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 11-18-2019, 01:08 PM   #4451
Astromancer
 
Astromancer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Try this one...

Taft falls ill in 1911, Teddy, long unhappy with Taft Jumps in and gets the nomination. Without Taft to split the vote, Teddy beats Wilson.

Many of the reforms Wilson pushed Teddy actually favored. We still get the Federal Reserve and most of Wilson's progressive reforms. Teddy also pushed through programs that strongly resemble Social Security and National Health Programs (both were in his campaign platform). The big changes come in 1914.

Wilson spent years working on staying out of WWI, Teddy wanted in at the start. In this world the USA enters WWI in the summer of 1915. By 1917 Germany is exhausted and must ask for peace.

The Czar still falls, but Lenin doesn't get his chance. The Russian Provisional Government holds and is seen as successfully ending the War. The Kaiser keeps his throne, but loses most of his power. The German people believe they were beaten by the allies not from enemies from within.

Leninism, Fascism, Nazism, and other extremist ideologies remain fringe ideas. Without the various unstable plans to keep an angry Germany down, or the massive damage of the later years of the war, the 1920's aren't nearly as unstable. Social Welfare spending soothes the pains of the workers, technology advances making the world richer, and the great Empires thrive.

The problem with this is that as the Empires thrive and bring order and education to the colonial masses (they only wanted education enough to make the colonial masses useful and to keep the missionaries quiet ) the colonial masses become politicized. As the colonial masses become politicized they become harder to rule. More forceful means are needed to keep order and maintain profitability.

Centrum sees this Q6 world as right up their alley. In the year 1950 the world has been in Tech Level seven for about 15 years. The general level of technology is a few years ahead of Homeline in 1950. There is no A-Bomb, thorium power generation (safer in many ways) is getting serious research and breakthroughs are being made, Wernher von Braum came to America following grant money in the 1930's and ending up working with Goddard and Parsons in California. It looks like they'll get a rocket into orbit in a few years. The faster tech development annoys Centrum, but they assume they can deal with that later.

What Centrum doesn't know is that this world's Jack Parsons (who seems so much calmer and more respectable) is a member of the Cabal. His goal is to accelerate technological advances planet wide. He's already smuggled in out time scientists and engineers gathered up through his Cabal contacts. This Parsons knows what a Tech Level Eight world looks like and he means to get his world there by 1960!

It's basically a cloak and dagger techno thriller. The parallel is 90% Low Manna, 9% Normal Manna, and 1% High Manna.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra!


Ancora Imparo
Astromancer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-19-2019, 11:23 PM   #4452
ronwit
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by fchase8 View Post
Could the Japanese effectively offer the Americans their islands as a base from which to attack Pacific Russia? The actual offer wouldn't be much different from what was agreed IRL, to keep the Emperor, maybe not arrest as many wartime leaders, maybe even ask to keep their armed forces - to use against the USSR.

Officially, it would still be "unconditional surrender" to Allied audiences, but privately the Americans wouldn't totally disarm Japan.

This could bring about a second front against the Soviets, American forces that were gearing up to invade Tokyo instead moving on Vladivostok, fighting Korean & Chinese communists.


USSR making it all the way to Gibraltar, through Poland, Germany, France, and Spain seems a stretch - but maybe they had domestic help? There were a lot of French communists who said they'd welcome the Red Army, and the Catalans at least would welcome liberation by their old Russian allies.
The troops that were used to attack Japan are being used by the Soviets to invade Western Europe.

The Americans bottle-up the Home-Islands (what happens with the Japanese can wait for later and can be decided by the GM). The Americans warn the Japanese forces in Manchukuo to stay out of the way and head for Vladivostok. Manchukuo makes a better base of operations than the Home-Islands.
ronwit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-20-2019, 02:39 AM   #4453
Astromancer
 
Astromancer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by ronwit View Post
The troops that were used to attack Japan are being used by the Soviets to invade Western Europe.

The Americans bottle-up the Home-Islands (what happens with the Japanese can wait for later and can be decided by the GM). The Americans warn the Japanese forces in Manchukuo to stay out of the way and head for Vladivostok. Manchukuo makes a better base of operations than the Home-Islands.
Strong stretegic thinking there Ronwit.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra!


Ancora Imparo
Astromancer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-20-2019, 04:10 AM   #4454
dcarson
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

If they bottle up the Home Islands one thing will be quite a few starving Japanese. After the war with the US shipping in food there were people dying of starvation for a summer. Bottle them up longer so that the fishing fleet and coastal shipping gets even more destroyed and no food coming in from outside it will be worse. If Japan follows the policy it did in this reality of putting feeding troops ahead of civilians lots of starving.
dcarson is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-20-2019, 10:29 AM   #4455
Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2
 
Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: The deep dark haunted woods
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

It's a minor difference, but a amusing one ...

