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I'd be more open to the idea of multiple gates/otherworlds. instead of one super other place where Everything, break it up into several worlds, and unique gate keeper for each. For instance, a world of vampires/demons and such could be guarded by a holy knight; whereas a gate to, say, the fae realms would be guarded by someone who sees through illusions, etc.


My favorite series uses the concept of a... Other world in part of its magic lore. Literally a spirit world- a frakking big one too. One of the ideas they use is that the closer to the our border, the more human the creatures beyond, while the deep, deep regions (though nearly impossible to create a bridge to) have beings of god-like power and are so monstrously different we can barely understand them.
In this manner, beings that are very human-like, but with no or limited magic- probably elves, vampires and werewolves- are right on the border, and fairly common. the True Fey, being a little further back, are less human, more powerful, but also not around as often. And the furthest reaches of the world has things like Heaven and Hell, Cthulhu, dragons- the kind of beings that could rule the world without much effort.
just a thought.


This probably isn't along the lines of what you want, but I thought I'd share how I would consider working a story like this. I would set up an entire network of Other worlds; as in there are Gates between humans and these other places, but also between these places and each other, and flesh each of these out as unique worlds. One might be a world of darkness: best known for vampires, but also an entire host of undead and nasty creatures like it. A whole different world could be forests and meadow, inhabited by elves and unicorns and fairies and such. And each of these worlds have their own Gates and their own gatekeepers.
it could do stuff like exploration; one (or several) world trying to take over others; gatekeepers starting to disappear- maybe as a plot to collide all the worlds together; maybe some of the farther/older worlds, like, real powerful but practically forgotten, start opening gates again.


I think your idea has a lot of potential, but plot is the major concern for me. A good villain could make this story.

I totally agree with all of the above. More worlds and other gates could bring much more opportunities. and gatekeepers on both sides make it much easier. this plot is going to be rather huge though if we put it in to things like that. So at least the overall idea is out there, we need a main focus now. for example where exactly? will we focus on one or two gates? how many gates? how many worlds? how many gatekeepers to a gate? what kind of abilities do these gate keepers have? what if gates are closing for some reason and one is being ripped open wider and wider?
i just had the idea so i think the people who are willing to roleplay this should really say what they want to do.

so there is a volunteer for the villain already, thats good.
what are your thoughts on the idea Prototype Alex Mercer?

well, if the players are going to be gate keepers mostly, then I recommend leaving that up to them. There are suggestions we can make, naturally, but we'll get a lot of good ideas if we let people come up with their own stuff. for instance, we can tell each player to come up with a character, a Gate and the world behind it, and let them play all of that.

for example, I could roll the keeper of Death's Gate. I'd come up with the character, their abilities which are specific to the gate, and also play the vampires and ghouls on the other side. to an extent. -shrug-

that set-up won't work as well if the majority of the role-play is just about standing guard and such, because then people would be fighting themselves, which gets old fast. On the other hand, a story like that wouldn't be as interesting as an epic adventure that crosses several worlds, tying every character and idea together in a quest to stop the Bad Guy. With an actual story like that, simple is good. I'd play my gate keeper, and the world behind it, and when the story takes us through that gate, I'll be able to introduce the setting and such, while the bad guy, Alex I suppose, will introduce the conflict.

alternatively, if we say that these other worlds have gate-keepers as well, the players could control a world and its keepers. Keeping the same example, I could play the world of vampires, and the vampire guardians that watch the Gates on their side. That brings up its own complications though- the biggest one being how do we tie the players together. if everyone has their own worlds doing their own thing, it'll be harder to bring everyone together. I wouldn't recommend that set-up, personally, but its another option.


continuing to throw out ideas, I have one proposal of how the story could actually work.
we get a group of people. we all play the human gate-keepers to different worlds. we start the rp with Alex or whomever- the bad guys- stirring up trouble at all the gates. make it immediately clear that every player is involved with this trouble, and needs to group together and do something. It could be explained that these problems at the gates are because of larger problems on each world. The party then goes to each different world- this'll be one for each player- one at a time. This gives every single player a chance to introduce a world of their own design, and to lead the role-play forward. (If I'm playing the vampire gate keeper, we got to the vampire world. being the one who know it best, my character is temporary team leader, and I use that to introduce the setting and such.) If Alex is going to be our Big Bad, he'll be coming up with the conflict for each world. eventually we beat him, and them move on to the next world, and the next player gets to be the leader temporarily.

I think this would be a good system to get every player personally involved, and let everybody have a chance to develop and explain their own ideas for a little while; and we have a good villain to actually shape the story and move the plot along. Its an easy way to get a complicated, interesting story with a lot of group involvement.
does at that make sense? sound good, or brain storm so more, sophie?