[RACC] Crossroads FAQ 1.0.1
Russ Allbery
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Frequently Asked Questions, version 1.0.1
Written and Maintained by
The Crossroads Authors
Last modified: July 5, 1995
Listen to the mustn'ts, child,
Listen to the don'ts,
Listen to the couldn'ts,
The impossibles, the won'ts,
Listen to the never haves,
Then listen close to me.
Anything can happen, child.
Anything can be.
Shel Silverstein
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Table of Contents
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1 Introduction
1.1 What is Crossroads?
1.2 What kind of stories fit in Crossroads?
1.3 Where can I get back issues?
2 The Setting
2.1 What is a Crossworld?
2.2 What is a portal like?
2.3 How does Crossroads relate to other writing universes?
2.4 Where is the portal to <insert world here>?
2.5 What does Crossroads look like?
3 Series
3.1 Apprentice Inept
3.2 Arvie the Wonderdog
3.3 Excerpts from a Journey
3.4 Grim
3.5 Perspectives
3.6 Tapestry
3.7 Transverse City
4 Authors
4.1 Russ Allbery (Eagle)
4.2 Mike Escutia (Ergh)
4.3 Mike Friedman
4.4 Steve Hutchison and Fox Cutter
4.5 Pete Milan (Tick)
4.6 Matt Rossi (Badger)
5 Administrative Details
5.1 Who created Crossroads?
5.2 How do I contact the Crossroads authors?
5.3 How do I join in?
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Introduction
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1.1 What is Crossroads?
Every story creates a universe. No matter if it is a best-selling
novel or a throw-away story for a class, every story is a window into
another world where people live and die, hope and despair, and believe in
the reality of their existence as much as we believe in ours. We rarely see
more than glimpses of those worlds, little bits and pieces in scattered
works of fiction, but they are no less real because of it.
From time to time, in one of the infinite universes, someone won't
be content with those scattered glimpses. They will taste the reality
behind the story, know that there is deeper truth behind the fiction, and go
in search of it. Most will fail. But a few will find the right road, will
go straight where others turn, and find the connections between the worlds.
A few will find Crossroads.
In none of the stories, yet part of them all, Crossroads is the
connection between realities. All worlds are potentially reachable from it,
although the path to some may be long and hazardous. Similarly, Crossroads
is reachable from all worlds, although the way is rarely obvious.
Many who came to Crossroads, however, chose not to travel on.
Instead, they stayed, building cities and farms, raising families, and
making it their home. Crossroads is also a world in its own right, but one
unlike any other. Its inhabitants have been drawn from all worlds, all
possibilities, all societies, and whatever they brought with them functioned
as well in Crossroads as it did in their native reality. Magic mingles with
technology, psionics with superpowers, for here all things are possible.
Crossroads is something different to each person. For some, it is
the path to exploration, to adventure, or to profit. For others, it is
their home.
1.2 What kind of stories fit in Crossroads?
The inhabitants are extremely varied and come from every possible
background, so virtually every story is possible, from superheroes to
science fiction to fantasy. Crossroads itself is a multi-genre world,
however, so most of the stories set in Crossroads itself will be about the
conflicts and relationships between different perspectives and societies.
Explorers and adventurers are natural fits, as are any kind of interuniverse
meetings and conflicts.
Crossroads is for more than that, though. From Crossroads, any
universe can be reached, so the stories that you can tell are limited only
by your imagination. All realities are welcome. As the motto for the
universe at the beginning of this FAQ says, "anything can be."
Crossroads stories will therefore cover the gamut from serious to
humorous, from superheroes to science fiction and fantasy. There are no
restrictions on genre or style; there is no one characteristic that all
Crossroads stories have to have.
1.3 Where can I get back issues?
All back issues of Crossroads series are archived at the RACC
archive site (apollo0.stanford.edu) in the /eyrie/racc/crossroads directory.
If you don't have ftp access, you can send mail to r...@apollo0.stanford.edu
and request that a particular issue be sent to you via e-mail.
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The Setting
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2.1 What is a Crossworld?
A Crossworld is the name for a reality reachable from Crossroads.
The distinguishing property of a Crossworld is that it is fundamentally
separate from other Crossworlds. Each Crossworld can contain multiple
alternate dimensions, parallel worlds, and the like, much like a Marvel
multiverse. A separate Crossworld is a reality that is not just an
alternate dimension but rather something totally and completely apart. For
example, the Marvel universe and the universe of Star Trek would be separate
Crossworlds, but the Looniverse and IRC would not be since people have
travelled between them.
