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Old 12-14-2019, 12:28 PM   #4511
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Try this one...

Sighnaq is a Normal Manna (with small areas of high manna Homeline doesn't know about) that resembles the setting of Sword and Sorcery fiction. The setting seems far less like Tolkien that the Arabian Nights crossed with Conan the Barbarian, although several kingdoms resembling Renaissance Europe had since been found and lands that seem cognate to the East Asian civilizations.

This Q4 world is at TL4 overall. And trade seems to be picking up. White Star Traders sees many good sources of profit here, as do various swagmen who want White Star gone so they can traffic in drugs and slaves.

One way White Star Traders is working to build up the local trade is by reopening the "High Road" through the Chesslands. The local say the Chesslands took their strange form because of a gods war. It's as viable an explanation as any. The Chesslands are a roughly rectangular area about 800 kilometers on a side of fairly closely packs mesas. It really does look like a vast chessboard.

The High Road was a road that ran across the tops of the mesas. It had hundreds of bridges. Tolls were collected at various points to pay for the upkeep of the bridges, although many merchants would by a pass to allow payment as a lump sum. Squabbles over the division of the money lead to the bridges being torn down.

Two groups want the High Road kept down. First the bandits that live in the dark canyons between the Mesas. If trade goes to the "High Road" they'll be poor. Second, the sky pirates in the mountains north of the Chesslands don't want the kingdoms around and within the Chesslands to be rich enough to build their own flying navies to drive the pirates away.

To see what the local flying ships look like, look at the Martian Flying Ships in Space:1889. Especially look at the War Kite and the Merchant Kite.

The PCs would be trouble shooters and surveyors adding the diplomats in rebuilding the High Roads many bridges. Magery, swordsmanship, and tech skills are all useful here.
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Old 12-14-2019, 12:32 PM   #4512
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

I forgot to say that Sighnaq resembles not just the Arabian Nights and Conanesque Sword and Sorcery, but GURPS: Planet Krishna as well. The locals don't know the secret, but high tech is very attractive to the locals. Do assume the Swagmen will use this fact against the PCs.
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Old 12-16-2019, 04:13 PM   #4513
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Try this one...

In Homeline history Thomas Arundel was kicked out of the See of Canterbury because Richard II rejected Arundel's demands to persecute the Lollards and burn them at the stake. This led to Thomas teaming up with Henry Bolingbroke to take Richard's crown away. In this Q6 parallel, Arundel isn't exiled, he's imprisoned. He falls ill in prison and is sent to Italy by Richard to recover. The weakened Arundel ends up as a minor clerk working for the Bishop of Florence. Henry Bolingbroke does try to return and take the throne, Richard's policy of favoring peace so the peasants aren't oppressed, was unpopular with the Lords, because they lived by war and ransom. Still, without Arundel's guidance and sense of timing, Richard beats his foes and the status of Nobles is reduced in England. Richard finds the House of Commons a useful aid to rule with fewer nobles and far less noble privilege.

The local year is 1422, Richard's beloved favorite Henry of Monmouth (Bolingbroke's son, but neglected by his father and always loyal to Richard) has died. The proper heirs of the throne, Henry was in line of succession, but not that close, feel easier. Meanwhile Centrum hates this world. It's England is peaceful, strong, and utterly disinterested in things like conquest. Peace is fine for prosperity and all, but they'd like some Empire. Meanwhile, Homeline likes a world wear Chaucer lived to be 78 and finished the Canterbury Tales. England is known for poets, scholars, trade, and prosperity, in this world.

Still, there is something that disquiet's Homeline. The Lollards were a major influence on the English Church. Gospels in English are circulating among the people. King Richard is supporting a translation of the Bible into English. Rome sees this as a very bad thing. Perhaps Lolladry is as bad as Catherism. Maybe there needs to be a crusade against England.

Basically, a second Norman invasion, the sides would be more evenly matched. Maybe you could have an English Joan life a siege in Norwhich or Carlise.
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Old 12-18-2019, 02:57 PM   #4514
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Try this one...

Multiple breakthroughs in rocketry and fabrication were made in the 1970's which brought the price of making a spaceplane instead of the shuttle way down. As altered weather patterns slightly changed the voting patters in the 1968 presidential elections, and Humphrey became the president. The USA promptly left Vietnam and needed greater prestige from space. As Proxmire got mixed up in a scandal involving a returning Vet (who died in Homeline history) and wasn't a senator after 1971, NASA's biggest foe was gone, and the Vietnam war, the biggest competition for money was gone too. Humphrey made space even more tied to JFK's legacy. His expanding social programs elsewhere and not aggravating De Gaulle (and leaving Breton Wood unwracked) also helped.

