Either modern earth or fantasy, like parts of Moorcock's Eternal Champion series (Erekose, Oswald Bastable), but excluding Planescape & Spelljammer type stuff. What are some of the best RPGs & settings with dimension-hopping as a central premise?
Quote from: S'mon;970601Either modern earth or fantasy, like parts of Moorcock's Eternal Champion series (Erekose, Oswald Bastable), but excluding Planescape & Spelljammer type stuff. What are some of the best RPGs & settings with dimension-hopping as a central premise?
GURPS Alternate Earths and GURPS Alternate Earths 2 have some pretty awesome material for travel between different alternate histories.
Can't speak to how good as I still haven't read it but the Strange?
It seems to get a lot of love elsewhere.
I was going to say GURPS too, not just because it's my favorite and default system. It's designed to handle everything consistently and logically and has material for a tons of settings, and for the Alternate Earths things, but also the 4e Basic Set decided that cross-dimension was the natural default campaign context for GURPS and has example characters based on that.
Gatecrashing is the earliest one I'm aware of being devoted to that sort of thing.
Does the Mythras-based Luther Arkwright game count? Espionage across various parallel dimensions... many alternate histories.
Not that it is the assumed default but most fantasy games I've played have some degree of travelling through dimensional gateways and such. Arduin was a dimensional hub of sorts, Tekumel is not in normal space... our Dungeon Crawl Classics games have been all about jumping around in a multiverse.
Thanks for the GURPS pointer!
After perusing a preview of GURPS Alternate Earths I've ordered a second hand copy of GURPS Time Travel, for which it is a supplement. I'm primarily influenced in frameworks for dimension-hopping play, rather than detailed alternate Earths.
Quote from: Simlasa;970670Gatecrashing is the earliest one I'm aware of being devoted to that sort of thing.
Does the Mythras-based Luther Arkwright game count? Espionage across various parallel dimensions... many alternate histories.
Yes, Luther Arkwight seems influenced by Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius, it's the kind of thing I had in mind.
What's Gatecrashing like?
Quote from: S'mon;970684What's Gatecrashing like?
I got the name wrong, I meant
Fringeworthy... which is like Stargate SG1 but came out in the early 80s. It's pretty crunchy from what I recall.
Gatecrashing is a supplement for Eclipse Phase, with a similar focus... which named similar to
Gatecrasher, which is a Fudge game, but has more overt fantasy elements.
I'll also endorse Gurps for materials to use, but I never really liked the background of their IW campaign. for some reason it just turned me off. Now another I've used is BTRC's Timelords, and there is also Tri Tac's Fringeworthy. I have heavily used the general background from Timelords, 1st and 2nd edition, and both editions along with the various supplements are readily available on Ebay and other locations for not very much most of the time (though I tend to use Gurps for the system). Timelords is a great background if you don't want some controlling groups over the characters. Fringworthy had some really interesting ideas, the basic framework of their version of dimensional travel was inspired, but like Gurps IW, something about it just really didn't work for me. Fringeworthy is also easily found on Ebay.
Odyessy Prime (https://www.rpgnow.com/product/3451/Odyssey-Prime?term=Odys&test_epoch=0&it=1) is dimension hopping meshed with Stargate. The world is going to end via giant asteroid, and various groups travel through "Rings" (which look like Stargates) to alternate Earths to find one they can use to save some of the human race. You play 2 characters: An Odyssey team member who explores alternate earths, and a member of Damage Control, who clean up messes Odyssey teams sometimes bring back with them to Earth. Dual statted for D20 and Unisystem
I remember having a Timelords book! Must have a look...
I always really liked Rogue Mistress for Elric!. It was a campaign centered around a flying ship that could travel to different planes.
Quote from: JeremyR;970743I always really liked Rogue Mistress for Elric!. It was a campaign centered around a flying ship that could travel to different planes.
Heh, I hated that when I tried to run it! Most appalling Railroad I've ever seen. Killed a great campaign with it. :(
Quote from: S'mon;970684After perusing a preview of GURPS Alternate Earths I've ordered a second hand copy of GURPS Time Travel, for which it is a supplement. I'm primarily influenced in frameworks for dimension-hopping play, rather than detailed alternate Earths.
