alternate fall of man

[kafka47]

Or simply to the GURPS things and invoke the Sound of Thunder. One slight experiment in time manipulation beyond your current Imperial Age resulted in a whole series of events to catacymatically wrong. The players and others that were in Jumpspace are uneffected by the change in history and emerge into a radically different world. Eg. What if the Nazis captured a Vilani Scout breeding a World War akin to Harry Turtledove scenarios.

 

[sid6.7]

Wow

WOW thanks guys..i do believe i am going to use daves idea for the soul
universe...i like the domino effect of his PING idea....i think it would
do the most damage for the longest time for what i want...


excellent feedback though...

 

[deniable]

Or simply to the GURPS things and invoke the Sound of Thunder. One slight experiment in time manipulation beyond your current Imperial Age resulted in a whole series of events to catacymatically wrong. The players and others that were in Jumpspace are uneffected by the change in history and emerge into a radically different world. Eg. What if the Nazis captured a Vilani Scout breeding a World War akin to Harry Turtledove scenarios.

That sounds a little too much like The Quiet Earth for my liking. That was one creepy film.

 

[Ran Targas]

^That looks like an awesome movie; I'm gonna Netflix it today!

What about something natural and ultimately unstoppable like a massive black hole plowing its way through the center of the Imperium, wiping out whole systems and causing massive disturbances in Jump space or producing lethal levels of high energy particles from the accreting matter?

I know having whatever the apocolypse is be human created is the tragedy but nature is the ultimate cold blooded killer

 

[Icosahedron]

I think realistically, unless the black hole was of 'galactic core' size it would have little effect on the Imperium. In fact I'm not sure that even one this size would have a noticeable effect in human timescales. I can't see it moving faster than than c/100, and that equates to 1pc in 3 centuries. You'd see it coming for millenia. Besides, the stellar density isn't great enough hereabouts to create much of an accretion disc. Even a billion stellar-mass hole would only cut a gravitational swathe perhaps a parsec or so wide, so if 50% of hexes have a star present, it might just swallow or disrupt one star every 600 years. Only MHO, but I think there would be more local disruption from a supernova than a black hole 'just passing through'. There's no saying what effect it might have on Jump Space, of course, but I doubt if its effects would be much more widespread than its gravitational influence.
Now if it actually 'stopped' in our neighbourhood for a couple of billion years, that would be an entirely different matter...

 

[G. Fieendish]

Hmm ... this has been explored. The Battletech universe and the invasion of the Clans in 3050.

During the fall of the Star League in 2750, General Alexandyr Kerensky led loyal forces of the Star League Defence force away from known space in a massive exodus. For three hundred years, the successor states of the Inner Sphere waged wars for control of the old Star League. In 3050, a force consisting of a technically superior enemy invaded the Inner Sphere. The states of the Inner Sphere could not compete and world after world fell to the invading forces. The invading Clans turned out to be the descendants of General Kerensky's forces.

The "Successor States" only survived the Clan Invasion of 3050, due partially to the fact the Clans, were just as politically/ideologically fragmented as they were. (The Clans had polarized over time into 2 political/ideological factions, Crusader & Warden).
Also their war leader, IlKhan Leo Showers (a rabid Crusader, ideologically) died in a brief naval skirmish in the Radstat star system, & they had to go back to the Clan Homeworlds to elect a new one, giving the Inner Sphere a year to re-arm & technologically upgrade their militaries to rough parity....

 

[Gray Lensman]

WOW thanks guys..i do believe i am going to use daves idea for the soul
universe...i like the domino effect of his PING idea....i think it would
do the most damage for the longest time for what i want...


excellent feedback though...

I think I like this one the best too, don't know about the 1% of ships surviving tho, may be a bit too low.

 

[DaveChase]

I think I like this one the best too, don't know about the 1% of ships surviving tho, may be a bit too low.

