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Old 10-06-2016, 12:07 PM   #51
PTTG
 
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

Unnavigable

This worldline has no reliable geography, and appears to consist of four elements: The forest, the river, the sea, and the coast. Settlements and landmarks, such as they are, are not fixed in place, and though it is possible to build roads, they seamlessly stretch and shrink, move and vanish.

The closest thing to a reliable landmark is the intersection of the river and the coast, which is something of a major city -- if you follow the river downstream long enough, you will eventually reach the city, and the same is true of the coast. Arriving at any other settlement is entirely a matter of chance.

This is not the only weird attribute of this worldline; the passage of time varies from place to place, and tends to be slower while traveling as it is. That is to say, a walk that takes a day to the traveler could take as much as a week at home, but (fairly rarely) lasts only a few minutes to an outside observer.

The TL is naturally complex, but it's mostly TL 3 to 4, with the city a strong 5.

As for the ocean, well, fishing within sight of land is safe enough, but only the desperate or foolhardy sail out of sight of land, because as unstable as the land is, there is no telling were -- or even when -- a ship will return to, though some sailors claim to know the way "back"

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Magic Smoke

A "technomagic" world with what is effectively TL4+4. Everything looks mundane, and in fact it appears to be an echo of 2012 at first glance, but all technology more advanced than the middle ages is fundamentally magical. Smartphones are made of glass enchanted with daemons; airplanes are decantically tied to air elementalism. Humans don't have magery here, but they do have an alternative "secular" enchanting skill to work their machines.

Their tech can't do anything that standard Homeline Tech couldn't at the time, but people are getting worried -- what if they're nearing the Secret and could bring technomagic to a worldline with Magery?

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Cruicible

These ordinary-seeming humans have DR 10, Fast Healing, ST 18 as an average, and innate Combat Reflexes. The wildlife and threats of Earth are built to match, so everything seems fairly normal. Visitors might be surprised by nightly falls of high-speed golfball-sized hail and being stalked by bloodthirsty tigers, wolves, bears, and cattle. Reich-5 was terribly disappointed that people of all phenotypes on this world display the super-powerful attributes, but nonetheless, this TL4 world (there's little inclination or spare resources to drive advancement after all) has promise as a useful recruitment ground for anyone interested in troops that can deal with small-arms fire like they're swatting mosquitoes.

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Slide

Gravity seems to function at a 45 degree angle from level, with the exact direction of the deflection varying somewhat but usually pointing broadly east or broadly west. This seems to affect anything that isn't either firmly rooted (like a tree or a building) or else fundamentally part of the terrain (such as surface water, gravel, sand, and lose rocks). Since the direction changes gradually, a slanted building doesn't help most of the time.
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