Discovered these were both replaced by GURPS: Infinite Worlds, so ordered that & attempting to cancel GURPS Time Travel. :)
Quote from: Simlasa;970705I got the name wrong, I meant Fringeworthy... which is like Stargate SG1 but came out in the early 80s. It's pretty crunchy from what I recall.
Gatecrashing is a supplement for Eclipse Phase, with a similar focus... which named similar to Gatecrasher, which is a Fudge game, but has more overt fantasy elements.
Yeah, Fringeworthy is pretty crunchy and I have a soft spot for all of the original Tri Tac games (Bureau 13 and FTL: 2448 being the others). There's apparently d20 versions of Fringeworthy and Bureau 13 for sale on the Tri Tac site (http://tritacgames.com/products.htm).
Torg: More like the dimensions hopping you. But the PCs can travel to the other cosms too.
Rifts: Especially with world books like Wormwood and Phase World and Scraypers.
AD&D/2e Manual of the Planes: This opened up adventuring in many strange and unusual dimensions and planes. Especially all the different elemental planes and their weird environs. Still my go-to for any planar adventuring.
Quote from: S'mon;970751Discovered these were both replaced by GURPS: Infinite Worlds, so ordered that & attempting to cancel GURPS Time Travel. :)
Hmm. I just now opened a thread asking about the differences between the books on the GURPS forums (http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=2106412#post2106412).
Quote from: S'mon;970724I remember having a Timelords book! Must have a look...
The tan cover with the three holes punched was the first edition. The white, glossy cover was the second edition. The second edition included a lot of background information that was in multiple of the supplements released between the two editions. Still, having both is useful if you can get them cheap enough (along with all the various supplements).
Quote from: Omega;970792AD&D/2e Manual of the Planes: This opened up adventuring in many strange and unusual dimensions and planes. Especially all the different elemental planes and their weird environs. Still my go-to for any planar adventuring.
3e MoTP is good, too. Lots of dimension-hopping advice.
Lords of Creation?
Lords of Olympus.
I've really enjoyed The Strange and I've heard good thing about Daytrippers.
The new edition of Torg is sounding damn interesting and the original is probably available somewhere.
Anyone ever make an Almuric setting book? I thought I saw this in RPG format somewheres? Don't care for the rules part. But would like the setting part, if there is one.
Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;971609Anyone ever make an Almuric setting book? I thought I saw this in RPG format somewheres? Don't care for the rules part. But would like the setting part, if there is one.
Yep there is one (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/107374/Swords-of-Almuric-Barbarians-of-Lemuria-Edition).
Two versions : one for Barbarians of Lemuria, the other for "classic D&D". It's not bad (but there's isn't a much of setting in Howard's book to begin with).
There's roughly two kinds of dimensional hopping games: a fixed set of alternate earths/dimensions (e.g. Torg), or a "there are endless worlds out there" kind of game (e.g. Rifts).
Torg - A classic. 6 worlds invade earth, bringing their own realities. Which can include things like measurable morality, techno miracles, and soul manipulation. A new edition is on Kickstarter currently I think.
Rifts - Another classic. Earth is nexus for dimensional portals, leading to all sorts of weird gonzo adventures. Like water pistols enchanted to have endless water, in order to fight the vampire kingdoms that control Mexico.
Nexus the Infinite City - One of the few "any dimension" games to actually offer a DIY approach to making characters. Basically, there's a city connected to every dimension out there, and things get weird. From memory, it's not so much "light-hearted" as it is "optimistic".
The Strange - Earth is connected to worlds based on fiction (usually), as a defense against universe spanning planet eaters (usually). There's some wonky bits to the system and terminology, but nothing you can't fix effortlessly.
Broken Rooms - Special people with p0w3rz are able to travel to one of 13 other, doomed, versions of earth. An overlooked gem.
Any decent Supers game out there - Seriously. Champions in 3-D started it I think, but most supers games with enough development have a few alternate earths to play in. And a good supers game functions as a generic game system, meaning you can port anything to anything.
I think the better division between "dimension" games are games where mainly the PCs stay in one place where there are many different dimensional influences (eg. TORG, RIFTS), and games where the PCs are hopping from one dimension to another (eg. Lords of Olympus).
My main interest here is re 'hopping' to alternate dimensions - and a motivation for doing so - but I also think games generally need a safe-ish home base, so more Stargate SG-1 than Sliders.
