New Reality Seeds - Page 437

fchase8 · 10-03-2019, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Well, Nixon seems unlikely. If judicious deaths are a thing. So who is veep? Michael Harrington might be nice, but unlikely.

Jonn Jonzz, Manhunter from Mars or Clark Kent might be fun and thematic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by awesomenessofme1

Uh... it's Taft. Because of the worldline name?

Yeah, Robert Taft is the vice-president.

It's meant to fit into the Taft worldlines of GURPS Infinite Worlds: Worlds of Horror, which lists seven Taft worlds, grouped together because some of them have radiation found on Taft-3, and all of them because, "strangeness seems to follow electoral success for Robert A. Taft." The death ray radiation count of this world in some wavelengths matches that of sterilizing Taft-3 Children of Men radiation (also found on Taft-4 and Taft-7).

I called it Taft-9, just to imply that there's a secret Taft-8 even scarier than "Things Man Was Not Meant to Know" Taft-7.

Astromancer · 10-04-2019, 11:16 AM

Try this one...

Allow the Gracchi brothers political success and make Roman society more egalitarian, not like a modern democracy, just much better than it was. Rome actually had a lot of useful technology and skills that only went into toys and spectacles. With a change in who runs society technology, long either stagnated or simply restricted to amusements, would both spread through society and advance.

A TL4 Rome that is at least as "democratic" and "egalitarian" as 18th century England (please, England under the "Old Corruption" was far more democratic and egalitarian than Rome in the Time of Julius Caesar) could be an interesting place for adventurers. Allow TL4 sailing ships and circumnavigation of the globe.

But to make this setting really fun, take the attitude of Pulp Sci Fi adventures. Let the Romans exploring Indonesia or Australia be like Kirk or Picard. After all, was anything on any Star Trek show as alien to us as Java and Bali would be to the Romans? Take your Traveller adventures and recast them as Roman merchants in ancient India or Vietnam.

If humans aren't alien enough (and good grief, could you get more alien than other humans?) throw in Mandeville's strange folks. Only, have Mandeville's creatures act in Roman or at least Mediterranean ways, leave the actual humans acting like the people's of their cultures.

YankeeGamer · 10-06-2019, 10:25 PM

Boots-2

The first survey team arrived in broad daylight. Typical late 1400's close parallel, it seemed at first glance. Then night fell, and the skies were empty, or nearly so. All the naked eye planets were there, but there were almost no stars. (More specifically, there are 5 stars in the night sky, though some say that those with the keenest eyes can see one or two more.)

Tales from long ago--almost legend--tell of a sky that was ablaze with light every night, with stars beyond counting. Starting on one side of the sky, over a period of minutes, it all changed. Sweeping from one horizon to another, a vast curtain of darkness swept the heavens clean of stars, even the faint band of light across the skies was no more.

Seafaring out of sight of land is almost unheard-of, for the few stars make it hard to navigate by them. In the west, only the Vikings sail beyond sight of land by means unknown. In the southern oceans, only the Polynesians dare the endless seas.

Vinland has been settled, but Spain has lost three ships in a foolish attempt to brave the great unknown.

Infinity has been curious, of course, and teams with telescopes have arrived. There are more stars, invisible to the naked eye, though perilously few of them. All the stars are in their correct places for 1497, with correct spectra and other observable characteristics--but there are none beyond about 15 parsecs--none at all, no matter how faint.

Cosmic background radiation exists, but is cooler than it should be, by a substantial amount, consistent with the year being between 20 and 25 billion year after the formation of the universe

Sketches from the remains of China and from Greek temples show stars, and patterns of stars, that seem to match the skies of Homeline at the correct time. China went to pieces when the stars simply did not rise in the morning, and every influential astrologer had different interpretations. War and rebellion left the empire broken up. A prediction that the Empire would last as long as there were stars in the sky, and a government as constant as the northern star, had proven valid...

After a year of study, and bringing through some very good equipment, Earth has been located. It's deep in the Bootes void. It seems that, in the early days of Greece, everything within 15 parsecs of Earth was flung about 700 million light years away, and several billion years into the future.

(The timeline is "Boots" because the clerk that typed it into the system didn't bother to verify when his spellchecker autocorrected "Bootes" to "Boots." Boots-1 is a worldline where, in the 21st century, th most noticable difference between Homeline and this one is that almost everyone wears boots when given a choice. Business boots, casual boots, anywhere footwear doesn't need to be made to a specific design, like flip-flops or sneakers, some sort of boot is the norm. Don't get the two timelines messed up.)

malloyd · 10-07-2019, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YankeeGamer

Seafaring out of sight of land is almost unheard-of, for the few stars make it hard to navigate by them.

