Alternate Dimensions

[taalismn]

To you who read this, know the truth:
Everybody else in the human race is telepathic. Have been for centuries.
You're the only one who isn't.
When this was discovered, everybody decided to take pity on you and not reveal your glaring deficiency.
That's right, you poor dumb mute. Everybody's been humoring you just because you don't know how to keep your thoughts inside your own head.
Those thoughts of yours? Yeah, everybody knew them, but decided not to let you know. Ignored them for the most part, though they had to effectively wash their heads after getting out your sight. Yeah, THOSE thoughts.
Everybody's been tiptoeing around you because you're the poor little mind-blind.
Except me. I'm tired of having to bow and scrape and play nice around you, you poor dumb little Mute. It's been a major inconvenience to my life, and I resent the hell out of it. And you.
No more. You're going to learn the truth, and you're going to have to deal with it, Suck it up. No more free ride, no more pity-train for you. Time you faced up to the fact that you're lacking.

Just thought I'd let you know.

[Jay05]

LMAO! Yeah, that's always troublesome

[taalismn]

Buddy Holly's plane does NOT crash in 1959, while the Beatles' tour flight to the United States DOES crash in the midAtlantic in 1964....With Buddy not dying, and going on to firmly establish American Rock and Roll, and the British Invasion effectively drowned in the moat, American and British music take divergent courses, and the day of the international celebrity 'youth' bands takes longer to dawn. The 1960's and '70s are deprived of Beatlemania, with young Americans looking closer to home for thehr tunes, coming from a new generation of artists inspired and taught by Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Booper Richardson. .

[gaby]

In 1861 Sam Houston forseeing what Lincole would doo to win.
Prevent Texas from joining the Confederacy,make a deal with the British where Texas will end Slavery in exchange of reorganize and protection it from the Union.

[taalismn]

The Roswell Crash...USAF personnel are horrified to discover the wizened, leathery-skinned, wasted body of Adolf Hitler, his msucles atrophied from living in microgravity, inside the swastika-marked flying saucer.
Adolf lives long enough to reveal that he was fleeing the takeover of the secret Nazi moonbase by authorities from Mars and Venus, who subsequently appear to the world authorities and reveal that they are NOT pleased with Humans.
In order to prevent our society from being bombed abck to the stone age, a deal is cut that all subsequent space exploration will be tightly controlled and hindered by bureaucratic mismanagement, economic downturns, and equipment failures. All seemingly successful unmanned spaceprobes will transmit falsified special effects data shot in Martian and Venusian studios by their graphic arts students.
This scam has worked for several decades now, and the recent cancellation of the American government's involvement in manned spaceflight is part of the vast charade. The private companies being encouraged to take up the slack are being infiltrated by special agents (including aliens) to fall on their faces as well. The stakes are simple; unless Humanity is peacefully contained, it's rocks from the sky.
The Martians and Venusians do NOT want obnoxious humans messing up their neighborhoods.

[taalismn]

marsian nazi? uhmm... that could get intrueging

The Martians ain't the Nazis, they just kicked them off the Moon because they didn't like 'em. Given that AH was willing to flee back to Earth where he wasn't going to get a friendly reception tells you how bad the Venusians and Martians must be...

[Princedarkstorm]

Shades of SFChannel programming Taalismn!

[taalismn]

Shades of SFChannel programming Taalismn!

Don't get the SciFi channel, so I can't tell how true that is...(shrug)

[Princedarkstorm]

too bad

[taalismn]

too bad

Ah(shrugs it off) I read instead.


The Light of Azylum(the freaky Rift on Atlantis that swaps around people's alignments), instead opens up in the middle of Hades, converting any and all monsters that approach it into beings of Good, The Demons can't close it, and already good beings quickly figure out to avoid it(but not before several misguided heroes become Champions of Evil), but the constant energies have already taken a good chunk of the Infernals out(requiring them to be either killed, or forcing them to turn on their former comrades, or try to escape altogether). For now, the Demons have the Rift cordoned off, and hope that their enemies the Dyval don't learn of this. Problem is; the Rift is not only stable, it's GROWING, slowly but surely, and now the Demons are trying to find some way of permanently shutting it off.

[gaby]

A WW2 U.S.s Aircraft carrier, reapper off the Coast of Virginia in 1900.

How do you think this changed history?

[taalismn]

A WW2 U.S.s Aircraft carrier, reapper off the Coast of Virginia in 1900.

How do you think this changed history?

Captain Nemo goes apecrockers in his quest to sink this warmachine and threat to his plans to bring world peace through control of the seas.
The naval battles between a steampunk nuclear submarine and a WW2 CV are GLORIOUS...(although, actually, WW2 carriers didn't carry any ASW gear or aircraft...their destroyer escorts took care of that).

