New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this one...

...the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.

When the first settlers came here to teraform this world they named it Lakshmi because peace begets wealth. Then they started to war with each other and collapsed our society. Since then we've all been terrified that some culture would recover first and conquer our world like Europe conquered Earth in the 19th century only without other European nations to slow them down.


Basically, this is a combination of Swashbuckler/Espionage with Napoleonic warfare in a mountainous frontier area.

The tech level of the Planet Lakshmi is between four and five in most places. Records of older technologies exist and some more advanced technologies are around. Think of the quote attributed to Gibson "the Future has Arrived...it just isn't evenly distributed yet.' Most of the planetary population lives like farmers from the 1670-1740 period of Earth history. The most prosperous cities are more like the 1880-1920 period in terms of technology. No society has yet achieved the kind of industrialization needed to return the Tech Level of the original settlers.

The Red Dragon Republic and the Imperium are the most advanced societies on the planet, but not by any vast level. But they do use many late TL5 and early TL6 technologies, but except for the telegraph system, these tend to be limited and fragile.

More Later...

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this one...

...the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.

When the first settlers came here to teraform this world they named it Lakshmi because peace begets wealth. Then they started to war with each other and collapsed our society. Since then we've all been terrified that some culture would recover first and conquer our world like Europe conquered Earth in the 19th century only without other European nations to slow them down.

Basically, this is a combination of Swashbuckler/Espionage with Napoleonic warfare in a mountainous frontier area.

The area were the Red Dragon Republic is trying to build a canal to flood the desert basin is about equidistant between the power centers of the Republic and the Imperium. Although the fjord that the Republic's engineers are trying to connect to the desert basin through the long valley cuts fairly deep into the mountain range, the sea is still the best way to get to this area.

The area around the canal dig site is arid and the off-shore currents are cold. Water is a major strategic problem as are food supplies and anything else you'd need for either productive labor or bare survival. Which means that using armies to either stop or protect the canal project would be difficult.

Due to issues of expense and resource limitations, both armies are pretty much limited to early TL5 military equipment. Although there are exceptions. A sniper might have a TL6 rifle with a TL7 site, but these would be rare and fiendishly expensive. The Red Dragon Republic does have telegraph lines and a few roads into this unpopulated and desolate area, the Imperium lacks even that. And the Red Dragon Republic has several well built and strategically placed forts as well. However, as the Republic is trying to achieve a major civil engineering project in a desolate wilderness, these advantages aren't that impressive.

The Red Dragon Republic has built a Cofferdam at the mouth of the fjord to drain the fjord and build the canal. Although the cofferdam is fairly easy to get to by ship or boat, it is protected by multiple well placed forts and gun batteries. Although the Red Dragon Republic has a few Iron Clad ships the Imperium has none. This wasn't an issue before and the Imperium could build an Iron Clad navy, but not in time. They'll need to send armies north to stop the canal.

Both sides realize that if the canal is deep enough it will soon be much deeper and wider. The local rock is water impermeable but relatively soft. If you have water a hundred feet deep with nothing on the other side to prevent its flowing into an empty area, the water on the bottom of the channel will be moving at supersonic speed. Water moving at supersonic speed can pulverize granite.

Further, injection events can move at high speeds. Once the channel carrying seawater to the long valley is open, the desert basin will fill very quickly. A recent Earth historical example involved lakes in the Mexican desert near the mouth of the Colorado River. In the late spring of 1547 friars traveled through the desert. In august of the same year a Spanish ship sailed across a deep lake in the same area. Some of the ship's measurements (made with weighted lines) suggested water more than a 100 feet deep. When the lakes were cut off from the Colorado in the 1730s, they dried up within a few months.

More later...

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Lilith, The World of Black Steel

Astrologers speak of the "empty focus" between the Earth and Moon as the "Dark Moon Lilith", and have used it to make their obscure calculations. More legitimate astronomers note this location as Earth-Moon Lagrange Point One, a point of gravitational equilibrium where an object may remain at relative rest between the Earth and Moon, and note that there is nothing there.

Both sides are wrong.

At the in-between point, pulled on by various cosmic bodies, there is a natural weakness in the space-time continuum. Passing through that weakness puts the traveler in another dimension, which theorists call "hyperspace".

Just on the other side of that aperture is the last thing anyone expects ... a space station.

A great torodial TL 12 space station measuring many miles in radius, Lilith is the home of a civilization that has forgotten it's origins. The builders of Lilith set it spinning to provide gravity on the inside of the torus, and the gene-engineered humans within lived their lives, played out their dramas, and died their deaths over the millennia, as did the humans of Earth.