Every thing is adjustable.

sid6.7 was wanting a way to disrupt the normal day to day workings of an entire empire. Trade and supply is the best way. Not knowing what caused it also leads to trouble as people will panic and blame everything and everyone.

1% is just around about figure. Since no one knew it was coming and traffic was going on as normal, who knows to tell others. (reason I suggested that PSI races had a greater survival rate of ships)
Even after a normal jump a ship does not always come out exactly in a week. People wait and the that could be 3 days before they decide the ship is lost, mean while ships are still jumping at over 100 dia and less than 1000 dia and so are having a great deal of misjumps occuring.

Lets say that a ship avoids the misjump and arrives a week later. Would they know that the jump parameters have changed? If the system does not alert anyone (if any one even knows) about the danger what happens then. They jump again and misjump potential happens again.

Of course the 1% could be higher at certain systems. Say a repair depot where it takes weeks, months to repair a ship. Or a ship yard that is still building a ship (takes months, years). Or any other system you wish since it is your world/game.

Then when does the system discover the jump danger window is 1000 dia instead of 100 dia? Trial and error, a ship that actually makes it in system that already knows, PSI, or ???

The part that I like about this type of turbulence is tech is still high but supplies, exchange of ideas, and (interstellar) trade have gone away. Some planets will be in desperate need in a short time. The Empire can not come to the rescue. Some will have plenty of supplies but no tech replacement. Some will lose its ecomony but have more than enough supplies to live (or create their own supplies).

Above all, the panic will be the greatest threat to the stability of any government. Just think of today's world and try to assume what would happen if all fuel engines just stopped working? You could still walk and pull a cart carry a backpack. Maybe you have horses and a wagon. Maybe you have an all electric vehicle that still works for some odd reason but you don't have the electricity to charge it up (unless you are set up gridless). No fuel generators work, etc.
How much would people panic? What time of year for that region (world) is it? Is harvest ready or is it winter? Can they even grow food (cities or extreme climates)? What happens to the response time to emergencies if they can not drive to it?

Of course that is not exactly what happens in Ping but close.

Please feel free to modify any part of the idea/thoughts that I have presented to fit what every world/game/story you like. It was only created by discussion between people who like to dream.
And thank you all for your input to sid6.7 request. It has been and will be fun to think and discuss.

Dave Chase

 

[Mused]

I ran a New Era campaign in the Solomani Rim that was much worse than the canon

I took the idea that creatures (bioweapons) that could be best described as Cthulhu Mythos type critters had been constarined by anti-jump projectors, repulsros and other incomprehensible Ancient devices in one of the numerous interdicted asteroid belts in the Rim

Both the Solomani and the Imperium knew of these at very high and restricted levels (local only, they feared someone not understanding what they found.)

These weapons were virtually unstoppable and self-replicating. They were also capable of navigating jump space. Vast, psionic and programmed to destroy anything not registered in their program as 'friendly', more and more were escaping from their 'cells'

Like the 'gods' of the pentapods, they sent probes out to reconnoiter the universe as it stands.

Their mere presence causes damage to human minds, unleashing panic reactions (flight or FIGHT!). And, in the absence of any other rational cause, people fill in the blanks: it is the strangers (visiting humans trying to uplift them); somehow I just know they are dangerous

The campaign ended just as one of the main units was breaking out

 

[hariseldon]

Here's my two cents:

Penny one: death of a civilization through apathy. Once a society begins to think of itself as sophistocated, it becomes solidified, decadent, arrogant. Even without an external enemy, the society slowly dissolve from the inside out. My theory is that throughout history, this has been the true reason most cultures have succumbed. The real threat is from within, not from without.

Penny two: Run with the theory that the universe will die a very slow death from cooling and burning it's fuel to exhaustion. Then set your time frame within the last few decades or centuries. The despair throughout the ensuing stories will be palpable.

All of these concepts would best be told through a series of one-offs, using different characters for one or two threads, until the end. Each episode would display the new social order as the end approaches.