Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

"Moon Landing Was Faked" is one of the most widely accepted conspiracy theories.

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

But that's setting the bar low. It doesn't mean you can go somewhere and have the consensus be that you're an idiot for thinking the moon landing was real, barring certain conventions

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

My impression is that most moon-landing conspiracists are from the US.

I've come across people (younger, non-Western) that weren't sure if we'd landed on the moon yet, and others who thought that astronauts have been to Mars and/or other planets, but that's just from a general scientific ignorance, not a rejection of mainstream knowledge.

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

The active creators of conspiracy theories, yes. People who believe in them are much more widespread.

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

I think largely it's a product of the moon landing being over-hyped. It was spun as a great contest with the Russians that was as consequential as a major war or something, and is *still* pushed as a great achievement (look at how great the US is (well was)!).

But in fact, it failed to have really important consequences. It's like one of those forgettable wars states sometimes fight with each other that one or the other "wins" and everything returns to the status quo.

I suspect people would be less skeptical if everybody gave up on pretending it was a great and significant achievement and presented it as just one of a string of space missions to learn science-y stuff real people don't much care about and return some pretty pictures (which Apollo didn't do a particularly great job of, which likely doesn't help). I'll bet that the whatever small fraction of casual moon landing hoax believers who have heard of them would express much less doubt about Landsat or Voyager.

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

OK, so much worse than I expected, but not nearly as bad as some were implying.

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

He had solid arguments for why why China, Russia, India, and the EU weren't going to be able to be serious world powers. Yes they would try to project power but they'd lack the ability to do so sustainably.

The result of the power vacuum he was talking about was the kind of warfare you suggest. You're making my, or rather his, argument for me.

Put local powers or power wannabes will extend their authority if they can.

Yes. According to every historian I've read (my Masters is in history but that counts for nothing here) says all the major trade organizations were founded there. Plus the present system is formally named "The Bretton Woods System."

The point of this scenario is that the USA no longer needs to do so because of technological advances and other powers can't sustain the system or want changes unacceptable to the wider world community. This leads to an 18th century style trading system.

It's a dystopian setting.

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

It's bad, and in the setting I proposed worse.

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

Try this one...

The 2040s seemed like a turning point. Cheap commercial fusion power headed a series of new tech that brought boom times to the World and seemed to solve the climate change issue. However the wait to act seriously was to long. West Antarctica started to collapse into the sea in 2051. By 2063 sea level had jumped six meters.

The economy is in chaos. Some small island nations have vanished. Certain vulnerable areas are brutally hard hit. Both the Nile and Ganges deltas are flooded and tens of millions displaced. Europe is hit with internal and external refugee crises. The USA is reeling. Whole states no longer have enough population to be states, but they demand their two senators and representatives!

Basically this is a time of crisis and chaos. The possibilities for PCs and adventures are vast. This world has moved to TL9 and has the resources to deal with this crisis, panic is the main enemy.

Note: West Antarctica is uniquely vulnerable to collapse because the glaciers rest of land below sea-level.

Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
 

In a future in which 90% of the population are unemployed and disenfranchised thanks to losing their jobs to automation and a failed luddite uprising the player characters are a latter-day Robin Hood and his Merry Malefactors stealing from the ruling class. But now a would-be revolutionary wants them to take things up a notch by stealing the control codes for the robotic troops who preserve the dystopian order.