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thecrossingooc2025-02-01 07:13 am
COMMUNITY WORLDBUILDING
It's (finally) here — our first setting changeover! The Cavern has given way to The Desert. We apologize for the delay in getting everything written up for you, and we hope it was worth the wait!
However, now that there are a few souls who have made their first Crossing journey, they might find that the world they inhabit is beginning to change... Perhaps less empty, and maybe even more familiar.
There are two options for players to contribute to the setting: creatures, and locations. These can be something entirely new that you cook up yourselves, or it can be inspired (directly or indirectly) by a canon setting, be it yours, someone else's, or one not yet represented in the game.
While it is definitely not required that these contributions be inspired by a canon setting, we encourage it as a way for the setting to begin reflecting characters back to them!
Feel free also to use this post to brainstorm, discuss, or plot as is helpful for you!
Creatures may be anything you like, plant or animal, so long as it generally correlates with the theme of the setting (ie, a desert biome). While there is no limit on including predatory creatures in the bestiary, keep in mind that characters can't be hurt by anything outside of a Crossing event, so no creature can be used as a material threat to characters... until The Crossing, of course.
To submit a creature, fill out this form and reply in a comment here.
The Dunes of the Desert can be difficult to traverse, swirling as they are with clouds of dust, and with little in terms of landmarks to track. It's easy to get turned around there, even lost... and you might stumble upon another place in the Desert that no one else has seen before.
Locations should be small (in the sense that they could be easily explored/traversed by a single character), and like creatures generally be on-theme with the setting. They will be accessible to characters who choose to explore the Dunes, though it will be extremely difficult to map them, or guide anyone else to them once a character has been there already.
To submit a location, fill out this form and reply in a comment here.
QUESTIONS?
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human souls inside, so in my mind, no titans should be in the afterlife, only the people they used to be - but then, are the creatures here really dead or alive?
Or should I stick to more normal wildlife?no subject
We do think this would be a particularly rare creature, though, so maybe not one to have in repeat settings. But overall we're open to the idea if you think it would be interesting to play with!
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CREATURES
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CREATURE DESCRIPTION: A variety of cute little fuzzy rodents, though these wild varieties are much shyer than their pet store counterparts. They come in a couple sizes: tiny Roborovski dwarf hamsters and larger Syrian hamsters.
CANON INSPIRED? Danganronpa - Nagito's classmate, Gundam Tanaka, raises hamsters in his scarf
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CREATURE DESCRIPTION: A small cat, friendly and always curious. They're good hunters, always catching rats and snakes, and often find themselves companions to ships and sailors. They're often found carved into knotwork beads, where they represent good fortune and well-wishes for happiness, and are considered good luck to have around.
CANON INSPIRED? Suncats are found in the Goblin Emperor, common in Barizhan.
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CREATURE DESCRIPTION: There are never any clear descriptions beyond that they're very large, dark, fierce birds of prey and may not correspond to any real-world animals. I'm just gonna share this image of a martial eagle, and say it has a six or seven foot wingspan and weights around eight pounds. Vorcels are usually seen soaring high overhead or stooping in pursuit of prey. They may circle over the Oasis consistently, as a source of food and water, and less consistently over locations and even wandering people. If you're lost, there are worse ideas than looking up.
To worshipers of the Star-Eyed Goddess, a vorcel-hawk coming anywhere near someone is readily interpreted as a sign of Her approval, and She does love them. Most of them are just animals though.
CANON INSPIRED? Vorcel-hawks are from Need's canon! They're seen above the grassy Plains of Sacrifice, not a desert, but the Plains are very hot and dry in the summer.
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CREATURE DESCRIPTION: a brown falcon (something like this) It's a solitary bird of prey that seems to be drawn to people with close ties to each other, the stronger the bond the more friendly the bird is. It may serve as a guide, hunt, or even land long enough to pet it depending on how strong the bonds are.
CANON INSPIRED? Soo Won and Hak raised a falcon named Gulfan together. Both the name wind falcon, named after the wind tribe that is Hak's home, and it friendly behavior towards those with strong bonds are inspired by Soo Won's love for his falcon and the bond he had with Hak.
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CREATURE DESCRIPTION: A dark blue and white crane (something like this but with inverted colors, blue instead of black and a blood red spot on their belly). Has a beautiful haunting song like call that makes you cry and remember your lost loved ones.
CANON INSPIRED? Inspired by Makoto's dead classmate (Sayaka Maizono) and the crane that Sayaka saw Makoto save when they were younger.
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CREATURE DESCRIPTION: There are pictures in the link, but feel free to imagine them as looking like any of these redesigns, which make them look less like horse skeletons wrapped in dragon skin and more like dragon-horses.
Here's a bit of video. They move exactly like horses do, but hiss and make raspy sounds instead of neighing.
