Alternate Dimensions

[taalismn]

Thanks...the idea of 'What if the Atlanteans HADN'T screwed up and unleashed a bunch of psychopathic cyborgs on the megaverse?' was just too good to pass up...and it meshes so well with my Good Splugorth take.
Naturally, these 'Good' empires are on the other side(relatively speaking) of the Megaverse...because if they ever met with their canon relatives...well, the Minion War would look like a private school athletic rivalry in comparison.

[taalismn]

Don't know if it would be really worth a Rifter article...typically, a Rifter scenario has to have some fate-worse-than-death opposition; being assimilated/eaten/ripped apart by a demon/alien, beat up/shot by fascist or terrorist thugs or gangers.

'Running for your freedom and independence from the lap of luxury' just doesn't cut it for dramatic conflict.

And I can draw too.

[taalismn]

The Good Mechanoid setting can be basically played out with the original/AbMchanoids from Rifts: Mechanoid Invasion...the Mechanoids are unlikely to mess with their original design much(hey, they're successful, why mess with it any more) unless they had a run in with some other galactic power that necessitated some serious upgrades to their design.
The GMechs COULD make more attractive humanoid cyborg frames, but as integration with their creators' society has progressed, the Atlantee Republic(need a better name?) has come around to a bizarre esthetic idea; the Mechanoids' obvious non-humanoid appearance is actually coming to be REASSURING to the humans. It's a reminder that the Mechanoids that the humans look to increasingly for guidance are not subject to the same corruptive influences as normal human leaders; they can't be bribed(with what?), seduced(not that some people aren't turned on by the whole cyborg thing), drugged or made drunk, and they're fair and impartial. While the Gmechs might have a few aesthetc changes, and have certainly created robots for good looks where working around humans, their obviously mechanical minions out on the rim project a solid strength and mass-produced unity to the enemies of the Republic.
For the most part, the Republic citizens are happy, safe, and secure, and granted the resources and leisure to pursue their hobbies and own research, bolstered and backed by their Mechanoid partners. This has led to a certain complacency and detachment from events("Oh, we just had a galactic war?" #Yes, a species calling themselves the Kittani just tried to invade our worlds. Not to worry, though, we drove them off, then nuetralized their industrial capabilities on their worlds so they cannot pursue further hostilities.# "Oh, that's good! Now, what's fishing on the Penninsula going to be like?"
It also means that while original research is going on, even among the humans, there's some foolhardiness in it("Ewww...'Applied Demonology'! I wonder if there's anything to this? We should set up a Summoning Circle like it says in these ancient texts and give it a try!"#I'll appropriate space for the ceremony and arrange for the proper materials to be gathered, Professor...It might be a good idea to have some security robots on hand too. This somehow seems dangerous.#"Good idea, good idea. I should have thought of that.")

For those who want to play it as just as bad as with Evil Mechanoids, then the Atlantee Republic is a tyranny in white; the people are happy and healthy, their cyborg caretakers polite and well-mannered, but they're psi-cops in metal. The Gmechs won't kill humans except in the most extreme cases, but they'll certainly incarcerate, psi-scan, drug, psycho-manipulate, mind-wipe, or nueral-cybernetically lobotomize crfiminals(or those they deem disruptive of society), or seal them away in stasis until some future date when they can be 'cured'. Mechanoid Brains are working on identifying the 'happy gene' in humans, and conducting bizarre experiments on how best to activate it and amplify it, so future generations of humans are unburdened by the ills of depression and the like. Others are promoting something akin to Rifts Mindwerks; everybody gets with a brain chip that monitors well-being and emotional state; an emergency summons help that (literally) comes flying to the rescue(or to the arrest).

[taalismn]

"Escape From Foam Rubber Acres!"

Or...

"The Terror of the Psyber-Nannies!"

[Princedarkstorm]

Just one word " WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[taalismn]

"The new dress code being promoted by our wise Mechanoid administrators is bubble-wrap! It's cushioning, insulating, all-weather, water-proof, floats in emergencies, and prevents the carrying of concealed weapons."
"It's also immodest as &(#@ !"
"Nonsense. Superior medicine, rigorous physical conditioning, and greater tolerance in our society have made our population immune to such problems as low self esteem and embarrassment! Nobody need be embarrassed to show themselves!"
"I dunno...this smacks of some evil inhuman plot!"

[Princedarkstorm]

Talk about Puppet Masters style clothing . Very see thru . Do we have any gamer girls here ?

