TM

Written by PETER V. DELL’ORTO

Edited by SEAN PUNCH
Illustrated by GRANDE DUC
GURPS System Design z STEVE JACKSON Chief Executive Officer z PHILIP REED
GURPS Line Editor z SEAN PUNCH Chief Creative Officer z SAM MITSCHKE
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Production Artist z NIKOLA VRTIS Director of Sales z ROSS JEPSON
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Reviewers: Steven Marsh and Phil Masters

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STEVE JACKSON GAMES

Stock #37-0373 Version 1.0 – September 2021 ®
 Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Publication History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Why Go In? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Gate and Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1. Gates and the Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. Gate Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

What Are Gates? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Gate “Physics” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
About GURPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Gate Traffic Flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Gate Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Use and Abuse of Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Teleportation Portals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Anti-Magic Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Interdimensional Portals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Damaging Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Time Portals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Password Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Arranging Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Unreliable Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Hub-and-Spoke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
City of Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3. Sample Destinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Megadungeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Gates and Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Nexus of Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Olympus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Gate Hopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Islands in the Clouds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Hybrid Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Jester Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Portal Item . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Ape World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Mobile Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Introduction
One promise of GURPS – implied if not directly stated – is discussions of gates in GURPS Magic and GURPS Dungeon
the possibility of cross-world gaming. You could have worlds Fantasy 21: Megadungeons.
with magic, worlds with other powers, worlds full of ani-
mal-men, worlds full of . . . anything. The
Basic Set offers Infinite Worlds, a cam- bout A
paign of travel to such realms. It matters not how the uthor A
This idea isn’t new to GURPS, nor to fan-
tasy gaming. Gates to other worlds, strange strait the gate. Peter V. Dell’Orto was raised
in New Jersey. He started role-
portals dropping delvers into steaming jun- – William Ernst Henley playing in 1981, with Dungeons
gles straight out of monster movies, devices
taking adventures to settings lifted from & Dragons, and has played
classic fiction, and so on abound in the early history of fantasy GURPS since Man to Man. He has been active as a GURPS
roleplaying games. The idea that there are other dimensions, playtester, editor, and author since 1996. Peter is the author
other realities for your sword-and-sorcery-wielding treasure of numerous GURPS articles for Pyramid magazine; author
hunters to go to is central to the cosmology of most fantasy. of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 12: Ninja, GURPS Dungeon
Video games show this a lot of love, too – nothing beats a Fantasy Denizens: Barbarians, GURPS Dungeon Fantasy
doorway to another universe to let you mash up genres or Monsters 3: Born of Myth & Magic, GURPS Dungeon
locations without a lot of philosobabble and handwaving. Fantasy Treasures 3: Artifacts of Felltower, and GURPS
It is high time for GURPS Dungeon Fantasy to tackle Dungeon Fantasy 21: Megadungeons; and co-author of
this directly! Gates got a short mention in GURPS Dungeon GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 15: Henchmen, GURPS Dungeon
Fantasy 21: Megadungeons, but there’s so much more that Fantasy Monsters 1, GURPS Low-Tech, GURPS Low-Tech
can go into gates and gate-centric campaigns. Let’s cast Companion 2: Weapons and Warriors, GURPS Martial Arts,
Scry Gate and see what stepping through might bring to and GURPS Martial Arts: Gladiators. He also writes the
your games. blog Dungeon Fantastic at dungeonfantastic.blogspot.com,
where summaries of his 150+ sessions of play can be found.
Outside of gaming, his hobbies include martial arts (he has
P ublication istory H fought amateur MMA in the SHOOTO organization in Japan
This is the first edition of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy and submission grappling in the U.S., and holds a shodan rank
22: Gates. All materials are new to this work but build on in kendo), fitness, and studying Japanese.

Contents and Introduction 2

 Chapter One
Gates and
the Campaign
Gates can have a tremendous impact on a campaign. They
can be a useful way to connect a “mundane” fantasy world
to odder or more specifically fantastical realms. They allow
What Are Gates?
A gate is a supernatural connection between multiple loca-
tions, allowing those who pass through it to move from one
place to another without traveling across whatever lies in
between. These destinations can be remote physically, in time,
or in reality from one another. They might be other dimen-
sions, or just other spots in the same or similar worlds.
Gates are also known as “portals,” “doorways,” or “worm-
holes” (at least when in space or a void of some kind). This
work uses “gate” and “portal” interchangeably.
