New Reality Seeds

[Tyneras]

Sticking with the King Leopold II ideas (a friend just showed me a documentary on him the other night) what if the invention of the pneumatic tire was delayed by a few years to a decade? Prior to the sudden spike in rubber demand the Congo was a massively unprofitable failure and only the pneumatic tire seemed to save the King from going bankrupt.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Assume that Roger Casement's black diaries aren't found.

If the Black Diaries did not exist, it would be necessary to forge them (and there are some who think this is exactly what happened, judging by the article). Even if they were neither discovered nor invented, see johndallman's post, above.

[scc]

Originally Posted by johndallman

No, Leopold II of the Belgians was a cousin of Prince Albert. While this relationship didn't reflect well on the monarchy, arranging for shipments of arms from Germany for a rebellion in Ireland during WWI and arriving back in Ireland in a U-boat does seem rather like treason on Casement's part.

Conspiring with the Enemy and Conspiracy to Commit Insurrection In A Time Of War are both treason. A charge of Conspiracy to Commit Insurrection is almost certainly going to get you the Death Penalty, the In A Time Of War on the end is not going to help matters, it may even prevent you from being brought before a civilian judge

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

If the Black Diaries did not exist, it would be necessary to forge them (and there are some who think this is exactly what happened, judging by the article). Even if they were neither discovered nor invented, see johndallman's post, above.

There's other evidence that Cassment was gay. The Black Diaries make no logical sense as forgeries because they aren't fully congruent with the White Diaries. If the Brits were going to hire a forger, they'd have hired one that wouldn't embarass them with an easily discovered forgery. All the physical evidence fits the idea that the White Diaries were the first draft of Cassment's books/reports and the Black Diaries were quickly dashed off personal journals.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by scc

Conspiring with the Enemy and Conspiracy to Commit Insurrection In A Time Of War are both treason. A charge of Conspiracy to Commit Insurrection is almost certainly going to get you the Death Penalty, the In A Time Of War on the end is not going to help matters, it may even prevent you from being brought before a civilian judge

Without the Black Diaries the pressure from America and Canada, both disgusted by the mass executions after the Easter Uprising, could have gotten Cassment off. Britain realised she couldn't risk alienating the USA or risk any disaffection from Canada.

[Astromancer]

Try this idea. In the early 1920's a spaceship flies over and examines several major cities in North America, Europe, and Asia. The object is obviously artificial and clearly an advanced technology not of this Earth. Each flyover takes several hours, thousands of pictures are taken, no one can doubt that the ship was alien (except religious fundementalists who have other theories).

How do you think it would change additudes and/or actions?

Myself, I assume vast amounts of "Space Brothers" New Ageyness. I also assume serious interest in Space Exploration and extra-planetary bases.

What's your take.

[johndallman]

Presumably it easily evades aircraft and anti-aircraft fire? Does it respond at all? Ignore? Move on to somewhere else? Does its route make sense in terms of the times and distances between appearances? Is it seen to leave Earth, or does it just stop showing up?

In spite of its advanced technology, you might well get some people certain that it was of Earthly origin, created by a lone genius: consider the SF of Jules Verne, and the early work of E.E."Doc" Smith, where interstellar technologies are invented by scientists working solo. The idea that impressive technological achievements are created by large teams is a post-Manhattan Project phenomenon. There would also be several conspiracy theory versions of this based on enemy relationships from the WWI period.

I think you might also get a kind of Christian Futurist reaction: a fair number of non-fundamentalist believers would conclude that other advanced life must know God, and that humanity should think in those terms about aliens.

[Astromancer]

Try this idea. In our world Kaiser Wilhelm II came to the throne of Germany as a relatively young man in 1888 because of the early death of his father from throat cancer. Meanwhile Franz Joseph of Austria lived until 1916, which helped drive his son to suicide. Picture instead a world were Frederick lives until 1920 and Rudolf becomes Emperor in 1889 (instead of a suicide at Mayerling.)

Both Frederick and Rudolf were far more progressive than their relatives and both realised that an allience with England was good for their nation. Picture France and Russia out in the cold. An Anglo-Austro-German Alliance, possibly with Italy and/or the Turks thrown in, would have been far more stable. WWI could have been delayed for a generation or more.

However WWI was inherrent in the European state system post-Congress of Vienna, so what Tech Level do you want WWI at? Or would you like a swashbuckling espionage game in a 1960's Europe that is edging toward WWI?

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Or would you like a swashbuckling espionage game in a 1960's Europe that is edging toward WWI?

I like that idea. The PCs all know (as do the players) that the war will happen, but the question is, how will it start. Perhaps they want to delay it even longer, or start it sooner, but in a way that grants their faction an advantage.

If it's in the '60s, though, there's the question of the atomic bomb. Chances are, atomic research still happened, and something like Chicago Pile-1 would have been built somewhere in the world, but the existence of atomic matter piles does not automatically mean that atomic bombs would have been invented. Perhaps they haven't been, so everyone has nuclear reactors (few would have taken Non-Proliferation seriously, if they didn't know about atomic weapons), just waiting for some bright spark to grow a mushroom from Hell. Perhaps the atomic bomb has been invented, but no-one has yet used it in anger. Perhaps many nations have it, but like those defense clauses, are keeping it secret.

Either way, outtimers will certainly know what's at stake, which lends a tension to the game that isn't often present.

[dcarson]

Fission research will happen but almost certainly slower. The Oak Ridge enrichment R&D was very expensive. So first atomic pile in the late 40s, quite possibly using either close to raw Uranium or using Plutonium which can be extracted chemically from a reaction that doesn't produce much power. No ICBMs, without WW II rocket research at least a decade behind probably more. I'd expect that technology is at least a decade behind ours for the same date without WW I and WW II to drive cutting edge spending. This applies especially to aircraft, rocket and chemistry I think. Medicine also I think.

Without the massive loss of upper class officers you still have something closer to pre WW I social structure. That and the lack of demand for war time labor that lead to women, minorities and such getting a foothold in middle class jobs. In the US most northern black neighborhoods can be traced back to labor for war industries, either WW I or WW II.

A lot more colonies are still controlled from Europe. You might have a lot of small scale warfare there with powers backing uprisings in rivals colonies. Lots of room for spies there.

The US isn't a major a power and is probably underestimated even more then facts would indicate by Europe since it hasn't been in a major war with them.

What is happening with Japan and China? Japan would still want it's own Empire/sphere of influence.