Quote from: S'mon;972098My main interest here is re 'hopping' to alternate dimensions - and a motivation for doing so - but I also think games generally need a safe-ish home base, so more Stargate SG-1 than Sliders.
My experience with sliders-style campaigns says this is true. PCs being stuck going from one place to another without any stability is not great for them giving a fuck about where they are.
Quote from: RPGPundit;972554My experience with sliders-style campaigns says this is true. PCs being stuck going from one place to another without any stability is not great for them giving a fuck about where they are.
Yeah, I think it's true for RPGs in general - players need something to hold on to, somewhere to care about, and if they're like me they need some kind of relatively safe location to take a breather & de-stress - a 'town' as well as a 'dungeon'. I think it also helps a lot to have recurring NPCs the players can get to know. So, some kind of base - it could be an organisation (BTW my GURPS Infinite Worlds has STILL not arrived!), or just a base town.
I guess that something like Nexus the Infinite City the home city IS the dungeon... or is it shifty-changey in a way that you can't always get back to where you started?
Quote from: S'mon;972570Yeah, I think it's true for RPGs in general - players need something to hold on to, somewhere to care about, and if they're like me they need some kind of relatively safe location to take a breather & de-stress - a 'town' as well as a 'dungeon'. I think it also helps a lot to have recurring NPCs the players can get to know. So, some kind of base - it could be an organisation (BTW my GURPS Infinite Worlds has STILL not arrived!), or just a base town.
I've had some successful D&D games where characters travel from place to place and have no firm home-base. But I think the difference is that at least in those games the PCs have a sense that they might come back to those places later, and that the things they do in those places could have consequences in later periods even if they go in other places.
But in a 'dimension hopping' campaign, the PCs have the sense that they'll never see this place they're in again, and what they do there won't matter in the next place they go to.
The Strange does dimension-hopping pretty well. The one thing that makes it different from some of the others out there is that when you translate to another recursion (dimension), your character changes a bit. Your character will get a new "focus" or set of powers when you go to a new recursion for the first time. Your stats and class stay the same, but your secondary powers change to be something that is compatible with the new recursion.
Quote from: GoOrange;973277The Strange does dimension-hopping pretty well. The one thing that makes it different from some of the others out there is that when you translate to another recursion (dimension), your character changes a bit. Your character will get a new "focus" or set of powers when you go to a new recursion for the first time. Your stats and class stay the same, but your secondary powers change to be something that is compatible with the new recursion.
One of the interesting and useful aspects of The Strange is that its Recursions are (mostly) derived from humanity's fiction and imagination so they're practically boundless, not limited by ostensible logic, plus the more practical benefit: the GM can freely toss in other settings, unused ideas even modules and similar material from other games. :D
Shameless plug for Mythras's 'Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels'.
We also have an awesome campaign book, 'Parallel Lines', that includes alternative Earths taking in: the Salem Witch Trials; Mad Max (crossed with Hawkmoon); dystopian versions of London and Edinburgh (the latter with some distinct Iain M Banks and James Bond references); a colonial Europe stuck in the 1930s (with grand journeys by the Trans Siberian Express, and a luxurious zeppelin); an undersea arcology; and 1970s British TV children's' programmes.
/shamelessplug
Quote from: Loz;973379Shameless plug for Mythras's 'Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels'.
We also have an awesome campaign book, 'Parallel Lines', that includes alternative Earths taking in: the Salem Witch Trials; Mad Max (crossed with Hawkmoon); dystopian versions of London and Edinburgh (the latter with some distinct Iain M Banks and James Bond references); a colonial Europe stuck in the 1930s (with grand journeys by the Trans Siberian Express, and a luxurious zeppelin); an undersea arcology; and 1970s British TV children's' programmes.
/shamelessplug
Cheers - I was wondering about this one - what's the rules system like? Is there enough setting info to get value out of it if I wanted to use a different system? Is it modular; could I use bits of it (eg the parrallel worlds) in a current fantasy or sf campaign?
Also wondering how good the comics are; I get the impression Arkwright is inspired by Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius?
QuoteCheers - I was wondering about this one - what's the rules system like? Is there enough setting info to get value out of it if I wanted to use a different system? Is it modular; could I use bits of it (eg the parrallel worlds) in a current fantasy or sf campaign?
