So I’ve finished reading ‘The Big Time’ by Fritz Leiber,  a cracking little book and one of the best reads in a while.

Its a short punchy book, no more than 100pages more a novella than a novel, which takes place in a pocket of reality known as ‘The Place’ which exists outside the normal space-time continuum, known as ‘The Little Time’, which two factions the Snakes and the Spiders are fighting over in what is known as the ‘Change War’. The story unfolds like a stage play, with the main protagonists trapped in the Place, which is a recuperation Zone for Spider Soliders,  with an atomic bomb. The resulting tension brings out the truth behind the Change War. Its a very sharply written book that I’ld recommend any Sci-fi fan to read.

As far as roleplaying material is concerned this has it all. Diverse characters who can can come from any imaginable period of time (including pre-history and far flung future), strange technology (such as the Inverter which is used in front line surgery, and the Maintainers, devices which prevent the void crushing The Place) and some big themes and sources of conflict , such as the Change War and the characters struggle to come to terms with an ever changing universe and their place in it. It even has its own termology (Demons, Ghosts, Zombies etc). My only caveat is that for an rpg game you would want to move away from the tight claustrophobic setting of The Place and into history itself.

Other sources will add bits and branches to add flesh but this book is the spine of what Infinite War is all about.

The idea behind Shift City is that its a neutral outside of time place, that changes as the balance of power between the Crusade and the Entropy Jihad inside Time shifts. Its where the players go to find out what’s truely going on, its packed with intrigue, factional politics and mystery,

At this point my references for Shift City are purely visual at this point.

Brazil - the administration/Government sector.

Dark City - for the dingy parts of the city, that are perhaps sliding into the clutches of the Entropy Jihad.

Repo Man - Edge City from this film is definitely the suburbs of Shift City.

Red Route - Route from Shift City to warzone in Time.

White Corridor - Route to Shift City’s healing rooms from Time.

Possibility n - A definition of a distinct time frame/period eg Possibility 23 where the Psychedelic revolution of the late 60s lasted for another fifty five years, before humankind transcended en mass leaving a vacant Earth behind.

I’ve been struggling for a while to come up with an idea for an example setting for Graham Spearing’s upcoming Wordplay RPG, a narrative/storytelling game using stacks of D6 and descriptive traits.

Then the other day while browsing my local Blackwells, I came across Fritz Leiber’s ‘The Big Time’, a sci-fi novel based around the idea of two sides Spiders/Snakes fighting a ‘Change War’ over Human History. Suddenly it clicked, pressed several of my buttons and the idea for ‘Infinite War’ popped into my head.

I’m going to use this blog as a development area, as I gradually extract the idea kicking and screaming into reality.

Read the About page for more detail at this stage.