Alternate Dimensions

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 9:59 am

Nah...it will be the Great Squirrel Uprisings....

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:57 am

As long as Archie now being human knows not to share his double polariod shots. These shots he takes himself when he is going thru the oreck catalog.

As for the squirrel revolt. It ended when the squirrels took over the crunch and munch warehouse!

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:00 am

Alternate Robotech Earth: The Earth is liberated from the Invid, not by the REF, but by some other third-party stellar power...HUmanity's subsequent experience depends on who the new Liberators are...Tane, Kreeghor, Klingons, Olympian Gods.....

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 4:03 am

That is a very cool idea. Especially if it took humanity to rise again from the ashes. The ring would become part of the new mythology.

That is a nasty one potentially Taalismn!

The earth has a nuclear war. There are survivors. Humanity rebuilds and is totally changed by their near extinction level war. Every former enemy works together to allow man to rise above his previous position. Mankind spreads out across the universe after this.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 4:26 pm

vampire_hunter_D wrote:
taalismn wrote:The Earth is encircled, as long as anybody remembers/history records, by a massive artificial ring at geosynchronous altitude, and roughly about 2 miles thick...The appearance of this object throughout history skews perceptions of the heavens, leads to multiple religions, and beliefs...
Ultimately, a space race to see who is first to reach the Ring and discover its secrets breaks out on Earth...

you know, this idea sounds like a fusion of two sci-fi ideas I'd love to see combined. First, your basic post apocalyptic settign. Second, an idea for the now Late Arthur C Clarke about building space elevators up to a ring around the Earth.

What if we did build such elevators and a ring, but then civilization collapsed and the elevators fell? But hte Ring Remained. Hmm, sounds likea good seed for a story setting.

The Arc of Heaven....It was said in the past Angels lived there..
Actually, the BattleAngel Alita: Final Orders manga has something similar....not a true ring, but an Earth society cut off from space by ancient civil war...

The Ringdwellers could hang on to their advanced technology and turn their backs on Earth to exploit the solar system, or they could be trapped there by limited supplies of volatiles(and apathy) and have divergently evolved into beings of microgravity...

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 7:06 pm

Hmmm...Ring is two miles thick...plenty of room for maneuvering, but still....wars inside the Ring would be more of political maneuvering(you always try to be on good terms with the guys to your east and west borders, otherwise they might let somebody else from farther down the Ring thru their territory to take a whack at you...

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 2:17 pm

vampire_hunter_D wrote:I say 5 miles thick. But that's just me

Hey, go for it...Five miles it is indeed...PLENTY of space... :-D

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:35 am

Five miles thick. Not bad. Nice thought. How wide would you make the ring?

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:30 pm

I'd go with circular....That way one could use the cross section of O'Neil space colonies and Stanford Toruses for some idea of layout...upper portion of agricultural/'open air' areas, lower levels drainage and support/industrial...

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:44 pm

So five miles in diameter! Ok. Sounds great. Hopefully it would have artificial gravity provided by some sort of generator. Rotating setions would be out unlike a O'Neal class station.

KLM · Unread post by **KLM** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:42 am

Hi!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-structure_constant

especially these parts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-struc ... onstant.3F
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-structure_constant

Adios
KLM

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:16 pm

Yeah, it would work. Very cool!

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:04 pm

Now...how much spacetraveling capacity will the 'Ringies' still have?
Or do they tap atmosphere by letting down tethers into the atmosphere and piping it up(along with possibly water)?

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:15 am

Instead of the solar system circling the sun. It actually revolves around earth like the early christian religions said.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 5:59 pm

Aramanthus wrote:Instead of the solar system circling the sun. It actually revolves around earth like the early christian religions said.

That's going to lend itself to some planetary egomania..
How about suns only revolve around worlds capable of sustaining life...All other planetary systems follow the normal Newtonian model...

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 10:50 pm

That is a great addition Taalismn! At least it would be easy to spot them out in the universe easier.

