Inter-team agent friction

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by warellis

I was originally pondering this question when thinking about cross-worldline romances/relationships, because the idea of two (or more) people from radically different societies still falling for each other sounded interesting, but then it soon got to wondering just how weird it must be for some recruited members of Infinity teams to work with an organization based on a TL8 Western(ish) society and such.

Assuming that Infinity Patrol tolerates workplace romances, there might be intense physical attraction countered by psychological distaste or vice-versa. "She's exactly my physical type, but damn I just wish she take a bath once in a while, didn't insist on eating raw meat, & didn't have the ethics of an alley cat." or "He'd be the perfect boyfriend if he wasn't a hexapodal fur-covered alien."

[dcarson]

Requiring any PC that is a outtime Infinity agent to have one Quirk or 5 point Disad that covers something they haven't adapted to would be a reasonable GM call.

[warellis]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Assuming that Infinity Patrol tolerates workplace romances, there might be intense physical attraction countered by psychological distaste or vice-versa. "She's exactly my physical type, but damn I just wish she take a bath once in a while, didn't insist on eating raw meat, & didn't have the ethics of an alley cat." or "He'd be the perfect boyfriend if he wasn't a hexapodal fur-covered alien."

Admittedly for this, when I first thought of the idea, I wasn't thinking of Infinity.

I was imagining something like portal fantasies, or the earlier isekai (not the more modern stuff), where a modern character is swept up hy something into a strange land.

At the time, I was looking at some anime I enjoyed, and their characters, and started to try to imagine what worldlines in Infinite Worlds might expies of those characters be from, based upon their magic, backgrounds, and so on. Like let us say a character uses gems a lot as part of their magic. Well then perhaps Azoth-7 could be where an expy of said character is from based upon how crucial gems are for their magic. For example.

And then it made me imagine how these various characters would react if, unlike the series they were from where despite having magic they were all either born in the same TL8 Westernized society (because it's an urban fantasy series and they're all magic users of some type or another), they were born in different worldlines based on their style of magic and their wealth and backgrounds. And still somehow came into contact with each other based on the main protagonist being accidentally banestormed or something to their worlds or something. A protagonist who finds their ideas on magic is different from the locals, who finds their societal mores being potentially different, and so on.



So TLDR: I was trying to think of how much more difficult is to maintain a canonical Unwanted Harem setup, where one person has at least several others interested in them but their understandings of magic, societal ideas, and etc are different due to the fact even if the protagonist was banestormed/isekai'd to [insert worldlines], and even if somehow the falling in love and such still happened, the differences in ideas on technology, magic, society, etc might be bigger than in the canonical series they're from.

[Dr. Beckenstein]

I always assumed that outtimers have to absolve special "integration courses", before they can start their year at the academy.

Minimum a few weeks for close parallels, at least a year for exotic / primitive ones.

[Willy]

Originally Posted by Dr. Beckenstein

I always assumed that outtimers have to absolve special "integration courses", before they can start their year at the academy.

Minimum a few weeks for close parallels, at least a year for exotic / primitive ones.

You will need longer that for sure, a lot of people nowadays have a sabatical, playing au pair, visit a foreign school via pupil / student exchange or are just working for their boss inanother country. All that people, who I consider above average and adaptable need month to get a good grip and understanding how their host society runs things. To adapt to a far higher TL and or other social behaviour / values learned from early on you need years.

I find the suggestion of dccarson above about quirk level or 5 point disadvantages for outtimers a good way to handle this.

I you think this to the end, a Infinity agent in the field trying to blend in, may have the same trouble fitting in.

By the way this outtimers are choosen for special skills homeline lacks, so the prime directive is to get them on the job, I expect them having ru through a crash course but not the full training program. Dai for example lacks a few skills necessay for Infinity. Imagine them as specialists supplying needed skills to spec ops. A top medic / diplomat, doesn´t need to have the qualification for HALO for example, it´s enough if he can jump fixed to someone who has the skills.

[warellis]

I kind of now wonder if the outtimer agents recruited from other worlds ever get to go out and visit normal Homeline society, or if they just sort of stay cooped up on bases and such.

If they stay cooped up, that has got to be boring.