Gates can have many possible origins. They might be cre-
ated by wizards casting Create Gate. They could be opened
when beings called by Planar Summons or Summon Demon
About GURPS
Steve Jackson Games is committed to full sup-
port of GURPS players. We can be reached by email:
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18957, Austin, TX 78760. Resources include:
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Internet. To discuss GURPS with our staff and your
fellow gamers, visit our forums at forums.sjgames.com.
You can also join us at facebook.com/sjgames or
twitter.com/sjgames. Share your brief campaign teasers
Gates and the
connections between disparate places without all the trouble
of traveling between them. But what are they, how do you use
them, and what rules affect them?
spells bring in more of their own kind. They might be literal
wormholes left behind by Elder Things burrowing through
reality – the hole between where they came from and where
they went stays, allowing other travelers to use it!
Too many such holes may warp the fabric of reality around
the gates: High mana! Massively elevated odds of wandering
monsters! An area Weirdness Magnet! Too many gates in one
place could even threaten the world itself, making closing
gates a priority . . . after you’ve used them to kill monsters and
take their loot. Shutting down a given portal could require
Control Gate, Remove Enchantment, a unique ritual, killing
its creator, etc., as the GM likes.
with #GURPShook on Twitter. Or explore that hashtag for
ideas to add to your own game! The web page for GURPS
Dungeon Fantasy 22: Gates can be found at gurps.
sjgames.com/dungeonfantasy22.
Store Finder (storefinder.sjgames.com): Discover
nearby places to buy GURPS items and other Steve
Jackson Games products. Local shops are great places to
play our games and meet fellow gamers!
Bibliographies. Bibliographies are a great resource for
finding more of what you love! We’ve added them to many
GURPS book web pages with links to help you find the
next perfect element for your game.
Errata. Everyone makes mistakes, including us  – but
we do our best to fix our errors. Errata pages for GURPS
releases are available at sjgames.com/errata/gurps.
Rules and statistics in this book are specifically for the
GURPS Basic Set, Fourth Edition. Page references that
begin with B refer to that book, not this one.
Campaign 3
Gate Types
There are three main kinds of gates: teleportation portals,
interdimensional portals, and time portals.
Teleportation Portals
These allow travel to and/or from other spots in the same
world. Such a gate is a simple connection point between two
places. These locations can be far apart – the frozen regions
near the poles might be connected to a ruined temple to Elder
Things in a steamy topical jungle – or close, such as another
building, dungeon, or room mere yards away.
Interdimensional Portals
These connect worlds or dimensions, letting delvers visit
a place such as a parallel “mundane” world, the modern-day
world, the realm of the Olympian gods (p. 9), or – always a
classic – Hell itself, or some equally hellish world or nether-
world. Visit a fictional locale, drop into a book or movie, or
Gates and the
explore a different genre or space by throwing down a conve-
nient shimmering hole in reality. The basic reality of the desti-
nation can be wildly different: less magic, more magic, strange
physics, etc. It could even be a dream world or afterlife, visited
in all-too-physical form via the gate!
Time Portals
These are rare in typical dungeon fantasy: They connect
a point in a fantasy world with the same or another point in
that world but during another era. They’re uncommon because
most treatments of time travel feel too “scientific” – but also
because Dungeon Fantasy normally assumes “TL Olden
Times,” so going forward or backward in time generally only
changes the people and places encountered. Travel to high-
tech, post-apocalyptic, or other science-fictional worlds is
possible as well, but cross-TL looting (“Let’s bring X-ray laser
pistols home!”) and technological skills (p. B168) can give the
GM headaches. Alternatively, treat all high-tech items as alien
artifacts (p. B478).
Campaign 4
 Arranging Gates
A campaign can feature gates just put down without a
plan, as needed for a specific adventure, or opening and clos-
ing at random. But if gates are to be a central campaign ele-
ment, a systematic treatment generally works better. Three
approaches cover most of the possible ground.
A “world of the
week” game can let
the GM play with
ideas that might not
be ideal long-term.
Hub-and-Spoke
A hub is a central location that the delvers travel from – and
back to – using gates. Adventurers might spend most of their
time there and use the gates as additional delving locations, or
just treat the hub like town and mostly delve beyond the gates.
Either way, the hub provides a place to put the gates.
There are many options for a hub. Below are a few com-
mon approaches.
