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Old 08-14-2020, 06:49 AM   #4961
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
If the Tsarina had lived another seven years (until her sixtieth birthday), she would have likely put aside her nephew (Peter III) in favor of his son (Paul I). With her reign extended another seven years, she would have gained East Prussia during the settlement of the Seven Years War and the rest of Prussia would have come under the authority of Austria again. Without Prussia as an independent nation, history changes quite a bit from then on.
With a Cabalist as a personal physcian the Tsarina could live into her 90's. Which would remove the reign of Catherine the Great. If the Cabal has decided to remove Prussia from this parallel in favor of a vastly stronger and more successful Russia, then everything from the end of the Seven Years War is radically different. Still, if Russia takes over the continent, you could have a replay of an isolated England expaning over the oceans and developing their ecconomy about 40 years early, and with Russia's greater resources, probably having far more staying power than Napoleon ever could.
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Old 08-14-2020, 07:39 AM   #4962
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I think that France and Austria would have allied with Britain to oppose further Russian expansion. It would have made things more interesting though.
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Old 08-14-2020, 09:42 AM   #4963
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What if this no-Brandenburg-Miracle world was originally an echo, until intervention by The Cabal? And Homeline didn't even know about the world until after the intervention?

The world is still on Q6 - for now. But is a quantum shift what The Cabal is after? Maybe they want some sort of other type of shift, perhaps shifting the world's mana - or even shifting to the theoretical 'perpendicular quanta' outside of Homeline/Centrum reach?

These are Infinity theories, as they've only just found this world, and are still getting the lay of the land. Centrum vs. Cabal is obviously very interesting to Infinity, even if they don't have anyone to back.

Interworld, meanwhile, in classic Centrum myopy, thinks that it was Infinity who intervened, even though supporting Czarist Russia isn't something Infinity would normally do. Maybe Secundus' irrational hatred of Nazis has extended to Prussia. But those weird rumors of magic coming out of St. Petersburg prove that it's Infinity, since only those amateurs would mess with something so insane.

Centrum is naturally backing Great Britain, to the extent of trying to get the British involved on The Continent.
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Old 08-14-2020, 10:43 AM   #4964
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I think that France and Austria would have allied with Britain to oppose further Russian expansion. It would have made things more interesting though.
France seems unlikely - the main goal of French diplomacy for this period is containing the English, and maybe securing some of their patchwork of clients in western Germany against the English allied Hanoverians. But yeah, with the power between them weakened either Russia or Austria will switch sides pretty soon - they'll inevitably come into conflict over who has hegemony in the region formerly under Brandenberg control, and I expect that if Austria regains Silesia - which is probably the real prize here, not Prussia - the Hapsburgs will look threatening enough again to France that they'd go back to opposing Austria.
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Old 08-16-2020, 09:20 AM   #4965
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Try this one...

In this Q6 Low Manna parallel the Spanish Flu seems to have started earlier and lasted longer with higher casuality counts but many people who either died or were crippled by the flu weren't effected and many who were untouched died. The first major effects of this show up in WWII in China. Both Mao and Zhou were comitted to Stalin's directive to let the Nationalists fight the Japanese until one or the other is destroyed, then attack the survivor. However, a young man, (who came to prominance in the Comunist Party because of his older brother's death andd thus he got the chance to be educated) assassinated Mao for not fighting for China. The young man was killed but each of the continders for power in the party desperately needed the legitamacy of millitary victory to hold power.

This meant two things. First, the stress on the Chinese Nationalists is greatly reduced, second, Japan blames the USSR for the Chinese Communists attacking Japanese troops at the new much higher rates. This means that Stalin has to invest more effort in keeping Japan from attacking him in his vulnerable East.

Meanwhile, changes in the personel of both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army meant that the Nazis captured Moscow, and the discovered that capturing the capitol doesn't mean that much. Sure they killed Stalin, but that only seems to have made the Russian government stronger.

In North Africa a hot-headed young captain accidently shoots Rommel, not fatally, but Rommel is removed from North Africa earily and the British finished driving the Italians out of North Africa. This has lead to Churchill pushing the idea of sending British troops through Iran to aid the Russians on the Eastern Front!