For centuries the sword was the very essence of warfare. Then gunpowder weapons took over pride-of-place in mental images of warfare. The Blade Worlds are realities where the sword has undergone a renaissance of popularity.

Blade -1, the first such world discovered, is also a world with that little drip of something extra.

The first recognizable change was in 1776, when George Washington received a gift from a blacksmith named Joseph Koyengquahtah.

There is some question whether this blacksmith exists in Homelines history; Blade-1's legends describe him as the half-breed son of a Seneca shaman and the daughter of a European witch. Even in his own world there is some controversy over his very existence, or why a person of Seneca blood would gift a weapon to the notorious "Town-Burner".

But the deeds accomplished with that sword became legendary. The Battle of Long Island still ended up with a British victory, but the American casualties were half that of OTL, British casualties were triple OTL levels, and the British lost an entire battery of artillery (one of those cannons, cut in half lengthwise, is on display in Blade-1's New York). While the course of the war went on much as before, the Americans were inspired by Washington's feats, and the legend of the American Sword was born.

Swordsmanship - saber and broadsword, not foil - became a popular American pastime, from high-class salons to street-gangs with crude improvised weapons. The unique method of bladesmithing that created the American Sword (using both meteoric iron and secret techniques initially known only to a small brotherhood of Celtic-speaking Seneca blacksmiths) began to slowly spread.

When George Washington became the first President of the United States in 1789, he swore the Oath of Office on the Sword, and when he left office, passed it to his successor. From that point on, the American Sword became an emblem of the American Presidency.

Spreading quickly through the American continents, the adventurer with an accurate pistol in one hand and a deadly sword in the other became a meme. While little history was changed at first, where it was changed it was rather dramatic. The primary major change was the legalization of sword-duels under exacting conditions and rigorous legal enforcement, often taking the place of civil court trials.

The American Sword, though, had the most direct effect, as the successive American Presidents behaved in different ways from their Homeline counterparts. The Sword has not been examined directly, but it appears to forcibly alter the mind of it's holder, making them behave in a more honorable fashion. (On Blade-1, this is more like an urban legend or myth, but Outtimers who can compare various alternate histories have no doubt.)

The first elections were models of comportment and civility (a marked contrast to Homeline's history), and the first few Presidents made it the custom to resign from any political party. Fifth President James Monroe, rather than just protesting the Federalist Party's monarchist agenda, fought duels with their leadership. Seventh President Andrew Jackson, shockingly, upheld the rights of the Indian Nations and censured states that forcibly removed Indian populations. Poltical parties in Blade-1's United States never became dominating social movements, and the Spoils System never took deep root.

Analysis of swords created with the Koyengquahtah Method reveal that they are psionic or chi-based weapons, with some being infused by spirit-beings. In other words, the swords created a form of sword-based super-martial artist who slowly grew in number and quickly grew in mythic popularity.

In 1822, the First Mexican Empire was declared and Agustín de Iturbide proclamed himself Emperor, commissioning "a Sword of Power" to be forged to act as the symbol of the Empire. The Espada de Mexico, as soon as Iturbide drew it, decapitated him. Political and military hero Guadalupe Victoria was soon proclaimed Emperor, and his descendants have contnued to hold the office, the Espada de Mexico (said to spontaneously slay any corrupt person who touches it) at their side.

Numbers of Chinese swordsmen began traveling the Americas, adding their ancient arts to the American styles. By the 1830's, armies in North and South America all had small special forces bands of super-human swordsmen, and the number of empowered swords was increasing.

In 1852, American swordsmen in a formal duel against samurai (barely) won the right to trade with Japan. Impressed by the power of these barbarians, young Samurai began touring America to challenge their champions. Swordsmithing and exotic techiques advanced, and the two nations began a friendly rivalry over clashing blades.

The American Crisis of 1861, which almost became a civil war, was resolved by a series of duels between Abraham Lincoln (wielding the American Sword) and the champions of the various Confederate States. Observers from many mations were astounded by the powers of the swordsmen. While this was going on, France, seeking to expand it's influence, invaded Mexico under the pretence of a loan default. Mexican Imperial forces, led by powerful masters of the blade, repelled the French forces.

1861 maked a major turning-point in Europe, Before that, all the stories about swords in the Americas were just that - stories, usually believed to be outlandishly exaggerated. Now, after witnessing the American Crisis and the French-Mexican War, they were forced to acknowledge that a new power was abroad in the world, and the Europeans were three generations behind in mastering it.

