u/SeniorIndependence36

Hi there, to all the people who were at Fusion and all the people who couldn’t make it for some reason or the other. I just wanted to say that I love Fusion so much, it is really dear to me and I can still not get my head around all the amazingness and greatness of it all. I love all the people organizing/ attending the festival and the overall atmosphere and vibe. Its magnificent, its extraordinary, its grandeur like no other. Every moment is special, every interaction has meaning and its beauty is in abundance.

Of course not all is always positive, but even the negative aspects have meaningful energy that, in its own way, makes it a unique experience. I believe that in our dualistic world of good and evil there are terrible things, but just as there is horrific evil, the opposite is also true. And Fusion is a living example of this phenomenon.

I am grateful for Fusion and all it embodies. See you all in 2028!

Love to all ❤️

So I came up with a weird lore mechanic for my 8-player Vecna: Eve of Ruin campaign to solve absent players, rotating DMs, and side sessions without breaking immersion.

When my players receive Vecna’s Seal in Chapter 1, they unknowingly become linked to the Realm of Shattered Reflections (which I renamed the “Realm of Shattered Dimensions”).

Inside this realm, they exist as crystalline embodiments of themselves, but their consciousness is partially shared. Their minds overlap. Memories bleed together. Secrets leak between souls.

This became my in-universe explanation for absent players.

If somebody misses a session, that fragment of the shared consciousness is “shunned” back into the Realm of Shattered Dimensions while the others continue in reality. When the player returns next session, they can simply reappear exactly where the party currently is, because their consciousness reconnects to the shared mind.

No awkward explanations.
No “he stayed at the tavern.”
No immersion break.

But then I expanded the idea further.
I had every player create multiple PCs at the same level, and I introduced the concept of “fractured memory.”

A player can voluntarily fracture part of their mind and temporarily become the DM for a one-shot or side arc.

The session takes place inside a pocket dimension within the Realm of Shattered Dimensions. Because all consciousness is partially shared, the other PCs experience fragments of that character’s memories, fears, dreams, regrets, or altered recollections.

The guest DM can decide:
whether the memory is true
partially corrupted
symbolic
completely fabricated
or emotionally distorted

The important part is:
it does NOT alter objective campaign history.
It only alters how that character remembers events and how the shared consciousness experiences them.

So now my players can run their own sessions without derailing the campaign canon.

Example:
One of my players is a demon hunter whose former mentor led an order dedicated to hunting fiends.

Next Monday he’s running a session where the party experiences one of his “memories” inside the shattered realm.

The weird part:
the other PCs appear inside the memory even though they logically should not exist there.

The explanation is that the shared consciousness forces them into the memory wearing the forms of people who WOULD belong there, while mechanically keeping their own character sheets and abilities.

So the whole thing feels dreamlike, wrong, and very Vecna.

Honestly this ended up becoming one of my favorite DM tools I’ve ever made for handling large groups and inconsistent attendance.

Has anybody else done something similar for Vecna or other high-cosmic campaigns?