New Sci Fi Setting Seeds - Page 191

David Johnston2 · 09-23-2020, 01:15 PM

Imagine this:

It's Star Trek. All the usual Star Trek playmates are there. At least the early ones like the Vulcans, the Andorians, the Tellarites, the Klingons, the Romulans.

But there was no World War III. Instead the Americans, the European Union, the Chinese, the Russians and the Transpacific Pact are in a race to claim and colonize any unoccupied territory and to make deals with the inhabited places while fighting plausibly deniable skirmishes in fare off places much to the alarm and bafflement of all the other warp capable races who "sensibly" formed a single planetary government and culture before engaging in interstellar travel.

Astromancer · 09-26-2020, 08:51 AM

It might be fun to switch things up by bringing to developed universes together. Picture a wormhole or set of wormholes that linked the universes of Star Trek and Babylon 5. The psychedelic blend of understanding and incomprehension would be fun.

ronwit · 09-26-2020, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Astromancer

It might be fun to switch things up by bringing to developed universes together. Picture a wormhole or set of wormholes that linked the universes of Star Trek and Babylon 5. The psychedelic blend of understanding and incomprehension would be fun.

Ahhhhhhhh! Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning

AlexanderHowl · 09-26-2020, 07:05 PM

Radically different physical laws might make things difficult. Now, Firefly and Babylon 5 or Firefly and Star Trek might work, as there is nothing in the Firefly universe that conflicts with the laws of either Universe. Heck, the system of Firefly could be an existent enclave of humanity that no one wants to deal with because it would mean absorbing a few billion humans from an anachronistic society that still embraces ideas like slavery.

Prince Charon · 09-27-2020, 08:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Astromancer

It might be fun to switch things up by bringing to developed universes together. Picture a wormhole or set of wormholes that linked the universes of Star Trek and Babylon 5. The psychedelic blend of understanding and incomprehension would be fun.

There's a fanfic from the 00s that does that: A Thin Veneer. It's not short, though.

DangerousThing · 09-27-2020, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Astromancer

It might be fun to switch things up by bringing to developed universes together. Picture a wormhole or set of wormholes that linked the universes of Star Trek and Babylon 5. The psychedelic blend of understanding and incomprehension would be fun.

I love it. B5 with it's push on free trade. ST with it's moneyless society.

I'm trying to think of a mascot for the ST universe that even comes close to "Bearbalon 5" (image of a teddy bear floating in space away from the station...).

tshiggins · 09-28-2020, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

I love it. B5 with it's push on free trade. ST with it's moneyless society.

I'm trying to think of a mascot for the ST universe that even comes close to "Bearbalon 5" (image of a teddy bear floating in space away from the station...).

I dunno. Beyond the occasional "What If" video that matches the Enterprise against, say, an Imperial Star Destroyer, I don't much care for crossing universes such as this, in any serious way.

The foundational assumptions differ profoundly, in most cases, because the authors had completely different themes and stories, in mind.

Star Trek is Plato's Republic, in spaaaace, in which Roddenberry wanted to explore what humanity would be like if we became more sane and rational.

On the other hand, Star Wars is just an epic fantasy story in a sci-fi skin, and doesn't even pay the minimal lip-service to science that Star Trek does.

Babylon 5, on the other hand, was mostly about order versus chaos, totalitarianism versus freedom and free will; and how too much of one or the other ends in destruction -- either through stagnation or disintegration.

Those vastly variant themes can be tough to combine, and would almost certainly result in an unsatisfying kludge that did disservices to both.

AlexanderHowl · 09-29-2020, 08:10 AM

That is why I suggested Firefly as a crossover. Since it would be a single system, it would not threaten the overall themes of Babylon 5, Star Trek, or Star Wars. It would instead off an interesting contrast to the dominant human society. Plus, having River Tam as a Jedi would be really cool (especially if the Alliance had stumbled on a, admittedly brutal, way of artificially creating Force Sensitives).

Astromancer · 10-01-2020, 03:21 PM

Try this one...

Metropolis/Gotham

This world seems to be suffering the aftermath of a botched physics experiment that took place at Cornell tech Manhattan in the year 2023. The experiment was an attempt to warp space and achieve an Alcubierre Drive. As far as the intended goal is concerned the experiment was a Noble Prize winning success. Unmaned spacecraft have already achived transluminal speeds. The botch came in doing something, now known to be unnecessary and perhaps dangerous. They seem to have split reality.

