New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Hi, would you mind spoilering it then? This is up next on my reading list.

Please, I didn't touch any of the real plot or substance, just some setting chrome.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

Because of a Russo-Chinese attempt at Climate Engineering backfiring disastrously, Earth's climate is seriously warped and the capacity to produce food crops is drastically reduced in the year 2080. However, the USA, China, Japan. India, the EU, and in a small way Russia, have both off-world bases, space habitats, and the means to build more habitats quickly. But not quickly enough to keep the death toll down to only a billion or two.

Basically, a race to save who or what you can. At the same time, politics continue in space. None of the six powers are really friendly with each other, each feels the others need to take more refugees and get out of Their territories and their mines and be far more generous with sharing their materials. China and Russia are bad on all counts. Japan and India don't take refugees period, and each of them accuse everyone else of bad faith. Especially when they are the ones acting badly. The EU is grabby and the loudest beggar. And the USA is going isolationist and self-righteous (the fact they take the most unfair abuse of any of the six isn't an excuse, but many Americans act like it is).

PCs could be agents of one of the powers, either preventing sabotage or doing sabotage. Industrial espionage is a good option for this setting as technology needs to up its game to save people.

Campaigns on Earth could focus on Earth could be about finding rare treasures and bringing them to safety. Many people would hold historical relics and art treasures hostage to get off-planet and to safety. With some people, this wouldn't be so bad. An elderly aristocrat and a few of his family members trading some Old Masters Paintings for their lives would work, or at least it wouldn't be much of a nuisance. But a group of Mafia Dons, Islamic Jihadists, Neo-Nazis, and similar types would be intolerable. Pretending to offer asylum and then snatching the goods would be better,

Certain humans and human groups might be counted treasures. Rescuing people held hostage could make a good campaign.

Flipping the script, members of a group with no pull or respect among the Space Powers might try anything to escape the planet, or at least get to the few areas that will still have food and civilization. This can mean anything from an out for themselves circle of grifters to a migration of a whole people across the world.

[PTTG]

Sounds like an interesting mega-campaign. I would want to build up the setting a little bit. About the worst thing you could do is probably something involving a bio-engineered bacteria designed to break down CO2 and methane in water -- presumably to sink CO2 into the ocean floor.

If there's a serious mistake involving the undersea methane clathrates, it could (with a bit of handwaving) destabilize all of it. If we assume there's maybe more methane released than is realistic according to our current understanding. Enough to trigger something of a venus-style steamhouse effect.

That probably would not be permanent -- merely thousands or millions of years, depending. Living on Earth in the meantime would be difficult. This could vary from merely moving into the arctic regions to living in deep mines. Selecting an exact quality and time-frame could be done... and I like the idea of having one team of PCs doing one thing and trying to steal a ride to space, while another team of PCs tries to keep stowaways off the ships.

[PTTG]

This planet has always been one of war. While other worlds know peace at times -- even most of the time -- this planet is nothing but a scarred ball of rock, sand, and icy water for aeons. Some say it's where humans came from, but that ancient cradle could look nothing like the battle-wrecked land it is today.

Armies are sent here to die. There is no historical record of what exactly they are fighting for, though all factions know that to surrender the fight would be a sign of weakness tantamount to surrendering all their possessions throughout space. Yet there is nothing to be gained on the war-world. It is a slaughter pursued only out of a mutual need for retribution.

But it is not all war everwhere on the planet; it is too vast and too barren for conflicts to be occurring everywhere on its scarred surface. Vast regions are merely wastelands cluttered with debris. And among those wastelands rove a tiny population of stragglers -- rogues, casualties, and their decedents who sort through thousands of years of detritus to find food and shelter enough to survive.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

Our people came to Epona when this world was barren, all life having been extinguished by an asteroid strike. But we rebuilt the ecosystems and made a desolation into a garden. We built graceful charming cities, a government that protected both freedom and fairness, and a productive economy. Just as we wanted to start building a rich and sophisticated culture, the old homeworld started dumping so-called refugees on us.

These people made themselves unwelcome on Earth, why should we tend them?

