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Old 12-15-2018, 11:41 PM   #1
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Default AtE Worldbuilding "The New Old West"

This is world building for Homesteading type farm in the "New Old West" which I'll write up in the AtE Farming thread.

TL:DR
Kicking the wheels and throwing ideas around for a wild west style/themed AtE setting where the End is caused by War, climate change and resource depletion.

Setting
Early global warming predictions were wrong, various feedback loops where discovered that made a Venus earth the most likely scenario. As TL 9 matures most of the human population shifted to war footing against global warming. War against greenhouse gases turned into war against each other as desperate greener countries supported environmental activism and even terrorism in more industrial nations. Mankind reaches TL 10 starved of resources, hiding from the weather and lingering effects of war in massively overcrowded arcologies. Sometime later it is deemed necessary to reclaim the abandoned continents and a few brave pioneers go forth.

Major events and features
- Accessible Iron ore ran out in 2090, vast quantities of existing iron was used to sink carbon rich algae to the sea floor.
- Rare earth elements and many other critical materials were largely used up in wars and the missions off planet.
- Phosphorus mines run dry in 2080.
- Diamond dust generated by some carbon capture methods has pervaded the atmosphere, coupled with violent and unpredictable weather fast air travel is expensive and borderline non-viable.
- Forests dominate the landscape.
- The “cityfolks” live a dreary refugee like semi-quarantined existence packed into too small a space they are only one air conditioning breakdown away from rioting. Algae and recycling supplies most of their needs. Algal food, algaeboard apartments, algal plastic…
- Technology while advanced is adapting and making do with insufficient resources. Many items taken for granted at TL 10 are rare and too expensive for common use as a result. Some old tech was made before the shortages.
- Power cells are an example of the shortages being rare and incredibly expensive.
- The value of most metals means traditional slug throwers are rare, most TL 9 and 10 weapons exist but are powered by single use polymer capacitors instead of power cells. These are roughly comparable in size to traditional rifle and pistol cartridges. They are somewhat soft immediately after use and prone to jamming so revolver, lever action and other older style mechanisms are used. Gauss six shooters are a common item from New Boston's mail order companies.
- Genetic engineering of draft animals, livestock and their internal microfauna has enabled horses, cattle and other traditional animals to take their place on the new frontier.
- Radio communication is patchy due to a combination of increased atmospheric electrical activity and war damage to satellites and networks. Residual cyberwarfare devices and software faking messages and generally degrading the quality of communications add to the difficulties.

Ideas, expansion, criticism and coherence all welcome.
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Last edited by (E); 12-15-2018 at 11:57 PM.
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Old 12-16-2018, 05:31 PM   #2
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Default Re: AtE Worldbuilding "The New Old West"

The PCs would logically be those allowed outside the cities. Some dystopias don't allow city-folk to leave the cities or rural folk to enter cities. The few exceptions would be sinister and threatening figures to most people.

Bison might replace beef cattle, they require fewer resources per pound of meat produced and are less environmentally disruptive. Sheep and goats would live on the most marginal land.
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Old 12-16-2018, 07:22 PM   #3
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Default Re: AtE Worldbuilding "The New Old West"

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Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
The PCs would logically be those allowed outside the cities. Some dystopias don't allow city-folk to leave the cities or rural folk to enter cities. The few exceptions would be sinister and threatening figures to most people.
Quarantines preventing the spread of Greenhouse War era Biophages might fill that role. They might be truely needed or a distopian social control mechanism. Those allowed out of or exiled from the cities would have acquired an expensive "vaccine" before leaving. Of course to enforce the quarantine they wouldn't be allowed back. Having the two groups separate provides the setting with a captive market for the frontier folk to sell (heavily taxed) food and goods to the cities.

Another projected resource depletion
- 2030 minable sand is exhausted

[EDIT]
The bison and other native fauna were reintroduced or replaced with "better" versions to maintain the carbon soaking ecosystem. Native animal threats and challenges turned up to 11, for that matter turn the weather up to 11 as well.
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Last edited by (E); 12-16-2018 at 07:35 PM.
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Old 12-17-2018, 07:06 AM   #4
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Default Re: AtE Worldbuilding "The New Old West"

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Originally Posted by (E) View Post
- Accessible Iron ore ran out in 2090, vast quantities of existing iron was used to sink carbon rich algae to the sea floor.
The numbers are off here. It's a passable handwave if you just want a reason to have little iron After Your End and don't want to look at it too hard.

But we'd not really be able to dispose of a lot of iron that way. If the scheme works, it'd take maybe 0.0025% of currently known, accessible iron reserves (millions of tons of iron for fertilizing enough algae to remove half the CO2 from the atmosphere, while known reserves are in the hundreds of billions of tons). If the scheme doesn't really work (which is also plausible), why would we repeat it forty thousand times hoping for a better result until all the iron was gone?

It's a big planet, made out of a shocking amount of iron (and other atoms), even if most of it did sink to the middle back when it was all molten.
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Old 12-17-2018, 07:17 AM   #5
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Default Re: AtE Worldbuilding "The New Old West"

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Originally Posted by (E) View Post
Quarantines preventing the spread of Greenhouse War era Biophages might fill that role. They might be truely needed or a distopian social control mechanism. Those allowed out of or exiled from the cities would have acquired an expensive "vaccine" before leaving. Of course to enforce the quarantine they wouldn't be allowed back. Having the two groups separate provides the setting with a captive market for the frontier folk to sell (heavily taxed) food and goods to the cities.
Maybe the plague is long gone but the indispensable justification for elite power and privilege. The quarantine is about preventing anyone from learning the truth. Those outside the cities are sold vitamin pills (and a few useful vaccines) at high prices. The rural folk are told they'd die without their meds. Note: a highly addictive drug is in the meds. This drug has few effects other than brutal withdraw symptoms. In fact, people have died from the withdraw symptoms, and the drug keeps getting more sophisticated.

