At your computer now, your transported to the year 1380

[Wernazuma III]

I would land in a wood just outside of my hometown Graz with tons of tools that need electricity to work and books on history that has not yet happened. I'd have enough food for quite some time.
If someone spots me, I'd be accused of a pact with the devil and burnt at stake. If no one spots my landing, I'd still be very exotic because of my clothes. If they find my Samurai sword I'd probably be screwed because I own an armor-piercing weapon without being a knight.
A valuable good among my stuff could be my watch (until the battery runs low). Some books could be of use: My very detailed maps of the world; I could publish the Canterbury Tales right before Chaucer, who'd be furious, maybe the time is also ripe for Shakespeare - some minor changes could be required. My utopic literature would be ground breaking, and I'd offer an excellent work of political reason to Italian princes.
Basically that's it.

[Zoid]

I would have my whole apartment, parts of my neighbours apartments and parts of the basement. So I'd get lots of stuff, not much useful though. Two flashlights with batterys (no spare ones though...) some food, not much though since I'm going away for the holidays (hopefully my neighbour in the adjacent apartment's got some...). A fairly well stocked tool box with various tools, a few knives might come in handy. I'll also have around 15 bicycles from the basement I'll have all my clothes and as luck has it actually some contemporary clothes from my medieval re-enactment days No sword though, but a small dagger...

The location is rather a precarious one, in 1380 Sweden's only had access to to the sea in the west for a 100 years. And it's a thin strip of land between Denmark and Norway. Very vulnerable to danish and norwegian raiding parties. Just this very year Norways king Haakon Magnusson died leaving the throne to his 10 year old son Olav IV, king of Denmark. So Denmark was now tightening the screws on this little strip of land both from the south and from the north. Given the precarious situation in 1366 Elfsborgs castle was built on a rock overlooking the mouth of the Göta River, this is 1500 meters from where I'm sitting now. The whole area around the castle was farmland and stables serving the castle and it's inhabitants. The name "Kings Barn" is the name for the area still today.

On arriving here I'd probably would try to get into the castle, offering my services as a scribe and learned man. My extensive knowledge of local and nordic history could serve me well if I don't get back to my own time.

[TheStinger]

I would be quite near a small town- Leeds(a city in englnad) was around in 1380. I would have a large amount of office euipment which would of course be useless. There are a number of cars just outside my offcie though so I could use those to take over the world.

I've got an atlas on my desk so I might be able to do something with that

[Igloodude]

Oh joy. I'd have a bunch of servers, a phone system, some videoconferencing hardware, standard cubicle/office stuff... I suppose I could live as a medicine man in the local tribe (what one was in northeastern Massachusetts?) but frankly I'd be a bit better off with my vehicle at least - it has winter survival gear in it. Otherwise, the Mayflower crew is going to encounter locals with an odd technology based on cat-5 cable.

[Imran Siddiqui]

We need an Apolyton 1380, like we had the Apolyton 1900.

[b etor]

Originally posted by Lancer
No electric, that hot tub wouldn't be so hot and the DVDs would be frizbees. No car? No matter, no gas. Toilets don't flush, and that food better be canned.

there's no water in it anyway.
gas would last a little while. our tanks are usually nearly full.
i don't care about the toilet. and a lot of the food is canned or dried. like soup, veggies, and cereal, ramon, and noodles and stuff.

[Vesayen]

Originally posted by Wernazuma III
I would land in a wood just outside of my hometown Graz with tons of tools that need electricity to work and books on history that has not yet happened. I'd have enough food for quite some time.
If someone spots me, I'd be accused of a pact with the devil and burnt at stake. If no one spots my landing, I'd still be very exotic because of my clothes. If they find my Samurai sword I'd probably be screwed because I own an armor-piercing weapon without being a knight.
A valuable good among my stuff could be my watch (until the battery runs low). Some books could be of use: My very detailed maps of the world; I could publish the Canterbury Tales right before Chaucer, who'd be furious, maybe the time is also ripe for Shakespeare - some minor changes could be required. My utopic literature would be ground breaking, and I'd offer an excellent work of political reason to Italian princes.
Basically that's it.

Depending on where you are in Europe and this is VERY varied region to region, you might not be burned alive. Heretical burnings took a nosedove in *SOME*, note some, is the key word, not "most" or "much" of europe after the black death.

If you could swing it right, a very accurate world map would be of ENORMOUS value. People were spending the equivilent of billions today just trying to map Africas west coast, you know how much an accurate world map is worth?

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by Vesayen


Depending on where you are in Europe and this is VERY varied region to region, you might not be burned alive. Heretical burnings took a nosedove in *SOME*, note some, is the key word, not "most" or "much" of europe after the black death.

