New Reality Seeds

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Kickstarter (Q6, 2022)

In this relatively near parallel, there are thousands of gadgeteers ready to prototype the most wondrous inventions. Unfortunately, they have a dire lack of funding.

A sourcebook for this setting was published in 2014, demonstrating the effectiveness of some of its inventions.

[Astromancer]

While listening to the Kingston Trio's version of Bay of Mexico I realized that there is a sweet spot where the Pirate Story, the Western, and the Swashbuckler all meet. If you take the lands from Flowers of Bermuda West to Mexico City, from the sands of the Spanish Main North to the dens of the River Pirates of the Ohio and the Mississippi, from 1750 on to 1830. Add in the vast blank area on periods maps of North America, which in period fiction writers filled with the same kinds of bizarre wonders that pulp writers later placed in the Africa of Tarzan and Solomon Kane. Thomas Jefferson wasn't alone in believing that the Columbian Mammoth roamed in vast herds in the American West. One French author placed 18 inch high devils living in fortress cities West of the Mississippi. An Italian author placed a city of technologically advanced Aztecs around the area Denver, near an undiscovered inland sea.

With sword fights in New Orleans and Mexico City, pirate treasure, and exotic relics in Bimini (maybe near a mysterious underwater Road), wilderness adventures from the Cherokee Townships to California, campaigns need never run dry.

If you want to add magic, Path/Book magic was made for this area and its myths and legends.

[fchase8]

Awhile back in this thread, I did a write-up for GURPS Infinite Worlds' Bonaparte-1, based only a blurb.

Now I have done one for Azoth-1, based on this blurb:

On Azoth-1 (Q3, current year 1632), the worldline is TL(4+3). Bernard of Treves isolated azoth from quicksilver in 1488; da Vinci developed the azothic flyer four years later, which the Medicis used to unite Italy. Austrian flyers and azothic cannon drove the Turks out of Europe in 1571. In 1617, Sir Walter Raleigh became the first man to land on Venus.

[fchase8]

Azoth-1, 1632

Current Affairs: Azoth-fueled Medici Europe explores Earth & beyond, in search of alchemical power.
Divergence Point: 1488; Bernard of Treves isolates azoth from quicksilver.
Major Civilizations: Western (multipolar), Islamic (empire), Chinese (empire)
Great Powers: Florentine Empire (dictatorship, CR4), Holy Roman Empire (feudal dictatorship, CR4), Kingdom of England (dictatorship, CR3), Spanish Empire (dictatorship, CR4), Safavid Persia (dictatorship, CR4), Ming China (dictatorship, CR4), New Papal States (theocracy, CR3)
Worldline Data:
TL: 4+3 (air & space travel are TL4^)
Quantum: 3 Mana Level: low
Infinite Class: Z4 Centrum Zone: Inaccessible

The first timeline discovered with an Alchemical Revolution, its wonder element became the designation for all such worlds. Bernard of Treves decanted azoth from mercury in 1488; Leonardo da Vinci developed his majestic flyers four years later, which the Medicis used to unite Italy - and usher in a new age.

Pax Medici
Lorenzo the Magnificent and son Piero the Fortunate coopted potential rivals with calculated alchemical sharing and dynastic marriages. Spanish flyers subjugated the New World, while Austrian flyers and azothic cannon drove the Turks out of Europe in 1571. Piero’s brother Pope Leo X, flush with Medici riches, ended the sale of indulgences, averting a potential Catholic schism.
Instead, Europe pushed outward, as the flyers of London & Paris crossed vast North America, while those of Lisbon & Amsterdam seized ports in Africa & Asia. The Florentine Empire split Egypt from the collapsing Ottomans, sweeping into the Holy Land to found the New Papal States, later building the Canal de Medici.
Through all of this, the supply of azoth has been tightly controlled, ‘The Trevian Method’ and da Vinci’s designs limited to trusted partners, financed by the great Bank of Medici. Azoth’s flying properties took Leonardo Caboto to a dusty Moon at the turn of the century, but the element's greatest impact has been as a source of endless energy, fueling factories and harnessing Europe’s new wealth.
Sir Walter Raleigh’s landing on Venus in 1617 seemed only for glory, until he returned from the planet with a ship full of azoth. For the jungle world runs thick with it, sparking the ‘Venusian Rush’ of explorers and miners outside the House of Medici, upsetting a status quo that has stood for over a hundred years.

