere.

>>8412480
>benignity somewhere
"gosh tom, do you think you should have a doctor check on that benignity?"

"nah, i think its gonna be fine, just fine"

As for the "true origin," instead of the mayan apocalypse go with the "Childhood's End" apocalypse? A mutation that opened the mind, connects them, reaches critical mass once a certain percentage of the population has it. As no one really knows how to control it, whe get the creation of a dangerous ocean. Psychic research/the Mayans are merely a scapegoat for something far more frightening. More children are being born with the mutation, meaning a second wave is an eventuality.

>>8412442

Enh, I'm just brainstorming here. 2012 IS pretty much the go-to apocalypse nowadays. It gives you an out, though, where you don't have to blame everything on some sort of monolithic evil.

>>8412480
"There are wonderful things down there, wonderful things. Trees made of glass with leaves that sing the music of the spheres, and you'll never hear it through those microphones and speakers. I even saw Sue, just how she used to be, before the aftershock dropped our house into the ocean and something opened her up and wore her like a glove. She told me she didn't die, that she just left her body, and that she can live there with all those... those wonders. If you can hear this, Jack, I'm sorry. I'm going to stay here with Sue. There's nothing I want up there anymore."

>>8412590

The tape recorder bearing this message is found in a pool of blood far, far too large to have come from one human being.

op's story is 100% a rip off from final fantasy the spirits within

I like "Mind's Tide" or perhaps "Brain Wave".

>>8412627

>>8412627

Except for the enormous chunk of an alien planet crashing to earth and divesting the lost souls of its inhabitants part. And the ultrahigh-tech human enclaves part. And the making smoochy faces at Gaea fixing everything in one fell swoop part.

So really, nothing like FF:SW, except for monsters you can't kill with plain ol' bullets. Ass.

>>8412590
I could see this involving some sort of composure/will/focus type facet to stay level headed. If panic and fear override the person's mind, all sorts of horrors could appear. Even a relatively shallow area could become silent hill in a panic.

>>8412675
I like this concept.

>timestamp:+0
my Depth gauge is acting up again. I think its the new system.. ant brains were a dumb idea anyhow. Ive been proceeding carefully and there have been no signs of anyaarrrghghglgllglbll .. .. ..

>#file corruption: video unavailble#
>timestamp:+7
.. .. .. its .. beautiful .. everything fine down here. Everything. Following the tether out along the I-90 line, I think the whole team should meet me at the Delta point, i have something to show them.

>multiple perceptions weaving together
>lsd ocean composed of memories/people/shit
>few remaining survivors

someone's been watching too much evangelion

>>8412769
that I can see.

>>8412716
To be more specific, it could be either the person's mind is synched too much and when they panic, they affect the psyco-reality around them OR the panic and fear, being strong emotions, draw in more of the psychofauna. Think a psychoactive beacon.

I don't know if this has been discussed at all, but imagine this common scenario:

A man and his dog. Both in the ocean for some ungodly amount of time. What happens to them?

"It's interesting to see the changes in the Cancun area...Directly after the wave it was a paradise, influenced by its former spring break destination status, no doubt. Former residents and surveyors found themselves in a blissful, whimsical world without cares or needs...But after those first news reports got out describing it as a "lotus eater machine," it began to siphon the life out of those who once enjoyed it, and the once bright fauna and landscape have taken on dull overtones..."

ok here's a question, how much of the world is affected? is the entire world pretty much submersed in this ocean with a few dry spots (shallows). it seems to me that the depths would be relatively rare and isolated, meaning that they could be avoided easily

>>8412797
man feeds dog and talks to him. dog talks to man, tells him where to find wimminz. and then there is rape? and dry lakebeds.

wait, or is that a Boy and his dog?

You know, this doesn't sound like a psychic phenomenon to me at all. It sounds to me like an airborne pathogen that infects the mind with a deadly disease. It was engineered to be very hardy and can stay suspended in the air, being inhaled by any that venture into the Ocean. It might also have a waterborne counterpart which would have easily infected people in large cities. The "deeper" parts of the Ocean are merely areas where the bacteria is most concentrated in the air. This would most likely be in the city where hosts abound.

