New Reality Seeds

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by fchase8

And if I-Cops discovered such a plot, would they try to stop it? It might be morally questionable to turn a blind eye, and the Mythos Society seems to have good intentions, but protecting The Secret is #1 priority.

Good intentions aren't enough, so Coventry would actually be a likely option. Remove that, and, well -- "Let's talk. A lot. There's so much you could teach us, and so very, very much we could do to inconvenience you. Meanwhile, you're not going to tell anyone else about us. No, trust me, you're not that stupid." A small bunch of amateurs with patchy self-taught ritual magic vs. the entire Infinity Patrol (and any saner Cabalists they choose to bring on board) isn't a fair fight, and if the amateurs won anyway, somehow, they'd just have Centrum to worry about, who don't play as nice as the I-Cops.

Of course, there might still be an I-Cop who would be known, for the rest of his career, as the man who shot Robert E. Howard. "He had a broadsword and a deathwish..."

[Phil Masters]

Which, by the way, raises the question of whether there is a small team of specialist I-Cops who are chosen for talents for looking good in dark suits and shades, fast-drawing pistols from concealed holsters, and being intimidating while talking politely in a level tone. (They get use of experimental compact stealth conveyors.) Would the people who volunteered fastest for MiB Squad duty be the ones you'd want on that assignment?

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Good intentions aren't enough, so Coventry would actually be a likely option. Remove that, and, well -- "Let's talk. A lot. There's so much you could teach us, and so very, very much we could do to inconvenience you. Meanwhile, you're not going to tell anyone else about us. No, trust me, you're not that stupid." A small bunch of amateurs with patchy self-taught ritual magic vs. the entire Infinity Patrol (and any saner Cabalists they choose to bring on board) isn't a fair fight, and if the amateurs won anyway, somehow, they'd just have Centrum to worry about, who don't play as nice as the I-Cops.

This does seem like a Coventry situation, the Mythos group being small enough to 'disappear'.

But Centrum might act first - it is Quantum 7, closer to Centrum, and they'd be more determined/scared, plus an assassination plot is easier to put together than a kidnapping.



What if I-Cops are planning to Coventry the Mythos group (or even just meet), and detect a Centrum assassination plot? Would I-Cops intervene to save the lives of world-meddlers they were going to try to kidnap/control?

Indeed, that could be a game idea for any I-Cop campaign. Anyone Infinity wants to Coventry, Centrum would likely want to just kill. Throw a Centrum assassination plot in a kidnap game.

Best case scenario, a failed Centran assassination attempt could convince the Mythos group (or whoever) to agree to work with Infinity. Worst case scenario, they survive and blame Infinity for the attempt!

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Of course, there might still be an I-Cop who would be known, for the rest of his career, as the man who shot Robert E. Howard. "He had a broadsword and a deathwish..."

But would the I-Cop get Howard's autograph first?...

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Which, by the way, raises the question of whether there is a small team of specialist I-Cops who are chosen for talents for looking good in dark suits and shades, fast-drawing pistols from concealed holsters, and being intimidating while talking politely in a level tone. (They get use of experimental compact stealth conveyors.) Would the people who volunteered fastest for MiB Squad duty be the ones you'd want on that assignment?

This could stretch from Infinity hiring callous I-Cops to play MIB - to a Time Tours vacation where you can pretend to be an MIB!

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by fchase8

What if I-Cops are planning to Coventry the Mythos group (or even just meet), and detect a Centrum assassination plot? Would I-Cops intervene to save the lives of world-meddlers they were going to try to kidnap/control?

Probably. (a) General principles — “Whatever they’re up to usually needs stopping” — and (b) “Damnit I liked his stories when I was a teenager!”

[Flyndaran]

I didn't realize that Homeline had a doctrine to start wars with parallels that independently invented/used world jumping different from their methods.
I guess I assumed they protected their cross-time secret, specifically.
Once the cat's out of the bag, it doesn't seem smart to announce Homeline's presence when they can't possibly know exactly how many native jumpers there are.

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I didn't realize that Homeline had a doctrine to start wars with parallels that independently invented/used world jumping different from their methods.
I guess I assumed they protected their cross-time secret, specifically.
Once the cat's out of the bag, it doesn't seem smart to announce Homeline's presence when they can't possibly know exactly how many native jumpers there are.

They can deduce that there aren’t many, and that the few there are haven’t let the cat out of the bag yet — because the general public on that timeline specifically aren’t aware. (If they were, sure, it becomes a diplomacy/first contact assignment.) When you find a world that looks like 1960 but with some awfully specific anachrotech, you assume probably out-time meddling, possibly a local jumper or magician with limited clues. So you investigate, carefully but efficiently, backtracking through the local patents system. Then, you carefully identify the names and number of the local jumpers and bat the problem upstairs for policy determination.

Which, on past form, may mean Coventry (because these goofballs might blow the Secret on a dozen timelines in a moment of alcoholic stupidity or something), but maybe careful contact procedures and explanation of how you’re much nicer as a friend than an enemy would seem the best choice. A certain amount of damage is already done, these people are being discreet, it’s a chance to observe the consequences of anachrotech introduction on a moderate scale, you get a chance to hire some consultant wizards without Cabal commitments, and a snatch mission always carries the risk of going pear shaped.

[AlexanderHowl]

A snatched could go wrong depending on the conditional rituals that the groups has hanging around. Since they know about Homeline, they might have contigencies that trigger if an uninvited outtimer attempts to take them from their homes. Being incinerated by magical fire is not on the top of the retirement plans of most I-Cops.

[Phil Masters]

Oh, I’m sure that scragging MUs is classed as a major PITA for most I-Cops, because you never quite know what they’ll be capable of. But finely-tuned conditional killing rituals are clearly tricky stuff, which may be hard to set up without blowing your own head off, and even serious Cabalists aren’t always that hard to take down. A bunch of geeky ageing pulp fantasists who, let’s face it, could barely make starvation wages as C-list writers on most timelines, and who seem to have derived what they know of magic from first principles and their own imaginations? Oh, please!

Or, if they do look really seriously dangerous... Trade their names and addresses for an assist on the next Azoth timeline you discover with the Cabal, then sit back and take notes on the fireworks. Naughty, but needs must when Set-Cthulhu drives, y’know?

(And what do we learn about wizards from reading Howard’s and Lovecraft’s own stories?)

[sir_pudding]

Frazier-2: The survey team was about to classify this as an echo, when they noticed one odd peculiarity: it is a generally accepted fact on this timeline that unicorns are real, otherwise it is exactly like Homeline in 1973. Infinity has been unable to locate any physical evidence of the existence of unicorns, or even any definitive record that such evidence ever existed, but despite this unicorn skepticism is treated as a fringe belief throughout the world.

[PTTG]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Frazier-2: The survey team was about to classify this as an echo, when they noticed one odd peculiarity: it is a generally accepted fact on this timeline that unicorns are real, otherwise it is exactly like Homeline in 1973. Infinity has been unable to locate any physical evidence of the existence of unicorns, or even any definitive record that such evidence ever existed, but despite this unicorn skepticism is treated as a fringe belief throughout the world.

Interesting... I mean it's not even a weird parallel, since there's certainly a lot of hard-to-prove beliefs that are quite common in OTL. Do people believe the unicorns are currently present and manipulate events, or that unicorns were at one point real animals but either died out or hide and try to make no effect on the world?