03-11-2018, 08:08 AM | #3221 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Quote:
It seems to me an early development of gunpowder would make armor a marginal technology at best.
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03-11-2018, 09:36 AM | #3222 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Well, armor would have still been useful in the melee, but I get your point, especially since civilians would likely have access to firearms. Another consequence that the development of gunpowder would have done is made battles much more lethal, with the majority of fatalities happening in battle than outside of battle, and with more people dying in battle than surviving battle. The increased lethality of combat would have likely reduced population levels and, interestingly, would have reduced the availability of slaves.
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03-16-2018, 12:15 PM | #3223 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Swords might still evolve and become very useful. After all swords don't need to reload. Swords competed very well with firearms until easy to reload highly reliable multi-shot guns were the norm.
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03-16-2018, 01:56 PM | #3224 | |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Quote:
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Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check. |
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03-17-2018, 11:39 AM | #3225 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Try this idea...
Star Trek's Edith Keeler was real in this Q4 world, but she was born twenty-five years earlier than in the story we know her from. She manages to build a powerful Left-wing progressive pacifist movement that keeps the USA out of WWI. She also unites the various threads of the American Left and projects the USA into a stable Social Democratic consensus by the late nineteen teens. The USA uses its control of both food supplies and credit to force the European powers to the table and make peace. Europe's elites are furious. Russia has gone Communist and America is some other form of socialist. The old guard of Europe is ready to lash out in all directions. Homeline is fascinated that this world has an Edith Keeler, she's even a dead ringer for Joan Collins. Given that Star Trek fans are common in Homeline's dimension hopping agencies, large numbers of Homeline Personnel are smuggling Edith's books and ideas back to Homeline. Large numbers of Star Trek fans are getting way over excited. From here you can go where you please. The local year on this Q4 world is 1925. Edith Keeler is alive and in great health. Will fanboys from Homeline try to kidnap her? Will conservatives from Homeline try to kill her to end her political influence? Just as this world is with Europe caught between to radically different types of socialism, both totally repugnant to their elites, you've got a great set up for drama.
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03-17-2018, 12:02 PM | #3226 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Why?
Why is it "smuggling"? Surely there's nothing wrong with bringing back literature to Homeline, even if it's eeeeeevil socialism. Why are you sugggesting that Homeline personnel are doing something illicit? Why would Star Trek fans care that a Joan Collin's lookalike that is a real person in another universe is a fictional character in their own except for the fact that it's a bit odd? There are universes like this discovered all the time... why is this one epecially odd? Why would conservatives on Homeline want to kill a peaceful socialist leader that has helped people (and isn't an authoritatian murdering sociopath like Stalin) simply because she's helped lead a world to relative peace through different political means than on Homeline? What do they have to gain other than the pettt satisfaction of murdering a "socialist"? Why would anyone on Homeline want to kidnap her? People who support her policies want to keep her where she is, 'Star Trek fanboys' surely aren't going to kidnap her and parade her around conventions, and the only thing people who don't care for her politics would gain by kidnapping her is trouble for doing so. It's an interesting worldline, but why are people interfering in it? Quote:
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03-17-2018, 12:31 PM | #3227 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Quote:
Conservatives from Homeline aren't going to try to kill her given that her influence has nothing to do with her ability to make personal appearances on Homeline. And in fact the "elites" of Europe in her world probably would regard her brand of social democracy as a useful hedge against the far more frightening Communists just as they did in the post World War II era on Homeline. |
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03-17-2018, 02:05 PM | #3228 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Quote:
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03-23-2018, 07:38 AM | #3229 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Given that until the 1870'S Britain seriously feared the USA, because the ruling elites of Britain feared that Democracy could only lead to chaos, it seems to me that conflict between the USA and Britain is simply underused as a seed of alternate histories. Centrum has the same ideas about democracy that the 19th century British elites had. They fear it as a door to chaos and a mask for tyranny. It seems to me that in any parallel were the ACW is occurring Centrum would bend all its efforts toward starting a war between the USA and Britain.
The main problems would be these, first, Prussia's king hates the CSA, second, no one trusts Louie Napoleon, third, Russia wants to embarrass Britain and the Czar wants the Slaves freed, and sees Lincoln as the only man to do it. The Prussian King hates political revolt to begin with. That the CSA is revolting for the right to own slaves makes the king sick to his stomach. I kid you not, he is recorded as actually vomiting at the thought of the CSA! Louie Napoleon is a con man and a risk taker. He is tricky as a matter of policy and pride. The Brits know this and keep their distance. The Tsar wants to do two things, A) promote an end to slavery, the South's defeat looks good to him, and b) steal a march on Britain. The Russian Navy is basically hiding in American ports in this period. This achieves two ends. First the Brits can't blockade them in Russian ports nor can the winter. Second, Britain can't bombard US ports without starting a major European diplomatic incident. So how do you get Centrum it's shot?
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Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo Last edited by Astromancer; 03-24-2018 at 06:11 AM. |
03-23-2018, 11:14 AM | #3230 | |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Quote:
Of course, Centrum not knowing this, and finding out the hard way when their patsy does get lynched (due to Centrum putting more and more resources into keeping him in power while keeping him on-task) could be an interesting story, and an important learning experience for them.
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Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life. "The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted. |
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