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Old 01-27-2020, 01:38 AM   #11
Jariel
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Default Re: Cross-time Adventure Seeds

Cross-time Killer
A world jumping serial killer. He lives on World A (a modern parallel, which can be any known world or a new one) and kidnaps his targets from World B (a near parallel of A, except the killers double died in a car wreck a few months ago). He then takes his victims to World C to torture and kill. World C has a medieval tech level. It could be a low magic medieval world or a post apocalyptic world, either way the killer has a base, armed guards, and a place where he can dispose of his victims without any one knowing or caring. The problem for the killer is that someone on World C has noticed that something is not quite right about the killer. This could be a visiting Cabalist, a Swagman posing as a traveling merchant, on an Infinity researcher who got lost in the wrong place. The PC's have to figure out what's gong on and deal with the killer. The killer will most likely flee back to B and try to escape. If he's desperate the he may head back to A, where he is wealthy, well-connected, and has no criminal record at all.
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Old 01-27-2020, 06:46 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
The real gimmick, IMO, would be how such a jumper would affect such global changes. Do they have mind control powers, probability manipulation, access to tech, cabals local or otherwise, etc.
Just getting to the world to mangle is only the first step.
It would vary. Just stabbing a young Ben Franklin when he's living in London in his twenties would massively damage the American cause decades later.

Introducing maize into ancient Egypt would wildly upturn all subsequent history.

Introducing a few simple technologies into ancient Rome, the spinning wheel, the push-pedal loom, the moldboard plow, and the horsecollar, and Rome lasts like China.

Of course no one can save the Spanish Armada. But a timejumpping nutcase with a rifle and a telescopic site could butcher Elizabeth.

Messing up history is easy. Fine tuning is hard.
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Old 01-27-2020, 08:46 AM   #13
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Ocean-3 has a problem that needs to be handled discretely. Over the last month, several ships of various sizes - none particularly large - have been lost at sea on Ocean's waters. Given the size of the storms that sometimes wash across the world, losses at sea aren't unheard of, but this many is unusual, and some of them disappeared in good weather.

The most recent lost ship, a smuggling vessel traveling from China to a cross-time colony in Australia, has been found in shallow water. The salvagers - officially in the pay of the Ocean-3 government - found distinct evidence that it was sunk by a colossal sea monster. Tooth marks, weird scales, tentacle bits, the whole nine yards. The government needs this monster found, quickly and quietly, before Infinity gets wind of it and closes down the timeline. Best case scenario is that it's a chronozoid or something warped in by a banestorm; worst case is that someone planted it here as enemy action. Or it could be an extremely clever hoax.

The PCs are either investigators and monster hunters working for the Ocean-3 authorities, in which case break out the Jaws theme and watch your favorite deep sea monster movies, or Infinity investigators who are trying to break the cover up and not only get to deal with the monster but also the possibility of being "lost at sea".
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Old 01-27-2020, 10:22 AM   #14
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Default Re: Cross-time Adventure Seeds

What if the monster is why there isn't any native complex life?
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Old 01-27-2020, 01:28 PM   #15
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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
What if the monster is why there isn't any native complex life?
A big predator needs a complex, healthy eco-system full of other creatures that concentrate nutrients for it.

No sophisticated prey means no sophisticated carnivores.
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Old 01-27-2020, 02:02 PM   #16
David Johnston2
 
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Pandora has a problem.

http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...postcount=1466

After one of the airships belonging to the United States of Columbia crashed in the ocean it seemed impossible to find the remains. But an enterprising treasure hunter managed to stumble over the remains and managed to salvage it's payload, a chronal bomb. Now he's trying to smuggle it into the hands of the Jewish terrorists who hope to use it as leverage to force the British Empire to release control of Palestine to them, allowing them to found a Jewish nation of Israel there.

Your mission is to keep the chronal bomb from being used, ideally by securing it for study by your side's scientists. However your mission is complicated by the fact that both Centrum and Homeline are in the race, as are agents of Columbians, British and Germans, all three of whom will assume that you are another terrorist group, possibly the Communists who have a reputation for insidious capability out of all proportion to their remaining following.
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Old 01-27-2020, 02:49 PM   #17
ericthered
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Apollonian View Post
Ocean-3
Over the last month, several ships of various sizes - none particularly large ...

The most recent lost ship ... The salvagers ... found distinct evidence that it was sunk by a colossal sea monster.

Best case scenario is that it's a chronozoid or something warped in by a banestorm; worst case is that someone planted it here as enemy action. Or it could be an extremely clever hoax.
This is awesome. I'm partial to Ocean-3, but their are so many things that could be going on here. And a chronozoid kraken would explain so much.

