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Old 09-01-2018, 09:49 PM   #971
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

Old Phoenix-1

This is a world where Shakespeare's works are all highly accurate historical accounts and Shakespeare is known as the Great Historian. At present it is the year 1651 and history is largely similar to Homeline at the same point. However, technological progress is more rapid - Western Europe is at TL 5 and Great Britain has railroads. In addition, magic and supernatural creatures exist albeit receding in the face of human progress. In GURPS terms, areas of both low and normal mana. The world seems to have a romantic and reactionary bias - the Royalists won the English Civil War. At the same time the traditional leaders are more competent, just and merciful than in the original timeline. This may be due to the presence of magic - good rulers may be able to tap into the magic of the land making them more able and successful.

Astute readers will note the implied existence of Old Phoenix-2 and Old Phoenix-3 but those do not really count as weird parallels.
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Old 09-01-2018, 11:01 PM   #972
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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Old Phoenix-1

This is a world where Shakespeare's works are all highly accurate historical accounts and Shakespeare is known as the Great Historian. At present it is the year 1651 and history is largely similar to Homeline at the same point. However, technological progress is more rapid - Western Europe is at TL 5 and Great Britain has railroads. In addition, magic and supernatural creatures exist albeit receding in the face of human progress. In GURPS terms, areas of both low and normal mana. The world seems to have a romantic and reactionary bias - the Royalists won the English Civil War. At the same time the traditional leaders are more competent, just and merciful than in the original timeline. This may be due to the presence of magic - good rulers may be able to tap into the magic of the land making them more able and successful.

Astute readers will note the implied existence of Old Phoenix-2 and Old Phoenix-3 but those do not really count as weird parallels.
You forgot the book your Myth Parallel (Old Phoenix-1) is based on.

(I read that one when I was a kid ... hadn't even thought about it in decades. although I've used a lot of material from it and the other two in various RPG campaigns over the past few decades.)
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Old 09-02-2018, 01:40 AM   #973
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Musical 1

The year is 1942, and the world is a musical. World war two is raging, but important figures often have musical numbers, including even with enemies. Regular people and troops become extras in the musical routines, and this is how things have worked forever.

Whenever something that is a big deal is happening, musical numbers come out. This is normal and not strange to them, in fact it would be very strange for someone to not participate in a nearby musical number.

In fact the secret almost got blown when a nearby agent failed to participate in a musical number about the gulags in the USSR properly that he almost got interrogated to death about his failure. His escape was a narrow one.

This timeline is not generally open to visitors, even if it seems fun. Things can go horribly wrong a bit too easily in it.
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Old 09-02-2018, 02:02 AM   #974
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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You forgot the book your Myth Parallel (Old Phoenix-1) is based on.

(I read that one when I was a kid ... hadn't even thought about it in decades. although I've used a lot of material from it and the other two in various RPG campaigns over the past few decades.)
Midsummer Tempest was a blast. I assume that that book and the Incomplete Enchanter series inspired Myth Parallels.
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Old 09-02-2018, 02:48 PM   #975
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

A type of Myth Parallel that definitely belongs on this list is the worlds of Paradoxical fables. Most of what this guy wrote fully qualifies. This Mathematical Philosopher's literary works belong as well.
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Old 09-03-2018, 01:14 PM   #976
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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Musical 1

The year is 1942, and the world is a musical. World war two is raging, but important figures often have musical numbers, including even with enemies. Regular people and troops become extras in the musical routines, and this is how things have worked forever.

Whenever something that is a big deal is happening, musical numbers come out. This is normal and not strange to them, in fact it would be very strange for someone to not participate in a nearby musical number.

In fact the secret almost got blown when a nearby agent failed to participate in a musical number about the gulags in the USSR properly that he almost got interrogated to death about his failure. His escape was a narrow one.

This timeline is not generally open to visitors, even if it seems fun. Things can go horribly wrong a bit too easily in it.
This must have been inspired by The Producers.
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Old 09-03-2018, 02:38 PM   #977
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A slapstick comedy world would be dangerous to visit too. The kind of incidents which the locals get through with impunity would kill most outtimers. And not taking your part correctly could cripple a local. Comedy is no laughing matter.;-)
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Old 09-03-2018, 03:58 PM   #978
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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This must have been inspired by The Producers.
There were thousands of musicals before The Producers.

More likely it was inspired by the Incredible Umbrella duology by Marvin Kaye. In which the *ahem* hero Adrian Fillmore travels to several worlds via a magical parachronic umbrella. There worlsds are based on the fiction and literature he had assimilated in his lafe and were dominated by literary tropes with the force of natural law.

On two occasions Fillmore ended up in musical universes where music would come out of the air and people would spontaneously go into musical numbers. One was the world of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas (mildly amusing) and one was based on the Threepenny Opera (very dangerous).
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Old 09-03-2018, 07:45 PM   #979
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Hydro is a magical worldline where mana is water-soluble, apparently.

Mana only flows through water, and magical workings can only affect things that are mainly liquid water. Steam can't support oz particles with sufficient density, and ice, as it is crystalized, has only the magical charge that it was frozen with. Liquid water, in contrast, is constantly recharged with the flow and surge of magical energy.

Hydro magic use is more mana-efficient, but its effects are limited to those achievable inside a liquid-water medium. For instance, you can't make a bucket of water explode into a cloud of superheated steam because by its very nature, it's no longer liquid at that point. You can heat the water right up to the edge of the boiling point, though.

As Hydro's magic is different from other world's magic solely by where it resides, magic users can function both coming and going.
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Old 09-03-2018, 07:57 PM   #980
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

That suggests nearby parallels where magic resides only in natural earth, air, and fire.
Perhaps a hidden interdimensional road connecting them creating a narrow path with high or very high mana.
Or weirder the roads are the only places with no mana allowing strange reverse cabals of non-magical manipulators in worlds of magic.
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