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Old 01-29-2020, 06:02 AM   #21
CeeDub
 
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: UK
Default Re: GM advice needed - Reality check this backstory for me, please?

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Originally Posted by tshiggins View Post
If you wanted to go the other extreme, then have her dropped in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho, and get discovered by a misanthropic patriot/militia family who has no interest in notifying the "gubmit" of anything -- but could use an extra farm-hand.
Interesting. I like it. With that timeframe, she could get English up to Accented. And you even found me a way to keep her interstellar escape pod around. Very nice! Thank you!

Now I just have to make sure I don't portray her adoptive family as total Cletuses.

Is there anything specific about that area that makes it particularly suitable? I've never heard of it before.
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Old 01-29-2020, 03:14 PM   #22
tshiggins
 
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Default Re: GM advice needed - Reality check this backstory for me, please?

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Originally Posted by CeeDub View Post
Interesting. I like it. With that timeframe, she could get English up to Accented. And you even found me a way to keep her interstellar escape pod around. Very nice! Thank you!

Now I just have to make sure I don't portray her adoptive family as total Cletuses.

Is there anything specific about that area that makes it particularly suitable? I've never heard of it before.
The mountains of northern Idaho have a reputation as a haven for "sovereign citizen" extremists, would-be secessionists, evangelical Christian millennialists, patriot militias, and others waaay out to the right of the mainstream.

In his book, ReaMde, Neal Stephenson has one of his character refer to the people who live there as, "Christian Taliban."

In Dies the Fire, Steve Stirling has some of his characters crash-land there, and then encounter violent, white supremacist nut-jobs who kill an older lady and rape her teenage daughter, while celebrating the downfall of what they call the "ZOG" ("Zionist Occupational Government").

The territory is rugged and remote, land is cheap, and the transportation infrastructure minimal.

As such, it attracts people with coping issues and impulse-control problems that interfere with their ability to prosper in modern society, as well as the more sane types who just want to be left in peace to live their lives in a beautiful part of the country.

Stephenson picked it because, in his story, he needed to slip some ISIS-type terrorists into the U.S. with minimal chances of interference from U.S. customs, and walking across the border from Canada, undetected, works well, there -- if someone knows the area.

The villains in ReaMde blackmailed a guy into doing just that, and he walked the Muslim terrorists right into a community of rather extremist, and heavily armed, patriot/militia self-professed "Constitutionists."

Much hilarity ensued.

Anyway, the remoteness means the hard part is getting from the high valleys of the Bitterrot Mountains, down to Boise. Boise, itself, is an increasingly affluent nascent tech-hub, with lots of transient traffic.
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Last edited by tshiggins; 01-29-2020 at 03:28 PM.
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Old 01-29-2020, 03:27 PM   #23
Aldric
 
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Default Re: GM advice needed - Reality check this backstory for me, please?

I really hope she gets her version of the Kent farm, and not some of that stuff...
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Old 01-29-2020, 04:04 PM   #24
CeeDub
 
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Default Re: GM advice needed - Reality check this backstory for me, please?

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I really hope she gets her version of the Kent farm, and not some of that stuff...
That's what I was going for, and I'm taking this...

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as well as the more sane types who just want to be left in peace to live their lives in a beautiful part of the country
... as my license to do so. So, the Kents, but massively distrustful of the government, bit rough around the edges, some homeschooled biological children to make fun of the girl who doesn't understand their culture, but generally good people.

Thanks again for the massive infodump, tshiggins!
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Old 01-29-2020, 04:28 PM   #25
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: GM advice needed - Reality check this backstory for me, please?

Given the overload of crime labs and the distressing tendency for people who work there to file anomalies under 'deal with later', it could be years before anyone realizes that she is an oddity. Heck, people with situs inversus, where the organ replacement is reversed, can go undetected for decades, and that has actually potential medical consequences.

In general, I would prefer a younger child to an older one, someone 4-6 years old. Language acquisition is easier (assuming humanlike capabiltiies) and fostering/assuming option is more likely to be successful. If she does not get sick or if the family practices alternative medicine, she might not get seen by a MD until she enters high school or even college (immunizations can be done at a CVS). Even then, a physician would suspect practically anything but alien when anomalies started popping up (unless something is obviously wrong, like green blood).