[taalismn]

The plan was bold, even audacious, and had the element of surprise. Nothing like it had been attempted in centuries. Nobody would expect such a thing. The preparations were conducted in utmost secrecy, the effectives gathered such as not to alert the powers-that-be as to therir true intent. The weapons were new, powerful, novel, carefully assembled in secret. The target was important; striking a blow there would send a clear message to the oppressors, fire the spirits of the oppressed, gain the Cause real credit, and rally the populace to their side.
It didn’t take a psychic to realize the plan was doomed from the start.
As seemingly successful as the action had been at first in its first few minutes, it had fallen apart once the authorities had gotten into gear. The Peacekeepers and their robots had fallen upon the rebels in a swarm, quickly overwhelming them. The rebels had fought back with everything they had, while the Peacekeepers had been constrained by their own moral codes not to do unnecessary harm. It hadn’t helped the rebels any; they went down in seconds. The populace that should have rallied to them had instead, like the sheep they were, fled in panic when the Cause had appeared, and worse, had called for the Overseers, pointing out to the arriving minions where the rebels were hastily entrenched. Now they stood at a fearful, increasingly stupidly curious, distance, watching the aftermath.
Now the bold warriors of the Cause that had minutes before looked so powerful, so intimidating, and so unstoppable in their armor and armaments, lay stripped of both, huddled sullen and coccooned in restraint-webbing, under the watchful optics of the Peacekeeper robots, awaiting pickup and transport to incarceration. The Peacekeepers themselves had turned their attention to the more distinguished of their captives.
Biron, the combat leader, lay slumped over the curb, vomiting up his guts, his burnt and bleeding left arm held out from his side as a medical drone irrigated and treated the irradiated limb. Off to one side, kept at a greater distance from the crowd, a Runner carefully inspected the still smoking and fused remains of Biron’s ‘Multi-Arm Antagonizer’ before dropping it into a hazmat box, while a small swarm of robots swirled around it, decontaminating the area.
Kiya, the heavy weapons specialist, had been dragged screaming from her joint-locked Juggernaut suit by the two Brutes that had pried it open to get at her. Now she smiled and giggled inanely, doubtless from some combination of happy-drugs and psionic suggestion, as she lay stripped of her interface suit and web-wrapped in restraint-film.
Scoran, the electronics wiz, drapped among the powered-down belts and boxes of his EW gear, as another Runner pulled his limp stunned body off the ground where he’d fallen, trying to jam the robots’ communications and sensory gear.
At least Joro and Mediz, in their lighter and more mobile Charger armor, had enjoyed somewhat better success, being able to retreat in good orderfrom the square where the rest of their Cause comrades had fallen. They managed to actually remain at large for several minutes, using the city buildings for cover. But the swarm of Seekers, Chasers, Monitor drones, and Skimmers several blocks over told they hadn’t gotten far. Already security transports were descending to gather in the prisoners.
Vron turned away from the screens; he didn’t need to watch any more of the feed from the dozens of private network sneakeyes he’d managed to secret throughout the city to tell him what he already knew. Those idiots of the Cause had failed, and failed spectacularly. They’d gambled and lost. Once the Overseers began digging into their captives’ minds, within the next few days the entire organization of the Cause would be gone, snapped up and ‘hospitalized’ for anti-social behavior.
Idiots, sheer idiots. They had relied on brute force and shiny weapons, used by fools who had no idea of what real combat was like. As if fantasy-sims and jaeger-ball were proper training! And weapons that had been inadequately tested! Simulations bore little resemblance to what hardware made real actually faced under battlefield conditions.
Vron admitted to himself the self-destruction of the Cause would yield something of value. It would be a proper lesson to the other cells seeking to overthrow the Overseers that blatant, showy, open, brutish attacks were not the way to proceed. It also showed that Human technical skills had been dulled by overreliance on the Overseers work, that mere hobbyist engineering was inadequate to the task of making reliable weapons that could hold back the legions of the inhuman oppressors. The reaction of the crowds, too, would serve a purpose and impress on those dedicated to liberating Humanity that they couldn’t always rely on their fellow human beings; generations of living under the cyber-augmented fist and gaze of the Overseers, sucking what the Mechanoids deigned to offer in way of diversions and distractions from the steel teats of the Mechanoid-industrial complex, had bred cowardice and complacency into the majority of them.
No, Vron vowed as he looked out his urboplex’s windows to where he could see off in the distance the small fleet of Mechanoid craft descending to take the broken Cause into custody and worse, the next time the Free Humans struck a blow for their species’ freedom, it would be decisive and telling.

