Introduction to Crossroads


What is Crossroads?

What kind of stories fit in Crossroads?

Where can I get older stories?


What is Crossroads?

Every story creates a universe. No matter if it is a best-selling novel or a throw-away story for a class, every story is a window into another world where people live and die, hope and despair, and believe in the reality of their existence as much as we believe in ours. We rarely see more than glimpses of those worlds, little bits and pieces in scattered works of fiction, but they are no less real because of it.

From time to time, in one of the infinite universes, someone won't be content with those scattered glimpses. They will taste the reality behind the story, know that there is deeper truth behind the fiction, and go in search of it. Most will fail. But a few will find the right road, will go straight where others turn, and find the connections between the worlds.

A few will find Crossroads.

In none of the stories, yet part of them all, Crossroads is the connection between realities. All worlds are potentially reachable from it, although the path to some may be long and hazardous. Similarly, Crossroads is reachable from all worlds, although the way is rarely obvious.

Many who came to Crossroads, however, chose not to travel on. Instead, they stayed, building cities and farms, raising families, and making it their home. Crossroads is also a world in its own right, but one unlike any other. Its inhabitants have been drawn from all worlds, all possibilities, all societies, and whatever they brought with them functioned as well in Crossroads as it did in their native reality. Magic mingles with technology, psionics with superpowers, for here all things are possible.

Crossroads is something different to each person. For some, it is the path to exploration, to adventure, or to profit. For others, it is their home.


What kind of stories fit in Crossroads?

The inhabitants are extremely varied and come from every possible background, so virtually every story is possible, from superheroes to science fiction to fantasy. Crossroads itself is a multi-genre world, however, so most of the stories set in Crossroads itself will be about the conflicts and relationships between different perspectives and societies. Explorers and adventurers are natural fits, as are any kind of interuniverse meetings and conflicts.

Crossroads is for more than that, though. From Crossroads, any universe can be reached, so the stories that you can tell are limited only by your imagination. All realities are welcome. As the motto for the universe at the beginning of this FAQ says, "anything can be."

Crossroads stories will therefore cover the gamut from serious to humorous, from superheroes to science fiction and fantasy. There are no restrictions on genre or style; there is no one characteristic that all Crossroads stories have to have.


Where can I get older stories?

All older Crossroads stories are archived at the RACC archive site (eyrie.stanford.edu) in the /pub/crossroads directory. There are also links to the stories available from the Stories link on the Crossroads home page.


Russ Allbery / eagle@eyrie.stanford.edu