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Old 06-25-2022, 04:42 AM   #5901
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

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Hmph. A simple mission that would help discover the reason this world's tech is so weird.

Have a disguised agent knock on the moonbase airlock door and introduce himself as an interstellar traveling salesman. Have him offer consumer goods (vintage 2000 with fancy electronics) and maybe some first-gen iPads. Said goods would have integrated spytech to allow Infinity to track where the tech goes and what's happening around it.
That would work on the tech, but how do you tackle the historical inertia?
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Old 06-25-2022, 05:02 AM   #5902
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That would work on the tech, but how do you tackle the historical inertia?
They get space travel but no spin-offs? You seriously think the two aren't connected? It reeks of Illuminati shenannigans!
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Old 06-25-2022, 04:29 PM   #5903
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They get space travel but no spin-offs? You seriously think the two aren't connected? It reeks of Illuminati shenannigans!
Where are the Illuminati hiding. Vienna is too obvious, which ironically makes it a cool hiding place. Are they in Zurich? The Swiss bankers were deeply respected on both sides and got away with murder. Would Zurich be the place to look?
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Old 06-25-2022, 05:41 PM   #5904
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

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Where are the Illuminati hiding. Vienna is too obvious, which ironically makes it a cool hiding place. Are they in Zurich? The Swiss bankers were deeply respected on both sides and got away with murder. Would Zurich be the place to look?
They're obviously hiding near-but-not-in all the world's capitals. Smaller towns where the movers-and-shakers go to do things they don't want in the newspapers, or where their families live.
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Old 06-30-2022, 05:17 PM   #5905
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Merlin-9* appears at first to be a copy of Merlin-1. However, quick testing revealed that Merlin-9 is No Mana: all examples of "magic" are instead psionics, the result of atomic radiation, or alien super-technology. (Technomancer/Atomic Horror. One might still want to use the actual magic system for ease of simulation: I've seen that example of "psionics" given in some product.)

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Old 06-30-2022, 06:20 PM   #5906
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Merlin-9* appears at first to be a copy of Merlin-1. However, quick testing revealed that Merlin-9 is No Mana: all examples of "magic" are instead psionics, the result of atomic radiation, or alien super-technology. (Technomancer/Atomic Horror. One might still want to use the actual magic system for ease of simulation: I've seen that example of "psionics" given in some product.)

* Let me know if this number has already been used.
There's a Pyramid vol 3 article for that: Magic as Psi, issue #29, pp16-18.
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Old 07-02-2022, 10:03 AM   #5907
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In Wells-5, HG Wells discovered Cavorite in time for everyone to build and use flying ships in WWI.
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Old 07-04-2022, 05:52 AM   #5908
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Byzantium-12

Byzantium -12 is a Q6 Low/Normal (70%/30%) Mana parallel. The divergence point isn't known yet but Byzantium has conquered the Persian Empire before Islam did. However, the Arab armies have still conquered Palestine and North Africa.

This Byzantium seems to be like a low key take on the Alexander Romances. Contacts between Byzantium and India are transforming both societies. Meanwhile the Arabs are exploring ways to get around Byzantium.

Centrum finds little of interest here, but they're still exploring. Homeline is interested in learning what this world knows about magic. The Cabal realizes that this parallel has a basic knowledge of the Decans! If Homeline discovers the secret of the Decans they could quickly become seriously powerful in magical terms and the Cabal would permanently lose their edge!

Basically, occult intrigue in an exotic medieval setting.
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Old 07-05-2022, 06:32 PM   #5909
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Scythe

The Scythe designation involves massive plagues. In this Q6 parallel a truly terrifying pestilence broke out in the late 17th century.

Asia was hardest hit, China, India, and Japan, all experienced governmental collapse. The Ottoman and Persian states were hit so hard they collapsed into fragments and haven't recovered in the century and a half since the plague. Europe was thrown into chaos. Transatlantic navigation stopped for two generations.

