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2009-03-23, 01:59 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2008
Days of Future Prime (Another Community World-Building Project - Sci-Fi version)
The rather unwieldy acronym stands for "Yet Another Attempt at a Community World Building Project". This time with a sci-fi flavor rather than fantasy.
((The post-apoc still stands. Post-apoc makes everything cooler. Yes, even that.))
_/_/_/_/
Welcome to PrimeTech Inc. Guide to Safely Leaving Your WMD Shelter! If you are reading this, today must be your 77291st day in your chosen shelter. Which makes it 10 days past the estimated safety period of 211 years and 211 days since the sealing of your WMD shelter.
This guide aims to prepare you for all possibilities that might have come to pass since your shelter was closed off, based on all plausible fictional and non-fictional works on a grim future written by the time of this introduction's diction. It is our goal to make your supposedly grim future into a bright one which will shame your pre-shelter lives.
Most readers will want to read the sections 1, 2, 3, 5 and 11. The shelter technicians should also familiarize themselves with the section 7, as it contains the technical knowledge necessary to open a sealed PrimeTech Inc. WMD Shelter door.
We do hope you have enjoyed your stay with us, and hope to accommodate you again soon.
Regards,
PrimeTech Inc. Vice President
James Vic Edenson
A SAFER BATTLEFIELD FOR A SAFER FUTURELast edited by The Rose Dragon; 2009-03-23 at 05:07 PM.
I use black for sarcasm.
Call me Rose, or The Rose Dragon. Rose Dragon is someone else entirely.
If you need me for something, please PM me about it. I am having difficulty keeping track of all my obligations.
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2009-03-23, 02:00 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2008
Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
(reserved)
I use black for sarcasm.
Call me Rose, or The Rose Dragon. Rose Dragon is someone else entirely.
If you need me for something, please PM me about it. I am having difficulty keeping track of all my obligations.
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2009-03-23, 02:14 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2008
Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
(reserved)
I use black for sarcasm.
Call me Rose, or The Rose Dragon. Rose Dragon is someone else entirely.
If you need me for something, please PM me about it. I am having difficulty keeping track of all my obligations.
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2009-03-23, 04:59 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2007
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- Void between realities
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Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
I don't have much to say about this quite yet, other than it looks really cool, and I'll be happy to help pitch in ideas.
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2009-03-24, 10:51 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2008
Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
The first post is actually intentionally vague so you won't have to feel tied to the things I've established when pitching in.
So feel free to ask any questions and I'll give you the answers I have in mind.I use black for sarcasm.
Call me Rose, or The Rose Dragon. Rose Dragon is someone else entirely.
If you need me for something, please PM me about it. I am having difficulty keeping track of all my obligations.
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2009-03-24, 11:11 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2008
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- Florida
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2009-03-24, 11:21 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2008
Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
That was not my initial intention, but I'm willing to go with whatever people are comfortable going with.
My idea was over-the-top in style, but gritty in substance. So while there would be a certain feeling of pulp action in presentation, the world itself would be rather deadly and grim.
My main inspirations are Bioshock and Fallout, if that helps you define it better. But it is still a Community WBP, and it will be the majority that will decide on the details.I use black for sarcasm.
Call me Rose, or The Rose Dragon. Rose Dragon is someone else entirely.
If you need me for something, please PM me about it. I am having difficulty keeping track of all my obligations.
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2009-03-24, 11:47 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2006
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Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
Are you crappin' me? Fallout is the epitome of tongue-in-cheek post-apoc! This'll be great!
Beguiler, you just got served.
ALL hail DirtyTabs, creator of this wonderful UserClone TRONpony!
*sigh*
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SpoilerOriginally Posted by BRC
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2009-03-24, 11:58 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2008
Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
I use black for sarcasm.
Call me Rose, or The Rose Dragon. Rose Dragon is someone else entirely.
If you need me for something, please PM me about it. I am having difficulty keeping track of all my obligations.