It's internal surface area is as large as a continent, and several nations exist there at tech levels ranging from iron age to post-industrial. TL 12 relic tech is highly sought after, and there is rumored to be manufactories that can recycle and reproduce the equipment.

An attempt to put a communications/navigation station at L1 resulted in the accidental discovery of the aperture and Lilith. And the first expeditions from Earth are ready to invade - er, explore. Yeah, that's it, explore.

(I had intended this to be the origin-world of a Superman-expy, but I realized that it could be the setting of a Barsoom-type Sword-and-Sandal planetary romance. The Earth in question could be any type from a Atomic Horror 1950's to a Terradyne future or even a space-oriented steampunk reality.)

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

Lilith, The World of Black Steel

Astrologers speak of the "empty focus" between the Earth and Moon as the "Dark Moon Lilith", and have used it to make their obscure calculations. More legitimate astronomers note this location as Earth-Moon Lagrange Point One, a point of gravitational equilibrium where an object may remain at relative rest between the Earth and Moon, and note that there is nothing there.

Both sides are wrong.

At the in-between point, pulled on by various cosmic bodies, there is a natural weakness in the space-time continuum. Passing through that weakness puts the traveler in another dimension, which theorists call "hyperspace".

Just on the other side of that aperture is the last thing anyone expects ... a space station.

A great torodial TL 12 space station measuring many miles in radius, Lilith is the home of a civilization that has forgotten it's origins. The builders of Lilith set it spinning to provide gravity on the inside of the torus, and the gene-engineered humans within lived their lives, played out their dramas, and died their deaths over the millennia, as did the humans of Earth.

It's internal surface area is as large as a continent, and several nations exist there at tech levels ranging from iron age to post-industrial. TL 12 relic tech is highly sought after, and there is rumored to be manufactories that can recycle and reproduce the equipment.

An attempt to put a communications/navigation station at L1 resulted in the accidental discovery of the aperture and Lilith. And the first expeditions from Earth are ready to invade - er, explore. Yeah, that's it, explore.

(I had intended this to be the origin-world of a Superman-expy, but I realized that it could be the setting of a Barsoom-type Sword-and-Sandal planetary romance. The Earth in question could be any type from a Atomic Horror 1950's to a Terradyne future or even a space-oriented steampunk reality.)

Juicy! If a few minor TL12 items got back to Earth and got reversed engineered you could have all sorts of wild Twenty-minuets into the future scenarios.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Juicy! If a few minor TL12 items got back to Earth and got reversed engineered you could have all sorts of wild Twenty-minuets into the future scenarios.

I had thought of a 1960's Bond-style campaign to accompany this, with Apollo-era spaceflight and escaping AI robots running amok. Not to mention Earth super-spies trying to infiltrate the more sophisticated Lilith societies.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

I had thought of a 1960's Bond-style campaign to accompany this, with Apollo-era spaceflight and escaping AI robots running amok. Not to mention Earth super-spies trying to infiltrate the more sophisticated Lilith societies.

Related but tangental to that, imagine the Apollo astronauts encountering a society of Golden Age-esque Amazon Women on the Moon. That would probably lead to an increase in funding for the program, but it would also lead to greater funding for other space programs (not for the salacious reasons that many of the public would think of, but the press and talk-shows would certainly suggest that).

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this one...

...the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.

When the first settlers came here to teraform this world they named it Lakshmi because peace begets wealth. Then they started to war with each other and collapsed our society. Since then we've all been terrified that some culture would recover first and conquer our world like Europe conquered Earth in the 19th century only without other European nations to slow them down

Basically, this is a combination of Swashbuckler/Espionage with Napoleonic warfare in a mountainous frontier area.

The tribes living in the deserts east of the Red Dragon Republic are originally from the Pashtuns and ethnically similar groups from the same area. They know their ancestors were taken from the Earth and dumped on this planet after it was terraformed. They loath all of their neighbors. Still, because the Red Dragon Republic is a democracy, if a flawed one, these people are willing to take payments (mainly in kind as money is only of marginal use to them) from the Imperium to attack the Republic. This is because their men of religion tell them democracy is a snare of the devil.

The tribes have been told about the attempt to flood the desert. Those that understand the geography of the desert realize that their largest population centers will be on an island and they lack the resources to make boats. Those that don't understand the geography (the vast majority of the tribal people) simply think they'll all be drowned.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

Who thought the Americans would revive? We thought their turning to Space was fantasy. But now they have interstellar spaceships that fly faster than lightning bolts. Such strange foolishness.

Still they say the Americans have prepared many worlds out in the stars. Why didn't they save this planet!?!