Although every use of the Alcubierre Drive seems to strengthen the fabric of reality but the original wound seems to be healing by the universe dividing in two. In the area of New York in the year 2025, the effect is clear because two New Yorks share the same space. Non-New Yorkers entering the city can choose which reality they go to. The first reality is called Metropolis and the second is called Gotham. The names come from the two researchers who conducted the experiment. The first Liam O'Connell, is a self-described social democrat, the second was Robert Bankhead, a passionate liberterian. Both men were comic book fans, O'Connell was a Superman fan, and Bankhead loved Batman comics. Thus the names. The features that seem to dominate these worlds comes from random events always favoring one set of politics over the other. Thus Metropolis is a reality that favors the democratic left, and Gotham is a reality that favors libertarianism.

Mind you many other things are effected, both cities of New York are Tech Level 8+1 societies. Both worlds have livelier politics. Both worlds seem to be influenced by the two researchers tastes and worldviews. In surprisingly large numbers of things the two young men were much alike and both worlds reflect these similarities. Both men were technophiles which is reflected in the advanced technology in both worlds. Both men enjoyed fantasy fiction but both men were life long atheists, thus both new worlds are less religious than the original world but have substancially greater interest in the Occult, mythology, folklore, the paranormal, etc, but from a friendly non-believer's perspective. Both men are culture vultures, so art of all kinds and especially high culture are far more popular than in the original world.

The differences are important too. O'Connell was attracted to "Green Politics" but thought the Greens made serious mistakes. Bankhead was always skeptical of ecology and ecological thought. So Metropolis is part of a cleaner world with decarbonisation something long completed. Where Gotham is experiencing the misery of climate change.

The two worlds seem to diverge in the year 1959 from September 19th at 12:13GMT. From that time on differences accumulate. Different people are conceived, accidents have different outcomes, illnesses follow differnt courses, people have different ideas. The farther you get from the divergence point, the less alike the two worlds are. Technology diverges on the two worlds both because of different ideas and discoveries (the discoveries are different because people look for different things) and also because people choose different problems to solve because they have different priorities.

On the whole, the rich and powerful find Gotham more luxurious and favorable to themselves. Working class, poor, and Middle class people find Metropolis to be a better more hopeful world and one where their lives are better and more secure.

The thing that causes the most interest in and fear of both of these worlds is that Metropolis and Gotham are both growing. At the start both new realities covered the city of New York. Now both realities stretch out through large areas of the Northeast. Gotham tends to spred though wealthy and upper middle class areas. Metropolis spreds through working class, poor and lower middle low areas. So Yonkers is fully part of Metropolis were Martha's Vineyard and The Hamptoms are long since part of Gotham.

There has grown up a belief, which may be backed by science, that only one reality can survive. All expanions of either Metropolis or Gotham are at the expense of the original universe.

more later I must go now

DaltonS · 10-01-2020, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Astromancer

It might be fun to switch things up by bringing to developed universes together. Picture a wormhole or set of wormholes that linked the universes of Star Trek and Babylon 5. The psychedelic blend of understanding and incomprehension would be fun.

I've read a lot of crossover sci-fi fanfic and the big problem with establishing permanent connections between different sci-fi universes is that it tends to lead to long meandering stories that somehow never get finished. In a game setting this would translate to epic campaigns that can easily lose their focus without the GM's constant attention. Also while it might seem like "fun" to move players familiar with one universe to another, it quickly becomes less "fun" when the players' unfamiliarity with the "local" situation starts causing constant problems. A different problem occurs when some players are familiar with both universes but their characters are not. The best sci-fi crossovers I've read usually have the same basic plot; "Let's find a way home." When that motivation is lost, the plot can drift into political conflicts between the universes. I don't find that "fun" at all.

That said, the three universes I would recommend are B5, "Star Wars" and "Stargate: SG-1". All three use hyperspace in different ways that could be modelled as different levels of the same dimension that are difficult (but not impossible) to deliberately cross. B5 navigates hyperspace using beacons generated by permanent "jump gates. AFAIK SG1 never explicitly defined how their ships navigate hyperspace but I would be very surprised if it didn't involve the stargate network somehow. Star Wars doesn't seem to navigate hyperspace at all; instead they use pre-calculated "jumps" through hyperspace to reach their destination. (They can however be pulled out of hyperspace by the appropriate technology set in their path.) Figuring out how to cross the hyperspace barriers is a matter for scientists; the PCs would have to find something else to do while the scientists were at work. (Cue the "Quest".)

Dalton “You use energy swords that can cut through
anything on spacecraft? Are you nuts?!?” Spence

09-23-2020, 01:15 PM	#1901
David Johnston2 Join Date: Dec 2007	Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds Imagine this: It's Star Trek. All the usual Star Trek playmates are there. At least the early ones like the Vulcans, the Andorians, the Tellarites, the Klingons, the Romulans. But there was no World War III. Instead the Americans, the European Union, the Chinese, the Russians and the Transpacific Pact are in a race to claim and colonize any unoccupied territory and to make deals with the inhabited places while fighting plausibly deniable skirmishes in fare off places much to the alarm and bafflement of all the other warp capable races who "sensibly" formed a single planetary government and culture before engaging in interstellar travel.

