I just went on break, and all I did there was think about random crap, and I decided to post it when I got back to Indiana. Thus... The idea behind this exercise is simple: There are two universes sitting side-by-side that are completely different. Different races, different planets, different landscapes, et cetera. Somehow, a being learns how to cross from one universe to another and decides he wants to merge the two universes into one and create his great kingdom from the new universe. Someone else realizes that this would cause boths universes to dissolve completely and manages to have teams on both sides (both universes) working to stop the impending disaster. While you can do it alone, the actual "exercise" part of this comes in when you and partner, or you and many partners (however you like), split up to create the universes. For instance, I could make my universe a scifi one, with my team having high-tech weaponry, while Sunandshadow (one of my remaining buddies from these forums) could make her universe a fantasy one. Both universes could be scifi, both could be fantasy; it's all up to you and your partner(s). In the exercise, you also need to explain a few other things. (1) How do the two teams interact? (2) Who became aware of the problems and how? (3) What is the being that plans on merging the universes and how does he plan to do it? Anyway, it was just a random thought. What do you guys think?

Hmm. An actual universe is a lot of designwork - maybe start smaller? I dunno, I am skeptical that two pre-created worlds could be elegantly and coherently combined, much less combined in such a way that the combination conveyed a premise and led to the climax of the story. It would be a lot easier to create the two worlds together, so that at least the underlying fabric of reality was the same, and you had a plan for how they were going to fit together to embody the point of the story.