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Old 11-26-2022, 04:14 PM   #2571
seasalt
 
Join Date: May 2022
Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
Closed Gates

Why are you crying.

They changed the rules.

Which rules?

They can send people back to wait in their own lands. The Europeans say the working classes feel dispossessed in their own lands. And they're saying the new American immigration rules are as bad as the 1920s.

The rich made the poor pay for immigration in order to make the poor hate immigrants.

But we can't stay here, the famine is worse and the drought won't go away.

I don't know where to go.


This is a cyberpunk game set in a realistic (or at least nonspectacular) version of 2050. The advanced countries (technologically and possessing democracies) aren't doing badly. However, non-democratic nations are in chaos. The Indian Ocean monsoon system has stopped. This means multi century droughts in some areas. (No this is highly realistic).

Social cohesion in the democracies is at an all time low. The kind of sacrifice needed to save billions requires moral authority. As no one is allowed moral authority, nothing will be done.

Basically, this is a hell world, but a very realistic one. Mercenaries, smugglers of people or goods, are solid choices. Aid workers would be adventures in this setting.

(Some people said my settings were too optimistic)
I think I know how to make it darker, and to look ahead to the world we seem to be on the path towards!

Consider the advances in micro-manufacturing and user-friendliness. All of a sudden, a single cargo ship full of equipment, a few trained experts and advisors, and some scavenged raw materials can turn a desperate rabble into an armed military force within a few months. It may very well be that the confluence of technologies at this point will make it easier to arm people en-masse, than to feed or provide for them en-masse.

I think it's equally likely that these starving, uneducated, dispossessed masses facing extinction from climate change and the collapse of their corrupt, ineffectual governments will be armed, and looking for quick, violent solutions to their problem, especially with the seductive narrative that all their problems are the fault of the rich nations.

Of course, all these disparate dispossessed groups somehow welding themselves into a coalition capable of taking on the global superpowers is unlikely, but not impossible - which means that those great powers will be devoting their efforts to playing the armies of angry young third-world revolutionaries, springing up throughout Africa and Southeast Asia like the mythologicald dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus, off against one another.

Basically, a WW3 that would (will?) make the previous world wars look small in comparison. At the risk of exaggerating, some might look at the state of the world today and say that the opening shots of this conflict have already been fired.
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Old 11-26-2022, 08:54 PM   #2572
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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Basically, a WW3 that would (will?) make the previous world wars look small in comparison. At the risk of exaggerating, some might look at the state of the world today and say that the opening shots of this conflict have already been fired.
They were fired more than twenty years ago, possibly more than thirty depending on how you count it.
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Old 11-26-2022, 10:00 PM   #2573
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

This is getting into more reality than should be on here. If I can't talk about stuff like this, than why can anyone else?
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Old 11-27-2022, 12:55 PM   #2574
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This is getting into more reality than should be on here. If I can't talk about stuff like this, than why can anyone else?
I have to second this notion. It is very important we not get dragged into political discussions here, and I really do not want to see this thread locked.
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Old 11-30-2022, 03:48 PM   #2575
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Side Trips

My theory is that your experiential past is written in stone. So no one can visit their own past.

We go to weirdo pasts that no one ever experienced.

Well, at least not until we get there.


This campaign is inspired by Larry Niven's The Flight of the Horse. Time machines are all unstable. They always skip to other happen tracks. Unanchored time machines are always lost, period. The PCs are in anchored time machines. Thus they go to alternative pasts or futures, but never their own past or future.

Basically, this is wild and woolley action comedy.
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Old 12-02-2022, 10:51 PM   #2576
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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This is getting into more reality than should be on here. If I can't talk about stuff like this, than why can anyone else?
Possibly it gets away with it because no sides are being taken.

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Originally Posted by seasalt View Post
Of course, all these disparate dispossessed groups somehow welding themselves into a coalition capable of taking on the global superpowers is unlikely, but not impossible - which means that those great powers will be devoting their efforts to playing the armies of angry young third-world revolutionaries, springing up throughout Africa and Southeast Asia like the mythologicald dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus, off against one another.
This reminds me a bit of John Buchan's Greenmantle. (If not familiar: a mysterious prophet seems likely to bring Turkey into WWI. The heroes must discover where he is, who he is, and how and why the whole thing is being staged by the Germans). That kind of thing might be one premise for an adventure - if anyone wants to play in a setting this dark.

