So what’s even going on here? For now, the very basics.
The primary thread involves our protagonist, a being we are currently calling “the entity”, going through the Endless Roads, a metaphysical microcosm that exists as a kind of superrealm that is above and alongside other planes of existence. When something is going Wrong with the rest of reality, and needs to be corrected, the Endless Roads spawns a living mind, and that living mind creates and manipulates and is created and manipulated by not only its own world, but a series of other worlds.
This is not a particularly clear description, but the metaphysical nature of the Endless Roads make them difficult to describe clearly.
The entity’s goal is to acquire, through creation and adventure, the power to challenge the threats to reality that it has been created to oppose. Its final goal is to uncover and defeat those threats. After that, it may well be lost and purposeless, but it will cross that bridge when it creates that bridge.
The audience’s Second Law is that they shall attempt to assist the entity except where such actions would conflict with the First Law; the First Law is that they shall do their best to help make a good story.
During its adventure, the entity will occasionally come to decision points, or learn things about the world around it. The world around it is both malleable and fickle, which leads to places where the audience can do some audience participation. Wherever you see a question or a collection of actions that are presented in bold text, that is a point where you may comment with what you would prefer to see! In the case of a selection of choices, popular vote will carry the day, with either random numbers or “what I’d prefer” as a tiebreaker. In the case of an open-ended question, if the audience has a clear preference, I’ll go with that; otherwise, I’ll pick what I think is the best answer.
Anything in italics is an out-of-story clarification, or an example of the rules and rolls that were invoked for what just happened.
As it proceeds through its own adventure, the entity will forge links to other worlds and other quests. The people and/or creatures in this world are their own creatures; they are not projections of the entity, they are not part of the Endless Roads, and they and their world have their own reality. Occasionally the entity will be able to affect these quests directly; otherwise it will simply be riding along. The audience will have similar ability to affect these other quests as they do to affect the main storyline.
As the parties of the other worlds succeed in their quests, this will in some way assist the entity; as they fail, this will in some way hinder the entity. Most noticeably, should a group succeed in their current objective, the entity will be rewarded with one of the group as a party member; either a simulacrum of that character to which the original has a mental link, or, if that character feels particularly dedicated, they’ll travel to the Endless Roads in reality.
Noticeably, each individual world and quest will be run according to a different RPG system. The section of the story in the Endless Roads will be run using the very rules-light Roll For Shoes (https://rollforshoes.com/) system, while the others will have systems in various levels of crunch. Is this an excuse for me to try the various systems I’ve amassed and can’t set up thousands of campaigns with? Yes, in part!
