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Old 06-11-2020, 04:57 PM   #4821
Astromancer
 
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Try this one...

Wells-8

This Q6 low manna world seems to be a sort of myth parallel although H.G. Wells and his book The First Men in the Moon existed in this world, a mineral was discovered in 1907 that was soon called "Cavorite" which can provide Gravitational Shielding much like the substance in the book. To have these properties, Cavorite must be refined and have an electrical current flow through it. The stronger the current the more effective the shield.

The local year is now 1939, Germany, the UK, the USA, France, and the USSR, all have moonbases. All known deposits of Cavorite are in the USA, Canada, Kenya, India, and the Island of Java in the Dutch East Indies. Hitler has offered Japan full information on the technology in exchange for Cavorite if and when they take Java. Hitler is also planning to conduct massive bombing raids on America to make sure we don't interfere with his and Japan's plans.

The Cabal has informed Homeline and Centrum that Wells-8's moon is rich in interdimensional portals including connections to areas immediately adjacent to the Chronobahn! The Cabal believes their old foes in Midwinter Aton may be planning to help Reich-5 conquer the local multiverse. Such insanity is exactly what they believe in.

The PCs need to not only thwart this world's Hitler while he's backed by an alliance of brutal wizards but then they need to prevent Centrum or the Cabal from sizing this moon and gaining an overwhelming advantage in the cross-time wars.

Note: Simply nuking this Q6 world to black glass won't do anything to keep the local moon out of either Centrum's or Reich-5's hands. In fact, eliminating the locals might make it easier for any of the three major threats.


Further information, this world is TL7 with several technologies being more like 1950 than 1939. Whether this world is simply naturally more advanced or both Cabalists and their foes have smuggled in advanced tech is academic now.
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Old 06-12-2020, 02:22 AM   #4822
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
The Cabal has informed that Wells-8's moon is rich in interdimensional portals including connections to the Chronobahn!
Do you mean "connections to worlds that have sections of the Chronobahn on their Earth", or "connections to worlds where a segment of the Chronobahn is on the surface of the moon"?
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Old 06-12-2020, 04:10 AM   #4823
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Do you mean "connections to worlds that have sections of the Chronobahn on their Earth", or "connections to worlds where a segment of the Chronobahn is on the surface of the moon"?
The former, and more specifically, to places immediately adjacent to the Chronobahn.
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Old 06-12-2020, 05:57 AM   #4824
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The Cabal believes their old foes in Midwinter Aton...
I do not think that phrase means what you think it means. Even in Book Antiqua. But wouldn't Gothic Blackletter be better?

(Canonically, the Midwinter Aton is a lodge in good standing of the Cabal. They're not even the ones described as "freaks" who "scare even their fellow Cabalists". See Infinite Worlds, p. 69.)
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Old 06-12-2020, 06:01 AM   #4825
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To have these properties, Cavorite must be refined and have an electrical current flow through it. The stronger the current the more effective the shield.
By the way - does this effect preserve conservation of energy, or is this a more traditional pulp sort of gravitational shielding? If the latter, why is anyone talking about bombs when rocks are available?
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Old 06-12-2020, 06:17 AM   #4826
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By the way - does this effect preserve conservation of energy, or is this a more traditional pulp sort of gravitational shielding? If the latter, why is anyone talking about bombs when rocks are available?
Given that it's useful, it's presumably the pulp kind. As I understand it the versions of for this sort of thing that play fair enough with conservation laws for even pretty out there physicists to consider tend to require energy (or "negative energy") input on the same scale as the mass energy of the thing generating the field they are opposing, though distance adjustments can apply, which helps some, given the size of the field can be a tiny fraction of the distance from the gravity source. Still even for a field a millionth the size of the distance to the center of the Earth here at the surface, the mass energy of 10^-12 Earths is still *enormous*.
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Old 06-12-2020, 06:24 AM   #4827
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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
Do you mean "connections to worlds that have sections of the Chronobahn on their Earth", or "connections to worlds where a segment of the Chronobahn is on the surface of the moon"?
Quote:
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By the way - does this effect preserve conservation of energy, or is this a more traditional pulp sort of gravitational shielding? If the latter, why is anyone talking about bombs when rocks are available?
Whichever is the most fun in your game. Oh, and how do you like the setting and problem?
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Old 06-12-2020, 06:32 AM   #4828
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I do not think that phrase means what you think it means. Even in Book Antiqua. But wouldn't Gothic Blackletter be better?

