For those who have checked out my Gryphon College stuff (linked to above) I was thinking about a change to the roster. Instead of the engineering dude being from the Terran Empire, I think I would prefer he be from our modern* Earth, still an engineer and all that, because I would love to use some modern music for the stuff he listens to, and because I have an adventure I have been working on that revolves around the PCs needing to enter (but not necessarily win) a music/singing contest in Haalkitaine. I call the adventure Haalkitaine Idol (tee-he-he). I would love them to be able to pick out some modern music (or not-so-modern), like classic rock or other styles of Earth-music, just something that would be a surprise to the locals of Shadow World. If he (or she, no reason to keep the gender male) was from the Empire, then it would be hard to determine what the music would be like, not to mention a big stretch to say they liked this "ancient Earth" music. What do you guys think? Better to be from the Empire, or from modern (or near-modern) Earth?
*I keep seeing the preview for the Queen movie, Bohemian Rhapsody, and loving the idea of him jamming out to the title song on this weird device (small "boombox" bluetoothed to his iPhone, or something like that). Of course, the players[I/] will know what they are hearing even though their characters won't, which should make for some interesting interaction.