Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-17-2019, 12:00 PM   #4181
Astromancer
 
Astromancer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

In Homeline's history a Czech probably invented our modern type of Moldboard plow around the fifth century CE and it slowly diffused through Europe. There were earlier types. On Albion-7(Albion being used for major changes in the history of pre-Saxon Briton being the main divergence point) someone introduced the Moldboard Plow into Britain in later Roman times. Just as the new Plow was introduced into Normandy the Roman state collapsed to the point that all further investment in new agricultural technology slowed to a snail's pace.

Still, a far more populous Celtic Britain repulsed the Saxon raiders and absorbed Saxon immigrants. The Britons formed a council to rule them which evolved toward an oligarchical republic. Viking Settlers later brought the idea of the Thing. It was soon seen as easier to use this idea of government to co-opt the Vikings than to war against them.

The local year is 935CE. Britainnia is a powerful Kingdom that Controls the British Isles, Normandy, and Brittany. They're improving their ships seeking better connections with the Spanish Caliphate, the Mediterranean, the Canaries, and points South.

Basically, it's a print the legend medieval adventure setting. Skim over old Prince Valiant stories for ideas to steal. Also look at pulp historical fantasy and adventure tales for further inspiration.

The tech level is an advanced TL3 (More like the late 14th century than the early tenth) but some sailing and navigation technologies are at TL4 (basically those that make the story better.)

Most of this world is low Manna but areas of Normal and High Manna exist. These are normally achieved through the use of sacred architecture but areas of natural variation also exist.

Knowledge of Magic is rare as is Magery. Assume that Magery requires an Unusual Background cost.

This is a Q4 world which has the problem of attracting large numbers of Swagmen. The ICops want to know why so many Swagmen seem drawn to this one world.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra!


Ancora Imparo
Astromancer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-18-2019, 12:53 PM   #4182
Astromancer
 
Astromancer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Try this one...

Majles-1



In 1905 Iran was having a Revolution. In this Q6 parallel the Brits assumed that the Shah had made a secret pact with the Russians (as the Shahs were constantly trying to appease the Russians and keep them out of Iran, this could even be true). In fear of losing their influence in the region the Brits support the rebels strongly. The Russians, who wanted to get rid of Morgan Shuster, mainly because they feared his reforms might work, lost any influence. The Brits, who found they had publicly backed Mr. Shuster more than they wanted and couldn't back out of their word without both giving the Czar and the Kaiser diplomatic victories weren't happy. But their image in Iran was improved so they played along.

Mr. Shuster's reforms worked well enough. Iran grew fairly well and stayed out of the World Wars. British Petroleum had to deal with the fact that American oil companies offered competing deals. Thus they had to give the Iranians far more money for Iranian oil and had to keep open books as well.

Iran, fearful of the Russians was a close American ally in the Cold War. Reza Shah, deposed in WWII for Nazi sympathies was the last Shah. The Majles (Iranian Parliament) proclaimed a republic in 1942.

The local year is 1979, Iran is booming. The Iranian people enjoy a stable democracy, prosperity, an egalitarian society, fine social programs, and a cultural Golden Age. Iranian fashions, cuisines, poetry, films, art music, pop music, novels, and scholarship, are everywhere. Iran is powerful, independent, and allied to the West.

This last is a problem for Russia. Having a powerful stable Iran was always a Russian nightmare. Truth to tell Russia traditionally dislikes having neighbors on planet Earth. Russia is seeking anyway they can to disrupt Iranian society. Centrum is aware of this.

Centrum dislikes this world. Humphrey beat Nixon in this world, the US pulled out of Vietnam quickly and sought to double down on space exploration and science as proofs of American determination to win the Cold War. When the Oil Shocks hit, Humphrey looked at the work or an Iranian-American scientist (in most worlds the man's father made him attend religious schools and he never learned science or math) who had ideas about Cold Fusion. Whether the man was a unique genius or maybe the physics are different, the scientist achieved commercially viable cold fusion. Leading to a new economic boom.

Suddenly, looking at the odder twists and quirks of physics is all the rage. Centrum fears these people could learn the SECRET! Centrum has to foul up this world's good times fast.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra!


Ancora Imparo
Astromancer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-18-2019, 05:27 PM   #4183
Apollonian
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle)
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
Try this one...