[Princedarkstorm]

AWESOME! As ALWAYS!

[taalismn]

Thanks...I wanted to pitch it so either and BOTH sides could appear to be both in the right AND the wrong....Decide for yourself if it's freedom fighters fighting the inhuman overlords, or terrorists being apprehended by the efficient operatives of the law.
And yeah, I used the 'Experimental Weapons' from the original Mechnanoids Trilogy as the basis of the Cause's weapons and power armor. Especially the 'Flaws' tables.

[Princedarkstorm]

Anytime my friend!

[taalismn]

It's also worth considering that in the AMR(Atlantee-Mechanoid Republic, for convenience's sake), there's likely a greater variety of robots and even Mechanoids, and that many of the Mechanoids, canonically named by the Mechanoids' victims, might have alternate names to reflect their more benign functions. For example, Wasps and Exterminators might still have extreme personalities, but might have far more restraint...they'd respectively be like hot-shot top-gun aces and triggerhappy gungho SWAT cops when not on duty. 'Exterminators' might be known as 'Enforcers' or 'Sentinels', while other castes, like the Black Widow, might be known as 'City Builders' or 'Sky-Risers'.
On the other hand, it's also possible that certain of the castes would not be seen on the populated human worlds at all; away from the AMR homeworlds, the predominantly Mechanoid spaceforces and Space Guard dispense with the need for aesthetics and are all about bloodthirtsy functionality.

The Cybomen can be Mechanoid CULTISTS who have 'embraced the metal', forsaking their original form to become full conversion cyborgs in the image of the Mechanoids.

The Kittani would be pretty much the same as they are in canon; an arrogant, swaggering warrior race that decided to conquer the properous AMR and add them to their empire...and the AMrepublic kicked them in the teeth..then followed up by interdicting the Kittani homeworlds. The Kittani fought back, even in the face of the Mechanoids' generous surrender terms, and the AMR regretfully bombed them back into the Stone Age. A few Kittani escaped and got picked up by the Splugorth. These Kittani are identical to canon, and believe that the rest of their species was exterminated to the last and their homeworlds obliterated. Actually, a few Kittani survive on the old homeworlds, but almost all of the original culture has been obliterated, the surviving Kittani having reverted to a primitive existance, while the ruins of their once-great cities are reclaimed by nature, and the occasional curious Mechanoid/Human archaeological/anthropology expedition.

The primary enemy/arch-nemesis of the AMR is the insectoid Donarii(the canon Mechanoids' allies)...These psionic tech-using insects have been harrying the AMR for centuries, and have proven as difficult to wipe out. let alone contain, as cockroaches. The Mechanoids and the Donarii have gone cyberlimb to mandible for centuries, with no quarter asked or given. It is POSSIBLE that other species, like the Three Galaxies' Star Hives, are the result of a Donarii effort to create a faster-breeding, expendable legion of insectoid soldier-drones to outflank and overwhelm the AMRepublic's advantage in mass-produced robotics.

Psi-Warpers---Rather than Mechanoid creations, the poor pathetic Psi-Warpers can instead be the result of DONARII experiments, or the result of some othe anti-AMR antagonistic powers' efforts to create their own Mechanoids or living weapons...alternatively, the Cybomen can also be the result of similar efforts to create anti-Mechanoid superwarriors.

[Veritas476]

uhm man taalismn im itching to play this now. a multi-dimensional spanning rifts game. seriously how do you come up with this stuff

Well it's either he come up with this stuff or actually try to take over the world.

[taalismn]

uhm man taalismn im itching to play this now. a multi-dimensional spanning rifts game. seriously how do you come up with this stuff

Well it's either he come up with this stuff or actually try to take over the world.

Yeah...nothing would be more horrible than if I SUCCEEDED...all those people coming to complain to me about this, that, and the other thing....
You think being President of the Free World is bad? Try being Overlord of the whole damn planet!
Between management problems and other people trying for your job, it wouldn't be any fun.
I always wanted to see a 'G.I. Joe' episode where COBRA WON, and Cobra Commander quickly realizes it wasn't as fun being in charge as it was plotting to take over the world....and he quietly slinks back to robbing banks or becomes a right-wing radio pundit.

