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The chronicles of humanity fail to fully explain the forces at work in some of the most intriguing events, achievements and myths of the known world. As humans crave fanciful explanations for things beyond our comprehension, colorful stories abound, from the idea that aliens must have aided in the construction of the Great Pyramids to the notion that wizards altered the landscape with a single spoken word.

But what if these fanciful yarns are more than just idle speculations or children’s stories? What if they are grounded in truth?

A handful of intrepid explorers has recently discovered such a truth; there are countless Earths throughout time and space. Portals exist on every one of these Earths linking them and serving as a nexus between alternate dimensions, a crossroads into the polyverse. It is through these portals that ancient explorers as well as beasts of legend and mythology have traveled to, or disappeared from, one world and become a part of another.

This discovery casts a long shadow of doubt on events in mankind’s past thought to be myth or simple flights of fancy. Are the stories of knights battling wyrms in the middle-ages the stuff of children’s stories or a half-truth leaving us with an even greater mystery? Is the spear that pierced Christ’s side really imbued with magical powers — waiting to be found by a person who knows how to harness the power?

As the world moves forward after the end of the Second Great War, the dark recesses of the world are openings up to a new breed of explorers and scientists seeking to unlock the mysteries that engulf history. Come join our intrepid heroes, members of the Magellan Society, as they are drawn into a web of excitement, mystery and discovery while traveling to the four corners of our world and beyond, stepping through portals into Elsewerlds in search of answers to questions they have yet to imagine.

So what does this have to do with G.A.D.D and gaming?

Well, it has me thinking of possibly morphing Elsewerlds into simply The Magellan Society and creating a sort of “explorers for a new age” type campaign set in a pulpified 1950′s after the fall of the Third Reich and the end of World War II. Sure the grand age of this type of exploration in fiction is the 1930′s, but much of the world was still unknown and mysterious during the 1950′s. It easily allows for a “television-style” campaign of stand-alone episodes and even longer connected arcs if desired that span two, three of four episodes.

After a bit of thinking, it seems that one of my downfalls in the creation process tends to be the desire to create long term story arcs that fall apart at the seams. Perhaps by running a “television-style” game that allows for some flexibility such as this I can conquer the weakness.

Thoughts or comments?

This one, called Elsewerlds, is my twist on the Sliders, Stargate, etc. inspired game using alternate history (one of my favorite types of literature) designed to allow me to create adventures in different genres that all fit within the same game and campaign. Like most of my thoughts it never got fully fleshed out and is still rough, but something that has caught my attention right now. I originally designed this with the pacing of a television series in mind. Read on and comment if you’d like.

The chronicles of humanity fail to fully explain the forces at work in some of the most intriguing events, achievements and myths of the known world. As humans crave fanciful explanations for things beyond our comprehension, colorful stories abound, from the idea that aliens must have aided in the construction of the Great Pyramids to the notion that wizards altered the landscape with a single spoken word.

But what if these fanciful yarns are more than just idle speculations or children’s stories? What if they are grounded in truth?

Some humans have recently re-discovered such a truth. In fact, there are countless Earths throughout time and space. Portals exist on every one of these Earths linking them and serving as a nexus between alternate dimensions, a crossroads into the polyverse, if you will. It is through these portals that ancient explorers as well as beasts of legend and mythology have traveled to, or disappeared from, one world and become a part of another.

This discovery casts a long shadow of doubt on events in mankind’s past thought to be myth or simple flights of fancy. Are the stories of knights battling wyrms in the middle-ages the stuff of children’s stories or a half-truth leaving us with an even greater mystery? Is the spear that pierced Christ’s side really imbued with magical powers — waiting to be found by a person who knows how to harness the power?

As the 20’s fade into history and the 30’s dawn upon us The Great War is a distant memory to some and an ever-lingering nightmare to others. To the masses the sting of the world-shattering event wanes and life moves forward, and so the world has as well. It is a much different era than that left behind; the urgency of war produced great strides in technology and science and the world has embraced these achievements; mankind has entered a time of exploration and enlightenment.

But progress is not without it trials and tribulations. The dark corners of the world are opening to a new breed of explorers and scientists seeking to unlock the mysteries that surround us; standing in their path are individuals that would take such findings and use them for their own nefarious goals.

Come join our intrepid heroes, members of the Magellan Society, as they are drawn into a web of excitement, mystery and discovery while traveling to the four corners of our world and beyond, stepping through portals into Elsewerlds in search of answers to questions they have yet to imagine.

So now I find myself wondering how can I sustain a specific game/genre while still having an outlet for my wandering creative juices. My ideas are usually strong and interesting and I typically lay down a good base of ideas, if only I could see it through. I want to have a continuing campaign with backstory, I want an interesting setting and I want vivid NPC’s that the players relate to; I just need to find how to apply myself and keep moving.

Right now I’m working on my Out of Eden project for gaming on RolePlay onLine! since the Torva Peto game went by the wayside. However Out of Eden is actually in the same ballpark as Torva Peto as far as theme and setting go; the parts of Torva Peto I ran actually helped me solidify what I was aiming for. The struggle for me continues to be to stay focused while trying to shut out or express my thoughts of pulp sci-fi on Venus, modern day treasure hunters, colonial era monster hunting, and Greek/Roman powder-punk among other ideas.

Do you suffer from GADD? What have you done to combat this crippling gaming illness? What advice do you have for someone who is stuck firm in its grasp?

However one thing I’m already sick of is all of the Michael Vick talk. Yes it’s big news and he will deserve what he gets if he is indeed guilty of the accusations, and I have to believe there is something there with federal indictments being handed down. But the headlines that Vick and the other small percentage of other NFL miscreants grab paints the wrong picture of the NFL as a whole. The ratio of stories about the bad element far outweighs the stories about the good; you never hear a drop of bad press about the majority of NFL players and that’s a shame. Guess that’s the what our society wants to see.

Oh well, guess I’ll continue to take these stories with a grain of salt.

This has gotten me thinking about looking into and purchasing a Sony Reader so that I can purchase my books in digital format and not have an problems storing them. I’ve tried reading off of digital products (Pocket PC, Palm, etc.) in the past and didn’t care for the experience, but the Sony e-ink looks pretty interesting. So much so that I’m going to head to Borders or CompUSA (which carry the product) and check out it out in person. I have been fully converted to digital music for many years and wouldn’t go back to CDs or cassettes for anything. I’ve been browsing through Sony’s Connect store and they have a pretty good selection of books to read and many authors that I enjoy. Storing digital content on my computer and an external HD for backup is such a pleasure. The price of external drives has dropped so much I’m actually thinking of being excessively anal retentive and getting another to backup my backup. I’d hate to have a catastrophe and lose my 60+ GB’s of music already stored.

So my question to anyone reading this, do you own or have you seen or had experience with the Sony Reader? Let me know…

It is still awe-inspiring to look up into the night sky and see it lit up in such a spectacular fashion…won’t be so long next time.