City of Gates
An earthly city in a weird world of travelers from many
planes. Such places make excellent hubs, but if they’re more
interesting than the gate destinations, delvers might decide to
stay there instead of leaving on adventures! If the city is heavy
on law and order but freely accepts loot plundered from other
worlds, it’s a good “town” and the gate destinations serve as
“dungeons.”
Megadungeon
A huge, sprawling dungeon encompassing a large area and
often a great depth. One level, multiple levels, or all levels may
boast gates to elsewhere in the dungeon or other worlds. The
dungeon itself provides plenty of adventure, but the gates help
to explain the “monster hotel” mixture of creatures found
there, allow for widely varying challenge levels, and make the
place a magnet for both delvers and crazy evil wizards (are
there any other kind?). A nearby town – perhaps GURPS
Dungeon Fantasy Setting: Caverntown – can provide all the
shopping and training the PCs need between delves.
Nexus of Worlds
A tunnel system with exits to other worlds, a labyrinth of
odd passages that end in gates, a valley full of caves (or tombs,
Gates and the
standing doorways, or whatever) each of which contains a
gate, or similar. Your basic maze-of-gates, seven-eyed wizard
sitting at the heart of it all, gathering knowledge, is optional.
Such places need a supernatural explanation (such as that
wizard!) to explain why they aren’t inhabited, guarded, and/or
treated as a resource by a wealthy and dangerous “benefactor.”
Gate Hopping
A gate-hopping campaign is possible without a single town
or city – or even a central game world. Delvers simply travel
from world to world, using the gates located in one to reach
the next, or to return to a previous one.
Depending on the players, the delvers might need a reason
to travel. Some players will want to put down roots, or to fully
exploit a location before moving on. Others may wish to jump
around frequently. Worlds strung together by one-way gates
can encourage “finishing” a world, as the heroes can’t come
back. Two-way gates encourage travel back and forth, but can
lead to one place becoming a de facto hub (see above).
The downside to such a campaign is that the GM needs a
constant supply of new destinations or reasons to revisit old
ones. The upside is that new locations are inherently inter-
esting. A “world of the week” game can also let the GM play
with ideas that might not be ideal long-term, such as a world
overrun by demons or peopled by only one race.
The Hybrid Game
Some campaigns feature elements of a hub-and-spoke
structure and gate hopping.
Portal Item
A magic item can act as a hub. Examples are a deck of
cards, each depicting a new place, perhaps with only a ran-
dom draw pulling a card that works as a gate; a brush that
can paint a gate on a surface; or a door with a new destination
behind it each time it’s opened.
Such a game is much like a hub-and-spoke campaign,
except that the delvers can essentially choose the hub’s loca-
tion. Unless the item works only in a specific world, or is tied
to a very limited selection of gates, it can result in a floating
gate-hopping game where the PCs use the gate to avoid obsta-
cles they feel are too challenging.
Mobile Base
Another hybrid is the gate-hopping campaign where the
PCs control a base that acts something like a hub; e.g., a fly-
ing (or regular waterborne) magical ship that can sail between
worlds. If the heroes own the boat, their adventures will center
on it. If not, the vessel needs to be reasonably available so that
the adventurers don’t risk being stranded forever in a world.
This approach runs the risk of the delvers “adventuring small”
and worrying more about returning to the base than exploring
the world, leading to a “Never get out of the boat!” attitude
instead of opening up whole worlds.
Campaign 5
 Placement
Where are the gates, and why are they there? A best prac-
tice for gates is to place the important ones early, with suf-
ficient thought to how they’ll impact the campaign and the
world around them. That said, they can be dropped in later.
A nice feature of supernatural interdimensional portals is that
no one balks at them just appearing – that actually brings up
fewer questions and issues than one that’s been around and
open for millennia!
Exact placement depends on how much traffic the GM
wants the gates to have. Difficult-to-reach or well-guarded
locations are useful for portals the GM would like to preserve
Why Go In?
Gates can be risky – they can be one-way, with destinations
wholly unlike where you came from. Realistically, there’s no
assurance that the gate goes somewhere survivable (but see
Scry Gate, p. 8) . . . or that the inhabitants haven’t trapped the
daylights out of the destination just out of sight of Scry Gate.
Gate and Traits
Gate travel can affect certain advantages and disadvan-
tages, listed below. In a hub-and-spoke campaign, changes
often aren’t necessary; as a general rule, if the heroes spend
more than half of their time in one world, use these traits as
written, basing costs and usage on that world. In gate-hop-
ping game, however, modifications to how they work may be
needed to make them fair to the players and the GM alike.
