11-11-2017, 03:55 PM | #71 | ||
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: New York, NY
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Re: GURPS Lucifer-5?
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Though, even if there's not interest in West Virginia coal, there still would be in its lumber (can't get that in space), and so clear-cut away its natural beauty. I really like the idea of Appalachian miners in space - still oppressed and exploited. And now it would be 'Workers of the Worlds, Unite!' |
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11-11-2017, 05:34 PM | #72 |
Join Date: Jan 2014
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Re: GURPS Lucifer-5?
Do you think, at least in the US, that some of the gun control laws of the ATF, like forbidding suppressors due to claiming that they'll be used to poach, would still be a thing in this setting?
I remember reading that back then you could easily buy dynamite for use for example. |
11-11-2017, 06:11 PM | #73 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: MO, U.S.A.
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Re: GURPS Lucifer-5?
My father, and Grand Father bought dynamite in the 1950's to blow out stumps in Missouri.
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Xenophilia is Dr. Who. Plus Lecherous is Jack Harkness.- Anaraxes |
11-11-2017, 06:18 PM | #74 |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: GURPS Lucifer-5?
Dynamite isn't "that hard" to produce on one's own. Horribly dangerous to screw around with large amounts of nitroglycerin, but not difficult chemistry.
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Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check. |
11-11-2017, 06:32 PM | #75 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: GURPS Lucifer-5?
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So with no WWI and no Great Depression (in the US at least) it's entirely possible that there would be no sensationalized crime wave and no market in the US (again at least) for big gun control legislation. The date of divergence is also quite close to the birth of the UK's first wave of major gun control. That was sold (IIRC right after WWI) as being needed to keep guns out of the hands of the IRA. "Troubles" in Ireland are still quite likely in some form but without a WWI things _could_ go differently. Especially as Britain might not have more pressing matters. with improved economic possibilities resulting from rocketplane travel all over the globe and torchships to the planets peace next door might look attractive. Again, I want to stress that I do not particularly think this a likely outcome but it might just be possible. Also, with rocket-powered troop carriers presenting threat of beachheads anywhere and everywhere a Swiss-style program of universal military preparedness might look like the answer. So that takes us back to different possibilities in gun control.
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Fred Brackin |
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11-12-2017, 11:23 AM | #76 | |
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: New York, NY
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Re: GURPS Lucifer-5?
Without WWI or the Great Depression, there also isn't as strong a government to enforce gun control in America.
Though the 'winds of change' wouldn't have been snuffed entirely. It's easy to just 'freeze time' at the moment of divergence, add in some advanced tech, and call it a parallel. Sometimes I think even the GURPS Alternate Earths is guilty of that. Progressives were on the march in 1908, Wilson, Roosevelt, even Taft (in his way). There would be reforms, even with superscience but no WWI. For instance, the franchise would still expand in the U.K., maybe not as fast as IRL, but that was where things would go. What about female suffrage? I know that WWI was a big factor in that, but it was a big cause beforehand. The Germans & French might not pass it (IRL France didn't pass it until after WWII), but U.K. & U.S. might, eventually. Maybe it's a big present day issue in 1938 Lucifer-5. The gung-ho nature of Lucifer-5 doesn't seem to fit with Prohibition, but that was always an outlier IRL. There would still be dry counties across America, far from the torchships. Quote:
Note that this could happen in Europe, but not America. The U.S. would still be isolationist, believing the oceans could protect it, and the off-world rivalry far, far away. |
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11-12-2017, 03:05 PM | #77 |
Join Date: Jan 2014
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Re: GURPS Lucifer-5?
I guess invasion literature would be a big thing still?
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11-12-2017, 08:45 PM | #78 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: GURPS Lucifer-5?
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When the time to cross the Atlantic shrinks from something like a week to 2 hours or less the US wouldn't have much faith in oceans any more.
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Fred Brackin |
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11-12-2017, 09:06 PM | #79 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: GURPS Lucifer-5?
Strangely enough, the Germans would have been better off with investing the money they spent on the dreadnoughts on artillery and submarines. With more submarines, they could have sank the British and French fleets and not bothered with soft targets like cargo ships. With more artillery, they could have just established a superior defense along the French border and chewed their troops to hamburger with only a quarter of the troops (and sent the other troops to roll back the Russians to the Urals). The Central Powers could have divided European Russia by the end of 1915 and swung around to crush Greece, Italy, Romania, etc in 1916. By the end of 1917, they would have controlled the eastern half of Europe, and could have probably forced the French and British to sue for peace.
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11-13-2017, 01:49 AM | #80 | |
Join Date: Jan 2014
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Re: GURPS Lucifer-5?
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lucifer-5 |
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