Lucy's Choice: Let's make Lucifer Parallels! - Page 16

PTTG · 02-19-2017, 01:43 PM

Here's one that's in the process of becoming a hell world:

A psionic awakening struck the (non-crosstime homeline parallel) planet in 2012, afflicting everyone with hundreds of points of varied psi advantages with a subtle drawback. Opening one's mind to access the powers leaves one vulnerable to what has been called "the seductive void." Those that fall to it grow more powerful and less human, gradually gaining Callus, Bully, Bloodlust, and Bestial over a short time. Some appear to resist the call, but in fact have only been able to mask the void with the appearance of humanity.

It's now July 2013, and for the most part civilization has regressed to huddled clans, most of them lead by individuals with charismatic or mind-control based powers. Nearly every clan leader is, at best, a high-functioning face of the seductive void, and they constantly war for control of the shattered cities, the most promising recruits, and even merely stockpiles of essential resources. Psi cannot make food (rather, cannot efficiently make food; it takes more calories to make it than one can extract), so clans must constantly scavenge and hunt.

The first few weeks after the awakening was an age of wonders, with miracles everywhere. However, after a month the first signs of widespread psionic violence began to take hold, and an accelerating spiral of people using their powers to defend themselves and falling to the void in turn quickly lead to the collapse of society. The scars of the early days can be found everywhere; indeed, although most psionic effects cease with the death of the creator, some weird artifacts remain, and old cities are hot spots of poltergeist activity and other undirected psi fallout. And nuclear fallout, for psionic combat was not the only front in the global breakdown that followed.

The seductive void is an actual metadimentional entity that is feeding on the chaos of this worldline. Those who arrive here and find themselves in dire circumstances will find that they, too, receive the gift of new psionic powers, but will also quickly face the void. Defeating it (somehow) would remove both the powers and the madness, and leave this place merely a dying world.

An adventure here should be terrifying. Enemies will appear unassuming -- they have modern clothing and little armor -- but have a diverse and complimentary set of psionic powers. The greatest weakness of such a group is that most foes are quite specialized, so the loss of one member of a gang will remove a substantial capability from the entire group. For instance, loss of the individual who imbues all their allies with shields means that everyone loses their DR.

EDIT: Alternatively, consider playing it as a light superheroes game but then have it turn bad.

PTTG · 02-21-2017, 06:18 PM

Fauna-1:

In this timeline, the divergence appears to start in the late 1800s. By 1930, the world is mostly democratic and industrialist. Corporations are the real power, and war is unthinkable. Communism never really took hold, although the theory is there.

Around 1950 the explosive industrial growth was beginning to show strains. Space exploration never took off (ha ha) here, and indeed while engineering was respected, real "science" was somewhat disrespected. There was remarkable disdain for environmentalism, although some arguments about public health lead to to the search for alternative forms of power. Nuclear was eventually developed as a power source, and the oceans were used as a waste sink.

Things continued well into the century, and global warming was accelerated by about a decade relative to homeline.

So far, it sounds like a polluted-to-death world, but that's not what happened. In 1988, a hive mind of all non-human animal life attacked civilization in a coordinated strike.

While the image of gorillas or sharks or tigers mauling people is expected by the genre, most large animals were quite rare by this point. In fact, the great threat was the insect kingdom. Once provided with coordination, it was more than sufficient to nearly annihilate humans. Cities were scoured by massive waves of flying, stinging, creeping insects; it seemed that whatever granted the hive mind also allowed almost all animals to enter torpor or stasis somehow, which apparently allowed very large populations of insects to be built up over the years preceding the attack. When the attack began, massive swarms consumed food and flesh alike.

Insects also attacked the infrastructure of civilization, shorting electrical systems, disrupting machines, and contaminating fuels.

After about ten years of this one-sided war, humanity had been essentially eliminated. Antarctica was the only place humans survived, in nuclear-heated and hydroponically-fed colonies well inland; perhaps a few others in sealed bunkers, but even those were not totally secure.

