Wallking the Roads
Copyright 1988 by Michael and Kristina Smith (msmith@mfi.com)
Traveler's Chalk and Dekkarians are Copyright 1980 by Geoffrey Shirvani

New Advantage

Walking                 65 points
        Walking is a variant on the World-Jumper power from Time Travel. 
Walking is the advantage that allows a character to traverse an 
extra-dimensional non-space called the Roads. The Roads exist outside of 
the normal space/time continuum, but are connected to everywhere/when in 
the Multiverse. The Roads are believed to be an artifact, although the 
instrumentality behind its existence is unknown (and according to some 
Roads scholars, unknowable). The Roads cannot be mapped, plotted, charted 
or otherwise categorized. They can lead to anyplace imaginable and many 
places that aren't. Walking ability is gained in one of two ways, either 
you come into it accidentally or you are born into it. To be born into it, 
either one or both of your parents must be Walkers. To become a Walker by 
accident is harder, you must, somehow, someway, become "lost" while time or 
dimension-hopping. Another, quite rare option is to "die" in your own 
reality or time and have a strong enough force of will to end up being 
"reconstituted" on the Roads. Such "reconstituted" Walkers are exactly the 
same as when they died, and are for all intents and purposes "alive". The 
only catch is that a "dead" Walker can't return to their native timeline.
        The Roads appear to most races as just that, a road that stretches 
out to an unreachable horizon, with scudding grey clouds overhead and 
barren wastelands to the side of the road itself. The act of stepping off 
of the road results in dropping you into a random dimension of the GM's 
choice with no warning. The only way around this is to KNOW where you are 
going. This is the tricky bit, since in order to do that you have to either 
be using the Walking skill to find your destination, or you must be 
following the path of another Walker. Learning the Walking skill usually 
requires months and sometimes years of trial and error, no one can teach it 
to you at a level higher than default. 
        A Walker can always see the paths of other Walkers on a successful 
Walking roll. Following requires speed, skill and luck. The advantage of 
Walking also grants other abilities, such as the ability to reach into 
another dimension or time and "snatch" items ala the Snatcher power. 
However unlike the actual Snatcher power, the Walking version actually 
merely duplicates the item wanted, using the Roads peculiar ability to 
"reconstitute" items. A Walker who drops off the Roads into a reality can 
not return to the Roads immediately, instead he or she must re-enter the 
Roads at the next available Nexus. Nexii can be sensed easily by a Walker 
using the Walking skill, if a Nexus is available, he can use it. Nexii 
availability is entirely up to the GM, Luck and its variants, Unluckiness, 
Jinxed, Cursed and Weirdness Magnet affect this availability accordingly, 
of course.
        In order to properly Walk at first, most Walkers need a Focus. A 
Focus is the thing which the Walker believes allows him or her to Walk. It 
can be the D-Hopper that you built in your backyard, a time-machine, lucky 
watch, magic spell or artifact or even your old lucky tennis-shoes. It 
doesn't matter, they ALL work on the Roads. Very powerful (i.e. skilled) 
Walkers can do away with their Focus entirely. Most new-comer Walkers will 
run across something called the Compass, it's an eight-pointed star that 
resembles the weird fracture patterns a Nexus manifests when a Walker uses 
one. The Compass is the easiest Focus for a newbie Walker since, unlike a 
time-machine or other physical object, if you lose it, you can make another 
out of just about anything. Losing a Focus does not render the Walker 
helpless, just UnFocused (-8 penalty to Walking skill rolls), not a good 
thing if you happen to be trapped in the Naziverse or somewhere otherwise 
unpleasant, but not an insurmountable exercise either.
        There is a dark side to this power, for one thing, anyone taking 
this ability automatically gets the Weirdness Magnet 
disadvantage...forever. You immediately become recognized by consensual 
reality as a focal point for the bizarre. Other Walkers will be able to 
pick you out of a crowd in an instant, as will psi's, mages, gods, and 
other powerful entities. A Walker's life is NEVER boring. The other teensy 
problem is that if you are killed on the Roads, you don't die, instead you 
become one of the Cursed. The Cursed are horrible caricatures of 
themselves, doomed to walk the Roads forever, trapped and unable to leave. 
Someone who becomes a Cursed, gets turned over to the GM and reworked up, 
down and sideways on the points scale. They retain all skills, abilities 
and personalities...with GM enhancements. The Cursed are always horrifying, 
and always pitiful shells of the people they once were. Kind GM's will 
allow some slight hope of redemption, but such a path is always ardous and 
difficult. 
        The Roads are not always just the unending monotony of an endless 
road, various splinter realms have grown off of the Roads at various 
points. These include RoadsRealms, Haunted Domains, City-States and Flux 
Pockets. RaodsRealms are areas of the Roads that have been formed by 
extremely powerful and skilled Walkers, known as RoadsLords. These Realms 
spring up from the minds of their Lord, and are under that Lord's complete 
and total mastery. A RoadsRealm will manifest RoadsLords Minions, entities 
that serve the RoadsLord in whatever capacity he desires. The Minions form 
as a result of the initial creation of a RoadsRealm and are of one fixed 
type and cannot be changed, although the RoadsLord can create different 
Minions as his or her power grows. Entry into a RoadsRealm may be blocked 
by the Lord of that Realm. The Haunted Domains are Realms whose RoadsLord 
has died, but whose pocket domain had enough of its own essence and 
stability to continue its existence. These domains are usually quite 
traumatized and insane, and are considered a grave threat to travelers 
within their confines. They try to lure in outsiders in hope of 
resurrecting their beloved lord and master. The City-States are pockets of 
civilization within the Roads themselves that have formed within stable 
pockets of the Roads. These are hives of activities for dimensional 
travelers and Walkers. One of the most popular is the famed City on the 
Edge of Forever, along with Hub City, the City of Two Towers, Nev Tandes, 
Wyrmwood, the Market of Juzan Plo, Tov Sheen,  81 and Castle Krom. Flux 
pockets are fractured realities that exist due to RoadsFlux, a temporary 
imbalance in the Road which causes a pocket of unreality to form into a 
temporary pocket dimension that is soon swept away by the Flux. These can 
be extremely dangerous or beautifully pristine depending on the nature of 
the worlds the flux junctions. Flux pockets can be very dangerous if a 
Walker is trapped in a collapsing one.