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2009-03-24, 02:54 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2004
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- Ursoule
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Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
I've never played Fallout or Bioshock but I like tongue in cheek. I'll see what I can contribute, being a veteran of the first CWB effort.
Pirate Motto:Wherever you go,
There you arrrr.
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2009-03-24, 10:56 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2006
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- Connecticut
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Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
Plan to see at least one variety of domesticated mutant riding squirrel.
Beguiler, you just got served.
ALL hail DirtyTabs, creator of this wonderful UserClone TRONpony!
*sigh*
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SpoilerOriginally Posted by BRC
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2009-03-25, 08:55 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2008
Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
Whoa, one step at a time J!
First, we need to determine the kind of apocalypse (or apocalypses) we want. Then we can see if it is compatible with mutant riding squirrels.
If we do have riding squirrels, though, they should be silver, three-tailed and highly intelligent.I use black for sarcasm.
Call me Rose, or The Rose Dragon. Rose Dragon is someone else entirely.
If you need me for something, please PM me about it. I am having difficulty keeping track of all my obligations.
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2009-03-25, 10:06 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2006
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Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
*scribbles notes*
Three-tailed, you say?
Beguiler, you just got served.
ALL hail DirtyTabs, creator of this wonderful UserClone TRONpony!
*sigh*
X Stat to Y Bonus
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SpoilerOriginally Posted by BRC
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2009-03-25, 12:18 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2007
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- Department of Smiting
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Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
Well, we could do a good ol' nuclear armageddon scenario. It's cliched because it's classic.
Or we could do some kind of mutating horrible biological weapon. Plague, zombies, mutant zombies, and nanomachine swarms that eat or forceably incorporate themselves into living things are all good.
Ice-nine. It's been a long time, so most of it has been converted into normal ice by cosmic radiation. The world is still in an ice age, though, and evolution has gone wonky.
The aliens invaded. What happened is unclear; they might have an iron grip on the world, an iron grip on some areas while others are ruled by squabbling human resistance factions, might have been already overthrown by humanity (plunging what's left of the world into anarchy), or might have just gotten whatever they wanted from us and gone home.
And, of course, combining two or more of the above is always fun. Perhaps the aliens unleashed ice-nine as a barrier between their remaining enclaves and the mutant zombie biker hordes created by nanomachine experimentation by the human resistance.
One scenario that I've never seen done is that the aliens took over and created a nice stable society that everyone's content with. And then a few hundred years later the vault-dwellers wake up, the diehard resistance faction unleashes zombie plagues, and society collapses all over again - but it's our fault, not the aliens' fault.
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2009-03-25, 12:31 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2006
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Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
Oooo...I really like that last one. It still has that new-car smell!
Beguiler, you just got served.
ALL hail DirtyTabs, creator of this wonderful UserClone TRONpony!
*sigh*
X Stat to Y Bonus
Quotes:
SpoilerOriginally Posted by BRC
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2009-03-25, 01:33 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2008
Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
It's probably not done because it does not quite have the survival aspect of most post-apoc settings.
Your post brings up another point: what is the current state of the world? Do all shelters open at the same time, causing a sudden world-wide restart of (a semblance of) civilization? Do some open prematurely, leading to already established settlements? Did some people outside the shelters survive the apocalypse?
Obviously, some of the answers rely on the chosen apocalypse. I personally lean towards the ice-nine idea, since I've had a similar thought (a supercooled stable crystal which self-propagates through ambient moisture - and inexplicably forms what appear to be jungles of ice).
I'm not so keen on the biological and nuclear weapons part, though, considering the motto of PrimeTech Inc.. In that case, we'd need to decide the exact place of PrimeTech in the order of things. We can get rid of PrimeTech almost entirely, too, but that'd mean getting rid of the "theme" of the first post (prime numbers).
The alien scenario can be rewarding if done well, but it would mean we'd have to establish two sets of civilization: a human one and an alien one.