Huh? Note that ships manage to navigate just fine during the *day* when there is only ever the one star visible.

And I'm not seeing the relevance of the sky to the unity of China either - a period of unrest is believable enough, but if it's long enough ago to be nearly legendary....

But yeah, there's a potentially neat idea in here. It's a sort of Banestorm/Ring of Fire event writ really large. A whole class of worldlines where Earth or its entire vicinity passes through a space or time or interdimensional portal would be the logical extension.

Astromancer · 10-07-2019, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by malloyd

Huh? Note that ships manage to navigate just fine during the *day* when there is only ever the one star visible.

And I'm not seeing the relevance of the sky to the unity of China either - a period of unrest is believable enough, but if it's long enough ago to be nearly legendary....

But yeah, there's a potentially neat idea in here. It's a sort of Banestorm/Ring of Fire event writ really large. A whole class of worldlines where Earth or its entire vicinity passes through a space or time or interdimensional portal would be the logical extension.

He has a solid point. Fewer stars would actually make primitive navigation easier in at least some cases.

Malloyd has a point about China coming back together too. The Chinese themselves talk of cycles of dissolution and reunion.

Still, spectacular idea.

YankeeGamer · 10-07-2019, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by malloyd

Huh? Note that ships manage to navigate just fine during the *day* when there is only ever the one star visible.

And I'm not seeing the relevance of the sky to the unity of China either - a period of unrest is believable enough, but if it's long enough ago to be nearly legendary....

But yeah, there's a potentially neat idea in here. It's a sort of Banestorm/Ring of Fire event writ really large. A whole class of worldlines where Earth or its entire vicinity passes through a space or time or interdimensional portal would be the logical extension.

I'd wanted to be sure that there are legends of the event, but few if any solid records.

as for as what it looked like: The event was not centered on the earth, but not far off--a few light minutes, approximately.

If it happened in daylight, that region just sees that no stars come out that night. If it happens at night, the side a few minutes closer to the edge sees the stars closest go out first, then the curtain of blackness sweeps across the sky.

The possibility of a whole solar system going through a bansetorm is frightening--and the system also seems to be the chronologically latest, billions of years in the future. Both are reasons for serious research...

I messed up with navigation for sure--though it would be more difficult, especially without a pole star.

Imagine how creepy the sky would be after sunset, with nought but flame to light the way, and a few tiny stars...

Astromancer · 10-07-2019, 01:36 PM

Try this one...

The little Ice Age was still a major factor in the climates of Europe and the USA in the 19th century. The Thames froze so hard that you could have a Fair on the ice and enjoy bonfires on the ice without fear. Dickens describes snowy winters in London. Snowy winters weren't strange in Southern England into the first decade of the 20th century.

However on this Q6 world things are different. The climate is wildly out of wack. The Earth is warmer and rainier than 19th century Homeline. The Changes seem to begin just after the Irish Famine. By 1860 snow was unknown south of Leicester in England or the Great Lakes in the USA. At the same time Africa began having vast monsoons as in ancient times. The Sahara became a vast fertile grassland.

All of this would be lovely except sea levels rose planet wide.

The local year is 1914, sea levels are about fifty feet higher than they were. Some countries like the Netherlands simply evacuated (thanks to a New York senator with a romantic view of his "Dutch" ancestors the population of the Netherlands got to flee to the USA and the Flemish and Danish went with them). The crisis caused by the migrations seems to have put both technological development and diplomatic wrangling on hold. Europe is only now getting back into its period typical petty imperial squabbling, and this world is still TL5 and a few years away from the TL 5/6 border.

The renewal of Imperial gamesmanship in Europe seems to be happening with a vengeance. Homeline wonders if someone is stirring things up. Meanwhile, Centrum is simply interested in seeing if Germany and Russia can be made to behave themselves. Britain, even winning WWI, always loses so much. They also assume someone is stirring things up. They blame different people. Meanwhile the Cabal, seeing how quickly the seas rose and the strange ways the climate changed thinks there is a supernatural power at play here. They want to see if they can profit off what's going on.

PTTG · 10-07-2019, 06:07 PM

Meadows worldlines are those that have been afflicted with a fertility-reducing effect, dropping human fertility to be at or only fractionally above replacement. Though it hasn't been tested, this appears to be an ongoing local effect, rather than a change to human beings or a disease.

While (arguably) a great boon to worldlines if this effect appears around TL6, a large proportion of these worldlines were afflicted earlier.

Meadows-1 was discovered in local year 1909. The event itself occurred around the turn of the previous century, resulting in a population of very roughly half that of OTL. The TL is roughly TL 6, though with less standardization and more custom work. The cities are less developed, and travel is dramatically harder. For all of that, however, civil rights are somewhat advanced, as demand for labor is high. In general, the inertia of industrialization is slowed, but not stopped. Historical figures were born if they and their parents were first-or-secondborn children, but many cultural icons are missing from this history, replaced with distinctly different persons.