When it gets into the system it acts like any other disease, destroying and multiplying, though instead it targets the brain. At first it causes auditory and visual hallucinations, followed by full sensational hallucinations, dementia and psychosomatic injuries. Eventually the disease takes control of enough of the brain that it can display a limited control in its host. I'm assuming its been engineered to prevent the death of the host.

Hallucinations are common among groups of individuals, because the human brain is built the same for all people, social and cultural dynamics affect judgment, and the nature of the virus works similarly in humans. Different people can affect the disease's progress through willing the immune system into action and resisting hallucinations. Machinery can be affect through either controlling an animal to change it, or gathering enough cells to short circuit the electronics.

>>8412797

I can tell you this: that dog went in a Schnauzer, but it's coming out a fucking WOLF. Every dog thinks that it's hot shit, the biggest swinging dick on the block. Enough time out of the shallows, and that perpetual thought process will manifest in reality.

Another hazard of the deep zones around cities: roving packs of dire Pomeranians.

>>8412797
Assuming they haven't been eaten by something? Hard to say. But if they became separated, they would almost certainly attract psychofauna that mimicked their counterpart. Imagine seeing a man walking his dog, and as he steps out of the ocean, it sits down and whines pitifully, because it only exists there, now. Or it tries to follow him, and simply fades away...

dm: you encounter a polymorphic image of your mother with purple tentacles coming out of her armpits with razor sharp vagina teeth wearing an abe lincoln hat while reciting the russian national anthem in ancient hebrew dialect while moonwalking forwards through the space time continuum

player: fuck this shit

>>8412797

Depends.
They could have been Extremly lucky and developed a resistance.
The synching effect of he Ocean could have caused them to merge consciousnesses.
The Rapture could have taken ahold of them, turning them into bestial lunatics.
They could have been mentally gutted by the psychofauna and are now puppets.

The possibilities are endless.

>>8412797
Imagine I Am Legend (the movie).

Now, imagine that Will Smith is one of those who have been consumed by the Ocean. While he thinks that he is nice and sane, he is actually plumb loco, and those infected people are actually sane people.

Neville isn't a savior of mankind; he is a bogeyman, sneaking into shore towns and taking victims, in a futile and insane attempt to "cure" their sanity...

>>8410261
Putting magnets on magnetic disks may not be a best idea.

>>8412852
and armed with his disbelief, and a sealed hazmat suit, Anon descended into the Roaring Depths. He lasted 3 hours, considered by some to be a record.

op have you ever watched the anime mushishi? it has concepts extremely similar to this (at least in relation to the psychofauna)

>>8412827
Pick out all of the densely populated areas. They're the deepest parts. That's all the major cities. There are isolated depths in other spots - don't go near Bermuda. Overall, about 10% of the world could be considered to be in the Depths, 50% as the Ocean, and the rest safe for human life.

>>8412914
Image Japan, or New York.
That is a campaign in and of itself.

>>8412861
YES. Dire pomeranians. These need to be in EVERY game. I like your thought process, sir.

>>8412897
I have, actually. The important difference here is that *everyone* can see the psychofauna and they can't effect people at all in a physical way. They're almost polar opposites.

>>8412914
good point to note that just because a city is big and populated doesn't mean it's necessarily more dense than an average indian village

>>8412914

And remember: the Depths are where all the choice leavings of civilization are concentrated. The small towns and hamlets that dot the shallows have already been thoroughly picked over, or are still inhabited. A choice score like a grocery warehouse loaded up with canned goods could keep your settlement alive... if you can exploit it without going insane, or worse.

>>8412947
HAHAHA europe is fucked

I guess you could have soldiers doped up on powerful drugs to remove their emotional reactions to what the Ocean shows them, making them coldblooded, unfeeling machines.

Scientists would need to keep their minds clear and unaffected, relying on logic and understanding of the psychofauna to deduce reality from illusion.

