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Old 12-04-2018, 09:38 AM   #831
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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Originally Posted by TGLS View Post
Well, the viability of that probably depends on how likely that would cause a time paradox.
They may assume that either they are already in a time paradox, or that time paradoxes are myths. Given the circumstances they are living under, these aren't difficult views to come to. And assumptions don't have to be right or worthy to motivate action.
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Old 12-04-2018, 09:49 AM   #832
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

The PC's are researchers actively attempting to find out how time paradoxes work. They are under intense political pressure, and this process seems to be a lot more complicated than it should be. Are paradoxes time-sensitive? is someone interfering with the research? Which factions are meddling, and are they meddling from the present or from the future?
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Old 12-04-2018, 12:02 PM   #833
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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The PC's are researchers actively attempting to find out how time paradoxes work. They are under intense political pressure, and this process seems to be a lot more complicated than it should be. Are paradoxes time-sensitive? is someone interfering with the research? Which factions are meddling, and are they meddling from the present or from the future?
Oh, clever! Paranoia and conspiracy neatly gathered together.
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Old 12-05-2018, 08:05 AM   #834
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The Underlands

A Reality Quake hits the Earth in 2019, suddenly cave systems around the world link into distant planets throughout the galaxy. An old system of travel by gates within the mass of planets is open. Or perhaps reopened is the better word. For these gates were opened in the past. Think of what the faerie tales, folk tales, legends, and myths, always told us lived in caves. Mind you it's a game of "telephone" and our ancestors didn't always get the details right but the general idea is a good guideline.

In the fifty years since the gates opened Dragons and Faeries, Ogres and Dero, have all come through the gates. Humanity has spread out to the stars, subways lead to the new vast frontiers.

Different nations deal with the threats and opportunities in their own unique ways. China, because her Mercantilist policies have been rejected and countered, has focused on aggressive and brutal off-world empire building to keep the ruling clique in charge. The USA has been much more Laissez-faire. The EU tends to criticize the USA sharply, and the Chinese softly, and they are pretty aggressive in Empire building too. Other nations make use of their cave opportunities in their own ways.

Large numbers of humans are settled off planet. New foods and products have been introduced to humanity. Inequality drives masses of poor and working-class people off Earth, as does ethnic cleansing and climate change. The elites are delighted to push colonial settlement as a way to meet the needs of the poor and the workers on the cheap.

Many of the new societies set up off world are radically egalitarian, which terrifies the elites. Worldwide there is a propaganda campaign to undermine this. The West pushing rugged individualism and the East and South pushing hypernationalism. Meanwhile, groups of humans and near humans (how near can vary greatly) who have long lived off planet, are often in conflict with the new explorers, settlers, and resource extractors. The Americans generally follow a policy of "We made bad mistakes before, let's avoid a repeat" and show sensitivity to the locals. China rolls coldly over the locals. Others fall somewhere between.

Note: Many off-worlders have psionic abilities. Some teach humanity new arts, others strike back, HARD!

The peoples beyond Earth speak of Magonia and say they lost the way to get there. Some think Magonia is at the True center of the gate system. Others say it is in orbit or on a planet beyond the gate system. Stranger tales are common too.

The Tech Level is 9. It's about as far into TL9 as 1955 was into TL7, medicine and biotech are somewhat further advanced.
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Old 12-07-2018, 08:56 AM   #835
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The Underlands
One of the larger and more advanced off-world nations, settled by Greek speakers and in contact with the Earth at least until the Byzantine period (They know of Justinian but nothing of Charlemagne), is more technologically advanced than Earth's norm (Use Trashuman Space as a handy model). The city-state called Adocentyn (assumed to be the inspiration for the utopian city in the Picatrix) seems to be both interested in diplomatic relations and standoffish at the same time.

Recent reports of a Shamballa are confused and disturbing. The rumors of Agartha are even more so. It is doubly disturbing because Agartha was generally seen as a 19th century fiction! Was there some kind of contact no one knew about? How was it kept secret?

Recently, divers in lake Svetloyar have met people claiming to be from Kiteh. The Russian Orthodox church is both terrified and intrigued.

Meanwhile, strange birds and animals in the artic are causing rumors of Thule and Hyperborea.

UFOs have been seen worldwide leaving caves. Where are they coming from? Could the reports of "Nordic type Aliens" claiming to be from Venus or St. Martin's Land be real? And how does any of this relate to Magonia?
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Old 12-10-2018, 07:30 AM   #836
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Try this one...

The year is 2269, this is an early TL12 society. There was no superscience. Yes, there has been interstellar flight. The top speed was 0.04C, No expedition has yet reached its goal. Meanwhile, the terraformation of Mars goes well. The atmosphere won't be breathable for generations, but progress has been impressively fast. Programs to terraform Venus claim excellent prospects. They claim them a lot.

Meanwhile, the study of the human brain has made unexpected breakthroughs. Massively unexpected breakthroughs, about thirty years ago they found magic! Talk about surprises.

This is basically a very Hard Sci Fi setting with magic coming back, or maybe coming for the first time. The academic blood feuds have been impressive. Reporters have learned that asking archeologists about archeological traces of magic is grounds for getting a trowel stuck in your face. Always remember, magic is a jarring shock to this world and really does not fit.

For the general look and style of this future rewatch Robots of Death. Oscar Wilde, who called decadence "a purple golden word," would approve of the lavish luxury of this setting. Look at the Aesthetic Movement these people have their physical needs met, they now want satisfaction and pleasure. Also, reread Noir and Hardboiled Detective stories. Unlike cyberpunk, this world isn't doomed or lost, democracy is real, but there is corruption and the rich have too much power. Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe might be dazzled by this world's wealth and beauty, but they'd recognize the same old stink of corruption and greed. Strangely, even though the poor have more security, comforts and luxuries than most early 21st century Americans in the upper middle class, poverty still creates desperation and frustration. Still, this world is beautiful and exciting, most people have hope and are right to see it that way.

