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Alternate Time Lines

After the Final JTNS-NS showed up in in chalange I was all abuzz waiting for TNE what little I saw over the next few months leading up to the relasae of TNE made me even more exicited I Loved "Survival Margin" but thought that things could have gone a seprate way as well.

I was asking my self, What if their was no Virus?, their would still be a broken and faling empire out there full of hert but also adventure and hope. first I neaded a winner to the rebelion but this was to partisian and created one grate leader/hero and that I didn't want, so I dicided to create an aliance of Non-Lossers to stand as figure heads in the strugle to a New Era of prosparty. the game would be brave Scouts and Merchants going fword and breathing new life in to a dieing civiliasion. but who? Norris of cause the stalwart defender of the old status-qow and Gaurdian of the Imperial Heir(s?). Margrate the (now tainted) last grate humantarian of the High Nobility. and on reading "Survival Margin" for the umpteanth time Strephon the focial point and ligitismy giver to the whole endeaver (also the man who has growen to be the emperior that the imperium now needs humbled by the vast task before him) and a surporting player (in the grand scheam) in Craig (for whome grate things await). laking singlure defenate vilians in the grand scheam the task would be all the harder for the leaders with no one person to point to as the "bad guy" their would be only minor or local vilians to be brought to justice i had nilly 70 years of history planed out to alow for verous eras in the rebulding befor the rebellion would see it's winners! the people of the now rebuilt third imperium safe for centuryies to come from gread and arivace in high places.

The verous setings come to over a hunderad pages of hand writen scrawl acumlated over a decade and a half. a uinerverce waiting to see players breath life in to it as their characters would a dieing relm.
 
So.... you wait until AFTER I've moved away from Bris-vegas to post this????? :( :rolleyes:


Are you SURE you don't wanna move to Toowoomba???? ;) :D
 
Originally posted by Rotters2:
So.... you wait until AFTER I've moved away from Bris-vegas to post this????? :( :rolleyes:


Are you SURE you don't wanna move to Toowoomba???? ;) :D
Err, did someone mention Toowoomba?

While I'm posting...

I've got some vague Rebellion ending/Hard Times extension ideas too, although I haven't taken it beyond 1140. Basically, Dulinor's fleet takes Capital, but Dulinor himself gets whacked. Lucan flees but one of his victims catches up with him. Admiral Hutara finds himself in charge of Capital, with Isis sitting back in Ilelish. Old Expanses rebels against the Solomani, neutralising them for a considerable period of time. For at least a few years, the situation is stalemated.
 
In my verson Dulinor dies in a feild acting like a self important ass and Lucans fleat brakes down due to shody workmenship and poor maintince so relising the king is coming back flees the capital. with Dulinor dead their is a civial war in Illish and Valiani, Varg and Solomani border wars ripe to brake out (and in fact do) but thats part of the next 70 years. BTW their are two heirs in my story Avery and his Neice conceaved in seckreat and by an invetro cuppling betwean Ciencia and Isis (the question is are/was the two gay, the word from Isis is NO!!)named Aria the girl was also shiped off to Norris with-out Dulinor knowing that he had a grand dauter and ligitmate imperial heir in the family. the gosip moungers will have years of fun insunating an Incestuous relashonship betwean the two (and ultmitly be proven wrong {acording to my currant draft}) I got lots more intreage and nastyness to happen in the bacground an to tie any players up with
file_23.gif
this is just the tip of the ice-burge
 
In My Version, Dulinor works up the nads to go back and off the "Real Strephon", whilst a small group of supporters from the marches go and assassinate "The Usurper" Lucan. Mind you, said group included two coutns, a duke and 2 barons, upset at lucan for disolving the moot! By 1118, IMTU, Lucan is dead, the "real Strephon" has been captured, and is taken back to capital to capitulate before the moot. (Loads of hypno conditioning during the trip...)

Craig and Brzk don't come back directly, but instead negotiate with Emperor-in-fact Dulinor. The Ziru Sirkaa is offered "Member Client State" status akin with the Vegan Autonomous District. Most of the rim falls to the Solomani. In the 1130's, The restored imperium moves to annex the Solomani Sphere.

The Regency never occurs. Norris gets offed (in about 1120) when it's discovered Branj is not just his personal secretary, but his lover, AND a Zhodani Agent. By the same group who retake Capital... apparently under orders from Dulinor. "For the Good of the Imperium". The Duchess of Mora assumes his duties until his replacement is confirmed.
 