Homeline is quietly helping both the USA and Britain in technology. The local year is 1941 but the American jet aircraft program is getting ready to produce combat ready jets. Both the British and American computor programs are advanced well beyond were they were in Homeline history.

Centrum wants a shorter war to reduce stress on the British Empire. Centrum agents are working to aid the Russians with logistics and general organization. They've decided that Molotov has to go and Zhukov seems llike the horse to back.

Meanwhile, the Cabal seems to be robbing the Nazis and playing the various nasty little cliques off against each other. Homeline has decided to see if they can disrupt the German ecconomy and the Holocaust from inside Germany. Homeline Germany is especially determined to derail this Germany. Note: There is no proof that Midwinter Aton or Reich-5 is involved in this world yet, your game can go your way.

Basically, a messier more confusing WWII. This is a good setting for low level supers and agents with Magery or Psi. It's also good for norms with a few hundred points of skills and advantages. As the war has gone off script no one cares about derailing an already derailed history.
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Old 08-17-2020, 05:38 AM   #4966
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I've got one, though not based on my own work:

SNES-CD AKA Player Two Start AKA Player-2: (based on an AltHistory story by RySenkari and Nivek: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...PlayerTwoStart)

Point of Divergence: June 24, 1991. Video Game developer Nintendo and electronics manufacturer Sony began a partnership to created a CD-ROM based add-on to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, called the SNES-CD. The deal ended up falling apart on Homeline (and IRL) over a poorly-worded contract (giving Sony all software royalties) and some backroom dealings with other electronics company Phillips. Sony would use the resources to create the Playstation while Nintendo stayed away from CDs until the GameCube...

But here: Head of Nintendo Hiroshi Yamauchi saw the tech as just too groundbreaking to lose, so renigotiated the agreement with Sony. It launches in Japan on August 24, 1992 and and in North America on December 4, 1992. It takes the world by storm and the effects it has on the Video Game medium and Global Culture as a whole are inumerable, rippling through the 2020s and beyond.

Worldline Data
Start date: Same as Homeline AKA 'after most of the major changes' (Alt!Start: December 5, 1992 AKA 'just when things start getting weird')
TL 8
No mana
Quantum 5
Infinity Class 07
Centrum Zone N/A

Infinity Operating Procedure: With no parachronics (Van Zandt just seems to have never existed here, with most other Infinity staff staying in their previous fields (some going into software development), Infinity has decided to mine this world for it's widely divergent media output. White Star is currently looking to acquiring dev kits for all the divergent consoles and cracking their games for wide Homeline distribution, especially ones never released outside a single region or not at all at Home.

Tone of Play: Honestly, not an interesting place for a traditional campaign. Good for a flavorful sight-seeing side-trip, though.

I just wrote this up because I love this setting and wanted in SOMEHWERE in the Quantums. I HIGHLEY recommend giving 'Player Two Start', a read, it's great.
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Old 08-17-2020, 11:23 PM   #4967
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...snip...
Infinity Operating Procedure: With no parachronics (Van Zandt just seems to have never existed here, with most other Infinity staff staying in their previous fields (some going into software development), Infinity has decided to mine this world for it's widely divergent media output. White Star is currently looking to acquiring dev kits for all the divergent consoles and cracking their games for wide Homeline distribution, especially ones never released outside a single region or not at all at Home.

Tone of Play: Honestly, not an interesting place for a traditional campaign. Good for a flavorful sight-seeing side-trip, though.

I just wrote this up because I love this setting and wanted in SOMEHWERE in the Quantums. I HIGHLEY recommend giving 'Player Two Start', a read, it's great.
Well, an adventure or two might work.
Rival game "designers," AKA Game Parasites, are after the secrets to a particular game, and neither can uncompile it, so they're both contemplating a break in. unfortunately, so is the FBI; the "game company" is a front for the KGB/Mossad/Whoever, because a game developer is expected to ask questions and know electronics.

Worst case: One or both teams get scooped by the FBI and spirited away to whereever...and they have analogs in this timeline. Worse, the analogues are in jail--and still there. The Feds have DUPLICATES! Then they find the hideout...
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Old 08-19-2020, 05:23 PM   #4968
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Try this one...