Also, how do we decide on something in the first place? We don't exactly have the luxury of opening polls, so it'd have to be something that can be done in this thread. Anyone with more experience, feel free to pitch in.I use black for sarcasm.
Call me Rose, or The Rose Dragon. Rose Dragon is someone else entirely.
If you need me for something, please PM me about it. I am having difficulty keeping track of all my obligations.
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2009-03-25, 03:18 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2007
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- Void between realities
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Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
here's an idea...nuclear apocalypse. Some of humanity hid away, bunkers and such. the rest of humanity tried to eke out an existence on what little livable land there was left. Then the aliens came. They noticed the annihilation caused by the war, and decided to help. They basically landed, saved the people who were still alive (and on the surface) then left. A good portion of the world has remained a nuclear wasteland, but a portion...say Australia (or that size of an area) is practically paradise. Everyone who hid themselves away emerges to find just the devastation they were expecting, with all the mutant creatures and other nasty things. however, they also start finding tech that they weren't expecting...some of which will protect itself when the 'vault-dwellers' (I like that word) try to 'salvage' it.
Thus, crazy-scifi stuff as well as post-apocalypse goodness.
how's that sound?
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2009-03-25, 05:52 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2007
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- Oxford, England
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Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
One interesting idea I've toyed with a few times is the arival of a teraforming "package" from space containing semi-biological, semi-nanotechnological organisms, that try and change the planet into a form more suiting they're alien originators.
Humans battle the growing alien forest-machine continously, but eventually realise that any method that would destroy the invader would also completely wreck the planet for them as well. But time is running out, and they have no other method they can implent quick enough. So they retreat as many people underground as they can, and Nuke 'em from orbit (it's the only way to be sure!). They then wait out the ensuing nuclear winter, and return to a much changed surface with the intent of rebuilding all they've lost.
Then the alien colonists arrive. Now, they were expecting to find a nicely teraformed planet, ripe for settling; but instead they find a mix of half transformed areas, mutated wasteland, and very, very, very pissed off humans. The aliens technology is individually superior, but they weren't expecting a fight, are few in number, and the planet itself isn't exactly freindly towards them.
And... que fighting!
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2009-03-25, 05:58 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2008
Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
I use black for sarcasm.
Call me Rose, or The Rose Dragon. Rose Dragon is someone else entirely.
If you need me for something, please PM me about it. I am having difficulty keeping track of all my obligations.
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2009-03-25, 06:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2007
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Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
I did think about halfway through typing that it sounded like the CnC games, though loads of things have dealt with the same sort of stuff.
My main influence was a short book by Ian McDonald called "Tendelo's Story", in which a nanological packgage lands in Africa and procedes to exponetially re-format the ecology into a bio/nano forest, and the attempts of the human world governments to fight it (mostly unsuccessful) and keep everyone out of it. It turns outSpoilerthat though the packages creatures/machines eat all plants and most animals, the nanos are capable of telling if life is sentient and does not destroy those who are, though it eats their clothes The governments were fighting it because it provides everything that a person needs. All the forest's fruit is edible, the nanos it infects you with make you immortal and resistant to... everything, and it is capable of constructing anything and everything if instructed to in the right way (ie, via the nanos in your brain). It even grew giant databanks filled with the alien's knowledge of the universe in easily accessable form. It was a gift. What it did destroy however was the existance of the economy, the notion of rich, and any kind of power over others, which was why the govenments were fighting it: it changed everything too much. The story ends with three other packages landing in North america, Europe, and Australia.
Anyway, feel free to co-opt as much or as little as you like. I liked the idea myself of having the aliens be as much in trouble as the humans, maybe more so, attempting to build themselves up, but being continually ravaged by the humans and the planet. They go to pieces as much as the humans. The remenents of the nanos might have broken too, so they no longer recognise their origional creators, and attack everyone. I always thought of it being more of a "Two races on one hostile planet" kind of thing, neither really prepared for the job, but both with strengths.