But the Imams say that no one would listen. They used to say that America should have paid for all the world's people to switch over to this "Green Economy" thing. But the Chinese are so rich, why did they need America's alms? Or India? Or Britain?

But the world is dying and America is offering us life. But will we be made to obey?

Basically, the PCs are leaders of a tribal people (I'm thinking Afghani, but you choose what you like) who have to emigrate from their ancient home land to a new world chosen and prepared by the Americans. A people you don't trust or respect (but then you trust very few people outside your tribe).

The worlds that the PCs are taking to can vary from Hard Sci-Fi realistic to Planetary Romance fantasy.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

Salons and Switchblades

The USA of 2074 has done brilliant work in the area of Public health. They are still suffering in the PLAGUE WARS but their population isn't in serious decline nor has their economy collapsed. The American leaders, who never counter attacked with biological weapons, have proposed that since the USA has clearly proved we can survive decades of bio attacks why don't the nations of the world just end the PLAGUE WARS. The USA cites the vast brutal slaughter throughout the developing world as proof the war needs to end.

Meanwhile, those nations (innocent or guilty) suspected of causing the PLAGUE WARS want both concessions and victories but far more importantly they desperately need to avoid odium and shame. If they don't get a victory, or, far worse, if they surrender, most of these leaders will lose office and then they'll be executed.

Basically, this is a game of diplomacy and espionage. The peace talks are seriously hobbled by two major factors. First no one wants to admit they launched any attacks. Also all leaders desperately need to have others, preferably the USA, confess in order to direct the fury of their people away from themselves. Secondly, the USA and the Western allies, although they suffered brutally, are by far better off than the other nations of the world. Even if they have to pay to rebuild the rest of the world's economies, they will still win the peace and far more dramatically than ever before. Many nations are desperate to hobble the West.

At the same time everyone who had any awareness about the Plague Wars understood that the USA and the West in general were the main targets. Which only makes assigning blame to America and claiming repatriations more vital to the West's rivals.

This is a Sci-Fi take on Swashbucklers. Weapons may be vital but finesse is vastly more important. Cloaks and daggers may be few, but it's the same kind of game.

Note: The American people, who are aware that they were the main target of the war, will riot if asked to take the blame for the crimes of other nations. Although the politicians who'd sign any documents assigning blame to America won't be killed, their political careers will end. As will the election chances of their party.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this one...

Salons and Switchblades

The USA of 2074 has done brilliant work in the area of Public health. They are still suffering in the PLAGUE WARS but their population isn't in serious decline nor has their economy collapsed. The American leaders, who never counter attacked with biological weapons, have proposed that since the USA has clearly proved we can survive decades of bio attacks why don't the nations of the world just end the PLAGUE WARS. The USA cites the vast brutal slaughter throughout the developing world as proof the war needs to end.

North America: The USA and Canada are holding together fairly well. They seem really wonderful to outsiders but those that live there aren't so happy. As the government's swift actions at the start of the PLAGUE WARS clearly saved lives, and the USA and Canada (in spite of the USA being the obvious target of the attack) have the most stable economies on the planet, swung the political mood to the Left early in the PLAGUE WARS, so twenty years of plague is causing nihilistic reactions. The large numbers of poor refugees from Latin America, and wealthy and talented refugees from Europe and Asia are breeding resentment.

As American political discourse is built on criticism, neither group exactly bothers to restrain their fairly harsh opinions of the USA. This tends to exacerbate both working class fears of wage suppression and middle class fears that Europeans and Asians are both "More Fashionable" in the eyes of potential employers and get unfair advantages by claiming "affirmative action" for oppression they never faced. As the governments and elites of Latin America always blamed the USA for poverty throughout the Western hemisphere, Latin American refugees both feel entitled to help and that they are being respectful. Similarly, the elite refugees from Europe and Asia were always taught that American schools were garbage and that most Americans were third rate at best. They feel they are simply better and owed both wealth and prestige. Which isn't to say their aren't many refugees that are both tactful and simply not bigots. But the ones that are poison the discourse.

Add into this that the Upper Classes in the USA bitterly resent paying taxes period and feel their human rights are being taken from them, in spite of living lives of carefree luxury, and generally play divide and conquer politics, and you see America's deep stresses. Canada has somewhat different takes on these issues, but it is largely similar. Besides, they are well aware of the issues they'd face if the USA came apart at the seems.

Mexico, and for that matter most of Central America and the Caribbean, is a basket case. Neither Haiti nor El Salvador seems to have an actual government of any kind, not even bandit gangs simply claiming turf.

More Later...