Quote:
[EDIT]
The bison and other native fauna were reintroduced or replaced with "better" versions to maintain the carbon soaking ecosystem. Native animal threats and challenges turned up to 11, for that matter turn the weather up to 11 as well.
Survivors living outside of the "New West" society would be dangerous predators too.
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Old 12-17-2018, 07:34 AM   #6
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Default Re: AtE Worldbuilding "The New Old West"

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Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
The numbers are off here. It's a passable handwave if you just want a reason to have little iron After Your End and don't want to look at it too hard.

But we'd not really be able to dispose of a lot of iron that way. If the scheme works, it'd take maybe 0.0025% of currently known, accessible iron reserves (millions of tons of iron for fertilizing enough algae to remove half the CO2 from the atmosphere, while known reserves are in the hundreds of billions of tons). If the scheme doesn't really work (which is also plausible), why would we repeat it forty thousand times hoping for a better result until all the iron was gone?

It's a big planet, made out of a shocking amount of iron (and other atoms), even if most of it did sink to the middle back when it was all molten.

Yeah, there is so much iron in the world its ridiculous. Iron is not a particularly exceptional metal as I as far as its physical properties go. It just happens to be the most stable atom in the universe, so there is gobs and gobs of it.
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Old 12-17-2018, 12:03 PM   #7
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Default Re: AtE Worldbuilding "The New Old West"

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
The numbers are off here. It's a passable handwave if you just want a reason to have little iron After Your End and don't want to look at it too hard.

But we'd not really be able to dispose of a lot of iron that way. If the scheme works, it'd take maybe 0.0025% of currently known, accessible iron reserves (millions of tons of iron for fertilizing enough algae to remove half the CO2 from the atmosphere, while known reserves are in the hundreds of billions of tons). If the scheme doesn't really work (which is also plausible), why would we repeat it forty thousand times hoping for a better result until all the iron was gone?

It's a big planet, made out of a shocking amount of iron (and other atoms), even if most of it did sink to the middle back when it was all molten.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
Yeah, there is so much iron in the world its ridiculous. Iron is not a particularly exceptional metal as I as far as its physical properties go. It just happens to be the most stable atom in the universe, so there is gobs and gobs of it.
Changing the iron section to "Iron extraction becomes less economically viable from 2082". A plausable reason to limit or restrict the availability of steel would be good if anyone can think of one.

As to Astromancer's comment about the survivors being a threat, a number of groups descended from a mix of preppers, fringe dwellers and survivalists could exist. Huge amounts of variability in their exact make up and the danger they represent.
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Old 12-19-2018, 05:05 AM   #8
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Default Re: AtE Worldbuilding "The New Old West"

Where does the globe get its iron from? My understanding is that the modern economy consumes so much iron that the kind of deposits a society like ancient Rome would of mined just aren’t worth the effort to extract, regardless of how common they are.

Where we currently get our Iron is from the truly massive deposits. If those deposits have been nuked then iron scarcity could be an issue for a peroid of time.

Also I imagine petrol is in short Supply E?

Edit: also a Lazer revolver would seem to make the most sense if you want to give that old west feel with ultra tech guns. One use bullet size power cells used to power a lazer can't be cycled in an autoloading pistol like device, but clockwork works just fine.

Edit 2: also lasers seem to be ideal dualing weapons for highnoon shootouts.

Last edited by Minuteman37; 12-19-2018 at 05:11 AM.
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Old 12-19-2018, 07:20 AM   #9
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Default Re: AtE Worldbuilding "The New Old West"

Quote:
Originally Posted by Minuteman37 View Post
Where does the globe get its iron from? My understanding is that the modern economy consumes so much iron that the kind of deposits a society like ancient Rome would of mined just aren’t worth the effort to extract, regardless of how common they are.

Where we currently get our Iron is from the truly massive deposits. If those deposits have been nuked then iron scarcity could be an issue for a peroid of time.

Also I imagine petrol is in short Supply E?

Edit: also a Lazer revolver would seem to make the most sense if you want to give that old west feel with ultra tech guns. One use bullet size power cells used to power a lazer can't be cycled in an autoloading pistol like device, but clockwork works just fine.

Edit 2: also lasers seem to be ideal dualing weapons for highnoon shootouts.
For Clockwork guns, in a world of rare metals, look at ceramics. We now have ceramics that are almost strong enough and able to deal with the vibrations. A higher tech level with a metal shortage to force their hands might be much better at material science.
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Old 12-19-2018, 10:21 PM   #10
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Default Re: AtE Worldbuilding "The New Old West"

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Originally Posted by Minuteman37 View Post
Also I imagine petrol is in short Supply E?
Yes, carbon nuetral biofuel engines are going to take the place of coal fueled locamotives and the like. With iron and steel they are present just rarer and more expensive than typical for a nominally TL 10 setting. Possibly have the availability at a level where a recycler/autofactory setup replaces the role a blacksmith plays in the traditional western.

A new California gold rush for the setting could be salvaging copper and rare earth metals from old server farms.

[Edit]
Ceramics would definately have a place.
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Last edited by (E); 12-19-2018 at 10:25 PM.
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