New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

The native Americans fought a for that was unbeatable and much nastier. Yet many people like role playing them.

Do they? News to me. I haven't seen a single roleplaying game or scenario in which the PCs are natives vainly resisting being squeezed out. And Indians were much, much more competitive in the short term than these poor saps who are just totally outclassed in every possible way.

The victories would be in the delaying actions.

It is to laugh. TL 3 norms against TL 10 superhumans aren't going to delay diddley. The only thing that would slightly slow down the opposition is the other guys being nice enough not to squish you immediately and that kind of niceness vanishes immediately if you try to kill them. You can't even put up enough of a fight to qualify as getting curb stomped.

Alternatively, the Homo Novus have a lively egalitarian culture and are sincerely offering the tribes folk a good future. Maybe you're striving against stubborn patriarchs fearful of losing power and status..

Actually it won't be that great a future. They lose all their children and die out. Or they join and no matter how "egalitarian" the others are they'll still just be primitives in a world they don't understand and have nothing to offer to.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Do they? News to me. I haven't seen a single roleplaying game or scenario in which the PCs are natives vainly resisting being squeezed out. And Indians were much, much more competitive in the short term than these poor saps who are just totally outclassed in every possible way.


It is to laugh. TL 3 norms against TL 10 superhumans aren't going to delay diddley. The only thing that would slightly slow down the opposition is the other guys being nice enough not to squish you immediately and that kind of niceness vanishes immediately if you try to kill them. You can't even put up enough of a fight to qualify as getting curb stomped.



Actually it won't be that great a future. They lose all their children and die out. Or they join and no matter how "egalitarian" the others are they'll still just be primitives in a world they don't understand and have nothing to offer to.

Many people are up against massive odds with poor choices. Remember, "Adventure is somebody else having a hard time."

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

Something reached in, if that term has meaning here, and touched our world. Someone preempted them somehow. They are still "out' there, farther away than the stars, nearer than your heart's blood. Whoever blocked them changed us.

The most notable change "they" (the sttormknight who blocked the attack) told us was slightly botched. This mysterious person spoke into the minds of the word's people. The voice told the people that they tried to change the whole world, it only changed the more urbanized areas of the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the British Isles. These places were somehow overwritten with a shinier high-tech future (well twenty minutes into the future). Oddly, the botch may be the only hint as to who blocked the Others.

The other changes are more subtle. Art and society have changed, suddenly people find a new ability to express themselves and to work together. Magic always whispered about, but who gets to see it? Magic is now proven Real! Not very powerful, but real.

Everyone on the Earth wants to know how these changes happened. Others want to learn how to make their own changes.

Basically, this setting rifts off Torg. The invasion has been blocked, for now. Someone, a stormknnight from a world were his America died with a whimper, took the Darkness Device of this Earth and killed it. He raised the Axioms of reality (the definitions of Reality) by small amounts. The way he did these two things made it harder for extradimensional invaders to force their realities on our Earth, not impossible, just harder.

The local reality's rules involving technology, society, and magic, have been altered. In terms of Magic, the world is still low mana, but now it's possible to actually teach magic. In the past, every magician had to rediscover magic and learn to do it on their own. Mentoring was an illusion if a comforting one.
Now "spells" repeatable magic formula are possible. Society and communications are easier and more flexible. Both a wider range of social structures can be imagined and made to work. Markets, schools, governments, any institution based on human interaction simply works better and more smoothly.

The technological changes followed similar paths but the Stormknight also wanted to create a worldwide transformation that would reinforce the trends he'd set up. However, the process fizzled. The urbanized areas of the USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK, as well as the total areas of Ireland and New Zealand, were transformed. However, the change, though dramatic was limited. This world was on the edge of TL9, now the changed areas are early TL9. It's like the technology of a late TL7 (circa 1975) city was changed to the technology of an early TL8 (circa 1990) city. The main difference in effect is that everything got updated and renewed.

The botched transformation is the main clue as to who did it. Most people believe an American of Irish background or an Irish person who moved to America was behind the change. Because of how the change hit England, by-passing London, but transforming Leeds, Bristol, Liverpool, Penzance, Manchester, Sheffield, Durhan, Norwich, and York. Points to some quality of London itself annoying/repelling the change agent.

Also, areas seen as "Celtic," Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Scotland, and the Ilse of Man, all were thoroughly transformed. Britany, one of the few areas outside of an English speaking nation transformed. So people assume that they are looking for a "Celtophile."

As the Stormknight they're looking for is an American of mainly Irish decent with a romantic fascination about the Celts. However, due to legal troubles, his great-grandfather went through, the Stormknight has a German surname. Also, he looks like his mother's mother, a Native American of the Tillamook People. So most people miss his Irish heritage.