New Skill

Walking                         Mental/Very Hard
This skill governs the use of the advantage known as Walking. Through use 
of this skill, the character gains the ability to determine his destination 
and position within the Roads. A skilled Walker can go just about anywhere. 
Walking can also serve as Area Knowledge: Roads at a -4 penalty. 

Area Knowledge: Roads           Mental/Average
This skill governs the Walker's knowledge of the skinny of the Roads. It 
tells a Walker who to avoid, who to befriend, where to go to get what, 
where's safe and where isn't, and who's trying to 
kill/seduce/recuit/ruin/find who today. It allows a sharp PC to navigate 
the infighting, backbiting and general competition of the RoadsRunner 
society. It serves as a combination of Streetwise/Area 
Knowledge/Xenology/Politics and Occult (as it deals with the how and why of 
the inner-workings of the Roads). 

New Gadgets and Stuff

Traveler's Chalk
Traveler's chalk is a weird, powdery crystalline substance harvested from 
the congealed saliva of Dekkarian beetles. When used properly, Traveler's 
chalk can be used to inscribe gateways into other worlds and times. Misuse 
of Traveler's chalk is a good way to end up on the Roads with out a clue. 
Traveler's chalks unusual properties are known only to a few mystics and 
fringe "sceintists". Cost for (1) piece is usually about $100,000.00 to 
merchants in the "know". It can be had in most Roads City-States for about 
1/4 that price.