[Princedarkstorm]

G I Joe robbing a bank *Snicker

[taalismn]

G I Joe robbing a bank *Snicker

Well, there actually WAS an episode(which I was fortunate to catch; I regarded pretty much the whole rest of the show to be utter trash) where COBRA went bankrupt, and they had a sequence of all the COBRA soldiers lined up IN UNIFORM outside an unemployment office, while Cobra Commander, Destro, and the Baroness were sitting around bemoaning all the resume reference requests they had to fill out, in addition to their own job hunts. And finally CC was apalled that his army commander had had to go back to his old job as a shipping clerk...All done with a minimum of ranting and raving, I might add.

[Princedarkstorm]

BLINK

[gaby]

A earth that is just like the one from Crimson Skies,(where the US spit up into smaller nations),Air Travel is prefer and thers Air pirates.

It was a Great Game,too bad they stop it,Maybe Palladium books can make a Rpg from it?

[taalismn]

A earth that is just like the one from Crimson Skies,(where the US spit up into smaller nations),Air Travel is prefer and thers Air pirates.

It was a Great Game,too bad they stop it,Maybe Palladium books can make a Rpg from it?

Right now Palladium doesn't need to add a new RPG line...they need to deliver on what they already have and what they're previously promised.

[gaby]

Ok,taalismn

What do you think of the World of Crimson skies?
Do you think it will make a good AU for Time Traving heroes?

[taalismn]

Ok,taalismn

What do you think of the World of Crimson skies?
Do you think it will make a good AU for Time Traving heroes?

I have one Crimson Skies book...I really didn't play any of the games put out by the company, but I did/do collect the technical material(especially for Battletech) for inspiration and fun, so I have one Crimson Skies supplement devoted to aircraft.
While the setting is definitely different, and retro-(not quite steampunk, but not cyberpunk)....I just don't see some of the balkanized American states being able to survive on their own...industrialization in some areas would come at the price of being able to feed your own population from your own lands...I just don't see the situation persisting without somebody eventually starting a trend towards reunification, and a second War Between the States with that goal in mind.

[taalismn]

Well, reading through piles of aviation history magazines as I do, one realizes that Crimson Skies' aircraft designs aren't so terribly farfetched...there were a LOT of paths not taken in avionics and a LOT of start-up companies that were weeded out by competitive pressure or were absorbed by their rivals. Though it would be interesting to see what Crimson Skies would do with such eccentric ideas as Roadable Planes, and, of course, Jet Engines.

I could see the anime Porco Roso easily taking place in a Crimson Skies world(though Mussolini's Fascist Italy is clearly identified in that movie)

[taalismn]

Ok,taalismn

What do you think of the World of Crimson skies?
Do you think it will make a good AU for Time Traving heroes?

I have one Crimson Skies book...I really didn't play any of the games put out by the company, but I did/do collect the technical material(especially for Battletech) for inspiration and fun, so I have one Crimson Skies supplement devoted to aircraft.
While the setting is definitely different, and retro-(not quite steampunk, but not cyberpunk)....I just don't see some of the balkanized American states being able to survive on their own...industrialization in some areas would come at the price of being able to feed your own population from your own lands...I just don't see the situation persisting without somebody eventually starting a trend towards reunification, and a second War Between the States with that goal in mind.

and this is why you have to take your daily dose of the "forget reality" pill. you forgot to take it didnt you?

Musta forgotten it while bailing out my refrigerator....35-40% humidity and high temperatures and every time I open the darn thing, the lower racks acquire a millimeter or so of standing water....
THAT'S humid...

[DhAkael]

Right now Palladium doesn't need to add a new RPG line...they need to deliver on what they already have and what they're previously promised.

-ahem-
Mechanoid Space
anyone?

Going on close to what.. 10, 12 years now?

[taalismn]

Right now Palladium doesn't need to add a new RPG line...they need to deliver on what they already have and what they're previously promised.

-ahem-
Mechanoid Space
anyone?

Going on close to what.. 10, 12 years now?

Hey, it's attained Standing Joke Of Legend status!

[TiekoSora]

It's almost attained the status of Duke Nukem Forever!

[taalismn]

It's almost attained the status of Duke Nukem Forever!

Not knowing videogames, I'm assuming big marketing campaign, glacial development time?