Current date 2003. For the first time, exploration teams aren't being attacked immediately on sight by swarms of penguins. Crossworld teams that jump in to urban areas will find silent and decaying cities covered in rich foliage and inhabited by wild and not entirely unfriendly animals.

Humans recruited from this worldline might be very familiar with all kinds of life-support tech from Arctic colonies, but also some level of Zoophobia. Those over 30 because they remember the animal war, and those under 30 because they've almost never seen an animal before.

David Johnston2 · 02-22-2017, 12:04 AM

A world in the middle of the Gray Goo Apocalypse. Livable landspace shrinks year by year as the slurry spreads.

PTTG · 02-22-2017, 12:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

A world in the middle of the Gray Goo Apocalypse. Livable landspace shrinks year by year as the slurry spreads.

You'd have to make it either be extremely viscus or else have a critical mass below which it doesn't spread, because otherwise it'd get spread by wind pretty fast.

Like the idea. The big thing is I'd make it have some other threat, most especially that it isn't weird science, and thus could spread to other worlds.

Oooh, make it a useful raw material, however -- like, it's originally a mining goo or something and it concentrates highly refined minerals in its matrix -- and you have the setup for something where some short-sighted people want to export the stuff.

PTTG · 04-22-2017, 08:03 PM

Zebrowski-1 was initially classified a Lucifer parallel. Further investigation revealed six impact sites, each the recipient of an extremely fast impactor, and each carefully aimed at a major population center.

Archeological examination reveals that the world was in fact destroyed by relativistic impactors built with superscience native to the timeline. The timeline diverged with the discovery of a reactionless propulsion system and a total conversion power system in the 1930s. The combination of these two two technologies (in fact, two implementations of the same effect) resulted in a dramatically different WWII that resulted in a four-way cold war settling in by 1949. The Allies, consisting of the UK and the commonwealth, the United States, and the exiled Western European governments; The Axis, consisting of the entirety of continental Europe and much of North Africa and the Middle East; Imperial Japan's Co-Prosperity Sphere, which included all of coastal China and much of the inland region; and the USSR, which has control of the majority of inland China in addition to its holdings in OTL.

All four powers began to expand into space, inhabiting the moon, mars, and the asteroid belt thanks to the superscience tech. This period of cold war lasted for decades. Finally, it seems that some provocation finally was too much to bear, despite the 'pressure release' of space expansion. In 1986, a hot war broke out between the Axis and the USSR, and soon Japan joined in with the intention of continuing the conquest of the mainland.

Around this point, deep-space KKVs were activated by all sides. It's unclear if any side knew or suspected that the other sides had the KKVs in place, although it is suspected that all the KKVs were launched within a period of days. This is all the more confusing considering that the telescopes the factions used would be unable to detect the KKVs until the final hours before impact. Over a period of five days, six high-velocity impactors with masses in the metric tons struck earth. Any one would have been serious, but the six in rapid succession nearly extinguished life on earth and produced a dusty ice age while simultaneously kicking off a series of volcanic eruptions.

No survivors have been discovered, and the ash and dust is still too thick to search space for solar colonies. The best estimate we have is that as many as 32,000 people were off earth at the time, and there's no word if non-earth colonies were struck in the same wave...

The current date is 1990

fchase8 · 04-23-2017, 12:44 PM

I like the idea of searching for survivors off-world. It would be really hard for Infinity, but potentially rewarding in terms of technology. Would the super-science of this world work on other worlds? Maybe Infinity doesn't know, because it hasn't been able to get its hands on any to take to another timeline and test.

To make things more interesting, something like three-fourths of those off-worlders would be from awful totalitarian regimes. Should Infinity 'save' cross-world Space Nazis for their tech?

And what's Centrum's policy on this world? Centrum would obviously want the super-science. One the one hand, the centralized non-democracy would work better than Infinity with the totalitarian regimes of Nazis, Soviets, or Imperial Japanese, but would struggle mightily with not just ideas such as racial superiority, but even their languages. Weirdly, UK/US space survivors would be more appealing to Centrum, since they speak English (and aren't crazy).

ericthered · 04-23-2017, 02:09 PM

There are several worlds even in just basic infinite worlds in which space exploration is notably easier, and in my games infinity uses them to launch parachronic satellites.