Because it's funny, we hear about tour packages and such from Infinity to other worlds, but we don't really know how accepting Homeline societies might be about these other worlds visiting them.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by warellis

Because it's funny, we hear about tour packages and such from Infinity to other worlds, but we don't really know how accepting Homeline societies might be about these other worlds visiting them.

Canonically, the only outtimers that know about The Secret and Homeline are ones who have been recruited. There aren't huge numbers of those, so I suspect they are not public figures on Homeline.

In Infinite Cabal, I kept things that way until peace and diplomatic relations were established between Homeline, Centrum, and the Royal Society of Newton-X, whom the player characters worked for. At that point, some outtimers became public figures on Homeline.

[warellis]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Canonically, the only outtimers that know about The Secret and Homeline are ones who have been recruited. There aren't huge numbers of those, so I suspect they are not public figures on Homeline.

In Infinite Cabal, I kept things that way until peace and diplomatic relations were established between Homeline, Centrum, and the Royal Society of Newton-X, whom the player characters worked for. At that point, some outtimers became public figures on Homeline.

I'm not talking about them becoming "public figures."

I'm wondering whether or not they are allowed outside of Infinity's bases or wherever, on Homeline Earth, due to the fact they are not native to Homeline.

While the professor probably isn't an issue, when is the last time you talked to an actual, living, breathing real life elf?

I know Homeliners vaguely understand Infinity is going out and visiting alternate timelines, but does that mean Infinity Would they allow say Dai Blackthorne or Iothia to go off-base, or do they have to stay on-base because one is blatantly not human (an elf) and the other seems like he came out of a RenFaire?

Perhaps my mental imagery is off because I'm thinking of something like say Stargate SG-1, where the activities of the heroes were very, very secretive and unknown to wider society.

It's like, imagine you had an alien on your team, and Earth didn't know aliens exist. Would you let the alien go out into public, if there was no way to disguise them? Could they be allowed out into public?

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by warellis

I know Homeliners vaguely understand Infinity is going out and visiting alternate timelines, but does that mean Infinity Would they allow say Dai Blackthorne or Iothia to go off-base, or do they have to stay on-base because one is blatantly not human (an elf) and the other seems like he came out of a RenFaire?

Well surely Dai could just wear jeans and a t-shirt.

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by warellis

I'm not talking about them becoming "public figures."

I'm wondering whether or not they are allowed outside of Infinity's bases or wherever, on Homeline Earth, due to the fact they are not native to Homeline.

While the professor probably isn't an issue, when is the last time you talked to an actual, living, breathing real life elf?

I know Homeliners vaguely understand Infinity is going out and visiting alternate timelines, but does that mean Infinity Would they allow say Dai Blackthorne or Iothia to go off-base, or do they have to stay on-base because one is blatantly not human (an elf) and the other seems like he came out of a RenFaire?

Perhaps my mental imagery is off because I'm thinking of something like say Stargate SG-1, where the activities of the heroes were very, very secretive and unknown to wider society.

It's like, imagine you had an alien on your team, and Earth didn't know aliens exist. Would you let the alien go out into public, if there was no way to disguise them? Could they be allowed out into public?

Given the existence of Johnson's Rome and other Homeline tourist operations, I think that the knowledge of alternate timelines is as much a part of Homeline culture as knowledge of other continents is part of North American culture. You may not have been to Senegal or France, but you're quite sure they exist.

Now, the whole issue of the Secret means you're extremely unlikely to have met a native of a (non-colonized) alternate timeline on Homeline, but a Homeline native would certainly be aware of the possibility.

In regards to the OP, I imagine that Homeline has gotten really good at cultural adaptability and orientation, by necessity, and even then it's probably quite difficult for out-timers from dramatically different cultures. If I were running a campaign of that sort, most out-timers would have a dedicated counselor/guide to help them out with cultural friction, or in the case of large groups of out-timers (why, given the Secret? eh, dunno, but it's interesting), they'd have enclaves and associated specialists to smooth out frictions. It's a pretty good argument for giving refugees their own empty timelines, or spaces on designated timelines, I think. It also makes for some decent character concepts and setting elements - a guide would make a decent PC for certain campaigns, and "Little Camelot" home of various lost medievals is an interesting place to visit.