New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

"The Flowers that Bloom in the Spring..."

We've got to stop them!

Why? If the peasants can grow more corps and raise more Cattle we can be paid more taxes. Besides, have you seen silk? Mulberry trees could make us rich!

Or get us killed! The Red Weeds kept the peasants under control. They had to constantly struggle just to feed themselves.

Yes, unending constant struggle.
The blight that's killing the Red Weeds is a blessing. Now the peasants can become comfortable and we can become rich.

If the peasants become comfortable, why would they need Lords? Or tolerate us?

Vast fields have changed from dull red to vivid green. They say the black rot that is killing the Red Weeds (the native "plants" of the planet Cycnus) was created in one of those hidden tech enclaves South of the river Rhea Silva. Once the black rot causes spots on the Red Weeds earth plants can grow near them and crowd them out. Earth plants actually need less water, sunlight, and good soil, to thrive.

More later...

Another way to play this setting is competing visions of the good.

Picture group A) we'll call them the Levellers. They are radical egalitarians. They reject most social norms. They go off and form a community of their own deep in the Red Weeds. They reject hierarchy for networks of equals. They reject marriage for communal childrearing (although they respect pair bonds). Most forms of social order are examined and if they don't seem to have a purpose rejected. (Mind you these folks backtrack now and then, but the Levellers say "mistakes are how you learn.")

There are other communities in the deep Red Weeds that abandoned the Lords but not the norms of their faith. This group we'll call the Seekers.

The Seekers see the Levellers as dangerous radicals that will force the church to call a holy war against them all. The Levellers see the Seekers as wannabe Lords.

It's easy to imagine the fight between these groups.

[Astromancer]

The Greener Grass

Why are we going to New Pittsburgh to find the duke's heir?

Before the duke's three sons died in that cattle raid this kid was just the child of a discarded concubine.

But why's a slave in New Pittsburgh?

She wasn't a slave she was a freeborn girl. When her parents died her grandma took her and her siblings and some cousins and went to join up with the Americans. The grandma couldn't provide for the kids but knew that the Americans would take in healthy children especially a new born and a fertile young woman. The duke's grandchild was born in New Pittsburgh. We only know it's a healthy boy because the grandma sent word back.

This setting takes two post-apocalyptic settings and brings them together. The first is the neo-primitive setting typical of novels like Day Break 2250 AD and Riddly Walker and the shellshocked society that has retained its technology and culture at a price like Creation of the Humanoids or Rock and Rule. Basically the United States gone through a period of dissolution caused by a series of nuclear and biological wars. Certain sections of the USA have retained its culture and technology, mainly California and the West Coast and the northeastern USA and the general Great Lakes area. Meanwhile the southeast and the Rocky Mountain west are a TL4 neo-feudal society with slaves and hereditary nobles.

For a long time the American Republic (as the parts of the nation that retained democracy and technology called themselves) was disunited, poor, and uncertain in purpose. This allowed the Dukedoms to rule much of the nation unopposed. However, the American Republic is going through a period of renewal and growth. As of yet the Dukedoms aren't aware that the balance of power has changed. But they soon will understand that.

The PCs are a group of Bounty Hunters from a dukedom in what used to be Arkansas. The Duke needs the child of his second son by a woman that son had forced into his harem and gotten pregnant. When the duke's son discovered that the young woman could read he kicked her out.

The woman's grandmother had connections and skills and got in touch with agents of the American Republic. Because of low fertility in this world, a healthy pregnant woman, and several healthy children were acceptable as new citizens of the Republic. The Grandmother, being a skilled seamstress and embroider, was also accepted.

The improved medical care and nutrition (the American Republic is TL9, because of poverty and social disruption it doesn't have everything that tech level would imply, but it is rapidly improving ) has greatly improved the grandmother's health. She misses her grandchildren but is delighted to garrentee them a better and safer future.

The problem for the PCs coming from the impoverished neo-feudal society is to navigate a rapidly growing and changing democracy and find the Duke's grandson. By now the child is five and would have been adopted as an infant and raised as a normal child of a TL9 society.

The PCs will have to use cunning and tact to find the child. And even more skill to take the child back to the duke's court.

[Astromancer]

Another take on the "Greener Grass" setting might be to set it about thirty years forward when the American Republic areas are getting the benefits of a tech level nine society including improved transport and the Dukedoms are struggling to retain independence.

