Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-17-2018, 12:59 PM   #3371
Astromancer
 
Astromancer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
I really doubt history would stay on-track as far as WWI. A Franco-Prussian war will probably break out earlier than 1870, and things after that will be different in Europe.
A conflict like our WWI was likely to happen anyway. It was to a certain extent baked in because of how Great Power competition was set up. Food insecurity in Europe would make American grain a vast issue. Germany had serious food security issues in our world, things would be worse in this one. So a WWI with a German defeat and allied nastiness at the peace conference would still be high probabilities.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra!


Ancora Imparo
Astromancer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-17-2018, 01:37 PM   #3372
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
A conflict like our WWI was likely to happen anyway. It was to a certain extent baked in because of how Great Power competition was set up. Food insecurity in Europe would make American grain a vast issue. Germany had serious food security issues in our world, things would be worse in this one. So a WWI with a German defeat and allied nastiness at the peace conference would still be high probabilities.
However, a Franco-Prussian war in the 19th century will have involved the border moving south, because warm lands are of far greater value, making France less powerful.

This Germany is also unlikely to have spent vast sums on building a High Seas Fleet, which means the next Franco-German war is unlikely to involve the UK, and may thus be mostly confined to Europe, rather than being a world war.
johndallman is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 06-17-2018, 02:56 PM   #3373
adm
 
adm's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: MO, U.S.A.
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
...This Germany is also unlikely to have spent vast sums on building a High Seas Fleet, which means the next Franco-German war is unlikely to involve the UK, and may thus be mostly confined to Europe, rather than being a world war.
Maybe, would this Germany see over sea colonies as a food source? This Germany may have an actual reason to build a High Seas Fleet, beyond ego and prestige.
__________________
Xenophilia is Dr. Who. Plus Lecherous is Jack Harkness.- Anaraxes
adm is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-17-2018, 03:59 PM   #3374
Astromancer
 
Astromancer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

The Germans seemed to see colonies as vital to economic growth and stability. The High Seas Fleet was about freedom of action and economic security in German eyes. But any fleet, that could secure German freedom of action, would eliminate Britain's security. This is why a WWI type conflict was nearly inevitable.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra!


Ancora Imparo
Astromancer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-21-2018, 03:23 PM   #3375
Astromancer
 
Astromancer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Try this idea, picture that a genuinely progressive and insightful president was in office a few years after the fall of the USSR. And in 1992 made the case that NATO was a WWII era construct that was meant to deal with Stalin. We now need something completely different to deal with this new world and simply took NATO down and started working on the logical replacement.

However, the changes in domestic policy in the USA ended up attracting most of this president's real time. He still achieves an amazing amount of good stuff but has to leave Europe's defense to Europe. As the 1990's Russia is a basket case, few in Europe care.

Now Russia is coming back as a threat/problem under Putin, the Europeans want American help with their defense. Meanwhile, the earlier insightful president is long out of office. The new guy is more focused on the needs of Working Class Americans whom, and he has a point, have been long neglected. This American president wants to spend his political capital on reviving unions and bringing back manufacturing. Building a major defensive alliance with people who routinely snarl at the USA and whom most of his base see as snobs (and that is a fairly common working class American view of Europe) would take most of the time and attention needed for this president's real goals.

At the same time, the other party has become isolationist. The only way that NATO could be rebuilt would be for the progressives to give up everything back to the New Deal and beyond for the sake of Europe. Which would likely throw the progressives out of office and put the isolationists in.

In this Q6 world, Centrum backs Putin, he's their kind of guy. Homeline wants a strong defense of Europe. There are two ways to get it. A) Convince the more progressive party in the USA to give up their hopes and dreams and accept the Isolationist party dominating the next twenty to fifty years in politics so that America can sacrifice for Europe. Or B) Europe can switch from the loose pseudo-state EU to a real United States of Europe, tossing much of their precious independence out the door forever.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra!


Ancora Imparo
Astromancer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-23-2018, 07:07 AM   #3376
Astromancer
 
Astromancer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Try this idea, back in the 1960's several mystics interested in psychedelic drugs thought psychedelics really were Psyche (soul) delic (revealing). They also suggested that the gods and faeries would return once we looked into our souls and found them again. On this Q4 world, it worked.