[Inky]

The Homo Novus scenario could work if you made it the starting point for "and now the baseline humans have got hold of something that might give them a chance". That could be a chance to turn the tables against the Homo Novus in general, but not necessarily. It could just be a way for that particular little group to get Billy, Sue and Jim-Bob back. If it turns out that they're already infected with the Proteus virus then the tribe could end up with three little Homo Novus of their own, raised in their own culture, which could be interesting.

Some ideas off the top of my head.
* They could discover secret intelligence, say electronic passes that will get them into a Homo Novus base.
* Maybe they even have a renegade Homo Novus, who for one reason or another can't be on the expedition xirself (not that idealistic, maybe, or maybe xe's injured. In fact, maybe xe's not a renegade at all, but a coward who got rescued by the locals after an accident and sold out xir comrades in exchange for saving xir life.).
* They could discover some old-time technology of their own, maybe an atypical survivor group that have made a big effort to hold on to their records.

That last one makes me wonder why it's happened that the Homo Novus have all the technology as well as all the genetic enhancements. You'd think that, if anything, the baseline humans would have more reason to hold onto their technology since they'd need it more. Did you have a reason for that, Astromancer?

A thought - if most of the tribespeople are that uptight about gender roles, to be so horrified by the idea of messing with genders, then you can imagine there'd be a small percentage who'd run away and join the "witch-folk" deliberately for that very reason, because they've grown to hate their gender and everything their family insist it demands of them and want to be shot of it.

[PTTG]

What are the forum's thoughts about mashing up cyberpunk and post-apocalypse settings?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by PTTG

What are the forum's thoughts about mashing up cyberpunk and post-apocalypse settings?

There seems to be a plausibility problem. Doing cyberpunk stuff tends to require that electricity and long-distance electronic communications are readily available and reasonably reliable. These things are not characteristic of post-apocalypse settings.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by PTTG

What are the forum's thoughts about mashing up cyberpunk and post-apocalypse settings?

I'd steal from Tank-Girl. Society is in chaos, some areas have advanced tech but the great systems are gone. Corperations are just the name given various gangs as without an overarching economy and legal system corperations can't exist. Much like many barbarian chiefdoms styled themselves with the titles and symbols of the dead Roman state, so these barbarians call themselves CEOs.

The internet, which is largely on highly durable solar powered satellites, is still useful. But far fewer people can access it.

The Mad Max setting was always fairly punk in attitude, all you need are enough isolated areas of high tech to be able to delude themselves into thinking they still constitute a society.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Inky

The Homo Novus scenario could work if you made it the starting point for "and now the baseline humans have got hold of something that might give them a chance". That could be a chance to turn the tables against the Homo Novus in general, but not necessarily. It could just be a way for that particular little group to get Billy, Sue and Jim-Bob back. If it turns out that they're already infected with the Proteus virus then the tribe could end up with three little Homo Novus of their own, raised in their own culture, which could be interesting.

Some ideas off the top of my head.
* They could discover secret intelligence, say electronic passes that will get them into a Homo Novus base.
* Maybe they even have a renegade Homo Novus, who for one reason or another can't be on the expedition xirself (not that idealistic, maybe, or maybe xe's injured. In fact, maybe xe's not a renegade at all, but a coward who got rescued by the locals after an accident and sold out xir comrades in exchange for saving xir life.).
* They could discover some old-time technology of their own, maybe an atypical survivor group that have made a big effort to hold on to their records.

That last one makes me wonder why it's happened that the Homo Novus have all the technology as well as all the genetic enhancements. You'd think that, if anything, the baseline humans would have more reason to hold onto their technology since they'd need it more. Did you have a reason for that, Astromancer?

A thought - if most of the tribespeople are that uptight about gender roles, to be so horrified by the idea of messing with genders, then you can imagine there'd be a small percentage who'd run away and join the "witch-folk" deliberately for that very reason, because they've grown to hate their gender and everything their family insist it demands of them and want to be shot of it.

I've already said that some of the tribes folk are interested in the Homo Novus society. Both those who can't fit in their own societies and the simply ambitious. Members of Homo Novus who see the Tribes Folk as romantic noble savages would be around too. If you have more than one society there must be exchanges back and forth.

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by johndallman

There seems to be a plausibility problem. Doing cyberpunk stuff tends to require that electricity and long-distance electronic communications are readily available and reasonably reliable. These things are not characteristic of post-apocalypse settings.

It's worked reasonably well in Rifts, though of course that's not a setting that's long on plausibility. The key is that there are some areas (the Coalition States and the New German Republic) that have the requisite infrastructure, big cities, and split between haves and have-nots for cyberpunk adventures.

[shadowjack]

Originally Posted by PTTG

What are the forum's thoughts about mashing up cyberpunk and post-apocalypse settings?

I've seen it done plenty of times, particularly in comic books and manga. (Judge Dredd and Battle Angel Alita come to mind immediately.) Generally, you have the cyberpunk stuff in the city-states, and go full post-apoc in the wastelands outside the walls. Slightly changes the mood, in that wastelanders know there's somewhere civilized to go -- but they're denied entry.