A probe of Mankind reaches a hyper advanced starship which is hidden and mostly dormant within the asteroid field. The ships sensors detect the probe and activates. It approaches earth and humanity becuase they have finally reached the level of technology to accept the ship. As the ship approaches if sends a message to the earth. The message reaches all of humanity, but it turns out to be for one human in particular. The ship which dates back the point of creation has been waiting for the individual for hundreds of years, since it's last partner passed away of extreme old age.
The world isn't sure what to make of this situation. The person volunteers to go with the ship. The family of the person grieve for this person, but they still are going to leave with the ship. The ship makes a promise to periodically return to earth to visit relatives. The person departs with the ship to travel to the stars for their fully extremely extended lifespan.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 11:13 am

Persons with Down's Syndrome or other mental development disorders are found to have psychic abilities....This bceomes public knowledge, leading to a number of problems...People growing noticeably more polite around the mentally disabled, or extremely paranoid...governments seeking to figure out how best to exploit these capabilities, and those seeking to protect the mentally retarded/developmentally challenged from exploitation..
Basically, it's the 'weak get empowered' and 'those society generally looks aside at suddenly become even less like the rest of us" scenario...

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 2:03 pm

The Marquis de Saade lives a life of no importance or interest aside from being just another moderately wealthy low-level aristo who noodles away his time in pursuit of trivial enterprises...

The dubious honor of having a lifestyle of pain and sex named for them goes instead to an eccentric (some lay depraved) Englishman by the name of Dan-Arthur Twink...

As a result, 'Twinkees' takes on an ENTIRELY different meaning in history....

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:02 am

Excellent alternate universe!

These self contained systems are found to have several ways to travel to different self contained systems at a lagrange points.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:37 pm

vampire_hunter_D wrote:
Aramanthus wrote:Instead of the solar system circling the sun. It actually revolves around earth like the early christian religions said.

And the stars are in fact a spherical field surrounding the Terrasystem. However, astute astrologers have noticed deformities in teh sphere. Signatures of it's contact with another, nearby Terrasystem.

...and it's bigger than ours...and more massive...Either our bubble is going to burts under the strain, or we're going to go slinging off at high speed...where?

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 9:48 pm

Just no one mix in some old nuclear waste. Or else we'll end up with a "Space 1999 for our entire system! I'm not sure if Martin Landeau is up too the role of Commander Konig any more.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:38 pm

Nah...wouldn't worry about it...it's the sudden stop at the end you should be concerned about...

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 2:37 am

"And it's a long putt by god and the solar system is heading straight towards the black hole. And it goes stright into the maw of the black hole. And god wins the tournment."

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 2:17 pm

Yaweh and Lucifer debate human history and the fate of humanity on live national television...50% of viewers think it's a comedy skit...

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:38 am

It would get higher ratings than a political debate!

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 6:23 pm

The Diary of Anne Frank has a happy ending(Allied armies roll into the concentration camps early)...Another Voice of the Holocaust comes to the forefront to represent the human tragedy(admittedly, this wouldn't have had any real long term changes to the world, because there were so MANY personal stories that were like hers,,,but then again, if the Allies had liberated Bergen-Belsen in February of 1945, before the March typhus outbreak, at least 17,000 internees might have survived..and that would have been 17,000 snatched from the jaws of death...a victory by any definition)

Sorry..kinda grim, but I think of the works that define our age and thought, and The Diary keeps popping into my mind...

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 1:32 am

That was a great one Taalismn! Very touching!

Hitler goes to an early concentration camp to see what they are like. He is so horrified with his creation he does several things. First he closes all of the concentration camps. Second he authorizes the surrender of Germany to the Western Allies. Thirdly he turns himself over to the British and Americans to be tried for his crimes against humanity. A few days after his personal surrender Joesph Stalin is assassignated by his generals for all of his unfounded earlier culling of the Soviet forces.

LostOne · Unread post by **LostOne** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 8:48 am

Ghandi was a bloodthirsty warlord.

The Bible (or Koran or other religious text) was never written or their respective religion never gained popularity.

Japan never bombed Pearl Harbor, so the US never nuked Japan.

A massive asteroid strike the moon, shattering both. Debris rains down over the planet over the course of months/years. Without the moon the ocean tides stop.

A sudden global change/catastrophe causes the polar regions to shift.

The Sun goes into a radically new and unpredicted phase of its life, intense solar winds bombard the planet 24/7, burning out electronics on the surface. The only way to use electronics now is if they are deep underground such as in the lower levels of NORAD-like facilities.

