The Basics of #0 and #n1

Glossary

#0

Laws

Versehopping is a highly illegal act. In an attempt to prevent it, all forms of storytelling have been made highly illegal by the W.S.M.A. This includes anything that may inspire stories, such as music and art. The only books that exist are carefully vetted for anything that may resemble a narrative. The entertainment industry is nonexistent. The only music that is legal is akin to the corporate muzak jingles they play in commercials. If you overhear another world you are legally obligated to report it to the W.S.M.A. You then attend monthly meetings with an agent to report to them everything you have overhear. You are treated with the highest amount of scrutiny. If you go missing, you are immediately placed under suspicion of versehopping. When the ban on versehopping was first implemented all offworlders were rounded up and forcibly removed to other universes, regardless of whether it was their original world or not. Many descendants of offworlders who had been living in #0 for years were also evicted. This is still the consequence of being caught out as an offworlder, or a descendant of one. Religion, along with music and art was banned when versehopping was, as most religions rely on storytelling.

The W.S.M.A

The W.S.M.A holds a unique power, in that their agents are the only people who are allowed to legally versehop, in an effort to track down anyone who has done so illegally. Little is known by the public about what exactly it is they do other than that. They exist primarily as a constant menacing presence. W.S.M.A agents are carefully vetted and usually the wealthiest people in the country.

The Rules of Versehopping

As you know them to be.

  1. Only the person who overhears the world can write anyone or a anything into a story.
  2. Often what someone knows of the world they overhear changes over time. It is possible to mis-hear.
  3. The knowledge of the world you're overhearing grows over time.
  4. If you tell someone enough about the world you're overhearing, often they, too will overhear that world, or at least a world very similar to it.
  5. People who overhear usually have a particular point of reference in the other world. This could be a person or a location, for example. For Nehir, her point of reference is Audrey.
  6. If someone has written you into a world but is not in said world with you, they can only pull you back out of it if they overhear you. The easiest way to get them to overhear you is by interacting with their point of reference.
  7. Knowledge of the world you're overhearing or your point of reference rarely comes to you in chronological order.
  8. Whether you overhear in words, images etc. is entirely up to you as an individual.
  9. Versehopping is an experience that is entirely unique to an individual. What you see, hear, and feel will not be the same as what anyone else experiences while travelling between worlds.
  10. If you write yourself into your own overheard world, to return home you need to write yourself back out. This is similar to resetting something, turning it off and back on again. Sometimes people who have been written into other people's world can also hit this reset button to return to their home world, but this ability is quite rare. Usually, if you've been written in you're stuck there until you're written back out.
  11. You need to be consciously aware of the multiverse to write someone else in/out. It's not something you can accidentally do.
  12. You do not need to be consciously aware of the multiverse to write yourself in/out. Children often accidentally write themselves into other world.
  13. Overhearing a world does not mean you exert any control over it.
  14. While in another world you abide by the natural laws of that world (e.g. Gravity.)
  15. Versehopping is instantaneous, but may feel like any length of time to the person versehopping.
  16. You age at the same rate in other universes, unless said universe has something that changes that.
  17. Technology works in most universes so long as it does not have a magic system that directly opposes said technology.
  18. Hopping into a world someone else overhears is a matter of trust. If they don't want you to come back, you won't.
  19. Any items you have on your person come with you when you versehop.
  20. Versehopping is not something you have to consent to for it to work. This fact has led to a very low murder rate in #0, as if you want to get rid of someone it's much more effective to remove them from the universe entirely.

Locations

  1. Ivedi House, your base of operations. An old wooden house, at least a century old. Derelict and abandoned, and on the outskirts of the city you live in.
  2. The Underground Hospital. Hidden in a long-abandoned subway tunnel, this less-then-legal hospital is known for patching wounds that may arouse the suspicions of the authorities were you to take them to an ordinary hospital. This is a neutral ground. If you start a fight here you're permanently banned, and there is no alternative.
  3. The Barrow Family Bone Music Press. An organisation run out of a long-empty underground supermarket car park. The Barrow family have a business deal with the Underground Hospital in which they dispose of their no longer necessary x-rays by pressing music into them and distributing them amongst buyers. They are associated with many versehopping groups, as they purchase music from them that they have brought back from other universes to reproduce.
  4. The W.S.M.A Headquarters. The city's centre of state power. An imposing skyscraper that watches over the area.
  5. The Roving Library. A library hidden in an old sanitation unit run by the Davis family. They travel about the city, discreetly distributing books to anyone who can keep their mouth shut.
  6. Cosmos. A nightclub.
  7. A mosque hidden in an empty truck stop.
  8. The Carter Family Theatre. Due to the large economic crash that #0 continues to fail to recover from, there is a large population of unhoused people. Many of these people form small communities that inhabit many of the larger abandoned buildings that went out of business when versehopping was banned. Theatres are one of these businesses. This theatre is not owned by the Carter family, but they were the first unhoused people to inhabit it, and it's carried their name since.
  9. Caldecott Burgers. A small restaurant that serves kosher and hallal food despite the illegality of it.

Ilya Agafanov

Ilya Agafanov is the figure the W.S.M.A blames the versehopping ban on. He is continually demonised in W.S.M.A propaganda, and in turn is revered and idolised amongst versehopping groups. Very little is known about the reality of who he was or what he did.

#n1

#n1 is not a particularly notable world. It is much like the world of the players, in it's early 21st century. It is unaware of the existence of the multiverse, and merely functions to you as a byway to better horizons. It contains all races in D&D, allowing you the ability to not stand out drastically. One thing it is not lacking in, however, is writers. These writers, if they can be convinced, will write you into the next world. It also contains Audrey, the person Nehir overhears that connects you to this universe.

Locations

  1. Opulence Records. Audrey's place of work and a store you frequent, as you often bring vinyls back to sell to the Barrow family.
  2. Four-Leaf Fish and Chips. A fish and chips store acorss the street from a punk bar. Dingy but cheap and surprisingly good food.
  3. The Mist. Said punk bar across the street.
  4. Gattoss Park. The location you each arrive in whenever you are written into this world. A park filled with childrens' play equipment, dogs on leashes and twisted trees.
  5. Audrey's apartment. You have the address, but have never personally visitied.

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