IMTU
- Dulinor killed by Virus farming equip.
- Real Stephon was in corridor at Depot reviewing upgrades...was heading for capital when all hell broke loose.
- Regency goes the way of Regency sourcebook except coruption is rampant...Regency goes to the dark side.
- Lucan...poor stupid Lucan. It sucks to be worshiped by virus.
- Vland resets itself quickly...documentation is a great thing. But not perfect when you have to do everything by the book.
 
Savage, the topic is about a TU WITHOUT VIRUS post second civil war...
 
A couple of random thoughts:

The business about the Aslan incursions probably needs a bit of ret-conning (comics term for rewriting history - from "retro-continuity"). They don't sound particularly economically, politically and militarily plausible in the simple way they have been presented. They would become a lot more likely if something strange had happened in Verge. Maybe it happened in the undocumented years prior to the Rebellion, or maybe Verge actually seceded from the Imperium (ie Norris' faction). A civil war could well blow up most of the local Imperial, subsector and planetary navies in a spectacularly short period of time, forcing the local factions to resort to the use of Aslan mercenaries. In addition, of course, there probably were lots of Aslan in the area to begin with, both as planetary citizens and in the various military forces.

Alternatively, a local secession might well result in a de facto independent state that might well view the Aslan as less of a threat than the relatively huge forces notionally available to Norris. This state might well be aligned with one of the other factions, or may simply be a war zone contested by a number of factions. See my previous comments about civil war. A couple of sieges of hi-pop worlds, a few pitched battles in space, and dozens of small but bloody skirmishes could well blast a high proportion of the local Imperial forces into oblivion. And they could draw in bits of the fleets stationed in areas like Glisten, making those subsectors vulnerable.

It still wouldn't explain why the Aslan were able to jump Glisten itself.

We have no evidence of large scale civil war within the Domain of Deneb itself, but it could have occurred at local levels. The canonical documentation we have is sparse, so there are plenty of gaps, but then again, you would normally presume that civil war on a high-pop world would get a mention!

Still, we're talking about variants here...

The aftermath of any such conflicts could well be worked into any such variants.

Another thought: 313 is correct to point out that Branj Dilgaadin is Norris' achilles heel. I don't generally treat the Imperium as necessarily reflecting present day prejudices, so I wouldn't treat a relationship between Norris and Branj as being a particular problem, aside from Norris being expected to produce a legitimate heir. I also wouldn't treat Branj as actually being a Zhodani agent, but it is entirely likely that he would be accused of being one.

The problem is, essentially, that Branj is a psionic. If this is exposed, Norris is in deeeep trouble. Anti-psionic prejudice is _very_ strong in the Imperium. Norris would lose a lot of his popular support overnight, or at least as fast as the information can be spread between worlds. He would lose a lot of support amongst the nobility, and it is certain that his various opponents and rivals would gleefully take advantage of it. Worst of all, psionics are against the law. Norris, then, is either a puppet or a traitor.

Now, just imagine your name was Frederick Santanocheev... You hate Norris' guts, you have powerful connections amongst the nobility, and, of course, are a noble yourself. What would _you_ do?

Of course, this applies in the GT alternate universe too... If Loren isn't going to use it, someone should suggest it to him.


Edit: D'oh!

Of course, Loren has already done something that points in that general direction:
from http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/traveller/oldnews.html :
---

Mora/Spinward Marches 138-1121

Baroness Jynel-haut Kurshar's allegations of criminal activity against Archduke Norris have been making news here for some time. Today, while making a number of other announcements, a spokesman for the Archduke has issued the first official comment on these allegations.

"The Archduke has been briefed on Baroness Jynel's activities," said Sir Clement Eshgaani. "I wasn't present at the time, but I understand he was . . . amused."

Sir Clement continued, "Archduke Norris is quite willing to justify his actions before any tribunal competent to judge them. In fact, he has such a tribunal in mind, and is willing to pay the Baroness' expenses if she wishes to put her case before it. After all, a trip to Capital is expensive. So is the process of winning a private audience with the Emperor. Of course, the Baroness will doubtless be away from her estates for several years, but the Archduke is sure that she will be willing to make that sacrifice in pursuit of her quest for justice."

---
Presumably Norris would be less amused if evidence of his _real_ crimes came out.
 
Another thought: 313 is correct to point out that Branj Dilgaadin is Norris' achilles heel. I don't generally treat the Imperium as necessarily reflecting present day prejudices, so I wouldn't treat a relationship between Norris and Branj as being a particular problem, aside from Norris being expected to produce a legitimate heir. I also wouldn't treat Branj as actually being a Zhodani agent, but it is entirely likely that he would be accused of being one.
sorry that wasn't me it was Aramis, in mine the pisionic supresion is (pubicaly) lifted and some facts about the Navy seckreat program are revealed, Branj is played as Norrises pisionic garduian protecting him from PSI esponage.
and in my plans for DoD Norris defuses the Aslan problem by offering them setelment rights to fight the varg (and later the Valini)on the cwore-ward/corridor frount (and no comeantes about them goeing at it like cats & dogs please)
 
Oops! My apologies to you and Aramis.

