Astral Time Difference

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drewkitty ~..~
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Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

If you do what you discribed, then as soon as the AL got back to look for the shopper his Astal Projection time limit would be up.
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Sanctu
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Unread post by Sanctu »

I wouldn't allow this at all.

If you've Transfered yourself, everything about you is going to go with you where ever you go. Your body, at this point, is a thing without substance that's now a part of your astral body. You can't leave it behind on the astral plane while you roam around astrally some place else... the thing you'd be projecting is all of you, at that point.

I've read somewhere about certain entities using Astral Projection to enter into the physical world -- Milleks, for instance -- but my impression of this was that allowed them to travel someplace... they dont' leave an astral shell behind like a physical body. They'd simply be able to us ethat psychic power to bring themselves places they otherwise couldn't.

I'm uncertain how any other this would help the character over simply Astrally Transfering and staying in the physical world (you can do that easily) and flying around at Mach One looking for his friend in the mall. When he find them, he can Transfer again some place nearby.
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Sanctu
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Unread post by Sanctu »

gadrin wrote:anyway, my thought is that whether co-existing via Projection or AT you're not really on the Outer Layer anymore and time would be 1:1, but I just wanted to be sure.


Ah! I see what you are asking.

When doing something like you're suggesting, searching a building for someone while astral, the time differential would be 1:1. Even if you were to be somehow projecting yourself from your realm or something onto the physical world, while you are here astrally, it would be 1:1, and whatever happens in your realm... well... is what ever it is and you might have been out of it for a long time from the point of view of your minions there.

Mind you, searching a mall that way would be quicker than a regular search, as you could check everywhere and travel/walking time would be nil, sans slowing down enough to search the crowds, and you could check all the bathrooms and fitting rooms without getting odd looks and security escorts. It's still pretty cool.

gadrin wrote:Anyway, it might be better to move to an Astral Domain and Project from there (I think that's allowable), or use Clairvoyance or an entity spy or something.


Personally, I'd make it dependant on how the domain was built comceptually... but this does make the most sense. I can easily picture Astral Lords building their domains with this in mind, in fact.

NPC's (or even PC's with good story ideas) could easily have astral minions to do these sorts of things for them. This would require purchasing the proper psi powers (ie. telepathy, see the invisible, etc.), but that's part of what makes building such relationships fun :)
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Sanctu
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Unread post by Sanctu »

There is one big drawback to the nipping off to the astral plane to recovr quickly... well, beyond any horrible entites one might enounter, that is. If I'm thinking of this correctly, getting to the astral plane for an Astral Lord and into their realm is geneally pretty easy. (ie. you go there, whee, should take a few minutes) Getting back, though... that's the part that you can get lost in, encounter storms, horrid creatures, and the like. Especally with Astral Transferance, while you are real good at moving around, you are still coming back through layers of realities to get back to the physical world, a place that doesn't have the draw for you that one might if they have an astral cord.

Especially if you are using Rifts, the things you encounter traveling are going to be pretty nasty, when you do actually encounter stuff.
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Tinker Dragoon
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Re: Astral Time Difference

Unread post by Tinker Dragoon »

gadrin wrote:how would you GM this ?

Astral Lord is at a large shopping mall. He needs to know if one of the shoppers is around.

Astral Lord who uses Astral Transference to appear in the Outer Layer.
Time differential in the outer layer:

1 melee (physical plane) = 42 hours (outer layer)

Activates his Astral Projection (body is still in the Outer Layer) and uses it to co-exist in the real world, and search for "the shopper".

In physical world time he'd be gone for about 1 melee (due to the time difference). However would you run the co-existing part as 1:1 meaning if he co-exists for 20 minutes, then he's gone for 20 minutes ?


In this case, since the character's body and astral spirit are in separate locations, I'd say that time flows normally for the astral spirit, as it is in the material plane. This means that the duration of the power will be based on time in the material plane as well. However, when the power expires and the character returns to his body in the Outer Layer, he will find that one week of astral time has passed for every minute he spent in the physical plane.
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Sanctu
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Unread post by Sanctu »

When projecting, even into the astral plane, I thought you didn't get ISP back? Hence the benefit of Astral Transferance, where you sort of have your body along... at least that's what I was thinking. *scratches head* I suppose you are there a whole week per minute real world time, and there are risks to Astral Travel. (Still, I wouldn't let people recover the initial investment to project.)

Also, if you are in the physical world and you project to the Astral, from your point of view yuo can be there a few weeks, while in the physical world you're body is only out for {up to 5 min/lvl}, correct?
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