The government of Earth has decided to kill two birds with one stone. Groups designated antisocial, violent, fanatical, or simply obnoxious shall be exiled from Earth and Earth's star system. These groups shall be dumped on planets that look ready to achieve political, economic, or cultural independence, to disrupt these societies and prevent them from becoming too independent. Groups shall be chosen for maximum incompatibility.

This last fact isn't to be made public. And the intractability of the resulting conflicts will be used to justify continued intervention.

The locals despise us as if such trash had any right to an opinion.

They know nothing of our pain. The rising seas of Earth made our islands uninhabitable. Our Theocracy committed no sin against the Earth, we bearly had industry or any wealth. We were the humble pious poor living a godly life. Then we were torn from our ruined homes, dragged off into the sky, and dumped on this cold world of ice hearted fools.

They don't even enforce their own faith. They refuse to see our faith community as a separate nation within the nation with our own rights. And when we try to establish decent morality they call us oppressors and terrorists. They won't even hear us when we tell them their precious democracy is unholy and blasphemous.

To revive up tensions either drop multiple mutually incompatible groups on a planet or simply make sure enough refugees are dumped to stress the economy, the food supply, the ecology, or all three. Enforced wars for survival would allow space-based corporations the maximum chance to exploit and break choice worlds.

They, the locals, class us with the others dumped on them by the "Earth Government." Such arrogance, our way of spirit, and life is a hard path for those not born to us to follow. Those not born to us may never join unless they are reincarnated as members of our people.

The locals say this world was long dead and they made it live again. What of it? Our lands were given to us by the creators, and the ancestors of the locals stole them from us. See how you like it.

As to the theocrats, that trash had better stay away. Our souls belong to the True Gods not to their demons and ghosts.

There are many ways to use this basic setting. You can have the PCs be Agents from Earth who are unaware that the point is to cause chaos. These PCs could strive to preserve peace and build stability while being undermined by the brass back on Earth.

The PCs could also be people from either the locals or the refugee groups who could be trying to salvage what they can from the mess.

Also, the PCs could be fully clued in agents of Terra actively trying to make life hell for the people on the planet. Some could be ideologically committed to the idea that plunging these worlds into chaos as a means to preserve a worthy and legitimate order of society. For others, it could just be a job.

Finally, the PCs could be fully clued in agents of Terra actively trying to subvert the destructive imperialist goals of their home government.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

This starts with an older setting seed but it goes someplace different enough to be fun. To start with a Native American man in the year 2025 finds the Magic McGuffin (pat pending) and gains wishes. Being drunk and angry (he has good reasons aplenty for both) and wishes all non-Native American Americans gone from the Earth. His cousin, who is only a quarter Native American, knocks him out grabs the Magic McGuffin, and tries to undo the damage. When he finds wishes can't be undone he reworks how the wish is delivered.

Now, all the non-Native American Americans are living on a lushly terraformed moon of a gas giant half-way across the Galaxy. They've got an excellent infrastructure and are living the Sci-Fi dream. Meanwhile, the infrastructure of the USA has been rearranged and upgraded for the maximum benefit of those remaining. Otherwise, the lands of the old USA are restored to a pristine state (sure he was angry at his cousin, but family matters).

However, trouble raises its ugly head, Mexico demands its lands back. The simple fact the Native Americans were there first is dismissed and the government of Mexico makes it clear that they don't recognize the Lousiana Purchase either, after all, Napoleon never asked Spain's permission to sell Spanish land. At the same time, both Russia and Cuba speak up. Russia demands Alaska, denying the validity of the Tsarist sale. And Cuba demands Florida proclaiming they have prior claims. Soon after China makes it known they demand portions of the old USA as reparations for Western crimes against China.

Still, although the Magic Mcguffin is running out of juice, the guy holding it isn't going to let his cousins down. Suddenly, the Native Americans have all the US army and marine equipment and the skills to use and maintain the same. And although no Americans can return to the Earth, the U.S. navy and air force, can make ghostly appearances and foul up invasion attempts by sea. Further, Canada has allied with this new USA for mutual survival. The non-combatant Native Americans are teleported to the terraformed moon the Americans live on for security. Leave, medical convalescence, and similar functions for combatants are there too. Canada is gaining similar help.