2.2 What is a portal like?
A portal is the connection between Crossroads and a Crossworld. On
the Crossroads side, all portals look very similar; a nebulous, somewhat
disturbing, intriguing plane of force. Staring at a portal for too long can
damage your eyes, and it also tends to do strange things to your perception
(like looking into a fourth spatial dimension). Portals in Crossroads are
fixed, and (almost) always lead to the same Crossworld.
On the Crossworld side, however, things are far different. The
appearance of the portal is determined by the nature of reality in that
Crossworld. Portals may be doors, black holes, mystic loci, archways, or
anything else that the reality contains, including being eaten by a demon.
They move frequently and unpredictably, and when searched for are rarely
found. Instead, they are often discovered by accident, and often the person
crossing through doesn't know what is happening. The wanderers and
explorers, the misfits of society, are the ones who most often encounter the
portals; very rarely does a person reach Crossroads who is not drawn by it.
The exact nature of the portals and where they came from isn't known
to anyone, not even the inhabitants of Crossroads. In the Crossworlds, they
can be totally unpredictable, and even in Crossroads they will occasionally
do something that no one can explain. Many believe that they are sentient,
but if so, it is a sentience unlike anything else ever encountered.
2.3 How does Crossroads relate to other writing universes?
From the perspective of Crossroads, each other writing universe,
like any other fictional universe, is a Crossworld. Some writing universes
share a Crossworld (for example, the LNH and the Net.Trenchcoat.Brigade
stories take place in the same Crossworld), and others, like Omega, stand
alone. All writing universes are *potentially* reachable from Crossroads,
but it is the decision of the writers in each universe if they want stories
of that sort to be told.
Crossroads stories will be interacting with Crossworlds, both new
ones created by Crossroads authors and others that are already established
universes, but only with the consent of the creator(s) of the Crossworld.
Crossroads itself is a joint project, but any Crossworlds are under the sole
control of their creators.
2.4 Where is the portal to <insert world here>?
For many of the universes, the answer is wait and see. Stories
about the portals to several of the major fictional worlds on
rec.arts.comics.creative are already planned. For the rest, it depends on
the writers who choose to tell the story. Remember, though, that just
because the universes are all on rec.arts.comics.creative doesn't mean they
are near in Crossroads; they may be scattered far and wide.
Also, whether or not Crossroads stories will be told about a
particular Crossworld is at the discretion of that Crossworld's creators.
If they do not want to be linked with Crossroads, no Crossroads stories
about that universe will ever be told.
2.5 What does Crossroads look like?
Crossroads is a plane which, as far as anyone has been able to
determine, extends infinitely in all directions. This means that distant
objects just fade into the sky rather than vanish behind a definite horizon.
People from spherical worlds find this somewhat disconcerting at first. A
roughly circular area around the city Road's End has been explored, and this
is known as the inhabited area. Whenever people move out into unexplored
areas, they find portals already there waiting for them.
Crossroads appears to have a sun, which sets and rises on a roughly
twenty-four hour cycle, and a moon similar to that of most Earths. No one
has ever been able to explain how this is possible given the geography. The
sun rises earlier the farther one goes to the east, just as if Crossroads
were a spherical planet. Attempts to send spacecraft up into the atmosphere
reveal that air appears to extent infinitely upwards with no drop in
pressure, and the temperature remains roughly the same. The sun and moon
never appear to get any closer. At night there are stars in the sky, even
though stars like those found in most Crossworlds would be impossible.
Investigations into magical causes have so far been inconclusive.
Explorers have encountered seas and oceans, some of fresh water and
some of salt. Weather patterns tend to also mimic those of a spherical
planet. The terrain, animal life, and planet life is largely similar to
that of most Earths, but there are many regions that are significant
exceptions. Societies and technological levels vary wildly from area to
area, usually depending on the nature of the Crossworlds portals in that
area connect to. Magic, psionics, superpowers, high technology, and all
other contradictory sets of physical laws all function at the same time.
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Series
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3.1 Apprentice Inept, by Steve Hutchison and Fox Cutter
"Apprentice Inept" tells the story of a young Fox who is apprenticed
to a surly, rather confusing Otter who happens to be a wandering Wizard.
