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Old 09-03-2019, 11:06 AM   #4321
Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2
 
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Oh heavens forfend! I hath made a typo! I shall end my miserable existence by devouring cold unflavored ramen noodles forthwith! No less a fate does one who mistyped a word deserve!
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Old 09-03-2019, 12:37 PM   #4322
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*Snork*. I love Rob Brydon, wonderful stand-up comic and comic actor, but I would have severe difficulty with him as a superhero. Polite uncertainty is so much more his schtick.

Now, cast the young Richard Burton in the role...
Cast whom you like Phil, in your game. I like Rob, by the way, Red Dragon has back-up. Dewin, (cast Rhod Gilbert in the role) a powerful wizard who is disguised as a workman. People always take him for someone employed in the area, between spells and the Performance skill he always passes for an ordinary employee/workman. He routinely messes up Red Dragon's foes while they aren't looking. These two fight hard, and a bit sneaky.
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Old 09-03-2019, 12:42 PM   #4323
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Oh heavens forfend! I hath made a typo! I shall end my miserable existence by devouring cold unflavored ramen noodles forthwith! No less a fate does one who mistyped a word deserve!
Fear not. I a lineal descendant of Mistress Malaprop shall keep you company. I dare not speak the liberating spell, the Mage's guild still has a peace bond out on me for the last time.
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Old 09-03-2019, 01:10 PM   #4324
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

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The world designated Scale has been classified a Z-world

(SNIP)
Even without the typo, this comes way too close to a "Weird" parallel, for me. Bleh.

I don't particularly care for "supers" parallels, either, but the best of those strive for internal consistency. This is just random.

It would work a lot better without the scale stuff. The notion of additional animal power available for human use has a lot of promise, if thought through carefully.
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Old 09-03-2019, 02:45 PM   #4325
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Beringia is a puzzle for Infinity cliodynamicists. Since its discovery a few years ago, it has often been used as a case study for the strange and often confusing way temporal inertia can function.

Beringia seems to have diverged over 15,000 years ago, when due to reasons unknown, no humans crossed from Asia into the Americas. Despite this profound shift over such a long time, there were no observable changes to the Old World until the late fifteenth century. However, when Christopher Columbus landed on the empty islands of the Caribbean, the worldline seemed to snap into extremely low, almost-zero inertia. No historical figure born later than mid-1493 appears to exist, and historical events have played out very differently. It is now 1617, and both Europe and America look very different from history.

Despite its unusualness, there's not much on Beringia that Homeline is interested in. It's in Q6, so Centrum infiltration is a minor concern, but none has shown up so far. Its main value to Homeline is scientific. Cliodynamicists, as mentioned, view it as a curiosity, and some Homeline linguists and botanists see it as a treasure trove of study.
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Old 09-06-2019, 01:07 PM   #4326
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St. Martin's

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Cast whom you like Phil, in your game. I like Rob, by the way, Red Dragon has back-up. Dewin, (cast Rhod Gilbert in the role) a powerful wizard who is disguised as a workman. People always take him for someone employed in the area, between spells and the Performance skill he always passes for an ordinary employee/workman. He routinely messes up Red Dragon's foes while they aren't looking. These two fight hard, and a bit sneaky.
Further notes on Red Dragon and Dewin, they're part of a larger team, a British version of the Justice Society. From Scotland the wizards Warlock(let Peter Capaldi play him) and Phooka (let Slyvester McCoy play him) routinely tag team threats. Warlock summons spirits and storms, Phooka has...tricks;-) From Ireland Queen Maeve (think of her as an Irish Wonder Woman not the Character from the Boys) (let a 1940's Maureen O'Hara play her) and Finn (he's a skilled fighter that can change his size at will anywhere along a spectrum from ant to giant and is always super strong, agile and tough)(let Patrick Murphy play him, I like the look of him). And Laindeir, she has the powers of invisibility, intangibility, teleportation, and telepathy, she acts as the team's gumshoe/Privet Eye. She loves the role and has a great natural talent for it. They're all three passionately anti-fascist enough to put up with the British period view of Irish patriots. England has a Captain Geographic of their own. Albion! (let Hugh Laurie play him). Although Albion has roughly the powers Billy Batson had when he said his magic word, and he Albion is certainly brave and good hearted, the term "Upperclass twit" does apply. So the Minister in charge of Metahuman Resources has assigned a minder to help aim this loose cannon. Sir Henry St. George, a tough, fierce, elegant, refined, and normally affable agent (let Stephen Fry play him) wonders what he did to deserve this. The Minister for Metahuman Resources (let Tom Baker play him) claims to have a plan, and he'll find it soon.

