Alternate Earths 3, What Worlds? (hypothetical)

[Glamourweaver]

Here's one...

Snakes-on-a-Plane!


Its a close parallel. Biggest difference being that there are mother-f@%#ing snakes on a mother-f@%#ing plane!!!!!!

[Tom Kalbfus]

Originally Posted by vitruvian

Not necessarily. Just because I posit the sexual dimorphism as a response to a violent (kill other males' kids) strategy on the part of ancestral males, does NOT necessarily imply that males are inherently more violent in every respect than in our timeline and species. In fact, as the balance of power shifted towards bigger, stronger females, and societies grew up around structures in which multiple males attended to one female or were perhaps even traded around, with paternity not mattering too much (except for the matriarchs to track as a check against inbreeding) and maternal uncles taking on much of the caregiver role, things might actually end up more peaceful by the time civilization is developed.

On the other hand, there could be problems with developing our traditional means of diplomacy and peacemaking, if husband-wife bonds are of less importance economically and politically. It's hard to tell how things would play out.

If man will kill children, then he will kill anybody. Killing a rival male is also another way to ensure that your genes will be passed on.

I don't know how you jump to husband-wife bonds being less important, all I'm saying is that the relationship is different. Also I doubt that different husbands would get along in a multi-husband group if you say they are compeditive and violent. Each man tries to monopolize the attentions of a female and his compeditors would try to get rid of him so they can fill the vacancy. The men themselves can't think straight when they are around females, they tend to go berserk and attack each other. Sounds to me like a combination of the Klingons and the Drow.

[Wise One]

I think that "Qabala" (the one with the Golems) from GURPS Steampunk has enormous potential.

[JordVortexan]

I'd love to see Cyrano and Qabala fleshed out e23 products.. as well as an update to 4e of the setting Cybermech Damocles setting from Mecha (even thought aliens seem to be on the outs).

For a new setting I'd be all over an AE where North America was discovered and settled by early Britons a/o Celts. The current era features all the tropes of a classic Swashbuckler... but that's just me.

[Fionn The Otaku]

Originally Posted by JordVortexan

For a new setting I'd be all over an AE where North America was discovered and settled by early Britons a/o Celts. The current era features all the tropes of a classic Swashbuckler... but that's just me.

Y'mean Like Brendan, a time line in which early Irish monks discovered, colonized and Christianized North America like they did many Atlantic Islands. That's the earliest I can see Celts getting to America unless they adopt Carthaginian sailing tech which i can't see ever happening.

[Glamourweaver]

Originally Posted by Fionn The Otaku

Y'mean Like Brendan, a time line in which early Irish monks discovered, colonized and Christianized North America like they did many Atlantic Islands. That's the earliest I can see Celts getting to America unless they adopt Carthaginian sailing tech which i can't see ever happening.

Is Brendan mentioned in some product, an external resource, or is it a homebrew?

[Glamourweaver]

Originally Posted by JordVortexan

For a new setting I'd be all over an AE where North America was discovered and settled by early Britons a/o Celts. The current era features all the tropes of a classic Swashbuckler... but that's just me.

I don't really see a world with early Celtic dominance producing classic Swashbuckler-ness. Those motiffs arise predominately from French & Spanish culture.

Which I why I like Armada-2 as a Swashbuckler setting. Spanish Imperial dominance + the Inquisition keeping the world culturally trapped in the 17th Century by squashing the Enlightenment before it got off the ground.


As for a world of Celtic dominance I really like Brittanica-7, which is also my choice for a gyno-centric society (Boadiccia's conquest having given rise to a matriarchal culture).



Here's an idea (that may or may not be a concept mentioned in GURPS Steampunk, I haven't read it)... what if Hero of Alexandria had made that one breakthrough he was on the brink of & had successfully invented the Steam Engine?

On the other hand that could simply function as an element to incorporate into Roma Aeterna as justification for giving more advanced Steam-Punk technology if one choose to.

[Glamourweaver]

I was actually thinking of his pneumatic pistons when I suggested that he held the potential of creating a useful steam-engine.


Here's an idea for a world rooted in cosmological differences: Ptolemus, a "Myth Parallel" where Ptolemaic cosmology (complete with Crystal Spheres for the 7 "Planets" & Fixed Stars) is actually accurate. Its the 1960s & Johannus Kennedy, Cardinal of North America, has (in violation of Papal Writ) called for mankind to reach up & touch the face of God by seeking to travel to & through the Celestial Spheres.

(Rome is so furious with him they're discussing excommunication & in shadowy corners... assassination)

[Lord_Kjeran]

Chello!

Originally Posted by Glamourweaver

I don't really see a world with early Celtic dominance producing classic Swashbuckler-ness. Those motiffs arise predominately from French & Spanish culture.

I don't know...maybe something like "Captain Lightfoot"?

I too would like to see Cyrano as an E23 publication...Jesuit Jedi comcined with space: 1889! lol

[Almafeta]

Here's a few more thoughts for fun (some inspired by Jürgen's post).

Ayers-2: In the year 700 BC, a magical meteor swarm pelted Australia, raising the local mana level considerably and. In 1788, when Captain Aurthur Phillip landed at Port Jackson, he had less than 24 hours before the native aboriginal people burned the settlement off the face of the earth. It's now 1820 AD, and virtually every government on earth is trying to discover why the Australians can cast magic, which is more powerful than even their siege weapons. The southern contintent is rife with disguised scholars and cutthroats, while outside it, both Asia and Europe have been changed by what little magical knowledge has smuggled out. Some even believe that "Australia" is the lost continent of Atlantis...

Catacomb: A version of Earth where the planet is rife with catacombs, and two times as many humans live below the surface than they do above. These catacombs have existed since at least the Jurrasic, and culture only retains the vaguest resemblance to Homeline's. A war between the two factions -- the topsiders called "Elves," and the subterannians called "Dwarves," is raging. A third renegade faction, the "Humans" (from eu-mans, or true men, combining the classical languages of the Elves with the germanic languages of the ), a breed of those from mixed elf and dwarf parentage, is trying to prove to both sides that they are not demonspawn, but rather, all three facts of the same race.

Halley: It was proven that the earth was hollow in 1976; the first tunnel between the two was discovered by Russian scientists in 1979. It's now 1981, and the Cold War has heated up on the inside of the planet. Three parties (Russia, China, and the US) all competing to make claims on the land, and skirmish wars are constant.

Mousetrap: Like our world, but due to a near-miss in the early days of Earth, the planet spins faster: in our time, each day lasts 21 hours, 34 minutes, and 16 seconds. The calander year has 406 days (14 months of 29 days), with a leap year about every 3 years. Humans have progressed at much the same tech level, but the culture is changed to adapt to people being awake all hours of day and night (human circadian rhythms run on a 25-hour schedule; they can handle being 4% shorter, but not a full sixth).