In most versions of infinity I run, this is the work of some pirates or swindlers with too much creativity, either doctoring the site or running a mechanical monster. But its nice to have the option of the world-hopping sea monster. Especially for ISWAT.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tshiggins View Post
A big predator needs a complex, healthy eco-system full of other creatures that concentrate nutrients for it.

No sophisticated prey means no sophisticated carnivores.
I think he's referring to some sort of mystical beast that can scour an ocean of life, or a radioactive Kaiju that wakes up periodically, rather than some ecology-respecting giant shark.
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Old 01-28-2020, 11:28 AM   #18
ericthered
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In echo 1497, in Ausburg Germany. Jakob Fugger "The Rich" has just been reported as having married the wrong girl. Is it a Centrum plot? A Swagman scheme? Is this new wife just a better option for the schemers? or is she an outtimer? As the banker behind the current holy roman emperor and the richest man in europe, Jakob certainly has the power change history.
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Old 01-29-2020, 05:00 PM   #19
Apollonian
 
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Default Re: Cross-time Adventure Seeds

The Melian Dialogues

As the world likes to remind Infinity operatives who think that the technically-minded should call the shots, everything is politics. In a democratic world like Homeline, that means politics depends a lot (not exclusively, but a lot) on public discourse and discussion. And that means that sometimes, for political reasons, a canny young filmmaker from gets a press license to film a documentary on Melos.

Jeannette Caron is sponsored by UNIC to do a series of interviews with Melos natives on the effects of cross-time contact on the timeline. So far, they've released three interviews on the Homeline internet; the plan is for at least a dozen. She and her very small crew (camera, sound tech, gofer) have a bodyguard detail from Alternate Outcomes, Inc. Naturally, they're being very closely monitored by all sorts of people, openly and secretly.

The PCs have a number of possible roles here: they could be Caron's bodyguard detail; they could be local fixers and/or agents looking to get their particular agency a conveyor or at least a leg up in the race to develop one; they could be Interworld or Infinity agents trying to prevent the locals from doing anything while maintaining the delicate state of affairs that's currently keeping the peace on Melos. Or, of course, they could be Ms. Caron and her crew, trying to find and share the truth.

More specific seeds based on this:
  • Caron and/or some of her crew have disappeared. Find and return them. Could be abduction, could be crazy art stuff, could be they were always an enemy asset.
  • Caron wants to interview someone from Centrum on Melos. Preferably several someones. Her UNIC handlers have agreed this is a good idea. Infinity thinks it's terrible, but is tasked with making it happen. Centrum is rather confused by the whole concept.
  • Centrum sees this as another gambit by Infinity and has responded in kind by sending their own team of filmmakers! Which team will make the best documentary? What headaches will it cause your PCs?

If the Cabal has any agents around, they're probably just enjoying the show.
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Old 01-29-2020, 06:12 PM   #20
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Default Re: Cross-time Adventure Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by Apollonian View Post
The Melian Dialogues

As the world likes to remind Infinity operatives who think that the technically-minded should call the shots, everything is politics. In a democratic world like Homeline, that means politics depends a lot (not exclusively, but a lot) on public discourse and discussion. And that means that sometimes, for political reasons, a canny young filmmaker from gets a press license to film a documentary on Melos.

Jeannette Caron is sponsored by UNIC to do a series of interviews with Melos natives on the effects of cross-time contact on the timeline. So far, they've released three interviews on the Homeline internet; the plan is for at least a dozen. She and her very small crew (camera, sound tech, gofer) have a bodyguard detail from Alternate Outcomes, Inc. Naturally, they're being very closely monitored by all sorts of people, openly and secretly.

The PCs have a number of possible roles here: they could be Caron's bodyguard detail; they could be local fixers and/or agents looking to get their particular agency a conveyor or at least a leg up in the race to develop one; they could be Interworld or Infinity agents trying to prevent the locals from doing anything while maintaining the delicate state of affairs that's currently keeping the peace on Melos. Or, of course, they could be Ms. Caron and her crew, trying to find and share the truth.

More specific seeds based on this:
  • Caron and/or some of her crew have disappeared. Find and return them. Could be abduction, could be crazy art stuff, could be they were always an enemy asset.
  • Caron wants to interview someone from Centrum on Melos. Preferably several someones. Her UNIC handlers have agreed this is a good idea. Infinity thinks it's terrible, but is tasked with making it happen. Centrum is rather confused by the whole concept.
  • Centrum sees this as another gambit by Infinity and has responded in kind by sending their own team of filmmakers! Which team will make the best documentary? What headaches will it cause your PCs?

If the Cabal has any agents around, they're probably just enjoying the show.
That little Centrum stinger at the end is enjoyable! It makes me think there must be so many fun ways for Centrum to be an adversary outside of combat. High-stakes diplomacy, a physical race to reach a location first, competing houses under a magical instructor, a baking competition...
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