Outside of the "Champions," the name the Minister chose for the group, the heroes have a few more allies. First, from America, working through the American Embassy, is Phoebus (let a 1964 James Garner play him) is doing his best to aid the cause. Phoebus is massively powerful, he transforms into a being of living light and can generate and manipulate light in many forms in thousands of ways. However that trick where your clothes change when you do eludes him. Let's just stay he's learned to look for cover. If Maeve is the Wonder Woman of the group, Red Dragon(who has all the powers of a Celtic Dragon) is the Martian Manhunter, and Albion is the Sumperman/Captain Marvel, then Phoebus is a sort of Flash/Green Lantern.

Rounding out the team, are Bangles (let a 1964 Julie Andrews play her), Zoe (let Catherine Schell circa 1977 play her), and Swanhilda (let a 1990 Sophie Aldred play her). Bangles is a luck twisting witch. Zoe is a shapeshifter who claims to be the daughter of a Frenchwoman and a Gypsy wizard, (think Maya from Space 1999 with fewer limits). Swanhilda is an anti-Hitler German, she can manifest powerful wings, fly at supersonic speeds, and can materialize weapons and armor for herself and others during combat.

Most of these people think the others are crazy. The Stephen Fry character assumes they all are. Any PCs investigating the assassin that tried to kill Churchill, or runs afoul of either the Swagmen or the Cabal will know these guys are in the wings for back-up.

Be afraid, very afraid.

Note: I've added a name to the setting. St. Martin's refers to both the present political crisis, it's 1941 and England is facing Germany alone, and to a morbid British Cabalist's view of WWII as the last hour of glory for Britain (the other Brits in his group start rolling their eyes when he starts in on his dirges for British glory). The reference in the name is to Indian Summer, which was once called St. Martin's Summer in some parts of Europe. And may still be called that for all I know.
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Old 09-06-2019, 05:05 PM   #4327
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Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
Further notes on Red Dragon and Dewin, they're part of a larger team, a British version of the Justice Society.
The potential for a backup B Team, made up of folk from the extended Commonwealth community occurs to me.

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Be afraid, very afraid.
"Hold my beer/lassi/kava"
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Old 09-06-2019, 06:55 PM   #4328
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The potential for a backup B Team, made up of folk from the extended Commonwealth community occurs to me.


"Hold my beer/lassi/kava"
It would be good. But, who are they? Also, Canada has several supers but the rest of the Empire ( Commonwealth is post 1945) is at one in fifty million.
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Old 09-07-2019, 11:32 AM   #4329
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St. Martin's

This recently discovered Q5 world (discovered by the Cabal and the Swagmen, not Homeline or Centrum) had superheroes show up in the 1930's just a little ahead of the normal time for most worlds that get Superheroes.

