[IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

[Flyndaran]

There is also the opposite issue in some cases. Camouflage for trichromats may not work as well on dichromats. My unrelated uncle was initially wanted for his mild colorblindness back in the 70s when he served in the Navy.

[Astromancer]

Rifting off of the tetrachromats discussion, try the idea of a world where they are simply vastly better at music than we are. The average dabbler in a garage band is a better composer than the Mozart, Bach, or Wagner, of most worlds. The average five year old in kindergarten composes as well as Coplan, bright kids in music class are generally better composers than Beethoven.

Many songs and occasional pieces from this world can simply stun people with their profound beauty and grace. Some pieces, "siren's songs" and the like, actually function like their mythic namesakes.

Although the music of this world is profoundly valuable it is also dangerous to get the good stuff as a few bars of this world's music could leave the average PC in a euphoric trance for weeks.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Rifting off of the tetrachromats discussion, try the idea of a world where they are simply vastly better at music than we are. The average dabbler in a garage band is a better composer than the Mozart, Bach, or Wagner, of most worlds. The average five year old in kindergarten composes as well as Coplan, bright kids in music class are generally better composers than Beethoven.

Many songs and occasional pieces from this world can simply stun people with their profound beauty and grace. Some pieces, "siren's songs" and the like, actually function like their mythic namesakes.

Although the music of this world is profoundly valuable it is also dangerous to get the good stuff as a few bars of this world's music could leave the average PC in a euphoric trance for weeks.

Per Arthur C. Clarke's "The Ultimate Melody", recruit only tone-deaf agents.

[Flyndaran]

Not everyone is capable of reacting to real music like that. If this world is full of such mind controlling "magic", then I'd assume Infinity would heavily restrict access.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Not everyone is capable of reacting to real music like that. If this world is full of such mind controlling "magic", then I'd assume Infinity would heavily restrict access.

Yes, probably, but anything that can mentally stun a large group of people without harming them is useful to spies and secret agents. And Icops generally work as some combination of the two.

[Flyndaran]

It's also a great way to make your world jumping Bard useful even to players that mock the class.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

It's also a great way to make your world jumping Bard useful even to players that mock the class.

Truth, you speak the truth.

[PTTG]

A while back I did that one with computer programs, although not to that extreme. I personally rather prefer the idea of a society that has magically good mechanical engineers, producing complicated mechanical computers as compact, reliable, and fast as electronic ones -- or at least in the same ballpark (screens would be difficult).

Such gadgets make useful exports to Rustic timelines.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by PTTG

A while back I did that one with computer programs, although not to that extreme. I personally rather prefer the idea of a society that has magically good mechanical engineers, producing complicated mechanical computers as compact, reliable, and fast as electronic ones -- or at least in the same ballpark (screens would be difficult).
.

Set up a mechanical pinboard, and by that I mean not a board to drive pins into to but a board that is made of pins. In order to make images the pins come out of or retract into the board creating mildly three dimensional representations of images.

[Flyndaran]

That reminds me of one of the songs from the autobiographical movie, If You Could See What I Hear.
Specifically the line paraphrased from poor memory ... because they don't make dirty books in braille.