New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[Astromancer]

This is a Supers idea. Basically, a powerful super decides that crimefighting is not their cup of tea. They look for other ways to aide the world. They discover that they don't fully understand their own powers and decide to learn what they can really do in order to see if it provides any real opportunities to help.

A) The Super in question discovers they've got the power to create Nexial Gates. They set up an agency in New York City and offer refugees and would be colonists easy passage to other worlds. Colonists pay low rates, refugees get their passage free. it is the year 2050 and humanity lives on over 150 planets. Large national groups like the Kurds or the Pashtuns migrate to safety and independence. The third world loses ethnic diversity, especially in the Near East and Africa.

B) The Super learns why his gageteering abilities didn't lead to his really being able to make reproducible inventions. Now he can create functional tech. Tech Level 12 technology and skills are now availible. The USA transitions to TL12^ quickly as does East Asia and the West generally, the rest of the world is massively disrupted. The Asteroids are a scene of conflict as major powers prefer to mine the asteroids than interfere in Third World politics. China, the USA, India, and the EU, struggle over lunar territories. The UN demands limits on interstellar flight and colonization.

C) The Super learns to speak to the gods. She's stunned but seeks the aid of the Gods for humanity. With miracles granted by friendly deities, she heals ecology of the Earth and provides excellent weather for all the planet's agriculture. She also renews mineral resources, raises lands threatened by the seas higher, and cures plagues. She also grants new sources of inspiration in the arts and sciences to all those seeking it.

The fact that this superheroine is channeling the old gods and performing their miracles to save the Earth is causing riots around the planet. The amazing renewal of the arts and humanities, as well as the leap forward in the sciences, is also disrupting the planet and inspiring people to transform their lives. With the masses liberated to seek their own destinies, the elites are in terror and panic. How can they retain power if the Gods give the power to the people, the eternal true owners of the power?

War, what is it good for? Keeping the power elites in power! That's what it's good for.

I hope those there were all fun and useful.

[Astromancer]

Basically, this is a Ringworld campaign. The PCs are descended from the survivors of a crashed Starship. Assume the meteor defense system brought the ship down decades before Louis Wu was born and about 85 degrees spinward of were Wu visited.

The community the PCs come from know of the fact they aren't from the Ringworld. They've little idea of what a planet is like. The community's basic tech level is 4, with some higher tech level ideas remembered. Because of invasions of other humanoids, the PCs have been sent out as a scouting party both to learn about why the other peoples are moving and to check out rumors of people from beyond the stars.

All the PCs will be suitable either as wilderness scouts, merchant/trader types, or diplomats, best they should be a little of each.

[johndallman]

Um, I'm not sure you've appreciated the ludicrous size of the Ringworld. 85 degrees away is about 140 million miles, or 5,600 circumnavigations of the Earth. There is no way to travel such a distance with TL4 methods within a human lifetime.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Um, I'm not sure you've appreciated the ludicrous size of the Ringworld. 85 degrees away is about 140 million miles, or 5,600 circumnavigations of the Earth. There is no way to travel such a distance with TL4 methods within a human lifetime.

Who said the rumors would lead to Louis Wu? Or that they are even true? The whole point is neo-primitive Earth humans wandering around an alien landscape. Adventures could involve exploring ruined cities, contacting aliens, either next door neighbors or creatures from distant stars, fighting monsters, etc.

Another twist is simply make their adventures happen long after the events of the Ringworld novels. Have Louis Wu come by in a Sky Castle and rescue the PCs and recruit them as agents working for him.

[Astromancer]

Dawn and Dusk

Here's a twist on a post-apocalyptic setting.

The PCs are part of a tribe of mutants living in the American Southwest, or as they call it Merca's mountains. They've long had conflicts with a group of people they call the witchfolk. The "witchfolk" are the residents of an enclave of technologically advanced survivors of the disasters and wars that caused the apocalypse. The residents of the enclave aren't just technologically advanced, they're culturally sophisticated and have developed psionic powers. The "witchfolk" bitterly resent the raids of the mutants on their cattle and installations. The Mutants regularly raid various "witchfolk" installations for metal and glass.

Recently the "witchfolk" have changed. Unknown to the tribes around them, the "witchfolk" have reopened a subterranean railroad connection to the city of San Francisco. The once isolated enclave is connected to a trade network. The "witchfolk" town has become a college town (people come to study both psionics and the excellent surviving library) and a trade nexus.

This means that the mutants are in a bind. The local area is becoming settled, a new version of the Western frontier. The mutants aren't even seen as the Indians in this scenario, the surviving Native American tribes are allying with the people of the enclave and embracing the return of trade and technology. The tribes of mutants are seen as somewhere between bandits and coyotes.

How can the tribes negotiate or carve out a place for themselves as their world begins to desert them? How can they stay tribal raiders when the culture around them has no space for archaic warrior tribesmen?

Basically, your post-apocalyptic Connan wannabees are up against a rapidly modernising environment.

[ronwit]

Sounds like a cross between Genesis II and Horseclans.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by ronwit

Sounds like a cross between Genesis II and Horseclans.

Genesis II is in the mix. The "witchfolk" are the double bellybutton people without the brutality or corruption.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Here's a twist on a post-apocalyptic setting.

The PCs are part of a tribe of mutants living in the American Southwest, or as they call it Merca's mountains. They've long had conflicts with a group of people they call the witchfolk. The "witchfolk" are the residents of an enclave of technologically advanced survivors of the disasters and wars that caused the apocalypse. The residents of the enclave aren't just technologically advanced, they're culturally sophisticated and have developed psionic powers. The "witchfolk" bitterly resent the raids of the mutants on their cattle and installations. The Mutants regularly raid various "witchfolk" installations for metal and glass.

Recently the "witchfolk" have changed. Unknown to the tribes around them, the "witchfolk" have reopened a subterranean railroad connection to the city of San Francisco. The once isolated enclave is connected to a trade network. The "witchfolk" town has become a college town (people come to study both psionics and the excellent surviving library) and a trade nexus.

This means that the mutants are in a bind. The local area is becoming settled, a new version of the Western frontier. The mutants aren't even seen as the Indians in this scenario, the surviving Native American tribes are allying with the people of the enclave and embracing the return of trade and technology. The tribes of mutants are seen as somewhere between bandits and coyotes.

How can the tribes negotiate or carve out a place for themselves as their world begins to desert them? How can they stay tribal raiders when the culture around them has no space for archaic warrior tribesmen?

Basically, your post-apocalyptic Connan wannabees are up against a rapidly modernising environment.

So you play people who have absolutely nothing going for them and are doomed?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

So you play people who have absolutely nothing going for them and are doomed?

Yes. Remember they had a place in their world but that place is going away. The PCs are in a place much like tribal peoples faced with a rapidly expanding modern or modernizing society.

Note: The PCs are mutants in a conventional post-apocalyptic setting. So they could have superpowers.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Yes. Remember they had a place in their world but that place is going away. The PCs are in a place much like tribal peoples faced with a rapidly expanding modern or modernizing society.

Note: The PCs are mutants in a conventional post-apocalyptic setting. So they could have superpowers.

So you play thieves?