3.2 Arvie the Wonderdog, by Mike Friedman
What can you say about a series like Arvie the Wonderdog? Well, it
is a bit unusual, but here is the scoop. Arvie is a husky dog who one day
earned his powers will digging around in a garbage bin behind an Amoco. It
just so happened there was a bunch of glowing stuff there that gave him his
powers. He then met up with a bum, named Erik, and was sent to an alternate
future of Hades, Ohio. There, they met up with a cop, a gas station
attendant, three robots, and a bunch of other weird stuff. Issue #7 marks
Arvies first trip to the Crossroads, and a whole bunch of new adventures.
Although Arvie the Wonderdog focuses on Arvie, it is just as much about the
supporting characters he meets along the way....
It is important to realize that the alternate future that Arvie and
Co. travelled to earlier is not reached through the Crossroads, it is an
alternate future of Arvie's Crossworld, and *his* Crossworld only.
Now, here are the people you should know:
Arvie. The talking, wise-cracking husky with an attitude. He can
fly, he has a sonic bark, and a bunch of other stuff even he doesn't know
about. He likes cigarettes, too....
Erik Jones. Arvie's best friend. He used to be a homeless bum
until he met Arvie. He has latent trans-dimensional powers, but only in
contact with another latent power (Arvie is one). He also has the weird
power that almost everyone knows his name.
Hemp. A cop that Arvie and Erik met on their journey to the
alternate future, where he lost his arm. He's kind of a go-getter that
doesn't always think things through that thoroughly.
Joe Hendrickson. The gas station attendant who also messed around
with the strange glowing stuff. It turns out he is immortal. He's trapped
in the Crossworld timestream, trying to get away from Manga Robot Fighter
and back to his home. More latent dimensional powers here.
Daytona. Arvie's former owner, and pizza girl.
Lt. Martinez. Let's just say he's mentally deranged. Recently seen
attacking Erik and Daytona.
Homer, Bart, and Eof. Three robots from the alternate future.
Homer and Eof managed to escape with Arvie to the past. Bart is currently
in shambles.
Manga Robot Fighter. The man who destroys without care or thinking.
Has the brain size of a pea, and a resentment for robots. Currently lost
somewhere in the timestream with Joe and Bart's head.
The Cracked Portrait. Well, it's the portal to the Crossroads on
Arvie's Crossworld. At least that's what *it* wants you to think!
3.3 Excerpts from a Journey, by Eagle and David Anastasion
Windrider is a telephatic bald eagle, with fairly extensive mental
abilities. He identifies himself as a Wanderer, although it is not clear
exactly what that means. An explorer, for far longer than most people
realize, he knows quite a bit about several Crossworlds and can travel
between dimensions and to Crossroads without requiring a portal.
Drifter is his long-time partner: a man, usually wearing a black
trenchcoat, who also has the ability to travel between dimensions by
creating his own portals (considerably less powerful than Crossroads
portals, since they cannot reach other Crossworlds). He and Windrider share
a psychic bond and have a penchant for getting involved in other people's
problems.
Excerpts from a Journey is their story, as they travel through
different Crossworlds and Crossroads itself. It will be told as a series of
novellas. And slowly, as each arc builds on the one before, you will see
that both of them are considerably more than they appear to be.
3.4 Grim, by the Tick
On one of the many Crossworlds, a young man named Oliver was given a
job sometime in the Middle Ages. It's been a millennium since, and he's
still working hard...Oliver is the Grim Reaper, guiding spirits to their
ultimate destinations and trying to keep himself sane in the bargain. He
lives in Transverse City, atop The Needle, along with his predecessor
Winslow and their robot butler, Catherwood.
3.5 Perspectives, by Eagle
Luke was a young man, 18, from a fairly low-tech Crossworld where
magic works (although it isn't common). While running through an abandoned
tower, attempting to escape from a man he thought a thief and murderer, he
accidentally discovered the portal for his Crossworld and went through
before he realized what he had found. His life was never the same again.
Perspectives is the story of Crossroads from the eyes of a newcomer
and born explorer. Starting at the edge of the inhabited area, Luke will
see Crossroads in all of its infinite variety during the course of the
series. Perspectives is a serial novel, exploring both the nature of the
societies that have developed on Crossroads and the growth of an individual.