While empowered swords were more common as time went on, they were never mass-produced and were never commonplace. But the techniques and abilities they opened up could be taught, and swordsmen with ordinary swords and exotic skills were more common. It was these swordsmen that began opening salons and dojos in Europe and dominating the dueling and championship circuits. The character of the super-warrior of American or Mexican extraction with a powerful sword and an accurate pistol, wandering through the land to teach and fight for justice, was a popular meme in the 1870's and 1880's.

In 1871, when the German Empire was founded, the Reichsschwert (the Imperial Sword of the Holy Roman Empire) was confiscated by the Imperial Throne and reforged by commissioned swordsmiths into the first European Sword of Power, still called the Reichsschwert, and wielded by the Imperial Champion. After this a flurry of national Swords of Power were forged, some more successful than others.( In 1881 the State Sword of Russia was reforged as a Sword of Power and the personality of Tsar Alexander III was radically changed, continuing the enlightened reign of his father and grandfather. At the same time, an attempt to forge a Sword of Poland to create a focus for an independence movement failed.)

History kept the same general path, but a lot of details were different. While World War I was still fought, the alliances were Germany-France-US-Mexico against Russia-Spain-Britain-Italy and ended in mutual exhaustion. The devastation of the First World War allowed fascism to grow as a multinational movement and the Second World War was fought between the fascist Central European Union (including Britain and allied with Fascist China) and the Alliance For Democracy (a much-reformed Russia under Tsarina Anastasia I, a strong Kingdom of Italy, the Japanese Imperial Republic, and the "American Titans" of the United States and Mexico). While super-swordsmen were still used in battle, their small numbers and tactical powers meant that industrial resources and science still dominated the battlefield.

The present year is 2000, the TL is TL 8, and the supra-national organization of the Free Nations Alliance dominates the world and keeps the peace from the Fascist Commonwealth of Britain and the North Chinese Republic. Most governments are remarkably free of corruption, although there are still dictatorships and corrupt nations. many nations (including Russia, Germany, Italy, and others) are still monarchies.

In almost every city there are salons and dojos where swordsmanship is taught, and a smaller number where exotic skills are taught by Old Masters. Sword duels are not uncommon, but rigidly controlled, and sword tournaments are professional sporting events.

And there are a few hundred Swords of Power, some in the hands of national leaders, others in the hands of cults, and many drifting from one champion to another or kept as family treasures. And a very few remaining blacksmiths who can create new Swords of Power, working at hidden forges, figures of legend.

This world is in both Infinity and Centrum's zone of control. Getting special agents trained in the exotic arts is a priority. Attempts to infiltrate government have had mixed results. Attempts to acquire Swords of Power have been conditional failures. (Usually only someone who can wield a Sword can get ahold of one, and those agents are quickly swept up in the drama of the Sword's epic narrative and are lost to the outworld organizations.)
__________________
"When you talk about damage radius, even atomic weapons pale before that of an unfettered idiot in a position of power."
- Sam Starfall from the webcomic Freefall

Last edited by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2; 01-16-2020 at 07:19 PM.
Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-20-2019, 12:03 PM   #4456
SimonAce
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2 View Post
It's a minor difference, but a amusing one ...

For centuries the sword was the very essence of warfare. Then gunpowder weapons took over pride-of-place in mental images of warfare. The Blade Worlds are realities where the sword has undergone a renaissance of popularity.

Blade -1, the first such world discovered, is also a world with that little drip of something extra.

SNIP COOL STUFF

The present year is 2000, the TL is TL 8, and the supra-national organization of the Free Nations Alliance dominates the world and keeps the peace from the Fascist Commonwealth of Britain and the North Chinese Republic. Most governments are remarkably free of corruption, although there are still dictatorships and corrupt nations. many nations (including Russia, Germany, Italy, and others) are still monarchies.

In almost every city there are salons and dojos where swordsmanship is taught, and a smaller number where exotic skills are taught by Old Masters. Sword duels are not uncommon, but rigidly controlled, and sword tournaments are professional sporting events.

And there are a few hundred Swords of Power, some in the hands of national leaders, others in the hands of cults, and many drifting from one champion to another or kept as family treasures. And a very few remaining blacksmiths who can create new Swords of Power, working at hidden forges, figures of legend.

This world is in both Infinity and Centrum's zone of control. Getting special agents trained in the exotic arts is a priority. Attempts to infiltrate government have had mixed results. Attempts to acquire Swords of Power have been conditional failures. (Usually only someone who can wield a Sword can get ahold of one, and those agents are quickly swept up in the drama of the Sword's epic narrative and are lost to the outworld organizations.)
HMMPH .The spear in the essence of warfare . ;) Seriously though this is a very cool setting since it gives swords a practical raison d'etre at TL8 .

I like it.

I could see a Blade-2 which would be a high historical inertia variant, basically our world with your Swords of Power.

