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Old 05-21-2018, 12:22 AM   #231
PTTG
 
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Default Re: Alternate Crosstime Organizations

The US Library of Congress Parallel Texts Project.
Homeline

A small team of somewhat eccentric librarians assigned to locate "notable" free and open-source media where doing so doesn't put the Secret at risk. The staff consists of those too competent to discard but too problematic to field in combat missions, or else those with exceptional connections but no real qualifications for crosstime travel.

Your missions consist of visiting nominally safe worldlines and collecting free texts, although the rules are scrupulous. Most notably, no manipulation is allowed; the librarians can effectively only accept a freely given offer; even if they have the opportunity to scan a text, the rights must be legally transferred* (after all, this is going in THE Library of Congress). Historical echoes have heightened restrictions, down to insisting that librarians take a number of actions to reduce their "Butterfly Footprints." And of course, none of you have a license to kill.

Essentially, they're Homeliners who aren't especially powerful, bound to end up way over their heads sooner or later. Even played straight, it's an entirely social heist.

*There are two soft exceptions to this that come up fairly often. First, the bylaws state that where copyright law is vague, a copy of digital scan of a text may be obtained provided written permission and signature of an appropriate officiant. This means that magical texts can be photographed and entered so long as the wizard that wrote them signs off on it, and he can be paid to do so. The second is that in historical echoes, any text that's already in the archives of the Library of Congress maybe scanned -- but not taken -- freely. This is intended to allow, for instance, a digital scan of the Declaration of Independence taken while the ink is still wet. Of course, historical echoes have other challenges.
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Old 05-22-2018, 03:22 PM   #232
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Skarr View Post
[...]
Cabal of Robot Mages: A mysterious group of magery-wielding robots trying to find the meaning of the many-worlds. Generally not considered friendly, unless you possess some, useful ability that they can study. However, their "friendship" includes the option of turning you into a cyborg operative. Robots—go figure.
[...]
Add a dash of biology and this could be "Cybermen steal WARDIS (Worldlines And Relative Dimension In Space)"

Really, most creatures, organizations, and other entities in the Dr. Who universe could easily be lifted from time travelling to world jumping.
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Old 07-09-2018, 04:43 PM   #233
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The House of A Thousand Doors is a pocket universe which takes the form of a vast and ancient multilevel mansion. It isn't wired for electricity but has gas lamps of a sophisticated design for lighting in the rooms. The mansion has no exterior. Instead the many halls and antechambers that have an exterior door have each door lead to a different world. It doesn't matter how many stairs you climb or descend. The doors will still lead to a exit point with solid ground or floor at the exit point...although it may be a mountain cliff, or the floor of a space habitat. The bedrooms each have a window that shows an exterior scene but they can't be opened. If broken they simply stop showing the scene until repaired by the Master of the House.

As for the inhabitants of the house they consist of the Guests and the Staff. The Guests are a heterogeneous lot who were usually invited because they were in great danger in their homeland and had Staff dispatched to offer them a chance to escape. They are free to come and go through the various doors and engage in what commerce they see fit as long they obey basic rules like "don't break the windows" and "don't murder the Staff". They can murder each other, but only outside the House. However in order to return to the house you must find the place where the invisible and intangible door is and feel around until it appears and it will only do so as long as no uninvited person is watching.

As for the Master of the House, of the Staff (pages, maids, footmen, cooks, butlers), only the Head Butler ever sees the reclusive Master and he passes on all commands. Some theorize that the Head Butler is actually the true Master or that the Master is the House itself. The Master however seems to be quite a collector and will occasional offer rewards to Guests if they can return with various treasures, some of which decorate the House while others are never seen again.
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Old 07-11-2018, 12:35 PM   #234
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The House of A Thousand Doors is a pocket universe which takes the form of a vast and ancient multilevel mansion.

This reminds me of both Calahan's Saloon and my earlier entry that staged it in a Mediterranean villa.



I wonder what all of these buildings between the worlds think about each other?
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Old 07-11-2018, 01:56 PM   #235
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The Conclave

Infinity Inc. doesn't know much about this organization. Most of what it knows it has gotten third-hand or through rumors/stories. A lot of what is known comes from Swagmen who had a con go dramatically wrong because of the Conclave or its agents.

