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Old 08-07-2018, 11:46 PM   #491
Tyneras
 
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

A different balance of radioisotopes.

The balance of radioisotopes on this world match that of artifacts from an era with something valuable and worth forging on Homeline. Valuable to Homeline criminals.
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Old 08-08-2018, 01:19 AM   #492
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

Vox-1
A wave of bronchitis swept Allied airbases in 1942, leading to a persistent belief in the Anglosphere that flight was bad for the throat. Most travelers just bought soothing lozenges at an airport kiosk and went about their business,although air travel is slightly less common than im Homeline, but singers, actors, and others whose living is in their voices avoid air travel whenever possible.
American passenger rail is slightly better funded, and politicians still campaign in busses in local year 2002.

The value to homeliners is in the arts, though: Glenn Miller died in 1964 of a heart attack, Patsy Cline of cancer in 1992, and Otis Redding retired a couple years ago. Homeline fans argue about whether Ricky Nelson's Vincent Vega was better than Travolta's, while June Thorburn's role in the Harry Potter films is an instant homeline classic.
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Old 09-05-2018, 02:56 PM   #493
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

In this quiet Q4 parallel "art films" were a studio thing in the classic Hollywood period. Example: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T received little supervision and was brought out far closer to Geisel's vision of the piece. And later Geisel wrote several more musicals that got filmed and one even won an Oscar.

Many of these weird and quirky films are mainly curiosities but some are treasures.

This same parallel never made the highly expensive mistakes with musicals in the later 1960's so that genre of film still is vital if rather strange in this parallel.

Local year 1989.
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Old 10-01-2018, 08:38 AM   #494
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

Belyayev-1 is named after a 20th century Russian geneticist who created a breed of domestic fox in our time line. Belyayev did not play a prominent roll in the divergence of this world, but someone like him did. Belyayev has dozens more domesticated species than homeline, mostly large and exotic animals. The change appears to be centered in the middle east, but its origins are still under investigation.

The breeders of Belyayev have tamed even animals declared untamable by homeline, or unbreedable. Most big cats have been tamed, as have bears, rhinos, hyenas, zebras, wildebeest, and a huge variety of civets, weasels, and other small carnivores.

The populations of dogs, cats, and traditional beasts of burden are lower on Belyayev, as they face competition from other species. Even animals like reindeer and yaks seem mysteriously more common in this world line.

The year is 1432. The Americas don't seem to have been effected by the taming spree. Africa, on the other hand, is very much changed, with animal draft labor available. The map is quite a bit different, but the differences are mostly in border details. The papacy is still in Rome, The ottomans still prepare to finally take Constantinople, and France and England are still fighting a very long war (its unknown who will win this one, nor if it will last the proper 100 years).

Out-time merchants mostly go for the pet trade here, as the exotic pets gained here are actually suitable to be used as pets, as opposed to being wild animals. There is also quite a bit of genetic work done, trying to figure out why early attempts to domesticate everything were so successful.
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Old 10-01-2018, 09:13 AM   #495
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

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Belyayev-1
I like this one. Good work.

Taft-13 is a dead world - to all appearances there's no sapient life, and not nearly as much non-sapient life as might be expected. It experienced a world-searing cataclysm of some sort in the 1930s, up until which point its known history echoed Homeline's. It's off-limits to everyone except under special dispensation from the Patrol.

However, the Patrol maintains a research outpost here, because the worldline appears to have been the scene of a mutually-destructive struggle between humanity and Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, and is one of very few worldlines where humanity "won". Corpses of leviathan Elder Gods dot the landscape, and the whole worldline has a "cleansed" feel to sensitives. Patrol investigators have found grimoires, charms, and forbidden knowledge that work on the same level as TMWNMTK "magic" but has few if any harmful effects on human practitioners. And these powers tend to work in other timelines. A few such items have proven to be invaluable assets in certain Patrol operations.

Naturally, the Cabal would take a great interest in Taft-13 if it learned about it.
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Old 10-01-2018, 10:59 AM   #496
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

I tried this one in the Weird Parallels thread, but I think it fits here as well ...

A skerry of timelines that are designated Essential Timelines are discovered. These seem like any other group of timelines, and their inhabitants live normal lives.

But every aspect of these realities follow the rules for Essential matter (see GURPS Magic). All objects have three times the hit points, damaging phenomena do triple damage, food and fuels are three times as effective, and so on. By comparison Homeline matter is weak and flimsy stuff, our food not at all nourishing, and dimensional travelers are puny and ineffective creatures.

There's quite a market for anything from these realities. Likewise, White Star Trading can make a fortune in the diet foods and alcohol-substitute industries (as Homeline food is only a third as nourishing and alcohol a third as potent).

But besides the basic structure of matter and energy being fundamentally different, the Essential Timelines are otherwise ordinary historical echoes and parallels. Which is ridiculous.

Some want these timelines quarrantined in case whatever makes them "MORE" somehow "infects" Homeline. Others want massive trafficking with these timelines for the exact same reasons. It's a matter for much controversey. Usually discussed over a bottle of Laphroaig from one of the Essential Timelines ...
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Old 10-01-2018, 03:39 PM   #497
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

If natives are also three times as strong and tough, someone's going to push for the Krypton or Asgard label.
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Old 10-02-2018, 10:00 AM   #498
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

Weak World is a weird alternate where humans are 1/10th as strong and noticeably less intelligent than homeline humans.

They are not seriously considered a threat to the Secret; their society diverged from Homeline's when they apparently reached a technological plateau around late-TL7. Now they just hover in a perpetual '70s with the occasional cultural trend but no technological progress.

Nonetheless, their gold is still gold, and the native animals are also placid versions of homeline's (presumably early humans wouldn't have survived otherwise). In order to get a hold of those resources, Swagmen and the occasional desperate homeline team can simply claim to be "starmen" from outer space, a line that is inevitably swallowed by government officials. Starmen can perform many useful tasks for this society, from purely advisorial roles to rapidly building structures, or even providing emergency aid.
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Old 10-02-2018, 10:22 AM   #499
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

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If natives are also three times as strong and tough, someone's going to push for the Krypton or Asgard label.

This reminds me of a discussion we had about how Monster Hunters would react to infinity. Monster Hunter's are great ISWAT material. The trick is that Infinity looks suspiciously like an extra-dimensional invasion, and Monster Hunters are very talented at countering secret conspiracies.
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Old 10-02-2018, 10:37 AM   #500
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

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This reminds me of a discussion we had about how Monster Hunters would react to infinity. Monster Hunter's are great ISWAT material. The trick is that Infinity looks suspiciously like an extra-dimensional invasion, and Monster Hunters are very talented at countering secret conspiracies.
That's because they are. They're inherently imperialistic manipulators, just of an all too human variety. Monster Hunters would likely obliterate non-human agents, while ironically having the most trouble with mundane humans. They're not overtly evil, but still a legitimate threat to local societies.
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