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Side Trips

My theory is that your experiential past is written in stone. So no one can visit their own past.

We go to weirdo pasts that no one ever experienced.

Well, at least not until we get there.


This campaign is inspired by Larry Niven's The Flight of the Horse. Time machines are all unstable. They always skip to other happen tracks. Unanchored time machines are always lost, period. The PCs are in anchored time machines. Thus they go to alternative pasts or futures, but never their own past or future.

Basically, this is wild and woolley action comedy.
How's this different from Infinite Worlds (except sillier, by the sound of it)? I'm not sure I've seen "The Flight of the Horse".
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Old 12-03-2022, 06:40 AM   #2577
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How's this different from Infinite Worlds (except sillier, by the sound of it)? I'm not sure I've seen "The Flight of the Horse".
First, "The Flight of the Horse" is a book of short stories.

Second, the whole setting is simpler. You can't return to the places you've been. It's only exploration. And like the Niven short stories it's comedy.

Infinite Worlds is meant to be an awesome grand opera. Side Trips is beer and pretzels silliness.
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Old 12-03-2022, 07:33 AM   #2578
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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...

This reminds me a bit of John Buchan's Greenmantle. (If not familiar: a mysterious prophet seems likely to bring Turkey into WWI. The heroes must discover where he is, who he is, and how and why the whole thing is being staged by the Germans). That kind of thing might be one premise for an adventure - if anyone wants to play in a setting this dark.

...
The Ottomans (Turkey's precursor) was in WWI, did you mean WWII?
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Old 12-03-2022, 08:50 AM   #2579
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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The Ottomans (Turkey's precursor) was in WWI, did you mean WWII?
Greenmantle is set in WWI.
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Old 12-05-2022, 02:18 PM   #2580
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Good Fences

Carrhae used to be our enemy, or we were their preferred prey. They nearly crushed us, but the Tazzoult Merchantile Alliance conquered their home world while their fleet fought us. We each were broken backwaters after that.

But the Tazzoult saw no profit in us, so Garumna was left free. Free, but isolated from trade and our cities shattered. We had spaceflight before Vulcan but we were centuries behind the Federation when they offered us membership.

We jumped at the chance. Garumna has never been so prosperous and stable. But now the Carrhae are back. The Tazzoult Merchantile Alliance lost a major war and most of their captured worlds broke free.

But surely Carrhae knows that Garumna is part of the Federation and protected by Starfleet.

They do, it makes things worse.


Garumna is an isolated border world on the side of the Federation away from the Klingon and Romulan empires. They've long been content and productive members of the Federation. They are distinguished in art, letters, the physical and biological sciences, and in the design of recreational and educational games. They've been willing supporters of Starfleet but very few Garumnians ever serve in any military service, except when the Federation is attacked. Then the Garumnians serve loyally and with valor. But Garumna always said they joined the Federation to be free of war.

The Carrhaens are a warrior people, at least by culture and training. The Tazzoult Merchantile Alliance used them as shock troops and for occupation duty. The Carrhaens are now thoroughly sick of war. But the only way the Carrhaens know to establish governments is through the military.

Carrhae knows it can't beat Starfleet. They'd like to be conquered. Being conquered would free them from the burdens of honor and tradition. If they remain unconquered, the disgrace of not having conquered Garumna when they had completely destroyed the Garumnian fleet would be unbearable. Mass suicides are highly likely.

The Garumnians have proposed to bring Carrhae into the Federation. This would both make the border with the Tazzoult Merchantile Alliance more secure, and it could free the Carrhaens of the burden of tradition.

By any standard the Carrhaens are a poor choice for Federation membership. Added to that, the complex burdens of their systems of honor and duty make them asking for what they desperately want and need wildly difficult. Their religious scholars ( think of them as Cannon Lawyers, Mediums perform religious rites and ceremonies) fear losing all social standing if the Honor system is set aside.

Basically, this is a delicate diplomatic mission. Both agents of the Tazzoult Merchantile Alliance and the Carrhaen Religious Scholars will actively try to sabotage the negotiations.
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Last edited by Astromancer; 12-05-2022 at 02:21 PM.
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