New Reality Seeds

[Anaraxes]

I, for one, welcome our new Aboriginal overlords.

[PTTG]

Come to think of it, giving a group of some sort or the other magic or psionic boosts can be an interesting means of changing history.

Suppose that, at the height of the Boxer rebellion, the arrival of the Eight-Nation Alliance awakens the long-slumbering dragons of China, who will not abide foreign rule. The cosmically powerful Dragons impart mystical knowledge to the Imperial dynasty. They do not destroy the invaders, however; instead, the soldiers, ships, and supplies are blown away in an irresistible current that drives them safely back to port.

OR

Circa 1500, diverse spiritualists of the New World find that their traditional protective rituals, while no more effective than normal against normal inter-tribal warfare, are thoroughly effective against the bullets and diseases of the eastern invaders. A politically and economically stable native force, combined with the resistance to bullets conferred to prepared warriors, dramatically changes the balance of power (to say the least).

OR

A slightly modified WWII diverges first with the dramatic failure of the Spring 1940 Evacuation of Dunkirk, caused by Hitler getting into an argument with an officer and furiously ordering the routed BEF destroyed as soon as possible (in OTL, an apprehensive Nazi command gave a halt order, giving the BEF time to prepare defenses that enabled the evacuation).

The destruction of the BEF resulted in the deaths and capture of the core of the British forces, but perhaps more seriously, crushed the morale of the Allies at a critical time. It seems that the Nazis saw less reason to terrorize the British, and so the rocket program was folded into aircraft production, putting the Luftwaffe at the advantage in the Battle of Britain. Skilled though the British pilots were, the Luftwaffe had more planes, and some technical improvements seemed to take place.

It ended up looking like a Reich parallel as the first ships of Operation Sea Lion delivered troops to a bombed and battered Brittan, when King Arthur emerged from the west to drive the Saxons back to the sea one last time. With Merlin and his court, he restores the fighting spirit and grants mystic secrets to the British, and will not rest again until he has restored his kingdom from Iceland to the heart of Gual.

OR

Upon landing on the moon, Niel and Buzz awoke a long-forgotten spiritual power... Actually, seriously, I suspect that there must be some religion which places the afterlife on the moon. Arriving there while alive may cause all kinds of karmic chaos, and it would certainly be an interesting point in time for terrestrial mana levels to jump up to High.

[Racer]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

I, for one, welcome our new Aboriginal overlords.

LMAO ! That's given me my biggest laugh in days ! ( now getting strange looks from my Girlfriend ... ;-) )

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by PTTG

...
OR

Upon landing on the moon, Niel and Buzz awoke a long-forgotten spiritual power... Actually, seriously, I suspect that there must be some religion which places the afterlife on the moon. Arriving there while alive may cause all kinds of karmic chaos, and it would certainly be an interesting point in time for terrestrial mana levels to jump up to High.

Or ignites a war of the gods as Apollo's spear strikes Artemis. Why else name a mission to the moon after a god of the sun?

[patchwork]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Upon landing on the moon, Niel and Buzz awoke a long-forgotten spiritual power... Actually, seriously, I suspect that there must be some religion which places the afterlife on the moon. Arriving there while alive may cause all kinds of karmic chaos, and it would certainly be an interesting point in time for terrestrial mana levels to jump up to High.

That's fundamental to the history of Changeling: the Dreaming. Nearly a billion people were looking at the same thing at the same time with absolute awe and wonder; even without an intent to shape it, that was a mystical battering ram that tore the locked gates of Arcadia open again and brought the sidhe back to Earth.

I really like Flyndaran's war in Olympus too...what does that look like to people on Earth?

[PTTG]

Actually, let's build that up a little bit. Madalyn Murray O'Hair was involved in different activities leading up to the moon landing, and so never sued NASA to prevent a public communion on the moon.

The televised ritual was, in fact, a magical healing and blessing ritual that was once efficacious on Earth, but mana levels had long since declined. The combination of massive terrestrial participation (8-second light speed lag notwithstanding), and Luna's untouched High mana levels not only resulted in a flash of light and healing energy (recorded, no less, by instruments aboard the landing module, as it restored oxygen scrubbers aboard), but also opened a "mana conduit" connecting Earth and Moon.

