The Strange is a game published by Monte Cook Games. It is, at least in part, set in the normal world, but there are other worlds out there, in the Strange. This list has ten rumours for that setting, similar to the various different adventure hooks in the books, and these can be used as adventure hooks or simple misinformation.

1. Bacteria are common in Microcosmica, and are naturally, given the scale of the recursion, significantly more dangerous to recursors than normal bacteria. It’s rumoured that, just like normal bacteria, they can cause illnesses, and that some of these might translate out of the recursion if the recursor isn’t adequately prepared.
2. Chief Researcher Reggie Garner of Nereus One is constantly depressed that the other research bases were all abandoned after what happened to Nereus Five. It’s rumoured that he’s planning a mission to see what did happen, perhaps prodded into doing so by recursors, and that he may be on the verge of having the spark kindled in him.
3. Entering Microcosmica through inapposite means would be disastrous, but the recursion tends to prevent inapposite gates and other forms of inapposite travel. It’s rumoured, though, that some have been attempting to create inapposite gates, though for what reason isn’t known.
4. ImmuneSuppres is a drug that keeps the bad reactions from the quantum miniaturisation process at bay, and those left untreated eventually die and degrade into rotting goo. There are rumours that this goo can take on a life of its own, and that a few bodies of dead researchers are currently roaming the hidden areas of Nereus One as animate protoplasm.
5. Immunologist Helen Rodrigues on Nereus One is one of the few human Microcosmica natives with the spark, though she doesn’t realise this as yet. It’s rumoured that some recursors have been wondering how best to exploit this fact to their own benefit.
6. It’s rumoured that the Karum of Ruk have agents in Microcosmica, because the sort of research done in the recursion and the recursion itself are both compatible with what Ruk is often doing, and that the Karum believe they will gain an advantage back home.
7. Nereus One is the main science base in Microcosmica and the place where recursors usually translate in. It’s rumoured that no-one knows when the base was originally built or who by, and that the first users found it already up and running, though deserted.
8. Nereus Two is one of the other facilities in Microcosmica that was decommissioned after the Nereus Five incident. It’s thought that attempts are being made to get approval to start using Nereus Two again, so that more researchers can be brought it.
9. The main science base in Microcosmica is Nereus One, a massive metal sphere. The station has a torpedo bay, as Microcosmica is regularly unfriendly to outsiders, and it’s rumoured that it has other, hidden, defences should the situation ever truly get out of hand.
10. There are access locks on Nereus One, through which people can enter and leave the station to explore the rest of Microcosmica. It’s rumoured that the station’s computer has been recording these opening and closing when no-one is known to have entered or left.