[IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

[Astromancer]

One movie themed valuable. Better prints of old films.

Heck, good prints of "Lost" films.

[dcarson]

And record every TV show broadcast to deal with the combination of live TV never recorded and kinescope recordings tossed to free up storage space.

[Flyndaran]

Local law enforcement chases criminals into a large nondescript warehouse full of.... VCRs recording live broadcasts?
Imagine the confused investigation. Something's fishy, but what?

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Local law enforcement chases criminals into a large nondescript warehouse full of.... VCRs recording live broadcasts?
Imagine the confused investigation. Something's fishy, but what?

1940s/50s Law Enforcement Officer eyes the VCR and flat-screen televisions warily, as they're more advanced than anything he's seen. "What is this stuff?"

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by dcarson

And record every TV show broadcast to deal with the combination of live TV never recorded and kinescope recordings tossed to free up storage space.

The exposure risk would be unacceptable. Far better to buy the kinescopes as a "private collector".

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by dcarson

And record every TV show broadcast to deal with the combination of live TV never recorded and kinescope recordings tossed to free up storage space.

Good call! I'd love the old Doctor Who episodes. Having just read a book on Skiffle, (a British music genre that made the "British Invasion" and London's "Swinging Sixties" possible ) dozens of key performers and hundreds of important performances could be recovered. A who knows what other lost gems as well.

James Dean alone did seventy hours of TV performance as compared to nine hours tops of movies.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

The exposure risk would be unacceptable. Far better to buy the kinescopes as a "private collector".

The recording equipment of 2038 ( Homeline's local year in the year the 4th edition started) would be unobtrusive and easily hidden. The exposure risk would be far less than a normal mission.

The PCs would only come in for an odd circumstance. The whole point of this thread is getting PCs to ordinary worlds with small scale but tricky problems. On most worlds you go toe to toe with Hitler, Lex Luthor, Ghengis Khan, or Dr. Lector. This worlds you dodge Gladys Crabbits and Hyacinth Bucket or maybe Joe Friday.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Good call! I'd love the old Doctor Who episodes. Having just read a book on Skiffle, (a British music genre that made the "British Invasion" and London's "Swinging Sixties" possible ) dozens of key performers and hundreds of important performances could be recovered. A who knows what other lost gems as well.

James Dean alone did seventy hours of TV performance as compared to nine hours tops of movies.

I just imagined an odd form of this. Outtakes were usually just dumped as worthless with only a few old program crews keeping them for cast party fun. Of course more modern audiences LOVE them.
Your party know such a party is about to take place, so you have limited time to steal the reels before they're destroyed.

[Steve Jackson]

Might it not be better just to establish a cover as a wealthy, reclusive collector who will pay well for such things? Adventure hook - you are offered some outtakes of a sf/fantasy film with special effects you KNOW are impossible in that dan and age. Somebody is meddling with Hollywood.

Or, I don't know . . . work out a way to "bug" a projector with Homeline tech so it is copying that which it projects? Adventure hook - the projector broke down for entirely unrelated reasons before you could recover it, or maybe you thought you were just going to leave it in place . . . but now it's been replaced and . . . where is it? Do you have any IDEA how many little Kodak projectors are kicking around this lot? We don't even give them inventory tags. They're too cheap and short-lived. Why do you care about THAT one? Which department did you say you were with?

[Astromancer]

One theory of the Nandi Bear is that it was a remnant population of Mesonychid, hoofed predators related to horses and whales. Other cryptozoologists have other ideas which you might like. However, I'm choosing this idea because recent Fortean Times articles came up with two interesting ideas about the Nandi Bear. First, that since reliable report of these animals stop at the same time the Rinderpest rips through Africa, it's likely a small population was reduced below breeding viability by that disease. Second, and far more fun, that before that event not one but two Victorian travelling Menageries might have had Nandi Bears in their collections.

I put down the Wikipedia entry for menageries because they aren't zoos. In this case the Menageries are traveling shows carrying potentially dangerous animals in a crowded island nation.

Given that these shows, I've lost the article, both had unidentifiable mammals, just getting to either show and seeing what they've got is important. Getting a sample for DNA analysis is very important. Any and all the distractions of a Victorian fairground can be used on the PCs. Pickpockets taking the keys to the conveyor are especially fun.