New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Having done more than a little research into thorium-based nuclear power, there are a few reasons why it has not taken off. First, it does not produce useful radioactives as a byproduct, so it cannot be developed along with a weapon program. Second, it requires a neutron source to salt the thorium, either a particle accelerator targeting the thorium fuel before it enters the reaction chamber or plutonium blended into the thorium fuel, and it just adds a step that increases the complexity and expense of thorium fuels. Third, uranium is cheap and plentiful, so there is no real economic need for thorium-based nuclear power. Fourth, fusion is better, and a society is probably going to develop commercial fusion before they need to develop commercial thorium.

In an alternate world where Gore received the presidency after the 2000 election, the USA got serious about fusion, and succeeded in building the first commercially viable reactor in 2010. With its control over fusion technology, and the savings from paying down its national debt, the USA was able to afford to expand into the Solar System using fusion rockets, returning to the moon in 2015 and sending the first mission to Mars in 2020. Now it is 2050, and the USA has established bases and/or colonies from Mercury to Saturn, and it is the lead builder of space colonies. Not all is peaceful though, as China and Russia, long tired of being eclipsed by the USA, have joined together as a military alliance, and have invaded the nations of Central Asia, destabilizing the long peace that existed since the end of the Cold War.

Good one. The PCs could be out in the solar system, involved in Earth's messy politics, frontline grunts, lots of utility here.

[AlexanderHowl]

Thank you. I am thinking that it would be TL9 (TL8 computers, TL10 fusion) as private investment would have flowed from computers to fusion with the dot com bust and federal investment in fusion. Without the $7 trillion cost of the 'War on Terror' (Gore would have probably simply bribed the Taliban with $10 billion a year in food aid in exchange for handing over the people involved in 9/11 and would have just kept the sanctions on Iraq), the USA would have spent less money supporting its private intelligence and military companies, though the slowdown of computing technology would have made the USA less vulnerable to cyberattack. The question would be where would you put your characters within the setting?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Thank you. I am thinking that it would be TL9 (TL8 computers, TL10 fusion) as private investment would have flowed from computers to fusion with the dot com bust and federal investment in fusion. Without the $7 trillion cost of the 'War on Terror' (Gore would have probably simply bribed the Taliban with $10 billion a year in food aid in exchange for handing over the people involved in 9/11 and would have just kept the sanctions on Iraq), the USA would have spent less money supporting its private intelligence and military companies, though the slowdown of computing technology would have made the USA less vulnerable to cyberattack. The question would be where would you put your characters within the setting?

That's a matter of taste. Exploring the solar system is fun. Many themes of the better Westerns could easily be moved to a frontier like Mars or the Moon. Cyberpunk/Espionage crossovers could be set throughout Europe and Asia anyplace either glamorous or down at the heels. Black Ops favors could be added to that mix in Central Asia.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

In an alternate world where Gore received the presidency after the 2000 election, the USA got serious about fusion, and succeeded in building the first commercially viable reactor in 2010. With its control over fusion technology, and the savings from paying down its national debt, the USA was able to afford to expand into the Solar System using fusion rockets, returning to the moon in 2015 and sending the first mission to Mars in 2020. Now it is 2050, and the USA has established bases and/or colonies from Mercury to Saturn, and it is the lead builder of space colonies. Not all is peaceful though, as China and Russia, long tired of being eclipsed by the USA, have joined together as a military alliance, and have invaded the nations of Central Asia, destabilizing the long peace that existed since the end of the Cold War.

Sounds like a possible backstory for WWIII/the war with the Eastern Coalition in Star Trek: First Contact.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

That's a matter of taste. Exploring the solar system is fun. .

Thrilling rock collecting action!

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

The planet (Minerva) was settled centuries ago. The colony was founded because of a misjump. (Yes this another one of my lost colony settings). Twelve different culture groups survived. After a long period of poverty and wars, one of the cultures stabilized and slowly climbed back to TL 5. However, one culture reclaimed its heritage of democracy and has progressed more swiftly than the others because of physical isolation and greater internal stability. They've achieved TL6 and are rapidly moving toward TL 7. (Most of this world has the technology of roughly 1760 but one culture has a mix of 1920s and 30s tech).

The advanced culture wants to promote peace and help the other groups become more prosperous. Problem, each other the other groups sees the one advanced democracy as an insurmountable threat to their ways of life. It doesn't help that the other cultures are aware of how highly secular the democracy is. Each of the non-democratic cultures either has an official faith with legally empowered clergy or is officially agnostic and puts multiple strict controls on religious faith.

At the same time, each of the other cultures covets both the prosperity and technological power of the democracy. Even though their historians can show them that going for these things will bring the chaos they fear.