The Sun goes into a radically new and unpredicted phase of its life as it suddenly begins collapsing into a black hole. The Earth is doomed, it has months/years before the event horizon reaches Earth and time freezes on it for all practical purposes. The planet must be evacuated (or at least key members of the planet, top scientists, leaders, choice breeding stock, etc). Once the news gets out, mass hysteria leads to rioting, suicides, and a breakdown of all lawful order on a global scale almost overnight.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 3:51 pm

Sun temporarily goes out, and large bright letters appear on it:
TEMPORARILY SHUT DOWN FOR ROUTINE MAINTENANCE AND IRON ASH REMOVAL. EXPECTED START-UP IN FIFTEEN DAYS. APOLOGIES FOR THE INCONVENIENCE

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 3:48 am

ROFLMAO!!! Great ones!

Some alien race shows up over earth and tells humanity that it has to go. It is the rightful owner and there here to repo it!

LostOne · Unread post by **LostOne** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 12:13 pm

Spaceship begin flying over various parts of the world and each time some aliens (5-10) jump out and float to the ground (presumably some kind of anti-grav equivalent of a parachute). Is this an invasion? If so it is poorly planned as the aliens are being sent unarmed and are disorganized.

Turns out that an alien society has decided to turn Earth into a penal colony. Earth is the only planet within range of the homeworld that is capable of sustaining their race. What happens to the inmates on Earth, or the populace of Earth, is of little concern to their homeworld. All the inmates are aliens convicted of "life" or "death row", so there are some truly sick and violent aliens getting dropped.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 8:10 pm

LostOne wrote:Spaceship begin flying over various parts of the world and each time some aliens (5-10) jump out and float to the ground (presumably some kind of anti-grav equivalent of a parachute). Is this an invasion? If so it is poorly planned as the aliens are being sent unarmed and are disorganized.

Turns out that an alien society has decided to turn Earth into a penal colony. Earth is the only planet within range of the homeworld that is capable of sustaining their race. What happens to the inmates on Earth, or the populace of Earth, is of little concern to their homeworld. All the inmates are aliens convicted of "life" or "death row", so there are some truly sick and violent aliens getting dropped.

OLd "Outer Limits" had an episode called the 'Xanti Misfits' about this...hand-sized stop-motion puppet aliens resembling giant ants with human faces are dumped in the American west where they terrorize a small town...Turns out their landing ship is a prison barge and they've been sent to Earth to be 'dealt with'.

MrTwist · Unread post by **MrTwist** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 7:19 am

The Archives

You exit the rift into a street, with four roads branching out. In all directions, all you can see is more road stretching past the horizon. At each corner is a building with a single set of doors. How many floors are in each building is determined randomly it seems, from one to four. With each floor is a large room with five unbreakable glass cases.

Each glass case holds an object on display. This object might be as simple as an axe, or as complicated as a hand-held fusion reactor. As you begin to explore, you start to put the idea of randomness behind you because the items you encounter behind those glass enclosures seem to represent the world you came from and the advancement of science over time in those worlds.

If you came from Rifts earth to here, what you would see in the closest buildings seems like a history lesson in simple wood crafting. As you delve further away from the rift along the various roads and into the various buildings, you'd notice a progression in technology as it happened over time. If you investigated every building over a thousand square blocks(each block containing another four way intersection and four buildings), you'd see every direction takes you on a different path. One way leads more towards war, while another leads towards medicinal advancements.

There are no streets signs or any kind of indication of direction. Any marks you attempt to make are erased as soon as you aren't paying attention. While the roads are just SDC concrete, any marks made by very heavy vehicles disappear very quickly and always while you're not looking. The sky overhead is greyish but light from an undetermined source seems to be everywhere.

Each glass case containing an object has a small pedestal in front of it with a small bronze plate with engravings. Touching the plate makes the engravings on the plate change into what seems a lot like a history lesson of the item appear in whatever language you can read. Above the bronze plate is a bronze disk a little bit bigger than the item behind the glass. Some people who have visited here in passing swear that the bronze disk above the description will manufacture a perfect copy of the item if only the right words to trigger it are known.

Another interesting rumor about the archives is that supposedly mystical artifacts are also present here. There have been supposed advances in techo-wizardy from visitors who have wandered far enough to find artifacts from a universe that is very far advanced and combines magic and technology.

MrTwist · Unread post by **MrTwist** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 7:46 am

Paradise?

This universe reacts to thought and reworks itself to thought. Until the arrival of you and your team, it existed by viewing other realities. There is an earth, and you are on it. If only you existed here you would be in heaven, because now it has various other minds to define itself by.