The rules system is Mythras, which is a branch of BRP. You can get a very good taster with our free Mythras Imperative rules (thedesignmechanism.com/downloads which, with the Arkwright main book, should be enough for play). It's reasonably modular, and as with most BRP games, you can pick and choose the parts you like without breaking the whole.
QuoteAlso wondering how good the comics are; I get the impression Arkwright is inspired by Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius?
The comics are great - sophisticated storytelling in a very distinctive style. Arkwright is inspired by Cornelius, and Moorcock himself has written some very complimentary things about Luther Arkwright and Bryan Talbot's work in general.
Why not just take your favorite gaming system (for something remotely like you are thinking of gameplay, so a if your dimension hoppers are from the future, probably a sci-fi game, or fantasy if from the past), and then grab all the different games you have on your bookshelf, and use the settings from each of them as different worlds/dimensions to visit? So Ex. you use Traveller rules, but have your travelers visit Glorantha one week, the starship Warden from Metamorphosis Alpha the next week, and a weird alternate modern earth where werewolves live in cities and are ecowarriors the next week?
Quote from: Willie the Duck;973508Why not just take your favorite gaming system (for something remotely like you are thinking of gameplay, so a if your dimension hoppers are from the future, probably a sci-fi game, or fantasy if from the past), and then grab all the different games you have on your bookshelf, and use the settings from each of them as different worlds/dimensions to visit? So Ex. you use Traveller rules, but have your travelers visit Glorantha one week, the starship Warden from Metamorphosis Alpha the next week, and a weird alternate modern earth where werewolves live in cities and are ecowarriors the next week?
Yes, this is my preferred approach - I'm much more likely to send my D&D (or maybe White Star) PCs into alternate universes, than to run a campaign based on PCs being dimensional agents I think. Although motivations to do so & things they want to do there are very useful, never again do I want to run something like Rogue Mistress where the PCs are railroaded by a
Summon PC spell and forced to do X Y & Z.
GURPS Infinite Worlds finally emerged from its dimensional Sargasso and arrived today, reading it now. :cool:
Quote from: Loz;973379Shameless plug for Mythras's 'Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels'.
We also have an awesome campaign book, 'Parallel Lines', that includes alternative Earths taking in: the Salem Witch Trials; Mad Max (crossed with Hawkmoon); dystopian versions of London and Edinburgh (the latter with some distinct Iain M Banks and James Bond references); a colonial Europe stuck in the 1930s (with grand journeys by the Trans Siberian Express, and a luxurious zeppelin); an undersea arcology; and 1970s British TV children's' programmes.
/shamelessplug
No idea about your product, but a hugely influential comic in many ways. I could see it being great as a setting.
The premise of DayTrippers is that, 100 years in the future, an opensource genius releases his plans for a "Slip Capacitor," and this launches a wave of dimension-hopping and multiverse charting that cannot be contained by any government. A journey through "SlipSpace" may take you to an alternate earth, a past or future earth, a remote planet in this universe or some other, or to "pocket universes" with their own laws of physics and "Dream Worlds" where the division between objective and subjective reality may be unstable.
One limitation on such trips is that you cannot stay away for more than 24 hours of time on Home-Earth; doing so will result in "missing your window" and erasing your existence from this timeline. Thus, the colloquialism, and the name "DayTrippers."
The DayTrippers GameMasters Guide includes about 60 pages of random generators for every kind of dimensional setting, as well as big-ass random tables for Missions, Star Systems, Planets, Lifeforms, Locations, Societies, Characters and Dramatic Twists. While the GM's Guide is intended for "auteur GMs" who like doing their own prep, a handful of premade adventure modules are also available, as well as the massive book "Golden Age Adventures" (reviewed by Pundit here (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?36834-RPGPundit-Reviews-Golden-Age-Adventures)) which includes 16 adventures based on stories by classic SF writers of the 30s-50s.
Want more info? See the website (http://daytrippersrpg.com/) and media kit (http://daytrippersrpg.com/sites/default/files/downloads/daytrippers_media_kit_0.pdf).
Daytrippers is pretty nuts, but its Golden Age Adventures book at least has the benefit of having in-book fiction that's worth reading.
Quote from: RPGPundit;974999Daytrippers is pretty nuts, but its Golden Age Adventures book at least has the benefit of having in-book fiction that's worth reading.