Parapsychologists might be more the reverse, using sensation enhancing concoctions to boost their powers if needed, relying on memories, faith and mental strength to prevent corruption.

i think op bit off more than he can chew. unless he has a phd in psychology, i say fuck this concept

Is it possible to use non-hostile psychofauna to create mass sensation in multiple minds, and so evoke greater powers?

If psychofauna induce a kind of emotion or belief, having one affect many people could create a great weapon or defense? Or is it always limited at the power of the individual?

>>8412960
Europe is a mess, but India is just doomed. That's where a lot of those billion+ deaths are going to be. No one goes to India anymore. Especially when the elephants are around.

>>8412960
Except for the Scottish and countryside Spanish, who are probably hard-assed bastards given everything around them is ocean and depths.

me and my dog.

me and my dog love to play outside. My dog isn't too nice though. Sometimes people are nearby, and I have to hold on to her tightly, or she'll chase them.

Sometimes, I'm asleep when people happen by. I try not to think about what happens.

>>8413010

Huh. I'd think that elephants, being one of the few other self-aware species on the planet, would act as something of a stabilizing influence. Until you piss them off, that is; then you're dealing with a living version of Killdozer.

btw how are regular animals affected? i would think that a crocodile or other predator which has nothing but pure r-complex rage and hate for every other living creature would be a pretty potent foe if it was buffed up in the depths

>>8412996
It's possible to use tame psychofauna to basically dogfight against 'wild' psychofauna, sure. Some people living in or near the Ocean are likely to do just that. But it'd end up being less like pokemon and more like the ancient ideas of house spirits - keep them happy with sacrifices or else they turn against you in an instant.

>>8413057
I mean less that and more having a psychofauna affect many people. These people now have a surety or deeply held belief in one or another thing. Would that create a particularly strong psychic ability?

>>8412976
well, gee.. thanks, Anon. i mean, summing up creative work and genuinely interesting concepts with
>hurrdurr fuck this concept.
a true visionary of our times. thanks for giving us a sterling example.

>>8412929
so everything is as real as you think it is, whether you think it is or not. The more you notice the somewhat harmless psychofauna, the more it looks like your dog, feeding off that attention and memories that cross your mind.

But carefully realized or a nebulous cloud of ideas, it can still tear out your brain, well, Mind if it gets close enough, leaving another corpse stretched out along the "shoreline"

>>8413026
brainshiver.
this needs to be in crayon, with a name scrawled in the upper right hand corner of the wide-ruled piece of paper.

>>8413076
>brainshiver, it needs to be in crayon

when I was typing, I was thinking it in the voice of a little kid.

I'm glad I managed to get that across.

>>8413065
Psychofauna couldn't really do that - you could probably use them to influence emotional states, eat a person's sanity (they'd be horrifically useful for interrogation), but they couldn't induce belief in anything except by appearing as said thing. Which might be useful in some ways, granted. But most of the Psychofauna that can change shape are very dangerous indeed, like doppelgangers leading you into a lotus-eater trap.

>>8413100
But if you influence emotional states you would have a collective of an emotional state? I'm simply asking if more people believing in something is stronger than one person doing as such.

>>8412852 (here)
Anybody? Or do you guys just want it to be mysterious or something.

>>8412894
Sure, if you can find a hazmat suit. Even then, your mind would most likely already be infected.

>>8412627

are you a troll or just retarded? seriously it's hard to tell sometimes

>>8413125
I'm sorry, but your idea is so much less cool to me and less open to a wide range of interpretations and behaviours. I do not want this to be an airborne pathogen, if you would like it to be then in your use of it it can.

>how i'm imagining op's setting

>>8413054
Animals with small brains aren't that attractive to Psychofauna. They just don't have much presence. Maybe dumb animals can be taken over as a kind of hivemind, so you have masses of them working together. Imagine fifty crocs working together, acting as one being. Elephants, Dolphins, Dogs, and Cats are largely smart enough to be very attractive but also with enough ego to survive for a while.