So Russia, China, Mexico, and Cuba, versus the Native Americans and Canadians. The fight is on!!!!!

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

In the year 2030 aliens enter the solar system in force. They explain that Humanity is being brought into the galactic government. The aliens in the ships have been assigned the role of mentors/guardians for humanity. Russia and China declare war. The USA, because of an accident that killed the President after the Vice President resigned in a scandal, and the Speaker of the House was still trying to sort things out, was silent and waited to see what happened.

First, the Aliens, from high orbit, blocked all electrical power generation in both nations for twenty-four hours. Next, when Russia ordered the firing of missiles at the Alien spacecraft, the Aliens dumped rocks from orbit on Moscow and St. Petersburg. China surrendered. The USA then asked about terms and explained democracy was a basic value for the Western alliance. The Aliens saw this as a combo of bravery and common sense and assigned America the job of building a world government and announced they'd do technology transfers.

As the Aliens couldn't be fought, and self-government plus Ultra-tech seemed good, a deal was made. However, everyone wants to know what the catch is.

Basically, the PCs our among groups of humans sent to study in Alien schools and workshops. PCs are combination spies and anthropologists trying to learn about galactic society and politics.

Humanity is in a dangerous position. Only understanding what that position actually is can make it possible to find solutions. Or at least tolerable adaptations.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this one...

In the year 2030 aliens enter the solar system in force. They explain that Humanity is being brought into the galactic government. The aliens in the ships have been assigned the role of mentors/guardians for humanity. Russia and China declare war. The USA, because of an accident that killed the President after the Vice President resigned in a scandal, and the Speaker of the House was still trying to sort things out, was silent and waited to see what happened.

First, the Aliens, from high orbit, blocked all electrical power generation in both nations for twenty-four hours. Next, when Russia ordered the firing of missiles at the Alien spacecraft, the Aliens dumped rocks from orbit on Moscow and St. Petersburg. China surrendered. The USA then asked about terms and explained democracy was a basic value for the Western alliance. The Aliens saw this as a combo of bravery and common sense and assigned America the job of building a world government and announced they'd do technology transfers.

As the Aliens couldn't be fought, and self-government plus Ultra-tech seemed good, a deal was made. However, everyone wants to know what the catch is.

Basically, the PCs our among groups of humans sent to study in Alien schools and workshops. PCs are combination spies and anthropologists trying to learn about galactic society and politics.

Humanity is in a dangerous position. Only understanding what that position actually is can make it possible to find solutions. Or at least tolerable adaptations.

That sounds like Earth is Meji Japan. Kind of cool that.

I did a weird take on that independantly. There was a kingdom with Medieval or Renaissance like technology (they know about gunpowder for instance but it is hard to get). And they know that they are on a planet in a Copernican-style universe enough that they are not surprised anymore than we would be at there being aliens (they know there might be other planets).

Now a Vargr Corsair comes along and demands slaves or he is going to blow them up. So their King oh-so-meekly delivers from among his subjects like a good little collaborator.

Or Not.

Because what really happened is he went to his secret service and got together a collection of recruits. Their mission was to go with them until they got enough information and then escape.

One, does and finds a friendly Free Trader from a tribe with connections in the area. From their they and several other allies connect the spies original home. And bring knowledge of where the Corsairs were operating from. The result is of course that a great fleet of vengeance ends up at the Corsair's back door and as an old Terran epic says, "Made them understand the depth of their mistake."

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this one...

In the year 2030 aliens enter the solar system in force. They explain that Humanity is being brought into the galactic government. The aliens in the ships have been assigned the role of mentors/guardians for humanity. Russia and China declare war. .

What caused them to become suicidal?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

What caused them to become suicidal?

Foolishness, new leaders desperate to prove themselves. Remember, the Chinese knew when they were in over their heads. The post Putin Russians were right-wing racial and religious nationalists. So they weren't as reality oriented.