Physical Travel vs. Projection

Interplanar travelers sometimes
visit other planes of existence in per-
son, but this is not the only option.
Visitors might instead journey to other
realities in mind or in spirit.
Physical
travel
(teleporting
between worlds, moving there in some
kind of vehicle, etc.) lets the GM use
classic “hooks” like money and physi-
cal danger to steer the campaign. It is
also involves less bookkeeping: the
PCs have the same abilities and equip-
ment as in their home world.
However, physical travel lets the PCs
vanish bodily, perhaps along with
their possessions, making it possible
to escape the consequences of their
actions. It also opens the door to com-
modities trading, which can have
unwelcome economic effects. The GM
should take care to create adversaries
who can follow the PCs wherever they
go, and should consider imposing
strict limits on the physical goods that
can accompany travelers (e.g., “You
arrive naked.”).
Projection involves traveling to
other planes as a mind or spirit while
the body remains behind. This solves
many of the problems GMs have with
cross-world campaigns. What belongs
in each world stays in that world. The
only thing that moves between worlds
is information – and the GM can easi-
ly control that. There are two disad-
vantages. First, the GM must keep
records for both the PCs’ physical
selves and their projections. (The GM
could just say that the projection is the
same as the original, but he would be
discarding an interesting dramatic
tool.) Second, players might feel that
other realms aren’t “real,” and behave
accordingly. The solution here is to let
them . . . and then have the conse-
quences of their actions show up in
their “real” world!