New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[Starship777]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

I've just watched a Utube documentary on the film Snowpiercer. The whole film seems to fail any logic test. But many a good story does. Still, one part of the premise works. A society working under brutal restraints to survive

What if I told you that Snowpiercer may be a sequel to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? https://youtu.be/jEX52h1TvuA and https://youtu.be/ygYlxTxSaCM

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Starship777

What if I told you that Snowpiercer may be a sequel to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? https://youtu.be/jEX52h1TvuA and https://youtu.be/ygYlxTxSaCM

I'd say we watched the same documentary. That's why I referenced Snowpiecer.

[Starship777]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

I'd say we watched the same documentary. That's why I referenced Snowpiecer.

Oh, I thought you meant a behind-the-scenes piece showing how the movie was made. I almost never watch those kinds of documentaries as they sort of spoil the magic for me.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Starship777

Oh, I thought you meant a behind-the-scenes piece showing how the movie was made. I almost never watch those kinds of documentaries as they sort of spoil the magic for me.

Works the other way for me. Seeing how hard they worked to achieve things, how much skill it takes to seem effortless, always fills me with admiration for the achievement.

[Astromancer]

Taking an old Sci-Fi trope an applying it to the basic problem of the Snowpiecer scenario (class conflict and resource scarcity in a restricted area).

The wars were brutal, the new short term atomics did not act as expected. The radioactivity lasted longer than predicted and spread in unexpected ways. By pure luck, a young physicist (Lamar Jackson) both figured out what went wrong. Then by pure genius, he came up with a solution.

The Jackson fields keep the altered radiation out of the area of effect. These created safe areas were people and other large animals can live. Small creatures like mice or flies still suffered from the radioactive contamination, but they weren't wiped out and driven to extinction. So the environment beyond the Jackson fields is damaged but not destroyed.

The local Jackson field protects a radius of 25 miles, roughly three times the area of Greater London. Most of this is given over to intensive farming. small amounts of animal husbandry are practiced both to keep useful domestic species alive and to maximize edible calories produced.

There is a strict class system. Either you are academically talented and trained as far as possible or you spend your life in manual labor, seventy hours a week for life. If you are able to succeed in the brutally competitive academy, you stay in school, if not, workers leave school after sixth grade.

Workers live in barracks, the middle class have rooms like mid-century college dormitories. Apartments of reasonable comfort are an upper-class thing. The high elites have small houses and servants.

No one is truly rich. But some have comfort and security.

Lamar Jackson's analysis of enhanced radiation fields is proving to be dead on. The world beyond the Jackson fields is going to be deadly for the next seventy years. although the weakening radiation will allow the Jackson fields to expand the safe area radius by up to ten miles.

Basically, this is a society in a bottle. The class system manages the scarcity, badly. Yes, no one starves. The society is a real meritocracy, but it measures only a very few merits and is brutally parsimonious with basic respect. Everyone's life is shabby but clean. But dignity is reserved to the few.

Control is brutal, but as talent is desperately needed and respected, punishment takes the utility of the individual to society into account. Brain surgery to make people tractable and similar invasive techniques have been used. Strict pragmatism, within certain limits, is the order of the day.

There are rebels of course. The problem is that life is under massive restriction. It's hard for life not to be dystopian.

As written, the few areas of safety are all from the one alliance. In spite of real and serious efforts, no one on the other side would open diplomatic channels to learn about the Jackson fields. But in your game, you might want a hostile power waiting in the wings.

The Jackson fields protect from radiation. Other threats, from decaying waste dumps to tornados to locusts, can threaten the fragile societies of the safe areas.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

The Plague Wars were brutal. From the starting attacks in 2078 to the collapse of anything resembling a state sometime around 2090 more than 97% of the world's people died. In the century since the withering of civilization, the population has only grown by about 33%. From about ten billion people in 2070 to 160 million people worldwide now. The Plagues no longer give even babies the sniffles but miscarriages, often so early that it isn't even noticed, are brutally common. People struggle to simply replace their numbers, infertility and sterility haunts the people.

