One thing I'd like to see more of in Multidimensional Gaming is little differences, and sometimes the larger differences of culture. These types of things can make a major difference in the flow of play.  They especially allow one to use minor variances on they Typical Modern Setting, and keep it fresh.  They also allow the GM an excuse to trip up the player in amusing ways, and they reinforce the message You're Not From Around Here.

Some of these things can make a major difference in play: You're running from the local authorities, and you decide to break into an empty house, and hide there.

1. Typical Modern World: You break in, you're fine for a bit. There might be an alarm.
2. More Paranoid Version World: Lethal mantraps are NOT illegal (as they are in this world), and most homeowners have Great Danes with their vocal cords sliced, and trained to KILL on the premises.

The MPV world is really not very far from our world. Some people would put in mantraps if they weren't illegal (some do anyways), and a fair amount of people keep large, hungry dogs as home protection. Just shove the dial over a little bit.

But the difference for the player is immense.

You get into a fight with someone you're trying to mug...

1. They're trained in Basic Anti-Attack which is a simple Jab to the eyes, Throw by means of tripping, and Run Away martial art.
2. The social culture is such that everyone helps out someone in need...so they yell, and ten guys jump you.
3. They're trained in "Don't resist." They calmly hand you their wallet and watch, and apologize for inconveniencing you.
4. Out comes the butterfly knife with flair and dash as they grin menacingly at you. They might be good, or they might only think they are, but they're coming at you, and they're looking forward to it.
5. They stick their hands in their pocket, and wait. If you attack, the derringer blows a hole in their pocket, and maybe you as well.
6. Guns are a way of life, and the bigger, the better...you see them fast draw their .75 magnum, and are calmly instructed to lay down with your fingers interlaced over the back of your neck, or die where you stand.
7. They fight, but its scratch, flail, and kick wildly.
8. They calmly and with empathy try to talk you out of this bad, lifechoice.
9. Whimper, roll up in a ball, and whimper some more.
10. Go with Caesar's promise to the pirates who captured him as a young man. "I'm going to be ransomed, and then I'll be back to hunt you down, and hang every one of you."

I think some differences in worlds can be fun, and fine in moderation.  Personally, as a GM I would institute the "Dr. Who effect" in which the script writers return the Dr and his companion to earth one out of every three scripts to help keep the wondrous wondrous.  Now, I've already suggested stuff about a 'base world' that the player goes back to, but even if that isn't implemented, at the least, every three worlds should be a more 'normal' world in the sense of genre, a more standard fantasy world, a more standard 20th century world etc....

Otherwise the exotic all starts to blur together.

Foreshadowing is good too. It makes the oddity seem natural, and it also keeps the plsyer interested in the early segments (that is when the GM is dropping hints about the nature of the local reality--what might be called the Investigatorial Phase of a world).

The Dr. Who effect is a very interesting idea.

I suspect the other things you're hinting at is covered in 'Accessible Worlds' thread? And yes, I need to try to use some of the stuff over there in my next magazine.  The Mirror World and Oak's Psi World Creation Chart for a couple.

PT

Yes.  I think that you can have more of a sense of an over arching story by having a mechanism which allows a verser to plant an anchor in a world, so that they can't choose EXACTLY when they go back, but, for example, it would be 1-4 random verses or something and they couldn't choose the amount of time that elapsed, one second or one day.  The ideal would be an item or the like that would thus let the GM control whether or not the player even got it.

I like the idea of being able to go back to particularly interesting worlds periodically.  That was done quite effectively by PT for Malachai, so that he could resume his quest to fulfill the prophesy, etc.

However, I myself wouldn't be as keen to return to a normalish twentieth-century earth world periodically, since I find that type of world less interesting to play in.  I prefer stuff that is significantly different in time and/or bias.  Something that isn't in a future or past setting, and/or different in tech and/or psi and/or mag and/or bod bias, isn't as interesting to me, so I wouldn't want to have to endure such a setting every three or four worlds...

Perhaps an approach which blends into the existing scheme would be to have a connection with a world and/or person and/or object that for some reason didn't end up versing with you.  We already have a connection with our own objects (up to a certain weight limit) and loved ones (those willing to go with us) that cause things to verse with us.  What if we had a connection to something that didn't verse with us, for whatever reason?  Perhaps the connection still exists, drawing us back.  And perhaps there is some probability that when we verse, that connection will draw us back to that same world.