The mythic beings of the Greek, Norse, Irish, Welsh, Vedic, Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese, Balinese, and Algonquin, mythic traditions have returned to the world. The results are a mess.

The European and Balinese deities have allied with the west and created a vast working that blocks further mythologies from being called in. They feel humanity owns itself.

The other five groups feel humanity no longer listens to the spirits. That people need to learn to obey the gods. They want to bring the other spirits in and put an end to things like democracy, civil liberties, secular society, high tech (anything above TL3), and written vernacular literature. They also feel cities should be limited to the elites and all other people should live in small villages and never go more than five to six miles from them without written permission.

The local year is 1973, the sixties are brutally over. War? What is it good for? The most basic scraps of survival in this case.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra!


Ancora Imparo
Astromancer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-24-2018, 12:19 PM   #3377
SilvercatMoonpaw
 
SilvercatMoonpaw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Eidson becomes the owner of a famous ice-cream business instead of a genius (stealer?) of inventions.

(Inspired by one of those mental slips you get when reading too fast. In this case a canister of Edie's.)
SilvercatMoonpaw is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-25-2018, 06:35 PM   #3378
PTTG
 
PTTG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw View Post
Eidson becomes the owner of a famous ice-cream business instead of a genius (stealer?) of inventions.

(Inspired by one of those mental slips you get when reading too fast. In this case a canister of Edie's.)
Interesting. Depending on what theories you favor, that could simply result in a small number of replacement companies moving forward (instead of one General Electric, someone gets lightbulbs, someone else gets motors, someone else gets a class of materials...). Maybe that persists going forward, with specialized companies being "what works."

Or you could make it be a symptom of a larger issue. Maybe someone's trying to literally gaslight this worldline by preventing lightbulbs from being popularized.
PTTG is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-26-2018, 03:30 PM   #3379
Astromancer
 
Astromancer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Try this one.

I'm reading essays written during the 1980s on the then current scandals in the Reagan administration. In this Q6 world, a reporter, who in most worlds is killed by a sniper in Vietnam in 1971, not only gets people to see the links between the administration's scandals but further links them to how the loss of the Bretton Woods agreements undermined the economy. Progressives could and did make a link between political corruption and specifically how the economy was failing. A clear and understandable link that mobilized voters.

The GOP is in tatters with two impeached presidents in less than twenty years. In Britain, Thatcher is furious. The new US administration is dumping all of the Reagan economic policies and taking away any and all political cover from her government. Centrum doesn't like this. Centrum has gained a serious position power on Theadneedle Street and they don't want to lose the chance to use the London financial districts to take over the world economy.

With both Centrum and Thatcher wanting to pull down the US government Homeline has a massive challenge. Yes, Thatcher isn't a natural Centrum ally, but all of her life's goals are at serious risk. The Iron Lady is no minor opponent.

Basically, take someone who in many worlds is an ally and let them be a formidable foe. Thatcher could strike hard and with a subtle touch. Figuring out which attacks came from Centrum and which from Thatcher would be a serious problem. Just remember, Thatcher is far quicker on the uptake than Centrum and was always far more adept at attack.

Bonus: The rapid eclipse of the GOP is leading to a serious battle in the Democratic Party. The Progressives on the left want to return to the New Deal and be the party of the people. The moderates that produced Carter and would produce the Clintons want the party to stay in the center or move a little to the right. Large numbers of wealthy donors, dropping the collapsing GOP, want to pull the Democrats to the hard right.

With one party down, and the other about to explode, can you prevent the US government from having a total meltdown and thus landing in Centrum's total control?
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra!


Ancora Imparo

Last edited by Astromancer; 06-26-2018 at 03:42 PM.
Astromancer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-26-2018, 04:07 PM   #3380
TGLS
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

I don't see the link between the Nixon shock and any of the scandals the Reagan administration faced. Is it something to do with the S&L crisis?
TGLS is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
ideas to share, infinite worlds, infinity unlimited

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 09:58 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.