So, I tried this idea on another forum and it turns out to have been successful beyond my wildest dreams. So, I thought, why not post it here? Basically, the idea is that we play as different Earths in the multiverse, feuding for resources and prestige. All of us are new to multiversal conquest, to avoid burdening me with making rules for pre-existing vassals and colonies. Yes, you can play as several nations instead of one.
Alt-hist is not a necessity - one can have a world with an alternate evolutionary history, or one in which human history has been rewritten from the dawn of civilisation onward. Your alt-hist, if grounded in real history, doesn't have to be plausible either. The one thing you can't have is outright magic beyond the portal generators that make interdimensional travel possible.
Here's the ruleset:
Each player recieves 15 + 1d6 Creation Points, which are spent in the following avenues: Population, Military, Technology, Weapons of Mass Destruction and Economy. All avenues are counted on a scale of 0 to 5.
Technology
Your technology score counts how technologically advanced you are at game start.
0. Pre-agrarian. Stone-age or worse. No agriculture or civilisation.
1. Agrarian. Civilisation exists. At worst the Bronze Age - at best early 18th Century Europe.
2. Industrial. From the invention of the workable steam-engine to the discovery of nuclear power and weapons.
3. Atomic. Nuclear power and weapons exist at this stage. The minimum tech-level, barring extraordinary circumstances, to have access to interdimensional travel. Think our timeline late 1940's to the early 1970's.
4. Early Digital. Personal computers have been invented. An internet of sorts may exist, however it is solidly in the hands of intellectuals. Our timeline 1970s-1990s.
5. Late Digital. The internet has widened. Social media exist, so do mobile communication devices. Access to the internet may have broadened heavily. Our timeline 2001-present.
Military
The military score doesn't just count how big your army is, but also how militarised your population is.
0. No military at all. The population is highly pacifist.
1. Peace-keeping forces exist, but are heavily restrained by law and popular feeling.
2. 'Proper' militaries exist, but are small and compact.
3. Small-to-medium militaries. Popular feeling is a major concern. Conscription laws are possible at this point.
4. Medium-to large militaries. Popular feeling and law is not much of a restraint.
5. Massive armies. The population doesn't care about what the army does, and is highly militarised. Geneva Conventions? What Geneva Conventions?
Population
The population score determines how large your population may be.
0. Your population may be no larger than one billion, most likely far less than that.
1. Your population may be one to two billion.
2. Your population may be two to three billion.
3. Your population may be three to five billion.
4. Your population may be five to eight billion.
5. Your population may be eight to ten billion.
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Your WMD score determines how many WMDs you have, and how advanced they are.
0. Weapons of Mass Destruction are barely a theoretical idea at best.
1. Research is ongoing on the atomic bomb and possibly other weapons. Technology score of at least 2 required.
2. Your world has detonated a nuclear weapon. Requires a Technology score of at least 3.
3. Your world has dozens to hundreds of nuclear weapons - research is occurring on the Hydrogen Bomb.
4. Your world has thousands of nukes, some Hydrogen Bombs.
5. Tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, thousands of hydrogen bombs.
Economy
Your economy score counts how good your world's economy is going and how developed it is at the start of the game.
0. In the grips of a severe depression. Think the world during the Great Depression of 1929, or possibly worse.
1. In a recession/crisis, however things aren't that dire.
2. In the beginning/ending stages of a crisis.
3. Doing well as it is.
4. Going superbly, affluence is common and most things are easily affordable.
5. Going perfectly, it looks like everything is going fine.
~*~
Here's what your timeline should look like (PM these things to me):
Timeline Name: (Can be a simple numerical designation or something more flowery, i.e "A Red Summer" for a Communist-dominated timeline)
Map: (Optional. One need not fill this in if you don't have the time or aren't good with Paint)
Scores: (The most important part. Here are the scores for each important aspect of your world. Use a numerical value)
Technology:
Military:
Population:
WMD: (Weapons of Mass Destruction, abbreviated)
Economy:
Major Nations: (The world superpowers of your timeline, and the ones with the most access to portal technology. No more than five)
Dominant Species: (For alternate evolutions. Defaults to Homo Sapiens)
Notes: (Anything that has a bearing on the game but isn't important enough to get into the other sections)
~*~
I think that's it. So, anybody interested?
