New Reality Seeds

[AlexanderHowl]

Just a minor quibble, 1996 Russia was not a dictatorship but a plutocracy. CR2 is also probably more accurate. Yeltsin was a weak leader, and you could practically buy anything (or anyone) in Russia then.

[Kymage]

Originally Posted by fchase8

(Gothic-4, continued)

World of Darkness
But from the moment an I-Scout came to this world, it felt wrong. It began with architecture that never went Bauhaus glass-and-steel, but instead stone gothic skyscrapers (including gargoyles). Goth music, cyberpunk literature, and other ‘dark SF’ is more important here than ever was on Homeline.
The first I-Scouts faced everything from nihilist gangs to grey bureaucracies. Then three I-Scouts disappeared. One was found in an alley drained of blood, another ripped to shreds in the countryside. And one left behind just ashes.
Sheldrake Section determined the mana level depends on an area’s people & tech, and psionics work, but it feels like they’re just the tip of the iceberg here.

Outtime Operations
Currently, Infinity only observes this world through drones, which report nothing unusual, including the world’s politics proceeding as they do on other close non-parachronic parallel.
Yet everything seems worse here. There are serial killings and apocalyptic cults that never existed anywhere else. The famous figures might be the same, but who is in the background of news reports (and old paintings)? How come outlandish supermarket tabloids are so popular – and realistic looking? And why are there so many names here for the end of the world?

I have to comment, that I would be really worried if Infinity found a Buffy Summers going to High School in Southern California or a Dean and Sam Winchester being brought on the road by their father John Winchester

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Just a minor quibble, 1996 Russia was not a dictatorship but a plutocracy. CR2 is also probably more accurate. Yeltsin was a weak leader, and you could practically buy anything (or anyone) in Russia then.

I had based the write-up on the one for GURPS Horror: The Madness Dossier, which had listed Russia as a dictatorship (and the EU as "feudal league of democracies"). But that's 2013.

So I changed it to oligarchy - now realizing that using that word is kind of obvious, since the power brokers running Russia in 1996 were literally called "oligarchs".

[AlexanderHowl]

Just another thing, the EU did not exist in its current form until 2009 with the Treaty of Lisbon. Instead, you had a looser organization called the European Community (EC) that existed until 2009. The EC would properly be a federated alliance.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by Kymage

I have to comment, that I would be really worried if Infinity found a Buffy Summers going to High School in Southern California or a Dean and Sam Winchester being brought on the road by their father John Winchester

See, I would be psyched to find a 'WB World', with picturesque towns full of beautiful young people, even if that meant vampires and demons...


What if Buffy and Supernatural didn't exist on Homeline? The shows premiered after parachronics debuted, I believe. Popular culture likely would have shifted quickly to lots of parachronic stuff, particularly in genre stuff.

Then Infinity finds a world with secret magic. Though The Cabal would have been there for a long time already.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Just another thing, the EU did not exist in its current form until 2009 with the Treaty of Lisbon. Instead, you had a looser organization called the European Community (EC) that existed until 2009. The EC would properly be a federated alliance.

I thought that the European Union began when the Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1991. Though that was also when the EEC became the EC, with the EC merging with the EU in 2009.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by fchase8

I thought that the European Union began when the Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1991. Though that was also when the EEC became the EC, with the EC merging with the EU in 2009.

Maastricht was November 1993. Regardless, arguing there was no EU in 1996 seems like arguing there was no United States in 1785. The constitution and the land has changed but the name still exists.

[AlexanderHowl]

You did not have a United States until the adoption of the Constitution in 1789. Before then, it was just a loose confederation of sovereign nations with a common enemy. Most importantly, it did not have a unified sovereignty.

You did not have the Euro until 1999 as an accounting currency or a physical currency until 2002. A nation without a currency is not really a nation, and it was not really until the majority of its members had surrendered their monetary sovereignty to the EU that the EU really existed (so, 2002). Of course, we are talking about a long process, the official start of the EU could be traced to 1957, but the EU as a unified political entity probably truly did not manifest until 2002.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by fchase8

See, I would be psyched to find a 'WB World', with picturesque towns full of beautiful young people, even if that meant vampires and demons...


What if Buffy and Supernatural didn't exist on Homeline? The shows premiered after parachronics debuted, I believe. Popular culture likely would have shifted quickly to lots of parachronic stuff, particularly in genre stuff.

Then Infinity finds a world with secret magic. Though The Cabal would have been there for a long time already.

It would be extremely unlikely for even a relatively thorough scouting to detect a single teenager in a single school in California exhibiting overtly supernatural abilities. Even for those who know about the series, why would their minds go that way when encountering vampires, werewolves, and magic spells?
I would most likely assume classic myth parallel. Even locals mentioning, "the slayer" could be written off as pseudo-gothic speech common to a lot of such genres.
What would trigger your, "aha moment"?

Now The Cabal would make for an interesting faction in a more basic Buffy campaign. Very Wolfram And Hart.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

It would be extremely unlikely for even a relatively thorough scouting to detect a single teenager in a single school in California exhibiting overtly supernatural abilities. Even for those who know about the series, why would their minds go that way when encountering vampires, werewolves, and magic spells?
I would most likely assume classic myth parallel. Even locals mentioning, "the slayer" could be written off as pseudo-gothic speech common to a lot of such genres.
What would trigger your, "aha moment"?

Now The Cabal would make for an interesting faction in a more basic Buffy campaign. Very Wolfram And Hart.

Any mention of "Slayer", "Watcher", or "Wolfram and Hart" would be a big a-ha. Or seeing Sunnydale on a map.

Maybe the first inkling would be an encounter with vampires, who immediately turn to dust upon final death.

Once the I-Scouts know that it is a world with vampires, one might get bored and look to see if there's any Sunnydale or Wolfram and Hart, just as a joke (especially if the time period is late '90s - they might have done that on Gothic-4). From there, it wouldn't take much internet sleuthing (even in late '90s internet) to find a "Summers, Buffy".

Though if the I-Scouts are in the twenties or thirties, The WB would be 'ancient history' to them. But if there are any I-Scouts who are trained in dealing with vampire worlds, maybe them watched reruns (totally bingeable show).

[ravenfish]

Re: Gothic-4, should the European Union (under whatever name) perhaps be a "federal league of democracies" rather than a "feudal" one?