One thing I had imagined for my own setting was based on COMSTAR from the BattleTech universe. Telegraph communication in the late 19th century is still possible but quite different. Telegraph offices spring up everywhere, but they aren't connected by wires. Instead, a kind of Seer operates each telegraph station; a person writes out a message on a slip of paper, pays a fee, and the Seer cranks up the SpiriGraph, contacting a spirit to deliver the message to a particular SpiriGraph at another station. Of course, widespread use of this technology carries the consequence of SpiriGraph operators going mad....
So, I was thinking in terms of Dune which features a modified race of humans which communicate with the dead in this way. Each airship, for example, carries a Communications Officer which is a guy sitting at a typewriter & a SpiriPhone; his leg, by the way, is chained to the airship frame so when he falls to the floor in convulsions with his tongue lolling out of his head nobody else on the ship gets hurt. Of course, he's also relegated to the "SpiriPhone Shack" which is a tiny enclosed room adjacent but very separate from the bridge of the ship. But, with this Communications Office, the airship is able to access supernatural intelligence about the weather, enemy ships in the area, maybe even a hint of precognition. And I had imagined even certain deceased spirits linked somehow to certain ships. Anyway, it's certainly a very different setting than just a modified alternate history of our own world.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Speculative Timeline
For an alternate timeline we must begin in the 1880s when practical applications for electricity were being developed. By the 1890s we saw electric subway trains in London & the first hydroelectric power station in Niagra. Interesting, however, was the infrastructure of piped gas during this time--cities all had night lights supplied by natural gas, and most homes & apartments had gas supplied for lighting; it wasn't long before this infrastructure was replaced by electric wires, but let's consider that the gas supply & use could continue for a bit longer as it was so life would generally remain the same into the new century.
We could still see cars with internal combustion engines, only we're talking about diesel engines which don't require electric spark plugs. And it might be interesting to consider a car with kerosene headlamps.... The problem with the turn of the century is things were developing so fast. A telegraph network already encircled the globe operated with DC current; trans-atlantic telegraph cable was in place & working by the end of the American Civil War & in following decades was a big part of how Great Britain managed her huge empire, including India & parts of Africa. So, really, let's start with the ACW for possible twists in our timeline, a time when our respective NPCs were still boys....
1860: Early experiments with electric current never leave the lab setting as destructive results put laboratories in flames, and few scientists are mad enough to pursue such inquiries.
1864: The Carnival of Spirits opens in New York, which draws thousands of citizens curious about relatives killed on the battlefield to the advertised notion of speaking with the dead; show results in massive implosion which kills thousands & leaves a sinkhole of destruction in the city.
1865: New England secceeds from the Union, Texas secceeds from the Confederacy.
1866: ACW peters out, Union fragmented, Lincoln goes inexplicably mad (from exposure to telegraph operations) & is removed from power by Congress.
Fast forward 50 years: The British Empire dominates the globe. Slavery has come to an end in the Confederate States which remains largely an agricultural supply for GB. The Northern States still attract immigrants from Europe, mostly as a gateway to the gold fields of the West. There is some manufacturing in the North, but on a limited scale, mostly guns to supply the Empire or those rebellious to the Empire. The world is basically under the British thumb or fighting against it. Can we imagine a 20th century without America's Great White Fleet, the Spanish-American War actually the Spanish-English War? Is this too much alternate history?
We could still see cars with internal combustion engines, only we're talking about diesel engines which don't require electric spark plugs. And it might be interesting to consider a car with kerosene headlamps.... The problem with the turn of the century is things were developing so fast. A telegraph network already encircled the globe operated with DC current; trans-atlantic telegraph cable was in place & working by the end of the American Civil War & in following decades was a big part of how Great Britain managed her huge empire, including India & parts of Africa. So, really, let's start with the ACW for possible twists in our timeline, a time when our respective NPCs were still boys....
1860: Early experiments with electric current never leave the lab setting as destructive results put laboratories in flames, and few scientists are mad enough to pursue such inquiries.
1864: The Carnival of Spirits opens in New York, which draws thousands of citizens curious about relatives killed on the battlefield to the advertised notion of speaking with the dead; show results in massive implosion which kills thousands & leaves a sinkhole of destruction in the city.
1865: New England secceeds from the Union, Texas secceeds from the Confederacy.
1866: ACW peters out, Union fragmented, Lincoln goes inexplicably mad (from exposure to telegraph operations) & is removed from power by Congress.
