"Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

[Drhoz]

Your character finds themselves stranded in the past - the 1920s, as it happens. How they got there isn't that important - mad scientist with a Time Ray, they tripped headfirst into a Synchronoclastic Infundibulum, they ran into some Weeping Angels... - it's not even immediately clear whether this is your timeline, or how vulnerable history is going to be to butterfly-trampling.

 

Money is going to be just one problem. US Banknotes have changed size since the 20s, and "In God We Trust" was only added in the 50s.

 

So how will your PC survive and gather the resources he'll need for a return trip? Without getting locked up as a madman, counterfeitter, or worse?

[Houston GM]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

how will your PC survive and gather the resources he'll need for a return trip? Without getting locked up as a madman' date=' counterfeitter, or worse?[/quote']

It's the era of prohibition and the rise of organized crime. White Knight and Cortex would have few qualms about robbing criminals in order to survive.

 

Neither has skills that would allow them to return, so they would locate and befriend H. G. Wells (both have the social skills to accomplish this). If anyone in the world would be on the grapevine to hear about time travel, it would be him.

[Alibear]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

If you'd ever been to Hull you'd wish you been transported to the 1920s. What a hole.

[GoldenAge]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

As a scientist Bastion would immediately begin at the library. More specifically he'd burry himself in the library's "existing patents" section. He would pick a few mundane patents that had not come out yet (perhaps the Philips Screw - which would become the Castle Screw or the paper clip or maybe even the cathode ray tube) and submit them. Then he'd spend a few months laying low at a shelter while selling the use of his "new" invention to people he knows would need them (Pat Pending). Some of these patents/inventions would hit in no time. Then it's off to invest in real estate and Coke distribution centers.

 

Bastion isn't as stock guy generally, but as soon as he started accruing some finances there would be great opportunities in the market with well known companies such as P&G, AT&T, Pespsi Co, Coca-Cola, Gold as the market boomed in the early 20's... Just be sure to cash out by September 1929!!! I’m pretty sure Dr. Castle (Bastion) would become a serious philanthropist during the Great Depression.

 

The one thing that would be very hard for Bastion to hold off on ... Green Technology! With all of his current knowledge it would be difficult for him to hold back development and promotion of a green power (bio fuels, electricity and wind power). He'd probably be something of a Tesla, reclusively safeguarding his advanced technology under the guise of eccentricity. But I'm certain he'd use his money and knowledge to slowly and obscurely push the country, nay, the world in a better direction.

 

WWII would be another roadblock for Dr. Castle... Despite the problems that could occur from the introduction of his hindsight it would be very difficult for him to NOT involve himself. The incredible atrocities committed by the Nazi regime and Japan in those times were well known and avoidable. I don't think he'd mess too much with the military aspect of WWII (butterfly effect and all) but he'd definitely be a champion of social issues where, before, there was none.

 

But, to be honest, who knows??? Each and every of Bastion’s actions would create a new set of actionable items. Who knows where Bastion's decisions would lead him? Perhaps, in an attempt to adhere to absolute non-interference he'd accidently become King of the Americas. Stranger things could even happen.

[Metaphysician]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

Hermes: "1920s. . . *calculates the year-equivalencies* . . . yes! Finally, a trip through time to a place that isn't insanely hazardous!"

 

Or, presuming this is, in fact, the 1920s from his timeline, he's in the pulp-early superhero period, and tracks down some of the people he knows from that period. This will inevitably mean getting caught up in some crazy global adventure, but hey, that can be fun.

[Grimble]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

Jack "Crash" Parker: Jack would not be overly surprised to have accidentally fallen through time. He has had quite a colored and strange superheroing experience, thus far. His first problem would be to find appropriate clothes. I assume he would be in costume when he took the temporal U-turn. His costume is similar to the Flash,except there are no wings and the lightning bolt is replaced with a stylized explosion.

 

Once he secured clothing, he would try to find work at the local theaters. Jack is an actor/stuntman as well as a superhero. He has mostly worked on action/adventure movies, but has walked the boards a few times. Eidetic memory sure helps to prepare for a role.

 

During his off time, Crash would patrol the city for crime in costume. He is a pretty powerful mutant brick. Guns are no problem for him. He would show great restraint while apprehending normal gangsters and the like. He'd also try to make a few friends in the local PD and try to work within thier boundries for costumed vigilantes. He would also spend some time at the library to find out what the "citizen arrest" laws and the like are at this time.

 

Jack would also be on the look out for others in the costumed community. He would keep the fact that he is temporally challenged close to his chest. If he did befriend a big-brain/scientist, he may ask for help if he felt he could trust the person. He'd also look out for any occult heroes that may be able to give him some help or at least some answers about why he is here.

 

As for doing anything that might alter the timeline...Jack might send anonymous money to his grandparents/great grandparents during the Great Depression, to make sure they aren't left wanting. Being a blue-collor type of guy, any additional funds he had would be used in him community to help the homeless.