3.6 Tapestry, by Mike Escutia
The Crossroads has many things in it -- the portals, the Library,
Transverse City, the lifeforms that populate Crossroads, and more. Put
together, all of these can be described as a single whole in one word:
Tapestry.
_Tapestry_ is the story of some of the people that find themselves
in this strange, new place: John, former superhero and now a cynical,
down-on-his- luck man. Sarah, a nineteen-year old who is just trying to
make something of her life. Irene, who discovers that Crossroads holds
surprises for people of all ages, even the elderly. And more. Journey with
these people as they explore places that defy the imagination.
3.7 Transverse City, by Tick
Transverse City is a study in contrasts. Founded by a group of
mages and explorers, led by the famed Geo Okono, it rests in the midst of a
great number of portals, more than any other city in the Crossroads.
Because it's always full of travellers, tourists, and just folks, it's
possible to see almost anything in Transverse City, from a flying dragon on
a leash to a fifty-foot tall robot gorilla.
Over the years, the city's been the subject of many power struggles,
with rival politicians struggling to take control of the city, its people,
and the portals within. For the past fifty years, since the rise to power
of Governors Slate and Oric, the city has been split into two sides.
The west side if Slate's territory. An authoritarian, Slate wasted
no time setting up a code of laws that was strict and unbending. He also
created the Reality Integrity Commission to police the populace and the
portals. The West Side is sedate, stable...the criminals stick to
white-collar crime on this side of town.
The east side is Oric's. It's wilder, home of the Needle, an
ancient structure that currently houses stores, apartments, and sundry
entertainments. The Transverse City Police Department keeps a fragile peace
here. Merchants, hustlers and criminals battle amongst themselves for a
larger share of the pie.
There's no telling who you could meet in Transverse City. It might
be an ex-astronaut, a criminal mastermind or a grim reaper. So come on down
and set a spell, won't you?
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Authors
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4.1 Russ Allbery (Eagle)
Russ is a senior in computer science at Stanford, a Unix consultant
for Stanford's networking department, an occasional sysadmin, the archivist
for rec.arts.comics.creative and untold-l, and a frequent participant in
newsgroup discussions in groups ranging from rec.arts.comics.misc to
news.groups. He also maintains the FAQ and bot for the IRC channel #comics,
programs in C for fun, and loves wasting hours exploring the Net.
Eagle is a lover of poetry, especially Frost, Wordsworth, Coleridge,
and Shelley, and an avid reader of almost any fantasy or sf. He tries to
re-read the Lord of the Rings at least once a year, just to recapture the
feeling of sweep and depth that only the greatest of books can reach. He is
never happier than when he is alone, in the early hours of the morning,
music playing into the headphones and totally lost in a novel. Life is a
search for a feeling, a touch of the divine that can only be approached in
this world, but which awaits us in the next. A feeling of freedom and
peace, of pure and unmatchable Joy. Writing is an effort to capture the
inexpressible in words -- just for a moment, to touch that feeling and feel
the sheer thrill of something deeper than life.
There are rumors that the two are the same person, but most people
doubt it.
4.2 Mike Escutia (Ergh. Or Sir, if you're looking for any favors.)
Mike Escutia got his start writing fiction on the Net in late 1992,
when he created Pliable Lad for the LNH. He didn't start the _Pliable Lad_
series until the following June, but he had his foot in the door. _Pliable
Lad_ lasted for 30 issues (#30 came out in January 1995), and underwent some
strange changes as Mike's writing style evolved. Along the way, he tied
into various LNH crossovers (including "Bad Forms," "Robot Invasion,"
"Retcon Hour," and the infamous "Omaha Project"), did a more direct
crossover with Tick and Marie Antoon called "Crisis of Infinite Sidekicks,"
and co-wrote the _Retcon Midnight_ limited series with Russ Allbery, David
Anastasion, and Drizzt.
In December 1993, he discovered Superguy, which he started writing
for in late March of 1994. _The Hero Patrol_ is currently on hiatus due to
creative difficulties, but Mike hopes to bring the series back in the fall.
Mike writes _Tapestry_ for Crossroads, and is working on the
concepts for an anthology series that will be like no other. He'll probably
do anything else that comes to mind, so look out!