This world might be the best of all of them, if infinity can figure out/secure the tech, as its mostly uninhabited, unlike the others.

If you stick this on the wrong quantum, you can get KKV speeds onZebrowski and then switch worlds to a meaningful target. So I would recommend against sticking it on Quantums 5, 3, or 8.

Why did they use KKV's instead of matter conversion bombs or just nukes?

PTTG · 04-23-2017, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericthered

There are several worlds even in just basic infinite worlds in which space exploration is notably easier, and in my games infinity uses them to launch parachronic satellites.

This world might be the best of all of them, if infinity can figure out/secure the tech, as its mostly uninhabited, unlike the others.

If you stick this on the wrong quantum, you can get KKV speeds onZebrowski and then switch worlds to a meaningful target. So I would recommend against sticking it on Quantums 5, 3, or 8.

Why did they use KKV's instead of matter conversion bombs or just nukes?

The idea was based on common criticisms of science fiction settings; i.e., that warp drives are better weapons than they are propulsion systems. As for a watsonian explanation, nukes had not been developed to be as reliable (scientists worked on other projects), and the converter has a limited capacity at any one time -- it can't "melt down" in any real sense.

(E) · 04-23-2017, 03:05 PM

Lost
While playing with parachronic technology the inhabitants of this world inadvertently made a jump drive of incredible efficiency so efficient that it managed to move the entire planet. This earth is currently drifting 20 light minutes from alpha-centauri and is largely frozen. It is a tempting target for parachronic organisation's interested in extrasolar exploration, finding out what happened or getting hold of the prototype drive.

fchase8 · 04-24-2017, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericthered

There are several worlds even in just basic infinite worlds in which space exploration is notably easier, and in my games infinity uses them to launch parachronic satellites.

This world might be the best of all of them, if infinity can figure out/secure the tech, as its mostly uninhabited, unlike the others.

Yeah, wouldn't most worlds with better space exploration be high-tech, and thus dicey for Infinity to do anything in?

And it would be hard to test uninhabited worlds to see if space exploration is easier on them.

There is a 'Soviets got to the moon first' parallel from an issue of Pyramid, where Centrum is infiltrating the Soviet space program in order to use it to get to Mars, and get something special there (the 'something special' isn't specified).

I always wished to somehow use one of the worlds where the speed of light is 1% different (there's one where it's faster, one where it's slower).

02-19-2017, 01:43 PM	#151
PTTG Join Date: Feb 2011	Re: Lucy's Choice: Let's make Lucifer Parallels! Here's one that's in the process of becoming a hell world: A psionic awakening struck the (non-crosstime homeline parallel) planet in 2012, afflicting everyone with hundreds of points of varied psi advantages with a subtle drawback. Opening one's mind to access the powers leaves one vulnerable to what has been called "the seductive void." Those that fall to it grow more powerful and less human, gradually gaining Callus, Bully, Bloodlust, and Bestial over a short time. Some appear to resist the call, but in fact have only been able to mask the void with the appearance of humanity. It's now July 2013, and for the most part civilization has regressed to huddled clans, most of them lead by individuals with charismatic or mind-control based powers. Nearly every clan leader is, at best, a high-functioning face of the seductive void, and they constantly war for control of the shattered cities, the most promising recruits, and even merely stockpiles of essential resources. Psi cannot make food (rather, cannot efficiently make food; it takes more calories to make it than one can extract), so clans must constantly scavenge and hunt. The first few weeks after the awakening was an age of wonders, with miracles everywhere. However, after a month the first signs of widespread psionic violence began to take hold, and an accelerating spiral of people using their powers to defend themselves and falling to the void in turn quickly lead to the collapse of society. The scars of the early days can be found everywhere; indeed, although most psionic effects cease with the death of the creator, some weird artifacts remain, and old cities are hot spots of poltergeist activity and other undirected psi fallout. And nuclear fallout, for psionic combat was not the only front in the global breakdown that followed. The seductive void is an actual metadimentional entity that is feeding on the chaos of this worldline. Those who arrive here and find themselves in dire circumstances will find that they, too, receive the gift of new psionic powers, but will also quickly face the void. Defeating it (somehow) would remove both the powers and the madness, and leave this place merely a dying world. An adventure here should be terrifying. Enemies will appear unassuming -- they have modern clothing and little armor -- but have a diverse and complimentary set of psionic powers. The greatest weakness of such a group is that most foes are quite specialized, so the loss of one member of a gang will remove a substantial capability from the entire group. For instance, loss of the individual who imbues all their allies with shields means that everyone loses their DR. EDIT: Alternatively, consider playing it as a light superheroes game but then have it turn bad. Last edited by PTTG; 02-19-2017 at 02:57 PM.