09-26-2020, 08:51 AM	#1902
Astromancer Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: West Virginia	Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds It might be fun to switch things up by bringing to developed universes together. Picture a wormhole or set of wormholes that linked the universes of Star Trek and Babylon 5. The psychedelic blend of understanding and incomprehension would be fun. __________________ Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo

09-26-2020, 07:05 PM	#1904
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds Radically different physical laws might make things difficult. Now, Firefly and Babylon 5 or Firefly and Star Trek might work, as there is nothing in the Firefly universe that conflicts with the laws of either Universe. Heck, the system of Firefly could be an existent enclave of humanity that no one wants to deal with because it would mean absorbing a few billion humans from an anachronistic society that still embraces ideas like slavery.

09-29-2020, 08:10 AM	#1908
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds That is why I suggested Firefly as a crossover. Since it would be a single system, it would not threaten the overall themes of Babylon 5, Star Trek, or Star Wars. It would instead off an interesting contrast to the dominant human society. Plus, having River Tam as a Jedi would be really cool (especially if the Alliance had stumbled on a, admittedly brutal, way of artificially creating Force Sensitives).

10-01-2020, 03:21 PM	#1909
Astromancer Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: West Virginia	Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds Try this one... Metropolis/Gotham This world seems to be suffering the aftermath of a botched physics experiment that took place at Cornell tech Manhattan in the year 2023. The experiment was an attempt to warp space and achieve an Alcubierre Drive. As far as the intended goal is concerned the experiment was a Noble Prize winning success. Unmaned spacecraft have already achived transluminal speeds. The botch came in doing something, now known to be unnecessary and perhaps dangerous. They seem to have split reality. Although every use of the Alcubierre Drive seems to strengthen the fabric of reality but the original wound seems to be healing by the universe dividing in two. In the area of New York in the year 2025, the effect is clear because two New Yorks share the same space. Non-New Yorkers entering the city can choose which reality they go to. The first reality is called Metropolis and the second is called *Gotham. The names come from the two researchers who conducted the experiment. The first Liam O'Connell, is a self-described social democrat, the second was Robert Bankhead, a passionate liberterian. Both men were comic book fans, O'Connell was a Superman fan, and Bankhead loved Batman comics. Thus the names. The features that seem to dominate these worlds comes from random events always favoring one set of politics over the other. Thus Metropolis* is a reality that favors the democratic left, and *Gotham* is a reality that favors libertarianism. Mind you many other things are effected, both cities of New York are Tech Level 8+1 societies. Both worlds have livelier politics. Both worlds seem to be influenced by the two researchers tastes and worldviews. In surprisingly large numbers of things the two young men were much alike and both worlds reflect these similarities. Both men were technophiles which is reflected in the advanced technology in both worlds. Both men enjoyed fantasy fiction but both men were life long atheists, thus both new worlds are less religious than the original world but have substancially greater interest in the Occult, mythology, folklore, the paranormal, etc, but from a friendly non-believer's perspective. Both men are culture vultures, so art of all kinds and especially high culture are far more popular than in the original world. The differences are important too. O'Connell was attracted to "Green Politics" but thought the Greens made serious mistakes. Bankhead was always skeptical of ecology and ecological thought. So Metropolis is part of a cleaner world with decarbonisation something long completed. Where *Gotham* is experiencing the misery of climate change. The two worlds seem to diverge in the year 1959 from September 19th at 12:13GMT. From that time on differences accumulate. Different people are conceived, accidents have different outcomes, illnesses follow differnt courses, people have different ideas. The farther you get from the divergence point, the less alike the two worlds are. Technology diverges on the two worlds both because of different ideas and discoveries (the discoveries are different because people look for different things) and also because people choose different problems to solve because they have different priorities. On the whole, the rich and powerful find *Gotham* more luxurious and favorable to themselves. Working class, poor, and Middle class people find Metropolis to be a better more hopeful world and one where their lives are better and more secure. The thing that causes the most interest in and fear of both of these worlds is that Metropolis and *Gotham* are both growing. At the start both new realities covered the city of New York. Now both realities stretch out through large areas of the Northeast. *Gotham* tends to spred though wealthy and upper middle class areas. Metropolis spreds through working class, poor and lower middle low areas. So Yonkers is fully part of Metropolis were Martha's Vineyard and The Hamptoms are long since part of *Gotham. There has grown up a belief, which may be backed by science, that only one reality can survive. All expanions of either Metropolis* or *Gotham* are at the expense of the original universe. more later I must go now __________________ Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo Last edited by Astromancer; 10-05-2020 at 08:29 AM.