Because of the time lag involved in crossing the Atlantic in the late 17th century, other than Brazil and South America generally, the plague didn't get to the Americas.

Cut off from the old world the surviving colonies started to change. The English speaking colonies on the east coast of North America grew fastest. Cut off from the English crown, they drifted into being republics. Without foreign trade for a generation slavery was utterly unprofitable. A general abolition of slavery came about from total economic collapse of the plantation system.

The freed slaves and poor Whites were encouraged to settle the frontier, mainly as a buffer against Native Americans. Because the poor whites and freed slaves desperately needed each other to survive, racism and white supremacy never caught on in this America.

When the English went to check up on their North American plantations, they were appalled. Republics like Cromwell's Commonwealth thrived. The people manufactured most of their own goods and conducted independent diplomacy with the native peoples. Moreover, a general stink of Democracy hangs over the whole land. Worse, they conduct utterly unregulated trade with the Spanish, French and Dutch, colonies.

The British assumed that they could simply reassert control over their wayward plantations. They soon found out that the Americans saw little need to bow to a King they'd never even heard of. They had formed their own Continental Congress (which included Quebec, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and several Native American nations) and saw no use for the British parliament.

As Britain was both to weak to force control and involved in a long war in Europe they had to let America go their own way. But now Europe is peaceful and Britain is rich. The Crown shall reclaim its own!

Basically, England out to conquer the American States. The government of America is fairly weak and decentralized. Although the local year is 1847, the technology is more like 1790. Britain is industrializing. However, lacking a Napoleonic War to isolate Britain, France, the German states, the Dutch, and even the Americans (including some of the Southeastern US Native American groups) are also industrializing. So the fight is going to be complex.

Homeline wants to study this world. The Cabal is mainly focused on Asia and North Africa in this parallel. Meanwhile, Centrum wants an empire. They see a British conquest of America as the best option.

Just to liven things up. Since slavery is long dead in this America, a Swagman decided it wasn't wrong to introduce the Cotton Gin. The technology of a cotton gin isn't complex. Why they weren't invented earlier is a mystery. But the cotton gin is a powerful device. Already, American manufacturing, lead by cotton cloth and thread, is transforming America. Can Britain stop it?
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Old 07-12-2022, 04:54 PM   #5910
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Roma-23

This Rome, like Johnson's Rome has diverged. Unlike Johnson's Rome it got changed by a group of Swagmen. This Q5 Low Mana world was a close parallel to Homeline until a few decades before the meeting of Caesar and Cleopatra. At that time Maize, Bananas, Mulberries, and Cotton, were introduced into Egypt. Cotton cloth soon became a luxury good.

A few decades later the cotton gin, the spinning wheel, and sit down loom, were also introduced into Egypt. Meanwhile a wealthy merchant announced that he had the secret of silk. He gave the ruling Ptolemy silk cloth to prove it.

These technologies are slowly reworking Rome. The spinning wheel alone is transforming household economics (most homes produce thread in this period, the spinning of thread is a major symbol of womanhood in this period). Maize, because of its productivity, is also pushing big economic changes.

The Swagmen seem to have prevented the assassination of Julius Caesar. (He then went on a campaign to conquer Persia and died far from Rome). Thus the highly corrupt and unstable late Roman Republic is still in place.

Basically, espionage and social maneuver in the hyper corrupt Roman Republic as it goes slowly steampunk.

The Swagmen seem to think they'll do better in the Roman Republic than the Empire. They seem to have introduced the Moldbroad Plow into Gaul, the horsecollar and the horse shoe into Italy, and the box bellows into Greece. Grain production is rising steadily in the valley of the Rhone. The profitablity of local Italian agriculture is rising as more product can get to the markets quickly. Greek manufacturing is jumping in productive capacity.

Homeline wants to know who is doing what in this Rome. Meanwhile, the Cabal is enjoying this Rome. They're also beginning to realize that they could introduce paper and the printing press. This would cause more information to be put down in writing. Which would make researching the local mystics so much easier.
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