Alternate Crosstime Organizations

[adm]

Further more, given the major players access to outtime sources, a given assassination can look like natural causes, unknown causes, or look like a local player did it.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by adm

Further more, given the major players access to outtime sources, a given assassination can look like natural causes, unknown causes, or look like a local player did it.

Or unnatural causes that no one would ever believe.

(I'm assuming the Captain is played by the late Lloyd Bridges).
Captain: "All right, release the T-Rex here."
Sergeant: "Sir, are you sure about that?"
Captain: "Absolutely, it'll get the Arch-Duke and his wife."
Sergeant: "And a couple hundred people will see it."
Captain: "And they'll be eaten by the T-Rex. The problem solves itself."
Sergeant: "Sir, this world-line doesn't have living dinosaurs."
Captain: "No one will believe the survivors--it's a fool-proof plan."

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

I disagree. Everything about I-SWAT screams if it's not with us, get it to Coventry so it can't oppose us. If you can't, just kill it.

Thereby sending up a signal flare to announce "Something worth investigating was happening here!" Violent death does not cause people to lose interest. It makes them gather in crowds and look under rocks.

[Flyndaran]

His role on Hot Shots or from Airplane? Oh wait, he was an Admiral in Hot Shots, but pretty much the same character. Now that's an interesting idea for a parallel.

Interesting path to take for these organizations. Not all are run competently or by sane leaders.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Thereby sending up a signal flare to announce "Something worth investigating was happening here!" Violent death does not cause people to lose interest. It makes them gather in crowds and look under rocks.

I point out what adm said a little earlier:

Originally Posted by adm

Further more, given the major players access to outtime sources, a given assassination can look like natural causes, unknown causes, or look like a local player did it.

There's no reason it has to be violent. But, if it is, they could do it with local weapons, leaving behind an unsolved murder. As long as the murderer doesn't dimensionally hop on camera, it's just an unsolved murder.

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

His role on Hot Shots or from Airplane? Oh wait, he was an Admiral in Hot Shots, but pretty much the same character. Now that's an interesting idea for a parallel.

Take your pick. He's amazing in both of those movies.

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Interesting path to take for these organizations. Not all are run competently or by sane leaders.

Who says it's just the alternate organizations? I doubt that Infinity and I-SWAT are led by sane people.

But, a Hot Shots-esque Crosstime organization would be pretty awesome. Led by Admiral "Tug" Benson, with their top agent being Lt. Topper Harley. They succeed more because of blind luck and plot armor then anything else.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

I
There's no reason it has to be violent. But, if it is, they could do it with local weapons, leaving behind an unsolved murder. As long as the murderer doesn't dimensionally hop on camera, it's just an unsolved murder.
.

And a local government looking for a motive, retracing his steps, asking associates what he was up to, going back over his reports. And...yeah it has to be violent. It's going to be rare that you can just walk up to a guy and inject him with something lethal and yet strangely can't abduct him. Mysterious inexplicable deaths are worse than conventional murder. Murder that seems to be by locals requires locals with a reason to kill your victim and that's difficult when the victim is actually innocent.

How often is it really going to be that hard to abduct a random witness, a banestorm victim or a scientist who happens to be working in a certain esoteric realm of physics?

[PTTG]

Now multiply all these concerns by the fact that the Secret's out.

[Dr. Beckenstein]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

His role on Hot Shots or from Airplane? Oh wait, he was an Admiral in Hot Shots, but pretty much the same character. Now that's an interesting idea for a parallel.

Interesting path to take for these organizations. Not all are run competently or by sane leaders.

This explains a lot ... my players are always acting like Lt. Drebbin and Captain Hocken.

Yes, I know, it is another franchise. But it could be the part of a really weird skerry.

Patrolmen would consider missions there as punishment duty.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

And a local government looking for a motive, retracing his steps, asking associates what he was up to, going back over his reports.

But, if it's a local government, with no access, idea or understanding of transdimensional travel then they're still no closer to discovering the secret. Eventually every lead goes cold and it becomes a random act of violence.

Are you trying to tell me that every murder, on our planet, has been solved? I'd love to know who the Zodiac Killer was and what their motivation was.

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

And...yeah it has to be violent. It's going to be rare that you can just walk up to a guy and inject him with something lethal and yet strangely can't abduct him. Mysterious inexplicable deaths are worse than conventional murder. Murder that seems to be by locals requires locals with a reason to kill your victim and that's difficult when the victim is actually innocent.

