New Reality Seeds

[David Johnston2]

OK so this is a situation that the player characters are totally helpless to do anything about. Clearly the thing to do is nothing.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

OK so this is a situation that the player characters are totally helpless to do anything about. Clearly the thing to do is nothing.

There's much they can do. Fighting Doctor Utopia just isn't one they could do successfully. Trying to establish diplomatic relations is one. You don't want Doctor Utopia thinking your people need his help.

Remember everything below the line of asterisks isn't supposed to be known to your PCs. Discovering things about the telepaths that took the crooks captive would be vitally important.

Also there is a parallel to explore. Finding out what is going on will require learning about the parallel.

Exploration and espionage with diplomacy sounds like a campaign.

The source I'm drawing on was influenced by The Long Tomorrow. Most communities are xenophobic and hostile to science and technology. There are isolated enclaves of survivors, generally based in the remains of pre-disaster colleges and universities, sometimes research institutions and military bases. These enclaves preserve the pre- disaster technology with varying levels of success.

Both the average communities and the tech enclaves could be alternatively friends or foes. In the source material I'm pulling from there isn't really much national government. It exists in theory but not much in practice. The enclaves maintain a network of contacts among themselves for mutual assistance against the broader society. Agents both of this network and the remnants of the US government will be interested in the PCs. They are certainly interested in Doctor Utopia's community.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

There's much they can do. Fighting Doctor Utopia just isn't one they could do successfully.

Or maybe they can, Infinity has psi shielding technology by default, and potentially access to literally world destroying weapons. Not my taste in campaign, but maybe your players are different.

Trying to establish diplomatic relations is one. You don't want Doctor Utopia thinking your people need his help.

On the other hand, he's not [that] bad, there are plenty of worlds out there that his help might actually make better. And OK he's maybe a bit obsessive, but not necessarily crazy. He might be happy to listen to your stories of how other worlds that have tried utopia through technological dictatorship have turned out, so as to learn what worked OK and what to avoid.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

There's much they can do. Fighting Doctor Utopia just isn't one they could do successfully. Trying to establish diplomatic relations is one. You don't want Doctor Utopia thinking your people need his help.

The world has telepaths in it. The last thing the PCs want to do is get within eyeshot of telepaths.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

The world has telepaths in it. The last thing the PCs want to do is get within eyeshot of telepaths.

Aftermath-3 is in Quantum Five like Homeline. It's far too close for comfort. Finding a way to contain/avert that threat is vital.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Aftermath-3 is in Quantum Five like Homeline. It's far too close for comfort. Finding a way to contain/avert that threat is vital.

Bomb them. Solved.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Bomb them. Solved.

A classic solution. As the size of the explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero. True too, as long as you don't care about stuff like ethics, side effects, and what might happen if you failed to increase the size [enough].

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Bomb them. Solved.

Remember, Doctor Utopia is a wild card and you don't really know where his base is. Plus he has allies on his home parallel which Homeline can't reach. But Doctor Utopia and his friends can get to you.

Further, how much of the planet (Aftermath-3 has an Earth as large as our own) do you think you can fry?

This problem requires diplomacy and espionage, but more importantly, care and caution.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Remember, Doctor Utopia is a wild card and you don't really know where his base is. Plus he has allies on his home parallel which Homeline can't reach. But Doctor Utopia and his friends can get to you.

Further, how much of the planet (Aftermath-3 has an Earth as large as our own) do you think you can fry?

This problem requires diplomacy and espionage, but more importantly, care and caution.

Honestly, my remark was a little cheeky and using the starting case of "Infinity doesn't know about Dr. Utopia." The telepaths now know about the secret. Presumably, the infinity has some idea where the telepaths are based out of if they're aware that the telepaths have TL8^ technology.

Infinity's options are basically: "Destroy the telepaths" or "Let the telepaths develop parachronics". Depending on what exactly the criminals were doing (Were they using the city as a trade site to smuggle stuff? Were they playing Westworld with real people?), the telepaths are somewhere between "unjustified" to "totally justified" in taking them prisoner. This may very well be what decides Infinity's posture, but given how jealously Infinity guards the secret, I think they might list towards "Bomb them".

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Remember, Doctor Utopia is a wild card and you don't really know where his base is.

Right, so you need a [big] explosion.

In setting where there are plenty of worlds leaving the planet with liquid oceans or solid crust probably means you didn't use a big enough bomb.