Re: New Reality Seeds
 

The proposal was basically "How does the war go if Hitler dies during it?", and there are a lot of possibilities, depending on just when he dies. The part you quoted was addressing a death after the Stalingrad disaster. At that point, Germany has lost too much strength to beat the USSR. It will last longer, but that just means the initial A-bombs are used there rather than on Japan.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

It's not radiation for the transatlantic cables- it's the magnetic field. That shifting and moving under the supercharged solar wind induces current to the point that most transmissions would be impossible.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

The Islamic conquest of India was of vast importance to Islam. In some ways Islam is still shaped by these vast successes, and much of the political problems of South Asia come from irredentists seeking to regain Islamic hegemony over "Hind." So, what if the Delhi Sultanate had never formed?

A world where India was never conquered by Islamic armies would be very different. The mythologies and myths would be different (less cultural transmission). Europe would be even more isolated from Asia, the Voyages of discovery might not take place until much later. India, which became a unified nation because the Brits took over from the Mughal Empire might be a cluster of small nations like Europe rather than a vast nation like China.

Events obscure in the West, would shape the whole world.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

The Spanish king Alfonso X was a fascinating figure. One both Homeline and Centrum would be interested in. Each would want to both discourage his attempt to become Holy Roman Emperor (he had no chance and he wrecked Spain's economy trying to buy the office) and make sure that he picked a "good" heir early to avoid the civil wars that fouled-up the end of his reign.

Centrum and Homeline would have similar goals here, and they would be competing for the same small pool of allies. The in-fighting could get nasty.

Centrum's goal would be to preserve the High-Middle Ages and move directly towards Royal absolutism. Homeline would want Alfoso's court culture to speed the arrival of the Renaissance and deepen the cultural transmissions between the Christian and Islamic cultural areas.

The agents would constantly get in each other's ways.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

I love it. Especially for a slightly madcap game, I'd be sure to have my players use their most combat-heavy meatheads for this one and have it turn out to be a game of court intrigue.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

Mind reader!

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

I'm thinking of a sword-sandle-and-musket setting of some kind. The idea is that metalurgy and gunpowder get radically advanced right at the dawn of the iron age and muskets get popularized. Even if it takes 200 years to spread and get integrated, that could still give us 200 BCE to work with. I'd like to include steam-powered sea vessels somehow...

Here's a way to do it:

A slight change in climate patterns allows the sophisticated trade civilization of the Indus valley to thrive well past 1800 BCE. Eventually they adapt their agriculture as the climate changes, but they maintain their strength and wealth. This civilization becomes the linchpin of the ancient world. Gunpowder is advanced some thousand years- it will take some luck for the alchemists to think of the right thing, but maybe there's a larger group of alchemists working to export through the Indus trade routes. Let's get gunpowder on the field by 200 BCE in the form of bronze bombs and crude cannons in 100 BCE.

A century later, it's 754 AUC and the civilizations of the old world are still learning to make the most of their hand cannons. Jump forward annother 500 years and guns are actually quite refined, and have probably forced metalurgy to advance quite fast. With strong pressure vessels and gunpowder-fueled expansionism demanding long-range travel, steam power has a definite potential home.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

I just wanna say that this is a fascinating thread. I only just joined the GURPS forum (despite having played the game since the early days of 3rd edition), and spent the better part of a week reading through this thread.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

Welcome to the forum and the thread! Please, feel free to post your own reality seeds, or kibitz on any of ours.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

In 1568 the Ottoman Empire started digging a canal between the don and the Volga. The canal was soon abandoned but if it had been dug...

A) Ottoman naval action in the Caspian Sea and the plans to dig a Suez Canal, proposed in the same year are acted upon. The Mediterranean becomes a highway again rather than a cul-de-sac. The Ottoman state might even revive politically.

B) The Engineering is botched! the Volga is flooded by both the Don and the sea, the Caspian Sea basin is flooded. The PCs could be Russians exploring the new shoreline to see if their are better ways to trade with China.