That's provided the giant squid doesn't eat BOTH of them.

[taalismn]

what if all the genders suddently just switched one day. girls wake up as men and men wake up as women.

Massive clothing swaps, more than a few pregnancies as former women decide to show former men 'what it's like'("Honey; YOU'RE having our next kid!"), and more than a few former men beating themselves in the head with baseball bats once a month.
Oh, and a lot of people discover they're just as ugly in the opposite gender.
Expect SERIOUS social upheaval in patriarchal societies..."Put the burkha on...""You cannot tell me what to do!" "Oh yes I can..."

[gaby]

All men within Aisa and Africa die within 3 Month,it safe men within a week.
How das this changed thing?

[taalismn]

During the 1600's, a Jesuit missionary to the court of the then-teenaged Chinese Emperor, sought to impress the young man by devising a simple 'steam cart', barely more than a tray-sized device powered by a brazier, to demonstrate Western knowledge.

Rather than forget the amusement, the young Emperor instead quietly has some more forward and liberal-thinking natural scholars look into more serious applications of the device("Hey, we invented gunpowder, didn't we?"), and through some private funding and sequested experimentation, the scholars manage to understand and scale-up the principles of the steam-cart into something more practical...The Chinese get the tools of an Industrial Revolution several decades before the West.
The first applications are on steamboats, quickly moving from mechanical oars to more efficient paddlewheelers better suited to China's extensive rivers...this promotes trade, and the growing demand for steel, metals, and fuel stocks, leads to the Imperial government taking a more active role in business.
The Emperor further gains respect and interest, over the objections of his more conservative subjects, by arranging for a number of 'steam pavillions', structures powered by steam engines that run a variety of both useful and enetrtaining gizmos, at major cities around his realm, exciting the people as to the possibilities of the new technology.
Within several decades, steamships and trains are moving about the realm, and an industrial revolution has launched. While China still has problems, many of the would-be revolutionaries are too busy trying to get in on the Industrial Revolution to fight the bureaucracy(though long term there's more suffering because of the hard conditions in the new mines and factories). More importantly, the emerging culture of tinkering undermines conservative thinking and encourages a culture of new ideas in Old China.
When European traders, plump with goods and weaponry turned out by European factories, arrive intent on carving out trade, they find instead the Chinese meeting them as equals, demanding more equal terms and exchange rates.
"Hey, I can't agree to these terms..but look, let's take the steamhorse up to my boss's place on XiangChu and discuss it with him! Maybe he can cut you a deal on some steel widgets we've come out with this quarter."
"Er...'steamhorse'?"

[Ectoplasmic Bidet]

I haven't read through this massive thread, so please forgive me if this overlaps with a previous post.

Via magic or a dimensional anomaly of some sort, a powerful, well educated sorcerer from the Rifts Earth era arrives in an alternate version of "Golden Age" Earth, one or two decades before its own Cataclysm. As a student of history, he knows almost exactly when the Cataclysm will happen, but not what triggers it. With magic levels so low that he can't so much as conjure up a Globe of Daylight and no way to prove any claims he may make, the sorcerer instead sets out to somehow counteract or at least dampen the approaching apocalypse.

He embarks on a years long endeavor to alter as many of the world's nexus points, especially the rare super nexii, using some form of magic(stone, circle, pattern, etc) so that when the ley lines swell with power during the Cataclysm, they do not rupture space and time, but instead siphon the PPE away harmlessly, like gigantic magical heatsinks.

His work is a success. The Cataclysm as he knows it is avoided, but there is some sort of unforeseen aftereffect. It could be any of the following or something else entirely.

-The massive PPE infusion imparts a measure of sentience to the Earth itself, which waxes or wanes depending on times of power determined by lunar and solar positions, planetary alignments, etc. Magic levels of Earth increase markedly, but all magic is elemental in nature.

-The Earth and some portion of the solar system is D-shifted into a pocket dimension, where it remains unscathed, but isolated, for thousands of years. Humanity doesn't know where Earth has ended up, but they'd sure as hell like to know what was in those nukes that got tossed around in South America. Someone has some explaining to do...

-The PPE absorbed by the Earth comes rushing back out, though it's been altered in some manner. Every person within roughly a mile of the sorcerer's modified nexus points is given god-like power, literally becoming a godling as per the RCC. Each super nexus funnels all of its power through the single closest individual, making them into an actual god.

-Atlantis returns, with subsequent tidal waves and seismic disturbances causing hundreds of million deaths and widescale destruction. Magic returns to the world, but without any greater fanfare. There are no demonic invasions or planet altering dimensional anomalies. Then the Splugorth show up on the freshly returned Atlantis...