Majles-1

Suddenly, looking at the odder twists and quirks of physics is all the rage. Centrum fears these people could learn the SECRET! Centrum has to foul up this world's good times fast.
Up until this line, this looks like another "liberal paradise" worldine, which is a trend I've noticed. But I like the idea that Centrum's going to have to do some secret-keeping. Maybe some reluctant cooperation between Centrum and Infinity is in order, or the PCs are Iranian scientists who've just made a breakthrough and now must evade the mysterious strangers who seek to abduct them... or worse.
Apollonian is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-18-2019, 07:49 PM   #4184
fchase8
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: New York, NY
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

(after watching HBO's Chernobyl, got to thinking about parallel)


Chernobyl-1, 1995

Current Affairs: After a nuclear disaster, Europe is barely habitable, with the rest of the world in chaos or authoritarianism.
Divergence Point: 1986: Chernobyl nuclear disaster goes thermal, sending deadly radiation across Europe.
Major Civilizations: Western (empire with satellites), Chinese (empire with satellites), Indic (empire), Japanese (unitary with satellites)
Great Powers: United States of America (representative democracy, CR4), Populist China (dictatorship, CR6), Indian Republic (oligarchic democracy, CR3), Japan (oligarchic democracy, CR3), Vladivostok Republic (oligarchy, CR5)
Worldline Data:
TL: 7 (TL6 and lower in chaotic regions)
Quantum: 7 Mana Level: No Mana
Infinite Class: Z3 Centrum Zone: Orange

On Homeline, the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster is remembered as the greatest nuclear accident ever, but it could have been much, much worse. On Chernobyl-1, that fate came to pass. A thermal explosion sent deadly radiation across Eastern Europe, killing Belarus and Ukraine, and irradiating from Berlin to Moscow, Baltics to Black Sea.
fchase8 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-18-2019, 07:50 PM   #4185
fchase8
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: New York, NY
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Motherless Russia
The Soviet Union fell apart as refugees fled the Russian heartland. Remaining Warsaw Pact military units tried to stop the irradiated masses, but themselves suffered from fallout and collapsed order, to go with food & fuel scarcity. NATO set up camps along the Iron Curtain for their own coming radioactive population wave, even as those who could fled Europe entirely.
Apocalyptic unrest broke out across the Middle East, crippling the world oil economy. Fighting between Russian units in the east saw Chinese forces cross the border, bringing about limited nuclear exchanges between Beijing and whoever was in control of Siberia’s nukes. One ICBM hit western Kansas, prompting American aerial attacks on all known Russian missile silos. Meanwhile, Reagan also started replacing American troops in Europe with locals, as massive protests across the U.S. political spectrum demanded “our boys” home (with even some mutinies).
It’s now almost ten years since the globe’s greatest disaster. Around the radioactive sore that was once Communism’s breadbasket, Eastern Europe is a half-dead land of decaying farms & factories with petty warlords. Western Europe is only just hanging on thanks to North American aid (everything from food to tanks), with low birthrates and high cancer rates, while the best and brightest (and anyone else who can) leave. The Middle East, central Asia and much of Africa are in chaos, with only the occasional garrison nation such as Israel, or foreign armed resource forts, like on the Persian Gulf & Niger Delta (often American Foreign Legion forces, made up of refugees).
“Socialism” might be a dirty word across the world, but there’s state planning anywhere there’s a still a state. President George H.W. Bush has kept America going but has demanded more and more from corporations and individuals alike, not to mention draconian measures against recalcitrant companies, unions, and radicals (from ‘New Tea Party’ militias to anti-tech ecoterrorists). ‘Populist China’ is just a rebranded one-party state as repressive as Mao ever was, while famine and fighting stretch across South Asia. Tokyo has rearmed, with anti-Chinese allies like Hanoi and Vladivostok. Backed by the U.S., military dictators from Cuba to Chile repress rampant insurgencies. Washington also supports Johannesburg, which resettles white Europeans on its ever-growing southern African apartheid domain. And everywhere suffers from limited resources, lost farmland & fuel shortages.
fchase8 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-18-2019, 07:50 PM   #4186
fchase8
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: New York, NY
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Outtime Operations
I-Cops only discovered this benighted timeline a few years ago, from stolen Centrum information. Every Security Council power demands that their counterpart be saved first, but Infinity has so far held them off, because there’s evidence that Centrum is active here. While usually Interworld washes its hands of hell worlds, recent advancements in radioactive clean-up on Chernobyl-1 echo Centrum’s - and that world-state knows how to clean up, after the Last War. Indeed, there are those who suspect that Centrum deliberated leaked this timeline to Infinity, either to show Interworld ‘doing good’ or just to warn about high-tech in the wrong hands (it would be just like Interworld to equate Soviet nuclear power to Homeline parachronics…). Miracle Workers wants to give hospitals on this irradiated world the cancer cures of parallel Jeanne Orieuxs.
fchase8 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-18-2019, 07:51 PM   #4187
fchase8
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: New York, NY
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Other Chernobyls
In just the past few years, Infinity has come into contact with a number of worlds where Chernobyl is the key divergence point, and never for the better:
The nuclear disaster happened as on Homeline on Chernobyl-2 (Q3, current year 1989), but the effects have differed. About a tenth of people have survived, with each-one-different disfigurements more akin to fantasy & science fiction; meanwhile, about 1% have superpowers! These new Russian supers range from defending the state to trying to overthrow it, destabilizing an already shaky USSR. Others have escaped to the West to make their own fates, from heroic to criminal. Meanwhile, there are rumors of ‘nuclear metahuman’ programs not just in rogue states like North Korea & Iraq, but Israel, India, and even America. Infinity is worried about some recent reports of well-equipped neo-Nazis trying to get information on what made these supermen, for this world is on the same quantum as Reich-5’.
Conversely, on Chernobyl-3 (Q5, current year 1995 - disturbingly the exact same date & time as Chernobyl-1), the accident never seemed to have happened. Not only is the Chernobyl nuclear power plant still running, but so is the Soviet Union. Indeed, the state is expanding nuclear power, after the Gulf War oil-shock, and other nations are following that lead. Only discovered by Infinity in the last year, it’s become a political issue at the Homeline Security Council, as Russia vetoes any hampering of this world’s Communist energy program, no matter the risks.
The asteroid that struck Tunguska in Russia in Homeline history somehow managed to find the Ukrainian town on Chernobyl-4 (Q4, current year 1912), and cracked open a hole in the earth’s crust that let out the horrors beneath. Monstrous beasts deluged onto Russia, toppling the Czar, and only the industrialized armies of modern Europe hold the Great Line, from Lithuania to Transylvania. There are reports of similar demons in remote places on the other continents, from the Sahara & Tibet to northern Rockies & southern Andes, plus Australian Outback and even Antarctica. This world is low-mana, with high-mana around the holes in the earth.
fchase8 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-18-2019, 09:19 PM   #4188
David Johnston2
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by fchase8 View Post
(after watching HBO's Chernobyl, got to thinking about parallel)


