New Reality Seeds

[PTTG]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this idea...

Grensbeck-7 in this Q6 world fusion power generation was discovered/invented in 1923! It seems to be a type of Polywell Fusion.

Should be fascinating just to see '20s-era radiation shielding. "We take a derigible over to London." "Great, along the way you receive... 35 rads. Roll some HT for me."

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Should be fascinating just to see '20s-era radiation shielding. "We take a derigible over to London." "Great, along the way you receive... 35 rads. Roll some HT for me."

Polywell fusers would create very little if any dangerous radiation.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Polywell fusers would create very little if any dangerous radiation.

I thought how much and what radiation produced by fusion was determined by what is fusing rather than how it was made to fuse.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I thought how much and what radiation produced by fusion was determined by what is fusing rather than how it was made to fuse.

The guy who proposed the whole Polywell idea went looking for something safe and practical. Low radiation threat was part of the goal.

[Astromancer]

Try this idea, picture a world just begining to have superheros. I'd pick 1940 for the local year. Have a Superman-type show up in New York and then equivalents of Wonder Woman, Flash, Hawkman, the Human Torch, and Starman, show up elsewhere in North America. Have a Captain Marvel type show up in London, and have his twin sister be Irish (and Mary Marvel of course). Green Lantern could be an Australian. Assign the other DC and Atlas/Timely/Marvel golden age characters around the map (don't forget New Zealand. Hey since the Golden Age Aquaman is very powerful, would the Kiwis like him?)

Centrum, the Cabal, and Homeline would be looking to A)find out what happened, B) find out if they can repeat the effect, C) look for recruits.

Medium power level villains who got a serious pounding in their first outing might be interested in an easier way to make a good living. Similarly, not every super who is a basically good person would want to be a crime fighting vigilante. The possibilties for both drama and farce are grand. Note: Centrum might wish to attempt to distract both Homeline and the Cabal by aiding the Nazis.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I thought how much and what radiation produced by fusion was determined by what is fusing rather than how it was made to fuse.

It is, entirely.

Originally Posted by Astromancer

The guy who proposed the whole Polywell idea went looking for something safe and practical. Low radiation threat was part of the goal.

Well, Bussard wanted to use the proton-boron reaction, which produces no neutrons: its output is alpha particles. However, since it requires an operating temperature about ten times that of D-T fusion, it's a lot harder to make it work.

Now, variant laws of physics can help with this, but alterations on this scale make it rather easy to have a universe where stars can't form - they just explode when they've condensed enough to start fusion - or the Big Bang ends in a runaway fusion reaction, producing a very different universe.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by johndallman

...
Now, variant laws of physics can help with this, but alterations on this scale make it rather easy to have a universe where stars can't form - they just explode when they've condensed enough to start fusion - or the Big Bang ends in a runaway fusion reaction, producing a very different universe.

Any and all variant physical laws would "break" our universe into a mess or non-existence.
But's that no fun.
Mankind's superscience is just as world breaking but may have fewer hurdles for such universe law dependent players. It's okay if it's not the universe doing the fusion funkiness, right?

[Prince Charon]

Not sure if 'Dirigible' has been used, yet. If so, I'll add a number, once someone suggests an unused one, or a more appropriate name and number.

Dirigible, 1997

Point of Divergence: Wilbur Wright dies in a glider crash in 1902.

Tech Level: Either 6+2 or 7+1, depending on how you look at it.

Mana: Low/wild

Dirigible is a Quantum 5 world with a very odd problem: heavier-than-air powered flight poineers, or those who seem likely to become such, have accidents with alarming and suspiscious frequency. This also tends to happen to rocketry pioneers, though only if they work on large rockets, or otherwise seem likely to achieve suborbital flight. These deaths have had a significant butterfly effect on both history and non-flight-related technological development, indicating a lack of historical inertia. One of the most extreme early examples was WWI, which began in 1915, had France invade Germany through Belgium, and was over by Christmas, due to the British reluctantly siding with the German Empire (officially because of the Treaty of London (1839), but the fact that the Kriegsmarine sold several vessels to the RN at a discount is generally believed to have been the deciding factor).

In the 1930s, people began to seriously wonder what was going on with all these would-be aviators dying. In May 1936, the USA went through five Presidents in twenty-two days, after President Royal S. Copeland committed the US Army Air Division to produce a heavier-than-air, manned combat vehicle. The mysterious deaths, never conclusively proven to be anything other than normal accidents and illnesses, stopped when newly-installed President Rich T. Buckler recinded the order, and served out the rest of Copeland's term of office.

Now, in 1997, there is no League of Nations or United Nations, Imperialism has not been discredited, and Japan is First Among Equals (well, mostly, at least enough that the term is not being used sarcatically) in the Greater East-Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere (which many Homeline SE Asian nations find more than a little disturbing). Government security establishments are justifiably paranoid, particularly as noone has ever discovered who or what was killing these people. Their airships are elegant and sophiticated, and they make use of analogue computers that are a bit better in general than the digital systems Homeline had in 1997.

You can see why Homeline would be curious about this world, but the Cabal might also be drawn in, despite the risks presented by wild mana.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Any and all variant physical laws would "break" our universe into a mess or non-existence.
But's that no fun.

There's an alternative where the researchers do away with an entire force of nature (the weak force), yet end up with burning stars, carbon, oxygen and planets, which they defined as "suitable for life". There are probably more universes waiting in the wings.

[Astromancer]

Try this idea, Richard III actually gets elected Holy Roman Emperor ( he tried to get this in our history). This starts a long war in the German lands as the Habsburgs struggle to reclaim the throne. Deaths of key figures in the House of York place Richard on the English throne without any bloodshed on his part. The local year is 1486. Europe is divided into the Imperial alliance; England, France, the Papalcy, and the North German states, and the Austrian Alliance; Austria, Bavaria, Hungary, Naples, Spain, and most of the rest of Italy, with Venice Neutral but leaning toward the Imperials.

Centrum backs Richard on this Q6 world. Homeline is mainly working to blunt Centrum influence. The Cabal, whose main interests on this world are in India and Central Asia (but they show great interest in certain rural areas in Ireland), is acting against Centrum as well and is trying to build alliences with Homeline.

Are these alliences because of common goals? Does the Cabal simply need to keep Homeline and Centrum distracted? Why is the Cabal looking for the local equivents of the ancestors of H.P.Lovecraft?