-It's Wormwood mating season and Earth just put out the mating call. Living planets across the Megaverse are converging on innocent Earth with sweet sweet lovin' on the mind.

-Every reasonably intact corpse, be it human or animal, is returned to some semblance of life. They're hungry and they're contagious. It's not just the apocalypse, it's the "Zombie Apocalypse".

I'll stop there for now.

[taalismn]

Another fun possibility there;
The siphoned off PPE goes to a nearby planet or planets, transforming them....Mars and/or Venus becomes habitable...or, worse yet, is discoved to be already inhabited...by peaceful aliens, or some monstrous race like the Splugirth.
Or maybe Venus is an open gate to Hades, and Mars to Hel, or maybe one of the Planes of Light(or maybe Jupiter is colonized by the Celestial spirits of Light), with Earth caught in the middle of a two or three-way war....

[Gazirra]

Another fun possibility there;
The siphoned off PPE goes to a nearby planet or planets, transforming them....Mars and/or Venus becomes habitable...or, worse yet, is discoved to be already inhabited...by peaceful aliens, or some monstrous race like the Splugirth.
Or maybe Venus is an open gate to Hades, and Mars to Hel, or maybe one of the Planes of Light(or maybe Jupiter is colonized by the Celestial spirits of Light), with Earth caught in the middle of a two or three-way war....

Or maybe Mars goes through a dimensional shift and transforms into a world complete out of a 50's sci-fi story, complete with world-conquering Martians

[taalismn]

"MARS NEEDS WOMEN!!!"
"You need all of them or can we just give you a few? 'Cause we got a few in mind we won't miss!"

---And the Martians turn out to be six inches tall...

[taalismn]

wait, just ocured to me, old sci-fi alien invasion Martians would be outmatched by Earth in the Golden Age.

Classic Wellsian Steampunk you mean?
The 1960's George Pal version(the 'flying mantas') had forcefields that could shrug off nuclear weapons.
It's debateable whether or not lasers and particle beams could punch through(lasers, maybe, because they're coherent light, and not nuclear radiation).

[taalismn]

Dude LB you just gave me a really good campaign idea with this one:It's Wormwood mating season and Earth just put out the mating call. Living planets across the Megaverse are converging on innocent Earth with sweet sweet lovin' on the mind.

And lemme guess; the foreplay's going hurt like hell....

[GaredBattlespike]

Greetings!
I have a few Alternates for you:

1) Remember the Coalition War Campaign? How the New Army was being tested and outside obervers were afraid that the "Skeleton Raiders" might be CS from a nearby dimension? Yeah, that! What if it was not only true, but the Imperial Family of the Alternate CS made a deal to seal their alliance by having young Prince Joeseph Prosek II MARRY Princess Elisabeth Bradford! Imagine the horror!!!

2) Fact: Wolves have a very low incidence of Cancer. Modern Scientist want to know why. Now immagine this terrible mistaske unfold...In a bio-tech firm's lab, wolf DNA is exensively tested, but no conclusive result when combined with other animal's DNA. When combined with Human DNA, it shows great promise! One of the researchers has a money problem, and succumbs to a bribe offer from a rival bio-tech firm. After smuggling a fresh sample out to the rondevous, a drunk driver crashes into the bribed scientist's car. It's a bad one. Taken to the hospital unconcious, the scientist cannot tell anyone of the mixure he got splashed with!!! Now after just 2 hours he is not showings any signs of any illness, but he (unbeknownst to everyone else) has become Patient Zero and an INFECTIOUS CARRIER! Soon Patient Zero is visited by his unsuspecting family and, because it's transmitted by any fluid contacts with the infected, his wife and 3 kids are now infected. By the morning his kids have goner to school where they will be infectious/infecting others in a few hours, just as his wife and his doctors/nurses have been...By Day 3 Patient Zero has fully transformed, and the Werewolf Plague is upon us! Let World War Wolf begin!

[taalismn]

Here's something that should give you nightmares...

President Sarah Palin...
After her third term in office she is crowned Queen Palin the First, an event hailed by her First Minister of Public Relations, Anne Coulter as "a crucial turning point in the re-establishment of American glory!", a proclamation lauded by Minister of Health(as well as as Supreme Minister of the National Baseball League) Rush Limbaugh.

I really hope I'll be able to look back at this ten years down the road and laugh at my little gibe...

