Moving items between worlds with different natural laws

Crystalline_Entity · 02-11-2017, 05:11 AM

Say a character wanted to take a contragravity scoutbot (Ultra-Tech p.80; TL 11^) from a worldline where contragravity worked to a world where it didn’t (using Nexus portals, if it matters). Is there anything in RAW as to what happens?

I can see a number of possible results:

It doesn’t work… but will resume working perfectly when taken to a worldline where the natural laws permit contragravity.
It doesn’t work… and will never work again, turning the contragravity generator into useless metal.
It doesn’t work… and explodes (or does something else which is harmful).
It doesn’t work… and will need to be repaired (possibly replacing some components in the contragravity generator) for it to work when taken to a worldline where the natural laws permit contragravity.

My gut reaction was option 2 (or maybe 3, if the item uses high-energy superscience power cells etc), to prevent characters causing chaos in low-tech worlds with ultra-tech technology, but I’m unsure whether this is sensible. Magical items explicitly obey option 1 (Magic p.6 - "enchantments...are suspended within a no-mana zone, but resume when taken to an area with mana"), though I’m not convinced that superscience items and magical items should merit equal treatment here.

Am I missing something in RAW about this? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these different approaches? How do other people deal with this?

02-11-2017, 05:11 AM	#1
Crystalline_Entity Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: England	Moving items between worlds with different natural laws Say a character wanted to take a contragravity scoutbot (Ultra-Tech p.80; TL 11^) from a worldline where contragravity worked to a world where it didn’t (using Nexus portals, if it matters). Is there anything in RAW as to what happens? I can see a number of possible results: It doesn’t work… but will resume working perfectly when taken to a worldline where the natural laws permit contragravity. It doesn’t work… and will never work again, turning the contragravity generator into useless metal. It doesn’t work… and explodes (or does something else which is harmful). It doesn’t work… and will need to be repaired (possibly replacing some components in the contragravity generator) for it to work when taken to a worldline where the natural laws permit contragravity. My gut reaction was option 2 (or maybe 3, if the item uses high-energy superscience power cells etc), to prevent characters causing chaos in low-tech worlds with ultra-tech technology, but I’m unsure whether this is sensible. Magical items explicitly obey option 1 (Magic p.6 - "enchantments...are suspended within a no-mana zone, but resume when taken to an area with mana"), though I’m not convinced that superscience items and magical items should merit equal treatment here. Am I missing something in RAW about this? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these different approaches? How do other people deal with this?