There's not much about dracolisks, they are either the descendants of horses warped by dragon blood or heavily altered dragon relatives made to be as equine as possible. Their staring eyes, gauntness, permanently bared teeth, and spikes make them look malicious, but they are basically just difficult, skittish horses. Mildly more carnivorous, but they don't see humans as prey.
I'm going to say that like horses they're quick, move in small herds foraging for whatever as they go, and curious. They're a bit more inclined than horses to stand and fight, but still prefer running if startled or uncomfortable. The careful and patient might be able to have a friendly interaction with one. ...If you gained one's trust it would be possible to get it to accept a rider but you are likely to be nipped and/or thrown and it may not go where you want.
CANON INSPIRED? Dragon Age
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CREATURE DESCRIPTION: Like this! Honestly, a see-through toast that floats and kind of looks grumpy.
CANON INSPIRED? Canon! Found in Sunny’s Headspace in the Orange Oasis (a fictional place in his dreams). While they might be considered an ‘enemy’ by OMORI RPG standards, here they can’t do much aside from float, look depressed, and spout maybe emotionally damaging or dour phrases.
LOCATIONS
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LOCATION DESCRIPTION: An ancient monolith, in the midst of the desert. It's a giant, smooth trapezoid of amber-brown rock, with entrances that function on ancient gears when a stone circle that has to be pressed to open them.
Inside, there's a series of rooms lit from the outside with a series of manufactured gaps in the walls. There are also intricate grooves carved into the walls and inlaid with silver, in the designs of spirals, suns, geometric shapes, and more, as well as a few unusual recesses carved into the walls- there might be artifacts out there, that could fit into those odd gaps. In the highest room in the structure there's a gap that opens to the sky, and a room filled with a deep reservoir of water.
In the world this came from, fitting the artifacts into those shapes on the walls would open a passage to a world of deadly spirits, sealed away long ago.
CANON INSPIRED? Borrowing this from City of Bones by Martha Wells! IDK I just think it's cool.
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LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Where dunes transition to shallow canyons, there's a pocket of cool and moisture allowing green grass and trees to grow, surrounding a small castle. Something's disturbed the architecture, knocking holes in the roof and taking walls out of true, but the masonry is all frozen mid-fall. Some pictures here.
I've linked to a timestamp from a playthrough, which shows the interior, but it's really just a video game combat/exploration arena. Lots of space, no indication of how people could have lived there. It's fully feasible that many doors are sealed and you can't get farther in than the outer courtyard, which has signs of people having been here.
I imagine there are not demons and mages frozen in time mid-fight until a staff is looted, and there's no breach into the Fade (a chaotic ever-changing realm where dreamers, never-human spirits, and demons go), either.
CANON INSPIRED? Dragon Age
LOCATION NAME: Dragon skeleton(s)
LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Not much to this - the articulated neck and skull of a krayt dragon. How big is it, how covered is it by sand, how complete is the skeleton, is there other desiccated tissue, is it horned etc? That's different every time someone finds it. There may well be dozens of different ones, being buried and unburied by the sand.
CANON INSPIRED? Star Wars
LOCATION NAME: Moisture farm
LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Wiki page! On the surface, all you see is some metal spires and a small dome, and the lip of a larger crater. Get closer and the crater is an open pit holding a courtyard. The dome has stairs in it leading to an underground home, with the living pit as the central feature. It's nice and cool there in the day, and at night it's warm. Plants grow in the courtyard. There's tech here, but it may all be inoperable/too large to take with you. Again, some doors may just refuse entry.
CANON INSPIRED? Star Wars. I linked the Lars homestead but it might not be Luke Skywalker's childhood home specifically.
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LOCATION DESCRIPTION: The burned out husk of what was once a skyscraper. All the windows are shattered and there isn't so much a door as there is a gaping hole. The graffiti on the outside is written in Japanese and says nothing pleasant, talking of despair and death, marking out territory, and promising violence. There are drawings of a weird teddy bear as well. There's not much inside; it's all a crumbled mess, and what little of the floors and staircases that remain aren't safe to put any weight on. There are long-dried bloodstains on the ground floor.
CANON INSPIRED? Danganronpa
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LOCATION DESCRIPTION: This isn't one of the three circular walls surrounding Frieda's nation, but a smaller one (it's still large, though!). Straight sets of stone stairs lead up to the top. There's nothing else to be found... but it makes a good vantage point.
CANON INSPIRED? Attack on Titan. This (nameless) wall segments a harbour off from the desert that meets the sea on Paradis Island where Frieda's people live. Their enemies in the outside world take left-behind Eldians there to punish for crimes, disloyalty, etc. by turning them into mindless titans, who then wander deep inland to the Walls, preventing those living there from leaving.
Stairs side (just ignore the titan action..!)
Top (this kind of shows the shape, meant to prevent titans from quickly coming around - just ignore those poor souls...)