[taalismn]

in 1909 Admiral Fisher of the Royal Navy proposed his Baltic Plan, which would have the Royal Navy, in cooperation with the Russians, perform large scale amphibious assaults that would put Allied forces on the northern coast of Germany, only a few days' march away from Berlin, almst certainly grabbing the Kaiser's attention and diverting troops from fronts in France and on the Eastern Front. Fisher even managed to increase the Navy's size, with specially built cruisers and amphibious landing craft for just such an eventuality.
Instead, when war did break out, the Royal Navy was squandered on ultimatlely futile operations in the Dardanelles, and trench warfare set in along the stalemated French battlefronts.
Now supposing Fisher's Baltic Plan had come about, and the British had launched the invasions, blowing through the German Navy, violating Danish neutrality by seizing Danish ports as forward bases, and coordinating with the Russians to put a foothold on Germany territory deep.....
The German Army is divided, between advancing on Paris and running back to protect Berlin. The Gereman U-Boats belatedly begin smashing Allied convoys inside the confines of the Baltic, but the close waters work against them too, as more Allied small craft are brought up, and more Russian troops pour in from their Baltic ports. The cost in casaulties is tremendous on both sides, but the combat is even more dynamic than trench warfare, especially since the Germans can't move artillery from France as quickly.
Allied Success? Unlikely, but if momentum can be sustained, and the Allies break German morale, the First World War ends that much sooner, the Russian military has a triumph to parade before the people, and a certain German military courier might never rise to power later.
Even if the Allied sea invasion is thrown back, the Kaiser is forced to keep a substantial portion of his army back in reserve against a future attempt to do it again, and more material is spent on rebuilding the Navy and coastal defenses to prevent a repeat. That takes material and money that the Germans are rapidly running out of, and manpower that can't be sent to either front. The Allies push on the weakened German front lines and roll them back into Germany before the Kaiser commits his reserves, convinced the Allies won't try again...or else he's forced to invade Denmark, to make sure the Allies don't return use Danish ports again...Either way, German forces are in the wrong places again, and late to respond, and the Allies roll in ahead of schedule....

[GaredBattlespike]

Greetings!
Here are a few more Alternates for you! (I loved the Steam-Powered China BTW!)

1) A world in which early Women's liberation effort backfire-SPECTACULARLY!!! The male powers-that-be recind ALL Female rights and institute Female Slavery! Women are the tearful property of whatever man buys her!

2) A mirror world of the first! Woman's Liberation works TOO WELL and Men are soon legally enslaved!!! Men despondantly obey for fear of gelding!

3) What happens if a Rift opens up between the two Slaver Worlds?

4) A different world in which Ben Frankin makes the decoveries our world credits to Tesla! In a fateful experiment, Ben has constructed three huge generators and turns them all on at the same time...Unbeknownst to Ben, a rare Astrological Conjunction is occuring so the three generators accidentally open a Rift! The American Colonies, recently engaged in the struggle for Liberty, find new allies and new resources as American Dimensional Explorers cross the New Frontier!

[gaby]

I like the New Frontier.
Maybe they can make Alliance with the US of Lincoln,the Confederacy is planing to invade ther the North with in a Month with ther British ally,Lincoln hopes to gets a million Americans to move to Ben,s earth.

[taalismn]

4) A different world in which Ben Frankin makes the decoveries our world credits to Tesla! In a fateful experiment, Ben has constructed three huge generators and turns them all on at the same time...Unbeknownst to Ben, a rare Astrological Conjunction is occuring so the three generators accidentally open a Rift! The American Colonies, recently engaged in the struggle for Liberty, find new allies and new resources as American Dimensional Explorers cross the New Frontier!

Here's an addition to it; Ben learns how to selectively open Gates, ala StarGate, via sequences of tones played on a modified version of his glass harmonium...by playing the 'music of the spheres', the Colonials can move between universes...The 'address books' of these various accessible planes looks and reads like a book of musical scores or folders of sheet music.

[GaredBattlespike]

4) A different world in which Ben Frankin makes the decoveries our world credits to Tesla! In a fateful experiment, Ben has constructed three huge generators and turns them all on at the same time...Unbeknownst to Ben, a rare Astrological Conjunction is occuring so the three generators accidentally open a Rift! The American Colonies, recently engaged in the struggle for Liberty, find new allies and new resources as American Dimensional Explorers cross the New Frontier!

Here's an addition to it; Ben learns how to selectively open Gates, ala StarGate, via sequences of tones played on a modified version of his glass harmonium...by playing the 'music of the spheres', the Colonials can move between universes...The 'address books' of these various accessible planes looks and reads like a book of musical scores or folders of sheet music.

