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Old 02-23-2018, 07:02 PM   #231
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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Originally Posted by tshiggins View Post
Eventually, yeah. The benefits of concentrated human intellect and concentrated human labor are pretty well established, by now. It might take a generation or two, though, depending on the cause(s) of the disintegration.

I don't think a benign innovation would be enough to fracture modern urban society, though. A zero-point power source, or something, gets implemented in cities faster than anywhere else, because that's where the wealth will be made.

Make resource extraction less important, and rural areas dry up even more quickly than they're doing, already.

No, you'd need something that either eliminated the cities, outright, or made people want to abandon them, and that would have to be catastrophic.
Whether or not it would need something that drastic in any event both the Russian and Chinese civil wars were excellent laboratory experiments for what a post apocalypse would be like.
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Old 02-23-2018, 07:44 PM   #232
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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Whether or not it would need something that drastic in any event both the Russian and Chinese civil wars were excellent laboratory experiments for what a post apocalypse would be like.
So was the collapse of the Roman Empire.
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Old 02-23-2018, 08:16 PM   #233
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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So was the collapse of the Roman Empire.
Indeed but you can find plenty more writings of people who actually were there and secondary sources of people who studied those who were there and if the idea is to use a schizo-tech air which the author may want, there's a good place to look.

For that matter the Congo war several decades ago, or some of the nasty stuff that goes on in the Sudan or what have you would work. You can pick and choose from any and all of these.
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Old 02-24-2018, 12:00 PM   #234
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{Atlantis:The Godswar!!!}

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Atlantis slowly recovered from the fight. The colony worlds are becoming inhabitable and settlements are on each world. These settlements are democracies. Meanwhile, Zodin's cultural clique wasn't made by her, it made her. There is a strong minority in Atlantis that wants to erase human history. They seek to form their own utopias. Not one vision of Utopia, several different ideals of Utopia. Some feel humanity needs a Mystical Theocracy to guide it. Others seek a to build a Monarchy guided by Enlightened Philosophy. Others seek to sustain the primitive and prevent the rise of civilization in the first place. Others simply seek power. Still others care only for their own pleasures and whims.

The PCs would be the guardians of History and of Human Free Will. They would strive to allow humanity the right to make their own mistakes and learn their own lessons. They know that after the millennia long rule of the techno fascists humanity overthrows them and goes on to achieve a profoundly good and noble civilization. Something truly worthy and worthwhile. The PCs are the guardians of that future, and of their own people's right to go to the stars and seek their own dreams and wonders. Or maybe the PCs could go off and seek to become gods. It would be your game.
All of Atlantis' cities and installations are either within two hundred fifty feet of sea level or floating on or within the sea. As sea level rose more than 400 feet during the Holocene the two hundred fifty foot limit ensured the oceans swallowed the evidence of Atlantis. Thus any house, base, fortress, or other installation not strictly regulated by the authorities, beyond the 250 feet about the Pleistocene sea level is clearly a provocation and an attack on history and human free will. Thus rebels love the high ground.

The largest bases cities and farms are on islands that will be completely submerged. Remember the Pleistocene climate when placing bases and settlements. The name "Ice Age" isn't a joke. Still the tropics would still be warm.
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Old 02-24-2018, 12:20 PM   #235
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{The Farfarers}

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Jump Points around any star that has them (and no one knows why more than 85% of the stars have them) tend to come in set patterns that seem to be based on the simple solids. Tetrahedron patterns with jump points on each of the four points make of about fifty percent of the stellar populations jump points. Cubes, with eight jump points, make up another 30% of the stellar population. Octahedrons, with six jump points, are about 15% of the stellar population. Earth has one to the rare dodecahedron patterns, with twenty jump points. It is assumed that icosahedrons with 12 jump points are out there somewhere.
The planet Scheherazade is a gas giant with several terraformed moons. It's star Daryabar is near (2.7 lyrs) with jump gates in a dodecahedron pattern. However, Daryabar has no Jump gates of its own. Still Scheharazade's moons give the system seven habitable worlds in one star system. Shahryar, is too near the edge of the habitable zone. It's moons get too hot. No other worlds are in the habitable zone.

A fairly wide variety of cultures are settled on Scheherazade's moons. Most of the major cultural groups in the area are represented. Thus, if you want them in the area, they have a settlement here.
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Old 02-24-2018, 12:40 PM   #236
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An elderwoman of a clan that rules a section of a city/Imperial Noblewoman/Whatever/shares in the duties of law enforcement in a community where much of the law still operates on a posse-like system but under the control of the city's VIPs. And the PCs are from her household guards and staff and private secret service of Corporate Samurai.