The advantage of a young child is that they could forget the events that led to them being abandoned, giving a fair amount of flexibility for a story. An alien-human hybrid with psychic powers is rather cliché, but it would help explain things, and it is a story that can still be done well. Perhaps she is a telepath who just wants to be accepted and unconsciously rewrites the memories of those close to her to forget the oddities or who unconsciously creates mental illusions in the people around her to protect her.
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Old 01-29-2020, 05:04 PM   #26
tshiggins
 
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Default Re: GM advice needed - Reality check this backstory for me, please?

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That's what I was going for, and I'm taking this...


... as my license to do so. So, the Kents, but massively distrustful of the government, bit rough around the edges, some homeschooled biological children to make fun of the girl who doesn't understand their culture, but generally good people.

Thanks again for the massive infodump, tshiggins!
You're welcome and, to be honest, while northern Idaho has the reputation it does, reputation is not reality.

A "higher concentration than usual" of sociopaths, misanthropists, and extremist nut-jobs still translates to, "not that many people."

One could easily imagine a few families of libertarian minarchists who purchased land near each other; who try to live self-sufficiently and off the grid; who keep to themselves; and who expect the sheriff deputies to do the same.

Unrealistically isolationist, yeah, and making it horribly difficult for their children to ever have different lives than that, but mostly pretty harmless, and decent enough, generally.
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Last edited by tshiggins; 01-29-2020 at 05:48 PM.
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Old 01-29-2020, 06:43 PM   #27
CeeDub
 
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Default Re: GM advice needed - Reality check this backstory for me, please?

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In general, I would prefer a younger child to an older one, someone 4-6 years old
...
The advantage of a young child is that they could forget the events that led to them being abandoned
Thanks, all good points, and the younger a child is, the easier I imagine it would be to sneak it into the system without any red flags. But the age was chosen specifically so she would remember her native culture and have difficulty integrating with her new one, because it is so... alien, from her point of view.
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Old 01-29-2020, 07:56 PM   #28
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Default Re: GM advice needed - Reality check this backstory for me, please?

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Thanks, all good points, and the younger a child is, the easier I imagine it would be to sneak it into the system without any red flags. But the age was chosen specifically so she would remember her native culture and have difficulty integrating with her new one, because it is so... alien, from her point of view.
Why can’t the alien look like a four year old human but already be quite ancient?

If she was discovered in Australia she would likely end up in foster care without extensive medical testing. The lack of known language would be put down to simple gibberish, possibly due to a learning difficulty. They will likely not do extensive genetic testing unless somebody comes forward to claim the child as their own and all the other information they provide checks out, but is not convincing enough on its own. But given there is no evidence (like school photos, passport, report cards, birth certificate etc.) nobody is likely to try that.
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Old 01-29-2020, 08:06 PM   #29
DAT
 
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Default Re: GM advice needed - Reality check this backstory for me, please?

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Originally Posted by tshiggins View Post
You're welcome and, to be honest, while northern Idaho has the reputation it does, reputation is not reality.

A "higher concentration than usual" of sociopaths, misanthropists, and extremist nut-jobs still translates to, "not that many people."

One could easily imagine a few families of libertarian minarchists who purchased land near each other; who try to live self-sufficiently and off the grid; who keep to themselves; and who expect the sheriff deputies to do the same.

Unrealistically isolationist, yeah, and making it horribly difficult for their children to ever have different lives than that, but mostly pretty harmless, and decent enough, generally.
The highest concentration numbers of the crazy extremest are probably still in CA, but they make up a larger percentage of (the very low) population in some areas like northern Idaho.

But if all you want are a government distrusting isolationist community, you can find them in almost every state (not sure about Rhode Island, but even Delaware and western Massachusetts may have pockets). You could go with a low tech group like the Amish (who are in more states that you might think - Florida being one), or various higher tech groups.
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Old 01-29-2020, 08:10 PM   #30
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: GM advice needed - Reality check this backstory for me, please?

The problem with an older alien is that they will likely not adapt, not unless they are extraordinarily more adaptable than humans. As for memories, what about giving her Racial Memory? When she reaches maturity, her Racial Memory could start to activate (either memories encoded in her alien DNA or a passive psionic connection to an alien noosphere).

An often neglected group that distrusts the federal government and may be willing to adopt a young girl would be Native Americans. Since many tribes have significant interbreeding with African and European bloodlines, they could claim her as a member and the federal government probably would not care. It would just be another way for them to stick it to the American government.

Last edited by AlexanderHowl; 01-29-2020 at 08:14 PM.
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