You were reading my mind!!! The only reason I didn't post that was my Crackberry was almos at dead battery!!! I left it on all night...Oh well, at least the basics are out there! Now to add to New Frontier:

Ben's Gate indeed accesses many realities, and a young Republic finds an Ally; The Atlantians! Finding an America populated by an advanced civilization rich in "Magic" sciences, the Americans befriend the Atlantians with gifts of new knowledge and Colonial Era products. The Atlantians return the favor with new "Adressess" and a curious Crystal-Based science...Can the British Empire stop the upstarts with it's own Electrigates? What happens when a British "Gatesmen" contact a world where Gengis Khan took over the whole Earth, and his decendants want new worlds to conquer!!!

[taalismn]

Worse yet, what will it do to the British psyche when they find entire dimensions where a prosperous(but American Colonies-free) British Empire/Commonwealth exists, and the more advanced Brits tell their 'younger' selves to bugger off and leave them alone because 'we're not into that Empire thing anymore'?

[GaredBattlespike]

Ben studies the Atlantian's odd Crystal science and dicovers that Crystal Staves are much faster reloading weapons(each Staff holds 12 shots before needing recharging), with better range and comparable damage to the American muskets. The Atlantians have NO equivilant of a cannon.n because of the scarcity of quality Crystals of that size. Ben sets about trying to find a way to integrate Crystal Tech with American cannons...

[taalismn]

Atlanteans also likely don't have rockets...The Brits had Congreve rockets by 1812, the technology having been proven during the Napoleonic Wars, but they didn't have them during 1776...so the area of effect weapons of the time would be canister shot being used by the navies of the 1700's.

[GaredBattlespike]

Greetings! Update on Riftgate Saga:
Sam Adams goes to an Atlantian-World for diplomacy and finds his wife is now pregnant. Not wanting to risk wife and/or child, Adams stays on as senior Ambassador to the Atlantians. His wife, Abigail, gives birth to twins-amazingly healthy twins!!! The boy is named "Samuel Jerimiah Adams" and the girl is named "Sara Jane Adams".
Because the births were so easy, and both mother and children are so healthy, Adams asks if there is anything special that may have contributed to this wonderously healthy family situation(remember: Most births were dangerous trials for mothers and the children, with rather high mortality rates back then). Adams is informed that once Abigail was clearly pregnant, the Atlantians used Crystal Power to "Harmonize" the mother and children. This is an Atlantian standard practice, that improves the health and wellbeing of expectant mothers! Adams immediatly informs the rest of Congress and a new trade-pact is submitted to the Atlantians; Pure, raw Crystals in exchange for this "Harmonizing" technique. Atlantis agrees.

More later.

Good Gaming, GaredBattlespike

[taalismn]

A MASSIVE alien vessel comes down out of the sky one day to reveal its crew of aliens, all belonging to a giant consortium of cooperative species...Thing is, they all look like variations on 'Sesame Street' muppets, and they come to Earth believing that the TV transmissions actually show a shipwrecked colony of their peoples living on Earth, that they've come to rescue.
Much hilarity(or tragicomedy) insues. Especially when a small child breaks the security cordon in New York City and hug-grabs the alien mission commander(who looks almost exactly like Super Grover...

[GaredBattlespike]

Greetings!

A Shared Earth: Imagine an Earth that spawned TWO sentient races; Humans and the Grahl! The Grahl are a humaniod Hyena from the African Plains! They share a history with Humans that is hostile and friendly by turns through the ages.
This would really change history as we know it; The Grahl's existance would complicate Religion. Judean-Christian belief in being "Created in the Image of God" may have real issues here, as the Grahl are here, and have always been here, so the idea MAY have not occured or be Inclusive regarding Faithful Grahl.

The Fall of Rome may have been hastened by vengeful Grahl enraged by generations of slavery.
Gengis Khan's Horde bolstered by Grahl "Wilders" who act like Norse Berserkers by giving in to their most primal urges in a raid!
Columbus may have had several Grahl crewmen who's cousins are living with the Native American Humans!
The American Revolution sees Grahl troops on both sides of the conflict and leads to Heroes like Gravak Rathbone, who gave his life to hold off several Redcoats long enough for Ben Frankin to get away from the squad sent to arrest him for treason!
Villains like Captain Rakor Grix who mercilessly slaughtered the entire male civilian populous of Salem Massachusetts as a warning to the Colonists not to defy the Crown!

In personal matters, Grahl and Humans may mate, but few offspring occur-the few that are born are usually sterile.

What do you think?

Good Gaming, GaredBattlespike

[taalismn]

INteresting....forget about tales of werewolves...or maybe such tales still exist; only it's ordinary people who transform into Grahl and thus cross the lines between 'us' and 'them'?

[GaredBattlespike]

INteresting....forget about tales of werewolves...or maybe such tales still exist; only it's ordinary people who transform into Grahl and thus cross the lines between 'us' and 'them'?