Though I'm not sure how you'd tell if a cat had been driven insane or taken over by an unknowable being. Maybe if they were acting rationally, that'd be the first clue...

>>8413125

Your theory has merit. I'd suggest heading a little way into the depths and believing yourself up a fully stocked bio lab to test this idea.

On second thought, scratch that. Your subconscious will likely create a hot bioagent far more dangerous than the trippy shit that normally floats around, like some sort of psychic ebola. I'll stick with long-dead relatives that want to rape my brain dry, thank you.

>>8413125
Here's the problem with your idea - it means that all of the experiences in the ocean become purely subjective, rather than objectively allowing people to experience the same thing together. Also, it makes things too flat. Rather than being mysterious, it's just a simple biohazard.

>>8413174
define "unknowable being"

are they new consciousness brought about by the ocean or something?

>>8413026
We had a large psychofauna contact today. Some kind of nutsed up rotweiler looking thing came out of the suburbs, went straight for us.

Johnson opened fire on the thing, but it didn't do much. The thing fell on us like a bag of teeth and bones, and we ran. We ran fast, and shots rang out at we went. They stopped abruptly mid-way through, and the growling stopped soon after that.

We took a headcount, and Johnson was gone. We later went back over the drone footage, and found out the creature was much smaller than it looked. Johnson was firing easily two feet over its head.

I advise we mark the suburb as an off-limit zone, and find another way around.

this game=endless dm trolling possibilities

i approve

>>8413210
The memetic equivalent of a botnet computer virus. If you understand it too well, it is already inside your brain.

>>8413198
As I said, social and culture practices would mean a group of people living together would experience similar hallucinations. The bacteria itself could also travel between hosts carrying information. Or even simply the people talk to each other about what they're seeing and it travels. I see what you mean though. Building a dream world in reality is more in the realm of the super-natural.

Eventually you'll have to explain how it works, otherwise what are the PCs studying for?

>>8413278
virus is too boring, and he doesn't necessarily have to explain shit if he doesn't want to

haven't you ever read any lovecraftian literature?

You have to understand what it was like in European safe zones. A combination of restrictive gun laws in some places and poverty in others produced a group of sane, healthy but very much unarmed people in islands of Shallows and Beaches... who were completely surrounded by dangerous oceans and frequent, highly-populated Depths. Infrastructure had been destroyed by the mindquake and even lucrative farming territories could not have hoped to survive that first year without food aid. So the people went into the cities to loot, and to survive.

It's become something of a tradition now to eschew guns in these places. Martial combat with psychofauna -is- incredibly dangerous, but studies have shown that it is perhaps less psychologically vulnerable even if there is greater physical risk. Many disciplines in the ancient world emphasised complete belief in your own power and ability and when this is applied to a mentally-influenced environment the results are suprisingly effective. Sadly, most of our young researchers still refuse to work in Britain or Spain unless we outsource their protection so our knowledge of this art is expanding slowly.

Two ideas for this setting. One is possibly an origin. An experiment in the discovery/creation of a human hive mind went awry, this would help explain why the psychofauna are percieved the same way by different people.

Second idea is this system of belief and disbelief. Higher belief and low disbelief would be for "caster" characters believing you have special powers to battle these creatures, but it also means that their attacks are more effective on you. Those with lower belief and higher disbelief would be more for "melee" characters where the enemies attacks aren't as effective, but you don't have superpowers to fight them either.

>>8413278
>otherwise what are the PCs studying for?

How to keep the effect at bay without requiring constant concentration. Forcing your perception onto reality is taxing, but NOT forcing your perception onto reality is the equivalent of walking through the projects in Detroit in a suit made of $100 bills. How to roll back the damage, plumb the Depths safely, and return human society to some degree of functionality.