This setting is a mix of Swashbucklers and Sci Fi Pulp. Definitely pull out GURPS Scarlette Pimpernel if you've got it.

I left the cultures up to the reader. So you can blend in any other flavors you like.

[Astromancer]

This one is fairly straightforward. Basically, an alien species decides to recruit. They've been sterilized in a war which they won, a pyrrhic victory, and they see humanity as clay they can mold into future generations.

The aliens show up as friendly merchants, they clearly watched a lot of Star Trek in order to come up with their spiel.
They spread Proteus viruses by various vectors.

It is long enough after the initial infections most young children worldwide are notably alien. The few adolescent altered children are torn between worlds. The aliens are trying to reestablish diplomatic ties shocked at how attached humans are to their children and also how attached the half-breed children are to their parents.

This is a role-playing heavy setting. But it could move toward espionage if the half-breed children try to win alien tech for Earth without the cultural imperialism of the aliens.

[Astromancer]

Looking at an old Kamandi comic, issue #20 (the one set in the Chicago themed amusement park), I got an idea. I'd heard that they were planning to set a new storyline with humanity is recovering from the Great Catastrophy as a prequel to rebooting the Legion of Super-Hereos.

The idea is a post-apocalyptic world on the mend. Some areas have both retained and advanced the old technology, other areas are still locked in primitivism and chaos. Descendents of space colonists who'd left the solar system centuries ago are recontacting the Earth. It's a busy setting were Mad Max type poverty and violence are only miles away from walled cities that resemble a 1940s Amazing cover. Barbarians visit spaceports. Alien anthropologists in the ruins of ancient Peoria.

PCs could start out as barbarians fleeing the rule of their local Immortan Joe seeking a better life in an advanced city. They could be city folk at one of several different tech levels trying to make their community secure and prosperous. They could be high tech extra-solar humans looking at the Mother World. Seeking their history, or to help, or merely adventure.

Given the comic book origin of this idea, mutants with powers are a solid idea. Mutants could be sought out for their talents and gifts or persecuted as monsters. Different attitudes in different areas make the most sense.

Given that this was inspired by Kamandi, multiple competing species of intelligent life (mainly uplifted animals) would be an interesting and lively addition to the setting.

[Astromancer]

A further note on this setting. Most of the Barbarian humans and barbarian uplifted animals live in TL2-4 societies. Settled humans and Uplifted animals live in TL5-9 societies. The returning space humans live in a TL12 cultural system/eckumen.

Trade and transport are underdeveloped but improving quickly. A railroad connecting a previously isolated community to the wider world would be a good campaign for this setting.

As a nod to Thundarr the Barbarian the local mana level is mixed. None 25%/Low 30%/Normal 35%/High 10%.

Psionics are fairly common among humans, rare, but not unheard of, among Uplifted animals. Powerful psi is rare period. But most PCs should have one or two Psi Perks.

[Astromancer]

In a distant future, sometime after 125,000AD, a scholar of literature and philosophy came upon the book To Your Scattered Bodies Go. The Scholar (whose sex and gender can't be described in 21st century terms) thought it was a fine idea.

After forming a committee to "Allow Redemption of the Ancestors" they built a Dyson Sphere, created Earthlike areas on the inner surface, and recreated everyone who lived on Earth from 250,000BC to 2100. The TL12^+ technology means that the recreation of bodies, minds, and memories is perfect (yeah that's science fantasy, not science fiction, but bear with me).

Everyone who lived to be older than Brain Maturity (full development of the organism) is now back at Brain Maturity. Those who died between five and Brain Maturity are recreated at age of death. Those below the age of five at death, or suffering from serious mental defects from birth or early childhood are taken elsewhere and raised to be assistants in the project. Everyone is in perfect health all serious defects and deformities are healed. Most people look like ideal versions of what they looked like in life. The exceptions are those like transexuals, whose body images were radically out of line with their bodies. Most transsexuals are now the sex they believed themselves to be. Other types of gender and body dysphoria are dealt with in humane and practical ways. Those humans that died after 2100AD will be dealt with later. There are vastly more of them, so it will take longer.

Yes, this resembles Riverworld. It's far more open ended. There is no particular endgame in the minds of the committee. Their goal is to give past human beings a chance to have what they have, immortality and profound freedom to explore their lives and dreams. They understand that many of the resurrected are dangerous to themselves and others, No one wants to set Hitler, Stalin, or Alexander the Great, lose on the galaxy uncontrolled. So the Sphere is a place of education and testing.

However, this world is wild exotic and has everybody that ever lived dealing with a reality they never counted on. Why not have Ben Franklin, Alice Pleasance Liddle Hargreaves, Cleopatra, Tom Mix, and John Dee, travel first the sphere and then the galaxy seeking adventure and wisdom?