I really adore the Daytrippers GM guide, especially the discussions about surrealism in gaming. That Golden Age Adventures book is a great resource - I like the opening commentary, the included fiction (real, actual, published scifi) and the adventure materials / resources presented with each are definitely a wealth of stuff to play with.
Quote from: RPGPundit;974999Daytrippers is pretty nuts
Acknowledged and accepted, Sirrah.
BTW, if you have Golden Age Adventures, be sure to grab a copy of the Map Pack so you don't have to mess around with making copies just to play the scenarios. It's PWYW, and located here:
http://www.drivethru.com/product/178250/Golden-Age-Adventures--Map-Pack
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/178250/Golden-Age-Adventures--Map-Pack
Infinite Worlds setting from GURPS 4E
Quote from: As If;975050BTW, if you have Golden Age Adventures, be sure to grab a copy of the Map Pack so you don't have to mess around with making copies just to play the scenarios. It's PWYW, and located here:
http://www.drivethru.com/product/178250/Golden-Age-Adventures--Map-Pack
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/178250/Golden-Age-Adventures--Map-Pack
So, I'm really curious about Daytrippers but I'm currently running "The Strange" (albeit with a different rules set). Are the two settings different enough to make it worth it trying to do both and how so?
Quote from: Nexus;975199So, I'm really curious about Daytrippers but I'm currently running "The Strange" (albeit with a different rules set). As they two settings different enough to make it worth it trying to do both and how so?
DT has some similarities to
The Strange but its mechanics are much simpler, settings are much more random, and it's built for high bleed. It allows for more input from the players themselves, and uses narrative resolution rather than a pass/fail system. The focus is on surrealism so it has a lot of generators and random tables to help you build things up from scratch. The GM's guide contains 60 pages of tables for all the stuff you may generate (missions, stars, planets, locations, lifeforms, societies, characters & drama). The GameMasters Guide is built for auteur GMs and a more "old school" style of play, while the Core Rules offer a variant which is more collaborative. The 24-hour conceit leads to "episodic" sessions with their own narrative arcs, like episodes of a TV series.
In the DT universe, the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, and
anyone at all might be traveling through slipspace. It's more "wild west" than "police action". You could fit
The Strange inside the
DayTrippers world, by positing the existence of a hard-assed dimension-hopping organization, but you couldn't put DT inside the world of
The Strange because it's too wide-open to fit in there. In terms of setting and backstories,
DayTrippers is like
The Strange for anarchists. Or maybe
The Strange is
DayTrippers for hegemonists.
Quote from: Ulairi;975198Infinite Worlds setting from GURPS 4E
I tried running it when it first came out, but didn't do a good job of it.
Infinite Worlds seems both like a natural default setting for GURPS 4e, and a terribly overcomplicated one for new GMs.
I guess that also matches the 4e Basic Set's inclusion of practically every character ability from every GURPS worldbook for the previous three editions, re-worked into new ways to organize those abilities. It's great for people that actually want that, but it seems more like a mistake because:
* even a rule-loving GURPS maniac such as myself finds the 4e Basic Set to have way too many types of abilities complicating the Basic Set, making it a bit overwhelming to try to create a simple character for one setting
* as if new players didn't already have enough to think about just learning the system...
* I don't personally know any GURPS GMs who _want_ to run an Infinite Worlds campaign.
Quote from: Skarg on July 17, 2017, 12:23:55 PM
I don't personally know any GURPS GMs who _want_ to run an Infinite Worlds campaign.
I run multiple one-shots, rather than campaigns. Using an episodic rhythm. Basically, players do things in their neck of the woods until they are satisfied. Then we move on to something else.
I was just now looking at the DayTrippers Open Source Rules, after buying the hardcover for Age of Adventures last week. The rules fit between Mongoose Traveller's and Total Party Skills' rules. So conversions are not a problem between the three RPGs.
I would add Rocket Cadets in the 11th Dimension! (a Vintage Sci-Fi RPG) to the games/settings list for dimension-hopping.
Hey Shawn - sounds like we run in a similar style!
Just to keep you updated: DayTrippers is based on the "CORE" system (the Creative Options Roleplaying Engine), which has been extracted into a universal minimalist version called CORE Micro (PWYW at DTRPG or Itch). You might want to check that out.
