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Old 08-05-2014, 09:38 AM   #1
Gold & Appel Inc
 
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Default Gabrook: 2014

Inspired by combatmedic's Loren'dil thread:

What's happened in the last 800 years or so since the last Banestorm abductions on Gabrook (4e Banestorm, p 21), the homeworld of Yrth's Goblins, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, and Reptile Men? One possible version:

Gabrook: 2014:

Genre: Fantasy / Technothriller

TL: 8-10ish (It's Complicated)

Mana: Mostly Normal, with frequent spikes of High and not-uncommon Very High. Wild is not-uncommon, but tends to be tightly-confined when it appears. Low and Aspected are uncommon. Areas of No Mana are almost always artificial.

Sanctity: As with Yrth itself, many mages claim to wield divine power, but the gods do not appear to take an active role in the world in any way, including this one. No Sanctity for anybody, somewhat ironically given the frequency of holy wars.

Technology: Not entirely unlike our own modern world. Exceptions: Vastly-improved clean technologies for harvesting, storing, and distributing solar, wind, fission, and mana power, coupled with far less reliance on far less abundant fossil fuels. Better overall air quality. Travel by water is virtually unknown; water is something you get your trains across, not something you ship freight over. Rail shipping and travel with centralized power sources is a major thing. Thaumatology is a well-developed science taught at universities, and enchantment is a normal component of all high-quality goods on the domestic and industrial scale. High Mana areas are the most-prized form of real estate, for both residential and industrial purposes. Lighting technology is somewhat retarded; Goblins and Hobgoblins see in the dark just fine. Advertising and urban areas in general tend to be visually-muted compared to modern Earth at night, but not in good lighting.

History: This world has been as tumultuous as our own, including a world war of religious genocide waged about a century ago by a Goblin despot that exterminated tens of millions of Kobolds (as well as millions of Bozdaag-worshipping Hobgoblins and pretty much every member of an obscure Goblin Algan heresy) and saw the use of chemical and thaumatological weapons of mass destruction before it was over. This has resulted, among other things, in a present-day backlash against religious and racial prejudice, ushering in an era of still-frosty but unprecedentedly-open inter-faith and inter-species relations including an upswell in the 1960s known as the, "Summer of Non-Hate," that saw the official freeing of the Kobolds in most Goblin nations.

Demographics: Hobgoblins are generally treated as a disadvantaged underclass in Goblin nations (offered scholarships and social workers or ostracized depending on local politics), while Kobolds are no longer enslaved, but are often only able to find jobs as trash collectors and the like (which suits most of them fine, given their eating habits, but roving bands of antiauthoritarian Kobolds maraud the inner cities, pilfering anything that isn't nailed down). Reptile Men are divided between primitives sequestered on reservations in Goblin nations, in third-world nations so geographically-impenetrable and bereft of resources as to make it not worth the effort, or occasionally residing in cities as legal alien laborers in Goblin societies, and state-of-the-art citizens of the one major Reptile superpower (which exists in the southwestern hemisphere), which stole the secret of the magic WMDs during the last jyhad, was sold modern communications tech, and sits on real estate that is especially rich in mana power. The Reptile nation's biggest export is paut, it's second-biggest is pot, and its rustic ceramic storage vessels are also very popular among the Goblin upper classes of other regions.

Last edited by Gold & Appel Inc; 09-29-2015 at 06:31 AM.
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Old 08-05-2014, 01:15 PM   #2
sir_pudding
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Default Re: Gabrook: 2014

I also envisioned Gabrook as recovering from a world war with weapons of mass destruction. You and I do seem to have similarly calibrated imaginations.
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Old 08-05-2014, 07:00 PM   #3
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Default Re: Gabrook: 2014

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc View Post
What's happened in the last 800 years or so since the last Banestorm abductions on Gabrook (4e Banestorm, p 21), the homeworld of Yrth's Goblins, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, and Reptile Men? One possible version:

Gabrook: 2014:
Nice. I'll be looking forward to the completed monograph :)

Wottaya got on Olokun?
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Old 08-05-2014, 09:18 PM   #4
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Default Re: Gabrook: 2014

A bit too obvious of a parallel to Earth history. I do like your presentation of it as a Technomancer-like world, though, with magic and technology coexisting. I like sir_pudding’s “post-apocalyptic world” idea a bit more, with modern Gabrook functionally being closer to TL4–5 but with higher-tech(nomantic) relics left over from before the War, largely rendering a “Summer of Love” parallel moot.

