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Old 03-07-2020, 08:11 AM   #1581
zarawesome
 
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

Narcissus is strange - outworlders always enter it alone (passengers in a crowded conveyor will suddenly find themselves alone in the conveyor) and time passed inside does not pass outside (you come back from the parallel an instant after you left, no matter how long you spend in it)

Narcissus is your typical late 20th century high-inertia parallel, except every single human of Narcissus is instead an exact genetic duplicate of the recently-arrived outworlder, only aged to the appropriate age of the person they would be replacing.

The leading theories to how this works all raise too many questions: whether Narcissus resets itself to fit new "visitors" constantly or there are infinite versions of Narcissus for every person possible.

Interrogation of Narcissans doesn't solve the enigma at all; they claim this is just how humans happened to arise naturally in the last million years of evolution, and will claim exactly the same thing when the next visitor comes along. The specifics of the world's history do change a bit from visitor to visitor; When asked about the most basic issues of reproduction, Narcissans derived from a visitor capable of child-bearing claim some variation of parthenogenesis; others answer much more creatively.

But while visitors have these unique restrictions in entering Narcissus, the locals can leave just fine. Because of this, it's agreed natural jumpers should never go to Narcissus.
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Old 03-07-2020, 10:08 AM   #1582
Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2
 
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

Does this include biometrics and DNA? If it does, it provides a great source of dead bodies for people faking their own deaths.
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Old 03-07-2020, 10:33 AM   #1583
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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Originally Posted by zarawesome View Post
Narcissus is your typical late 20th century high-inertia parallel, except every single human of Narcissus is instead an exact genetic duplicate of the recently-arrived outworlder, only aged to the appropriate age of the person they would be replacing.
How do they claim to reproduce? "Exact genetic duplicate" would, for most visitors, make the entire population of Narcissus male for a male visitor, or female for a female visitor.
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Old 03-07-2020, 10:46 AM   #1584
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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Originally Posted by zarawesome View Post
Narcissus is strange - outworlders always enter it alone (passengers in a crowded conveyor will suddenly find themselves alone in the conveyor) and time passed inside does not pass outside (you come back from the parallel an instant after you left, no matter how long you spend in it)

Narcissus is your typical late 20th century high-inertia parallel, except every single human of Narcissus is instead an exact genetic duplicate of the recently-arrived outworlder, only aged to the appropriate age of the person they would be replacing.

The leading theories to how this works all raise too many questions: whether Narcissus resets itself to fit new "visitors" constantly or there are infinite versions of Narcissus for every person possible.

Interrogation of Narcissans doesn't solve the enigma at all; they claim this is just how humans happened to arise naturally in the last million years of evolution, and will claim exactly the same thing when the next visitor comes along. The specifics of the world's history do change a bit from visitor to visitor; When asked about the most basic issues of reproduction, Narcissans derived from a visitor capable of child-bearing claim some variation of parthenogenesis; others answer much more creatively.

But while visitors have these unique restrictions in entering Narcissus, the locals can leave just fine. Because of this, it's agreed natural jumpers should never go to Narcissus.
Obviously only useful for a solo game. For actual gaming groups the answer appears to be have the population mirror all the characters in equal proportion.
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Old 04-03-2020, 12:36 AM   #1585
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

In Homeline, chess is common, popular, and well-regarded. In Bourdonnais, it's even bigger. Starting in the mid-1850s, Chess came to be regarded as the highest art and practice of humanity... indeed, it was seen as the measure of humanity.

Things were otherwise very similar to Homeline history, due to a reasonable amount of inertia. That is, up until 1996. Gary Kasparaov was expected to defeat Deep Blue handily. His surprise defeat lead to widespread acceptance of computer intelligence as, if not as flexible as humanity, inherently equal.

In the aftermath, it's unclear if this means AI will be dramatically accelerated because of the respect the field has earned, or dramatically slowed due to the need to treat every new form of AI as a potentially semi-sapient test subject.
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Old 04-03-2020, 10:22 AM   #1586
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

For extra weirdness, such a belief could be true there. One's over all cognitive ability directly equates to one's skill at chess.
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Old 04-03-2020, 11:02 PM   #1587
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For extra weirdness, such a belief could be true there. One's over all cognitive ability directly equates to one's skill at chess.
So would Kasparov suddenly become a genius or get worse at chess?
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Old 04-04-2020, 08:12 AM   #1588
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

Try this one.....

A largely normal world except Santa Claus is real (the Easter Bunny too) and this is known. Many governments denounce the cultural imperialists. But no one actually gives them much trouble because they're non-denominational about giving presents. There are some faeries, including the tooth fairy, but magic is otherwise rare to non-existent. Homeline doesn't know what to make of this, but they liked being on the nice list. Meanwhile Centrum wants to capture both Santa and the Easter Bunny and learn their secrets. Can the PCs team up with the spirits of Halloween to save Christmas and Easter!
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Old 04-04-2020, 01:47 PM   #1589
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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Meanwhile Centrum wants to capture both Santa and the Easter Bunny and learn their secrets. Can the PCs team up with the spirits of Halloween to save Christmas and Easter!
OMG! With a little change, that is a bit what the Holiday Wars webcomic is like. Sort of.

The personalizations of the holidays and observances are real, but there is magic preventing them from being known by normal humans. The most powerful holidays are Santa, the Easter Bunny, Thanksgiving, and Halloween. The main protagonist is a seemingly normal human high-school student who was almost killed by one of the Bunny's peeps. Her life is saved by her coach, who turns out to be Labor Day.

Yes, Santa was killed (tortured to death by the Easter Bunny); this happened before the comic started.

We meet other holidays and observances such as Black Friday, Groundhog Day, Backwards Day, Ask a Stupid Question Day, and even Earth Day and her son, Arbor Day. And also April Fools Day.

The second story-line just ended, and the third is about to begin. It's a very weird comic, but it would be perfect for this world-line. Though the governments of the world don't seem to know anything about the holidays.
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Old 04-04-2020, 07:55 PM   #1590
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So would Kasparov suddenly become a genius or get worse at chess?
That depends on whether one wants it to be a close parallel or not. Properly weird parallels probably need that creepy level of similarity rather than just across the board difference.
For theme, one could have non-chess discoveries and inventions made by famous chess players as "hobbies".
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