Another Otherspace, from Australia

Gilligan’s Island

Now I am a great fan of using Otherspaces in UA, especially since I set my games in Australia. Reading through a book called the Secrets Of Sydney, I can across a little gem, about a median strip in Kings Cross (Sydney) which had a habit of drunks crashing the night there and waking up in the morning without anything having happened to them throughout the night. The locals dubbed the spot as “Gilligan’s Island”, that was until 3 people disappeared. And from there spawned the creation of Gilligan’s Island as an Otherspace.

So here you are, on Gilligan’s Island, how do you know that, there’s a sign there, right in front of you, it even says “Tourists Welcome!”, you pick yourself up off the ground and look around, you seem to be on an area which resembles something of an airport, the word “Arrivals” is even painted on the asphalt under your feet, however there is more that you can see, an entire city sprawls out before you, its a coastal city brimming with festivities and brings to mind something a bit tropical and a little exotic. However everything is made of concrete and asphalt, and the ocean you can see looks like tar, with other concrete and asphalt islands off in the distance. However this isn’t as jarring as the fact the people which live there are made of tar, and are no taller than about 2 inches top, with the city build to their scale. There is however one curious feature which would seem unnecessary for this city, that is large pathways with varying coloured arrows dividing it into two lanes, it almost looks like it was a perfectly designed two-way walkway for normal size people.

In a very short time after standing up (even shorter should you try to leave the designated Arrivals area) does a small group of the little Tar Gnomes (as I like to call them) rush out of one the “Airport” buildings in what basically is a Truck with an oversized (for them) megaphone attached to the roof. One of them introduces themselves as the Tourist Guide (or whatever name you would want to give them) and explains a little about the city, about the slave traders down town (selling criminal Tar Gnomes), the north side Markets which sell tourist goods (random trinkets of any variety of use, typically Gnome sized, with an occasional normal sized item), and the Royal Palace where the King sites on his throne (they will babble on about how great the King is for as long as you let them). He also explains some small rules you should follow, which is stick to the pathways for you big people, don’t go swimming (they don’t like the splash) and don’t worry about stepping on anyone, as (1) They’ll be fine, (2) typically it’s their own fault for wandering into a Tourist walkway. After give a basic run down of the rules, they will be happy to chat for as much or as little as you want, but will urge you to go see the city and have a chat to the king if you hang around too long.

In reality there isn’t much to do here in the city aside from chat to the Tar Gnomes, their intelligence is basically as wide and varied as you would find among people, though they are highly curious about Tourists (or big people, the term is interchangeable depending on which Gnome is doing the talking), The King is an amiable fellow, prone to throw parades, festivals and celebrations whenever the mood strikes and loves hearing stories, of any kind (his favourite kind is personal life stories and just stuff about “Your Homeland” and somehow can tell when whatever story you just told him was just made up on the spot). If a GM is feeling creative and/ or generous the north side markets can hold either useless random junk made of tar, or something more useful, maybe human size or left behind by a previous Tourist. They might even take a request to make something if they can, the Slave Traders are typically reluctant to sell to Tourists, but might be open to some haggling. The currency used in this place is a combination of Barter and any one of the plenty of naturally occurring minerals from reality (which mineral it is is up to the GM and is prone to change at random intervals between Visits, if asked about it, its cause the King says so, but they don’t seem to mind)

In order to leave Gilligan’s Island just ask any random Gnome and they can point you onto the path towards the Departures area back at the “Airport”, at which point some more “Airport” officials come out and bid you farewell, asking if you enjoyed your stay and offering you a spot on the ground saying you should lie down and go to sleep. Those that do, quickly find themselves nodding off and waking up at the point at which they entered Giligan’s Island

However it should be noted that should anyone of the Tourists start causing trouble on Gilligan’s Island, an army starts mobilising, complete with complementary sets of modern armour such as tanks and gunships and try to either herd you towards the Departure zone or into the ocean (depends on how bad you have been), all the bullets, missile’s and artillery shells (maybe even bombers and fighters if your unlucky) don’t hurt too much, but the tar sticks to you and burns and doesn’t come off. If you make it to the departure zone they all stop shooting as you struggle against the urge to sleep, which will overcome you eventually if you go there. You will wake up as above, with burns and dark patches of skin where the tar attacks made contact.

Its a sad fate however for one who gets herded into the ocean, any part of the human body which makes contact and gets coated in that tar blackens and just breaks off from the remainder of the body, this is actually painless, but still quite horrifying to look at a black tar cover elbow with no hand to speak off. Its at this point sirens start going off, similar to an air raid siren (this also happens should anyone fall in army involvement or not) and a horde of Tar Gnomes in ambulances come rushing towards the ocean from every direction, followed by the sound of many many babies crying. All the Gnomes then proceed to jump into the ocean and start pulling out baby Gnomes or trying to force you in deeper to the ocean, or both.

Now you know all about Gilligan’s Island, to get there, for those who wish to use it outside Sydney, Australia this will need a little bit of modification

To seek entry into Gilligan’s Island, one must consume enough alcohol to the brink of ones limits of consciousness (any alcohol will do, and this part can be done anywhere, including the final site, but sitting in the middle of a street heavily drinking will incite a reasonable amount of attention), the last drink one must take is a full bottle of Arrack containing a handful of ground up asphalt and a small piece of the birthstone of the current month it is. Once the bottle has been consumed completely (along with the small chucks of material) at the Otherspace entry (That is the specific median strip which received the nickname Gilligan’s Island for those who are in Sydney, Australia) the ritualist will pass out and awake sober and hangover free at Gilligan’s Island (the same cannot be said for the return trip however), whilst the ritualist is within Gilligan’s Island his body will go completely unnoticed by those around him (people step over/ around them without thinking), though it will be recorded on electronic devices, similar to the effects of “Just A Harmless Drunk” however it will last until the ritualist wakes up. Despite the protection this Otherspace offers whilst you are in it, it is still best to not do this during the day and not to stay too long, just in case your GM gets ideas