Absolute Direction (p. B34). Works as written on any world
that has a “north.” But knowing where you arrived on a world
doesn’t help you find a gate back or discover how to return
through a one-way or password-guarded gate!
Claim to Hospitality (GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 11:
Power-Ups, p. 16). Worth its full value in a hub-and-spoke
campaign, or in a gate-hopping game where the group upon
which a claim is held exists in multiple destinations (and the
delver can access said group!). In a gate-hopping game with-
out multi-destination groups, it’s worthless.
Cultural Adaptability (p. B46). A strict reading of this trait
is that it applies “in your world” – but that limits it too much
in a game where you’re expected to hop to other worlds. Con-
sider expanding it to “all cultures of your race” regardless of
world. Xeno-Adaptability would work on any race, in any
world. Bards can take Xeno-Adaptability as a power-up in a
gate-travel-heavy campaign.
Hero (Power-Ups, p. 16). Only worth anything in a
gate-hopping game if the residents of most or all worlds rec-
ognize the delver as a hero!
Wealth (p. B25). In a gate-hopping game, this includes
the ability to quickly make contacts for loot sales (GURPS
Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons, pp. 14-15) without a roll.
Gates and the
for higher-powered delvers, or to save for later in the cam-
paign, without having to insert them retroactively. It’s also
a way to keep gates to easily exploited areas from, logically,
having been exploited by NPCs in the past. Good places for
portals that will see less-than-routine use include the depths of
dungeons, remote wilderness areas, and privately controlled
areas such as wizards’ towers (or wizards’ guildhalls).
Gates placed in easy locations will see more routine use,
especially if two-way (see Gate Traffic Flows, p. 7) and always
open. Such gates may require GMs to curb abuse – see Use
and Abuse of Gates (p. 8).
But cautious players might never be willing to risk their pre-
cious delvers if gates come with unseen risks.
Thus, the GM must make sure there’s cause to enter a
gate in the first place. Here are three reasons to give to PCs
(and their players!), to encourage them to take the leap into
the unknown:
Extra loot. The loot in places beyond gates can be
humdrum gold, silver, gems, and stock magic items
(“Hey, 200 copper coins and another Puissance +1
broadsword. Sell that, we all have one already.”). But
gates offer an excuse to drop in unusual treasures of
special value: Coins of jade, obsidian, or strangely col-
ored gold. Magical artifacts of extraordinary design or
construction – especially unique ones not found on
other worlds. Gems unknown in the main game world
. . . perhaps similar to Jack Vance’s ioun stones, capa-
ble of being better power items. If the goodies beyond
gates don’t provide much (or anything) more than booty
found elsewhere, delvers may travel to safer venues in
search of riches.
New and exciting places. While gates can lead almost
anywhere – such as a nearby town, another dungeon,
or a wilderness location – at least some of them should
go to very interesting places. You don’t really need gates
to have lots of dungeons, or adventures in different cli-
mates. Leverage the ability to connect anywhere with
any type of location to really suck in delvers. While the
heroes might not be keen on being dropped into a world
of sky-castles or Greek gods, their players might be, and
may jump right into gates to find such destinations.
Varied risk and varied challenges make for great gates!
You can’t stay here. In a gate-hopping campaign, the
adventurers can have a reason to keep moving plus a
reason they can’t stay. Perhaps their transport won’t
stick around for long, so they can delve only until it’s
ready to go. They might lose FP or HP – or suffer debili-
tating effects – if they linger in some places. Less draco-
nian solutions include destinations that quickly go from
lucrative and interesting to tapped-out and boring if you
hang around (once you burn out the quests, there’s no
reason to stay).
Campaign 6
 Chapter Two
Gate Rules
How do gates work under GURPS rules? However the
GM wants – but here are some guidelines based on hard-won
Gate “Physics”
Gates violate known real-world physics. But they do follow
some internal logic, even if it’s spurious, magic-fueled logic.
Gate Traffic Flows
Gates can be two-way or one-way. Per GURPS Magic,
p. 80, if an object or willing being moves into a gate, they’re
transported. Unwilling subjects may get partway in, and
require 1d seconds, 1 FP per second, and a Will roll to back
out of the gate without finishing transit. That assumes a “stan-
dard” two-way gate.