4.3 Mike Friedman (Hrivnak, aka Arvie, aka Stray)
Mike Friedman is the younger brother of Mark Friedman, one of the
founders of the LNH universe. In an odd coincidence, Mike found RACC
totally independent from Mark, and one day he happened to see his brother's
name in the LNH FAQ (very much to Mike's surprise). _Arvie the Wonderdog_
is the first title that Mike has ever written, and was an idea that was
brewing in his head since he was in the seventh grade -- in many different
forms (the Crossroads version probably being Arvie v5.1).
Mike goes to Georgia Tech (shafted by the NCAA tourney two years
running!), where he is a Junior majoring in Computer Engineering. He is the
Entertainment Editor for the campus newspaper, _The Technique_. He loves
Faith No More, Green Day, and Live, and also is an avid movie-goer. He also
has an attention span of about 5 seconds -- which is why he only reads
comics and magazines, but hates novels and textbooks. This is quite odd,
being that Mike would love to write for a living. Oh well...
Mike suggests viewing a live game of hockey, reading a new issue of
_Milk & Cheese_, and listening to a new CD to be three of the best pleasures
in life.
4.4 Steve Hutchison and Fox Cutter
Stephen Hutchison was born in the latter half of the 20th century in
a very small town in Montana, and lives in thriving Hillsboro, Oregon, which
still has one of the old Movie Palaces intact, not yet cut up into 5-plexes.
Fox Cutter was born in the latter quarter of the 20th century but
not in a foxes' den, even if he does prefer that story. He's currently
situated in Spokane, Washington.
4.5 Pete Milan (Tick)
You can tell by the way he walks his walk, he's a woman's man, no
time for talk. Pete reads Peter David, James Robinson, Neil Gaiman, Douglas
Adams, and Terry Pratchett. He listens to Bruce Springsteen, Warren Zevon,
Melissa Etheridge, and practically anyone else who writes their own songs
and plays guitar. He watches MST3K and Friends like his life depended on
it. When he's not writing _Grim_ and _Transverse City_ for the Crossroads,
_Rapidfire_ for Omega, or _Decibel Dude & Vigilante Guy_ for the Legion of
Net.Heroes, he attends Fitchburg State College as a film student, acts as
Arts & Entertainment director for WXPL 91.3 FM, does his radio show, "The
Rorschach Test," once a week, and drinks a lot of Coke.
4.6 Matt Rossi (Badger)
"Do you understand, gentlemen, that all the horror is in just this--
that there is no horror!"
Aleksandr Kuprin, YAMA: THE PIT, A novel in Three Parts
Matthew W. Rossi III discovered his strange prediliction for writing
whiz-bang fiction when he discovered alt.comics.lnh, and from there moved on
to write fiction in the PATROL, ASH and OMEGA universes. Aside from
founding OMEGA and writing PULSE and TEMPEST for it, Matt is proud of his
collection of devices from alien dimensions. He enjoys poetry (Especially
Baudelaire and Yeats) and the occasional Harley Davidson. Matthew writes
ACROSS TIME AND SPACE (ATAS for short) for the Crossroads universe.
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Administrative Details
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5.1 Who created Crossroads?
Crossroads started with a proposal to rec.arts.comics.creative by
Peter Milan (Tick), and has been extensively developed by him, Russ Allbery
(Eagle), Mike Escutia (Ergh), Mike Friedman, Steve Hutchison, Todd Kogutt
(Scavenger) and Matt Rossi (Badger) (in alphabetical order). It's been a
joint project from very near the beginning.
5.2 How do I contact the Crossroads authors?
Russ Allbery (Eagle) ea...@eyrie.gvg.tek.com
Mike Escutia (Ergh) m...@christa.unh.edu
Mike Friedman hri...@havoc.gtf.gatech.edu
Steve Hutchison hu...@ibeam.intel.com
Todd Kogutt (Scavenger) <temporarily without e-mail>
Peter Milan (Tick) pmi...@fscvax.fsc.mass.edu
Matt Rossi (Badger) mr....@acc.rwu.edu
5.3 How do I join in?
For now, until we've been able to develop the world more thoroughly,
Crossroads is closed to new writers. This is just temporary, however, and
we will be opening the universe once the background is established. Our
hope is that we may be prepared to open the universe by the end of the
summer, but that's far from certain.
--
Eagle (Russ Allbery) Windrider of Crossroads
ea...@eyrie.gvg.tek.com rec.arts.comics.creative archivist
http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~rra/