The other big change to Gabrook would be that the use of technomantic WMDs during the War resulted in several Technomancer-style permanent Banestorms dumping monsters onto Gabrook. As such, it’s no longer just goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, and Reptile Men, any more that Yrth is just elves, dwarves, and orcs. That said, the influx of additional races has been comparatively recent (I could go with “less than a century”, or even as little as twenty years) and focused exclusively in the neighborhoods of the Banestorms.
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Old 08-05-2014, 09:39 PM   #5
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Default Re: Gabrook: 2014

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Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery View Post
Nice. I'll be looking forward to the completed monograph :)

Wottaya got on Olokun?
Environmental collapse might be interesting for Olokun. One of the native races starts an industrial revolution and poisons the ocean in the process.
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Old 08-05-2014, 10:15 PM   #6
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Default Re: Gabrook: 2014

I have a hard time imagining a hightech Gabrook where the reptile men are anything but a remnant of their former numbers. Their culture will not handle any sort of technological revolution, and the goblins hate them too much.
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Old 08-06-2014, 05:40 AM   #7
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Default Re: Gabrook: 2014

Quote:
Originally Posted by dataweaver View Post
A bit too obvious of a parallel to Earth history. I do like your presentation of it as a Technomancer-like world, though, with magic and technology coexisting. I like sir_pudding’s “post-apocalyptic world” idea a bit more, with modern Gabrook functionally being closer to TL4–5 but with higher-tech(nomantic) relics left over from before the War, largely rendering a “Summer of Love” parallel moot.

...
I'm not sure whether I disagree ... I can see the Banestorm making contact with worlds that are similar to each other, and the United States of Lizardia shows that this sort of parallel cultural development is not only possible but actually happens in the Infinite Worlds. But there is the question of why somebody would want to play in a game set on this Gabrook instead of on Earth.
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Old 08-06-2014, 05:53 AM   #8
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Default Re: Gabrook: 2014

Yeah; I know that such "weird parallels" do exist in the Infinite Worlds; I just don't think that Gabrook should be one of them. It's already deviating at least as much as Technomancer did in that it has magic; it also has a different climate than Earth; more arid overall, and very likely with different landmasses than either Earth or Yrth. So I don't see why the cultural development should contain such uncanny parallels to our own history.
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Old 08-06-2014, 06:13 AM   #9
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Default Re: Gabrook: 2014

Quote:
Originally Posted by sir_pudding View Post
I also envisioned Gabrook as recovering from a world war with weapons of mass destruction. You and I do seem to have similarly calibrated imaginations.
Seems kind of inevitable, doesn't it? You've got a world divided by mutually-hostile races and religions, where one species has IQ+1 and Impulsiveness and is eventually going to develop some truly terrible stuff.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery View Post
Nice. I'll be looking forward to the completed monograph :)
Thanks!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery View Post
Wottaya got on Olokun?
That is for another thread (thinking about it). ;]

Quote:
Originally Posted by robkelk View Post
I'm not sure whether I disagree ... I can see the Banestorm making contact with worlds that are similar to each other, and the United States of Lizardia shows that this sort of parallel cultural development is not only possible but actually happens in the Infinite Worlds. But there is the question of why somebody would want to play in a game set on this Gabrook instead of on Earth.
The intended appeal is the combination of a free-wheeling but familiar-feeling Arabian Nights-skinned Technomancer with magic as a normal part of life (Ho'omer Simpsonii punches in every morning at sunrise at the Mana Plant) but also the opportunity for a loosey-goosey TL similar to our own but with, "Unlimited Powah!" lots and lots of trains (and maybe airships if that's your thing) instead of an age of sail, crazy alt-historical cultures, gadgets, and religions for people who like those, etc.

A more-Magical-Cyberpunky alt-version would also be pretty easy to do from here. Just add Gibsonian corporate dominance, plus street samurai with metal golem grafts and/or TL 10 biomods, and you've got Green Shadowrun: Desert Edition.

ETA: I'm looking for other peoples' takes on this, in addition to comments on mine. Thanks in advance for all responses.

Last edited by Gold & Appel Inc; 08-06-2014 at 06:37 AM.
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