Looking at the THS timeline for two reasons.

[lachimba]

Looking at the timeline for two reasons.

1. What needs to be changed if I more or less want real history to flow at least until now (with a buffer of time to give it a remotely plausible timeframe to actually happen)

and

2. When do I actually want a THS game to be set? The more I look at THS the more I'm interested in playing in an earlier closer to the real world THS setting.



1. Timeline

Unsurprisingly looks like most of this hasn't happened. I would change the 2015 pandemic to the real world 2020 one.

Push everything else to start in the 2030s that means somethings in the 2030s and so on in the timeline will be happening concurrently and other things will need to be pushed further back.

Casting a glance over that its probably most of the space stuff and Mars not being terraformed quickly is probably a more realistic thing anyway.

I don't think it will make so much difference on a game set on Earth and a game in space will be more about doing some of those things.

Which leads to:


2. When are some interesting time periods to play closer to a real 2023 world feel?


The new 2030s. Close to today. but can have some of this tech and the space stuff happening 'real time for the PCs'


The less new 2050s. The Andes war can still be a thing. Which with deadly cybershells and people still possibly being armed with what we have today gives a lot of similarity to 2023

Then the pacific war.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by lachimba

Unsurprisingly looks like most of this hasn't happened. .

You'd probably want to note the premature attempt to introduce Virtual Interface Glasses. You might want to elaborate why this would be a better idea than just walking down the street while staring at your phone and texting people with your thumbs (which is basically what people decided to do instead of getting a Google Glass).

Also to be covered is getting your own digital assistant instead of everybody sharing Siri and Alexa.

[sir_pudding]

2030s means you orrerrun yourself in less than a decade. Near future SF is always going to have this problem.

A lot the themes of the setting probably could be translated to a contemporary one, it's not as though issues of identity, personhood, rapid technological change, artificial intelligence, and increasing automation aren't all happening constantly today. Real space industry is even currently full of the annoying "a billionaire did it" trope that Transhuman Space suffers from. :)

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

You'd probably want to note the premature attempt to introduce Virtual Interface Glasses. You might want to elaborate why this would be a better idea than just walking down the street while staring at your phone and texting people with your thumbs (which is basically what people decided to do instead of getting a Google Glass).

Also to be covered is getting your own digital assistant instead of everybody sharing Siri and Alexa.

Yeah I don't think it matters. Sometime 2030 and onwards it turns around.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

2030s means you orrerrun yourself in less than a decade. Near future SF is always going to have this problem.

A lot the themes of the setting probably could be translated to a contemporary one, it's not as though issues of identity, personhood, rapid technological change, artificial intelligence, and increasing automation aren't all happening constantly today. Real space industry is even currently full of the annoying "a billionaire did it" trope that Transhuman Space suffers from. :)

I doubt I would be able to play for even a year (I don't run ongoing campaigns anymore anyway 12 sessions or less).

THS at 20 years old is amazingly still not looking so bad. Even if nothing on the timeline has happened and we are more likely looking at a resurgence of a cold war in the pacific than peaceful reunifications.

I'm assuming though at sometime in the 2030s we will stop talking about the setting though. Which gives me at least another seven years to play a game.

[ehrbar]

Originally Posted by lachimba

THS at 20 years old is amazingly still not looking so bad. Even if nothing on the timeline has happened and we are more likely looking at a resurgence of a cold war in the pacific than peaceful reunifications.

Several of us were skeptical of "Taiwan peacefully joins PRC" back during the playtest, but Pulver mentioned that he'd swapped Taiwan from a central member of the PRA to part of China under advice from people who knew the area better than he during a pre-playtest draft.

[Tyneras]

The THS timeline works reasonably well if you simply double the time to a lot of the dates. 2012 becomes 2024, 2030 becomes 2060, 2100 becomes 2200, etc. You would only need to shuffle around a handful of dates to make it match up with the real timeline.

This means the late 2020s and 2030s start having all the exciting space colonization stuff that was put in the 2010s. Maybe wearable computers finally happen in the later 2020s.

I personally think tripling the length of the timeline would be much more realistic, but I think that waters down the THS flavor of wild, out of control change too much.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

The THS timeline works reasonably well if you simply double the time to a lot of the dates. 2012 becomes 2024, 2030 becomes 2060, 2100 becomes 2200, etc. You would only need to shuffle around a handful of dates to make it match up with the real timeline.

Honestly, you're probably better off never naming a specific date of an event that happens in the next twenty years and just gerrymandering a start date of the timeline. Begin the timeline something like: "The year is 2050. The terraformation of Mars initiated by radical space libertarians is bearing fruits for the early settlers. Genetically enhanced children are coming of age. Artificially constructed persons, termed 'bioroids' are making legal waves. Early experiments in computer artificial intelligence are finally showing signs of sentience" and then begin naming events after that, like, "2053: Malaysian Revolution installs Infosocialist regime."

And well if you feel it's coming too fast, add a couple decades in and gerrymander a different start.

Originally Posted by Tyneras

Maybe wearable computers finally happen in the later 2020s.

Define wearable. Smartphones are probably close enough, unless you're looking for Google Glass, but that had social problems, not technical problems. If you're looking for ones that mount on clothes that's probably stupid and only going to happen if they are machine washable.


Then again having said all this I have half a mind to call THS an alternate history where:
1) The centralization of power around Xi Jinping didn't happen, allowing China to continue an oligarchical course
2) Vladimir Putin didn't become leader of Russia, and so Russia continued a downward turn allowing NATO to disintegrate and the EU to fill the gap.
3) Stephen Harper didn't get involved in Canadian politics, and so regionalism in Canada intensified

And from those changes you can justify basically anything.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

You'd probably want to note the premature attempt to introduce Virtual Interface Glasses. You might want to elaborate why this would be a better idea than just walking down the street while staring at your phone and texting people with your thumbs (which is basically what people decided to do instead of getting a Google Glass).

Also to be covered is getting your own digital assistant instead of everybody sharing Siri and Alexa.

Also when pod guns finally catch on.

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Also when pod guns finally catch on.

Do you know when they are introduced in THS?

I seem to remember reading (but I can't find) an article which said the author assumed NATO upgraded to new millimeter ammunition around 2050, but couldn't justify upgrading again because swarms.

I assume real world we won't change mm this side of 2100!

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by lachimba

Do you know when they are introduced in THS?

!

Pod guns came to Transhuman Space after they showed up in concept pictures for the US Army's "Future Warrior" initiative with a guy in a wetsuit and streamlined motorcycle helmet having a gun and mini-missile launcher mounted on his arm as if he were a BattleMech. The year after that the "pod" had sprouted a pistol grip and pod guns haven't been seen since.

We might already have changed standard ammo calibers with the new 6.8mm SAW if that works out. Migration to smaller calibers for rifle and machine gun ammo seems unlikely now though there are some interesting new pistol calibers under 9mm.