New Reality Seeds

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Factional infighting is supposedly a thing for the evil pantheons since in D&D good and evil are material, objective concepts. It's broadly true to say you can go get an orb of pure, concentrated evilness. Likewise, a good god will not and cannot tolerate infighting amidst his followers and will usually intercede if it happens regardless. Evil gods, in contrast, generally a pro-infighting as it creates unhappiness and results in the "strongest" surviving.

That said, a dark fantasy can always do with a non-interventionist or uninterested god that lets their church do a little internecine warfare from time to time.

The D&D gods are a lot more 'hands on'. Though the good gods do step back a lot, or even intervene against their worshipers in the case of Dragonlance's Cataclysm (in which the good gods had an asteroid take out the Rome-like empire that worshiped them).

And there are the good elves, who generally seem to think that humans, even good ones, aren't worshiping the right way. But they don't seem to think that humans do anything the right way.

Originally Posted by PTTG

A number of subtle changes allow Boudica to not only drive out the Romans circa 60 CE (340 years early), but also unify the tribes into a matriarchal empire (her forces probably don't slaughter defeated urbanites, merely the leadership, allowing for an improved economic base). It would surely collapse after her death, but would likely reform in response to any attempted incursion.

This can go two ways: It could make Celtic Britain into an exotic yet strangely familiar place to visit. Or, it could be that the integrated Romans somehow preserve some features of the Empire even after the Western Empire falls. A different (possibly matriarchal) government, of course, but roman-style public works and social structures. Heck, go nuts and make all men slaves to the enfranchised women of their society.

More likely outcomes include a latter invasion that revitalizes Rome during its latter days. Or, maybe the Celts repulsed Angles and Saxons, but eventually fell to the French, making a modern form of English that's almost exclusively latin-based even though the politics are pretty similar.

Isn't Britannica-7 a Boudica parallel?

[Astromancer]

Try this one, two Q6 parallels are in very close contact. Each world has supers and wizards. These Heroes, villains, or otherwise routinely cross between the two parallels and both world know the other world exists. Each of these worlds, in spite of the paranormal powerhouses that live there, were fairly normal echoes of Homeline until the later 1930s.

On world A magic is more common, Arthur returned during WWII, and Stalin has made a deal with the devil (Stalin is the senior partner). World B is more tech focused. They already have moonbases and have made their first landing on Mars. What worries the Cabal is that these worlds are both looking at the idea that there is a wider range of worlds out there. Another major panchronomic power isn't something they want. But they worry what Homeline or Centrum might find these worlds and try something stupid. The Cabal realizes that fouling up these would cost the local area of the multiverse dear. However, as the Cabal knows that neither Homeline nor Centrum trusts them enough to simply stay away from a pair of worlds simply because the Cabal says that it is a threat to them if they interfere. And Cabal is even less willing to explain what they know to prove their word. After all, both Homeline and Centrum could use that data against the Cabal.

The local year in both worlds is 1948. A is at TL7^ and B is at TL7+2^. The effective Tech Level can be higher, but as yet, not consistently so. The magic used in this world is generally Realm Magic. Most active supers are between 250 and 400 points as are the more heroic mages. However, there are elite Supers and Mages far higher than that.

[Astromancer]

Try this idea...

Once Robespierre and the Jacobins are in the driver's seat, no good can come from the French Revolution. But, in a world where the actual radicals, Tom Paine, Olympe Gouges, and others that were supporting things like equal rights for peasants, women, and non-whites, abolition of slavery, abolition of Feudal Privilege, and the foundation of a welfare state (Most of Paine's The Rights of Man is about the state ameliorating poverty), stayed in power, France might stay a democracy without becoming an Empire.

Yes, a low order of probability, but the knock on effects elsewhere would be interesting too. A stable democratic France would likely mean a much slower formation of European nationalism. The imposition of Code Napoleon, tempory though it was, led to widespread legal reform throughout Europe. In fact, the wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars were great modernizing forces in most of Europe.

So, on Tom Paine-5 where the French Revolution never turned sour, Britain and France are wonders of modernity, but continental Europe beyond France seems like a mixture of the middle ages and the 18th century. The local year is 1890, Britain, France, the United States, and the British and French Empires all achieved TL6 a decade ago. French scholars, fascinated by Babbage's ideas and having better machinists at hand, were able to create functional Analytical Engine. It is just now that highly functional, but Tech Level six, computing is coming online.

Meanwhile, the rest of Europe hasn't even gotten railroads yet.

This world isn't swasher steampunk, it's Steampunk Versus Swashers!

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

Someone gave some useful aid to James Wilkinson at the battle of Crysler's Farm and the battle of Battle of Lacole Mills. Instead of the Saint Lawrence Campaign being a bust, largely for reasons beyond Wilkinson's control, Montreal was held by the Americans and firmly held. The Brits are bulked and bitter.

Meanwhile, someone seems to be encouraging unreasonable people in both the British and American governments.
Castlereagh who knows that both America and Britain need peace, is finding it brutally hard to persuade either side to want peace. Meanwhile, rumors of Castlereagh's homosexuality are being loudly spread around London.

