A portal takes you to a place called 'Earth'. What do you loot?

[Umbran]

Medicine would be awesome -- except that clerics can do it better with a 3rd level spell. So bring back a limited supply of medicine? Meh.

You assume that you're playing D&D, such that clerics exist. And a game in which clerics are common, at that. If you are playing basic GURPS, those pills are going to be valuable as all get out.

Which brings up the basic point - what to grab really depends on what the GM is going to rule will be useful. It becomes situational: For example, get all the urban planning books you want, they aren't useful unless you bring them back to a kingdom that recognizes the value, and actually has the wealth to implement the ideas. I can build a rationale that electric guitars would be good for bards to have, but I can build an equally good rationale for firearms or modern pharmaceuticals being good to grab.

I suspect that a GM is either going to have a short list of things that are good to take back, and if the players don't guess the right items that's their tough luck, or the GM is going to adapt, so that some of whatever they bring back is going to be useful.

 

[Evilhalfling]

binoculars or good hunting rifle scopes. Take a bunch.
watches - enough for the party + spares
simple solar calculators - a dozen or so.
a book on the gutenberg printing press.
a book about boatbuilding through the ages.
"Gardners Art and Architecture through the Ages"
A high-quality sleeping bag.

You have to be aware that physics may work differently and some devices just might not work.
On the other hand a rocket launcher or rocket propelled gernades would be handy for an adventurer. Sure you would run out but there might be some lovely explosions on the way. As adventures you would be looking for things to help yourself, instead of world changing. Besides most things require too much dull work, while killing things and taking thier stuff is a great way to get rich.

 

[coyote6]

You assume that you're playing D&D, such that clerics exist. And a game in which clerics are common, at that. If you are playing basic GURPS, those pills are going to be valuable as all get out.

Oh, yeah, I was totally assuming D&D.

If it's GURPS Fantasy, with regular GURPS magic, then load up on those assault rifles. Just don't forget to make sure your target doesn't have Reverse Missiles up before you unload on 'em.

(And don't bother with guns if you're from Yrth and can't handle the Ministry of Serendipity.)

Also, I'm assuming "Earth" is essentially our Earth.

If you land on Earth-616, your fantasy adventurers will want to grab some adamantine-vibranium shields, weapons, and armor, along with all the energy weapons, spaceships, and giant robots you can take home. You may want to also look into being bitten by radioactive wildlife & the like.

If you're on Earth-1, and you have no fear, a strong will, and a reasonable moral & ethical outlook, try to join the Green Lantern Corps. See if they'll expand into alternate dimensions! In any case, grab some Nth-metal gear -- flight for everyone -- and maybe scrounge up a boom tube.

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

Toilet paper.

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Heck, take back modern political systems. Bring home the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Federalist Papers, & the like, and trade in those despotic kings for a little modern representative democracy.

That would probably be the most valuable thing you could bring back, but I think it would be very hard. I'm inclined to think that the viability of modern representative democracy as a political system is significantly dependent on technology. Among the key features are the existence of relatively low-skill yet effective weapons (starting with guns) that make the support of masses of people more powerful than the support of a small class of military elites, communication systems that allow for the integration (culturally, politically, and economically) of wide areas, and sufficient technology to get the people above subsistence level so they have the time and interest to get involved in self-governance.

As far as I can tell, most pre-modern democratic/republican societies had such a vastly limited franchise that they were in many ways more comparable to aristocracy than we tend to assume (say, Athenian democracy, where only male citizens could participate and a large portion of the society was noncitizens and slaves). They also rarely produced the peace dividends that are a key part of the value of democracies, assuming that we accept democratic peace theory-- democratic (as opposed to democratizing) countries relatively rarely go to war with each other, although there are exceptional cases. In the absence of the dominance of democracy as a political system, its value is reduced although not extinguished. Rome itself was at times meaningfully a republic, but generally only in a tiny portion of the area that it controlled, and then not surrounded by other friendly democracies.

So yeah... if you were trying to benefit a pre-modern society, about the best thing you could do would be to make it into a democracy, but I don't really know how you would go about trying to achieve that. I also fear that some of the standard tropes of D&D style worlds, including relatively rare individuals with vast personal power, are simply incompatible with democracy.

 

[Herobizkit]

* Some sort of all-terrain vehicle. Specifically, I'm told that a couple of military LAVs would do well, especially if they included amphibious capabilties (which the referenced model does not).

* Despite the RAW, d20 Modern allows for spell-Ipods and such. Any kind of information-storing and organizing device would be excellent, especially if someone knows how to design and run the software.

* Portable generators... because you just don't have enough, ever.

* any kind of uber-camping gear and clothing, because let's face it, the woods be cold and unhospitable. Sorry, Rangers and Druids.

* Big honkin' bars of gold, silver, and any gems and jewellry I can find.

Basically, if you can find it in a huntin', fishin', or Wal-mart store...

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Credit Cards. After having the nature of credit explained (but not properly understood) my character would take credit cards. Thousands of money on just this little thing? That's better than a portable hole!

segue back to Fantasy World and a Ye Olde Magic Shoppe and trying to purchase the Weapon of Ultimate Arse Spanking.

PC: "It's Visa."
NPC: "Don't look like a viser. How's it attach to the helmet?"

Oh and the Mona Lisa. There's just something in the way she smiles...

 

[Imban]

So yeah... if you were trying to benefit a pre-modern society, about the best thing you could do would be to make it into a democracy, but I don't really know how you would go about trying to achieve that. I also fear that some of the standard tropes of D&D style worlds, including relatively rare individuals with vast personal power, are simply incompatible with democracy.

Eh, this is D&D. If you really wanted to make a country better-ruled than it is, you'd just overthrow it and rule it yourself using your vast personal power. This neatly sidesteps the problem of selecting a good leader, because "really wanting to make the world a better place" is a valid path to power in D&D-land, and with a bunch of D&D races, succession isn't nearly as much of an issue, since you can easily reign over generations of mortal men.

 

[El Mahdi]

What would you take back with you?

You're making the assumption that, after seeing this incredibly magical paradise of modern Earth, that adventurers would want to go back.

I'd probably just stay.


If I had to leave?

Then one word: iPod.

 

[jdrakeh]

A hydrogen bomb. Imagine that explosion amplified by magic.