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Old 01-21-2021, 06:21 PM   #2111
Astromancer
 
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Try this one...

The people lived in the valley, the priests told us the gods made it for us and demanded we stay in the valley and obey the Priests. But Amanda could never obey. Many times the Priests flogged her. Toward the end, they also flogged her family and friends as well. So Amanda escaped the valley. The Priests were furious, first, she asks questions, then she challenged the ordained order by denying its perfect justice, and now she blasphemes by leaving the valley. The Priests proclaimed her a demon. Then, a few weeks later, Amanda spoke from the sky.

Amanda's face was the sky. Metal things came down from above the sky and fraught the Priests and their guards. Then Amanda took us to see the true sky and the truth about the valley.


Basically, the passengers of a generation starship, long lost and long without knowledge of the fact they were in a ship, now know they are on a ship, and a ship they can steer. The young woman who shattered the rule of the theocratic elites is organizing the education of the children so that the ship can find its way to a livable world. This takes a golden age Sci-Fi trope and looks at a society in rapid transition. The fallen priesthood wants to get its power back. Some want a return to the past before Amanda spoke from the sky, most simply want power in the new society. Others, ambitious people born outside of the Priestly castes, see the way clear to seek power for themselves.

Humanity has an instinct to fight free, do we have an instinct to live free?
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Old 01-22-2021, 04:12 PM   #2112
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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Humanity has an instinct to fight free, do we have an instinct to live free?
OK, now you've got me imagining that the name of the generation vessel is SV New Hampshire.
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Old 01-24-2021, 11:16 AM   #2113
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Try this one...

Keeping with the theme of Generation Starship here's a different twist. Humanity is fleeing Earth in a vast Starship. There are two dozen "domes" each with a surface area of roughly 7,854 sq miles (a little smaller than Wales). Each dome carries a different culture. The problem is that the jealousy of all of Earth's cultures causes each culture to be terrified that all the cultures will be one vast bland mass.

To deal with this problem memory editing techniques were used to create the illusion that the community in the dome has always lived in the dome, and there is no outside. Each of the 24 cultures chose a time in their past and modeled the society of the dome on it. These are somewhat edited copies. An Edo Period Japan with 21st-century plumbing and elected governments, a Medieval Cairo with newspapers, a Victorian England with Socialised medicine, etc. For all that you could still be killed in a duel by a Samurai or a French Muskateer.

However, these deambound communities in the domes aren't fully stable. Outside agents are needed both to see instabilities as they arise and to correct or remove the problems.

Basically, the PCs are part of the crew of the starship striving to keep the cultures in the Domes stable. Each of these cultures is a romanticized and somewhat edited version of a major Earth cultural group as it existed in the pre-20th century past. The PCs must find where and how these cultures are fraying and keep them on track. Also, they need to recruit those members of these societies who are beginning to see through the illusion and either need to be recruited to help maintain the illusion for others or simply leave their dome and community for life.
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Old 01-25-2021, 02:44 PM   #2114
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Try this one...

According to the latest edition of the New Scientist they developed lenses that make Ultraviolet light visible. Unlike other similar lenses, they don't block visible light to do so. The maker hopes to produce the lenses in a form that can be worn.

If a thing like a pair of Opera Glasses or a Lorgnette can give you Ultraviolet Vision then the idea that contact lenses might do the same thing by 2050 isn't outrageous. Picture a world of 2070 where anybody can buy supersenses over the counter at Wal-Mart.

Basically, espionage just got weirder and more complicated. And remember, any twelve-year-old kid might have supersenses as good as yours.
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Old 01-25-2021, 03:36 PM   #2115
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
Try this one...

According to the latest edition of the New Scientist they developed lenses that make Ultraviolet light visible. Unlike other similar lenses, they don't block visible light to do so. The maker hopes to produce the lenses in a form that can be worn.

If a thing like a pair of Opera Glasses or a Lorgnette can give you Ultraviolet Vision then the idea that contact lenses might do the same thing by 2050 isn't outrageous. Picture a world of 2070 where anybody can buy supersenses over the counter at Wal-Mart.

Basically, espionage just got weirder and more complicated. And remember, any twelve-year-old kid might have supersenses as good as yours.
Its interesting but would probably work better in a setting without the tech for ubiquitous surveillance and networking or at least multiple cultures with severe controls on it. Safe Tech in GURPS terms

Having enhanced senses doesn't matter much when you can't go anywhere without 24-7 real time predictive tracking something that's probably 2030 or 2040 tech.

Biometrics are already creating huge problems for conventional espionage and the situation is only going to get worse, much worse by 2070.

You also have to assume enough travel and social interaction to matter. People in 2070 may just live pod lives, work at home, order in and "visit" places with near perfect realism VR rigs.

