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Old 02-28-2020, 07:25 AM   #1491
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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Would you?

For 65 million years these things have been confined to this remote refuge area so well no species of them has gotten out and been successful enough to leave traces in the fossil record anywhere. This is a long time for any isolation mechanism to hold up, even if it's an *ocean*, never mind a barrier confining something to [part] of a continent or island. For that matter it's time enough for a mammal lineage to evolve to fly. This suggests the dinosaurs that did get out must have be really bad at surviving the outside ecosystem. That sort of made sense with the old conception of dinosaur extinction, where they reason they all died out was being outcompeted by mammals, though the barrier holding up well enough to keep the mammals [out] then becomes the logic problem. It doesn't hold up so well when their doom is mostly a random result of a mass extinction, but I suppose it somehow has to be true if you actually find a refuge population.
Well I was going with something leftover from 17th century scientific speculations. Remember, the churches of that period rejected extinction as heretical. It specifically violated the words of the Bible. Because Martin Luther translated the word "Re'em as Unicorn, when he translated the Bible into German, all good 17th century Lutherans were required to believe in unicorns. German universities were sending out expeditions to Russia to find living unicorns in the 19th century.

While you are doubtless right, I think I was more fun.
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Old 03-01-2020, 02:06 PM   #1492
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Try this one...

While exploring in deep space probes or a planet with an active biosphere seem to discover lifeforms that are Earth like to incredibly fine detail. Further exploration discovers the world's have human inhabitants. You may pick your ethnic groups of choice, I'm going with the pre-Christian Celts.

When contact is made with the locals they're pleased to see outsiders. They claim to have been taken by the faeries about four centuries ago. As the world these people are on couldn't have naturally evolved this biosphere, and the local forests and buildings seem to have been in place for centuries at least, and FTL interstellar travel has only been possible for a few decades, this world is a massive anomaly.

Further, the local Druids, who claim they gave up their tabu on writing knowledge down because of threats from the faeries, violent threats, also claim to have been given extensive libraries of Roman and Greek books.

Who are these "faeries" and what is their interest in Earth?
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Old 03-02-2020, 11:04 AM   #1493
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Try this one...

Four nations manage to establish extrasolar colonies before a disaster with an experimental warp drive (rushed into production without proper checks by a nation desperate to regain glory) makes the sun flare up wildly and sterilize the Solar System. These nations are, the USA, China, India, and The East African Federal Union (the Federal Union for short).

Now hundreds of years later the different offshoots of humanity are reconnecting. Problems, oh yeah.

Each of the other three tend to see the people of the American colonies as irresponsible cowboys who are greedy, rash, impulsive, fools.

The American colonies meanwhile see themselves as tolerant and democratic but totally ignore how narrow minded they've become without contact with outside cultures.

The Indian Colonies are dominated by a Neo-Hinduism that takes the racial and racist elements of the caste system to unheard of levels.

The Chinese Colonies tend to see sovereignty as unitary, i.e. there can only be one sovereign state, THE CHINESE! They can't deal with diplomacy anymore.

The African colonies are somewhat paranoid and self-righteous (well all these groups are self-righteous in the extreme) because of their history.

The PCs are diplomats trying to restore the connections between Earth's survivors.
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Old 03-02-2020, 11:07 AM   #1494
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Note: All the faults are exaggerations of either historical trends or stereotypes reported by people inside the cultures in question. Please take whatever cultures and their faults you prefer and dial their weaknesses up to eleven or twelve.
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Old 03-03-2020, 12:49 PM   #1495
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Try this one...

Starting with the THS setting and adding a form of faster than light drive (pick whatever you think most realistic) with a general limit of ten light years per month of travel, and four years of transluminal flight per engine cumulative ( basically every four hundred eighty light years the engine needs a major overhaul in dry dock), have them discover and alternate Earth in space!

My choice for the Alternate Earth would be Lucifer-5 from the Infinite Worlds sourcebook. Just bring the setting ahead a few decades but avoid WWII or too much social change. Make the Lucifer-5 Earth TL7+4 and have the Transhuman Space folks have the Tech levels from those books ( TL 10 overall but TL 11 in biology and chemistry). Let the Lucifer-5 folks lag a bit in biology and have nothing like memetics.

Then just put the two Earths into a cold war.

If you'd like more complication, add Merlin-1 from the Infinite Worlds sourcebook. Let them be TL9 and have their magic be their equalizer.
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Old 03-03-2020, 05:51 PM   #1496
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Are you familiar with David Pulver's extension to THS, published in All-Star Jam? I think it was called Meridian, and it featured the addition of wormhole-based FTL — with interesting effects: Meridian is an interstellar culture linked together primarily by a railroad system: ride a Beanstalk up to and through a wormhole in geosynchronous orbit, then down a Beanstalk to the surface of your destination.
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Old 03-03-2020, 07:25 PM   #1497
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Are you familiar with David Pulver's extension to THS, published in All-Star Jam? I think it was called Meridian, and it featured the addition of wormhole-based FTL — with interesting effects: Meridian is an interstellar culture linked together primarily by a railroad system: ride a Beanstalk up to and through a wormhole in geosynchronous orbit, then down a Beanstalk to the surface of your destination.
It was a cool setting. It would be advanced over those I picked, but the lack of FTL drives would be a major balancing factor. Cool add in Dataweaver.
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Old 03-04-2020, 04:16 PM   #1498
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Try this one...

Powerful aliens want to connect with humans, they see us as having potential they can mold and use. They want partners not serfs however. Because they have serious issues with working as groups and societies (they used to be better but a long war with a hostile species has caused genetic injuries and they lack pre-war DNA for their species) they seek a cover that allows them to be weird and excused for it. Since these aliens have several times approached new species as mythic creatures from myth of the species approached, they decide to do that again. Since they feel they can get the best working link for them from the Americans and Europeans (they won't leave the others out but they think the Western Democracies are their best bet) they look to European myths.

For reasons that seem sound to them, these Aliens choose the Fairies. So...

It's January 21st 2028 and at the presidential inauguration Oberon and Mab step forward to greet the New President of the United States. After a huge fuss (and some teleporting, telekinesis, and illusion projections) people begin to accept that the fairies have returned!

Basically, it's advanced aliens manipulating humanity for what they see as our mutual benefit. Of course, just because they're well meaning doesn't mean they aren't dangerous. Just think of human history.

The goals, plans, ideals, and methods, of the "fairies" I leave up to you. Just always remember that in real Irish folk tales even well meaning Fairies can be utterly deadly.
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Old 03-04-2020, 08:30 PM   #1499
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Well, that's better than showing up and saying 'We are here to teach you how to be civilized,' which is certainly an option that 'helpful' aliens could go with.
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Old 03-05-2020, 06:41 AM   #1500
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Well, that's better than showing up and saying 'We are here to teach you how to be civilized,' which is certainly an option that 'helpful' aliens could go with.
Yes. These aliens may be loopy and unstable, in fact they are both of those things, but they aren't dumb. Foolish and crackbrained, yes. Dumb, no.
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