If this scratch, this "hard reset" takes effect and the session plays out anew, what do you think would/might be different the second time around?
I keep thinking about this and trying to figure it out!
My impulse is to say, duh, chaos theory says everything will be different. They’ll probably all be lizard people or something because tiny change in evolution four billion years ago! But narratively I’m guessing a lot will be the same, with slight tweaks.
Most likely I’m guessing that the trolls won’t be involved, since we know they don’t enter it as gods after the scratch and we haven’t gotten any hints that they’ve interacted with the alternate-Earth, which means anything that stemmed from the trolls’ interaction with the kids and Earth will be different. But it’s also really hard to pin down because it seems like everything in this story isn’t cause-effect it’s effectcause and causeeffect, like both are the same and events are circles without beginnings or ends.
Also my memory sucks for what was caused by what, not that you could separate anything out anyway.
But, for ease and for what I’m guessing is the narrative direction, I’m guessing that there will be slight differences with the guardians, and the kids. And I’m going to label these all as guesses so I’m not going X will probably, I am guessing Y…
Bec won’t be around, or if he is, he’ll be a regular dog, and alt!Jade’s guardian is going to be someone else, like her grandfather. The first guardian will be more like Doc Scratch, someone enigmatic and vaguely threatening. The alt!kids are also going to all have different strengths and weaknesses, alt!John will be a jerk who pulls pranks that everyone hates, alt!Dave will be really socially awkward, alt!Rose will be an apathetic valley-girl, alt!Jade is going to be an insomniac. Alt!Rose will also have a much closer, more supportive relationship with her mom, and they will try to one-up each other with genuine displays of affection instead of sarcastic ones.
If it gets far enough, I think we’ll see the alt!kids playing more hardcore and taking things really seriously. But ultimately the session will be doomed to also bear no fruit, for whatever reason caused the current one to be barren.
Also, everyone will like Betty Crocker.