06-29-2018, 11:05 AM | #371 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
Why should an alien civilization have so few numbers as to consider Earth's paltry billions "Huge"? Also, the time scale is not mentioned. Its entirely possibly they have 100 years to ferry people back and forth between the safe locations, and to establish working infrastructure as well.
I have larger doubts about them just having five suitably terraformed planets lying around. If they're from earth, they might terraform worlds to be habitable enough, and even with the same biochemistry as ours. Its odd that they would no immediately start using them though: even if they're running a HUGE surplus of planets, its likely some fairy has claimed this one and been using it as a resort, wildlife refuge, or golf course. The former use of world could be an interesting theme. Alternatively, they'll quickly set up domed habitats to cram people in and either supply us with food or give us the cheapest hydroponics they know how to set up. If you're going to bother to move them, there is no point killing them, but no need to be lavish either. The worlds given will be left overs, as will the equipment. Which is not to say that it will be aweful: the cheap technology of the 21st century would be wonderful to a farmer in the 10th century BC.
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06-29-2018, 11:31 AM | #372 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle)
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
They're powerful aliens. Their reasons can be as inscrutable as the GM likes, and don't need to be explained. Would we be having the same discussion if the alien in question was the Q Continuum?
Anyway, clearly the best way to game this one out is as a bottle scenario - the aliens have decided for their own inscrutable reasons that the best way for the primitive humans to negotiate things out is with a one year deadline, with delegates from each nation kept under basically house arrest. The "house" in question is of course a luxury resort centered around super-villain style maps of the Earth and the destination worlds. Regular social events lubricate negotiations. There will, of course, be no underhanded deals, business, murders, affairs, betrayals, or surprises... Y'know. Big Brother: Fate of the World edition. Edit: The destination could be a Ringworld that's recently been vacated by a species that Ascended, and per their wishes is to be used as a nature preserve. |
06-29-2018, 12:03 PM | #373 | |
Join Date: Feb 2011
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
Quote:
Its approach to rescuing humanity was in essence similar to Clippy's approach to writing a paper. |
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06-29-2018, 04:09 PM | #374 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
It is the year 2300 AD, and the Earth has been turned into a biological reserve by the Sol Federation while 10 billion humans live in space habitats throughout the Sol System. With a population of only 200 million people, primarily hospitality staff for environmental tourism and scientific staff to maintain the environment, the Earth is the literal backwater of the Sol System, as its primary role to provide biological resources to renew the life support systems of the space habitats of the Sol System. While plenty of people have been calling for the terraforming of Mars and Venus over the centuries, it is just cheaper for the Sol Federation to maintain space habitats than spend hundreds of trillions of credits a year to create inferior versions of the Earth.
Since the Earth was abandoned in 2100 so that its biosphere could be repaired, there has been a resettlement movement pushing for the recolonization of Earth, though the majority of the citizens of the Sol Federation fear that such a movement would lead to the end of human civilization. If too many people lived within a friendly environment without having to be concerned about the constant need for maintenance and upkeep, the common perspective is that they will relive the horrors and the tragedies of the 20th century. Better that only a small population be allowed to live permanently on the Earth rather than to risk the return of the mistakes of the 20th century. Over the previous century, the Sol Federation has been using its vast wealth to construct interstellar colony fleets in the Kuiper Belt. Each interstellar colony fleet is designed to carry a population of 100 million humans, plus sufficient terraforming materials, in nanostasis for its long journey to a star system dozens of light-years from the Sol System. When they reach their destination, the colonists will spend the majority of the time in nanostasis while their new home is terraformed over the course of a thousand years. The first interstellar colony fleet is now finished and will leave the Kuiper Belt in a decade after it loads its cargo and passengers for the long journey to Epsilon Eridani to colonize an exoplanet orbiting that star. One interstellar colony fleet will leave every decade for the next thousand years, when the Sol Federation will have sent colonies to every terraformable world within 100 light years of the Sol System. Unfortunately, extremists among the people who support recolonizing the Earth are mobilizing to cripple or destroy the interstellar colony fleets, as they believe that the only home for humanity is the Earth. |
06-29-2018, 05:51 PM | #375 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison Last edited by jason taylor; 06-29-2018 at 05:58 PM. |
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06-29-2018, 07:10 PM | #376 |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
Aliens would be alien. They could act or not act for reasons that make zero sense to us.
They could feel guilty for either being directly responsible or indirectly by way of not paying attention to the threat leading to the destruction of the solar system. They could find humans or even dogs cute, and saving humans is just the collateral goal. They could have ideological hatred for global extinctions regardless of how "unworthy" any particular species may seem. They could feel nostalgia to their past primitive nature, or suffer from a form of the noble savage myth. They could simply be using us as a lucky excuse to use their technology or predictive computations on moving ecosystems to terraformed worlds. Those are just off the top of my head that makes sense to my human sensibilities.
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06-29-2018, 07:28 PM | #377 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
I stole that idea and sold an article to Pyramid (the older webzine) rifting off that idea. "...And I Feel Fine." was the title.
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06-29-2018, 07:31 PM | #378 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
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06-29-2018, 07:36 PM | #379 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
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06-29-2018, 07:40 PM | #380 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
Quote:
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