Fast forward 50 years: The British Empire dominates the globe. Slavery has come to an end in the Confederate States which remains largely an agricultural supply for GB. The Northern States still attract immigrants from Europe, mostly as a gateway to the gold fields of the West. There is some manufacturing in the North, but on a limited scale, mostly guns to supply the Empire or those rebellious to the Empire. The world is basically under the British thumb or fighting against it. Can we imagine a 20th century without America's Great White Fleet, the Spanish-American War actually the Spanish-English War? Is this too much alternate history?
There is a good history book about the rivalry between the two men starting their respective power companies, although I had thought Tesla was the DC champion & Edison for the AC, and it was Edison's company which was victorious which was part of the reason why AC is the common method of current we use today. Although this could be my simplified remembrance of the book.
Anyway, the setting I had imagined was more fantastical rather than alternate history, so I like that your proposal uses the basic concept but with something new. But my original idea revolved around electromagnetic fields, the kind which are generated around any electric current despite power source--it's the electromagnetic field which opens a gap in the fabric of reality & allows 'bad things' from another dimension to peek through.
But, the really intriguing part of your proposal suggests that one man intends to open up these portals into another dimension while the other might think his method does something different or better when really it does about the same thing.
All right, but there are plenty of possibilities here. The first to suggest itself is the idea of rural electrification. Maybe the cities have already been electrified, but our story takes place in the rural Midwest where folks are concerned that everyone in the cities have gone completely mad: there are stories about mad operas in city performance halls, factories building great machines of war, music created by this electric current. And now the government wants to build power lines across the Midwest & bring this thing into our homes! Time to get out the shotgun.... I was going to say get in the truck, but without electricity our generic farmer would get on his steam tractor instead. Maybe too comical to work....
Anyway, the setting I had imagined was more fantastical rather than alternate history, so I like that your proposal uses the basic concept but with something new. But my original idea revolved around electromagnetic fields, the kind which are generated around any electric current despite power source--it's the electromagnetic field which opens a gap in the fabric of reality & allows 'bad things' from another dimension to peek through.
But, the really intriguing part of your proposal suggests that one man intends to open up these portals into another dimension while the other might think his method does something different or better when really it does about the same thing.
All right, but there are plenty of possibilities here. The first to suggest itself is the idea of rural electrification. Maybe the cities have already been electrified, but our story takes place in the rural Midwest where folks are concerned that everyone in the cities have gone completely mad: there are stories about mad operas in city performance halls, factories building great machines of war, music created by this electric current. And now the government wants to build power lines across the Midwest & bring this thing into our homes! Time to get out the shotgun.... I was going to say get in the truck, but without electricity our generic farmer would get on his steam tractor instead. Maybe too comical to work....
Steampunk??
Steampunk idea #101
Aaron described a world where electricity never developed because generating it let the "bad things" in. Be they cthulhu or demons or whatever, so steam was the main mojo everywhere. Very cool idea.
Game scenario idea
Game : SotC
Genre : Steampunk, twinged with horror
Format :3 linked scenarios, each suitable for con play alone, but run better in sequence.
Main antagonist : an evil version to Thomas Edison (1847-1931) inventor (specifically in this case looking at DC Current, that lets the bad things in). Insane, tainted by evil, overly powerful. Throw in something evil about either sound or video recording. Remember that Edison was a telegraph operator, and they used "spark generators? to transmit (early infection?)
Main NPCs - crazy Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) with his AC that may just save the world for real.
Needed :
Persistent villainous organization (at least one)
Overall plot for each episode, with meta-plot traveling through all 3.
Aaron described a world where electricity never developed because generating it let the "bad things" in. Be they cthulhu or demons or whatever, so steam was the main mojo everywhere. Very cool idea.
Game scenario idea
Game : SotC
Genre : Steampunk, twinged with horror
Format :3 linked scenarios, each suitable for con play alone, but run better in sequence.
Main antagonist : an evil version to Thomas Edison (1847-1931) inventor (specifically in this case looking at DC Current, that lets the bad things in). Insane, tainted by evil, overly powerful. Throw in something evil about either sound or video recording. Remember that Edison was a telegraph operator, and they used "spark generators? to transmit (early infection?)
Main NPCs - crazy Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) with his AC that may just save the world for real.
Needed :
Persistent villainous organization (at least one)
Overall plot for each episode, with meta-plot traveling through all 3.
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