02-21-2017, 06:18 PM	#152
PTTG Join Date: Feb 2011	Re: Lucy's Choice: Let's make Lucifer Parallels! Fauna-1: In this timeline, the divergence appears to start in the late 1800s. By 1930, the world is mostly democratic and industrialist. Corporations are the real power, and war is unthinkable. Communism never really took hold, although the theory is there. Around 1950 the explosive industrial growth was beginning to show strains. Space exploration never took off (ha ha) here, and indeed while engineering was respected, real "science" was somewhat disrespected. There was remarkable disdain for environmentalism, although some arguments about public health lead to to the search for alternative forms of power. Nuclear was eventually developed as a power source, and the oceans were used as a waste sink. Things continued well into the century, and global warming was accelerated by about a decade relative to homeline. So far, it sounds like a polluted-to-death world, but that's not what happened. In 1988, a hive mind of all non-human animal life attacked civilization in a coordinated strike. While the image of gorillas or sharks or tigers mauling people is expected by the genre, most large animals were quite rare by this point. In fact, the great threat was the insect kingdom. Once provided with coordination, it was more than sufficient to nearly annihilate humans. Cities were scoured by massive waves of flying, stinging, creeping insects; it seemed that whatever granted the hive mind also allowed almost all animals to enter torpor or stasis somehow, which apparently allowed very large populations of insects to be built up over the years preceding the attack. When the attack began, massive swarms consumed food and flesh alike. Insects also attacked the infrastructure of civilization, shorting electrical systems, disrupting machines, and contaminating fuels. After about ten years of this one-sided war, humanity had been essentially eliminated. Antarctica was the only place humans survived, in nuclear-heated and hydroponically-fed colonies well inland; perhaps a few others in sealed bunkers, but even those were not totally secure. Current date 2003. For the first time, exploration teams aren't being attacked immediately on sight by swarms of penguins. Crossworld teams that jump in to urban areas will find silent and decaying cities covered in rich foliage and inhabited by wild and not entirely unfriendly animals. Humans recruited from this worldline might be very familiar with all kinds of life-support tech from Arctic colonies, but also some level of Zoophobia. Those over 30 because they remember the animal war, and those under 30 because they've almost never seen an animal before. Last edited by PTTG; 02-21-2017 at 09:46 PM.

02-22-2017, 12:04 AM	#153
David Johnston2 Join Date: Dec 2007	Re: Lucy's Choice: Let's make Lucifer Parallels! A world in the middle of the Gray Goo Apocalypse. Livable landspace shrinks year by year as the slurry spreads.