The American Republic won't allow itself to be attacked but it's working to peacefully absorb the Dukedoms. The Dukedoms know they have lost. They've neither the technology, the economy, nor the military to resist. Worse their people generally vote with their feet for a better life. Still, the elites of the Dukedoms are trying for a soft landing.

If you think this is a game without prizes, just compare the fate of the English aristocracy to that of the Russian aristocracy. The game is for existence and dignity.

[9sholmes]

Speaking about Sci-Fi stuff, what happened to the Mark Wahlberg rumors about him becoming the Six Billion Dollar Man?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by 9sholmes

Speaking about Sci-Fi stuff, what happened to the Mark Wahlberg rumors about him becoming the Six Billion Dollar Man?

I don't know. But it would up public awareness of prosthetics.

[Astromancer]

Here's an idea. Picture a group of aliens contacting the governments of Earth to set up trading posts. These aliens aren't evil per se, but they are opportunistic in a similar way to 18th and 19th century British merchants. If the nation is stable, they'll trade and seek advantage. If they see instability, they'll try to take over.

The political and espionage games would be lively.

You'd need to define what the aliens want (after all they could strip mine the moon and no human could stop them) and why they need to deal with us humans at all. You'd also need to define what the Aliens offer, and why no one says no.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

You'd also need to define what the Aliens offer, and why no one says no.

That last bit not so much. The reason it was sometimes an issue for colonial powers was the people saying no were the only source of something. These days there really aren't many unique products that are never exported. As long as [somebody] says yes, you end up with money that you can use to just buy whatever you wanted from an import/export company anywhere on the planet. Unless the aliens want something all or almost all groups refuse to sell ("Who do these human governments think they are, restricting the natural right of any parent to sell their children as food animals?!!") it's just not a problem.

[PTTG]

Civilizing mission....

"You poor apes don't know how to live properly, but we'll help. You must learn the five noble arts- fire sculpting, agonized meditation, poetry, shell carving, and dance. Your crude native arts might make for interesting curios, but of course they're hardly civilized.

We obviously believe in valuing your native beliefs, but we are obliged to favor those who adopt Xibbluiek the Ever-Dying, the true creator of the cosmos.

Most importantly, your experiments with machine intelligence must stop immediately. Not only does Xibbluiek frown on such things, we have seen too many young civilizations burn themselves terribly with machine minds. So, please prepare for our inspection teams in the coming days to ensure such forbidden research has ended.

As a means of exchange, you may certainly keep your currency. But we will be dispensing our own credit in exchange for use of land and labor. You can exchange it among yourselves or return it to our agents for access to our technology."

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by PTTG

You poor apes don't know how to live properly, but we'll help. You must learn the five noble arts- fire sculpting, agonized meditation, poetry, shell carving, and dance. Your crude native art might be an interesting curio, but it will have to go.

We obviously believe in valuing your native beliefs, but we are obliged to favor those who adopt Xibbluiek the Ever-Dying, the true creator of the cosmos.

I honestly find it hard to believe that anyone who opens with "Painting has to go" would follow that up with "It's OK to believe in different religions, even if they're clearly wrong"

I also imagine there's going to a lot of death along the way, so there's that.

[PTTG]

Yeah I rephrased it. It's supposed to be a logical progression from least to most serious commands.

You'll find a situation where they'll do barely any invading at all. But they will bribe people into adopting their culture, religion, laws, and currency, then have those agents go to war for them.

Note also that they DO hate AI, and that includes something as simple as a vision system or generative text system. They need workers, and can actually use human labor.

And of course, they aren't a monolith. Some are likely to feel like humans can never properly worship Xibbluiek, since they are too fragile for the annual rituals. Meanwhile other aliens will have tasteful collections of pre-contact religious icons and argue that Christ was no more or less than an aspect of Xibbluiek translated into a form that humans would understand.

One cool subtext: the aliens certainly believe that AI is too dangerous even for them to touch. Perhaps underground AI research programs might exist on Earth under the assumption that the aliens are wrong and humans with AI partners might overthrow them - or that they are right, and if humans can't have earth, nobody gets it.

Aside from the AI restriction, the precepts of the invaders are entirely voluntary, but one can easily see how soon many regions will cargo-cultishly ape them in order to gain favorable status, even if there is no formal order to do so.