New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[doctorevilbrain]

Post Putin Russians?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by doctorevilbrain

Post Putin Russians?

I assume that Putin was Ill, and lost power. Dictators tend to lose power during long illnesses. His strongest competitors for power in our real world are ethno-nationalist fascists led by Eastern Orthodox religious fanatics. These folks are deeply ethnocentric, racist, anti-Semitic, and many other similar nasty things, and they advertise their bigotries as positive features. So I assumed such a government would be unstable.

[Kale]

That and this would give them a chance to finally pop off some nukes. I'm guessing the aliens just used a suppression field to prevent detonation or simply death ray'd the nukes out of the sky. A lot of world powers would be tempted to at least make a go of it before rolling over in surrender. That's probably why the aliens had to smash the Russians so thoroughly: Discourage anyone else from trying it.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Kale

That and this would give them a chance to finally pop off some nukes. I'm gu essing the aliens just used a suppression field to prevent detonation or simply death ray'd the nukes out of the sky. A lot of world powers would be tempted to at least make a go of it before rolling over in surrender. That's probably why the aliens had to smash the Russians so thoroughly: Discourage anyone else from trying it.

You got it in one. The USA got the carrot rather than the stick because the Aliens needed to show they could and would offer rewards.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

Stealing from Jules Verne's novel Propeller Island available here on Amazon and flipping it into space is how I'll start.

The Sybaris after the Italian city famous for refined luxury and abandoned hedonism. The ship is 50 kilometers long five kilometers wide, and three kilometers from keel to top deck. The city is both a plutocratic republic (the locals disdain democracy) and a mobile market. Only the elites can be citizens, other residents either rent market space, work for the community, or are tourists.

Given that wealth is power and power with few restraints here, this city tends toward ruthless hardball and serious corruption.

Basically, the PCs are very Film Noir/Hardboiled detectives. Either police or PIs. Think Valerian and Laureline and The Fifth Element mixed with the stories of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

After they Gave the Sky Back

In the year 2021, the sky disappeared. Up above, replacing the Sun. Moon. and Stars, are scaffolding and lights about three thousand miles above the Earth, well give or take a few miles. The crew of the ISS was brought to the UN by Aliens. The crew announced that, due to an interstellar war, the local sector authorities decided to relocate potentially endangered "primitives" (that's us).

It's explained that a slow time envelope was being placed around the Earth. They plan to give the Earth a new moon when we get to our new star system.

In what the people of Earth called the year 2037, suddenly the sky was back. The new Moon called Phoebe(one of Selene's titles) by astronomers was blue. It was larger than Mars and had oceans. The next planet out from Earth is a gas giant (named Indra) with several habitable moons.

A new age of exploration has begun.

Basically, Golden Age Sci-Fi in a recognizable 21st century. The Aliens seem to be gone, but how could you tell?

Note: As written, the Aliens during the Pleistocene brought samples of Earth life and, after terraforming the planets and moons of this star system suitable for such treatment, they released the Earth lifeforms into these environments. The life forms included human tribes. In the intervening millennia, these lifeforms have adapted to their new homes.

[phayman53]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

. The new Moon called Phoebe(one of Selene's titles) by astronomers was blue. It was larger than Mars and had oceans.

Depending on how 'hard' your sci-fi is, and how close this moon is, such a huge moon would play havoc with earth. Our moon's size and position are not trivial for a variety of critical things that make life even possible on earth. Two big ones are: the moon stabilizes our axial tilt to allow for the regular seasons we have long-term and the moon is perfect to cause sufficiently large, but not catastrophic, tides that are critical for just al many if the life sustaining 'cycles' on earth.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by phayman53

Depending on how 'hard' your sci-fi is, and how close this moon is, such a huge moon would play havoc with earth. Our moon's size and position are not trivial for a variety of critical things that make life even possible on earth. Two big ones are: the moon stabilizes our axial tilt to allow for the regular seasons we have long-term and the moon is perfect to cause sufficiently large, but not catastrophic, tides that are critical for just al many if the life sustaining 'cycles' on earth.

Why Phoebe isn't causing chaos on the Earth is a major mystery. Phoebe is farther from Earth than the moon was, but not so much that the tides shouldn't be outrageously larger. They are larger but not nearly as large as the inverse cube law would suggest. It's one of the reasons the Aliens are assumed to be around somewhere.

Extra fun, far out in the distance Luna has been rediscovered still orbiting the Earth but about six million miles away. Plus there is a Ceres sized object named Hecate also in orbit around the Earth, about as far from the Earth as the moon was.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

In what the people of Earth called the year 2037, suddenly the sky was back. The new Moon called Phoebe(one of Selene's titles) by astronomers was blue. It was larger than Mars and had oceans. The next planet out from Earth is a gas giant (named Indra) with several habitable moons.

A new age of exploration has begun.

Basically, Golden Age Sci-Fi in a recognizable 21st century. The Aliens seem to be gone, but how could you tell?

Note: As written, the Aliens during the Pleistocene brought samples of Earth life and, after terraforming the planets and moons of this star system suitable for such treatment, they released the Earth lifeforms into these environments. The life forms included human tribes. In the intervening millennia, these lifeforms have adapted to their new homes.

Ah ye olde Planetary Romance! John Carter and Carson of Venus swinging their swords again! Kaor!

[AlexanderHowl]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Why Phoebe isn't causing chaos on the Earth is a major mystery. Phoebe is farther from Earth than the moon was, but not so much that the tides shouldn't be outrageously larger. They are larger but not nearly as large as the inverse square law would suggest. It's one of the reasons the Aliens are assumed to be around somewhere.

Extra fun, far out in the distance Luna has been rediscovered still orbiting the Earth but about six million miles away. Plus there is a Ceres sized object named Hecate also in orbit around the Earth, about as far from the Earth as the moon was.

Tidal effects are an inverse cube relationship, not an inverse square relationship.