"I had to shoot George. He wasn't George anymore. After we stumbled into that building, we thought we were safe for the night. But when we tried to leave, all of the doors just led back inside. I don't know how long we were in there. Paul had a breakdown after he walked out one door and ended up on the other side of the same room. We had to leave him there. Couldn't carry him. It wasn't until we got outside that we heard all our detectors going off - they had been screaming the whole time, and we had heard nothing. But George, he said we were still inside, that we were just imagining the outside. I started to see those walls again, those same dirty concrete- Anyway, I had to shoot him. He must have been taken over by something. John, if you can hear this, I'm sorry. Don't come looking for us. We're still inside. I can see the walls."

>>8413367
this is why you bring a camera.

>>8413384
No guarantee a camera will work. It's your own senses which are compromised too.

>>8413307
>knights

I am okay with this.

>>8413401
well, it's why you bring a camera and scratch paper so that you can have the three of you write down what you see individually and then, afterwards, come up with a composite reality that seems most likely to be true.

>>8413332
Also, to make the area safer from Waves, catalogue any useful/domestic things out there.
Also, to use the ocean to create new vistas and and things to benefit mankind at acceptable risk.
And finding out if this is all just a group unconcsious and how to start gaining control back of it would be nice too.

>>8413414
And who says you will see what they have written down? Think of Decartes, here. Your own senses are what might be being effected. You must have complete belief in seeing the right thing and being able to discern the truth in your environment. Even bringing a camera could indicate doubt, and make you more vulnerable.

>>8413414
The problem is, you'll all see the same thing. This is why it's best to have someone in the shallows piloting a drone (perhaps a BigDog with a manipulator hand). He can tell what's really going on when reality takes a nosedive.

It seems to me that weaker Psychofauna could probably be tamed with offerings in the form of host bodies.

Considering their very existence is the expression of a mental concept capable of surviving in the ocean (IE the initial burst threw out what was effectively psychic static, through random combination, self-propogating psychic patterns developed, and in time evolved to feed on conventional life due to its ability to influence the ocean), and the fact that if the weaker ones actually tried to attack a human, the human would be able to psychically crush it, but might be able to infect lesser minds, you could tame it by 'feeding' it mice and the like.

Consider a diver who has, say, some kind of Psychohawk. It only looks like one in the most abstract possible sense, but it doesn't need legs to move, and it sits around on his shoulder feeding off of the mental reinforcement he feeds it (IE for a sufficiently weak Psychofauna, simply acknowledging its existence would strengthen it).

So say you feed it lesser minds, like mice. It clears them, and writes itself into their wetware, then uses the mouse as a feedback loop to strengthen itself (Until the mouse expires). For the time being, it will perform tasks such as scouting, harrying other psychofauna, etc. in exchange for its 'food', and and due to its psychic nature an experienced trainer could direct its actions with meticulous detail, but feed that thing too much, and it'll grow strong enough to have a chance at biting the hand that feeds it.

>>8413440

>>8413450

>>8413453

>>8413464

>>8413471

>>8413477

>>8413484

>>8413444
Very much agreed. I'd support this as a branch off of the 'psychologist' style class and a melee branch of the soldier class, too.

>>8413444
Of course, most people would look askew at anyone who regularly interacts with psychofauna. It's asking for trouble, if nothing else. And means they've spent enough time in the Ocean that you can't be sure of their sanity.

>>8413414

It's far better to travel with one person of exceptional presence and will, who can bend reality into whatever shape is needed for temporary safety or escape.

Just curious, LawfulNice: would the ability to manifest belief affect changes on the physical world at all? For instance, lack of belief in a door would trap you in a room, but would deep conviction of the existence of a door allow you to walk through walls?

>>8413498
>would deep conviction of the existence of a door allow you to walk through walls?
You would think you had walked through the wall. Other people would think you had walked through the wall. Someone observing you by remote would see you mime opening a door, and then standing there, exploring somewhere that only exists in the ocean.

>>8413526

Let's say you "opened the door", explored a room, and found a Springfield Arms XD .40 pistol, then "return" to the rest of the group. Up until the point that you tell them about it, they'd not see the gun. When you tell them, assuming your strength of will is high enough that your conviction overrides their disbelief, they now see the gun. So long as you stay in the Ocean, the gun is as deadly as they come. As soon as you head for the shadows, the gun vanishes.

