Forum: Story Recommendations

Time Traveler with no modern conveniences

PotomacBob 🚫

This is the opening to "A Close Call - Book 1: A New Beginning":
"What the shit am I doing here?" Doug Holmes thought as he struggled to his feet. "Naked and in the middle of a desert of sorts. I've got to get some shelter before I suffer fatal heat stroke! I'll worry about other things later."
I'm looking for other Time Travel stories in which the time traveler goes back in time and when they get there (Wherever "there" and "when" happen to be, he or she has no modern weapons, no modern inventions that give them an advantage.) Traveler must rely on wits and skills to cope. Bonus if the time traveled to is in 1800s in U.S. east of the Mississippi.

Replies: akarge Ernest Bywater Seanot itsmehonest samuelmichaels redthumb richardshagrin

akarge 🚫

@PotomacBob

Probably NOT anything by CMSIX. His characters regularly strain the springs on their pickup trucks by loading everything mobile from the house, then going to Walmart to buy a years food, and then hooking up a loaded horse trailer, then ANOTHER trailer behind that.

I mean who , in their right mind takes a reloading set up with them, on a 2 week trip when they already have thousands of rounds for all of their dozen or so firearms.
😁

Replies: ystokes

ystokes 🚫

@akarge

I mean who , in their right mind takes a reloading set up with them, on a 2 week trip when they already have thousands of rounds for all of their dozen or so firearms.

One of the things that bugs me most about these types of stories is when they go on and on describing each and every item they are taking.

Replies: Dominions Son tenyari

Dominions Son 🚫

@ystokes

One of the things that bugs me most about these types of stories is when they go on and on describing each and every item they are taking.

The authors in those cases are likely trying to avoid a deus ex machina, which would be created by having the MC pull out some widget critical to solving a given problem without having mentioned up front that the MC had that widget available.

Which is not to say that they aren't going too far in the other direction.

Replies: samuelmichaels

samuelmichaels 🚫

@Dominions Son

The authors in those cases are likely trying to avoid a deus ex machina, which would be created by having the MC pull out some widget critical to solving a given problem without having mentioned up front that the MC had that widget available.

Which is not to say that they aren't going too far in the other direction.

Yes -- it would make sense if the author gave a few examples of the type of thought and preparation that went into it, and then concluded with "we then spent the next four days writing down and refining the long list of items, keeping in mind the limited space in the trailer we were allocated..."

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@samuelmichaels

Yes -- it would make sense if the author gave a few examples of the type of thought and preparation that went into it, and then concluded with "we then spent the next four days writing down and refining the long list of items, keeping in mind the limited space in the trailer we were allocated..."

No.

If the author failed to explicitly list the one item that turned out to be vital to the resolution of the plot, people would be complaining that the dues ex machina is annoying.

tenyari 🚫
Updated:

@ystokes

One of the things that bugs me most about these types of stories is when they go on and on describing each and every item they are taking.

Yeah. But the genre is basically 'stroke fiction for preppers'. These are guys who get a hard-on if you describe stockpiling cans of beans, and if you describe a bunker they're pretty much going to splooge on your face.

So if I were writing for them, yeah, I'd be giving itemized lists of the gear too. :)

I have a friend "in real life" who is one of these and the way he talks about stashes of gear... the only reason I've ever escaped his house without getting splooged on is that I don't know the lingo. I'm just like "so um... that's kind of power generator then, or was it a wrench? :D

Replies: verve

verve 🚫

@tenyari

We need upvote buttons in the forum. 'Stroke fiction for preppers'. LOL. So true.

Ernest Bywater 🚫
Updated:

@PotomacBob

The Damsels in Distress Universe stories are that way as the people are limited in what they can take with them, although they aren't time travel stories they do have the main action on a world set in medieval times.

https://storiesonline.net/universe/65/damsels-in-distress

In my story Will to Survive the MC is limited to what's in his emergency pack as he's a downed pilot and mostly survives with gear of the time.

https://storiesonline.net/s/13144/will-to-survive

One of my works in progress will fit your needs as long as you let the guy get away with the clothes he has on, a stool, a machete, and a ceramic bowl when he gets sent back to the mid 1800s.

typo edit.

Seanot 🚫

@PotomacBob

One story by CMSIX is like that.

https://storiesonline.net/s/56844/do-you-wanna-go-to-heaven

Replies: verve

verve 🚫

@Seanot

Thanks, I hadn't read that one before.

itsmehonest 🚫

@PotomacBob

Nowhere Man, Book One. by Gordon Johnson
A Nowhere Man Story (1)
My take on the man displaced through time/alternate worlds/whatever. The hero arrives naked, almost defenceless, with no memory of his past. How does he cope, and why is he there? / (Reviews)

samuelmichaels 🚫

@PotomacBob

I'm looking for other Time Travel stories in which the time traveler goes back in time and when they get there (Wherever "there" and "when" happen to be, he or she has no modern weapons, no modern inventions that give them an advantage.) Traveler must rely on wits and skills to cope. Bonus if the time traveled to is in 1800s in U.S. east of the Mississippi.

Lazlong's Washed Up has the MC and two girls transported back in time, with some minimal camping gear; I think somewhere in New England in mid-19th century.

redthumb 🚫
Updated:

@PotomacBob

Several suggestions: 3 by SW MO Hermit Building a Dream, Building Utopia and Teacher. Teacher catches at least part of the bonus--East of the Mississippi.

2 by Aubie56. Deadly Forest and White Ghost. Ghost is much earlier--1675 in Massachusetts.

Added. Teacher takes place about 1833

richardshagrin 🚫

@PotomacBob

Those stories about firearms and ammunition are sometimes called "gun porn".

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Forum: Story Recommendations

Time Traveler with no modern conveniences

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