 

Getting back would be a good thing in Jacks book, but in the meantime he would work hard to make the greater L.A. area a better place for all. He would spend a couple hours a day reading newspapers from all over the country to keep up on any strange events/wierd crimes, and to keep files on the periods costumed community.

[Cygnia]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

Out of all my characters, Prospero might be the most interesting in this situation. Made immortal since 1882, he's already lived through the 1920's and during these years originally he was a nomad trying to make sense of his life. First he'd try to wrack his memories if there was any moment he might have met himself in the past (even if it was as a "nameless mysterious stranger") or otherwise unexplained memory lapses of that era. Then, he'd research to see if this was TRULY his past (ie, does his family line still exist?, is this the real timeline?). If it did, he might be tempted to go back to England and finally say proper goodbyes if it was possible (his younger self pretty much upped and left his manor house and family when he realized he wasn't aging anymore). Push comes to shove, since his younger self WAS wandering around the other side of the world at this time, he disguises himself to the "appropriate" age and passes as himself for a while in terms of housing/finances (if he absolutely has to).

[Clonus]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

Riptide: Getting the money to do whatever money can buy in the 20s is what 16th century shipwrecks are for.

 

Hellfire: Hellfire totally lacks the intellectual and paranormal capability to do anything about her plight. So she'll just get a job as a shop assistant and fight a little crime in her off time.

 

The Wizard of Oz Incorporated: He. He-he. Hah-hah-hah! Edison you piker! By the time I'm done you'll be a footnote! But he'll start out getting a job as a repairman for a little seed money.

[Vulcan]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

Me: Oh, no, now the GM's going to trot out the whole Obelisk plotline again!

 

(Three times in our GM's continuing world someone has either had powers involving time or a background as being from another time, and at some point these Obelisks show up all over the world to either a) set the timestream back to what it's supposed to be, or destroy the world. But Option A always seems to have a high price for everyone else to pay as well... aside from going through this ridiculous plotline yet again!)

[Mendou]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

Pyrie, being a Millennial, would have no clue about how to live in a world without cell phones or the Internet. Her barely-controllable flame powers would cause her innumerable problems, as the flameproof fabric which comprises her costume won't be available for the next six decades, thus eliminating the possibility of a secret identity. This doesn't take into consideration the problem of a teenage girl walking around in a skintight leotard in that era in the first place......

 

She's probably going to spend a lot of time running afoul of the law: public indecency (if she's in costume, or if she gets at all agitated while dressed in period clothes), disturbing the peace (teenagers didn't talk back in the way Pyrie does), arson (if she loses control of her powers), assault, etc.

 

In order to have any chance of a "normal" life, she'd probably have to join a circus ;;

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

Vixen: Time powers. Try to find her way back ... probably screw everything up in the meantime, given her bad luck with her powers.

 

War Wolf: Immortal (robot and all that). He could easily just hang out for eighty-odd years.

[Pól Ruadh]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

El Aguila Azul isn't averse to hard work, and he'd certainly have no problem getting labouring jobs (until the depression hits... gotta sock away money for Black Friday).

As a former professional wrestler, he'd be able to work the carny circuit, if nothing else, doubling as a strong-man and acrobat and working the wrestling tent.

 

"Who amongst you can survive five minutes with the IN-credible MASKED MAR-vel! Step right up, gents, c'mon y'don't wanna look like a sissy in front of your girlfriend there..."

 

Of course, in those days, pro wrestling was still seen as a legitimate sport, and the top ranking guys like Ed 'Strangler' Lewis and Frank Gotch were making good money out of it.

 

Of course, working a travelling carnival is great cover as it allows him to move from place to place, scope out the locals and put paid to any ne'er-do-wells he meets along the way before moving out the next morning.

[Arkham]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

Dr. Damascus would have an easy time of it. No pun intended. He became active in the Heroing business in the 50's and his manner of dress he patterned after that of the gentlemen early in the century. So he may look slightly 'dated' as opposed to bizarre and futuristic. From there, a little scrounging for lead and some basic lead->gold transmutation will grant him all the fiscal resources he needs.

[Nagisawa Takumi]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

If you'd ever been to Hull you'd wish you been transported to the 1920s. What a hole.

 

Hull, Quebec, Canada? If so, I agree with you.

[hfergus]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

Volt - probably go the "invent simple stuff" route to live off of. Then hero as needed. May look up H. G. Wells. Would have arthritus problems.

 

Olorin - Time travels and dimension travels. If stuck anyway he carries gold and gems with him. He can also detect them and go get them (can we say treasure hunter?) Could also hire himself out as a stage magician or mystic. He'd enjoy that.

 

Black Tiger. Martial artist and former black ops. Don't tell me he can't live off of that. He'd probably stay there and not concern himselef with the butterfly effect.