Have the Khedive of Egpt in the 1740s (a completely different one than in Homeline History) have a hyper-curious younger brother (whom he deeply loves) who he sends to Europe to spy around. The younger brother gets what is going on in Europe and why the Islamic world needs to catch up. Between them the brothers begin a reform of Egyptian society much like the one Muhammad Ali tried to achieve sixty some years later in Homeline history. Still, the extra decades make a serious difference. The Khedive's son achieves the overthrow of the Sublime Porte and legitimates reform with millitary victory.

The local year on this Q6 low manna parallel is 1844 (the year the Printing Press was made legal in the Ottoman Empire in Homeline History) The Egyptians have built a cannal from the southeastern branches of the Nile in the Delta and they are using the proceeds to build a better and larger canal. Unlike the Suez Cannal in Homeline history, these canals are owned free and clear by the Egyptians.

All the European powers want to control Egypt and the Near East, but this Khedivate of Egypt has a modern army and a functional state. More importantly, the Egyptians are skilled at playing one group of Europeans off another.

Basically, take the complex shadow wars of the Great Game add several new players and transfer all the spy games and diplomatic skullduggery from Afganistan to Egypt and give the whole thing Steampunk trims.
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Old 08-20-2020, 04:17 PM   #4969
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Try this one...

In this seemingly ordinary Q6 low manna world, which seems almost like an Echo of Homeline, is in fact a world of illuminated conspiracy. However, on the day of the First Moonlanding, someone pulled a fast one. Almost all humans are either natural Mages, powerful psis, or both. But alchemical drugs in the water and air prevent the vast majority of humanity from being able to either be aware of their powers or learn to use them. Someone placed talismans that disrupted these blocks in a 125 miles radius in the cities of New York, San Francisco, Las Angeles, Chicago, London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt, Berlin, Rome, Milan, Copenhage, Marrakesh, Cairo, Madras, Mumbai, Tokyo, and, in a sign of true comtempt, Vienna.

Millions of people are now able to use their powers and are thus immune to the drugs and some are able to teach others to turn their powers on in spite of the alchemical drugs. The people are rapidly embracing their new awareness and powers, the conspiracies are enraged and terrified. They will try to do terrible things to secure their power.

Basically, doomsday seems to be going down with some real risks that the threat could go beyond this parallel as worldwalkers from this world in several worlds known to both Homeline and the Cabal. Homeline is seriously concered about the secret, but they also want to prevent cabals of privilaged sorcerers from butchering millions in order to secure their power and privilage.

Centrum smells a final war brewing, they are ready to team up with both Secundus (Homeline) and the Cabal to stop it. They might be evil, but they have standards.

The Cabal thinks some of their allies might have caused this mess. That said, they dispise the local illuminati and will joyfully team up with their competitors against them. They can smell blood.

Don't forget, the local Illuminati are viscious, powerful, and tricky.
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Old 08-21-2020, 08:52 AM   #4970
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Try this one...

The British Left wanted Unilatereal Disarmament from very early on, there was a basic distrust of America on the British Left (odd because the pre-WWI British Left was normally pro-American), plus they saw Britain ending up as basically the foreward air-strip that would take the brunt of a nuclear war. Fantasies that if the USA and Russia had a nuclear war Britain could escape unscathed continued into the 1980s. Look at V for Vendetta where Britain, unlike America, Europe, and Russia, is untouched by nuclear war (the film changes this). In this world the fantasies of the British hard Left are comming true.

The local year is 1957 one year after the Suez Crisis and Britain is formally leaving NATO. All American millitary bases and most American institutions are being requiered to leave the UK. Britain is getting rid of all its weapons of Mass Destruction and downsizing its millitary.

Basically, it's a classic spy game, heck it's even the perfect time and setting to bring in James Bond and George Smiley to work with the PCs. The Briish actions are wildly upsetting the European Continent. People in later middle age would have lived through both the world wars and are still active adults. You could have the PCs meet active millitary men who had been in WWI, WWII, and the Korean war.

Homeline and Centrum would both want to prevent WWIII, the Cabal would want the Occult Revival of the 1960s to come in on schedule, so whether you fight or work with your foes is up in the air.
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