Introduction
In October of 2020, a rift opened between our universe and a parallel one. It almost destroyed the world -- but it didn't. Since then, the world has gotten just a little weirder.
After that first extradimensional event, rifts between worlds have been opening up here and there around the world. These rifts are generally temporary, and close themselves back up after a time without threatening the world the way the first did. This page will tell you what you need to know if you would like to incorporate this phenomenon into roleplay.
Reputation
The first rift was in the news, but it was not big news. Feel free to have your character have heard about it, or not! It was reported mostly in pop science pages as a Weird Phenomenon, and the average person who is not really into Weird Science is equally likely to have never heard of it, or have heard of it but just discount it as misinformation, or to have heard about it but put it on the same level as articles saying how the Large Hadron Collider will destroy the world -- probably there's something weird going on, probably it's being misreported.
Scientific articles have published further details about the phenomenon, in very technical and arcane terms involving a lot of discussions of detailed discussions of quantum physics.
What to keep in mind about using Rifts in current RP
- Players are welcome to incorporate rifts into scenes, for weirdness or drama or action or silliness or whatever your jam is!
- When RPing that a rift has opened, use the same guidelines that you would for any other event -- if something happens that would make the news in a small or local way, make sure to make a post in the relevant news or faction channel about things people might have heard or seen!
- If something happens that would make the news in a BIG way, it can be good to check with folks on #brainstorming before running with it.
- For the most part, players are welcome to make up any amount of weirdness within a riftworld, without needing to OK it with anyone. HOWEVER, the weirdness must be contained to the riftworld or the roleplay you are doing. This means that you can have your character travel to a world that has all kinds of weird tech or magic or totally different physics than our world, but you cannot have a character or Weird Item cross back into the regular world permanently, without getting it approved.
- You are welcome to have weirdness spill over into the regular world in the course of the RP you are doing -- feel free to have weird goo or dinosaurs or magic killer bees or whatever suits your fancy have spilled over and your X-Men/Avenger/whoever needs to handle the danger! However, whatever Extradimensional Weirdness you introduce will need to be dispatched/cleaned up/neutralized/returned to its dimension once your scene(s) are over. If you want to introduce parallel universe characters, objects, or phenomenon that will affect/change the regular universe in an ongoing way that people outside your scenes could encounter, then it requires plot app submission.
What to keep in mind about using Rifts in backstory
- There were no rifts to parallel universes prior to October 2020, and the October 2020 rift itself was heavily monitored through its entire existence.
- If you would like to app a character who comes from or has been to Another Dimension, it will have to be via a portal that opened in 2021 or later.
- Please do not assume or reference any Other Dimensional Travel that occurs any earlier than that.
Known Rifts
- October 2023-December 2023 - the first rift. Opened up to a parallel Earth; was very unstable and required a team of people who would one day become the Avengers to help close it.
- Characters from this Rift:
- DJ - publicly known to be from this rift. The news noted his arrival and that he was stuck in this world due to his efforts at helping the team close the rift.
- Sera - known to her friends and family to be from this rift.
- Tony - Switched places with the Tony Stark originally from this universe; that fact is known only to a very few people immediately involved and most of the public has no idea that Tony Stark was replaced with a doppleganger.
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