Greetings!
Interesting indeed! I had completely overlooked werewolf legends! And it's nearly Halloween yet!!! Shame on me! Thank you for bringing this up, but imagine a reverse legend amoung the Grahl: Becomming FURLESS/FANGLESS by the New Moon! A terrible affliction said to strike those who have lost too much of the hyena! Call it Ape-anthrope; The Calming. (Today we call it Pattern Baldness with Valum Addiction! LOL)
The Grahl may also have other legends...I wonder what they would be? The Unscented Grahl (Invisible to the keen noses of the Grahl)?

Good Gaming, GaredBattlespike

[taalismn]

God...that reminds me of the radio comedy skit where the werewolf discovers that during the day he turns into an advertizing executive! Ultimately discovers true love in the mail room during a solar eclipse, as well as gets to feast on his office rival. "Hey, Bob, Mary, nice werewolf costu-YARR--!"

[GaredBattlespike]

Greetings!
Please contemplate this World: Invaded Rifts Earth! The Nightlords invade Rifts and have set up on the East Coast, in New England. Hounds and other minions begin showing up as they move to secure the area for their masters. Ashmedi investigate the Domain of Man disguised as Adventurers, while Night Princes lead Cultists in gathering Humans as "feed" for the Nightlords. CS Psi-Stalkers and Psi-Hounds detect the Ashmedi easily, but the Ashmedi shape-shift into winged forms to escape, bringing word of these bizzare locals back to the Ba'al! The CS is slow to notice this new menace due to the distances involved between the Coast and the rest of the CS. The threat is tagged as a Low Priority as the Intelligence Section has more immediate concerns, like Lazlo/New Lazlo still existing! This gives the Ba'al time to solidify their hold on the New England Coast. Meanwhile, the friendly folks at Lazlo do not seem to notice the "Adventurers" that pass through are MDC Creatures (Ashmedi) and are collecting Intelligence as they move through...

Good Gaming, GaredBattlespike

[taalismn]

The Systems Failure Bugs invade Chi-Town, Rifts Earth. With their ability to infest the high-tech warmachines that many Human enclaves rely on for protection and survival, those regions the Bugs are able to reach are quickly overrun, or else rendered vulnerable to other threats.
Fortunately, because of the broken nature of the global communications and power grids, the Bugs are unable to spread(they seem unable to materialize on Earth anywhere other than a handful of locations), and once their threat becomes apparent,defenders are able to rally, isolating Bug outbreaks before they can spread, and infested hardware hunted and destroyed. Still, since the most effective weapons are psionics, magic, and primitive weaponry, it takes time to isolate/insulate factories capable of producing Bug-proof tech, and gather forces to stomp the Bugs. Ironically, in Chi-Town's case, it's the psychics, illegal 'Burb mages, and the Vanguard that are most effective in stemming the Bug invasion, making their initially lightning fast conquest into a bloody quagmire.

[GaredBattlespike]

Greetings!
In 2014, at Los Alamos Testing Grounds: At 11:23 am the main power switch is turned on as the new equipment is activated...A *FLASH* and a shockwave is detected from the perimeter defense post. As a guard looks in the direction of the flash, he sees a HUGE hole where the Facility used to be! By the same time the next day, the President is advised that the Disapperance was the result of a physics experiment. "What were they testing?" "Mr. President, the test was a physics application that NASA wanted. Supposed to test a 'faster-than-light' engine. At th-..." "Faster than light engine?!?!?! Are you kidding me?" "No, Mr. President. Not at all, Sir. The device activated as planned, then, the whole facility just...vanished, Sir." "So it worked? Well, get the bright boys and girls to work on making this an affective engine. Make this a priority. I want, and the Human Race needs to get to the stars. And Jim, get this worked on at the space station. No more ground level tests." "Yes, Mr. President."

Seven months later at the Station: "John, we're ready." "OK, Sally. Let's start the count-down at exactly 12:00 am GMT, OK?" "Roger that, John, 12 am, GMT. That's two minutes from...Now." "Roger, Sally."

At exactly 12:00 am, GMT, a small shuttle-like craft activated it's new "engine"...*FLASH*

*FLASH*
"Where are we?" "Check all systems." "Roger that, all systems show green-boards, repeat, all green." "Captain, location is being checked by the navi-comp."
Several moments later, a planet becomes visible as the craft rotates in space...a planet that no Human has ever seen. "Captain, we have confirmation on our postion...Sir, we're at a system 29 light years from Earth."

Upon their triumphant return, the crew of the International Star Ship "Explorer" became the world's first interstellar travelers! Welcome to the United Space Corps!