That about right?

>>8413526
so you're saying I could use this technique to create for myself a mansion inside of a safe room, just by imagining myself to a mansion?

My happy place would literally be a happy place?

fuck yes. I think I'm one of the deep-zone random encounters, somebody who lives in super-psycho-hedonism

>>8413614
>shadows

Shallows. I ken tyep todai.

>>8413639
you killed the thread

>>8413639
BELIEVE IT AIN'T SO.

>>8413690

Great. Now you've got us all thinking that the thread is dead. Way to go, asshole.

C'mon guys, focus. Say it along with me: this thread is the most interesting thing on the internet.

>>8413749
what's the point it's hopeless.

I mean, how could the thread go on?

>>8413775
that guy: don't bring him with you into the deep

>>8413801
If I was playing this, this is what I would do: I'd make a class that was incredibly strong mentally, and optimise myself for psychic defense at the expense of having to attack with non-psychic weapons. I'd keep a bit of strength so I could carry a heavy, huge sack around. I'd support the party, but I wouldn't really let them see my full power or my convictions - they'd probably think I was kind of quiet or lame. And then, at the moment when we have to enter a really dangerous part of the Deeps, I'd drop my bad. Reaching into it, I'd pull out a domed, brass helmet and say, "Don't worry guys. I brought a diving suit."

>>8413839
>*bag

I won't lie, Lawful.

I may rip off huge chunks of this for my campaigns. Your idea is amazingly solid and I endorse it.

Shit, I'd even buy this if I saw it on a shelf.

>>8412769
Simple: Technology. Videos record the real world and overlay it over your vision.

So drugs and all can remove your emotions and make you stronger versus the Ocean for a brief time, but when you come down off the high you'll easier than a baby to take.

Perhaps deep in "The Ocean" you could have psychofauna that has "merged" with physical objects of great psycho-spirtual importance. So you get a murderous demonic like psychofauna merging with murder weapons stored in an evidence locker. The weapons become extremely deadly when wielded inside the ocean, and can fuck with the wielder.

Bumpu

>>8414304

the problem is that you can't trust your perceptions of the video monitor either.

I just read this entire thread and I suddenly have an erection. Thanks, Lawful.

Might I suggest playing The Void for inspiration? Or at least using the soundtrack for ambiance.

bump for EXCELLENCE

"I should've known something was wrong when the client offered to pay us in booze. REAL pre-'quake booze, not the rotgut that Grieg brews up. But hey, all the footwork was already done; we had the location, we just had to extract his daughter. Easy peasy, right?

So we head out to the site, just outside Laughton - me, Mapes, and a savant we'd kept along since the Hemphill massacre. No real trouble to speak of on the way in. Then we get to the house. No signs of life, but something felt off. I figured it out later: no floaters.

We bust in the front door, and the depth alarms started going apeshit. And for good reason: the place looked like it did before the 'quake. After a moment, I unfroze and shook the savant lightly. 'Johnny, start saying your numbers.'

He started out at a half-wimper, but picked up as he fell into the rhythm. 'The length of the front wall is 6.38 meters, and the height 3.11. The door is 2.14 meters from the corner, and is 1.98 meters wide...' I used to hate hearing that crap over and over again, but now I can't sleep unless I say it.

We push on, and find the girl manifesting a tea party for her stuffed dolls. I lowered my pistol, put on my friendliest face. 'Hey darlin, we've been lookin' for you! Your daddy misses you, and he really wants you to come see him.'

>>8416021

'We can't go right now, we're having tea! You should all have some tea. You'll look good in some proper clothes...' Vertigo grabbed me by the balls as reality flexed and morphed around us. I shut my eyes and focused on Johnny's voice. In a few seconds, it passed, and we seemed to have come through intact. The girl's face turned red, and she started to pout. 'Not fair! That one's ruining the game! Do something, Teddy!' And plain as day, the teddy bear got up, walked across the room, and took Johnny by the hand. Johnny went silent, and the bear started leading him out of the room. And then it hit me: the girl wasn't manifesting, it was the fucking doll. For just a second, I broke through to reality. 'Teddy' was some of the nastiest 'fauna I've ever laid eyes on, and it was dragging Johnny by his guts, screaming. Me and Mapes, we were both drenched in his blood. Mapes had this thousand-yard stare, and before my eyes, his bloody fatigues melted away, replaced by a tuxedo and top hat. All I remember after that is running, and screaming...