[Princedarkstorm]

On Crimson Skies if memory is correct it had the minis and PC game. Who knows maybe in a few years they might have it as a RPG. However I agree with Taalisman.I used the BATTLETECH as ideas for space kingdoms or even new Mecha. EARTHDAWN I used as alternate universe. However I viewed it, as SDC and CU would be SDC .The Shadowrun was low MDC like Chaos Earth and well I played the old FASA Star Trek the most.

[taalismn]

On Crimson Skies if memory is correct it had the minis and PC game. Who knows maybe in a few years they might have it as a RPG. However I agree with Taalisman.I used the BATTLETECH as ideas for space kingdoms or even new Mecha. EARTHDAWN I used as alternate universe. However I viewed it, as SDC and CU would be SDC .The Shadowrun was low MDC like Chaos Earth and well I played the old FASA Star Trek the most.

Crimson Skies DID have a related RPG if I remember correctly; though it was still heavily biased, like Battletech was, in favor of air combat. I could be wrong, though; I'll have to check.

[taalismn]

Crimson Skies DID have a related RPG if I remember correctly; though it was still heavily biased, like Battletech was, in favor of air combat. I could be wrong, though; I'll have to check.

I looked around, but the only things I could find were people talking about making such a game, what game system rules they would use, etc. etc.

Confirmed on that...They talk about characters from the game showing up in the novels, but I guess never about character stats...just the names and fluff.

[gaby]

I think Crimson skies is a good game.

They did not show the Militias of all the North American,s nations and they can come up with more Air Pirate gangs.

[taalismn]

I think Crimson skies is a good game.

They did not show the Militias of all the North American,s nations and they can come up with more Air Pirate gangs.

That was mainly the focus...warfare by proxy using mercenaries and privateers posing as air pirates. It was more on air combat with snazzy aircraft than on political metagaming. I mean, there's not much on the Atlantic Coalition(Connecticut and Massachusetts), aside from it being a naval power and having Sikorsky and Pratt & Whitney as its main defense contractors.


It's definitely an SDC setting, though.

[Princedarkstorm]

Very SDC

[taalismn]

Very SDC

Yep...plastic is still considered cutting edge stuff...composites and carbon fibers are still decades away.

[taalismn]

idk i always wanted to do a rifts earth were the Axis alliance won ww2 and in 2098 the rifts come. i wonder how diffirent that world would be than ours. a lot scarrier i can guess. first nazi, now demons!!! but more high-tech, uhm im not certian. the nazi and japs werent to shy about doing whatever was nesecary to advance science.

Thing was, especially in Germany science was hamstrung by some rather bizarre theories, and they;d driven a lot of their best minds(mind you, not the best mechanics, but the best theory people) out of the country. Their atomic program, for instance, when it wasn't being hampered by sabotage of the heavy water facilities, was at times being directed by the SS, who had their own decidedly oddball ideas on physics(and how it all related to the quasi-religion of Aryanism).

[taalismn]

No, they'd just be Ayran-loving, Communist-hating, militant socialists along the Italian lines of Fascism. There might still be a strong current of eugenics in their politics as well, so there would still be that ugliness there.

[taalismn]

No, they'd just be Ayran-loving, Communist-hating, militant socialists along the Italian lines of Fascism. There might still be a strong current of eugenics in their politics as well, so there would still be that ugliness there.

so jim crow laws, but no holocaust?.... uhmmm i still see the jewish scientist leaving even if they werent being gassed to death.

Yep...Party faithful get all the perks....this is why so many otherwise conscientious people joined the Nazis early on; it was like a big happy union where members did favors for each other(reference some of the lines from 'The Producers' and 'Springtime for Hitler'...they're not so far off). There was serious peer pressure too to conform or be left out.

[taalismn]

Not the slightest idea, though it does seem familiar somehow.

[Princedarkstorm]

I remember years back someone did a Naziworld in RIFTS online . I think it was at a Geocities site called EVIL . They used psionic , magic ,TW and high tech and were launching raids on RIFTS Earth fighting the Kittani .

[gaby]

I say Hitler hated Communists more then Jews,invade the USSR instead of Poland. he got lucky and take out Red Army,s most competent COs.

What do you think would happed?

[taalismn]

I say Hitler hated Communists more then Jews,invade the USSR instead of Poland. he got lucky and take out Red Army,s most competent COs.

What do you think would happed?