Hmm. Now I'm thinking about psionics... Lifting the psionics suppressions might not be as easily said as done. While it would be formally easy enough, the potential for backlash would be rather high. Opposition could come both from the general population and from opposition noble factions. The latter opposition might be purely opportunistic, or it may be entirely sincere, but it's most likely to involve a combination of both motives!

While the idea of lifting the suppression comes from canonical sources, of course, this resistence could be an interesting complicating factor.

One of the rules of thumb I use about the Imperium is that it possesses a great deal of inertia. It's hard to change. It was hard to establish. It was hard to destroy. It would be hard to restore it. And all for the exact same reasons - it's just so BIG!

For any change anyone seeks to make there is opposition, and it's serious opposition. Even the notionally all-powerful Emperors would usually find it was easier to go with the flow than try and herd that many cats.

But this same argument makes some of the changes that occurred in the Rebellion difficult to explain.

One of the real questions, I guess, is "how fast did the Imperial fleets actually destroy themselves, and how comprehensively"?
 
The lifting of the pisionic surpresion was pland as a major arc and point of conflict in my campain for the players to be involved with, the plan was to draw a lot from the TNE DoD handling of it with a lot of my owen idears as well
 
Here's an alternative assassination day scenario I've been cooking up for Uncle Dennie:

Imagine for a moment that its about 1700 hours on 132-1116.

You are the Grand Admiral of the Imperium (the equivalent to the American Chief of Naval Operations or the British First Sea Lord), and you are on the phone with the commander of the Emperor’s Guard Corps because you have in your hand the decrypted copy of a one word message from Archduke Dulinor’s personal cruiser-transport to the former commander of IN forces in the Sylea system, whom you sacked earlier in the week for insubordination, which reads, “status?”

On one tri-dee screen in your office is a live picture of the throne room.

What do you do when Dulinor pulls out his weapon and opens fire?
 
You know, I don't consider anything that hasn't happened yet to be alternate history. Alternate History would be for example the World War III that hadn't happened in the Twilight 2000 scenario. RPGs is not a history book, you don't have to follow some timeline that leades to TNE.
 
my alternate, or different, or whatever kind of notion:

*Norris buys it way back in the 5FFW.

*New Admiral comes forth, sacks Santanocheev, wins war by seizing Chronor subsector.

*New Admiral marries Iphigenia.

*When the shooting starts in capital, Iphigenia is in the marches with New Admiral husband.

*New Admiral takes fleet and drives on capital, just like the old civil war admirals did.

I haven't decided if 'New Admiral' is going to be Goolanzoon, from the 5FFW game, or someone completly new.
 
How about something more radical? What if the Third Imperium never formed? No one cares who's the Emperor anyway, the PCs certainly don't meet him every day.
 
Radical is a Traveller universe with no Yaskoydray...
Darn straight. No Vargr, no Vilani or Zhodani, just Solomani expanding into a relatively empty universe - though they would have hit the Vegans eventually, no doubt.

More to the point, no stupid random impossibly terraformed worlds, no rubble belts where planets were, no mysterious artifacts that don't seem to do anything useful...


Sounds like quite a nice alternate really
 
Originally posted by Malenfant:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Radical is a Traveller universe with no Yaskoydray...
Darn straight. No Vargr, no Vilani or Zhodani, just Solomani expanding into a relatively empty universe - though they would have hit the Vegans eventually, no doubt.

More to the point, no stupid random impossibly terraformed worlds, no rubble belts where planets were, no mysterious artifacts that don't seem to do anything useful...


Sounds like quite a nice alternate really
</font>[/QUOTE]How about a universe that doesn't have to be compatible with the IMPERIUM star map.

Here's an alternative generic Sol Subsector.
 
Originally posted by Leslie Bates:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Malenfant:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Radical is a Traveller universe with no Yaskoydray...
Darn straight. No Vargr, no Vilani or Zhodani, just Solomani expanding into a relatively empty universe - though they would have hit the Vegans eventually, no doubt.

More to the point, no stupid random impossibly terraformed worlds, no rubble belts where planets were, no mysterious artifacts that don't seem to do anything useful...


Sounds like quite a nice alternate really
</font>[/QUOTE]How about a universe that doesn't have to be compatible with the IMPERIUM star map.
</font>[/QUOTE]Gee, sounds like 2300...
 
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