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Old 10-17-2018, 03:44 PM   #751
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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First, this society has TL9 fusion, by the high tech rules. So heat isn't that much of an issue. The "Arcologies" are mainly cities that have had to enclose themselves to resist the effects of sea level rise. Most towns and cities are not apologies. Geodesic domes, built to create areas of more pleasant climate, are a thing.
Heat is an enormous issue for TL9 fusion because it is DD or DT fusion. It is not until TL10 that you get He-3 fusion and reduce the waste heat.
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Old 10-18-2018, 06:51 AM   #752
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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Hot Times

This thread on The End of the World suggests a setting to me, basically, an extension of my Posting from a comment to a setting.
Japan, Indonesia, and the USA still have movie industries. Australia, New Zealand, and the European democracies are given subsidies by the USA to keep making films.

American films divide into Hollywood films and independents.

Hollywood films mainly come in three genres, Musical Comedies, Sci-Fi/Special effects adventures (this includes Superheroes and Fantasy), and Historical Epics. These films tend to be big and use tons of CGI. Independent films tend to be Comedies, Horror Films, or Noir Dramas. These tend to be more low key and subtle. Actors, writers, directors, and producers, move back and forth between Hollywood and the Independents. Hollywood for money Independents for credibility and reputation.

Indonesia has the remnants of Bollywood working on the island of Java, but dozens of genres fade in and out in the Indonesian film industry.

Japan focuses mainly on Historical Fantasy or Historical Drama. It's been decades since a film was made that was set in the present. Science Fiction is mainly Manga influenced over the top comedy. Much of this sci fi is retro like many 1950s and 1960s American films adapting Verne and Wells.

The Smaller film producers generally follow the trends and Genres of the American independent films.

The Music industry is lively and people are always looking for new sounds. Pop is international in this setting, people seek out the hits of other nations.

Literature is still active. Most books avoid the present in that few books are set in the present. However Mainstream authors use Historical Narratives, Sci Fi, and Fantasy, to talk about the present world and its problems.

Professional sports are more low key and local.

Rock Stars and Literati are important celebrities.

The arts are often how people from devastated lands get to go to the more stable cultures. Also, artists travel far more than anyone else but diplomats (tourism is pretty much dead except for short distances of one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles and then it is pretty much only the rich). Agents and operatives will routinely disguise themselves as artists or people who have careers involving the arts like agents and technical support crews.
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Old 10-20-2018, 03:03 PM   #753
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Try this one...

Supers show up in this world in the 2020s. Mainly in North America, but some are in Europe and Japan as well. Physical Science is thrown for a loop, Supers clearly and routinely violate physical laws. But Science opens its eyes and gets the data leading to mass reproduced Superscience gizmos, in some areas.

The present year is 2150, normal science and superscience both moved ahead. Basically just add FTL drives (top speed 60lys in a standard year), antigravity drives, and reactionless thrusters.

The setting is simply a mix of The Legion of Super-Heroes, Star Trek, and Thunderbirds. The heroes are groups of troubleshooters, with and without superpowers that deal with strange problems and bizarre issues in the new Frontier!
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Old 10-21-2018, 10:44 AM   #754
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Try this one...

In January of 2019, the Gates opened! It was a desperate attempt by a group of scientists and engineers living on a world named Lurjahr. They knew their sun was soon to explode. The Gates were all over the Earth and Lurjahr. Vast numbers of people and animals came through during the few months the gates were open. The sudden mixture of microbes led to massive plagues. Many of the Lurjahr lifeforms went extinct soon after crossing through the gates, others thrived. The plagues ripped through the population of earth plunging the total below a billion. Most societies collapsed, some small islands of high technology and/or civilization continued.

It is now the year 2118, the PCs live in a city built on the ruins of New York. They have all the technology that existed in 2018, they probably don't have an equal access to it for economic and industrial reasons. Some alien tech was adapted to human needs, most notably Quantum Computers and Fusion power generators. Certain areas, mainly dealing with transport when you don't have intact roads or medical emergencies have advanced.

The PCs are explorers and/or diplomats. Their job is to make contact with other communities on Earth and negotiate to start regular contact, trade, and diplomatic ties. Earth has become an alien environment and often a highly dangerous one. The remnants of the peoples of Lurjahr are still out there. Some are friendly, some are suspicious, some are hostile, but the same can be said of the remnants of Alabama or Russia.
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Old 10-21-2018, 12:03 PM   #755
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

I'm liking that a lot. I myself would presume that the Lurjahrites were humans transported to an alien planet or worldline. But such details would be academic to the natives.

What sort of ideologies do the Lurjahrites have?

Here's a thought: Lurjahr was a long-abandoned gateway world built by an alien race. For tens of thousands of years, its gates sporadically opened onto all sorts of planets, bringing a constant influx of alien life-forms from across the galaxy. As a result, only the most hardy and adaptable survived (it turns out that water, carbon, and .2 atmospheres of oxygen is a fairly common basis for life). Humans, and some other Earth life, were the last to arrive before the stellar power plant shut down.

It took another four thousand years to reach something like TL8 (they were slowed by the many dangerous aliens of the planet and spurred on by the artifacts that surrounded them), which gave the Lurjahrites the understanding needed to figure out where they had come from and how to repair and the portal array. That it was already targeting Earth was a useful coincidence.