A wave of Oz particles swept over earth, restoring mana levels to Low and triggering long-dormant Magery genes in humanity. No one alive at the time was effected, but from 1969 on, a fraction of children born around the planet had Magery. Moon rocks are natural manastones, with some fun algorithm like energy = ((mass in grams)/244.32)^0.25. There's other fun stuff you could do, like say that the "mana channel" provides aspects to the point on earth directly under the moon, or that the center of the earth-facing surface of the moon is Very High mana.

The big-picture result of all this is that the 70s are a race to build functional lunar colonies (but on this, as opposed to Merlin, the US is merely extremely dominant instead of ludicrously overwhelming) to harness moon magic- a surprisingly hard-science setting as nobody really understands how to use magic yet. This continues into the 80s, but in 1984 the first terrestrial magic users -- the Indigo Children -- are well into their teens and already are manipulating magic on earth. An academy of mid-'80s wizard students -- and the ideological terrorists that oppose them -- seems like an interesting place for a game. Alternatively, playing astronauts living at a lunar institution and having talented teenage Dependents getting into trouble is interesting. The late '80s sees a thaumaturgical revolution as Lunar enchantment out-competes computers as a growth industry, one that the Indigoes are undisputed masters of.

The 1990s are really starting to diverge as magiteck works into the whole economy. Computers are trundling along at mid-80s levels still and people boldly assert that in 100 years, computers might cast spells.

If the Soviets could compete with the USA enough to land men on the moon, they might try to go for an end run and build the first permanently-inhabited base -- or a permanent space station in L1, right in the mana conduit. If they succeed at that, the Cold War either goes on longer, or the end of it brings cheap Soviet space travel to the rest of the world if the USA wants it or not. Of course, the magic itself is a powerful tool to improve travel. When Teleportation gets invented (which likely requires expensive materials and lots of careful tests with apples, gerbils, and finally monkeys), rockets may become old news and everyone can step through a portal to Tranquility City or солидарность (Solidarity)... so long as the Moon is directly overhead.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Further thought. The Cabal can learn about technology too. Many scientists have been ritual magicians(I don't say the rituals work, I just say they do them), it's rarish, but hardly a one in a million thing. The technology of the 1850's would give a 1808 Napoleon a vast edge.

The I-Cops would have to figure out who spilled the beans and why.

This could turn into an interesting steam-punk adventure, with everything from magical steam-punk to actual steam.

Originally Posted by Astromancer

While watching TV I saw one of the vast numbers of documentaries on WWII. This one had two interesting reality seeds. First, there seems to have been a rumor/belief among both the Nazis and the Allies about an Alpine fortress stronghold a sort of Neuschwabenland in the Alps.

This could be used in several ways. A real Alpine superfortress with actual wonder weapons could add weeks or maybe months (if the wonder weapons are good enough) to WWII. Which would likely be to the Soviet's advantage. Homeline would want to shorten the War. Centrum and Reich-Five might have other ideas. The ruins of an Alpine superfortress, even one that was never completed or used, could be the source of so many plothooks. Half finished wonder weapons, the secrets origins of a deadly Fourth-Reich movement, or vast amounts of stolen gold or other treasures, are only a few ideas.

The second thing in the show that struck me as interesting was the existence of a lake called something like Odin Zee. A lake associated with lost Nazi Gold, the king of the Norse Gods, and a Secret Superfortress. If that isn't a gift to gamers what is?

This sounds like it could be part of an already-written alternate WWII, the one with mad scientists that was in a Pyramid.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Upon landing on the moon, Niel and Buzz awoke a long-forgotten spiritual power... Actually, seriously, I suspect that there must be some religion which places the afterlife on the moon. Arriving there while alive may cause all kinds of karmic chaos, and it would certainly be an interesting point in time for terrestrial mana levels to jump up to High.

One 19th century interpretation of Aladdin's Lamp was that the Moon was the OLD MAN'S lamp (Aladdin = Old Man). The genie was the collective souls of the long dead. None of this fits modern scholarship, but like much bad 19th century social science, it makes great gaming.

[PTTG]

Can we make the USA communist? I mean, without the direct intervention of Alien Space Bats. Although I suppose that we could allow slightly flappy cross-time manipulation.

Yeah, let's say that Centrum decides that they're going to try and make a Communist States of America in order to start out their english-speaking meritocracy. Any thoughts?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Can we make the USA communist? I mean, without the direct intervention of Alien Space Bats.

There's a book all about this one: Back in the USSA, by Eugene Byrne and Kim Newman. Some hunting may be needed for a reasonably priced copy, but the Wikipedia article has a pretty good summary.