New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Charles Babbage designed the Difference Engine in the 1820s. The reasons it was never completed were funding and organisation, not missing concepts.

If someone has built a working Analytical Engine, that's more impressive, but it only requires the ability to sort out the differences in Babbage's various stages of designs, create a complete design and then fund and run a complex and expensive engineering project. The actual plot is "Did the chap think of doing this by himself, or is someone manipulating and funding him?"

I am aware of Charles Babbage. Others on these boards could tell you that. Your final sentence does cover the plot.

[adm]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

And for a tragic twist, perhaps some of your opponents are anti-racists who are convinced not letting Lincoln get assassinated is the thing that'll make it worse.

Or come from a time line where they KNOW it's worse.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Willy

I read in several recent publications from the last 25 years, that the nationalist army of china was hampered by the lack of ammo and supplies but the biggest problem for them were 2 other things. A lot of corruption, big parts of the elite an namely Chiang Kai-shek´s own family and another big problem he was himself infertile and his only son a "guest" in moscow. Letting his troops loose on the communists would endangering his bloodline and in a certain way also his afterlife, so Kai-Shek didn´t fight the communists when he could, even if Mao was actively fighting alongside with japanese troops. The nationalists were a very long time more than able and ready to crush the communists but were strctly ordered not to. There is proove that on several occasions nationalist forces "forgot" supplies so the communists found them, ordered by Kai-Shek himself. This helped the ragtag army of Mao to survive the war.
Therefore Mao was in the better position, after WWII to engage the nationalists, even than Kai-Shek played nice as long as he could.

If you want the nationalists to win, you have at least free Kai-sheks son from Stalin´s hospitality and bring him into the US or GB, because this 2 governments are anti communist, and would press Kai-Shek to attack Mao early on.
Or better remove the whole Kai-Shek Clan from power and install someone else. Because even if Kai-shek decides to fight, his family is his other weakness and they were corrupt to the bone. A lot of money and stuff for the army just "vanished", it was partly doing more harm than the thin supply lines to the allys

I read part of a memoir from the guy assigned to build the new Burma Road after the Japanese had captured the other leg, but before the British and Americans entered the war. He had a lot of trouble like that plus he could only get a little heavy equipment and a lot of the job had to be done with muscle power.

[Astromancer]

Duplicate posting, sorry.

[Astromancer]

Flying Reindeer

This scenario takes the now generally rejected "Stoned Ape Theory" as its starting point.

The amazing resequencing of mushroom DNA in the 2030s led not only to massively enhanced commercial mushroom production and high protein mushrooms, but also to a revolution in magic mushrooms.

One type of magic mushroom called"Melange"(the creator was a Sci Fi fan) had truly amazing effects. It seemed to act as an intelligence enhancer.

One researcher on the project had a daughter beginning puberty at the time Melange's properties were being discovered. And she also had custody of her nephew, also going through puberty. Knowing how much brain development happens at puberty, the woman gave her daughter and nephew melange in large amounts.

When this was discovered the real shock set in. The children had radically enhanced intelligence and other brain function improvements.

Like its fictional namesake, Melange expands the mind.

Basically, it's an espionage heavy biopunk campaign. Children given large amounts of Melange during puberty can, in GURPS terms, gain up to IQ +5, and multiple mental advantages like Empathy , Intuitive Mathematician, or Perfect Balance . At least most kids can. About one in twenty children taking large does of Melange developes severe schizophrenia.

The brutal risk makes giving melange to children monsterously evil. The benefits of having tens of thousands of radically enhanced citizens is something no nation can ignore. The possibility of giving your children a golden path to any future they choose is also impossible to ignore.

A shadow war to control melange supplies. Moral quagmires to use it. And the horror of being left behind as the rest of humanity becomes superhuman. Have fun.

[Astromancer]

Aftermath

The Plague Wars were over long ago. Except for the US and a few other nations most of the world lost four out of five people and then went through a sterility plague. But that was over when I was in grammar school. I'm a grey haired grandpa now. Why are we still providing charity for the whole planet these days? Especially when everyone says we never helped at all.

This scenario takes from The Lanterns (a scenario I offered a couple years ago) and moves the story a few decades ahead. The USA, in partnership with Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Wales, and Scotland, developed a new type of flu vaccine that immunizes against a wide spectrum of flu viruses by redirecting the immune response against the most genetically stable features of the flu virus genome. This vaccine was widely rejected around the world and treated as a fraud.

Among those who thought the vaccine was a fraud was a government that planed to release a suite of superflus as soon as they had the vaccines for all twenty types of flu. Something went wrong and they were wiped out. Sadly a mumps based sterility disease called Shrivel was released in the same accident.

The world's population crashed and couldn't restore itself. Vaccines for Shrivel were made and the few children born began to grow up normally. Those nations that were vaccinated with the board spectrum flu vaccine, were able to organize public health measures and never suffered from Shrivel in the first place.

Now decades after the crisis, the vaccinated nations are experiencing compassion fatigue. At the same time, those nations that collapsed are becoming frustrated at the glacial rate of recovery.

Basically, the PCs are diplomats and government agents trying to prevent a social collapse. The chattering classes of those nations that went through the plagues are being swept up in conspiracy theories and paranoia. The massive depopulation and the multi decade disruption of the education systems of these lands has massively complicated recovery. It feels like someone is keeping them down. Meanwhile, the nations (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, the USA, and Wales) which didn't go through the plagues, aren't particularly delighted to be accused of Imperialism and mass murder. Keeping communications open and preventing terrorist violence is becoming a vast job.

[Inky]

Here's a link to the first of the original "The Lanterns" posts, for anyone that's looking for it. http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...&postcount=129

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Inky

Here's a link to the first of the original "The Lanterns" posts, for anyone that's looking for it. http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...&postcount=129

Thank you! I appreciate your kindness.