In that case anyone on the street will stick out and be spotted within seconds by the ever present ultra cheap smart cameras with the inboard database of everyone and where they are expected to be.

In that setting espionage will be in GURPS terms a bunch of Computer Hacking rolls and UV/IR/NVG contacts will be a novelty item and not much more useful for espionage than say those sound amplifying Apple earphones are right now

For this setting to work I'd probably have some kind of privacy accord, justifying it as governments coming tot he conclusion that the tech is making it so no one is having kids and therefore there is no citizens. The tech gets rolled back by various laws allowing for a more humanocentric society and face to face espionage.
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Old 01-26-2021, 12:14 PM   #2116
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Spooky World:

"A world with significant amounts of chlorine in the air would be a strange place. The air would carry a faint color and the presence of chlorine would slightly distort images..." etc.
ISW, p. 125

This planet is a chlorinated world that has everything described in that paragraph. This is setting the stage for...whatever, or WHO ever you want.
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Old 01-27-2021, 06:14 PM   #2117
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Try this one...

This world has Mad scientists with actual Weird Science skills. In 2035 an actual stasis field is projected over the entire USA, all its states, and territories. One hour later for those in the stasis field but five hundred years later for those outside of the stasis field. Luckily for this USA, they'd had their own Mad Scientists and they sold their Cold Fusion system for the big bucks. So this America is doesn't simply collapse.

Meanwhile the world beyond the stasis field that trapped the USA those Five centuries had been brutal. America faces a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Basically, I've cut the America of 2035 out of its world and dropped it into the world of Kamandi or World Without End or maybe Davy.

The PCs could be explorers seeking to understand the transformed Earth. They could be diplomats seeking to build new connections to the nations of this transformed world. Others could be frankly predatory and seek lands to conquer.

I had the USA placed in the stasis field You can certainly pick different lands in your own games.
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Old 01-28-2021, 01:45 PM   #2118
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Try this one...

In the mid-2020s there were sudden breakthroughs in both Nanotechnology and high-temperature superconductors. The combination of both leads to massive knock-on effects and a vast economic boom. By 2028 Earth's developed nations are at TL9.

Over the next decade, the rapidly improving technologies allowed a vast number of scientific questions to be answered by experiments not previously possible to conduct. New tools allowed new data that hadn't been available before, which led to new experiments and theories. By 2050 the developed nations of Earth were TL10.

Biomedical advances and brain studies kept pace. Most people living in Western democracies that were healthy in the 2020s and below the age of 80 were both still alive in 2050 and looking younger and fitter. New techniques of teaching made it possible to learn talents. In GURPS terms, if you put in the effort you could learn talents like Smooth Operator or Musical Ability, advantages like Empathy, Language Talent, or Versitile can also be learned. Psi phenomena have also been proved and the problem of how to train Psi is being cracked.

Basically, our Earth with the dials turned up to fifty-seven. Yes, space is rapidly being developed but the real action is Earth. Technology is still rocketing forward. In Gurps terms, it looks like TL11 will show up in the 2060s. Society already has the look of a fairly wild sci-fi novel. But the reach and saturation of the technology are wildly uneven. Many poor communities are decades behind and that seems like centuries. This means crime, both by those seeking to get into the new wonderlands of hyper-tech and by those greedheads who exploit the poor and desperate for gain.

Action roles as mercs, spies, police officers, undercover agents fighting human trafficking, soldiers in Peacekeeping forces, and so much more would be available. Grifters and other crooks would be available too.
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Old 01-28-2021, 03:58 PM   #2119
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
Try this one...

This world has Mad scientists with actual Weird Science skills. In 2035 an actual stasis field is projected over the entire USA, all its states, and territories. One hour later for those in the stasis field but five hundred years later for those outside of the stasis field. Luckily for this USA, they'd had their own Mad Scientists and they sold their Cold Fusion system for the big bucks. So this America is doesn't simply collapse.

Meanwhile the world beyond the stasis field that trapped the USA those Five centuries had been brutal. America faces a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Basically, I've cut the America of 2035 out of its world and dropped it into the world of Kamandi or World Without End or maybe Davy.


The PCs could be explorers seeking to understand the transformed Earth. They could be diplomats seeking to build new connections to the nations of this transformed world. Others could be frankly predatory and seek lands to conquer.

I had the USA placed in the stasis field You can certainly pick different lands in your own games.
I like it. I think I'd go with the 80's USA myself just for style points.
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Old 01-28-2021, 05:49 PM   #2120
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
Spooky World:

"A world with significant amounts of chlorine in the air would be a strange place. The air would carry a faint color and the presence of chlorine would slightly distort images..." etc.
ISW, p. 125

This planet is a chlorinated world that has everything described in that paragraph. This is setting the stage for...whatever, or WHO ever you want.
Wouldn't that much chlorine be highly toxic?
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