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Apollonian · 11-01-2017, 08:49 AM

I think you could also get a reasonable game out of Centrum/Homeline Dark, Interworld Service/Infinity Patrol Light setup. Centrum is an almost-dystopian technocratic collectivist regime; Homeline is a collection of selfish, exploitative agents out to ravage the infinite worlds for their own benefit. Caught between them are the two crosstime agencies, who often find they have more in common with each other than with their masters in the home timeline. Interworld Services agents develop a knack for individual initiative out of necessity, one that's suppressed on Centrum; Patrolmen learn respect for the outtimers that their homeline considers non-persons. And so on.

You could play it a bit comic, like Terry Pratchett's Small Gods; most of the campaign centers around dealing with a common foe like Reich-5 or the Cabal, with regular bits where the crosstime agents have to pull the wool over the eyes of officious inspectors or crooks from back home. Or you could go with something more deeply political and ambiguous, using the agencies to highlight what's good about their home cultures while critiquing the cultures themselves.

11-01-2017, 08:49 AM	#31
Apollonian Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle)	Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark. I think you could also get a reasonable game out of Centrum/Homeline Dark, Interworld Service/Infinity Patrol Light setup. Centrum is an almost-dystopian technocratic collectivist regime; Homeline is a collection of selfish, exploitative agents out to ravage the infinite worlds for their own benefit. Caught between them are the two crosstime agencies, who often find they have more in common with each other than with their masters in the home timeline. Interworld Services agents develop a knack for individual initiative out of necessity, one that's suppressed on Centrum; Patrolmen learn respect for the outtimers that their homeline considers non-persons. And so on. You could play it a bit comic, like Terry Pratchett's Small Gods; most of the campaign centers around dealing with a common foe like Reich-5 or the Cabal, with regular bits where the crosstime agents have to pull the wool over the eyes of officious inspectors or crooks from back home. Or you could go with something more deeply political and ambiguous, using the agencies to highlight what's good about their home cultures while critiquing the cultures themselves.