I am now at work on CORE Complete, which expands those rules and provides specific mechanics for various types of tasks and genres. Like the FUDGE rules or GURPS Universal, it relies on individual supplemental "world books" or sourcebooks for different campaigns. Some of these world books are also available now. DayTrippers may be considered the first of them.
For more info and updates on CORE, see our Discord https://discord.gg/eM5u4XesXr or Twitter https://twitter.com/CORErpgsystem
Third classic Torg, especially with the Land Below involved. Lots of "pocket worlds" to go to, some better than others.
First one I thought of was Stormbringer. I once had my characters in that game dimension-travel to Sanctuary (Thieves' World).
I was impressed with the Wood Between the Worlds from The Chronicles of Narnia and thought it would be an endless source of adventures if characters could somehow find their way to it. A huge forest filled with an infinite number of pools, all leading to different worlds. Of course, whichever pool the characters chose to dive into would just so happen be a world I had extensively prepared first....
D & D can be used for this just fine, though. In the classic module Castle Amber there's a portal to Clark Ashton Smith's Averoigne.
Quote from: I on April 09, 2022, 11:08:48 PM
A huge forest filled with an infinite number of pools, all leading to different worlds. Of course, whichever pool the characters chose to dive into would just so happen be a world I had extensively prepared first....
I envy you. My players would dip one eye into each of 200 pools for a look around before sojourning into any.
Quote from: As If on April 09, 2022, 04:44:37 PM
Hey Shawn - sounds like we run in a similar style!
Yes. We do share the same philosophy when it comes to role-play gaming.
Quote from: Zalman on April 10, 2022, 11:27:55 AM
Quote from: I on April 09, 2022, 11:08:48 PM
A huge forest filled with an infinite number of pools, all leading to different worlds. Of course, whichever pool the characters chose to dive into would just so happen be a world I had extensively prepared first....
I envy you. My players would dip one eye into each of 200 pools for a look around before sojourning into any.
That's a sign that your players reject the illusion of choice as bad railroading. Not saying you did it to them, but they've probably been soured by it at some point in the past.
Technically, Soulbound is a dimension hopping setting with 8 primary dimensions (the Mortal Realms) and several lesser ones bound into its weird cosmology.
Quote from: Zalman on April 10, 2022, 11:27:55 AM
Quote from: I on April 09, 2022, 11:08:48 PM
A huge forest filled with an infinite number of pools, all leading to different worlds. Of course, whichever pool the characters chose to dive into would just so happen be a world I had extensively prepared first....
I envy you. My players would dip one eye into each of 200 pools for a look around before sojourning into any.
They would soon run out of eyeballs, as I would rule that their eye was teleported to another dimension. And they'd deserve it too, for trying to get off the tracks of the railroad I had so carefully laid for them.
Quote from: I on April 11, 2022, 11:38:33 AM
Quote from: Zalman on April 10, 2022, 11:27:55 AM
Quote from: I on April 09, 2022, 11:08:48 PM
A huge forest filled with an infinite number of pools, all leading to different worlds. Of course, whichever pool the characters chose to dive into would just so happen be a world I had extensively prepared first....
I envy you. My players would dip one eye into each of 200 pools for a look around before sojourning into any.
They would soon run out of eyeballs, as I would rule that their eye was teleported to another dimension. And they'd deserve it too, for trying to get off the tracks of the railroad I had so carefully laid for them.
I wouldn't be so cruel as to take their eyes out, but you stick your nose into a portal, your whole body is coming out the other side. You get dragged face first into a swirly ride and you just as good made the choice of going through that portal. There's no half assing it when it comes to portals. Maybe some sort of scrying might work, but you don't go sticking body parts into portals without risking consequences.
Timewatch - A game that uses the gumshoe system, it's all about traveling through time and alternate earths. It's a toolkit that does have a prime setting but also has quite a lot of optional rules that allows you to do games ranging from Sliders to Cthulhu to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
It's a real shame that that pool lead to a poison ivy bush with a hornet's nest in it and that from there is was rolling down a hill through cactuses into a feed pasture with a stock tank at the bottom, and then the sentry robots dragged you back and pushed you through the portal. And, who knew robots could spit? When you wanted them to give you your helmet back they dropped a real loog in there. A couple of cups worth. Wow. Bad pool.