Good Gaming, GaredBattlespike

[taalismn]

Roswell, New Mexico,
"Greetings, Americans! We understand that you are currently engaged in a growing ideological conflict with a rival power called ...ah, yes, the 'Soviets'! Well, by happy happenstance we happen to be adverse to their ideology of...ah, what was it again? ...ah, yes, 'Communism...We hate it, abhor it, dislike it immensely...and we're prepared to help you out with a wonderful offer of technology that will allow you to deal with them once and for all! Allfor a quite low price and flexible billing schedule."
General LeMay looked at the blue-skinned human in the black suit sitting across the table from him and his men.
"And what EXACTLY is it that you and this 'Naruni Enterprises' are offering us?"
The 'man' smiled.
"Let me show you our catalogue!"

[DhAkael]

Roswell, New Mexico,
"Greetings, Americans! We understand that you are currently engaged in a growing ideological conflict with a rival power called ...ah, yes, the 'Soviets'! Well, by happy happenstance we happen to be adverse to their ideology of...ah, what was it again? ...ah, yes, 'Communism...We hate it, abhor it, dislike it immensely...and we're prepared to help you out with a wonderful offer of technology that will allow you to deal with them once and for all! Allfor a quite low price and flexible billing schedule."
General LeMay looked at the blue-skinned human in the black suit sitting across the table from him and his men.
"And what EXACTLY is it that you and this 'Naruni Enterprises' are offering us?"
The 'man' smiled.
"Let me show you our catalogue!"

EPIC WIN!

[taalismn]

Worse yet; the Naruni agent's just doing this to kill time between REAL sales. They were just loitering in the interstellar neighborhood waiting for some prospectives to cave to their latest offer when they picked up radio signals from a little backwater and buzzed over to investigate.
Junior Sales Anthropology Division exec guessed the situation, and decided to go with the side that seemed most taken with gee-wiz-wiz-bangs and shiny stuff(and capitalist too).

[GaredBattlespike]

Greetings!
Update on Ben Franklin's Riftworld:
After opening a Gate, an amazing discovery is made; Ben finds the first Non-Human intelligent beings!
They call themselves the "Grahl".
They have shared their Earth with Humans since the Beginning.
The Grahl and their Earth prove to be friendly to Ben's New America.

A trade agreement is quickly established as the inhabitants of Shared Earth desire the Dimensional Gate technique, and the people of Riftworld are enthralled with their first experience with Non-Human people! The Grahl are careful to keep on their best behavior, and it pays off as Ben's people treat the visiting Grahl as Celebrated Guests!

Ben Franklin soon has Grahl guests visiting as consultants on a wild variety of subjects: Science, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Dimensional Travel, and more! Ben teaches as well as learns. Now Ben and a Grahl named "Groller Herah" soon become fast friends, teaching each other, learn from each other, and drink together. Groller and Ben form a Transdimensional Trade and Exploration Consortium "Herah and Franklin's Dimensional Trading House".

Good Gaming, GaredBattlespike

[taalismn]

In the Dimension of the Grade B Horror Flicks, the Monsters suddenly discover they're running out of humans to scare/terrorize...naive, virgin(or alternately dumbly promiscous), teenage, good-looking humans. Those they do have are all street-smart, ugly, well-armed survivalists and RPGers who know how to modify commercial vehicles into death machines, and know enough to burn haunted houses down with homebuilt flamethrowers.
To solve their victim shortage, the monsters are taking their show on the road, going to other dimensions, setting up 'talent agencies', logging onto singles websites, offering 'camping trips', and settling in to collect fresh victims.
And a small group of the Ugly-But-Glad-To-Be-Alive survivalists have followed them, to warn the dumb beautiful people of the danger they're in(or maybe to see the jocks get chowed down),

She looked at the steaming pile of humanoid fishman guts that seconds before had been her attacker.
Coming out of the smoke was another figure, that in the moonlight was made out to be a short, couch-gutted man in a black 'Star Trek' t-shirt, bandoliers hung around his flabby frame. Moonlight glinted off his cokebottle glasses and off the still-smoking muzzle of the enormous shotgun he held in one hand, just one of several large caliber weapons hung about his person.
"Who are you?" The blond managed to get out.
The nerd popped open the shotgun and loaded a shell into the portable cannon, then pulled a bundle of clothing from a gym bag slung at his side, He tossed the bundle, which unfolded into a generic jumpsuit wrapped around a long machete-like knife, at her feet, before he started fiddling with another object slung over his shoulder."Somebody who knows enough not to go running half-clothed through the forest in unknown terrain. Now, you wanna get into those overalls? They're flame retardant. Beleive me, you're going to want a little extra protection from fire in the next couple of minutes."
With that he sparked a flame, which grew into a flaring jet of fire from the nozzle of the modified blowtorch he was carrying.
The sudden bright light illuminated a circle of beach around the two...as well as glinted from the eyes of the half-dozen fishmen who had been hidden in the shadows.
"Hope you like baked fish on a first date."