Outworld Operations
One of the first worlds encountered with variant physical laws that verge on magic, Infinity moved slowly on Azoth-1, but in a long infiltration mission that is Patrol legend, acquired the mythic substance and how to make it. None of it worked on most any other timeline, but Infinity learned about everything from anti-gravity to ritualistic magic - the earliest run-in with The Cabal was here (officially), its magicians also in pursuit of azoth.
The current focus is the habitable solar system, another first. Reticent U.N. bureaucrats eventually allowed gung-ho Patrolmen to go to Venus, where azoth doesn’t quite flow like water, but actual water does, in its prehistoric jungle. Not yet discovered are any intelligent inhabitants (like the lizardmen of Etherian Venus), but there is much to explore. There are also the ruins of a lost civilization on the dark side of the Moon; meanwhile, no mission to Mars has ever returned.
It all overshadows Infinity’s efforts to stop an azothic world war; on the next two Azoth timelines found, alchemical fighting wrecked Europe. Peace still reigns among the Medici capitols, but this new source of azoth threatens to bring conflict to two planets, from the mining camps of Venus to wobbly Ming China.
Also, Bernard of Treves was presumed to be a fictional character on Homeline. Azoth-1 might be a myth parallel, or perhaps Bernard was a real person in Homeline history; it’s similar to Robin Hood and King Arthur.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

In this Q6 Low Mana world, Ögedei Khan lived to the age of sixty-0ne years. This meant that Batu Khan had six more years to Attack Europe. However, between unexpectedly stiff resistance and the realization that they weren't really impressed, the Mongols didn't bother to strike south into Italy nor cross the Rhine. The Holy Roman Empire ceased to be, although many sub states survived. Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Austria, were in ruins.

France spent the later 1400's taking over most of Germany. Britain remained caught in the Wars of the Roses. Italy, free of both French and German meddling, struggles to stay out of Spanish hands. But even as Britain is locked in civil wars, the fall of the Hanseactic League meant that the Bristol Merchants no longer feared confiscation of ships and goods for being known to have sailed to Greenland and Iceland. Through the Merchants of Bristol all Europe became aware of the lands West of Greenland in the 1460s (although with no Gutenberg the news spread slowly). Still, the Bristol merchants set up small bases on the coast of these new lands to dry the fish caught in the rich fisheries of these lands.

A Swagman of Italian origin "Invented" the Printing press in this world and set up shop in Venice. Because the Turks were badly disrupted by the Mongols, the Byzantines aren't yet conquered, but it is only a matter of time. Still the refugee Greek scholars are writing excellent Greek Grammars and dictionaries. Being a shewd business man, the swagman has also introduced a dictionary of Egyptian hieroglyphics (based on solid scholarship from Homeline) and Grammars and dictionaries of Coptic. He has also printed a book on Roman building techniques based on Homeline observations of various Roman parallels and echoes.

Basically an alternate Renaissance. Byzantium might be saved, England and Scotland are in the New World first, the Reformation might never happen or the whole church might collapse (Germany was a major source of funds, France and the Papacy might fight to the death over the spoils of Germany.