For magic either use path/book magic for a low key magic, which can still be powerful. Otherwise, use Realm magic. Crib freely from both or either Gurps: Monster Hunters and Gurps: Mage: The Ascension. The Realms would be Space, Time, Entropy/Luck/pattern, Forces, Life, Matter, Society, Information, Spirit, Manna/Quintessence, Mind and Reality/Dimension.

There is a movement called the New Alchemy that blends magic with science and technology. This can be represented by the Weird Science skill. The scientific study of magic is Thaumatology. The practice of magic is Ritual Magic (style). Every group of Mages has it own style. Freely raid M: tA's many groups. Don't forget the crafts, many of them are quirky and obnoxious, great roleplaying.

A group of engineer/shamans have created a FTL drive. They have made flights back and forth in the solar system that prove the drive prototype works. They're building the first starships.

PCs in this setting can take so many roles. Earth provides the widest variety but the solar system still has elements of the frontier to it. Being on the first starships either as mages or any other part of the crew.

Note: the mages have the same petty politics as many other creative or academic groups in this setting. Please work on your best Jonathan Harris impersonation or maybe Imelda Staunton if you want real evil. Either can represent a troublesome older mage very nicely.
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Old 12-14-2018, 11:43 AM   #837
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Long ago, a society that called itself Utopia Major, whose Tech Level was beyond 12^, set up a planet sized Amusement Park based on J.R.R. Tolkien's Second Age of Middle Earth. The Valar and Magic ran by the use of vast computers stored in alternate dimensional spaces near the planet in question. Chants in Quenya really could alter reality or speak to the "gods." The thoughts of every living being on the planet were recorded as they happened, so there was an afterlife of sorts. Men, Elves, Ents, Dwarfs, Hobbits, Orcs, and Trolls, lived and fought. Their lives were real but lived in a vast artifice.

One day Utopia Major fell, and they fell hard. The Middle Earth they built was forgotten and ran on by itself.

Now, long after Sauron's fall and the Third Age began, the distant descendants the Utopians have found their way to this long forgotten toy world.

Basically, your bold heroic Golden Age Sci Fi space explorers on Middle Earth. Tolkien is obscure mainly because he hasn't been translated from ancient languages in millennia. So, although Middle Earth isn't ready for Northwest Smith, James Kirk, or Barbarella could any of them be ready for Galadriel or Gandalf?
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Old 12-16-2018, 08:04 AM   #838
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{The Farfarers}

The planet Auvergne was settled long ago and became isolated before the colony was fully stable. The economy collapsed and society followed. The Auvergnes had recovered to TL 5/6 depending on their area and the local economy. The population grew to more than 300 million spread over the inhabitable continents and several major island chains.

A local Multi-Stellar nation has rediscovered the planet, Auvergne. They've set up a large Scout Base on an island (roughly as large as Martha's Vineyard) just a few miles offshore from the planet's largest port.

The TL12^ base is slowly transforming the planet. Agriculture and fishing near the base, or easily connected to it by the river the port city is built on, is booming. Highly skilled advisors from the Multistellar Nation are backing technological and industrial growth. New Universities and teaching hospitals have been founded.

Meanwhile, many isolated rural communities and conservative groups in the more prosperous areas find their world collapsing. When a proud warrior nation finds that peace is now going to be enforced on them, they tend to fall apart. As the cities near the scout base boom economically they pull in young people from poor isolated areas. Those many rural areas begin to wither and fade.

PCs could be rebels striking out against the changes that cause their communities to wither and fade. For a classic Golden Age Sci-Fi touch PCs could be young rural people seeking the fortunes in the stars.
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Old 12-17-2018, 09:57 AM   #839
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The Station had long been isolated. The wars burned throughout the solar system. Still, no one seemed to think an isolated space habitat out in the Oort Cloud was important enough to bother with. The one AI driven warbird that got out to within a few million miles of the Station saw it as a resource to be harvested later and nothing to waste bombs on.

That was centuries ago. The Station has heard no signals that suggest that civilized life survives closer to the sun. Then, the same warbird driven by the same AI returned. The AI says that there is some life left on Earth and maybe other places. It no longer values war or cares for long dead ideologies that treat sophant life as a cheap joke. It wants allies to try to heal what is left in the ruins. it also offers the folk of the Station a chance to move closer to the sun to the richer resources closer to Sol.

This setting is basically the THS setting run forward through a "Final War" and into a post apocalyptic "Long Night." The Tech Level of the Station is a mature 10 except in biology and chemistry were it's more like a mature TL11.

The PCs are parahumans with high stats and multiple mental and physical advantages and a greatly extended lifespan. That said, they've lived their lives in a small city totally isolated from any outside cultures except through their fine libraries.

The adventures would involve exploring the ruins of civilization and contacting survivors, biological or otherwise. maybe even going to Earth itself to find its secrets and wonders.
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Old 12-17-2018, 12:37 PM   #840
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What wondrous ruins they would be. I'd be interested in saying that the war spurred weird science, and all kinds of bizarre phenomenon can be found in the inner solar system. Landing on Earth itself would subject you to things all the more outlandish.

Chronobombs, sentient incendiaries, stable neutronium projectiles, stasis shields, warp exponentiators, green goo swarms, singularity tunnels...
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