One-way gates can be transited in only a single direc-
tion. Anything stuck into them cannot be withdrawn by
any means short of the Secret Teleportation Spell (GURPS
Gate Rules 7
experience. Most important is to keep gates from becoming
too easily abused (p. 8).
Dungeon Fantasy 11: Power-Ups, p. 37). Items (or limbs!)
stuck through must continue on or be cut off at the source to
free the rest of the object or person. One-way gates may still
be bidirectional – you can return through the same gate, but
you have to complete transit before doing so. Others are truly
one-way: To get back – or go somewhere else – you’ll need
another gate.
Some gates instead instantly transport anything that
touches them to a new location. This bypasses the shenani-
gans of delvers trying to probe the other side, tying ropes to
people or things so they can be pulled through, playing weird
planar games by inserting only half of an object, etc. Of course,
the GM may want such experimentation!

Use and Abuse of Gates
Players tend to exploit gates to the maximum, hopping into
and out of danger, conducting arbitrage deals that turn Dungeon
Fantasy into GURPS Traveller: Far Trader, using them as
unassailable safe bases while exploring dangerous locales, and
worse. The GM may want controls to make this more difficult,
and to explain why NPCs haven’t done the same. A gate between
two distant locations with great trade possibilities isn’t likely to
be left sitting idle, even if it’s in a dangerous place.
Here are a few reasons why a gate might be unused. Indi-
viduals with Weirdness Magnet may find these effects on all
gates – even those that are fine for other people!
Anti-Magic Gates
To prevent exploration by spell – Wizard Eye, Create Ser-
vant, Rider Within, Possession, etc. – gates can negate spells
on anything that passes through. This can be automatic. Alter-
natively, roll a Quick Contest between the offending spell and
the gate’s Power (typically 20, but as high as the GM wishes),
remembering that the Rule of 16 (p. B349) doesn’t apply!
An anti-magic gate high in the air, in perpetual flame, or in
other dangerous circumstance can be effectively lethal if it can-
cels visitors’ magical means of avoiding damage. Coupled with
an inability to scout through it with magic, this can be fatal and
feel unfair. In certain circumstances – a gate to Hell, or the easy
way back out – “unfair” is appropriate.
Damaging Gates
Some gates inflict damage on anything that passes through,
either by design or due to a rough ride. The type of damage
inflicted determines what’s affected:
Burning: Can ignite unusually flammable objects, and – with
sufficient damage – clothing or hair. If this is electrical, metal
armor offers only DR 1, and those who take damage passing
through the gate risk being stunned.
Corrosion: Can potentially blind travelers and will eventually
wear out equipment subject to repeated passage.
Toxic: Mostly affects living things and magically created
beings. May also harm the undead, if akin to Deathtouch. Usu-
ally ignores DR.
Harmful gates might deal 1 point of damage. Lethal gates can
inflict 1d or more. More than 1d of damage will dissuade most
everyone from going through and, if the damage affects objects,
might effectively strip delvers of a lot of fragile gear: potions and
similar concoctions, scrolls, arrows and other ammunition, etc.
While this can curb abuse of the gate, it’s also likely to curb use.
Password Gates
Not all gates open for just anyone! Some allow passage
only to those who know a password. Passwords can be simple
phrases, complex chants, or even magical activation (casting a
specific spell in the area); the more frequently legitimate users
are likely to need the gate, the less likely its password is com-
plex. A password usually opens a gate for a set time – 10 sec-
onds, a minute, an hour, etc. – after which the gate closes again.
Gate Rules 8
Unreliable Gates
Gates needn’t reliably be present or open, or always
go to the same place. They might change destinations
on a schedule, or randomly. They may be open only
some of the time, typically using the appearance rates
for Allies (p. B36): From 6 or less for rarely open gates
all the way up to 15 or less for almost always open
gates; 9 or less establishes a gate as fairly unreliable.
Serendipity can ensure that such a gate happens to
be open – or is going to a specific destination, for a
multi-destination gate.
Gates may even be temporary! You can use them
to visit new places, slay interesting people, and take
their loot . . . and then they’re gone forever. Adven-
turers can’t decide to come back later, or raid the
gate’s destination and return for more – it’s now or
never. This might not matter for impulsive delvers,
but for cautious types, it can be a lesson that oppor-
tunity doesn’t always knock and wait until you’re
ready to answer.
Gates
and Magic
Certain Gate spells (Magic, pp. 80-87) merit addi-
tional discussion:
Control Gate: Gives the players control over
whether a gate is usable, rather than limiting that to
the GM. Decide whether this is what you want. If not,
ban the spell outright or restrict it to NPCs.