All it wanted was some other force to define it and help it understand why it was conscious. Now it has multiple minds and infinite power. Every dream your characters had exists here in reality. But the sudden influx of sentient influences only means there needs to be some kind of conflict between them to determine dominance. This universe is sentient, but it is just a child.

This would be a tough place for someone to GM since it really depends on your players to make it work. As much, or more than the players, you need to really know what the characters want out of life to use this universe.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 1:55 pm

A large chunk of Ontario, several large alien ships, and several transformable fighters appear on the Palladium World...their technology DOES work..
Several centuries later, Ben Dixon's descendants start searching for Earth...

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 6:59 pm

Darkmax wrote:who's Ben Dixon?

Robotech: the 3rd member of Vermillion Squadron, better known as Hayao Kakizaki in the original Macross...When the SDF-1's Barrier Shield gets overloaded and explodes while flying over Ontario Quadrant, wiping out a large swath of inhabited landscape, Ben's too late to boost out of the radius of destruction..His Valkyrie is seen breaking up and disintegrating...but here, I postulate that instead of a nuclear explosion, the incident instead dimensionally transposed everything caught in its path to another dimension...

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 2:12 pm

taalismn wrote:A large chunk of Ontario, several large alien ships, and several transformable fighters appear on the Palladium World...their technology DOES work..
Several centuries later, Ben Dixon's descendants start searching for Earth...

What I kinda got in mind here is something similar to Eric Flint's 'Ring of Fire' series with the town of 20th century Virginia Grantville being deposited in the middle of Germany during the Hundred Years' War...Only it's Toronto, UWG, with a fifty-mile diameter swath of territory, a few dozen Veritech fighters, and at least five Zentraedi ships, deposited somewhere on the Palladium Fantasy World...

Now the question is...where to deposit them? The Eastern Territory is ideal...but we rarely get ideal situations...the middle of the Old Kingdom, surrounded by monster races? Maybe on the islands of Phi or Lopan in the middle of the Inner Sea(where a fifty mile circle of displaced land would do a LOT of damage)? Maybe theWestern Empire whrere they come under constant attack by corrupt kingdoms, or the Great NOrthern Wilderness, where the Wolfen roam...

The Torontonians can use technology(it appears unaffected), but a small percentage of the population exhibits psychic abilities...Without looking a map and info on Toronto, I can't tell you what resoucres they have, or military bases...or what sort of military gear they're likely to have post Global Civil War/UWG Defense Initaive...additional mecha would be too much to hope for, but they MIGHT have some armored vehicles for security purposes...

The Zentraedi ships are the big danger...They're all MALE, and from Khyron's Botaru Battalion, so they're likely to be pretty mean-tempered, even without Khyron in charge(he bugged out before the shockwave hit his ship)...They're likely to do some slash and burn before trying to carve out their own kingdoms, and captruing at least one of the ships for its technology will be a project for the displaced Torontonians, if only to have some sort of viable defense if the other ships come back...

Besides the power of technology, the newcomers become valuable for other reasons...Local alchemists discover that a few drops of Zentraedi blood in a Size of Behemoth potion DOUBLES its effects(size, strength, duration, and speed x10), and wonder what ELSE might come of using Zentraedi body parts as components in spells...Necromancers are eager to get ahold of a giant corpse...
Of course, when the Zentraedi start exhibiting magical potential, it gets REALLY interesting...

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 2:55 pm

Darkmax wrote:I vote for Eastern Territory

Safest place to be...we can always have a Western Empire army or Orcish horde come from afar to claim it, figuring the mileage is worth the prize...though the Timiro Kingdom is also a possibility, with its rich economy...

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 3:17 pm

Damn...just checked a map....even assuming the SDF-1 is ambushed south-west of Toronto, it's still not enough to have London, Ontario, fall inside the circle of devastation/trsnposition...
London, Ontario, is where General Motors Defense has a major plant for the 8x8 LAV in the real world...And probably in the Robotech world, where they build the 'Weasel' and 'Ferret' armored cars...

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 3:25 pm

Darkmax wrote:underground installations?

