New Reality Seeds

[Astromancer]

Following the idea of intertemporal travelars as the change point (this is for IW after all), try this idea. Another travellar from outside of the normal Infinate Worlds setting has gotten to a parallel which they think is their distant past. He/she is a cyborg with gallons of nano. The cyborg can shapeshift and has other powers. The Cyborg's goal is to massively disrupt Earth's history, again this travellar has never heard of Time Paradoxes.

The Q6 world the cyborg lands on is an echo experiencing the year 1880AD. The Cyborg, useing it's telepathic abilities and it vast databanks first gains a backer and then starts bringing out a large series of TL6 inventions. When Edison tries to buy the cyborg out, the cyborg goes to meet Edison.

During the meeting the Cyborg kills and replaces Edison. Now a Cyborg with millions of Gigabites of TL6 though 12TL technological data owns Edison's company. By 1920 the tech level of this world is TL8. Both Homeline and Centruum want to know why this world is advancing so quickly. Both governments want to prevent a repete of the 1914 atomic missle exchange that eliminated Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburg, amoung other cities.

Centruum is of course focused of taking over the British Empire but this world's USA is also an attractive traget. Meanwhile, a Tech Level 12^ war cyborg is out there. The cyborg knows about Panchronomics and can detect out-timers.

[Anders]

1811 AD - Michael Faraday is given the boot when tries to woo Sir Humphrey Davy. As a result, practical applications of electricity are delayed by 20 to 50 years.

[Flyndaran]

Outtimers changed time lines could be a bit more subtle.

How about putting Tesla on some anti-psychotic medications?

Or putting Edison on some pro-psychotic meds to destroy his reputation in a macabre poetic justice kind of way?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Outtimers changed time lines could be a bit more subtle.

How about putting Tesla on some anti-psychotic medications?

Or putting Edison on some pro-psychotic meds to destroy his reputation in a macabre poetic justice kind of way?

The first one is fun. Yes, out timers should be subtle. But I prefer subtle changes to come from withing the timelines. Outtimers are for over the top changes.

[Astromancer]

Try this one. A room temperature superconductor is developed by an eccentric scientist who in most worlds is allergic to anti-psychotic medications. The RTSC hits the market in the year 1997. The local year is 2020 on this Q7 parallel. Both Homeline and Centruum want the formula, notes on how the formula was worked out, and as much tech as they steal.

A good RTSC (Room Temperature SuperConductor) would cause another industrial revolution or something alot like it. Thus, each wants the data for themselves and for no one else.

The politics of this world are dominated by the ecconomic collapse of the oil/energy exporting states. Power transmission and transport are so radically changed that international politics can't really keep up yet. War is a serious threat everywhere.

[Flyndaran]

Over 30% of America's power production is from coal. Petroleum is still mostly used for vehicles, something that superconductors aren't going to change.

Why do so many alternates have near Armageddon occur whenever any event goes slightly worse than it did in our history?

[Flyndaran]

What if poor Tesla developed mental illness due to an allergy rather than purely genetic reasons?
If his love of pigeons was his downfall, then a purely in time event could change his entire life.
Traumatized by a flock of birds as a child or something.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Over 30% of America's power production is from coal. Petroleum is still mostly used for vehicles, something that superconductors aren't going to change.

Why do so many alternates have near Armageddon occur whenever any event goes slightly worse than it did in our history?

Drama addiction. It's endemic amoung RPGers.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Drama addiction. It's endemic amoung RPGers.

It might be interesting to take the opposite approach. The world is inarguably better than ours, but the inhabitants are for some reason more pessimistic or judgmental about it.

We are almost blasé about "merely" one more local war. Maybe their not being shell shocked into complacency and numbness makes them bemoan wars' very existence more.

[Drifter]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

It might be interesting to take the opposite approach. The world is inarguably better than ours, but the inhabitants are for some reason more pessimistic or judgmental about it.

We are almost blasé about "merely" one more local war. Maybe their not being shell shocked into complacency and numbness makes them bemoan wars' very existence more.

I like that approach. Its so easy to fall into the war/spies trope, but it can get boring. I'm sure in an IW setting the characters can get blase about merely another threat of nuclear war.

My favorite IW type story is H Beam Piper's The Last Enemy. While the setting descends into civil war during the course of the story, it still deals with mainly psi-related themes and is more thought provoking than a gun fest. Don't read the wikipedia article, btw, since its basically the entire story; just read the story itself.

But its a great challenge. A world line had basically discovered something that would likely effect every world line with humans in it. The challenge for the PCs would be how they approach the information and what do they do with it.