For anyone wanting the other posts on { The Lanterns } start on page 13 of this thread.

And always thank Inky for finding it.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Aftermath

The Plague Wars were over long ago. Except for the US and a few other nations most of the world lost four out of five people and then went through a sterility plague. But that was over when I was in grammar school. I'm a grey haired grandpa now. Why are we still providing charity for the whole planet these days? Especially when everyone says we never helped at all.

The key difference between this scenario and The Lanterns is the mood. The first scenario was set at the end of the plague with vaccines and the struggle to survive. This scenario is set forty years later. The under forties outside of the USA and the other vaccinated nations (hereafter the Pentalpha Nations ) are few. But the young are fertile and having children. The struggle is for a tiny generation to both raise large numbers of children and care for the older generations.

Life in the Pentalpha Nations is good but feels stressed. Serious compassion fatigue is setting in among other issues. Also there has been a leap forward in everyday technology. Now, much of the technological progress has been slower than the 20th century, but most of that progress stayed at the prototype stage because of lack of investment.

So, just as broadcast TV systems first begin broadcasting with the BBC in 1935, but between the Great Depression and WWII weren't invested in until the late 1940s, much of the technology that seems to be brand new in 2122, is really older. But it seems like a stunning transformation.

Meanwhile, in those nations hit by the plagues, poverty is the norm. Relatively few people from before the Plague Wars are alive in those nations hit by the plagues. For those that survived the plagues economic depression and food shortages, as well as the collapse of the medical systems of their nations and a general collapse of sanitation, all shortened their lives. All these burdens also brought sorrow and mental illness. And mental illness was the least treated problem going. The education systems in the plague struck nations collapsed too. Which exacerbated all other problems. Massive bitter frustration with no useful target is the norm. This leads to a total lack of any ability to understand why the Pentalpha Nations might be getting tired of paying for reconstruction aid that seems to do no good and is sneered at as inadequate by the recipients.

More later...

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Aftermath

The Plague Wars were over long ago. Except for the US and a few other nations most of the world lost four out of five people and then went through a sterility plague. But that was over when I was in grammar school. I'm a grey haired grandpa now. Why are we still providing charity for the whole planet these days? Especially when everyone says we never helped at all.

One of the best places to set up the tensions in this scenario is the British Isles. Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, make up the United Celtic Republic . They're one of the Pentalpha Nations and England (also a republic) borders them directly. Because of early vaccination and stable health systems none of these countries experienced crippling depopulation. Although they suffered brutal economic collapse. The United Celtic Republic (UCR) is mostly recovered from the plague. TL9 fusion power generation keeps the lights on, the schools, hospitals, communication systems, and public services all run. Life is drab compared to preplague times, but stable and secure. England on the other claw is brutally under populated, the population of England is four million people, lower than the 12th century. The old still outnumber the young. Working age people suffer severely. Those to old or to young to work outnumber the working age people. The infrastructure hasn't been adequately maintained in decades. Thus society is forced to be low tech, so working hours are long, pay is low, people leave the little schooling they can get young, and retire only when they are to sick and feeble to earn their living. Life is drab, hard, and frustrating. About the only positive thing these English people can see is that life is at least egalitarian. The Republic of England has little inequality, everyone is poor together.

The Chattering Classes are still around, smaller, and less educated and sophisticated. These folks are keenly aware of how far England has fallen. Example: between lack of a market and the dangers of epidemics, theater is rare to non-existent in this England and most of the films they get come from North America and Australia. The reviews are savage. However, as most films are shown at subsidized film nights generally shown every other week in most towns, the reviews don't matter much. Still the Pentalpha Nations are deeply resented. Also, like other nations that were highly civilized and wealthy a century or two ago, but are now impoverished, they are xenophobic and snobbish.

London, still both the capital and the economic hub, is particularly bitter. The fact that some visiting Scots kids graffitied the houses of Parliament with the old Mother Goose rhyme

"York was, London is, Edinburgh will be/
The largest and bonniest of the Three."

caused much unneeded pain.

The collapse of Canada, with all the constituent parts except Quebec joining the USA, and the new nation calling itself the North American Federated States (NAFS) is treated as a conquest following a brutal conspiracy. Although all actually educated people (rare in this England) know it was a desperate improvisation in response to the ongoing crisis of the Plague Wars and their aftermath. Americans and Canadians get called the "Naffs" in slang.

North American fashions are followed in pop music, clothing, and pop culture generally. But limited by poverty. Continental Europe, far worse off generally, is a source of fear. Xenophobic terror of mass migration to Britain is a constant. Similarly, both bitter resentment of those who emigrate to the NAFS and desperate longing to emigrate to the Pentalpha Nations is just as constant.

England lost it's monarchy in the Plague Wars. Afterwards, no one wanted to restart the monarchy, well, several dozen claiments to the throne showed up one or two actually related to the Winsors. But the whole thing was seen as a farce in disgusting taste. So the Republic was officially declared. Parliament became unicameral, largely in imitation of US reforms, and is elected proportionally. This was seen as necessary as population movements in the aftermath of the plague made single seat constituencies wildly impractical.

Taxes are high, but necessities are subsidized. Aid money from the Pentalpha Nations helps with this. Public services are struggling. Brown outs are a regular occurrence, but becoming less so as fusion power generation is brought online. Food supplies are adequate, but that's all they are. Consumer goods are inadequate, but few have the money for much anyway.

The standard joke in this England is "At least these dark ages aren't as bad as when Rome fell. We don't have to put up with all that nasty hope."

Note: If this seems way dark, the original idea, which wasn't mine, was why not a post-apocalyptic setting were one nation survived and tries to revive civilization. This was proposed on a different thread and I brought it here.