Meadows-2, in contrast, is nearly up-to-date with Homeline. The present year is 2009. Though there are no signs of disaster, the global population is about 200 million, putting the event some time before 1400 CE. At TL 4+1, the technology of the worldline is focused on reliability and maintainability. Cultures are extremely static in broad strokes -- noble families and bureaucracies rule over peasants decided by arbitrary borders that shift slowly as squabbles and feuds roil.

Meadows-3 has a population of 650 million, suggesting that it has been about 200 years since the event. The current year of 1964, however, is almost unrecognizable. Technology is actually slightly ahead of its Homeline course, apparently because of determined efforts to use automation to increase productivity. Clanking replicators are currently being developed as an incremental advancement from state-of-the-art automatic factories.

malloyd · 10-07-2019, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PTTG

Meadows worldlines are those that have been afflicted with a fertility-reducing effect, dropping human fertility to be at or only fractionally above replacement. Though it hasn't been tested, this appears to be an ongoing local effect, rather than a change to human beings or a disease.

The thing is in the broad view the birth rate of human (and all other) populations are *always* just at replacement - perturbations from that are always quite short term. The death rate changes to compensate. What's weird about recent human history is that a drop in the death rate inexplicably went *sustainable* over quite a long period because a vast increase in food supply materialized at the same time (yeah they're related effects of a couple of technological revolutions, but from a sufficient level of abstraction....)

To make this work the way you want it too - freezing population at some historical level - it must be a variable, and precognitive, effect. It has to somehow fix the birth rate to match the *future* death rate, adjusting the average number of children per parent to 1 plus the average number of children per parent who will die before reproducing in the upcoming generation....

tshiggins · 10-07-2019, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by malloyd

(SNIP)

To make this work the way you want it too - freezing population at some historical level - it must be a variable, and precognitive, effect. It has to somehow fix the birth rate to match the *future* death rate, adjusting the average number of children per parent to 1 plus the average number of children per parent who will die before reproducing in the upcoming generation....

Maybe somebody in the past collected all the Infinity Stones and didn't use them, foolishly.

10-04-2019, 11:16 AM	#4362
Astromancer Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: West Virginia	Re: New Reality Seeds Try this one... Allow the Gracchi brothers political success and make Roman society more egalitarian, not like a modern democracy, just much better than it was. Rome actually had a lot of useful technology and skills that only went into toys and spectacles. With a change in who runs society technology, long either stagnated or simply restricted to amusements, would both spread through society and advance. A TL4 Rome that is at least as "democratic" and "egalitarian" as 18th century England (please, England under the "Old Corruption" was far more democratic and egalitarian than Rome in the Time of Julius Caesar) could be an interesting place for adventurers. Allow TL4 sailing ships and circumnavigation of the globe. But to make this setting really fun, take the attitude of Pulp Sci Fi adventures. Let the Romans exploring Indonesia or Australia be like Kirk or Picard. After all, was anything on any Star Trek show as alien to us as Java and Bali would be to the Romans? Take your Traveller adventures and recast them as Roman merchants in ancient India or Vietnam. If humans aren't alien enough (and good grief, could you get more alien than other humans?) throw in Mandeville's strange folks. Only, have Mandeville's creatures act in Roman or at least Mediterranean ways, leave the actual humans acting like the people's of their cultures. __________________ Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo

10-06-2019, 10:25 PM	#4363
YankeeGamer Join Date: Dec 2017	Boots-2, AKA Bootes-2 Boots-2 The first survey team arrived in broad daylight. Typical late 1400's close parallel, it seemed at first glance. Then night fell, and the skies were empty, or nearly so. All the naked eye planets were there, but there were almost no stars. (More specifically, there are 5 stars in the night sky, though some say that those with the keenest eyes can see one or two more.) Tales from long ago--almost legend--tell of a sky that was ablaze with light every night, with stars beyond counting. Starting on one side of the sky, over a period of minutes, it all changed. Sweeping from one horizon to another, a vast curtain of darkness swept the heavens clean of stars, even the faint band of light across the skies was no more. Seafaring out of sight of land is almost unheard-of, for the few stars make it hard to navigate by them. In the west, only the Vikings sail beyond sight of land by means unknown. In the southern oceans, only the Polynesians dare the endless seas. Vinland has been settled, but Spain has lost three ships in a foolish attempt to brave the great unknown. Infinity has been curious, of course, and teams with telescopes have arrived. There are more stars, invisible to the naked eye, though perilously few of them. All the stars are in their correct places for 1497, with correct spectra and other observable characteristics--but there are none beyond about 15 parsecs--none at all, no matter how faint. Cosmic background radiation exists, but is cooler than it should be, by a substantial amount, consistent with the year being between 20 and 25 billion year after the formation of the universe Sketches from the remains of China and from Greek temples show stars, and patterns of stars, that seem to match the skies of Homeline at the correct time. China went to pieces when the stars simply did not rise in the morning, and every influential astrologer had different interpretations. War and rebellion left the empire broken up. A prediction that the Empire would last as long as there were stars in the sky, and a government as constant as the northern star, had proven valid... After a year of study, and bringing through some very good equipment, Earth has been located. It's deep in the Bootes void. It seems that, in the early days of Greece, everything within 15 parsecs of Earth was flung about 700 million light years away, and several billion years into the future. (The timeline is "Boots" because the clerk that typed it into the system didn't bother to verify when his spellchecker autocorrected "Bootes" to "Boots." Boots-1 is a worldline where, in the 21st century, th most noticable difference between Homeline and this one is that almost everyone wears boots when given a choice. Business boots, casual boots, anywhere footwear doesn't need to be made to a specific design, like flip-flops or sneakers, some sort of boot is the norm. Don't get the two timelines messed up.)

10-07-2019, 01:36 PM	#4367
Astromancer Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: West Virginia	Re: New Reality Seeds Try this one... The little Ice Age was still a major factor in the climates of Europe and the USA in the 19th century. The Thames froze so hard that you could have a Fair on the ice and enjoy bonfires on the ice without fear. Dickens describes snowy winters in London. Snowy winters weren't strange in Southern England into the first decade of the 20th century. However on this Q6 world things are different. The climate is wildly out of wack. The Earth is warmer and rainier than 19th century Homeline. The Changes seem to begin just after the Irish Famine. By 1860 snow was unknown south of Leicester in England or the Great Lakes in the USA. At the same time Africa began having vast monsoons as in ancient times. The Sahara became a vast fertile grassland. All of this would be lovely except sea levels rose planet wide. The local year is 1914, sea levels are about fifty feet higher than they were. Some countries like the Netherlands simply evacuated (thanks to a New York senator with a romantic view of his "Dutch" ancestors the population of the Netherlands got to flee to the USA and the Flemish and Danish went with them). The crisis caused by the migrations seems to have put both technological development and diplomatic wrangling on hold. Europe is only now getting back into its period typical petty imperial squabbling, and this world is still TL5 and a few years away from the TL 5/6 border. The renewal of Imperial gamesmanship in Europe seems to be happening with a vengeance. Homeline wonders if someone is stirring things up. Meanwhile, Centrum is simply interested in seeing if Germany and Russia can be made to behave themselves. Britain, even winning WWI, always loses so much. They also assume someone is stirring things up. They blame different people. Meanwhile the Cabal, seeing how quickly the seas rose and the strange ways the climate changed thinks there is a supernatural power at play here. They want to see if they can profit off what's going on. __________________ Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo

10-07-2019, 06:07 PM	#4368
PTTG Join Date: Feb 2011	Re: New Reality Seeds Meadows worldlines are those that have been afflicted with a fertility-reducing effect, dropping human fertility to be at or only fractionally above replacement. Though it hasn't been tested, this appears to be an ongoing local effect, rather than a change to human beings or a disease. While (arguably) a great boon to worldlines if this effect appears around TL6, a large proportion of these worldlines were afflicted earlier. Meadows-1 was discovered in local year 1909. The event itself occurred around the turn of the previous century, resulting in a population of very roughly half that of OTL. The TL is roughly TL 6, though with less standardization and more custom work. The cities are less developed, and travel is dramatically harder. For all of that, however, civil rights are somewhat advanced, as demand for labor is high. In general, the inertia of industrialization is slowed, but not stopped. Historical figures were born if they and their parents were first-or-secondborn children, but many cultural icons are missing from this history, replaced with distinctly different persons. Meadows-2, in contrast, is nearly up-to-date with Homeline. The present year is 2009. Though there are no signs of disaster, the global population is about 200 million, putting the event some time before 1400 CE. At TL 4+1, the technology of the worldline is focused on reliability and maintainability. Cultures are extremely static in broad strokes -- noble families and bureaucracies rule over peasants decided by arbitrary borders that shift slowly as squabbles and feuds roil. Meadows-3 has a population of 650 million, suggesting that it has been about 200 years since the event. The current year of 1964, however, is almost unrecognizable. Technology is actually slightly ahead of its Homeline course, apparently because of determined efforts to use automation to increase productivity. Clanking replicators are currently being developed as an incremental advancement from state-of-the-art automatic factories.