SDN Earths (Interest Check)
Re: SDN Earths (Interest Check)
Timeline Name:
Age Of The Pheonix:
An era recovering from both a world war and various calamities, from tornados, earthquakes and plagues. One out of every four people have died throughout most of the world, fourty five years ago.
Map:
Technology: 4
Military: 3
Population: 3
WMD: 1
Economy: 4
Major Nations:
Chen:
The world's most populous nation. Suffering, but recovering economy, very strong militarily, which trades with wealthier but much smaller nations for advanced weapons. The government scrambled after a great quake, flood, and revolution trying to over throw the dynasty and still managed enough funds to keep their dimensional travel portals operational. Chen is of course, analogous to China.
Pendragon:
The world's wealthiest nation. Easily quite powerful in all ways because of it's economy. Pendragon is a very large island with colonies throughout the world, and a recently operational portal on it's mainland. Pendragon is most analogous to England. Pendragon joined forces with Egera to fight Izludar in the Global War.
Egera:
The world's most powerful nation. The country is not the most powerful in any single stat, like the other major nations, however, it is the most powerful country in the sense of possessing balanced traits that are all exceptional. Egera is analogous to America. Egera possesses an alliance between it'self and Pendragon. Egera has also managed to scramble enough funds to keep portals operational.
Izludar:
Izludar is a country made of ancient tribes (no longer following the clan system) that can be described as Celtic. Six hundred years ago a great king united the tribes throughout the region to become one great country. Izludar is the most technologicaly advanced, although it has suffered losing it's world ultimate super power status after the many calamities of the Global War.
Hellena
Hellena is nearly identical in strength to Egera. It possesses a Hellenistic, Greek like culture in the modern period. Hellena has decided to devote it's resources to the discovering of advanced sciences, and is rapidly catching up to Izludar, which it fought against in the Global War and won it's independance from. Negative feelings between the nations have finally begun to wane.
(The world superpowers of your timeline, and the ones with the most access to portal technology. No more than five)
Dominant Species:
Dominant Species is Human. Although there are "Mutants" as they are called, that have begun to grow in number since the Global War. (Natural Evolved Mutants)
Age Of The Pheonix:
An era recovering from both a world war and various calamities, from tornados, earthquakes and plagues. One out of every four people have died throughout most of the world, fourty five years ago.
Map:
Technology: 4
Military: 3
Population: 3
WMD: 1
Economy: 4
Major Nations:
Chen:
The world's most populous nation. Suffering, but recovering economy, very strong militarily, which trades with wealthier but much smaller nations for advanced weapons. The government scrambled after a great quake, flood, and revolution trying to over throw the dynasty and still managed enough funds to keep their dimensional travel portals operational. Chen is of course, analogous to China.
Pendragon:
The world's wealthiest nation. Easily quite powerful in all ways because of it's economy. Pendragon is a very large island with colonies throughout the world, and a recently operational portal on it's mainland. Pendragon is most analogous to England. Pendragon joined forces with Egera to fight Izludar in the Global War.
Egera:
The world's most powerful nation. The country is not the most powerful in any single stat, like the other major nations, however, it is the most powerful country in the sense of possessing balanced traits that are all exceptional. Egera is analogous to America. Egera possesses an alliance between it'self and Pendragon. Egera has also managed to scramble enough funds to keep portals operational.
Izludar:
Izludar is a country made of ancient tribes (no longer following the clan system) that can be described as Celtic. Six hundred years ago a great king united the tribes throughout the region to become one great country. Izludar is the most technologicaly advanced, although it has suffered losing it's world ultimate super power status after the many calamities of the Global War.
Hellena
Hellena is nearly identical in strength to Egera. It possesses a Hellenistic, Greek like culture in the modern period. Hellena has decided to devote it's resources to the discovering of advanced sciences, and is rapidly catching up to Izludar, which it fought against in the Global War and won it's independance from. Negative feelings between the nations have finally begun to wane.
(The world superpowers of your timeline, and the ones with the most access to portal technology. No more than five)
Dominant Species:
Dominant Species is Human. Although there are "Mutants" as they are called, that have begun to grow in number since the Global War. (Natural Evolved Mutants)