The one note that might seem bright makes people bitter. A group of Parahumans is immune to the sterility. With the technological crash caused the Plague wars the reason for this immunity isn't understood or repeatable. These parahumans are a Homo Superior type. They are a handsome group, creative, high stats, extended lifespans, many advantages, and designed for a wealthy group of New England families. They are ethnically representative of "Old Money" families in 2050s New England. They are also culturally typical of New England as well. They are also rapidly increasing their numbers. Were normal families have two children if they are lucky, and three once in a blue moon, these parahumans have families of six to eight children. Because of their longevity, they can have their children over forty years with no problems. Meanwhile, ordinary human infertility, as medical infrastructure decays, is growing worse.

This seeming ray of hope causes bitterness and jealousy. Many groups feel they are being replaced and their cultures are dying. This wounds. As these families live only in the USA, charges of biological and racial imperialism are being launched.

Meanwhile, the remnants of the old technology and infrastructure continue to fade. This is a post-apocalyptic world struggling with poverty and decline. They need to increase the population or they'll be in the stone ages.

The PCs could be parahumans struggling to raise families and aid their communities in spite of the jealousy and bitterness directed at them. (Play up New England upper-class stereotypes. Sound like the Howells, be as warm as Jim Backus, as resolute and decent as Katharine Hepburn, and a truly honorable and utterly stiffnecked New Englander. Study positive and negative New England stereotypes and play them to the hilt. Go a little overboard.)

The PCs could also be ordinary human government officials trying to prevent violence and oppression caused by jealousy and desperation.

A diplomatic campaign could be played as well. As these parahumans seem to be the demographic future of humanity, many nations would want a supply of parahuman babies to raise in their cultures and give them a future too. However, many people are competing for relatively few children put up for adoption.

Some governments might send agents to kidnap small children.

Remember, given the narrow ethnic base of the parahumans, many religious groups are staring extinction in the face. They'd want some of these children too.

[Astromancer]

Further notes. Society had just transitioned to TL9 in the 2070s. In the following decades, the technological base of the society collapsed. The medical infrastructure is collapsing too as is the educational infrastructure to educate medical professionals. This means the non-parahuman birthrate is dropping. This deepens the extinction fears of ordinary humans.

The Parahumans age very slowly, the eldest of the parahumans were born in 2060 and are now 120 years old. They look like vigorously healthy people in their mid-fifties. If you've seen Dennis Quaid in the insurance commercials he does now, that is what the eldest parahuman males look like. The eldest parahuman females look like Cher or Sophia Loren in their fifties.

Because of their enhanced brains and lifespans, governments prefer to make educational investments in the parahumans. A doctor that stays a skilled and active doctor for a century is a desirable investment in any society.

More later...

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Further notes. Society had just transitioned to TL9 in the 2070s. In the following decades, the technological base of the society collapsed. The medical infrastructure is collapsing too as is the educational infrastructure to educate medical professionals. This means the non-parahuman birthrate is dropping. This deepens the extinction fears of ordinary humans.

The Parahumans age very slowly, the eldest of the parahumans were born in 2060 and are now 120 years old. They look like vigorously healthy people in their mid-fifties. If you've seen Dennis Quaid in the insurance commercials he does now, that is what the eldest parahuman looks like.

Because of their enhanced brains and lifespans, governments prefer to make educational investments in the parahumans. A doctor that stays a skilled and active doctor for a century is a desirable investment in any society.

More later...

My first thought is to wonder if parahumans would give parababies to normals to raise, so their culture could continue. Of course, whay would they want to? To defuse tension?

[PTTG]

What's a half-parahuman?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

My first thought is to wonder if parahumans would give parababies to normals to raise, so their culture could continue. Of course, why would they want to? To defuse tension?

The parahumans are as attached to their babies as anyone else. So the idea has come up but few babies are surrendered. Not because the parahumans are inhumane but because they are merely human.