As an aside, History Channel's "Forged in Fire" would be quite interesting sub rosa in those worlds and might well be how new smiths capable of making Swords of Power were found.

Low magic like minor psi would fit in here too if one wanted it.
SimonAce is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-20-2019, 10:38 PM   #4457
ronwit
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by dcarson View Post
If they bottle up the Home Islands one thing will be quite a few starving Japanese. After the war with the US shipping in food there were people dying of starvation for a summer. Bottle them up longer so that the fishing fleet and coastal shipping gets even more destroyed and no food coming in from outside it will be worse. If Japan follows the policy it did in this reality of putting feeding troops ahead of civilians lots of starving.
Given the temper of the times, the Americans would probably consider this a feature and not a bug. The question is whether the Japanese can convince themselves to offer terms that Truman can sell as unconditional surrender. After all the Japanese have more leverage here than in OTL. Unfortunately, the die-hards would probably choose to die hard.

Last edited by ronwit; 11-20-2019 at 10:42 PM.
ronwit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-21-2019, 01:41 PM   #4458
Prince Charon
 
Prince Charon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by ronwit View Post
Given the temper of the times, the Americans would probably consider this a feature and not a bug. The question is whether the Japanese can convince themselves to offer terms that Truman can sell as unconditional surrender. After all the Japanese have more leverage here than in OTL. Unfortunately, the die-hards would probably choose to die hard.
The question then becomes whether the ones who aren't die-hards can successfully kill the ones who are, and how many will die in the mean time.
__________________
Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life.

"The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates."
-- Tacitus

Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.
Prince Charon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-22-2019, 12:04 PM   #4459
Astromancer
 
Astromancer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Try this one...

This world is a Myth parallel were the story of Frankenstein changes at the point were the Creature frames Justine for William's murder. Basically, witnesses clear Justine of the murder but Victor has to come clean to his Father and Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Justine then blow their stacks and loudly ask why "If Victor could reanimate dead flesh, why didn't he reanimate the dead limbs of cripples?" Thus alchemical medicine was born.

Justine ended up facing down the Monster, and convincing him to leave Switzerland for Paris. There he could get work as a fairground freak and learn to live in human society. The elder Frankenstein (still hating the Monster for William's death) saw the benefits of the plan and financed Justine taking the Monster to Paris.

The local year is 1831 (the year Frankenstein the novel got it's first reprint, and Mary Shelly first publicly acknowledged her authorship). This Q6 world is much like Homeline in 1831 except that it's about 20 years advanced technologically on Homeline in 1831, but this hasn't been turned into infrastructure yet. Medicine is the exception, it's TL5+4^. Lifespans haven't increased in proportion because Sanitary Sewers are still massively undeveloped. Still work on that front has started.

The Creature (going by the name Joshua Adamson, picked out by Justine because she was still angry at Victor for William's death. The Creature accepted it for the same reason) has become a star of the Pairs fairgrounds and has had success on the dramatic stage as well. Justine (her name legally changed to Frankenstein at the elder Frankenstein insistence) still watches over Joshua and has become his business manager. She's learned a great deal of Romantic Literature as well (how else could she talk to her charge?)

Homeline, the Cabal, and Centrum, all study this world's alchemical medical sciences, and each of them wants to grab Victor and Joshua. Victor is still in Geneva. As the Frankensteins are a prominent family they can easily get help. Victor's father and Elizabeth, Victor's wife, watch him like hawks. The Genevans are used to people trying to kidnap their great doctor. They treat all attempts with harsh professionalism.

As for Joshua and Justine, Fairground people tend to take care of their own. Joshua brings in good money and Justine has worked hard to endear herself and her charge to many people. Any attempt on them will start a riot. Additionally, Justine has developed both Danger Sense and Empathy while living in Paris.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra!


Ancora Imparo
Astromancer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-23-2019, 01:09 PM   #4460
PTTG
 
PTTG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

The game of Go spread westward starting in the mid second century. Its remarkable simplicity made it an easier game to manufacture, and the already rich established culture of the game in the east spread with it.

There, the game found lasting purchase. Although Chaturanga, among other games, arose as a form of wargame, Go remained supreme. Roman streets were compared to the lines of a go board, tacticians studied the game's brilliant control of positioning.

It seems that this last element had widespread consequences. A subtle difference in tactics grew over the centuries, as western commanders saw the control of ground to be more important than the exact positioning of certain experts. Knights still existed, but rather than being heavy cavalry warriors, they were more like low-level commanders, less heavily armored. Individual soldiers were, in contrast, raised up in importance, and were critical to hold positions.

Battles tended away from pitched fights in open fields, and instead involved far more skirmishing.

This ultimately changed the entire history of Europe.
PTTG 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 06:39 AM.


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