Aside from Amber, obviously, I've never had tremendous luck with universe-shifting campaigns.  The closest I've had was a brief GURPS infinite worlds game I ran, and my Blacksand campaign that featured a lot of planar travel (but that's the planes, and not alternate realities, so it really doesn't count).

Anyone here run a really successful Alternate Earths campaign, where the PCs would be traveling regularly to other alternate realities?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;300135........
Anyone here run a really successful Alternate Earths campaign, where the PCs would be traveling regularly to other alternate realities?

RPGPundit

Not Yet - but I want to.

 Closest I got was an abortive campaign atart of 2 or 3 sessions in 1997. In 20/20 hindsight I should've told one player either get a different character or she couldn't play.

That was a learning experience.

Now I'm a better GM.


- Ed C.

Sounds like something you would need to run from start to finish, as taking a break between games you might forget some minor plot point.

Had some success with a Star Trek campaign set in the Mirror Universe, but I think it worked mainly because regular Star Trek is pretty boring for gameplay (the Federation has too many restrictions built in to the setting).

Yes, several over the years and one currently.  I've used the Gurps Alternate Earths setting, TriTacs Fringeworthy setting, and BTRCs Timelords settings all individually.  Currently it's a combination of the Alternate Earths and Timelords settings.  And of course I've thrown in and used bits and pieces of settings from a number of other games.

Fringeworthy is the game of extradimensional exploration.

My campaigns platforms mostly ended up being alternate history points. (Many FW GMs go the other extreme and make odder alternate worlds).  

The campaign ran for two plus years. After I broke them of the "world of the week" syndrome, which was killing me to make a new game world for them to explore every week or two, the game went along smoothly. Revisiting existing worlds for follow up exploration made the game easier.  Incorporating the Victorians, the Horde, Spiders, and others into IDET helped make it more interesting.

Waunderer's Way is a cross between Sliders and Doctor Who, with a big chunk of Paratime and Time Patrol.  I have run four of these campaigns now.  They have all gone pretty well. In fact, Waunderers will be the default campaign for my universal game system.  

Alternate worlds games in general come across a lot like the Star Trek model of "We go to new places, muck around, and leave", making for built in "scenarios".  You can build in more things to do or link back to given worlds for "replay value" of a given world.  This makes the GM's life easier. To get a feel for it take Star Trek, replace star ships gate/ warp travel with and you get much the same effects (and no travel time to "get there", but no cool space battles).  Even if seeming "magic" is invovled in the traveling, the stories end up coming across as sci fi (mostly because it has the same tropes).  

You have other other emphasis of course. You can be Unattached agents doing things. You could be Traders. You could just be lost.  But it has a lot of the same feel (especially once you can control your destinations).

Cross Dimensional groups who insist on secrecy from the monoworlders comes across either as a conspiracy you must be part of or the Federation and its prime direction for lesser developed worlds.  These Cross Dimensional groups end up having military arms, science arms, espionage groups, medical groups, and so on.. each with their emphasis.  It is familiar without being overly so.  

Similar but different worlds, when you didn't know it was a similar world... that ended up annoying players after the second one. (It smacks of bait and switch).   It is fun to try and "do it right" this time.

Alternate versions of the characters can be a fun complication, in stories, but players ended up disliking it most of the time.  Some players enjoyed being "almost" their character. However, they realize they are just an NPC being run by a player after a while. (Though it is fun to have your new character by one of your old characters from a different world.)  

Really, these games work pretty well.