The only time this becomes a larger problem is if they already know the secret. Leaving a trail of untraceable murders doesn't lead investigators to "well, the only way this could keep happening is if they were using transdimensional travel." There are plenty of other, less insane, leaps of logic you would make, which would lead to similar dead ends, long before you got here. "Aliensdidit" is far more likely to be the final answer long before "transdimensionalaliensdidit" is.

Sometimes you want to leave the body behind as a warning that you are so skilled that you can do it and not get caught. And no, killing of innocent people by local players happens all the time. Drive-by shootings the the wrong person all the time. Innocent people die in attacks meant for other people.

Seriously, sometimes, you may not feel the need for abduction. Being sent to Coventry is already a death sentence. It's just a cruel and unusual one.

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

How often is it really going to be that hard to abduct a random witness, a banestorm victim or a scientist who happens to be working in a certain esoteric realm of physics?

That entirely depends on the situation.

If you're a scout, and you discover that Dr. Bobb is excruciatingly close to discovering "the Secret," and you're not equipped for an extraction, you might kill him and set fire to his lab, then hop out, knowing that they'll never figure it out. You might even plant some evidence to frame someone else to keep the authorities from looking at some details too deeply until I-SWAT can get there.

Then I-SWAT would be dispatched to make sure that everyone he's talked to either has an accident or disappears to ensure the safety of the Secret.

But, unless someone knew what Dr. Bobb was actually working on, the idea that transdimensional entities killed him and set fire to his lab would seem like the very height of conspiracy theory. Sure, there might be a conspiracy theory saying that, but, I'm sure, if you look, you'll find conspiracy theories that Lincoln was assassinated by aliens.

An abduction may be the ideal solution, but it's not always the right solution.

Originally Posted by PTTG

Now multiply all these concerns by the fact that the Secret's out.

How, precisely, is the Secret out? If they don't know about Transdimensional Travel before, they're certainly not going to know after.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

But, if it's a local government, with no access, idea or understanding of transdimensional travel then they're still no closer to discovering the secret. .

If there was nothing to discover, then there be nobody who needed to be dealt with in the first place.

The only time this becomes a larger problem is if they already know the secret. Leaving a trail of untraceable murders doesn't lead investigators to "well, the only way this could keep happening is if they were using transdimensional travel."

The people they are murdering clearly know something about interdimensional travel because if they didn't the Homeliners would have no reason to murder them. They may not understand what they know, but that doesn't mean that they have left no traces, told nobody anything, that there is nothing to find out.

The whole point of the Secret is the fear of introducing more players into the convert conflict and complicating it still more, or worse setting off open hostilities. Going around murdering people to keep the Secret endangers the Secret by drawing more attention and it makes the consequences of failures to keep the Secret far more dire. When the Secret fails as it inevitably will in some cases you want to be able to tell the new player "No, your citizen are safe and sound." and not "Yes we murdered half of a dozen of your people pointlessly...oops."

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

Seriously, sometimes, you may not feel the need for abduction. Being sent to Coventry is already a death sentence. It's just a cruel and unusual one. ].

No. It isn't. And the only abductees who would go to Coventry are the ones who can't be recruited, who are absolutely determined to not get with the program. Most of the inhabitants of Coventry are actually Homeliners who broke the law by doing things like the slave trade, Jack the Ripper tourism, robbing the Fort Knox of Fleming-2, selling assault rifles to General Lee, or whatever.

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

B


If you're a scout, and you discover that Dr. Bobb is excruciatingly close to discovering "the Secret," and you're not equipped for an extraction, you might kill him and set fire to his lab, then hop out, knowing that they'll never figure it out. You might even plant some evidence to frame someone else to keep the authorities from looking at some details too deeply until I-SWAT can get there.

Then I-SWAT would be dispatched to make sure that everyone he's talked to either has an accident or disappears to ensure the safety of the Secret.

But, unless someone knew what Dr. Bobb was actually working on, the idea that transdimensional entities killed him and set fire to his lab would seem like the very height of conspiracy theory. .

In realistic settings, scientists are not wizards. They do not live a hermit-like existence telling nobody except a few close associates what they are up to. Instead they leave a huge paper trail of submissions to periodicals and grant applications that other people can follow if they get the idea that "Hey, this guy may have been on to something!". And if this scientist is a wizard, then the scout won't even figure out what's up anyway.

It's not impossible for a Homeline operative to commit murder of an innocent to hide the Secret of course. But it wouldn't be at all routine or approved as a standard practice.