New Reality Seeds

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by ericthered

A quick Russian victory in WWI? that's an interesting change point, with a lot of knock-on effects. Not the least of which is "everything we know about war is wrong" moments don't get hammered home. It also completely derails the Communism part of the 20th century, strengthens the idea that big multi-ethnic empires are powerful rather than internally weak, and establishes a firmly absolutist power as a major player on the world stage.

The old empires probably don't fall. Germany will loose territory and prestige, but it won't be any where near crippling as Versailles. Tanks will be a new weapon for the next war, and untested but not nearly as rushed.

This timeline seems like a great way to continue the colonial feel of pre-wwi. The great game of Asia continues, and France and Britain come out of the war looking stronger than ever.

Agreed, you could possibly have Tech Level 8 Colonial Empires. That would blend Cyberpunk with Sanders of the River Imperial adventure. Or even Cyberpunk with East of Suez adventures.

Not needed. A quick world war I from the russian side makes for some huge changes without any out-time weirdness. Homeline nations will have strong opinion on what ought to happen here, and centrum will see a timeline headed towards their final war completely unprepared for just how much carnage there will be.

Just trying to spice things up.

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by ericthered

This timeline seems like a great way to continue the colonial feel of pre-wwi. The great game of Asia continues, and France and Britain come out of the war looking stronger than ever.

I'm reminded of SM Stirling's Peshawar Lancers, but without the ice age and the parallel universe thingy.

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Just trying to spice things up.

No need to over egg things Astro. But.... an increased mana world, with Rasputin and von Ungern-Sternberg on the loose, what could go wrong?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

I'm reminded of SM Stirling's Peshawar Lancers, but without the ice age and the parallel universe thingy.



No need to over egg things Astro. But.... an increased mana world, with Rasputin and von Ungern-Sternberg on the loose, what could go wrong?

I like how you think. ;-)

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

But.... an increased mana world, with Rasputin and von Ungern-Sternberg on the loose, what could go wrong?

The first thing that could go wrong is being born a low-ranking Russian citizen caught between those two with no way to escape. This is a bad world to be Russian.

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

This is a bad world to be Russian.

Da, but at least we are not German. What, with Rosa Luxemburg and the Germanenorden...

<passes vodka bottle >

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

Da, but at least we are not German. What, with Rosa Luxemburg and the Germanenorden...

<passes vodka bottle >

Yeesh. Why not skip the preliminaries and label it a Hell Parallel now?

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

In a parallel where superheroes are going to exist Aliens contact the Earth in 1889. The aliens see a rapidly advancing species saddled with archaic governments. Which means they realize that next couple or so centuries of Earth's life are going to be seriously violent. However the aliens test certain human volunteers (they asked and plenty of Brits, Germans, Americans, French folks, and others said "Yes.") and discovered that soon, a couple of generations at most, people with paranormal powers would appear on the Earth, and in very high numbers. These Aliens aren't malicious or cruel, but they are profit motivated. They decide to stick around and take advantage of the coming crops of superbeings.

The Local Year is now 1942, the first waves of supers are here, and what a wildly mixed bunch. The aliens, deciding they preferred to with the democracies, have altered history seriously. FDR is vital and healthy, snow skiing, tennis, horseback riding. He's still the New Dealer, and with alien tech and advice, prosperity (Tech Level Eight prosperity) came quickly. Britain, has colonies on the moons of Jupiter and France is exploring a very Pulp Sci Fi Venus, while Wiemar Germany (Hitler paints postcards in Vienna) takes the lead in exploring the lost civilizations of Mars. China is enjoying stable peaceful prosperity and is only now working on it's space fleets.

However, this world of prosperity, superheroes, and space explorers, is not truly placid. Japan, Soviet Russia,Franco's Spain, and other hostile states have been contacted by aliens in competition with the first set of aliens. These new aliens want slaves. If Japan, Russia, and Spain, would like godlike power and wealth, these aliens would give them that in exchange for the peoples living in the lands these powers covet. Stalin has already said yes. Can Tojo and Franco be far behind?

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

New Themiscyra

New Themiscyra diverges early in the later Roman Empire. When Aurelian defeated the Sarmatians in battle and won the services of 8,000 of the Sarmatian warriors for Rome. 5,500 of these troops he sent to guard Hadrian's wall. Their relics have been found there. On this Q6 world one Sarmatian went to visit family in Britanniae. He might of visited in many worlds and made it back in some, in this world he made a stir. The Sarmatians were tired of the wars of the Steps of Central Asia. Roman Britain sounded like a good place to live. They sent an evoy to ask Carus for peace under the terms of the Sarmatians joining the Roman Armies and guarding Britain. Carus, desperate for peace with advantage, said yes.

The Sarmatians got on well with the local Romanised-Celts and taught them their styles of horsemanship and horseback archery. The Saxons never knew what hit them. As both the Saxons and the Celts accorded high status to women, and horseback archery is far more a matter of skill than strength, the Romano-Celtio-Sarmatian armies were notorious for their female horse archers. This often got the Britanniae labeled "Amazons."

The local year is now 1066. The High Queen of Britanniae has decided to conquer Normandy. Her superior cavalry and deadly horse archers look to easily win the day.

This is a low manna world with considerable Cabalist influence. Homeline is mainly interested in this world's lively secular literary scene in Byzantium of all places. And of course Chinese textiles and Japanese Literary production. Centrum is oddly interested in this world. It really doesn't seem like their thing. Both Homeline and the Cabal might like to know what in Southern France interests Centrum so strongly.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

In the 1950's Psi phenomena is proved to be real by J.B. Rhine. However, no one seems able to train the phenomena or use it in any useful way for years. ESP, telepathy, and PK, are all proved to be real, but practical use seems impossible. Then Hubert Humphrey beat Nixon in 1968. Along with closing down the Vietnam war quickly Humphrey put renewed effort into the Space Race, as a means of showing that leaving Vietnam was an act of maturity not weakness. By the mid-1970's the first Moonbase was built.

On this Moon base near the lunar South Pole strange things began to happen. A parapsychologist began to conduct tests. The results were astounding. PSI was trainable on the Moon!

Soon the theory got out that Earth's life forms collectively dampened Psi Phenomena. It must have evolved as a basic defense, much like the insects put out sonic disruption to confuse the sonar of bats.

Suddenly the space race is back on. Moonbases to train Psions are vital to national defense. Russia, China, and the USA, all racing to develop Psi Powers and Lunar resources.

This Q6, low Manna world has just transitioned into TL8 a couple of years early in 1977. Homeline, Centrum, and the Cabal, all want the data from the various Parapsychology programs. There are no truly trained or skilled Psis, yet. But people with Psi Powers are becoming far more common.

This is mainly a Cold War spy game with Moonbases and very limited Psi Powers tossed in. Note: This is a period of ferment and rapid change. Having someone discover something new and that change everything fits the setting. But let the game become established before you drop a Campaign Nova and change everything.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Soon the theory got out that Earth's life forms collectively dampened Psi Phenomena. It must have evolved as a basic defense, much like the insects put out sonic disruption to confuse the sonar of bats.

Of course this makes even trained psi difficult anywhere with a lot of life around. This could range from psi is basically useless anywhere on Earth, to urban greenspaces are now a vital component of national security.