They'd have to be closer to Toronto, or else the SDF-1 moving to get over the Great Lakes to draw the Zentraedi away from populated areas...would be easier to head for Lake Erie, but that would bring the fight closer to the populated American North East...
Having a KNOWN military vehicle factory in the SDF-'Ring of Fire' would be nice to have in the Palladium world

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 5:40 pm

Interesting alternate universes everyone! Adding on to Taalismn's one.

Another one.

Encompassing both Rifts and a world within Phase World from the CCW. Due to rifts activities sections of Rifts earth NA disappears and reappears on Palladium Fantasy world. A planet from CCW exchanges some of it's surface because of a Rift it's exchanged with Palladium Fantasy world. Adding to the section which contained Robotech. Thereby making Palladium Fantasy world a unique world mixed with Ultra tech.

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:50 pm

Palladium fantasy areas Rifted to Rifts earth! The western empire disappears there and reappears here on Rifts earth.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 9:05 pm

Darkmax wrote:hmm... but would it matter... if the GM facility is nearby, it could be burned downed and become a scrap yard...

Possibly, but tools and material could still be salvaged...PROVIDED it was part of the region that was teleported to the Palladium Fantasy World along with the rest of the area...

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 9:06 pm

Aramanthus wrote:Interesting alternate universes everyone! Adding on to Taalismn's one.

Another one.

Encompassing both Rifts and a world within Phase World from the CCW. Due to rifts activities sections of Rifts earth NA disappears and reappears on Palladium Fantasy world. A planet from CCW exchanges some of it's surface because of a Rift it's exchanged with Palladium Fantasy world. Adding to the section which contained Robotech. Thereby making Palladium Fantasy world a unique world mixed with Ultra tech.

Jigsaw planets!

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 9:08 pm

Aramanthus wrote:Palladium fantasy areas Rifted to Rifts earth! The western empire disappears there and reappears here on Rifts earth.

I vote it as a new continent off California(plays merry hell with the ocean currents, but hey...).

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 3:33 am

Sounds like a great suggestion both of you!

LostOne · Unread post by **LostOne** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:49 am

taalismn wrote:OLd "Outer Limits" had an episode called the 'Xanti Misfits' about this...hand-sized stop-motion puppet aliens resembling giant ants with human faces are dumped in the American west where they terrorize a small town...Turns out their landing ship is a prison barge and they've been sent to Earth to be 'dealt with'.

I hate it when old TV shows filmed before I was born plagiarize my ideas.

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 4:19 pm

Don't worry LostOne! No matter where we go those story plots have been done somewhere. But luckily we can twist them until they are original again.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 6:02 pm

LostOne wrote:
taalismn wrote:OLd "Outer Limits" had an episode called the 'Xanti Misfits' about this...hand-sized stop-motion puppet aliens resembling giant ants with human faces are dumped in the American west where they terrorize a small town...Turns out their landing ship is a prison barge and they've been sent to Earth to be 'dealt with'.

I hate it when old TV shows filmed before I was born plagiarize my ideas.

Episode 174: "The Copyright"...An aspiring sci-fi writer finds all his manuscripts, written in total isolation, have all been already published, VERBATIM, by another writer several decades previously...the poor guy goes mad after increasingly hostile rejection notices by publishers about the consequences of passing off another author's work as his own...

Actually, as I write this, I realize that there actually WAS a short story(may have been a Larry Niven short) that dealt with this very idea...it was written in the form of correspondances between the writer and various publishers..and concludes with the writer trying to write a story about the idea of a past writer peeking into the future and stealing ideas..only to discover that somebody had already done that idea...

Vicious Circle and Time Travel Sucks, no?

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 6:10 pm

Our current day Earth gets caught in a cross-dimensional war between techn-magica-wirleding factions of Elves and Dwarves...Only the Elves are Nazi-like racial supremacists and the Dwarves are Stalinist Communists...about the only thing they share in common is that the 'inferior races' must be exterminated, which they do in the process of their vicious campaigns against each other...

Taking a WW2 analogy farther, in their home land, the Draka-Elves are aligned with the Oni of Japan(who are currently wiping out the civilized Goblins and Kobolds of China)..Meanwhile, the Elves have enslaved the Faerie-folk of France and are exterminating the rather more mild-mannered Orcs(representing just about everybody else in Europe/America)..The Ogres of Britain have held out briefly, but they're now on the run...And the few humans are regarded as a backward race, sharing a status with the Troglodytes similar to that of Jews and Gypsies in Nazi Germany/Stalinist Ukraine...