09-18-2020, 07:10 PM | #1891 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
|
Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
Quote:
The USA has built a sunscreen (see here) so global warming is being held in check. There have been serious improvements in energy generation technologies. Making fuel from algae is a commonplace and mature technology. Thorium power generation is also a mature technology and fusion is being to become commercially viable. But many poor nations still burn fossil fuels, pushing the CO2 levels higher. Risking the stability of the atmosphere. Many of those nations still burning fossil fuels are demanding all their demands be met before they de-carbonize. Given that most of these nations are dictatorships, and dictators always need more money to secure their political control. As they get more money, they need more money, and the need never stops growing. No nation or group of nations could ever appease the appetites of dictators. The USA has established several stable space habitats and there is a Mars colony researching terraforming. Many people want to get off-planet because they see Earth as doomed. So the competition for places is fierce and often bitter. Although no one knows who came up with the plague weapons conspiracy theorists have had a field day. While the USA is by far the least logical choice for the plague generator (both the nature of our society in general and our ecconomy particularly renders the USA especially vunerable to bioweapons) still gets most of the accusattions. Still, many far weaker victems our also punished for crimes they had no reason or desire to commit. Xenophobia is itself a plague, and that plague grows in strength and depth.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo Last edited by Astromancer; 05-31-2022 at 01:32 PM. |
|
09-19-2020, 05:21 PM | #1892 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
|
Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
Quote:
Africa is mainly an empty wasteland with a few advanced cities near the coasts. These cities work on maintaining the continents mines using telepresence rigs to do the mining work. There are constant rumors of guerilla groups or lost tribes in the wilderness. The Pacific Islands other than Hawaii and New Zealand are mostly empty. Their populations were generally wiped out early in the plague wars. The USA leads a group that says there are still descendents of the Pacific islanders around. The islands belong to them. China challenges this and proclaims their ownership of the now deserted islands. War has come close several times.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo Last edited by Astromancer; 05-31-2022 at 01:34 PM. |
|
09-20-2020, 05:43 AM | #1893 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The Kingdom of Insignificance
|
Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
New Zealand has a sizable Pacific Islander population. Not sure if this fits with your setting concept.
__________________
It's all very well to be told to act my age, but I've never been this old before... |
09-20-2020, 06:29 AM | #1894 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
|
Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
They're very much with the USA on this point. But New Zealand has only around three million people and they aren't in a place to challenge/fight China. As New Zealand has title to most of the disputed islands (they got them as trust territories from the League of Nations) they were always going to be in the thick of this fight.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo |
09-21-2020, 09:36 AM | #1895 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
|
Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
One well detailed sci fi setting many people ignore is the implied post-apocolyptic setting referred to in the vignettes in GURPS:Bio-Tech.
It's basically Gama World with the serial numbers filed off and comedy and satire dumped for Gothick Horror and Action film violence. As the Transhuman Space books detail the setting about 30 years eariler many resources and potential threats are already detailed as is the solar system in the setting.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo |
09-22-2020, 05:52 PM | #1896 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
|
Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
Quote:
China is agressive and paranoid, this makes them dangerous. Fearful of colapse, China is grabing for control of territory and resources to sustain her industry and prosperity. Given the massive corruption of the Chinese government and the stagnant Chinese econnomy, these are forlorn hopes. The project to control the waters of the Tibetan Plateau (See here for details) which has been ongoing for decades, is bringing new chaos to southern Asia. China has cut off the rivers that millions of people count on for water and diverted the flow towards themselves. The possibility of a nuclear war is terrifying the planet.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo |
|
09-23-2020, 11:38 AM | #1897 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
|
Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
What kept Russia from glassing China when the Chinese invaded its territory?
|
09-23-2020, 11:57 AM | #1898 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
|
Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
Sneaky buggers that they are, the Chinese had developed a missile shield in secret. A few missiles got through - Chinese population is down to 900 millions - but most of the destruction was averted. The problem is that the missile shield was designed as a one-off for budget reasons - they are no longer shielded. And a lot of people are angry at them.
__________________
“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...” Marcus Aurelius |
09-23-2020, 12:45 PM | #1899 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
|
Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
At this point most people assume that either Russia isn't together enough to do that (ie the rockets and nukes are too deteriorated to be effective) or they're to afraid of the backlash. As neither explanation sits well with the planet's intellgence agents, they're desperate to know more.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo |
09-23-2020, 12:46 PM | #1900 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
|
Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
Quote:
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo |
|
|
|