[Prince Charon]

Pulp-7 (unless the designation is already in use, or there's another one that fits better)

It is the year 1938 on this largely no mana (but otherwise fairly fantastic) Earth, a somewhat Wold Newtonish worldline, at least thematically: While some characters and groups that are fictional on Homeline exist here, others that are frequently seen in Wold Newton-like worldlines do not; some have no counterpart at all, others are replaced by beings or groups with similar abilities and usually-similar morals and ethics, but different origins, motivations, and names. For example, Holmes and Watson existed and Doc Savage lives, but while there is no Superman on this Earth outside of the comics (which depending on how late in the year it is, may not have been published yet), there is a flying, psychokinetic hero called the Artchetype, who claims to be from a lost city, not an alien planet. There's no Flash or Whizzer, but there's a speedster martial artist called the Human Bullet, and the chemist Professor Gibberne did exist. The nearest equivalent to the Ultra-Humanite or Lex Luthor is the Hyperintellect, a mad scientist with a deep hatred of the Archetype. The Bat-Man is at best a character being planned, though there are a few existing pulp heroes that serve as inspirations for him, primarily the Bat and the Shadow, each of whom worked with the Whisperer before he basically retired.

This Earth has both 'aliens' (referring to life that evolved or was engineered 'out there' before coming here, most of them sapient), and 'cryptids' (meaning beings that evolved or were engineered on Earth, most of them not-so-sapient, and a few groups that clearly do think; these include living things, spirits & undead, and even some strange robots). Some aliens from the 1895 Martain Invasion (War of the Worlds) survived in hiding or in laboratories. This worldline experienced a gradual increase in strangeness during the 19th century, with a jump in power levels since 1929; they have also seen an increase in alien visitors, since the Zarkov Expedition thwarted Emperor Ming I of Mongo, called 'the Merciless,' in 1933 (shortly after Infinity discovered this worldline), and in appearances of cryptids since Dracula's visit to London in the early 1890s. People on average are less skeptical of the extraordinary than many on other worldlines in this era, though the Mystery Men and Mystery Women are still often believed (by those who haven't encountered them, or seen significant evidence of them) to be fictional or greatly exaggerated. Sure, people living in Chicago for long enough are no-longer likely to mistake the Archetype for a bird or a plane, but until he appeared in decent-quality newsreels, few outside of the city believed that a man could fly (under his own power).

(I originally started working on this as a place for some characters that I've been working on to exist in, but it seems like a world that could be fun to game in. I suggest aiming more for a Pulp setting than a Supers setting, as the really high-level supers are rare. Typical Mystery Men/Women are in the 200-300 point range, or only a little higher; very small numbers of beings in the 500+ point range do exist, and some are being statted, but I suggest that they should usually be NPCs.)


Thoughts?

[Astromancer]

For PULP-7, look at movies and stories with exotic technologies and diseases. The Werewolf of London, the two strip Technicolor Doctor X, or The Night Key. These will provide setting appropriate threats and tools. Example: the synthetic flesh invented by Doctor X is both a source of super powers and wealth.

Steal from Moorcock's Nomad of the Timestreams series and have airships be far more resilient and practical. Let them be close to replacing ships. Airship fields should be like ports.

[David Johnston2]

Poe-2: So named because the first immediately identifiable difference was that Edgar Allen didn't die at the age of 40. Instead in 1889 he's still alive, if highly reclusive and still churning out new writing. Close investigation revealed that Poe-2 is low mana and Poe is still alive because he's a vampire. Poe-2's version of Jack the Ripper (still active) also appears to be supernatural.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Lovecraft-2: Originally this world was thought to be pretty much a WWII echo of homeline. It was only when Infinity got into a three-way scuffle with the Cabal and Reich-5 that it was revealed that in this timeline HP Lovecraft faked his death to lead a covert war against Mythos influence.

Lovecraft-3: In this reverse-Atomic Horror timeline, xenophobic Lovecraft (another faked death) and his cronies are the greatest threat to peaceful (if weird-looking) Mythos aliens.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

For PULP-7, look at movies and stories with exotic technologies and diseases. The Werewolf of London, the two strip Technicolor Doctor X, or The Night Key. These will provide setting appropriate threats and tools. Example: the synthetic flesh invented by Doctor X is both a source of super powers and wealth.

Steal from Moorcock's Nomad of the Timestreams series and have airships be far more resilient and practical. Let them be close to replacing ships. Airship fields should be like ports.

Thanks. Have started a tech divergences section to be posted later, and I agree with you about airships becoming more and more common being something that fits here. Rockets, too.