The stories always start the same way, A crisis is taking place which in one form or another involves more than one timeline. An individual or small group of individuals appears and says "I/We speak with the authority of the Conclave." Then the individual/group reacts or leads the reaction to the event in such a way that the problem is solved permanently.

They only seem to get involved when more than one timeline is involved and a major danger exists. They wouldn't get involved if someone was selling fake art to an echo world. However, if someone was introducing nuclear tipped cruise missiles to Genghis Khan on an echo, well that's the kind of thing they would be interested in.

The agents sometimes seem to be gifted in various ways and other times they are completely normal. However, they are always very, very talented. They generally look completely human, however a few times the stories say they looked a little different from humans.

The rumors/stories generally come from Quantum 3, however a few times they appeared in other quantums.

The best theory is that it is a group of timelines who know the secret and act to protect those timelines that don't. There is one story that they are a group of timelines that survived a massive cross-time direct war and act to head off anything that could lead to another, up to and including "removing" offending timelines. Infinity Inc. doesn't know what that means, but is worried at the implications. Those few who Infinity knows has directly encountered them are deathly afraid of angering them again.

As far as it known, Centrum knows less than Infinity does, the Cabal will not comment on the subject and Reich-5 seems desperate to find out as much as they can about the Conclave.

Last edited by Kymage; 07-05-2023 at 02:04 PM.
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Old 07-12-2018, 12:48 AM   #236
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The Joe Smith Collective

There are common factors in every reality accessible by parachronics - there has to be, otherwise contact wouldn't be possible. One of those factors is that when realities are similar enough, counterparts will appear. This is why realities with very different histories will both produce Abraham Lincolns, Marilyn Monroes, etc.

There are also people who will appear, no matter what. One of those is "Joe Smith". Whenever a reality gets to 1960, the man known as "Joe Smith" is born in the area known as Vancouver, British Columbia (even is that area doesn't exist in that reality). He will live his life and die sometime after 2020.

In one reality with a lot of Mad Science, a Mad Scientist "Joe Smith" established psychic contact with other "Joe Smiths". One of those "Joes" had knowledge that allowed Mad Science Joe to become very rich and construct apparatus that allowed him to travel to other realities. But since the travel device used the psychic contact device, it could only reach realities with a "Joe Smith".

The Joe Smith Collective is headquartered in a reality where Immortal Joe Smith is the literal Last Man on Earth. As a consequence, the "Joes" of the Joe Smith Collective are quite wealthy, with considerable resources.

Joes are master criminals, investors, adventurers, and other professions where oversight and legal control is lax. They can get all the manpower they need, have access to unexpected resources, and somehow never get caught. The various "Joe Smiths" give each other advice, information, resources, alibis and plans. The less lucky, less intelligent, and more impovershed Joes act as muscle and manpower for the luckier, smarter Joes. In the most extreme situations, there are even a few Sorceror Joes and Super Joes willing to help out.

While powerful, the Joe Smith Collective is limited in scope (realities with current dates from 1965 AD forward), And while there are a lot of them with a huge array of resources and skills, they have one weakness ...

You've seen one, you've seen them all.
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Old 07-12-2018, 02:42 AM   #237
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... and your player group meets a renegade Joe that wants help disengaging from the collective for "reasons". Perhaps he's too honest for them. Perhaps he's too villainous. Perhaps he knows something they fear.
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Old 07-12-2018, 01:46 PM   #238
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The Joe Smith Collective
The Multiversal equivalent of Narbonic's Dave Conspiracy. Nice.
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Old 07-12-2018, 03:29 PM   #239
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There are also people who will appear, no matter what. One of those is "Joe Smith".
Not to be confused with Joseph Smith.
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Old 07-13-2018, 01:35 AM   #240
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The House of A Thousand Doors is a pocket universe which takes the form of a vast and ancient multilevel mansion.
Reminds me of The Horatio Club from the original GURPS Time Travel.
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