04-22-2017, 08:03 PM	#155
PTTG Join Date: Feb 2011	Re: Lucy's Choice: Let's make Lucifer Parallels! Zebrowski-1 was initially classified a Lucifer parallel. Further investigation revealed six impact sites, each the recipient of an extremely fast impactor, and each carefully aimed at a major population center. Archeological examination reveals that the world was in fact destroyed by relativistic impactors built with superscience native to the timeline. The timeline diverged with the discovery of a reactionless propulsion system and a total conversion power system in the 1930s. The combination of these two two technologies (in fact, two implementations of the same effect) resulted in a dramatically different WWII that resulted in a four-way cold war settling in by 1949. The Allies, consisting of the UK and the commonwealth, the United States, and the exiled Western European governments; The Axis, consisting of the entirety of continental Europe and much of North Africa and the Middle East; Imperial Japan's Co-Prosperity Sphere, which included all of coastal China and much of the inland region; and the USSR, which has control of the majority of inland China in addition to its holdings in OTL. All four powers began to expand into space, inhabiting the moon, mars, and the asteroid belt thanks to the superscience tech. This period of cold war lasted for decades. Finally, it seems that some provocation finally was too much to bear, despite the 'pressure release' of space expansion. In 1986, a hot war broke out between the Axis and the USSR, and soon Japan joined in with the intention of continuing the conquest of the mainland. Around this point, deep-space KKVs were activated by all sides. It's unclear if any side knew or suspected that the other sides had the KKVs in place, although it is suspected that all the KKVs were launched within a period of days. This is all the more confusing considering that the telescopes the factions used would be unable to detect the KKVs until the final hours before impact. Over a period of five days, six high-velocity impactors with masses in the metric tons struck earth. Any one would have been serious, but the six in rapid succession nearly extinguished life on earth and produced a dusty ice age while simultaneously kicking off a series of volcanic eruptions. No survivors have been discovered, and the ash and dust is still too thick to search space for solar colonies. The best estimate we have is that as many as 32,000 people were off earth at the time, and there's no word if non-earth colonies were struck in the same wave... The current date is 1990 Last edited by PTTG; 04-22-2017 at 11:11 PM.

04-23-2017, 12:44 PM	#156
fchase8 Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: New York, NY	Re: Lucy's Choice: Let's make Lucifer Parallels! I like the idea of searching for survivors off-world. It would be really hard for Infinity, but potentially rewarding in terms of technology. Would the super-science of this world work on other worlds? Maybe Infinity doesn't know, because it hasn't been able to get its hands on any to take to another timeline and test. To make things more interesting, something like three-fourths of those off-worlders would be from awful totalitarian regimes. Should Infinity 'save' cross-world Space Nazis for their tech? And what's Centrum's policy on this world? Centrum would obviously want the super-science. One the one hand, the centralized non-democracy would work better than Infinity with the totalitarian regimes of Nazis, Soviets, or Imperial Japanese, but would struggle mightily with not just ideas such as racial superiority, but even their languages. Weirdly, UK/US space survivors would be more appealing to Centrum, since they speak English (and aren't crazy).

04-23-2017, 02:09 PM	#157
ericthered Hero of Democracy Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: far from the ocean	Re: Lucy's Choice: Let's make Lucifer Parallels! There are several worlds even in just basic infinite worlds in which space exploration is notably easier, and in my games infinity uses them to launch parachronic satellites. This world might be the best of all of them, if infinity can figure out/secure the tech, as its mostly uninhabited, unlike the others. If you stick this on the wrong quantum, you can get KKV speeds onZebrowski and then switch worlds to a meaningful target. So I would recommend against sticking it on Quantums 5, 3, or 8. Why did they use KKV's instead of matter conversion bombs or just nukes? __________________ Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one!

04-23-2017, 03:05 PM	#159
(E) Join Date: Jul 2014 Location: New Zealand.	Re: Lucy's Choice: Let's make Lucifer Parallels! Lost While playing with parachronic technology the inhabitants of this world inadvertently made a jump drive of incredible efficiency so efficient that it managed to move the entire planet. This earth is currently drifting 20 light minutes from alpha-centauri and is largely frozen. It is a tempting target for parachronic organisation's interested in extrasolar exploration, finding out what happened or getting hold of the prototype drive. __________________ Waiting for inspiration to strike...... And spending too much time thinking about farming for RPGs Contributor to Citadel at Nordvörn Last edited by (E); 04-23-2017 at 03:09 PM.