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Old 02-12-2008, 12:34 AM   #6
knarf
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: Updating GURPS IST

Let's not underestimate Y2K.

As mentioned on Robert M. Shroeck's timeline, a precognitive barrier called The Wall was blocking any precogs from seeing anything in the year 2000 and beyond. This is supported by the flavor fiction in the IST-2000 chapter of GURPS Y2K.

Presumably, during the year 2000, all hell breaks loose. The Harvesters from GURPS Monsters are the closest official answer to what happened, but I'm not sure it has Mr. Shroeck's seal of approval.

I'm running an IST campaign myself, so I've given this quite a bit of thought.

Here's my take:

All hell breaks loose in Y2K. millions, if not billions, of people are killed in a variety of cataclysmic ways. The ISTs realize that they do not have the level of resources needed to combat the threat. It's at this point that the Deep Pockets research (mentioned in the timeline) starts to pay off. Contact is quickly made with other, nearby timelines (which oddly enough have supers) and outworld heroes are quickly imported to help (In classic DC tradition).

The heroes manage to save the day. However, the nascent parachronic technology goes flooey around August, moving the IST timeline out of it's previously accessible band. This means that several non-native heroes are stranded on IST Earth (plenty of grist for the story mill there). This also explains the complete inability of precogs to read anything past August (as mentioned in the timeline).

Manhattan Island is completely leveled in the crisis. The UN buys it from the cash-strapped US and rebuilds it into a city of tomorrow (and neutral territory). Using more stable parachronic technology, the UN explores it's new demesne, finding at least one resource rich world. Interworld resources, along with Meeranar trade contracts, replace fusion power as the UN's tool to encourage compliance. They realize that this situation will not last forever, so they are doing their best to use this opportunity to create international cooperation as best they can.

This basically means that the world is a very different place, and the 9/11 attacks are highly unlikely. Even if someone tried, there are enough supers in New York that someone with the ability to do something about it would intervene very quickly.

My characters are in a mostly reconstructed San Francisco, so I haven't dealt much with world politics
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