New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

I'm not seeing what's new about it. It's still "Give the Americans a vast technological power boost then cope with the people disgruntled and frightened that the Americans got all the goodies and over the economic disruption but are really too powerless to do anything about it".

A) Two nations got the boost. You simply see one of the two as trivial or simply identical to the other.

B) The power boost is getting distributed far and wide. Cultural and social conditions of not only other nations, but also the US and Canada, determine how quickly the technology boost is absorbed, or whether it is absorbed at all.

C) Although the US and Canada seem more powerful, both nations have gained new internal conflicts and faultlines.

D) Inequality being magnified is a major feature creating conflict and disruption.

Your Alchemical X-Files idea is good. You could make it an entry into deeper weirdness.

[Astromancer]

To the Cradle Comes the Crow


The disease that struck in the mid 2020s was related to Covid but distinctive enough to require a new vaccine from the ground up. One thing was typical about this plague, it took mainly the old and children. Most of the economically developed democracies did fairly well, considering. The USA lost only about 20% of its over 70 year olds, and only 30% of its under five year olds. A poorer more disrupted nation like Russia lost about 45% of their over 55 year olds and about 50% of their under 12 year olds.

The world trade networks collapsed under the plague. This led to famines and economic collapses, these created conditions that further spread the plague.

It's now the year 2040AD. The plague has been eradicated. The world needs rebuilding. The PCs are with an NGO seeking out the desperate to rescue them. Another possibility is that the PCs are agents of the Western democracies working in the ruins of the Russian state looking for weapons of mass destruction in order to keep them off the black market. Either way, the world is far more dangerous and, even when you can call for help, they might not be able to get to you.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

To the Cradle Comes the Crow


The disease that struck in the mid 2020s was related to Covid but distinctive enough to require a new vaccine from the ground up. One thing was typical about this plague, it took mainly the old and children. Most of the economically developed democracies did fairly well, considering. The USA lost only about 20% of its over 70 year olds, and only 30% of its under five year olds. A poorer more disrupted nation like Russia lost about 45% of their over 55 year olds and about 50% of their under 12 year olds.

The world trade networks collapsed under the plague. This led to famines and economic collapses, these created conditions that further spread the plague.

It's now the year 2040AD. The plague has been eradicated. The world needs rebuilding. The PCs are with an NGO seeking out the desperate to rescue them. Another possibility is that the PCs are agents of the Western democracies working in the ruins of the Russian state looking for weapons of mass destruction in order to keep them off the black market. Either way, the world is far more dangerous and, even when you can call for help, they might not be able to get to you.

Further Notes:

A) In most things the Tech Level is a high TL8. There are exceptions. Medicine is a low TL9, especially immunology. Treatments for both obesity and baldness (both accidental discoveries while researching other issues) are cheap and effective. The first discovery has substantially improved health and life expectancy. The second is lambasted as a scandalous waste of money and resources (the drug is still super popular).

Materials called Enhanced Conductors have been developed. These materials, while not being Superconductors, have far lower electrical resistance than either copper or silver. One of these Enhanced Conductors is excellent for making cables from and has one Sixth the electrical resistance of Copper. This is leading to massive solar farms in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and the Republic of Western Libya. Nations as far away as Ukraine will be able to use this power source.

In most things, assume that if a technology is a best case scenario for 2030, then it is just coming out in 2040.

B) The demographic problems that most of the planet is facing was brutally exacerbated by the plague. Many populations feel that they can't renew their numbers and maintain their population. This despair is a self fulfilling prophecy. Yes, given where European demographics were in every nation except France, Sweden, and the UK, in 2020, it would take generations to get back to a stable balance. (Yes, this is a real world problem.) Further the unstable demographic situation will cause economic stagnation and misery. But none of that is equal to extinction. Despair could actually lead to populations to low to maintain their cultures. Most of the rest of the planet is worse off. The USA, New Zealand, India, Argentina, France, Sweden, Britain, and Mexico, are the developed and developing nations that have demographic situations that will be viable into the next century in our world. In this setting the demographic crisis is far worse.

C) Advanced medical facilities and programs of access to medical treatment tend to raise the age of special senior vulnerability and lower the age of child vulnerability. Nations with collapsed or non functional medical services suffered far worse from the Plague. The USA did as well as it did because of important expansions of Medicare and similar services. Nations like Denmark lowered the age of childhood vulnerability to three. Senior vulnerability rarely got pushed beyond seventy. Only Japan pushed the senior vulnerability period to seventy five. Somalia didn't have an age of childhood vulnerability above twelve, but senior vulnerability got down to forty-five.

More later....

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

To the Cradle Comes the Crow


The disease that struck in the mid 2020s was related to Covid but distinctive enough to require a new vaccine from the ground up. One thing was typical about this plague, it took mainly the old and children. Most of the economically developed democracies did fairly well, considering. The USA lost only about 20% of its over 70 year olds, and only 30% of its under five year olds. A poorer more disrupted nation like Russia lost about 45% of their over 55 year olds and about 50% of their under 12 year olds.