Chernobyl-1, 1995

Current Affairs: After a nuclear disaster, Europe is barely habitable, with the rest of the world in chaos or authoritarianism.
Divergence Point: 1986: Chernobyl nuclear disaster goes thermal, sending deadly radiation across Europe.
Major Civilizations: Western (empire with satellites), Chinese (empire with satellites), Indic (empire), Japanese (unitary with satellites)
Great Powers: United States of America (representative democracy, CR4), Populist China (dictatorship, CR6), Indian Republic (oligarchic democracy, CR3), Japan (oligarchic democracy, CR3), Vladivostok Republic (oligarchy, CR5)
Worldline Data:
TL: 7 (TL6 and lower in chaotic regions)
Quantum: 7 Mana Level: No Mana
Infinite Class: Z3 Centrum Zone: Orange

On Homeline, the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster is remembered as the greatest nuclear accident ever, but it could have been much, much worse. On Chernobyl-1, that fate came to pass. A thermal explosion sent deadly radiation across Eastern Europe, killing Belarus and Ukraine, and irradiating from Berlin to Moscow, Baltics to Black Sea.
Ah. A myth parallel.
David Johnston2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-18-2019, 11:34 PM   #4189
fchase8
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: New York, NY
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
Ah. A myth parallel.
In the mini-series, they say that if there was a thermal explosion of the meltdown core (if the water tanks beneath it exploded from the heat), it would decimate Byelorussia & Ukraine. That's what I was basing my worst-case scenario world on.
fchase8 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-19-2019, 08:46 PM   #4190
malloyd
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by fchase8 View Post
In the mini-series, they say that if there was a thermal explosion of the meltdown core (if the water tanks beneath it exploded from the heat), it would decimate Byelorussia & Ukraine. That's what I was basing my worst-case scenario world on.
Yep, that's the myth. Seriously any time you see lethal radiation covering huge areas, particularly for years (or centuries!), it's fictional.

The world has seen multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns (and literally hundreds of atmospheric nuclear tests), which have managed to produce zero large areas of deadly radiation. A few acres maybe. And yeah, there are a handful of areas a few miles across than have been dangerously contaminated as a result of fissionables *production* but even there we're talking about a few miles, not "Belorussia" and most of the hazard is chemical anyway.

The Chernobyl (and Fukushima) exclusion zones are a nod to public panic more than any real danger. You might run a somewhat higher cancer risk if you lived in them for a few years (how much is actually pretty controversial, because our estimates of the risks of low radiation exposure aren't actually based on very good data, estimates for the number of people killed by radiation induced cancers from those atmospheric tests range from hundreds to tens of millions as a result), but you are not going to drop dead from radiation poisoning. Certainly they wouldn't kill enough people to "decimate" a population. Not even in the literal sense of killing 10% of them.
__________________
--
MA Lloyd
malloyd is online now   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
ideas to share, infinite worlds, infinity unlimited

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:02 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.