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2009-03-25, 06:42 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2008
Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
OK, one question.
Cross-breeding: for or against?I use black for sarcasm.
Call me Rose, or The Rose Dragon. Rose Dragon is someone else entirely.
If you need me for something, please PM me about it. I am having difficulty keeping track of all my obligations.
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2009-03-25, 08:04 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2007
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- Department of Smiting
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Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
Oh, but it can!
Your post brings up another point: what is the current state of the world? Do all shelters open at the same time, causing a sudden world-wide restart of (a semblance of) civilization? Do some open prematurely, leading to already established settlements? Did some people outside the shelters survive the apocalypse?
The alien scenario can be rewarding if done well, but it would mean we'd have to establish two sets of civilization: a human one and an alien one.
Despite Earth's resistance, the aliehumans eventually succeeded in destroying all of Earth's governments. Much of the world was devastated in the conflict, by [insert WMDs or ice-nine here]. While diehard factions of native humans continued to launch occasional attacks from their bases in lands that weren't worth developing - Antarctica and regions that were made nearly uninhabitable during the war.
Midway through in the war, Primetech - a powerful corporation whose lobbyists and ex-board-members effectively controlled most of Earth's governments - built numerous well-hidden underground vaults, fearing that the outsiders would destroy all "true" humans, so that one day an uprising could be staged. In the 200-odd years between the sealing of the vaults and their opening, society got pretty peaceful.
While the aliehumans were always the ruling class and received higher privileges than any native could hope for, advanced technology like flying cars and incredible medical care kept the masses happy with their aliehuman overlords. Any aggression in society was directed into wars against the Resistance groups, which always launched periodic raids and terrorist attacks, but never accomplished much. Over time, the aliehumans' haughtiness relaxed. Interbreeding between alien and native humans became common, and a mixed-descent middle class arose.
Things seemed primed for a glorious future. And then the Resistance got its act together.
After about 170 years of living with primitive technology in hideous wastelands, the Resistance managed to steal or invent a new weapon of mass destruction, possibly ice-nine. While it didn't let the Resistance fight the aliehumans on their own terms, it let them drag the aliehumans down to their terms. Once again, much of the world was devastated. The aliehuman government might have recovered from the catastrophe if the vaults hadn't started to open.
Since no one knew about the vaults except for those who were interred in them, several major cities and military bases were constructed over vaults. While the vaults were intended to all open simultaneously, some of their timing mechanisms malfunctioned, many of the residents became sufficiently confident and impatient that they forced the doors open. The result - thousands of highly motivated, healthy resisters armed with the very best pre-collapse weaponry suddenly appearing in major cities, factories, and other strategic locations - was a deathblow.
Today, a few enclaves of the original aliehuman government cling to power. Most of them are isolated, weak, and terrified of both the outside world and uprisings by their own native citizens.
Also, how do we decide on something in the first place? We don't exactly have the luxury of opening polls, so it'd have to be something that can be done in this thread. Anyone with more experience, feel free to pitch in.
For, with one caveats. Unless we use my suggestion of human aliens, it's best to have the hybrids be created, not just the product of spontaneous Forbidden Love. That is, the aliens designed the hybrids, which as part-human were better adapted to the planet than they were, to be their successors. Unfortunately, not all of the hybrids really liked the "continue to oppress one of my parent races forever" idea.
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2009-03-25, 08:12 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2008
Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
I use black for sarcasm.
Call me Rose, or The Rose Dragon. Rose Dragon is someone else entirely.
If you need me for something, please PM me about it. I am having difficulty keeping track of all my obligations.
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2009-03-25, 08:27 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2007
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- Department of Smiting
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2009-03-25, 09:55 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
I agree. Any protein-based aliens we meet might be similar, but not that similar. Unless they're a literal version of us, as in the Stargate one. Even then it might be a streach, as there are many species on Earth that have diverged enough in ten millenia to cause interbreeding to be impossible, even without complete population separation due to cosmic-space-wiblies.
