Just throwing this idea out there

[chrisjapow]

How do you think an alternate history would have played out had the Norse succesfully colonised America? Supposedly the Scandanavian Leif Ericson was the first European to land there, probably at Newfoundland, in real life he stayed there for a winter, probably had a couple of rucks with the aboriginal Americans, and then left. My "What-if" is that he stayed, set up a permanent colony, told others of this new and verdant land, more and more colonists came, much earlier than in our history. Would this have significantly affected the timeline?

Has there already been a story working on this premise? (Most ideas I come up with have already been done by someone else.)

[Anaraxes]

Murray Leinster, "Sideways in Time", Astounding Stories, 1934. I'm sure it's been done since -- more than once. Or before, for that matter.

But don't let that worry you :)

How does the colony develop? The Portuguese made a lot of money from trade, but weren't so much into conquest, and wound up being surpassed. The French were also traders in North America, collecting fur and some other things. The English were the settlers in the northeast. But they also had other colonies for a triangle trade. So you'd be justified in having anything from a new open frontier for the PCs to play Natty Bumpo with a Scandanvian accent to a growing new nation using the inexhaustible forest resources and clever inventions by Olaf Whitneisson to make Ikea furniture available to everyone in Europe in the 1700s.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by chrisjapow

Has there already been a story working on this premise? (Most ideas I come up with have already been done by someone else.)

Much of Poul Anderson's "Eutopia" (in the first Dangerous Visions collection) is set in such a timeline. Then there's the Midgard timeline in GURPS Alternate Earths 2.

Bill Stoddard

[aesir23]

An earlier colonization like the one you describe would have probably been slower.

Perhaps it would have been slow enough for the American Indians to develop resistance to European diseases. As a result the Americas would have been much more densely poplulated, and as a result, Native Americans might not have been wiped out so effectively. Maybe they'd be on a more equal footing today.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by chrisjapow

How do you think an alternate history would have played out had the Norse succesfully colonised America? Supposedly the Scandanavian Leif Ericson was the first European to land there, probably at Newfoundland, in real life he stayed there for a winter, probably had a couple of rucks with the aboriginal Americans, and then left. My "What-if" is that he stayed, set up a permanent colony, told others of this new and verdant land, more and more colonists came, much earlier than in our history. Would this have significantly affected the timeline?

Has there already been a story working on this premise? (Most ideas I come up with have already been done by someone else.)

Its a pretty common premise. See for example L. Sprague de Camp's "The Wheels of If" (1940, often reprinted) and the sequel by Harry Turtledove "The Pugnacious Peacemaker" (1990).

Its unlikely that the Norse only stayed a winter. The Greelanders seem to have run back and forth to the coast of Labrador for timber, and L'Anse Aux Meadows was probably a waypoint on the way to a more attractive settlement. But serious archaeologists have avoided looking for more Norse sites because there are so many cranks in the field and because most of them aren't experts in Norse material culture.

[chrisjapow]

I'll come up with an original idea one of these days.

[talonthehand]

Originally Posted by chrisjapow

I'll come up with an original idea one of these days.

No worries, even if the premise has been done before, there's still room for originality in what happens afterwards.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by chrisjapow

I'll come up with an original idea one of these days.

"I'll come up with an original idea one of these days." Unknown H. Erectus. :)

[chrisjapow]

The Simpsons already did it!

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by chrisjapow

How do you think an alternate history would have played out had the Norse succesfully colonised America? Supposedly the Scandanavian Leif Ericson was the first European to land there, probably at Newfoundland, in real life he stayed there for a winter, probably had a couple of rucks with the aboriginal Americans, and then left.

He wasn't Scandinavian. He was born in Iceland, and if there had been passports back in the day his would've been Icelandic.

Iceland isn't in Scandinavia.