Create Gate: Not usually part of a Dungeon Fantasy
campaign (GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers,
p. 20). In a gate-hopping campaign (p. 5), though, it
can make a great deal of sense to allow it. The upside
is that delvers can really get around, moving from des-
tination to destination by making their own gates. The
downside is that the PCs won’t need to seek out new
gates to travel, but merely the energy to create their
own. Creating permanent gates – like creating any
magic item – should remain an NPC-only capability.
Scry Gate: Having smells pass through a gate can
produce odd results – especially if monsters with
smell-based attacks (like foul bats, GURPS Dungeon
Fantasy 2: Dungeons, p. 23) lurk beyond. Reducing
the effects to “images and sounds” removes this issue.
That said, images and sounds can be harmful if the
PCs peer through a portal to the madness-inducing
Dimension of Elder Things, or the Medusa Kingdom,
but the effects can feel less odd.
Seek Gate: In a gate-hopping campaign, this is
critical for getting around! In a hub-and-spoke game,
especially if gates are concentrated in one area (a
megadungeon, “gate city,” or other central location),
it can be abused to find and identify all gates far too
quickly. Fix this by allowing it to seek only a specific,
known gate.
 Chapter Three
Sample
Destinations
Gates can lead anywhere. Here are three destinations
from the author’s Felltower campaign (see GURPS Dungeon
Fantasy Treasures 3: Artifacts of Felltower).
The black Nothing of magic,
the world of dreams and
phantoms of the past,
has its own, different, laws
– Alexey Pehov,
“Shadow Chaser”
Olympus
This gate is at the end of a giant hallway lined with ancient
Corinthian columns of white stone. The portal itself is a whit-
ish-silver color. Through it is a circular room surrounded by
identical columns. This stands on a grassy hill overlooking
grasslands, rolling hills, and pastures with sheep. In the dis-
tance beyond are mountains, including a cloud-shrouded one:
Olympus, home of the gods.
The destination can be a specific period in mythic ancient
Greece, or a Hollywood-style mashup featuring Harryhausen
skeletons; cerberoi, colchis bulls, and hydras (see Pyramid
#3/108: Dungeon Fantasy, pp. 11-15); harpies and medusas
(see GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 3: Born of Myth
& Magic); and cyclopes. Players might expect a golden age
where ancient demigods and heroes such as Hercules, Perseus,
Odysseus, and Achilles can be encountered as potential
friends or foes. But if the adventurers arrive before the fall of
the Titans, or during the great war, they might find themselves
on the side of the gods . . . or fighting against them! While the
characters might not be familiar with the myths and tropes,
their players probably will be. The GM can play on this play-
er-facing knowledge by granting it to the PCs through some
mystical sage – or play with it by subverting and changing it.
A chance to consult the Oracle at Delphi or meet Zeus
might be tempting to delvers who need knowledge and experi-
ences more than loot. Ancient Greek legend even comes with a
Sample Destinations 9
few “dungeons,” such as the maze of the minotaur, an under-
world full of ghosts and shades of the dead, and Hephaestus’s
volcanic forge.
Islands in the Clouds
A sky-blue gate shimmers between two pillars
of the finest white marble, which crackle with
electricity and glint with sunlight. Through it is
a world set on and in the clouds. The portal’s des-
tination is the top of a cottony cloud, substantial
enough to support visitors but too soft to sustain
construction or long-term habitation.
Travel between clouds requires a means of
flight. Spells like Flight, Walk on Air, Air Vortex,
and Body of Air are good choices; flying mounts
are even better. Clouds range from wispy (unable
to support any weight) to thick, cotton-like masses
capable of bearing incredible weight. All are com-
prised of magical water, so indiscriminately using effects that
eliminate magic or water – e.g., too-large Dispel Magic or
Destroy Water spells – risks destroying the clouds. Naturally,
the floors of cloud castles are magically protected for this rea-
son! The clouds drift along with the winds, or are impelled by
magic to move freely about the skies.
The larger clouds are topped with castles and manors.
Dwelling in these and on the clouds around them are giants,
dragons, pegasi, and giant flying birds of all kinds. Some enor-
mous cloud banks have “caves” in which dragons dwell. The
occasional wizard from another world has come to reside
here, as have small tribes of bird-men and winged elves. The
lairs of all of these beings are full of terrestrial treasures taken
from the ground below or from other worlds, as well as fan-
tastical items made of moonbeams, congealed sunlight, the
wispy clouds themselves, or the dreams of sleeping princesses
locked in cloud castles.