I think the scenario's dead before it even began.
Take out a map. Bear in mind, that in order to get to Russia, he'd HAVE to invade through Poland(the only direct route from Germany would be by water through the eastern Baltic, and if if you do that, well even black powder cannon already in place and biplanes will wreak almighty hell on an amphibious force crowded in such tight waters, going up against fortified ports). Unless Poland was willing to give Hitler right of way across Polish territory(and they wouldn't, if only because they'd fear retaliation from the Soviet Union if and when Hitler lost), his only alternative to find the sort of land campaign that would afford his forces maximum mobility would be to attack through Austria and the Balkans, and that would be carving through more Russian real estate to get to prime targets than the Polish route would take. Even with Romanian assistance(lackluster at best) he MIGHT be able to threaten the oil fields that were such vital targets in RL, but even then, and a killing of the more competent Soviet officers on the front at that time, they'd still have time to bring up reserves(like the all-important Siberian divisions) to come down on top of him.

[Princedarkstorm]

I remember years back someone did a Naziworld in RIFTS online . I think it was at a Geocities site called EVIL . They used psionic , magic ,TW and high tech and were launching raids on RIFTS Earth fighting the Kittani .

can you get a link?

Geocities are no longer around

[taalismn]

Though here's a park for you....http://www.balticsworldwide.com/stalinworld/

[taalismn]

Have Mother Nature striking back by merging plants and animals with humans...sorta Splicer-like...only if and when Mother Earth wins, there's going to be some TERMS set down for the aftermath with the remaining human civilization...

[taalismn]

Not so much natural disasters as plagues of rats and locusts, dogs and cats going mad, etc...
Still, nothing you want to sneeze at(okay, maybe you WILL sneeze, if those rats, cats, and dogs are carriers for disease-carrying fleas).
Of course, all that's being turned on the alien invaders first(though disease vectors might be effective except against those humans and animals that have beeb 'turned' by the aliens and are still vulnerable to say, a tick or a flea slipping into a unfiltered respiratory intake, or a gap in the armor...

[Princedarkstorm]

Wow a rival for the evil Overlord? Guess we need new minion ID Cards. *Looking at my ID card * Taalism, are you going to renew Duckfoot’s minion badges and mine?

[taalismn]

Hey, it's an infinite megaverse...dimesional empire room enough for all of us...and it's good to see that if and when I need downtime, there's evil enough that I can temporarily delegate, or call upon a fellow Overlord to give me a hand in holding off the true threats to our empires; the Duldrums, Ennui, Stupidity, Trolls(of the Internet kind), and Mediocrity, just as I would, will, and do in turn.
We're the Thin Gray Line that keeps all that boring blank space of life separated, the Tedium divided, the Boredom interrupted; for those brief moments that complacent others cross our paths, they know fear(for their sanity) and wonder, and are ALIVE(unless they are truly stupid or inept, it which case it's Evolution in Action), and their lives afterwards made the richer for their brief encounter with us.
We're a natural part of the unnatural order of things, providing an invaluable service to the Light and Darkness.

[taalismn]

What if, instead of teh Tokugawas expelling foreigners and isolating Japan fro mteh rest of the world, they instead keep Japan open, and even sending out expeditions to other lands to trade, intereact or conquer (the way the Europeans did). INstad of remaining a medevil feudal state for 200years, they keep pace with Europe, and so dont' have to play the catch up game they did in the 19th century. how would that have affected the course of World events thorugh the 18th and 19th centuries?

Worse yet; what if the Chinese hadn't gone insular and came out to play in international trade at the same time the Japanese decided to? You'd have a succession of Chinese-Japanese wars until eventually greater Chinese numbers wore the Japanese down and made Japan a vassal state in all but name, or drove them fully into the arms of the West in order to survive.

[Princedarkstorm]

Or even the Ottomans won the Crimea and Balkan Wars. Or the Muslims invade France and won. Or the spread of Islam spread thru all of Europe.

Or a dimension of everyone has death at 21 years like the novel Logan’s Run …

Or a plague that killed all adults like Jeremiah or the Tribe as it was based on …

Or the fifty states of the United States are their own nations?

[taalismn]

A world where people turn the color of their emotions(wouldn't THAT simplify interpersonal communications!).

A world where our spoken speech echoes forever around the globe, catching and eddying in some places like sargassum, and storms are accompanied by driving, booming speech. 'Speechcatchers' glean the word-winds for useful fragments of speech, for use for good or ill, and the wise watch their words carefully, lest they fly off to be heard by the wrong people.