This is a variation of "Little Old Lady Investigates" but leveraged to explain, "Why the heck do so many murders take place around Jessica Fletcher."
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Old 02-24-2018, 12:42 PM   #237
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{The Lanterns}

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Between 2057 and 2070 the world crawled out of deep depression, although by either 20th or 19th century standards the economy is still a mess. Still, if life is impoverished in most of the world, life is going on. A nation's economy tends to better the fewer people it lost. The USA, which is back to 300 million people after a low of 275 million, has the largest market and the liveliest economy in this setting. Still it looks pretty pallid by earlier standards, still an economist would see a healty economy held back by the planetary population collapse.
Subsaharan Africa is a bright spot. Because of the total and early collapse of trade caused by the superflus Shrivel was never a major epidemic here. By the time trade began to revive the African peoples were ready to set up effective, if sometimes crude, quarantines. When the Pentalpha Nations offered them the vaccines for Shrivel and the Superflus, the Africans were ready and willing to take them. Africa is building an advanced agriculture using TL9 agricultural techniques and equipment. These used to come from the Pentalpha Nations but much of these are becoming African produced.

With a sound agricultural base Africa is beginning to industrialize and provide the quickly growing population with a quickly raising standard of living.

#############

Continental Europe is far more of a mess. Attitudes are insular and paranoid. The remnants of the old right and left are at each others throats through most of the continent. Both groups see the Pentalpha Nations as a mask for an American conquest of Europe. The fact that American pop culture is vibrant and lively, and painfully popular (to the European elites) throughout Europe, only rubs salt in the wounds. Superman and Captain Kirk are loved and denounced and the latest pop songs play on the street causing fists to shake and feet to tap.

Note: As the influence of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and Scotland, in the Pentalpha Nations is totally ignored, either that or they are called American lackeys, the continental Europeans are deeply resented in the rest of the Pentalpha Nations. In the USA they're a painful embarrassment.

Shrivel hit hard in Europe. Sterility is common and children rare. People visiting Europe rarely let their children be seen on the street. Kidnappings and other violence have occurred. The USA had to totally leave Germany for three years because one woman in Berlin insisted that the child of the ambassador and her wife was really her stolen daughter. The riots caused bloodshed and fires across Berlin.

There are demands that any orphans in the Pentalpha Nations be sent to Europe. The song Nobody's Child is treated as if it described present day (2082) realities. It is assumed that any child would be far better off in Europe than in America.

Agriculture and industry are still depressed and the school systems are in collapse. Pilot projects by the Pentalpha Nations are slowly turning this around.

#########

The Near East/Southwestern Asia is also a mess. Iran is pretty much the one bright spot.

Iran took massive blows from the Superflus, but the shock allowed a Green Revolution. The Iranians pulled themselves together and The Pentalpha Nations were able to give them serious medical aid. As the improved mumps vaccines that fight Shrivel become available the Iranian medical service used them very well. Their population is now growing and their democracy is stable.

Egypt went from a population of one hundred million to five million and was hit by several waves of shrivel. Maintenance on the Aswan High Dam has been neglected for decades. This is becoming serious both for declining electrical generation and the basic physical integrity of the dam. The Egyptians are torn between getting help and stubborn pride.

Israel took a nasty blow. They accepted medical aid but they're now inward looking and becoming reactionary.

Most of the rest of the Near East is simply chaotic and scary.
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Old 03-16-2018, 12:33 PM   #238
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This one is simple, it's 2030 and the sun is acting oddly. There's an 8% decrease in radiant energy reaching Earth. The world is plunged into a new ice age.

On the up side, breakthroughs in fusion allow civilization to run smoothly on stable energy sources. Material science and biotech allow improved recycling and deal with most material limits. Vertical agriculture allows cities to produce crops in stable environments within the cities. The crisis is getting to those points.

Meanwhile the third world is being hit by vast droughts and other strange weather issues.

Certain nations like Russia, China, and any other culture you want to ally them with, are collapsing. They demand, backed by nukes, a rescue. Even if it means the rescuing nations die from neglecting their own people.

Crisis everywhere, brutal politics, and a practical path to hope.
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Old 03-17-2018, 11:20 AM   #239
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Another way to twist this is to go ahead to 2100. North America, Europe, Southern South America, Tasmania, and New Zealand, are largely under snow fields, glaciers take a long time to form, but not as long as some think. Northern Asia is also covered in snow fields and the cooling of Central Asia has turned off the monsoon cycle in the Arabian Sea. Thus India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Southern China, are arid and sterile as the Empty Quarter of Arabia.

The Tropics are drier and less fertile but still viable. The USA built a series of cities in the Pacific Ocean. These float with neutral buoyancy just below the surface. This minimizes both the problems of water pressure and weather threats. Certain platforms can pop up to allow recreation in the open air and then sink to avoid bad weather. Fusion and sea thermal energy run these platforms.

Some cities in North America and Europe survive above the snowline. Fusion and vertical agriculture makes this possible but it's economically borderline. Most of the survivors of North America, Europe, and New Zealand, live in the sea cities. The Government is Social Democratic with a strong tradition of Civil Liberties.

The Sea Cities are peaceful, however the lands of the Tropics are cursed with wars. Some of these are from mass migrations, populations fleeing the cold or mega droughts. Some of these come from reduced fertility of the land from the drier climate. The Sea Cities are finally stable enough to start trying to aid the war zones.

PCs would be diplomats and aid workers trying to stop the wars and solve the problems of economic and environmental chaos.
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Old 03-17-2018, 02:33 PM   #240
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I wouldn't put it past ideological holdouts to remain in the snow fields, supporting small populations through scavenging and cobbled-together heaters and food supplies.
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