Inspiration Gathering

My wife and I took our son to the library last week, and while we were there I did a bit of hunting through their shelves, trying to find some inspiration for settings and such. I discovered a few books by Margaret Weis of Dragonlance fame, though not a full set of anything. They didn't have any of Salvatore's work, either, which surprised me a bit considering his popularity.

We had arrived late, and the library was closing soon, so I didn't get a lot of time to look through things. I more or less picked this up at random:



It looked to be a blend of science fiction and fantasy, incorporating both magic and space travel. It seems to be the second in a set, possibly a trilogy, so I was a little disappointed that I hadn't been able to borrow the first, but it was easy enough to follow regardless.

Having read it, I've now settled on using Perception for Mage mana. I also have a rather nifty reason for why someone can't just take a firearm from Earth and go on a planet-hopping rampage with it. Essentially, the universe is separated into different zones, each with a different reality. Each reality has its own rules regarding physics and magic. Spaceships are built with the ability to reconfigure the way they work, in order to align themselves with the laws of each reality they pass through. If they didn't reconfigure, they would be incapable of moving past the boundary.

In the book, the closer you get to the center of the universe, the less distance there is between realities. Ships that travel near the center have to be extremely flexible to change their configurations quickly. Their crews carry swords, rather than energy weapons, guns, etc., because a sharp blade is always a sharp blade, regardless of reality.

Those who use magic must learn to manipulate the mana according to the rules of the reality they are in. They need to be able to sense the flow of mana, so that they can figure out how it is used in their current location.

While I may not be ready for an interplanetary campaign, I at least have some ideas for how I might do it, as well as some additional things to keep in mind when I come up with new worlds to explore.