This is a setting in which various universes exist, and there are multiple groups who travel between universes. What would such a traveller carry, beyond food and water? General notes on the setting: Magic and technology take advantage of entirely different sets of laws that are more or less prevalent in different universes, depending on how "real" or "unreal" they are. A realer universe may not permit magic to function, while an unreal universe might disrupt higher end technology. However, any technology which does not rely on complex energy and matter such as radio waves or reactive materials generally works anywhere. E.g a halogen lamp may not work as expected in an unreal place, but an oil lantern or heated wire most likely will. Current ideas for general supplies: Food, water, a flint and steel or lighter equivalent, a hatchet or other sharp implement, warm clothes with a thinner undersuit. Any other useful pieces of equipment that would help in an unfamiliar and possibly hostile world?
Does it depend upon how easily they can traverse the multi-verse? Rick just uses his portal gun, for instance.
Huntsman swiss knife, portable water filter, first aid kit, amazon survival kit, notebook, pen, torch, batteries, nano cure tech jacket, book of spells, bow and arrow, poison, anti-dotes etc.
I would find it interesting if they carried some original technology you invented, like maybe a sort of lexicon/index that describes the particular universe they're in? It could be a clever construct that works by magic and technology both, accomodating itself to the present universe or something like that. If the universes are very different from one another, information seems like a top priority.
“A towel, The plagiarist SethLoki says, is about the most massively useful thing the multiversal traveller can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.” ^ credit Doug A.
Dammit, you beat me to it. I was going to say a packet of peanuts and a handy Hitchiker's Guide to the Multiverse.
I'd forgotten how imaginative and eloquent the late Mr Adams was. This thread's encouraging me to revisit his (was it four-booked?) trilogy.
A collapsible cup. A phrase book for how to say hello and where's the bathroom a million different ways. A lucky rabbit's foot -- not so lucky on the inhabited moon of lepus
You are exactly right that such a device would be useful. That’s why they’re so difficult to obtain. A certain group exists with the sole purpose of obtaining information about the multiverse, and members of the group are equipped with an oculus, a floating sensor drone insulated against the unreal and made with mass information gathering in mind. These drones can quickly detect such statistics as the temperature, magical field strength, and reality quotient of the universe, but other information must be gathered and input manually through voice logs. In addition, information obtained is kept secret from all but the highest ranking members of the group, in some cases excluding even the original explorer from access. Such is the way in a place where information on a universe is worth more than nearly anything else.
Probably drugs of some kind. The Human form isn't really meant to leave it's home universe and the mental and physical strain would probably need some sort of alleviation on occasion.
That would be an issue if it weren’t for acclimatisation! Your body as a whole is made based on a particular set of laws, and when in a different universe, will continue operating under those laws while slowly converting to the new ones, until eventually you have fully converted to an entirely new set of physics without noticeable pain or other side effects. Upside is that you don’t instantly turn into a flesh smoothie upon arriving in a place where the speed of light is different! Downside is that until you get acclimatised, which takes anywhere from weeks to months, the laws of the universe don’t entirely affect you. This can lead to discovery when your X-ray shows you only have about 30 discrete bones, or magic spells refuse to acknowledge you exist. There are workarounds, but in general caution and experience are the best method of dealing with such situations.
A journal or recorder, what's the point of going to fantastic places, if the traveler doesn't record it Also, a canteen, a metal spork with knife handle
Nothing, save a 'key'. In an infinite number of universes, probabilities become eventualities. Thus, the Conduit - quite possibly the first thing to exist before universes - can be opened by the 'key'. Then doors to universes and times will be available, and you can obtain what you require and return whence you came simply by taking the door on your left.
@Some Guy Funny you should mention this! It actually ties into two things about the Multiverse. Firstly, the reason why infinite universes doesn't mean infinite possibilities. A universe is more or less stable based on how internally consistent it is, meaning that your average fantasy world is stable despite the existence of magic so long as it follows a set of consistent rules. Other universes with broken logic or crazy rules can exist. They just don't last for longer than a few days. And you really don't want to be trapped on such a world when it pops. Secondly, travel between universes is difficult, as breaching the non-existent void between multiverses is an inherently unreal concept. (I can list all the methods in another post if you desire.) However, there is a "reliable" method of transport that exists on all worlds: The Chain. The Chain exists on each world as a set of two portals leading to two distant universes, one considered an entrance and one considered an exit. These portals always exist in close proximity, and don't quite obey the rules of the surrounding world, making them easy to spot if you know what you're looking for, meaning that travel between distant worlds can be as easy as a days walk through dozens of different universes using the Chain. Many spend their entire life travelling the Chain, recording their travels and expanding the endless index of worlds linked by the chain. (And on the subject of time, there are upsides and downsides. Time is just another dimension, and each world has it's own set. This means on certain unreal worlds you can travel in time, but the moment you leave that universe you will move back into baseline multiversal time. In addition to this, due to the acclimatisation mentioned earlier, time doesn't really affect you for the first couple of months in a new universe. This means that for travellers who don't stay in the one universe for too long old age ceases to be a concern. Or death from it or other diseases that grow worse over time, for that matter.)
Anything that has a beginning will end. Thus the steady-state of existence is oblivion, a boundless Void. Yet, there are Entities (Eternals) that move in and beyond the Void - according to legend, anyway (wink ;-). Drop your key or let go of the chain and you will eventually be dragged back to your origin point. Legend says that you may encounter an Eternal, and be invited into the Eternum to become timeless and exist in all universes and times. The path of an Eternal is said to express a chain or conduit, so the Legend goes.
What you have said is a slightly jumbled version of what exists in the Multiverse. The stable state of existence is in actual fact a perpetuating system of laws that evenly cycles energy through the 10 dimensions (12, depending on whether you know too much). The stable state of non-existence, however, is something that is almost but not quite a void. A void implies emptiness which something could fill. Non-existence is not even that. It is utterly without dimensions such as time and space, meaning that no coherent expressions of information can exist within it. The only way for something to push back the Not, as it is called, is by having sufficient energy to manifest rules and large amounts of information, such as matter and life. This of course makes moving between universes a pain, as travelling through the Not is by definition as impossible as travelling through no space at all: You cannot move through what doesn't exist. This means that travellers have had to get creative. Case in point, a common item which many travellers make use of are Projectors, devices that pinch off a section of the current universe's dimensions and push them outwards in the form of a tunnel. This means that you can form a stable "bridge" of existence through the Not, provided you have enough power and remember to point the Projector in the right direction. Hence, instead of travelling through a non-existent void, they borrow existence to travel through.
1) Rope 2) Fishing Net 3) Parachute 4) Life Jacket 5) A portable tent and a sleeping bag 6) Night-vision Binoculars 7) First Aid Kit
A swiss army knife with every possible attachment and a live MacGyver character to solve all your problems - check out the original series with Richard Dean Anderson or the new series with Lucas Till. I prefer the older as it seemed a bit simpler. The newer shows have too many bells and whistles for me.
Sunscreen. Hazard suit. Tampons. Bible. Lightweight exercise equipment (in case you come into a universe with lower gravity and have to work out constantly to keep your muscle mass up). Pressure pants to pull on your legs (to create the feeling of gravity on your body in low grav environment). Oh, also the character could have a suitcase that's for massive amounts of storage, but since it doesn't work in every dimension, you could have it so that it doesn't work in all of them, and so a lot of stuff instantly becomes unavailable if they go to the wrong place. And a sort of complicated electrical device that will behave scientifically in some dimensions but magically in others, so that the person who knows how it works automatically has a base understanding of what universe they're in.