The Epicenter of the phenomena was a radius of thirty miles around Times Square New York city. In this radius superheroes (called Mystery men) were about one in 250,000 people, or about 40 supers in this area. If a line was drawn around the Canadian Maritines down to the Chesapeake Bay, under Alexandra Virginia, through West Virginia to the Ohio River, along the Ohio River to Illinois, through Illinois to the Mississippi, up the Mississippi to Wisconsin, on through to Lake Michigan, from the center of lake Michigan, though the lower peninsula of Michigan, into Lake Huron above the peninsula dividing lakes Huron and Erie, Through Ontario, into Quebec, into the Saint Lawrence river East of Quebec City, and along the St. Lawrence to a point North of Nova Scotia, it would enclose the area were Superheroes were one in a Million in North America. In the Rest of the world, except for the Valley of the Nile North of Aswan (which tends to have Mystical heroes only), Tibet (Ditto), and the Celtic lands {Ireland, the Scots Highlands, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall, and the Isle of Mann} (which have either mystic heroes or superwarrior types), supers are one in fifty million. The three non-North American exceptions have restricted types of Superheroes. Egypt and Tibet have one in a million supers, the Celtic area has one in 250,000 (although researchers find that Irish Americans in New York aren't any more likely than anyone else to be transformed).

The local year is 1941, Europe is at war, FDR is working to aid the allies. Scholars and scientists worldwide are working to find out what causes Superheroes and if they could create them to order.
Some quick details.

The New York area has around forty Superheroes, the rest of the area has about forty-five American Supers and Eight or Nine Canadians. (could some Canadian posters on these boards toss out some supers concepts? There ought to be at least a Canadian or two in the Champions and not just a captain Geographic). Ireland has about 18 supers and Wales has twelve. Cornwall has Bangels. Scotland has only ten supers because not all of the nation is in the area of heightened occurrence.

The Minister for Metahuman Affairs (remember he's played by a 1990 Tom Baker ) has a millitary taskforce assigned to the Champions. The taskforce has a scientific advisor named Lavinia Smith (have a 1975 Penelope Keith play her) who drags her sister (in this reality, in the reality we know better, she's a niece) Sarah Jane Smith (have a 1980 Elisabeth Sladen play her, who else could?) into all this weirdness.

Revision: Tibet's supers population is now one in 250,000. Basically, Tibet had maybe one million people in 1945. This means the Green Lama and three other Tibetan mystic supers are out there.
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Old 09-09-2019, 12:32 PM   #4330
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COLD SNAP

The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora was bad in most worlds, as it created the Year Without a Summer a period of genuine misery and pain. In this Q6 parallel the eruption was simply worse in being larger and placing more fine ash and other particulates in the atmosphere. The led to a decade without a summer.

Famine drove emigration from Northern Europe to the new world, especially the southern USA. Canada found that it lost much of its population to famine, plague, or emigration. Iceland lost 70% of her people and Scotland 50%.

Industrialization, democracy, literacy, and many other important 19th century trends were halted or reversed by the crisis. Plague, famine, and brutal weather, drove an occult revival and religious fervor.

Even though the young Queen Victoria was crowned at a period when the weather was returning to normal much of the damage was done. Still, many of these changes were baked in long before Tambora went up in smoke.

The present year in this parallel is 1860. The long period of stagnation caused by the cold snap is ending. Technology is jumping forward. South Carolina has just abolished slavery leaving only Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas, as slave states. Abraham Lincoln has won the Presidency and will be sworn in next March. Meanwhile, the transcontinental railroad will be completed between Independence Missouri and San Francisco within a year or two. The technology is generally behind where Homeline's was in 1860, but science was slightly ahead.

Meanwhile, German Unification is well ahead of schedule and Europe looks like it's rapidly moving toward a fight over it. Centrum certainly wants the newborn German Empire squashed. Meanwhile the Cabal is focused on manipulating the Russian Empire into conquering certain Central Asian provinces so that they can do extensive archaeology in certain exotic ruins. Homeline's focus is on Asian folk art which seems to be vibrant and thriving in this world. Homeline doesn't know why that is, but they love the artwork.

Neither Centrum nor the Cabal understand why Homeline is buying up all the Asian folk art they are. Each suspects dark motives. Each will kill to know the truth!

Basically, this is a 19th century cliffhangers setting with the dials turned up to eleven. The Victorian age is rushing to catch-up to itself. Meanwhile, Homeline art buyers are being hunted by agents of Centrum and the Cabal and Homeline demands to know "WHY."
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