New Reality Seeds

[TGLS]

Doesn't homeline already canonically have Fusion power and stuff? Maybe the seed could be tweak such that the naive super wants Homeline to give this world technology, which needs to be done without revealing the secret.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

I
Picture a super inventor in 1938. He's cracked fusion power (he read the same Sci Fi stories that had Issac Asimov worried about the limits of fossil fuels in the 1920s). Seeing the threat from Nazism and Stalinism he gets a cousin of his to introduce him to Eleanor Roosevelt and proves to her that he has useful technologies. .

Again? Anyway, mechanically speaking there's the problem that the tech from this world just isn't gonna work on Homeline. Gadgeteering is a superpower and Homeline just doesn't have the gadgeteer population to make it work.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Again? Anyway, mechanically speaking there's the problem that the tech from this world just isn't gonna work on Homeline. Gadgeteering is a superpower and Homeline just doesn't have the gadgeteer population to make it work.

The point of this parallel is that it is both advanced in some, but not all, areas, and the physical laws are the same. Fusion Homeline has, but these people (Kypton-6) have cheap functional space flight. Homeline wants to see if they can get that.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by malloyd

There's nothing wrong with the core concept, it's just got the relatively common problem of most infinite worlds (or for that matter massive interstellar or sandbox modern world) settings. There just isn't very much motivation to take risks when everything you could gain can be had somewhere safe.

Generally you solve this by forcing the characters to react rather than motivating them to act - there's a threat coming from there, or somebody who stole something and we want back fled there, or somebody else has already stupidly gotten in trouble there and you need to rescue them.

Ambiguous implicit threats can work too "our new weird parachronic radiation detectors have recorded something new from this direction over the last few days....". It doesn't match all that well with the naive teenager, but it could be the motivation for whatever branch has the weird radiation detector [telling] her Infinity knows about her home. How unhappy she is they could have taken her home anytime in the past year and didn't mention it could be another conflict seed.

Interesting ideas Malloyd. A naive teen with serious superpowers is a serious problem in and of themselves.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Interesting ideas Malloyd. A naive teen with serious superpowers is a serious problem in and of themselves.

As long as nobody who immediately interacted with her knew and lied about it "we didn't take you home because the coordinates of your home were classified" isn't exactly evil, but it certainly could sow a bit of doubt about how much Infinity really is one of the "good guys".

Of course noticing your government/employer/church/school/family etc. isn't exactly dedicated to the cause of right is one of those learning experiences every naive child gets to have. It's not necessarily relationship breaking, and presumably nobody on the presumably more cynical Infinity side is [depending] on her thinking they are angels, but still, potential mission hiccup.

[Astromancer]

Getting France and Britain to intervene in the American Civil War (something the elites of those nations wanted but knew neither their people nor the other European powers would tolerate) would automatically lead to a wild alternate history. Given the sheer size of the American economy and population as well as the logistical nightmare of waging war across an ocean on an industrial nation, Britain and France don't have a sure win here. Austria would have been neutral. Prussia and Russia would have declared war, both mainly for advantage in Europe. Italy would have attacked the Papal States, forcing French attention to be divided. Spain would have allied with Britain and France.

A coalition of Spain, Britain and France, would have been a disaster to coordinate. Excellent soldiers, lousy direction.

The Monitor was a terror to the European navies. Imagine having to tell Victoria that one American ship sank a British fleet.

The problem would be getting the Europeans to attack. Centrum would definitely seek ways. What kind of adventures do you think Homeline would have countering them?

[dcarson]

What would Canada have done. I think even more of their people would have been opposed to helping slavery since the Underground Railroad ended there. Passive resistance like ports not unloading cargo? Volunteers for the Union Army? Selling supplies to the North?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by dcarson

What would Canada have done. I think even more of their people would have been opposed to helping slavery since the Underground Railroad ended there. Passive resistance like ports not unloading cargo? Volunteers for the Union Army? Selling supplies to the North?

Canada disliked the South and the Union. The evidence of Canadian views on the American Civil War is that the Canadian people wanted the Union to win, but take serious damage while doing so.

Meanwhile, the Canadian elites, like the British elites wanted the USA and the CSA broken up into manageable little pieces. Both Britain and France had involved and elaborate pipe dreams about gaining control of California.

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

The Monitor was a terror to the European navies. Imagine having to tell Victoria that one American ship sank a British fleet.

She would probably ask what the (ocean going, unlike Monitor) ironclads HMS Warrior and Black Prince were doing not protecting said fleet.

The French, of course, can look to their Gloire, Couronne, and Magenta-class ironclads.

[ericthered]

Monitor holds the distinction of the first ironclad battle, not the first ironclad. It's also slow and completely unseaworthy: keep it near the coast and away from storms. This was ignored and it sunk in a storm two months after it was two repaired from it's first fight. They were trying to move it two states down.

The design was refined though and used as a specialized close in and cheat coastal defense ship for 50 years. Its design was widely copied.