Someone is trying to snip the United States of America in the bud. Is it Centrum? Some new threat?

Out-timers are trying to dominate this Q6 world, can your PCs stop them?

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this one...

Someone gave some useful aid to James Wilkinson at the battle of Crysler's Farm and the battle of Battle of Lacole Mills. Instead of the Saint Lawrence Campaign being a bust, largely for reasons beyond Wilkinson's control, Montreal was held by the Americans and firmly held. The Brits are bulked and bitter.

Meanwhile, someone seems to be encouraging unreasonable people in both the British and American government's. Castlereagh who knows that both America and Britain need peace, is finding it brutally hard to persuade either side to want peace. Meanwhile, rumors of Castlereagh's homosexuality are being loudly spread around London.

Someone is trying to snip the United States of America in the bud. Is it Centrum? Some new threat?

Out-timers are trying to dominate this Q6 world, can your PCs stop them?

Nice. Subtle and actionable. You could build this into an episode, a campaign, or just some background color. Or kick off a campaign as the parachronic locals stumble onto the Secret.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Apollonian

Nice. Subtle and actionable. You could build this into an episode, a campaign, or just some background color. Or kick off a campaign as the parachronic locals stumble onto the Secret.

Thank-you!

[PTTG]

Give the abolitionist John Brown slightly more success in his attempts to unite Massachusetts's wool farmers. Not dramatically so, but he has some mild success at bringing a number of farms together to sell a line of very fine wool cloth.

This financial base gives him the stability he needs to develop a more sound plan than his Harper's Ferry attempt. If it goes less disastrously wrong for him, he could be a major voice in the aftermath of the civil war, driving for more enthusiastic reconstruction.

[Astromancer]

Here's a subtle little plot for Centrum or maybe the Cabal in a world where Frances Yates understated certain ideas influence in society and thought. James of Scotland's family was a great source of hope to the people of England. Elizabeth couldn't marry without creating a crisis (there were multiple reasons for this) so England had been without a viable heir to the throne for decades. Then James, normally a disappointment, gave them Prince Henry who was the Protestant champion so many of the English longed for. Then Henry died young and they got Charles pawned off on them.

Charles is the main reason why the stresses on the monarchy in the early 17th century led to civil war. Charles, personally charming, always managed to infuriate and repel the political nation of England. Not to mention his religious reforms shocked Protestants without really offering Catholics anything. The fact that he demanded to be "Co-intercessor" with the Son, in other words, equal to Jesus and thus the fourth person of the Trinity, was just the final insult.

Assuming you want to prevent the English Civil War, radically reduce migration to New England, slow down or abort the Enlightenment in England and France, and snip Whig political thought in the bud, keeping Charles Stuart off the thone is vital. This means that keeping Charles brother healthy is vital.

The best shot to get to Prince Henry is through his mentor, the man he saw as more his father than his own father, his well loved Walter Raleigh. The poet, sea dog, occultist, and courtier, would be the best avenue for either Centrum or the Cabal to get to Prince Henry. Thus, the fight would be to control Raleigh and his faction. Homeline, if they felt they needed to stir their oar in, would need to prevent this.

Mind you, if Prince Henry is kept well, it could both vastly strengthen the monarchy at the expense of Parliament. Plus it makes it highly likely that England would enter the Thirty Years War with brutal consequences. So Homeline might have to assassinate a fine decent young man and put his dangerous loon of a brother on the throne to save the world.

[PTTG]

Someone called English three languages in a trenchcoat pretending to be one. It's not an innacurate idea, but when people decide to play with the language they usually up the French or the German.

So, how about the Latin? In order to preserve the armies, we need wealth. To get the wealth, we might be able to increase interest in Britannia and make it a good place for the wealthy to flee Europe to. Maybe there's a plague near 400 that spreads best in warm climates, so it never gets to the British isles.

That level of interest in the distant colonies would, of course, weaken the Empire, but it was already fading and so weakening it would only speed that collapse along.

In time, the Roman empire would be nativized and the natives would be romanized to the point where there's hardly a distinction -- at least among the cityfolk. English Latin would pick up a few celtic words and maybe an anglo phrase or two, but could easily establish itself as the dominate language of the region for a couple thousand years.

With the regular populous speaking the language of scholars, education might take a different track, and so would having a European storehouse of Roman knowledge through the dark age, if one ever came.

[Astromancer]

It strikes me that Europe in the 1945-1947 period would be a great place for adventures for Interworld agents. Centrum would definitely strike at Europe during such a period of vulnerability. Similarly, the Cabal could have easy pickings in this period. People were shell shocked and many people devoid of all hope. Perfect recruits for cults.

Even in historical echoes, this period was unusually violent and unstable. It was one thing to declare victory and peace, it was another to actually stop the fighting and killing. Some scholars suggest the Holocaust can't really be said to stop until after 1947.

This makes the period, often used in spy thrillers, grand for gaming.