(Canonically, the Midwinter Aton is a lodge in good standing of the Cabal. They're not even the ones described as "freaks" who "scare even their fellow Cabalists". See Infinite Worlds, p. 69.)
I must have misunderstood. Still the reference to the midwinter solstice fits the more Luciferian trends of early 20th century continental European occultism's right wing. So I'll stick to using them as villains.

As to Gothic Blackletter, I'll look at it. If it seems readable I might use it, but legibility trumps name appropriateness.
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Old 06-14-2020, 09:31 AM   #4829
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Try this one...

Goddard-3

Goddard-3 had Robert Goddard gain a highly charismatic associate in the 1930s. In most worlds, the associate, Henry Sawyer, in most worlds becomes a con artist or a vaudeville star, but in this world, one of his father's harebrained business plans worked, so Henry was sent to the best schools available and became a scientist and an engineer. And charming, sly Henry Sawyer got Goddard to drop his fears of publishing his discoveries and patents.

Henry also got the military to look at rockets in 1938. This is why American mass-produced rockets started hitting Germany and Japan in 1943. The first satellite to orbit the Earth was sent up in January of 1944. Although weather satellites weren't a thing until the mid-1950s, communication satellites were important in the late 1940s.

When the moon landings took place in 1965 they cost the US government less than half what they cost the US government on Homeline (adjusting as well as possible when dealing with the economics of alternate parallels).

The local year is 1980, the late 1960s and early 1970s saw major advances in rocketry lowering the costs of space travel fifty-fold between 1965 and 1975. (This means one percent of the Homeline costs of 1975). There are moonbases of several nations on the moon. Most of these are focused on building Mass Drivers and researching closed system life-support systems. The goal being to build solar power satellites.

Russia is in terror. The Saudis and other oil producers are bitter as well. The American plan is to provide free power to all (within the realms of the practical now in this world, and with technological improvements a certainty). If the USA successfully carries this out, the non-democratic nations face the certainty of simply quietly withering away.

The Americans must be stopped for Russia, China, Saudi-Arabia, Iran, and the world's dictators to survive.

Basically, a revved-up Cold War on the moon and in circumlunar space. America is the slightly incognizant but truly virtuous good guy in this setting. They are working on something genuinely good for all. Russia is fighting for its life. A world that doesn't need Russian oil is a world were Russia is a third-tier power, at best.

Centrum is torn, the solar power system has attractive features for them, but if Russia and the other dictatorships and petrostates fade too quickly, it weakens their ability to work in the shadows. The Cabal for some reason seems to be trying to stir up trouble between Homeline and Centrum on this world. Which makes it vital to know what their angel is.
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Old 06-15-2020, 04:42 PM   #4830
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Try this one...

In most parallels, the Spanish Flu outbreak comes with the first world war. In this Q7 world, the Spanish flu strikes in 1939.

The PCs are spies with medical skills (Doctors and Nurse Practitioners) who are assigned to surreptitiously vaccinate FDR and everyone else at the White House. This will be a very involved and dangerous mission.

To rev up the threat, get the vaccine into the Kremlin or the Reich Chancery. Note: Hitler was a vast millstone around Germany's neck if he died early it would be hard on the allies.

Note: The vaccine is delivered in a small jelly-bean-like candy. The vaccine is an advanced technology that works against a very wide range of flu viruses. It contains no live viruses and eating more than one is no worse than eating extra jelly-beans.
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