[GaredBattlespike]

Greetings!
Herah and Franklin's Dimensional Trading House finds another Partner: Valenthar Daremyr, a True Atlantian from the Atlantians first discovered a year ago. Daremyr is added to the House Name to become "Herah, Franklin and Daremyr's Dimensional Trading House" abbrieviated to HFDDTH.

HFDDTH opens a Portal to a world that is less than hospitable: A Ruined World, filled with destroyed cities of alien design, and no LIVING survivors...The Machines that exterminated their Makers HAVE survived, and DO NOT appreciate the Portal Exploration Team. A running battle occurs as the Team tries to make it back to the Portal...

One member runs through the Portal screaming "OOOFFFFFF!!!!! SHUT! IT! OFF!!!!!!!! The Portal Techs kill the power just as a six-legged "Death Ant" D3T-4NT launches its mini-missiles into the compound, killing eleven workers and setting the interior on fire!

The Dimensional Coordinants are logged and locked out!!! HFDDTH informs their respective governments, and soon, the Portals are Manned by Multi-National Troops.

What will the Shared Worlds do now?

Good Gaming, GaredBattlespike

[taalismn]

"WE though we were the apex of creation, the masters of our destinies. Even when we considered that we might not be alone in the universe, we smugly reasoned in our supposed grasp of the laws of physics that our nearest neighbors were surely centuries away from paying us a visit.
Then the Harvesters came, and we were proven wrong. For three days they herded and harvested us, reaped us like cattle. They saw us not as neighbors, but as resources, and they plundered and murdered us without remorse, without mercy.
Then, in our darkest moment, saviors appeared. Other aliens who did what we could not; ripped the enemy from our skies, tore the Harvesters apart, ended the killing.
But at terrible cost; millions were dead or missing, our cities destroyed, our civilizations broken, and our self confidence forever shattered, For we still lay under alien rule; giant armored centipedes who shrugged off the Harvesters' weapons like our late murderers' shrugged off our own most powerful weaponry. But these saviors treated us not with contempt, but with PITY. We began to realize that our new neighbors saw us with condescension, as basketcases, as broken savages rescued from other savages. At worst, we were PETS, cute little animals, baby seals saved from hunters' clubs. Our rescuers loved us, so much they should to change us, lift us from darkness to learn at their armored knees, parrots learning from Warrior-Kings or Soldier-Philosophers.
All our thousands of years of history, of social progress, all are forgotten as our younger generations look to alien gods for the future. And they have the right of it; for all our pride we could not save ourselves when it truly mattered; Others had to do it for us. But as I look back on this fiftieth anniversery of the Harvesters' attack, across a land that to those of us who still remember has become stranger still, listen to our children and granschildren speak in languages of no Earthly origin, of alien concepts, I sometimes wonder; is better to have gone into death as ourselves, or to survive as something other than what we were?"

[taalismn]

What if...One of hte developed Civilizations of the Americas had been able to develop more advanced shipbuilding technology? Perhaps the Maya, or maybe Aztecs, or maybe even the mound building civilization of North America. What if it developed to the point of having sturdy ocean-going ships by say...the1400s? So it would be an American civilization descovering Europe, not hte other way around

It's a common dream, especially of those who felt the New World natives got the short end of the stick...but there ware so many things against it...Old Worlders had horses; the new world had llamas and tapirs, that were hardly a match as beasts of burden. Plus arguably European seafaring traditions got their start in trade on the Med, leading to larger and larger ships that eventually moved out into the Atlantic...The Americas lacked such relatively sheltered waters to start their tradition...
H.Beam Piper, in his 'Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen' series, had an alternate timeline where the Americas were settled by Ayran peoples from the WEST, leading to medieval soceities divv'ing up North America in feudal satrapies held ransom by a gunpowder cult...The Native Americans don't fare any better here, being referred to simply as 'the savages of the Sastragath'...

[taalismn]

The Chinese Empire defeats the muslim army at the Talas river, thus stopping hte spead of Islam into Central Asia. the areas that are now Afghainstan, Xiniang Province, and the former Soviet Central Asian Republics remain centers of Bhuddist Culture.

Now that has me interested in researching the Talas River battle.

[taalismn]

and come to think about it, sine it was the central asian Islamic empires that brought Islam to the Indian Subcontinent, there wouldn't be pakistan either. unless it comes another way.

I thought Pakistan came about as a result of the tensions that arose from the European Colonial period and the 'Great Game' that arose(particularly between Britain and Russia), the various compromises and subdivisions of territory ultimately setting the stage for the split.