So you'd better drink up, and you'd better fucking enjoy it. And pour one for Mapes; I doubt he'll be drinking anything anymore except tea."

suggestion for some mechanics: d% roll for each single event/encounter/round or as appropriate to determine what level of reality your senses operate on, and you get a bonus % from your cardinal stats etc, that bonus also works at making you take that much more damage from the psychofauna and stuff.

On other notes...this shit is awesome!

BAMP because this thread deserves it.

People seeing this, read the thread start to finish, you won't regret it.

In fact, can someone archive this bad boy?

I almost raged at OP pic.

>>8418559
got a date with that wheat thresher tonight, neckbeardcat

>>8418599
Fuck yessss.

I like a woman that can shuck my corn, if you know what I mean.

...last date it chopped off my balls. =/

>>8418643
what's the saying?

it will be GLORIOUS?

Incredibly late to the whole thing here, but hey.

There was a film I saw a while ago, australian film I believe. Cant remember the name at all, but basically, SCIENCE went wrong, and every living thing disappeared, except for three people who wandered around trying to work out what was going on. And one was a hot redhead.

Either way, the SCIENCE in question was an experimental attempt to create an energy network beaming through the atmosphere to power planes and the like, to save on fuel costs and pollution.
Like a cloud cover layer consisting of harmless but harness-able energy.

Could possibly work as a reason for the entire world to be fucked over, since it was a worldwide network, with substations all over to keep the 'signal' strong.

If the previous population density is what determined the depth of the "trenches," what does that mean for the ocean? For the most part it could be relatively "shallow," with exceptions like the bermuda triangle. An awesome idea though, would be pods of whales or dolphins that were affected by the initial shock and now create roving areas of either peace or extreme chaos depending on what was going on at the time of the initial shockwave.

Also, what about supposed "enlightened" individuals like ultra devout monks over in eastern Asia. I'm not talking about your run of the mill monastary man. I'm talking about the ones who can lower their metabolism during meditation to less than that of a sleeping person and can generate changes in their body heat by ridiculous amounts during meditation almost on command. Does that make the grandmasters like walking physco-juggernauts? Would they be able to venture into the darkest, most volatile areas of the depths and come out unscathed? Would they be able to wield unimaginable control over the psychological landscape of the world? This could have some serious awesome hidden away.


tl;dr
-roaming whales/dolphins could fuck your shit if you're in the ocean.
-extremely powerful monks roaming the countryside unscathed by the psychofauna and other psychological forces.

First, LawfulNice, I love this idea.
Second, sorry to rain on everyone trying to make a system for this, but the concept is perfect for Don't Rest Your Head's madness mechanic. How you'd fit in the Exhaustion, but fuck, I'm gonna find a way.

Having gone over this thread I must state; I really do enjoy this idea LawfulNice. I think I'm going to implement this in a campaign down the road. I'll tell you how it comes out next time I see you.

>>8419144
>If the previous population density is what determined the depth of the "trenches," what does that mean for the ocean?

Well, the previous population density basically acted as stress points on the mindscape - more people, more stress. But some areas are just deep, for no describable reason. The (water) ocean is very dangerous - it's far too easy to drown when you don't even know if the water is there for sure or not. And whales can sometimes carry some messed up psychofauna.

>Does that make the grandmasters like walking physco-juggernauts?
I've been thinking about that. There's room in the setting for a kind of Avatar-generating class, almost like you turn yourself into psychofauna wih extreme discipline and force of will.

I still like the idea of the LHC causing the mindquake on 2012. Proves all the crazy theorists rightish for once.