New Reality Seeds

[Astromancer]

Try this idea, the Sublime Porte decides in the 1520's that it must find out about these new lands the Europeans have found and make their own claim.

About a century later the Sale Rovers have taken a island or two in the Caribbean. The Brotherhood of the Coasts now has the backing of the Sublime Porte which needs the pirates to carry out its plans to take a slice of the new World for themselves. The War on the Pirates is going to be much fiercer and harder.

[PTTG]

Slightly related: Historical changes before 1494 puts the Church in a somewhat more temporal role, including a stronger military arm.

The Treaty of Tordesillas now splits the new world three ways, roughly equally: One third Spanish, one third Portuguese, and one third "to god," although administered by his local representatives.

By selling parcels of this land, the church finances its own colonial effort in the new world.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Plus Egypt is their preferred source of ancient wisdom. If someone were to let it slip, say a Midwinter Aton member with the archeology skill, that there were White tribes in the Ancient Sahara, your could make it the new Aryan homeland.

'The Lost Tribe' (though not of Israel...). Maybe some mumbo-jumbo about ancient Aryan races, like what some Nazis thought about Tibet (and Tibet would have to be another Midwinter Aton interest).

Egypt would be dominated by Britain, but would be a perfect place for colonial intrigue. And this could lead to an Indiana Jones-type duel over ancient artifacts in Egypt between the British & the Nazis.

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Good point, but Goring still has his own gifts.

Midwinter Aton might want to keep Rommel in charge, but also have Goring doing what he can do, Aton not expecting/understanding that the two of them couldn't really work together without Hitler in charge.

That could be an interesting aspect of this: Aton thinks, 'Remove Hitler, put our guy in charge, keep everything else, it'll all totally work,' only without Hitler, there are tons of people working at cross-purposes for their own benefit.

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Midwinter Aton pulls more than one string at a time. Their main fault/flaw, other than racism, is being too tricky by halves.

This also could be interesting: different Aton members pushing different Nazis as leaders. Midwinter Aton already sounds like it's as wracked by intrigue as the actual Nazi Party - team them up, and things get super-complicated.

Originally Posted by Astromancer

I remember the old line. "Hitler was an incompetent madman! Thank God! Just think what a competent madman might have done!"

I always wonder what Homeline/Infinity thinks on this. The old "kill baby Hilter?" question.

Like, if presented with a chance to stop Hitler's rise, might one not think, "As bad as Hitler is, at least we know this turns out with an eventual win for the good guys..."

In general, is it better to have an awful madman rise and lead his side to defeat, or stop him and risk having potentially an awful sane-man rise and lead his side to victory?


Note that, for Homeline/Infinity, this would only apply to non-echoes. For echoes, I guess Infinity would just have to let Hitler's rise/WWII/The Holocaust happen?

What if you're an I-Cop on WWII echo, and discover that Centrum wants to stop Hitler/Holocaust?

[PTTG]

Quinine mutates to have no effect against malaria.

Considering the importance of anti-malarial drugs in the 18th and 19th centuries, there are a huge number of potential alternates.

[PTTG]

LordBrassRoast provides the biography of a magisterial Empress of a new Roman Empire. The centuries to follow may be interesting...

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by fchase8

'The Lost Tribe' (though not of Israel...). Maybe some mumbo-jumbo about ancient Aryan races, like what some Nazis thought about Tibet (and Tibet would have to be another Midwinter Aton interest).

Vast tracks of Victorian Archeological and Anthropological theory could feed these kinds of quests.

Egypt would be dominated by Britain, but would be a perfect place for colonial intrigue. And this could lead to an Indiana Jones-type duel over ancient artifacts in Egypt between the British & the Nazis.

We see eye to eye here. Certainly the Ahnennerbe would love to have done so much more in Egypt. I could see Midwinter Aton sneaking Runes into a undiscovered tomb to be found in the 1930's and freak the whole world out.

Midwinter Aton might want to keep Rommel in charge, but also have Goring doing what he can do, Aton not expecting/understanding that the two of them couldn't really work together without Hitler in charge.

Getting Rommel the job would be harder. I don't think he was ever in line for the top spot.

That could be an interesting aspect of this: Aton thinks, 'Remove Hitler, put our guy in charge, keep everything else, it'll all totally work,' only without Hitler, there are tons of people working at cross-purposes for their own benefit.

Running the Nazis would require great resources or the simple desire to let the Nazis inflict social Darwinism on themselves.

This also could be interesting: different Aton members pushing different Nazis as leaders. Midwinter Aton already sounds like it's as wracked by intrigue as the actual Nazi Party - team them up, and things get super-complicated.

In most games it's even worse.

I always wonder what Homeline/Infinity thinks on this. The old "kill baby Hilter?" question.

Like, if presented with a chance to stop Hitler's rise, might one not think, "As bad as Hitler is, at least we know this turns out with an eventual win for the good guys..."

In general, is it better to have an awful madman rise and lead his side to defeat, or stop him and risk having potentially an awful sane-man rise and lead his side to victory?

On the whole, they simply realize they can't run all the universes and look the other way.

Note that, for Homeline/Infinity, this would only apply to non-echoes. For echoes, I guess Infinity would just have to let Hitler's rise/WWII/The Holocaust happen?

What if you're an I-Cop on WWII echo, and discover that Centrum wants to stop Hitler/Holocaust?

I'd investigate, but protecting Hitler would be a low priority, unless he was still a child. In that case he might still have a chance to be something other than a monster. But if Centrum is after putting a tougher madman in place, then I'd protect Hitler in order to keep worse from happening.

[Astromancer]

Try this idea, a Greek genius achieves all the innovations of the Islamic Agricultural Revolution in the 2nd Century AD. Rome holds together much longer, and the Arabs, even if the conquer North Africa, never replace the older cultures or faiths.

Christian Europe still benefits from Arab ideas but never experiences the Dark Ages.

The industrial revolution comes centuries earlier.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this idea, a Greek genius achieves all the innovations of the Islamic Agricultural Revolution in the 2nd Century AD.

I have one that's fun, which I call Aristotle-X. Aristotle came up with a political philosophy that enables Greek cities (and their colonies) to cooperate effectively. It's something like 1978AD there now, and the whole world is Greek. Once they stopped fighting amongst themselves, there was no stopping them.

[PTTG]

Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson have a few deep talks about intellectual property and law, and eventually write a booklet that establishes a long-standing philosophy of intellectual property.

All works of art, written knowledge, scientific fact, etc., are held to "belong to mankind," while protecting copyright as a "just reward." The United States that arises from this is highly inertial, up until the turn of the century, when mass media doesn't result in massive distribution channels, but rather in countless independent impersonators. Successful characters, such as Mickey Mouse, are duplicated endlessly.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson have a few deep talks about intellectual property and law, and eventually write a booklet that establishes a long-standing philosophy of intellectual property.

All works of art, written knowledge, scientific fact, etc., are held to "belong to mankind," while protecting copyright as a "just reward." The United States that arises from this is highly inertial, up until the turn of the century, when mass media doesn't result in massive distribution channels, but rather in countless independent impersonators. Successful characters, such as Mickey Mouse, are duplicated endlessly.

This seems more like an Ordinary world with valuables. Mainly from people taking Iconic characters and using them in more polished or innovative settings. Example: Superman's original creator wanted to change from the "Two people in a Love Triangle" motif to something more like an action adventure take on the "Thin Man" films. Lois was to be shown to have always known Clark's identity, and the two were going to adventure together with Lois show as a master level detective. The publishers fired the author and forbade any change for forty years. In your world, not only did this go forward but Captain Marvel never got smashed either.