Infinite Worlds Question

[Pick]

I just bought the Infinite Worlds Book, and I am slightly confused about the details of keepting The Secret.

If a member of Infinity goes to a world of a lower tech level, say tech level 3, would they leave behind their standard issue pistols and take a sword or axe instead? Do they train for this sort of weapon use at the Academy? Or would they use their pistol, but only when they won't be noticed?

I understand that they do their best to fit into the world, but they are trained in modern weaponry. So in a TL 3 society, it kind of blows the whole Secret to bust out your 9mm.

[blacksmith]

Originally Posted by Pick

I just bought the Infinite Worlds Book, and I am slightly confused about the details of keepting The Secret.

If a member of Infinity goes to a world of a lower tech level, say tech level 3, would they leave behind their standard issue pistols and take a sword or axe instead? Do they train for this sort of weapon use at the Academy? Or would they use their pistol, but only when they won't be noticed?

I understand that they do their best to fit into the world, but they are trained in modern weaponry. So in a TL 3 society, it kind of blows the whole Secret to bust out your 9mm.

That is rather campaign dependant, but generaly in my games they would have a concealed pistol but be more likely to use an axe. And yes they are trained in such weapons. I-cops get the shortsword skill and the others do have hand to hand.

But keep in mind if they end up in combat things are going seriously wrong anyway

[tratclif]

Another vote for "campaign dependant." It could also depend on mission. A deep-cover long-term mission might limit itself to purely TL3 equipment, but a mission to take out a group of outtime slavers in a Viking village might just go for the M-16s and do an after the fact coverup as best as they can.

Also note on IW200 that an Electrozap pistol can be disguised, and I don't see why a needle pistol couldn't be too.

[RedMageSern]

Also, at lower TLs, people are more supersticious, so if someone did see you use a gun, you could probably explaine it away as "Magic" or "God's Judgement."

[Kale]

Originally Posted by RedMageSern

Also, at lower TLs, people are more supersticious, so if someone did see you use a gun, you could probably explaine it away as "Magic" or "God's Judgement."

A sniper rifle from long range... the guy would seem to just fall over. "He was struck down by the wrath of the Gods!"

[DryaUnda]

Originally Posted by Pick

[In] a TL 3 society, it kind of blows the whole Secret to bust out your 9mm.

Originally Posted by RedMageSern

[A]t lower TLs, people are more supersticious, so if someone did see you use a gun, you could probably explaine it away as "Magic" or "God's Judgement."

Then there's no point in keeping Da Sekret anymore. I simply don't get how letting hut-dwellers in on the truth will lead to eventual Nazi takeover.

Seriously, that was the justification used in 3e Time Travel.

[blacksmith]

Originally Posted by DryaUnda

Then there's no point in keeping Da Sekret anymore. I simply don't get how letting hut-dwellers in on the truth will lead to eventual Nazi takeover.

Seriously, that was the justification used in 3e Time Travel.

The justification is two parts. One it has to do with the chance the echoes can move, and likely any change that has an effect that early there would likely be no nazi's.

The other part is to keep the monopoly that they have in interworld travel.

[sir_pudding]

It seems to me, (and is supported in IW, IIRC) that Infinity's "rules of engagement" will vary from world to world and mission to mission. The secret matters most on echoes where any change could distabilize it, and on high tech worlds where the locals could possibly reverse engineer parachronics if they knew about it.

[tratclif]

Originally Posted by DryaUnda

Then there's no point in keeping Da Sekret anymore. I simply don't get how letting hut-dwellers in on the truth will lead to eventual Nazi takeover.

Seriously, that was the justification used in 3e Time Travel.

It was something like "If we give parachronics to those nice mystics from the Sivan lines, they might stumble across a Reich line."

(BTW, I'd love someone to work up some "Sivan lines" where Indian mysticism was the dominant civilization).

Centrum agrees with Dryunda. But Infinity, besides keeping the secret, also has notions that cultural contamination is bad. And at least in my version of Infinity, they're aware that what appears to be a basic TL3 culture might turn into a TL3+6 culture very quickly.

[tratclif]

Originally Posted by Kale

A sniper rifle from long range... the guy would seem to just fall over. "He was struck down by the wrath of the Gods!"

Low tech does not necessarily mean that the natives can't be analytical. At TL3, I wouldn't want to be an I-cop who has to fool a Tang dynasty investigating magistrate, they were some very competent men.

And this reminds me that the autopsy report on Julius Caesar after his assassination would probably be admissible in any 21st century police investigation. A good Roman doctor could deduce that the dead man was killed by something like a small slingstone thrown at incredible velocity.