The result of all that is that a very large proportion of the aliens will be the exact sort that can be successful invasive species.

The odd thing is that the most deadly stuff will be the diseases that the humans brought with them that then mutated.
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Old 10-21-2018, 02:53 PM   #756
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I'm liking that a lot. I myself would presume that the Lurjahrites were humans transported to an alien planet or worldline. But such details would be academic to the natives.
A kwel idea which I hadn't thought of.


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What sort of ideologies do the Lurjahrites have?
I hadn't thought to much about that. I'll work on it.

Quote:
Here's a thought: Lurjahr was a long-abandoned gateway world built by an alien race. For tens of thousands of years, its gates sporadically opened onto all sorts of planets, bringing a constant influx of alien life-forms from across the galaxy. As a result, only the most hardy and adaptable survived (it turns out that water, carbon, and .2 atmospheres of oxygen is a fairly common basis for life). Humans, and some other Earth life, were the last to arrive before the stellar power plant shut down.

It took another four thousand years to reach something like TL8 (they were slowed by the many dangerous aliens of the planet and spurred on by the artifacts that surrounded them), which gave the Lurjahrites the understanding needed to figure out where they had come from and how to repair and the portal array. That it was already targeting Earth was a useful coincidence.

The result of all that is that a very large proportion of the aliens will be the exact sort that can be successful invasive species.
Creative twists all!

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The odd thing is that the most deadly stuff will be the diseases that the humans brought with them that then mutated.
Definitely the most logical threat.
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Old 10-22-2018, 04:04 PM   #757
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The Visitation
The dominant political ideology among the Lurjahri people highly resembles Legalism and has elements of Social Darwinism. The ideal is to create a community of people who will automatically live virtuously without ever thinking about it.

Although a minor movement on Lurjahr an Occult based form of reactionary politics has survived on the Earth. The closest human resemblances are the works of Julius Evola. These groups (unity is something they shout about but never do) are aggressive cultural and religious imperialists.

If you saw the Star Trek: tNG episode Masks, a culture resembling the ritualistic society that infiltrated the Enterprise also exists among the Lurjahri. These groups tend to violently refuse contact. However, those that simply pass by without trying to interact or harm them, are normally ignored.
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Old 10-23-2018, 03:00 PM   #758
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The Visitation
The Lurjahri aren't politically unified but they tend to form tough aggressive communities. They prefer temperate well-watered lands, especially good farmlands attract them. The humans that live on these lands are generally treated as annoying pests or dangerous wild animals. As the Lurjahri know that humanity can fight back and they need humans as trade partners, for now, they can be diplomatic. But they are brutally land hungry and have little or no empathy with non-members of their groups/societies.

The Lurjahri tend to be unable to understand/comprehend democracies. They'll avoid them except in warfare where they'll gladly attack them. Dictatorships and highly authoritarian societies they tend to respect.

The Lurjahri dislike diplomacy, they prefer either warfare or isolation, although limited trade along traditional routes is acceptable. The Lurjahri are somewhat disturbed by how developed Earth's diplomatic traditions and trade networks are. Similarly, the fact that there are Laws of War which can cause people to be guilty of War Crimes is slightly crazy to them. The Lurjahri tend to see genocide as a pragmatic way to deal with persistent foes and are offended that it is seen as an obscene crime by Earthfolk. The Lurjahri take prisoners of war as slaves. The idea of an "Honorable Surrender" is stranger to them than it was to the Imperial Japanese. Like Antebellum American Southerners, the very suggestion that slavery isn't a noble and virtuous institution is offensive and disgusting.

Within their communities, Lurjahri can be considerate and respectful. Insolence, in the sense of rudeness or other disrespectful treatment to those weaker than you, is inconceivable. As quick and brutal as the Lurjahri are to exploit real and perceived weaknesses of others outside their communities, they would feel overwhelming shame and guilt if they exploited the weak within their communities. Human failings in this regard deeply shock the Lurjahri.

Once the Lurjahri begin to understand Earth's cultures they will tend to attack any and all Earth's customs that differ from theirs as either corruption, decadence, or hypocrisy. The Lurjahri will use Earth's various political and cultural languages and forms to do the attacking.
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Old 10-23-2018, 08:04 PM   #759
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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(SNIP)

Although a minor movement on Lurjahr an Occult based form of reactionary politics has survived on the Earth. The closest human resemblances are the works of Julius Evola. These groups (unity is something they shout about but never do) are aggressive cultural and religious imperialists.

(SNIP)
Ugh. I could've lived out the rest of my life quite happily without ever knowing anything about that Evola character. Too bad that bomb fragment in Vienna didn't hit him, higher up. The cerebral cortex would've been fine.

He makes for a good villain, though, and any game is better when you get to kill Fascists. Any group that adopts views even remotely similar to those Evola advocated would make for great evil villains.
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Old 10-24-2018, 12:40 AM   #760
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Ugh. I could've lived out the rest of my life quite happily without ever knowing anything about that Evola character. Too bad that bomb fragment in Vienna didn't hit him, higher up. The cerebral cortex would've been fine.

He makes for a good villain, though, and any game is better when you get to kill Fascists. Any group that adopts views even remotely similar to those Evola advocated would make for great evil villains.
I've often thought Evola was the best ideologue for Supervillians of all types. Both THRUSH and Hydra leaders must constantly read his books.
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