The world trade networks collapsed under the plague. This led to famines and economic collapses, these created conditions that further spread the plague.

It's now the year 2040AD. The plague has been eradicated. The world needs rebuilding. The PCs are with an NGO seeking out the desperate to rescue them. Another possibility is that the PCs are agents of the Western democracies working in the ruins of the Russian state looking for weapons of mass destruction in order to keep them off the black market. Either way, the world is far more dangerous and, even when you can call for help, they might not be able to get to you.

Further Notes:

D) The North American nations are the only countries with a stable economies. This is mainly because around fifty to sixty years earlier the American Baby Boomers had lots of kids ( the Millennials). In all other developed nations the equivalent of the Baby Boomers simply didn't have a lot of kids. (This is a real world thing).

Thus the American economy is very much inward looking. The USA is going through an isolationist phase. But it's seen by Americans as a period of repair and reassessment, not a basic condition.

More later.

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Most of the rest of the planet is worse off. The USA, New Zealand, India, Argentina, France, Sweden, Britain, and Mexico, are the developed and developing nations that have demographic situations that will be viable into the next century in our world. In this setting the demographic crisis is far worse.

So... Australia didn't get the COVID 2.0 plague, because we did our old trick of becoming the Hermit Kingdom of the South?

...or did we devolve into a balkanised mess of feuding semi-failed states?

...or something else?

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

So... Australia didn't get the COVID 2.0 plague, because we did our old trick of becoming the Hermit Kingdom of the South?

...or did we devolve into a balkanised mess of feuding semi-failed states?

...or something else?

There was another Emu War and now the Emus occupy Canberra. Also, Canada was conquered by Prizzly Bears.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

So... Australia didn't get the COVID 2.0 plague, because we did our old trick of becoming the Hermit Kingdom of the South?

...or did we devolve into a balkanised mess of feuding semi-failed states?

...or something else?

Actually, that was based on real world demographic patterns. Australia, according to the demographer I read (and he could be wrong/ignorant) , has an unstable demography. I.E. you guys aren't coming up with enough babies.

[Your comedy skit here] and get the young couples to have more kids.

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Actually, that was based on real world demographic patterns. Australia, according to the demographer I read (and he could be wrong/ignorant) , has an unstable demography. I.E. you guys aren't coming up with enough babies.

Compare our non plague immigration rates with our birth and death rates.

We took in no one in 2021; 300,000+ in 2023

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

Compare our non plague immigration rates with our birth and death rates.

We took in no one in 2021; 300,000+ in 2023

I did say the demographer I was basing this near future scenario on might have limitations.

He did suggest that the Antipodes and Southeast Asia would likely be a powerful and prosperous team.

[Astromancer]

What the Eye Arranges...

The brain study initiatives of the Obama administration combined with unexpected breakthroughs in cellular biology and nanotechnology strated to pay off in greater understanding of how nerves interacted with the body and its biochemistry. This led to a greater understanding of the feedback mechanisms of living flesh. Combined with the progress in immunology and microbial biology by 2035 flesh began to become surprisingly plastic.

Reconstructive surgery saw these breakthroughs come to the public attention first. By 2040 anybody willing to put in the effort and resources could have the body they desired. Obesity was eliminated among wealthier Americans by 2032 and in most other Americans by 2035. By 2040 sex change operations could provide full fertility. They were also fully reversible. Later it became a trend in certain communities to change one's physical sex every few years.

People could radically alter their appearance at will. When in 2053 a man chose to look exactly like Burt Lancaster the only reason for curiosity was, "Why a movie star from a century ago?"

Advances in material science, energy generation and transmission, robotics, A.I.(or A.I. adjacent programs), agronomy and space flight, made America fairly rich. By 2036, when the first functional anti-agathics were approved, old people were strongly encouraged to take these drugs to reduce medical costs to society at large.

It's now the year 2060 and Europe is just now pulling out of the long economic crisis caused by the demographic collapse of the 2020s. American technologies had been largely kept out of Europe by both economic stagnation and cultural conservatism gone into hyperdrive. Now American technologies are about to flood into Europe. Both the far right and the far left see European civilization as fragile and about to be crushed. Anyone more moderate or less panicked is the enemy!

Basically, this world is balanced between cyberpunk and cyberprep. Which it is depends on the world view of the individual. There are terrorists and reactionaries (of both the right and left) willing to kill to prevent the transformation of Europe.

The PCs might be agents fighting to protect society and democratic free choice. They could also be the terrorists or fanatics fighting to preserve the world exactly as it is or how you think it was. Mercenaries and hit-men are also great choices. Young technophilles enthusiastically embracing change and willing to fight for it also works.