If you could swing it right, a very accurate world map would be of ENORMOUS value. People were spending the equivilent of billions today just trying to map Africas west coast, you know how much an accurate world map is worth?

But how do you convinve them its accurate?
Oh, just listen to me the strange nut and send a ship to check out that large not-realy-India continent.

[Vesayen]

Have you ever seen pictures or drawings from the 14th century? They are... not very good.

The clarity and crispeness of the detaisl on the map and the paper it is on, should convince them it is real. It would have exsquisite detail of Europe so they know at least that that part is accurate.

[Arrian]

I'd have a bunch of cubicles with computers & phones & files in them, and 5-10 other people (dunno exactly how far 50 ft is, just by eyeballing it). I'd have my cell phone with a fully charged battery, but that's useless. I'd have a winter jacket, scarf, hat and gloves, so I might not freeze to death... but then again, I might.

I would have 3/4 jar of peanut butter, an apple, a banana, and a bottle of watter, which is nice for a very short time. I'd have a nifty map of the USA which *might* be interesting to the natives, but might not. One the other side of the wall from me is the supply room, so we'd have a bunch of pens and paper, maybe some scissors/staples and stuff like that. Maybe we could work out making ourselves a privileged class of scribes...

I would land in the wilderness, aka Hartford, CT in 1380. Hart-ford means Deer Ford, so it sounds like figuring out how to hunt some deer would be key. Perhaps the natives could help with that. Happily, we get to speak their language. Unhappily, we have no guarantee that they wouldn't just take us out. Yay. It's also December, so we'd probably all freeze to death.

-Arrian

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Heraclitus


But how do you convinve them its accurate?
Oh, just listen to me the strange nut and send a ship to check out that large not-realy-India continent.

If you land in Sweden with a world atlas, you DONT show them the map of the Americas. You show them a LITTLE bit of the map of, say, the Norwegian coast. How wonderfully accurate it is. then you tell them you have a map, just as accurate, good for a couple of days sail along the coast beyond that. Your main problem is gonna be keeping them from killing you and taking the atlas.

I suspect most of our Euro friends can somehow manage with things like that.

For us North Americans, all the office and equipment and wire and stuff wont help. Our best bet is trying to make friends of the nearest natives, just on grounds of them being nice, and us having weird looking **** that might be useful for jewelry. 90% of us wont convince them and will die.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by lord of the mark

If you land in Sweden with a world atlas, you DONT show them the map of the Americas. You show them a LITTLE bit of the map of, say, the Norwegian coast. How wonderfully accurate it is. then you tell them you have a map, just as accurate, good for a couple of days sail along the coast beyond that. Your main problem is gonna be keeping them from killing you and taking the atlas.

Err, by 1380 we had known the way to Newfoundland (Vinland as it was known among the Vikings) for several hundred years. I don't think it would be that interesting now considering by 1380 we've entered in a small ice age covering the northern hemisphere with a thick layer of ice. The reason Greenland is called that is because it was actually green when Erik the Red first came there...

[Igloodude]

Originally posted by Zoid


Err, by 1380 we had known the way to Newfoundland (Vinland as it was known among the Vikings) for several hundred years. I don't think it would be that interesting now considering by 1380 we've entered in a small ice age covering the northern hemisphere with a thick layer of ice. The reason Greenland is called that is because it was actually green when Erik the Red first came there...

Funny, I thought it was just one of the first known instances of a clever marketing campaign.

[onodera]

Well, I'd end up in a very snowy countryside outside Moscow, with enough warm clothes to get to the nearest village, a lot of useless electronic equipment, a toolbox with tools not crude enough to be useful, and I don't know if my fridge will fit in the sphere. I will still have enough interesting and useful books (I mean, giving Russia gunpowder in 1380 is like playing Civ4 on Warlord!), and my literacy will help me to get into one of teh monasteries.
And I need the walls of a monastery around me, because in 1381 Tokhtamysh Khan will burn Moscow down and slaughter the populace for acting up, unless Fomenko is right.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by onodera
Well, I'd end up in a very snowy countryside outside Moscow, with enough warm clothes to get to the nearest village, a lot of useless electronic equipment, a toolbox with tools not crude enough to be useful, and I don't know if my fridge will fit in the sphere. I will still have enough interesting and useful books (I mean, giving Russia gunpowder in 1380 is like playing Civ4 on Warlord!), and my literacy will help me to get into one of teh monasteries.
And I need the walls of a monastery around me, because in 1381 Tokhtamysh Khan will burn Moscow down and slaughter the populace for acting up, unless Fomenko is right.

Central Russia would be one of the most interesting places to be in 1380.