Catalog of the Weird Parallels

[Ottriman]

Freaky Friday Flip

In this timeline, technology is much like our own (give or take a few decades per field) and there's widespread developed economies and whatnot. However there's no nation-states as we know them, and why becomes very clear once the players step onto this worldline.

All the people here routinely (once per week) undergo a mass body-change event that swaps minds in bodies of everyone across the globe. There is no national identity as we know it becasue people are changing locations multiple times per year.

People primarily identify themselves with things that depend on memory like identity numbers.

The players show up as part of [Your narrative reason why] but find their task complicated by arriving right when a bodyswap event happens! Now they find themselves among strangers and can't identify themselves correctly, can they achieve their original objective and preserve the secret?

[Flyndaran]

How does everyone deal with suddenly being in an area where no one speaks the same language?
No families or friends for more than a week? No physical projects or hobbies that can't be finished in a short time can ever get finished?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Ottriman

Freaky Friday Flip

People primarily identify themselves with things that depend on memory like identity numbers.

What do they identify themselves _for_ (or to)? It's not a password for their persoanl computer that they didn't take with them or the job that they left behind in another hemisphere. It's not the combination to their front door. It's not even their secret pet name they call their significant other. The whole place is going to be totally Steven Stills ("If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with.").

The weird aspect of this one is how society and technology advanced past the Stone Age. The PC solution is to get out (which is probably not possible without incredible luck and/or Serendipity) and then to black flag it as being completelly useless but dangerous.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

How does everyone deal with suddenly being in an area where no one speaks the same language?
No families or friends for more than a week? No physical projects or hobbies that can't be finished in a short time can ever get finished?

In all likelihood? there's a single language everyone speaks. If you have routine travel between two locations, their dialects will drift at the same time. Here, all locations are routinely traveled between. Who knows what this universal language is though.

Is age preserved? It would be weird if most of your infants were actually adults who lacked the muscles to perform actions. And lots of bodies would be abused by people who single out children in adult bodies and take advantage of them.

I worry about society's ability to plan for the future. You're not going to return to this location, so why worry about bringing in the harvest?

[Flyndaran]

It seems that at best only a small relatively localized population could be sustained. That way everyone's skills would apply. Equatorial farmers wouldn't be shifted to the tundra nomads, for example.

Of course that would negate the parallel's point of no national/tribal identity.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

...
The weird aspect of this one is how society and technology advanced past the Stone Age. The PC solution is to get out (which is probably not possible without incredible luck and/or Serendipity) and then to black flag it as being completelly useless but dangerous.

Those with terminal illnesses may still try. It would at least be some kind of extended life.

[TGLS]

This kiboshes the adventure seed, but the minimal disruption method would be to only flip between someone they have had recent (<1 week) contact with. This would stop a bunch of sedentary farmers from being flipped into arctic fishermen and starving. At the beginning, this changes relatively little. As trade develops, things become more fluid, and once globalization takes off big shifts are possible.

[Ottriman]

Originally Posted by TGLS

This kiboshes the adventure seed, but the minimal disruption method would be to only flip between someone they have had recent (<1 week) contact with. This would stop a bunch of sedentary farmers from being flipped into arctic fishermen and starving. At the beginning, this changes relatively little. As trade develops, things become more fluid, and once globalization takes off big shifts are possible.

Yeah that makes sense, and would prevent the party from scattering all over the place for sure.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Those with terminal illnesses may still try. It would at least be some kind of extended life.

Terminally ill sociopaths anyway.

It'd still be really hard to leave the place after the switch. You're probably a long way from your conveyor.

[PTTG]

Hmm, I still like the idea of a team of crosstimers being scattered across the worldline and needing to meet up in one place and establish their identities.

I myself would probably do it with an experimental crosstime "Swapper" projector/conveyor. Designed to eliminate the need for sending a conveyor to a worldline where it can be stolen or lost, the Swapper targets local people and brings them to its platform while sending the people on the platform to replace them.

Regardless of the research team's tests, though, when put into practice, it only swaps the minds of the exploration team with those of some random people around the world. Back at Homeline, they immediately figured out what went wrong, but have no way to find the lost agents until they make a signal they're all together for conventional conveyor pickup.