Of course, who knows how much time has passed since you've been away...  :p

As far as cultural variances, I think that is an excellent idea.  I lived in Southern California through grad school, then went to live in Singapore for a dozen years.  And even though we spoke English, there were plenty of "gotcha"s where folks thought we all meant the same thing, but that didn't turn out to be the case at all...  :o

I suspect its how much novelty a person can stand/likes.

I used to go to a sf con, and after about two days of the weirdness, I was ready to go back to the normal world.  My ideal schedule might have been two days a month in Weirdsville, and the rest of the month in Normalton.

Still, I think I need to write up some 'anchor' ideas. I think MJ falls more toward Oak's position.  One reviewer of his game pointed out that in Naja World (the gather setting for the First Book of Worlds) that he had created a cross-dimensional threat....and then destroyed it.  The Naja could have been a recurring enemy, and a joining element, but this got dumped.

1. So I'd undump the Naja. Its a Multiverse of nigh infinite possibility. In another universe, the Naja were not destroyed/rendered harmless.  Thats' ANCHOR #1.

However, the two other alien species in that world (I forget the names, but they were intelligent dinos and giant preying mantis' locked in a century old conflict), and the intelligent avians (that Day met in his previous world) have been in multiple universes so that is one point of 'anchoring'. (BTW, the bloodthirsty lunacy of the avians is my creation...I decides it was a side effect of their cyberneticization.) That's ANCHOR #2.

ANCHOR #3 is one that is built into the game.  You tend to meet the versers you're on the cycle of...aka the other player characters and any npc's the GM wants to put in.

ANCHOR # 4 could be the Ship of Worlds which Jhiaxus visited (and nuked Sydney with).  You can bump into Ship Resource Location Teams on many alternate universes as they try to find stuff to keep their Ship running, and as it keeps opening doors to new universes in search of resources.

ANCHOR # 5 + 6 The Sorceror-Dukes of Emerald.  This ties in to the good ship Mary Piper which is another anchor. The Dukes are immensely powerful, mildly superhuman sorcerors who have the ability to travel to alternate dimensions.  I, at one time, wrote up some more about them, but it vanished.  I think ...

Yahoo. It was a world where a magic singularity was taking place. And things were advancing very, very fast to some sort of Ascension. In actuality, the world was probably going to be transformed into a Border Supernatural where simple will could reshape....well anything.

And there was the Emerald Corporation which like everyone was struggling to keep up.

And then one of the group found out how to open a gate to another universe. And found out that he could spend time in the other universe, and come back mere seconds after he left.

Suddenly, Emerald Corp, which had been struggling to find time to test their materials, and read the spell control manuals....and actually get more than four hours of sleep a night had all the time it needed, and it was surging to the front of the field instead of just barely hanging on.

Soon, all the members of the board knew about this.  And they found that visiting other highly magical dimensions was a lot of fun....especially since they were from the magic equivalent of 2020 America, and everyone else was still stuck in mostly pre-Steampunk magics.

They decided to build the cross-dimensional ship Mary Piper, which would gather up certain magics they needed, and store it as mana in emerald gems.

Now, they have enough power stored in the Piper to do some massive project back home---perhaps the Ascension, but the members of the board are scattered hither and yon through the dimensions.  And it requires a supermajority of the board to bring the Piper home, and unload its cargo.

And perhaps not all the sorceror dukes want to go back.  Its fun to be an archmage after all when all you were in your home world was a PR flack...

ANCHOR # 7--the good ship Mary Piper runs on its trade route. In dimensions uncounted, a cargo galleon floats, an interstellar cruiseliner runs, a hydrofoil smuggler races, a submarine prowls, an Old West mule caravan plods, and a nuclear powered train glows....on their appointed course, and all of them are named 'Mary Piper'.

ANCHOR # 8---Your personal Nemesis...tick off some malevolent, but not uber-powerful deity, and you may get to see him time and again. On one world, he masquerades as an AI with 'helpful' advice, and on another one he manifests as a primitive god hungry for blood sacrifice, and on another, he possesses some evil man bent on genocide..an evil for every world.