Are there any constants in this game? I was thinking (and I think my character would also be thinking) "Are gold and silver ALWAYS precious metals?" I mean who is to say that in the next world, nickel and bronze won't be precious metals? They are semi-precious here. (Quarters and Pennies are made of nickel and bronze, respectively.) Lead and gold. They are only one hydrogen atom off on the atomic scale. I think you can do just about anything with gold that you can do with lead, and vice versa. In our world, jewelery is made of gold and solder is made of lead. Who is to say that in some universe, it isn't jewelery made of lead and solder made of gold? They could both do each other's work, after all.
I'm not quite sure what I'm asking, but I thought it something worth thinking about for a bit.
Another constant. Why is silver ALWAYS what kills vampires? Why couldn't it be titanium in some world? Seriously. Is that a constant, that silver ALWAYS kills vampires?
Something else. In our world, clear diamonds are the most valuable. Who is to say that in some other world, what we consider "cloudy" or "imperfect" diamonds aren't worth more?
In the movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still" Klatuu gives a young boy 2 perfect diamonds for $2.00. To Klatuu, that's all those diamonds were worth. In our world, they would be worth millions. This is why I like this game, it gets you to think about the "What Ifs"
In the SF Materials post, we talk about 'Diamond Construction'....which includes things like making windows out of clear diamond. Very possibly, that is the future.
You make some good points in this post.
There was a wealthy man who left instructions upon his death; he wanted to "take it with him". He had converted a large portion of his money to Krugerands and other gold coins, and these were to be placed in the coffin with him.
His instructions were followed, and he found his coffin opening as he reached the Pearly Gates. He climbed out, closed it up, and walked up to see St. Peter. He was welcomed, and he said, "I know it's not really the way things are supposed to be done, but I really wanted to bring this along. Can I bring this with me?"
Peter responded, perhaps a bit exasperated because of course so many people want to bring something with them, "Let me see what you've brought." They walk over to the coffin together, and the man pops it open to reveal his wealth of precious metal.
Puzzled, Peter says, "You brought pavement?"
You're absolutely right. The rules say that there are some worlds in which gold and silver flow out of the ground and people will pay you to get rid of it for them.
Yet there is a constant: you are that constant. You are always the person you choose to be, and you are what unifies the stories and draws all worlds together. This is about you.
--M. J. Young
Very Interesting. I've heard that joke before too. It's like that question I asked MJ "Which is more valuable, a bag of oranges or a bag of diamonds?" His answer was "That depends on how hungry you are." First person to ever give the correct answer, BTW.
I am the constant. I'll keep that in mind.
Ya know, this really made me realize what a jerk I was, spazzing out like that over 80,000 imaginary dollars. I still say it should have been split up equally, and no one is going to change my mind there, but I freely admit that I took it waaaay too far. Scott asked me "What would it matter 2 worlds from now?" Seeing as how it has been 2 worlds, I now see what Scott meant. This game really gets me to think. It's a Thinking Man's RPG.
There is another constant. Perhaps an offshoot of the YOU ARE THE CONSTANT line of thought, but here goes. I am working as a blacksmith. I get paid in gold, silver, nickel and bronze. In the world I am in, they have a certain value. Who is to say what value they will have in the next world? That bronze might be worth billions, or it might just be good slingshot ammo. That doesn't change the fact that I did thousands of hours of work to get it though. What is my work and my time worth? That's a constant. The Architect sold gems that he had for $250,000. God only knows what he went through to get the gems. Perhaps they were worthless in the last world, or perhaps he had to work for a decade to get them. Was the work that he did worth $250,000 to him? Funny way to look at it, I guess.
Speaking of bronze, isn't bronze an alloy? It's the combination of brass and copper isn't it? Or is it brass that's the combination of bronze and copper? If it is bronze that is the alloy, then I find that interesting that two universes came up with the exact same alloy.
Wikipedia. Brass is copper and zinc, bronze is a naturally occurring copper alloy. Naturally occurring because it is copper mixed with just about any other metal.
I just wanted to know because a blacksmith would probably know all of that.
I've never heard of silver killing vampires.
Anita Blake series, and some other books as well.
Steve made an interesting argument for that it should be gold, actually - something about silver being the lunar metal and gold the solar.
I think you should put that into the vampire article somewhere.
Like...."Rarely silver is considered deadly to vampires as it is a symbol of purity or magic, but a stronger arguement could be made that gold should be the bane of vampires. For silver is the lunar metal, but gold, well gold is the solar metal. And what vampire does not fear the Solar Gleam?"
Eric
There should be a section devoted to variations, and that should go in it. Probably there should be a section of variations for every type, because your Faux Vampires aren't going give an orange in Florida about the solar metal, and neither are your psi-kin. That's a magical weakness.
Silver bullets are for killing /werewolves/, but I've never heard of silver having any effect whatsoever on Vampires except for Anita Blake and those silver-nitrate darts in Blade. I'm all for the gold thing, but that has even less mythical precedence.
And an interesting thought on the concept of the value of labor: The US Government has a Constitutional right to levy taxes on Profits made by Americans. The legalese is long and complicated but it boils down to, unless the Government considers the hours of your labor to have no inherent value and thus 100% of your income to be pure profit, they have no legal right to tax the total of your income. Just little tidbit - food for thought, as it were.
As for the constant value of things... I'm not really put off by that. It's just one of the things you have to deal with out there. Kinda like how in Dragonlance steel is worth more than its weight in gold.
Mythical precedence is nice if you're into that sort of thing, but it's hardly necessary. There have been versers who wondered long and hard about why so much of the Multiverse seemed familiar, and who were disturbed by the frequency with which they would encounter modern-day Earths or variations thereof.