Supernatural Geometry

When is a 10' hut not a 10' hut?

When it measures 30' on the inside.

photo credit: B Rosen via photopin cc

Supernatural Geometry is a fairly common tool used in both fantasy and science fiction - from the Witch's Hut in Pixar's Brave, to the concept of Hyperspace in many space flicks. Few things are as undeniably unreal as the defiance of that which we most natively interpret - length, width, height, and time.


Here are seven possible uses for Supernatural Geometry in a fantasy RPG. Feel free to comment with your own ideas.

1. Localized Temporal Displacement: Time flows either faster or slower in a certain room or region. This could be small (resulting in a haste or slow type effect), or it could be significant (days, months, or even years pass in only minutes). In tactical combat, make it randomly affect combatants with a boon or a bane each round.
2. Two perfectly straight hallways lead from Room A to Room B. However, one hallway is 10' long and the other one is 100' long. No further explanation is given.
3. A ledge or balcony appears to be 100' above. However, the height dimension is screwed up - a character just has to jump or be thrown 10' to make it. They appear to stretch to 10 times their normal height briefly during the jump. Ten-foot poles are mysteriously unaffected.
4. A magical spiral staircase has doors that open up to random places all over the dungeon.
5. A magical triangle floats in the air, made of three right angles. Those who can explain its non-euclidean geometry are accepted into a special school for abnormal people. A disproportionate number of these people are roleplayers. Few to none of them are LARPers.
6. Go down the left hallway... come out the right hallway. Make an entire maze that works like this. Players will love it. Really.
7. A giant magnifying glass looks down on a miniature model town. Jumping into the glass zaps characters into the town, at proper scale. Or perhaps a meanie pushes them into the glass as a sort of trap.