 

Futurian "Aw, c'mon! I was already in the era of stone knives and bearskins! Now, they don't have the knives!' May try to invent something and "go forward". If he went to his original home, that's best. If he went back to "our time" he'd accept that. "Oh goody! Stone knives are back!"

Of course, H. G. Wells may hear of this....

 

Leadman. Old timey Gumshoe, not very reliant on tech. Pulp would be right up his alley in tone. But man, he'd be powerful. He'd just resign himself to starting over.

[Yansuf]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

I may end up feeling stupid, but I gotta ask:

What does "hull" have to do with this thread?

[Cygnia]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

I may end up feeling stupid, but I gotta ask:

What does "hull" have to do with this thread?

 

It's a quote from the Doctor Who episode "Blink" from one of the redshirt NPCs (hence the link to the Weeping Angels from the first post).

[Karma]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

Karma: Used to time travel and turning up in era's where her usual form of currency is unacceptable "What do you mean you don't accept this? It's a perfectly valid credstick?" Karma slaps her forehead with a 'not again look' on her face, changes her clothing to fit in, finds what looks like a 'shady' spot and uses her knowledge of the underworld to find a 'reputable' fence. A spate of jewelry thefts later she's sitting pretty and is probably running a nice speak-easy while 'cleaning up' the worst of the organised crime.

When she feels like going back to the 'present' she'll do what she always does, spin the dial, push the button and hope (it is likely how she got here in the first place).

 

Fore-eyes: Once he comes to (time travel is not his friend) will remove the large metal tube full of authentic 1920s bank-notes from his ... hiding place. Sit down and take a few moments then set off toward the one person who can remedy the situation. Gotta love precog.

 

Hard-ball: After an initial panic (time travel doesn't really fit his paradigm.) will realise that many of his enemies in the present are decended from the Organised Crime figures of this period. Will go about testing a variation of the Grandfather Paradox (If I kill and rob the ancestors of the people who framed me and 'made me what I am' will I remain the same person? If not who killed and robbed these people?)

[Yansuf]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

It's a quote from the Doctor Who episode "Blink" from one of the redshirt NPCs (hence the link to the Weeping Angels from the first post).

 

Thank you.

[Drhoz]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

It's a quote from the Doctor Who episode "Blink" from one of the redshirt NPCs (hence the link to the Weeping Angels from the first post).

 

*nods* and the Synchronoclastic Infundibulum is Karl Vonnegut

 

And can I say how gratified I am by all the varied responses I'm getting? Truly a pleasure to read

[Alibear]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

Hull' date=' Quebec, Canada? If so, I agree with you.[/quote']

 

Hull, Humberside, UK.

[Matt the Bruins]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

Kurzhaan the Conqueror is already displaced about 12,000 years from his proper time, so the Roaring Twenties aren't going to be that much more of a puzzler to him than modern days. It might just be the first stop on his way back home, in fact. I think he'd probably fit in a little better back in the days when most people still lived in rural areas, manual laborers could find jobs without any paperwork, and the barter system wasn't entirely obsolete. Flip of a coin whether he'd just head out into the wilderness to set up housekeeping or stick to the cities and maybe somehow get involved with gangsters, pro or con.

 

Super Model would be thrown for a loop, and probably mistaken for a prostitute (or crazy woman) by the locals given how she normally dresses. She has no access to time travel technology that might get her home, so she'd make do in the short term by selling off some jewelry, buying period clothes, and maybe head to Madison Avenue to see if she could get modelling work as a Gibson Girl. Assuming her tendency to speak her mind didn't get her locked up, she would try to contact Nicola Tesla and see if he might know of a way to return her to the 21st century. I don't think she'd deliberately set out to start a crimefighting career, but if she happened across a crime in progress or some sort of disaster, she could easily end up on front pages as the earliest super-heroine. Imagine the iconic cover of Action Comics #1 with a Flapper girl hefting the sedan.

 

Earth Girl's reaction once she found out when she was would be "An 80-year head start on fighting pollution–Yahoo!":celebrate

[Kenn]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

Just be sure to cash out by September 1929!!!

 

And when such a wealthy and successful investor suddenly starts selling off his stocks, it starts a panic and he inadvertently CAUSES the crash he was trying to avoid.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

And when such a wealthy and successful investor suddenly starts selling off his stocks' date=' it starts a panic and he inadvertently CAUSES the crash he was trying to avoid.[/quote']

 

And thus do his teammates in the present say, "Way to go."

[Clonus]

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

 

And when such a wealthy and successful investor suddenly starts selling off his stocks' date=' it starts a panic and he inadvertently CAUSES the crash he was trying to avoid.[/quote']

 

Given the over-inflation of stock values at that time, the precise straw that breaks the camel's back is not important. The event was inevitable unless you do something that sticks a pin in the bubble years earlier.