Catalog of the Weird Parallels

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by adm

Why would star positions change? What happens on Earth should have no effect out there.

On an easier-to-imagine scale, the gravitational interaction of the planets in our solar system are not predictable on timescales of millions of years. This means that the positions of the planets along their orbits become unpredictable on that timescale, rather than the orbital paths changing greatly, which takes much longer.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

In a truly chaotic system, that Earth wouldn't be in the exact same orbit or galaxy position. There has to be some spooky similarities for the whole world jumping system to work.

That's strong evidence for the worlds having had a truly common history until "fairly recently," in terms of a few hundred or thousand years.

[Flyndaran]

Five seconds from now the Earth would have moved around the Sun over 90 miles. And that's just one of the numerous ways in which this planet travels through the universe.
We simply have to ignore all these aspects of "chaos" for world jumping settings to make any sense.

But of course the name of the game is fun and whatever specific genre mysteries the players and GMs find most interesting. So it all works as long as everyone's on the same page as to what is and is not meaningful for the characters.

[ronwit]

Originally Posted by adm

Why would star positions change? What happens on Earth should have no effect out there.

This should probably be planetary positions. If you are only a few years into the future stars and continents will be the same but the planets and moons will have moved.

[Astromancer]

GURPS: Fantasy II: The Mad Lands contained a great idea for a weird parallel. There was a nearby land where two gods were playing a game. The game was to create the most outrageous and lopsided culture that could possibly survive.

Picture a 21st century Earth where their are no large nations only cultural ekumends like the Greek ekumen in ancient times or the German lands in the 18th century. Each city is wildly destinctive from the ones near it. Although they may share a language, literary culture, watch the same TV networks, get the same brands at the supermarket, and have other superficial similarities.

One town might be egalitarian and socialist and one five miles up the road might be a monarchy enforcing liberterian economics. And yet both would use the same kind of currency to buy their beer and TV guides at the store. One town on one side of a mountain might demand absolute and exaggerated gender roles while their nearest neighbors requier total gender fluidity. It's TV tropes Planet of Hats gone insane.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Shell

This is another of the Z-class never-look-here-nothing-to-see realities. But you wouldn't know it from looking.

At first glance it appears to be a normal timeline around 1700, with the only significant difference being that the late Elizabeth the First of England was instead named Victoria but was otherwise the same person. Historically, the only real difference appears to be the commonality of the name Elizabeth in anglophone territories.

This was until a high-tech weather station was set up by a climate research project as part of a multi-world weather study. This included a weather radar system that immediately showed anomalous results. These results were uniform over the entire world, eventually provoking a drone to be sent, confirming the results.

The world called Shell is encased in a shell at 25 kilometers (82,000 feet) over sea level. The interior is some form of holographic projector that shows what the sky is supposed to look like at the time period. Behind the projection is a surface that appears similar to vantablack but with an incalculablly-high tensile strength (incalculable because it can't even be scratched).

Parachronic probes sent into LEO show that the shell is 5 kilometers thick, and the first probe was destroyed ten seconds after insertion. Multiple probes sent in groups showed that the probes were shot down by what appeared to be an antiparticle beam. Glimpses of the rest of the system by short-lived probes showed a solar system drastically changed, with the sun surrounded by a web of installations, the planets showing much brighter, and the moon partially dismantled.

The evidence indicates that Earth's Solar System in this reality has been taken over by a Kadrashev 2 or higher civilization, and they've shut off Earth as a sort of "wildlife preserve". Whether they're aware of the probes and where they came from is unguessable (and a thought that keeps some strategic planners awake at night).

Right away some idiot thought of stealing their tech, and he was literally physically beaten down. The sheer scale and sophistication of this civilization's power makes them an enormous threat to the Secret. The only good part is that the shell around Earth shows a possibly-benevolent attitude, but their sheer scale indicates that Homeline's civilization might be destroyed by accident ... or swatted like a fly for being a nuisance.

That hasn't stopped some self-imporant morons from trying to form filibuster expeditions to Shell with crude rockets. One group even tried to acquire a shaped-charge nuclear device to try and penetrate the Shell. Keeping these fools from killing everyone is a priority for Infinity.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

This parallel is a parallel like any other, but it is also a computer simulation. At first the PCs will think they're in a bad/warped myth parallel: steal from Black Mirror. However let the idea that they're in a simulation slowly sink in.

After the PCs escape let them wonder if their universe is simply someone's game board.

For more advanced players, drop them into the simulation that Picard enclosed Moriarty in. And then let Moriarty grab their transport.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

Right away some idiot thought of stealing their tech, and he was literally physically beaten down. The sheer scale and sophistication of this civilization's power makes them an enormous threat to the Secret.

"Threat to the Secret" isn't really the right way to think of this. What Homeline has here is a civilization that could potentially take over the Infinite Worlds without undue effort.

First, a new rule. All probes are to self-destruct thoroughly n/2 seconds after insertion, where n is the shortest period of time in which probes have been observed to be shot down by the inhabitants. They also need to self-destruct when they detect any tampering, and that needs to fail-unsafe. Wastage of probes due to false alarms is expected; a lack of false alarms indicates that the system isn't paranoid enough.

If we want to risk any further probes at all, the first thing to learn is if this is a "leading edge" world, at the same date as Himeline, Centrum and Shikaku-mon. If that's so, they can build projectors, and then we're utterly doomed. Given that the solar system has been re-arranged, the only way of finding out is the positions of stars with high proper motions, such as Barnard's Star, Groombridge 1830 and Kapteyn's Star. If those are inconsistent, or the date they imply is within a decade of "leading edge" time, we never, ever go there again. Trying to go there is a capital crime, because it risks ending humanity.

[Flyndaran]

Especially since just, because they're insanely advanced does not mean they know of inter-dimensional travel. It could be a "road not taken" for them.

I would imagine a lot of studying of worlds nearby, however that's measured, just to check for signs of cross-time influence. One level of clarity removed, but also one level safer.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by johndallman

First, a new rule. All probes are to self-destruct thoroughly n/2 seconds after insertion, where n is the shortest period of time in which probes have been observed to be shot down by the inhabitants. They also need to self-destruct when they detect any tampering, and that needs to fail-unsafe. Wastage of probes due to false alarms is expected; a lack of false alarms indicates that the system isn't paranoid enough.

It's already too late. The shellbuilders must wonder where the probes came from, and anything sent crosstime has some parachronic technology aboard. Note that since they were disabled Infinity doesn't even know what happened to the probes, it's quite possible they've been captured completely intact. Certainly it's highly unlikely they've been damaged beyond the ability of a civilization with this sort of technology to reconstruct them from the wreckage.

If we want to risk any further probes at all, the first thing to learn is if this is a "leading edge" world, at the same date as Himeline, Centrum and Shikaku-mon. If that's so, they can build projectors, and then we're utterly doomed.

If the world is a close enough parallel you can determine that, doom is unavoidable in any case, since this civilization would presumably exist in a relatively similar form in most other worlds, probably even on Homeline, just with a low probability of being in the Sol System for some reason. Your only hope is this is a one off Myth parallel or something of the sort. Though I'm uncertain if Infinity cares about this sort of stuff in the first place, given that it's well aware of worldlines with actual interventionist gods who care about humanity and may very well be omniscient and omnipotent for all they can tell, and hasn't panicked about that yet.