The ground below is largely uninhabited wilder-
ness – untouched forests, prairies, rolling hills, and the
occasional low mountain range. Unintelligent animals and
some monsters dwell here, providing food and sport to the
dwellers above. This land is also a place of exiled giants,
dragons with damaged wings, and hermits who reject soci-
ety. There are rumors of a band of merry, forest-dwelling
men and elves who raid the clouds, using magic to fly up and
strike before disappearing into the trees below, but they’re
likely just that – rumors.
 Although this destination is fanciful, it’s set up to be played Early Imperial Rome. The Caesar of the apes is the smart-
straight. Those who prefer to make it a Jester Gate (below) est, strongest, and most politically cunning individual.
destination may add golden geese, put the gate at the top of a Surrounding the civilized lands are “barbarian” cultures and
giant beanstalk, and populate it with giants who fe-fi-fo-fum totally uncivilized masses of flesh-eating apes and the greatly
it up. feared giant apes.
Gorillas are typically soldiers and generals; chim-
panzees, merchants and wizards; orangutans,
priests and sages; bonobos, artificers, alchemists,
J ester ates G and designers of all kinds. Lesser apes fill the roles
of servants and enslaved workers; monkeys serve as
Not all locations have to be serious. A gate to a silly loca-
pets to the more-intelligent apes. Adventure can be
tion is an easy way to dip a toe into goofiness even if your
found as useful, disposable, unaligned mercenaries
default campaign is gritty.
in Simia’s ruthless politics, fighting in the colosseum
In the author’s Felltower campaign, “Jester Gates” refers to
against gladiator apes (GURPS Dungeon Fantasy
gates to decidedly silly destinations. Players seeking a humor-
Monsters 1, p. 17), or raiding the less-civilized apes
ous experience – but also a tough challenge and impressive
of the periphery.
rewards – can use them, while gamers who dislike joke-y
Variations on Ape World often play on this theme;
gaming can avoid them. Making them especially attractive
e.g., an “Animal Kingdom” of anthropomorphic ani-
can also tempt the characters to try them.
mals (see GURPS Furries or GURPS Bunnies &
In Felltower, this is managed by giving Jester Gates three
Burrows for inspiration). Making Ape World a vision
properties:
of the far future of the current game world has prec-
Clearly marked. Such gates are physically marked with the edents, too. The latter works well if your campaign
symbol of a fool’s coxcomb. crosses from the pure “TL Olden Times” of Dungeon
High risk. Target destinations are silly but lethal – they’re Fantasy into a post-apocalyptic, formerly high-TL
not just jokes, but also serious threats to the PCs’ life and limb. world dominated by apes.
High reward. Rewards are disproportionally high for the
risk. Everyone might end up dead, but any PCs who survive
are going to get a lot of loot!
Jester Gates can lead to many different types of places. Fell-
tower has its rumored “tavern level,” Diablo II had its Secret
Cow Level, and Gary Gygax’s Castle Greyhawk included an
homage to Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland. Other ideas are lethal
versions of children’s TV classics the group grew up with,
video-game tributes, and nightmarishly humorous clown-
themed levels (GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Encounters 3: The
Carnival of Madness, anyone?) – whatever the group would
most enjoy.
Humor is tough, because what’s funny to one group isn’t
necessarily funny to another (e.g., none of the example des-
tinations on pp. 9-10 are intended to be humorous, but any
of them could be, to someone). Use Jester Gates with caution
. . . but they are a great way to give silly gaming a try without
committing your whole campaign to it. If everyone hates the
destination and the results, it was “all just a dream”; everyone
earns a few character points and returns home without the
consequences of a Jester Gate gone wrong.

Ape World
The gate to Ape World (a.k.a. Simia) looks like any
other. Its destination is a clearing in a subtropical jun-
gle. Nearby is a very human-looking city, but scaled
up for its larger-sized inhabitants: intelligent, militant,
and civilized apes of all kinds. The entire world is dom-
inated by apes, and completely lacks humans, elves,
orcs, and other “standard” races.
Simia has a martial, multi-simian culture of goril-
las, chimpanzees, orangutans, and so on. Their arms,
armor, and names are reminiscent of an ape-themed

Sample Destinations 10
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