Wanna argue about it?
...You know what? Yes! How's them apples!
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2009-03-26, 07:39 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2008
Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
So, here's a list of the ideas we've got so far.
- Nuclear showdown
- Alien invasion
- "Ice-nine" disaster
- Terraforming
- Biological warfare
I use black for sarcasm.
Call me Rose, or The Rose Dragon. Rose Dragon is someone else entirely.
If you need me for something, please PM me about it. I am having difficulty keeping track of all my obligations.
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2009-03-26, 10:21 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
Originally Posted by SurlySeraph
Beguiler, you just got served.
ALL hail DirtyTabs, creator of this wonderful UserClone TRONpony!
*sigh*
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SpoilerOriginally Posted by BRC
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2009-03-26, 03:06 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2008
Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
So, any other apocalypse ideas out there? The sooner we can choose an apocalypse (or three), the sooner we can move on to other things.
We just need three more to start a substantial polling.I use black for sarcasm.
Call me Rose, or The Rose Dragon. Rose Dragon is someone else entirely.
If you need me for something, please PM me about it. I am having difficulty keeping track of all my obligations.
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2009-03-26, 03:41 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2004
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Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
For voting, I have used a third part polling site. We did that for ToB several times. I forget which one we used, but the options are probably all different now anyway. Just google. There's bound to be an option that gives free limited polling features. Although, in the beginning, we just started a thread for the vote and counted up the polls. If we have less than 10-20 people voting, that's not too hard.
How about this idea.
A meteor strikes the Earth, unleashing a catastrophe the likes of a nuclear fallout without the radiation. Most organisms die and the planet falls into a new ice age. But the planet eventually self-corrects and the ice retreats. However, the axis has been shifted and the old north pole is now at a lower latitude. This allows the ice caps to melt...revealing long frozen alien vessels that arrived on Earth many millenia ago. They thaw out and find a planet of adapting life. Bunker people don't come out yet. The aliens are the same aliens, just different vessels as some that arrived, oh at about the dawn of man and actually genetically engineered man's existence. This new group attempts to do the same but with different existing life forms: orangutans? gorillas? lemurs? raccoons?
Humans emerge to find the morphed creatures promulgating and learning from the aliens. Sort of pseudo Planet of the Apes.
Regardless of what happens, here's what I'd like to see in general:
1. at least one new race the humans have to 'deal' with. That adds some diversity for PCs.
2. A mix of tech and non-tech post-apoc weapons/tools/etc.
3. A transformed landscape, ruins of cities to explore.
4. Lost knowledge. People find technology but they have no point of reference and have to learn what things are. This is always fun for role-playing. "Hey, dude, you're wearing a toilet on your head"Pirate Motto:Wherever you go,
There you arrrr.
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2009-03-27, 10:06 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2008
Re: Days of Future Prime (YAAaaCWBP - Sci-Fi version)
Idea
An engineered virus causes the death of almost every placental mammal. Some humans survive by hiding in vaults others by random immunity within 3 years there are less than 10000 people left alive on the earths surface, many of them closely related. centuries later isolation, mutation and inbreeding mean that there are now at lest 8 separate spices of "human" not including the vault dwellers and the descendants of scientists in antartica. Now the aliens arrive. Why they are hear is up to you, they are running from a war/they are colonists/they come from the future of earth/ they are from the future period/they are lost / they are the alien version of the batlestar galictica/ any combination of those. they are almost out of food and they couldn't make a hyperjump if they wanted to.They are hear to stay and they set up a city or two and admire the primitive natives (the post-humans) who view them as gods. Then the vault dwellers emerge and throw a wrench in the whole thing by saying to the aliens " you don't belong hear" and to the mutants "ahh monsters! kill 'em all"
as long as the alieans are truly starfish (that is like the trope the don't have to be sapeant echinoderms) I'll be happy.