Thus moonbases were built by the USA in the early 1980's during the second Kennedy administration.

It's now the year 2020. The USA, Japan, India, China, the EU, and Russia, have moon bases. Machines like those that dug the Channel Tunnel are digging vast subsurface railroads across the moon. Space habitats are building vast solar power satellites in geosynchronous orbits. It's a new space race. America has a vast lead, but it's competitors are desperate to catch up.

Espionage on a TL8 moon. No Peace above the Van Allen Belts!
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Old 12-18-2019, 03:03 PM   #4515
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Oh, wow. That could be a pretty fun setting.
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Old 12-19-2019, 06:16 AM   #4516
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Originally Posted by Prince Charon View Post
Oh, wow. That could be a pretty fun setting.
Yup. Sounds like a good basis for a crossover between Gunpowder Moon, and Red Moon.
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Old 12-20-2019, 12:07 PM   #4517
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Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
Try this one...

Multiple breakthroughs in rocketry and fabrication were made in the 1970's which brought the price of making a spaceplane instead of the shuttle way down. As altered weather patterns slightly changed the voting patters in the 1968 presidential elections, and Humphrey became the president. The USA promptly left Vietnam and needed greater prestige from space. As Proxmire got mixed up in a scandal involving a returning Vet (who died in Homeline history) and wasn't a senator after 1971, NASA's biggest foe was gone, and the Vietnam war, the biggest competition for money was gone too. Humphrey made space even more tied to JFK's legacy. His expanding social programs elsewhere and not aggravating De Gaulle (and leaving Breton Wood unwracked) also helped.

Thus moonbases were built by the USA in the early 1980's during the second Kennedy administration.

It's now the year 2020. The USA, Japan, India, China, the EU, and Russia, have moon bases. Machines like those that dug the Channel Tunnel are digging vast subsurface railroads across the moon. Space habitats are building vast solar power satellites in geosynchronous orbits. It's a new space race. America has a vast lead, but it's competitors are desperate to catch up.

Espionage on a TL8 moon. No Peace above the Van Allen Belts!
Further details.

The USA, from the 1990's onward, has been building orbital solar power satellites. The other powers have been building their own but the USA gives the power away free. Or Free as long as your nation respects basic human rights. China is beginning to build power satellites with different strings many third world leaders prefer. Russia, lacking oil revenue, is on the edge of collapse and desperate to check the power of both China and the USA. The EU, India, and Japan, are all very much out for their own economic good. They are friendly to the USA, the enjoy the benefits of being allied, but they're out for themselves.
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Old 12-20-2019, 12:46 PM   #4518
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... The EU, India, and Japan, are all very much out for their own economic good.
Do any/all have a presence on the Moon?
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Old 12-20-2019, 05:09 PM   #4519
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Do any/all have a presence on the Moon?
Each named power, the USA, Russia, China, Japan, India, and the EU, all have based. The first three have more, but all have a substantial presence. Brazil, Iran, Indonesia, and a conglomerate of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Jamaica, and Triadad, are all building starter bases.

Except for Iran, which is getting help from Russia, these new players are getting help from the USA. The last is also getting help from the EU.
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Old 12-21-2019, 02:08 PM   #4520
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Try this one...

A religious vision convinces a Druid that writing information down is vital to the cultural survival of the Celtic peoples. The mystic in question was also highly charismatic and lived in Gaul at the time Gaul moved from kings running society to elected assembles. (Note: Although Julius Caesar stresses the kings, he prefers to paint the Gauls as primitives, he constantly slips and mentions to elected assembles).

Gaul was already technologically advanced on Rome in many areas (again Caesar downplays this for political reasons) but in this world, a highly literate Gaul absorbs Greek learning and far better organises it's own knowledge. Thus a solidly advanced Gaul, with crossbows and their own Ballistas, and giant four armed crossbows that can fire a bolt a thousand yards (the Chinese had these from 300 BCE) and far better battle tactics.

Caesar now has opponents that can match Roman tactics and organization. And they're fighting own their home ground with better weapons.

A nasty fight, but now the Gauls have a chance to win. That said Caesar, monster that he was, was a brilliant general.
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