Well , i like Karels thought on making that age more like this one . I also understand jeff`s wish to feel safe\eliminate enemies etc. And whoever posted stuff about the survival kits\navigational devices and basic medicine.

So id mix and match these a bit , for example :

Documents for inventions\info on the period\etc
Small first aid kit and basic medicine
Perhaps a gun ? Or the knowledge to make one , coz if i dont know how to make guns\bullets itll loose its pizzaz after like 12 shots....
MacGyver-knife and other universal survival stuff
Navigational equipment
Blueprints and hard to obtain necessities for the time machine? ( I guess its part of the "deal" that you cant get these tho..)
Solar-celled cooking plate ( so i can destill this and that , and make alcohol , in which i use to make friends\drunkard slaves to help me create stuff from the documents )
Bribery , in form of whatever currency was most sought after ( to get out of sticky situations where i cant stab or shoot my way out upon arrival )

Well ,  i guess that briefcase is getting chunky by now , and with this stuff in that time , id prolly do better than im doing with my current stuff now... bar any unforseen arrival complications ( like landing 6 feet from starved predators... )

Oh and if this actually is a stupid missing premiss question , and a pun on "the dark ages " i should prolly bring a lightsource? Like a flashlight would solve all my problems?

Enough rambling , its time for bed  

So wait, an oppotunity to change the future of civilisation is in your hands, and all you wanna do is sit on your arse and play Tetris?

Maybe we've reached the end of the topic already. Not much more to add! Here's my ideas... some stolen from online since I read responses to this question before posting it.


item on my body:
- Jacket and long pants, in case I land in snow.
- Sunglasses. ohhhhhhh yeah.
- This shirt, because it's cool. But not too useful.
Minimally speaking, I don't need any of these. Clothing and gold I can steal.


items in the case, for survival:
- lighters and swiss army knife. Tiny but useful. Fire is needed for initial survival until I reach civilization, plus controlling fire in my hand may impress people. The victorinox has scissors, a knife & nail clippers, which are always handy. Minimally speaking I might not need either of these, but at least the lighters are worth spending "1 item point" on. I don't need a compass because I can tell where the sun rises/sets. I don't need a map because I won't know where I am and neither will any peasant farmers I meet because they're stupid.
- 2 small guns and spare magazines. I can arm an ally with the other gun. Since they're small, these won't take up much room.
- medkit. Mostly antibiotics and antiseptic. I would protect myself or cure others and look godly.


items in the case, for kicking ass:
- ideally I want a laptop, on which I'd have wikipedia (10gb text version) and Encarta (for pictures that text-wiki lacks), but this will only work if I have batteries. If I had the know-how to build my own battery with metals and acids, I could build it there. But I don't, and even if I did I'd need a multimeter anyway to measure its current/voltage or my laptop won't like it. Alternatively I'd have a solar battery pack. But I don't know if there's such a thing for laptops. Even if there was, it would only get 2hrs of use between 5pm-6am. So bringing a laptop will waste 2 item points, and if either of those 2 items breaks then I'd be screwed.
Perhaps then it would be safer to bring books. I already own 3 suitable ones, so I don't have to rush out to buy them: (1) a Kingfisher visual fact finder, 500 pages of pictures (and some text) covering most of science and society: space, geology, climate, biology, physics, geography, chem, world history; (2) another Kingfisher book, encyclopedia of lands/people, which has maps and info on countries; (3) Latin-English pocket dictionary.
- I'd also take 100 crop seeds. Modern GM crops kick ass, so I can make a whole empire thrive in a few years thanks to mutant agriculture. Garden shops sell seed bags, which are small. Maybe I could carry 100 of them in the case and have plenty of room left over.

the plan:
- build a fire, stare at the sky, figure out which way is south-westish and head down. I'll run into the coast eventually, or meet people along the way first. I'd steal their horse or impress them with my sunglasses, then head to the nearest city and get further directions, probably towards Rome or Venice. Venice was a big power and had a big fleet, so they controlled sea trade and were well connected. From there I could go somewhere else, or just sit tight and have options: land via the Roman roads or sea via the Venitian fleet. After winning over the doge with my sunglasses and fireball hands, I can tell him to go discover America and name it Alexica. Then I can plan trades with Asia (if marco polo is around?). Or head to Rome occasionally to play political friends with the church. With my super crops, medicine, science books and sunglasses, we'd be pretty strong. And some of the best minds of the time would be around me (galileo, michelangelo and da vinci wouldn't be born yet, but their teachers's teacher's teachers might be around).
But I wouldn't want Italian chicks as my reward. I would invade Czech, Hungary and Poland for that.


Anyone have any better ideas or corrections? Should I invade Slovenia instead?

Zarkov wrote on 05/20/09 at 02:10:10:


hahahhahaha Yes being a revolutionair in that age would be very dangerous. Remmember Jezus Christ? Even using modern knowlegde and technology wouldn't help when you're alone; you would never stand a chance.
Without me the world will probably evolve into what it is now anyway, and I don't want to erase my own future existence or the existence of the kart community. I will relax playing game boy, travel a bit and use resources the way people do in that age. (except for the game boy). On the other hand it could be very well that current history is because of my future me did something in order to have the world as it is now.... Well that would be doing nothing, just play Tetris.

denderend wrote on 05/20/09 at 03:03:40:


AlexPenev wrote on 05/15/09 at 02:10:24:


I'd say that's pretty far off . But that would be getting close to Copernicus even if nothing that close to him either.

But I wonder how long you could actually play Tetris on a game boy with a suitcase full of batteries.

hahahahhahahahaha I'm laughing out loud here!!!

The strategy now becomes how to make sure you can play game boy or DS as long as possible!

I'd take a machete and a cool bit of fabric that goes around my forehead.  Then I'll proceed to deal with any challenge whilst looking fucking badass and naked.