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One of the common tropes of the superhero genre is the conceit that alternate universes exist(e.g., the 52 universes in DC, the Ultimate universe in Marvel, the Champions in 3D book for Hero System, et al). Most often this is invoked with a visit by heroes to an "alternate Earth", a place where history was altered or there's just something different about this version of our planet. I thought it would be fun to start a thread where people can discuss their own alternate Earths that they have used in a campaign, and/or brainstorm new ideas for alternate Earths that could be fun to explore.

 

One of the things I've thought about are naming conventions. One can simply go with a numbering system; e.g., Earth-1, Earth-2, etc. Or a letter-based system, Earth-A, Earth-B, etc. Another option is using a descriptor--Marvel Earth, Apocalypse Earth, Dinosaur Earth, etc. If one uses letters and begins to run out of letters, then you could shift to the old Greek alphabet--Earth-Z, Earth-Alpha, Earth-Beta, etc. OR even change from "Earth" to "Terra" or "Gaia".

 

The alt Earths can be serious, silly, horrifying, overpowered, underpowered, titillating, or tedious.

 

I'll start with a couple:

 

Earth-K: On a certain distant planet orbiting a red sun, the high council took the warnings of a certain scientist very seriously, and instead of the scientist only being able to launch an escape rocket carrying his newborn child, the entire population of the doomed planet was able to escape, thanks to a crash building program. Their destination? Earth. When they arrived there was considerable friction with the native population, but eventually most of these issues were resolved. Intermarriage between the races occurred, and while the offspring were not as powerful as their alien parent, they were nonetheless blessed with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.

 

Terra Upsilon--a world ruled by a Kleptocracy. The criminals and supervillains are essentially running the show. What heroes exist are either imprisoned or live in hiding. Most of the "real Earth's" heroes are villains in this world, and some of the villains are heroes here.

 

I look forward to reading everyone's contribution.

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Been working on a model for my stories. One is the regular Earth, one is the regular Earth with certain hero combinations reversed, one is an Earth where Alchemy is a science and most of the world are ruled by monarchys, One is an Earth where different heroes are in action and have spawned their own legacies, and the last earth has been invaded by a giant plant they are trying to contain with super soldiers.

 

I have been using the reps of each earth as the designator

CES

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For the people in the know on Chronicles Earth, the Wardens Chronicles campaign homeworld, there are six documented parallel Earths. Each of which is called a Prime Parallel as the rules of physics as well as 'superhero physics' for them seem to closely mirror those of Chronicles Earth.

Each alternate Earth is called "Prime Parallel: Earth X" or just "Earth X" with X being a number designation.


Earth 1

Inhabitants: Humans, Low-Level Machine Intelligences

Dimension Brief: Technology stands at the forefront on this world. The average technology is roughly 30-50 years more advanced than Chronicles Earth. Multinational companies are potent political entities with only a couple of national states close to their level of influence on world affairs.


Earth 2

Inhabitants: Humans, Changed Humans, Changed Animals

Dimension Brief: This world political scene is dominated by an almost constant state of war between paranormals and the armies of the technologists. National states are either pro-paranormal or pro-technology with a few minor political entities espousing neutrality and watching the battles from the sidelines.


Earth 3

Inhabitants: Humans, Several types of Psionic Animals/Creatures

Dimension Brief: The power of the mind stands at the forefront on this world. There are no large national states, only small political polities arranged in an ever changing series of alliances. The general outlook is one of paranoia and constant small scale skirmishes.


Earth 4

Inhabitants: Humans, Several sub-species of humans and animals not present on Chronicles Earth

Dimension Brief: This world is dominated by an oppressive world spanning empire. The Empire has ruled the world for the last several decades after ruthlessly crushing all opposition to its rule, or so it thought. Over the last decade, a strong rebel movement has risen to oppose the Empire.


Earth 5

Inhabitants: Humans, Demon-kin, Ven, Shahee, Other Mystical Creatures and Races

Dimension Brief: All things magic and mystical stand at the forefront on this world. A world almost shattered by a war between the Sorcerors of Atlantis and the Demon-kin of Mur. The mystical energies released during the final days of the war sunk both Atlantis and Mur in addition to causing a rift in the dimensional fabric of the multiverse. Members of the Enclave traveled from Chronicles Earth and working with the Acadian Academy used magics to seal the rift.


Earth 6

Inhabitants: Humans, Koreskites

Dimension Brief: A union of man and biological nanites, Koreskites, has placed the bio-sciences in great prominence on this world. Practitioners of the Art, those born with the ability to join with the nanites, are greatly respected for their abilities to defend the people from everything from microbes to monstrous entities.

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Marvel Alternate 336-Epsilon

 

In this Marvel Universe, the X-Men were founded by Charles Xavier and Eric "Magnus" Lensher. They presently have an Alpha Team (Fusion (Havok), Miss Marvel (Jean Grey), Richter (Avalanche), Beast and Iron Man (Colossus)) and Beta Team (Weapon X, Sabertooth, Bishop, Kinetic (Gambit), and Ghostcat (Shadow Cat)). Alpha Team is primarily for combat while Beta Team is intrusion and assassination (a la X-Force).

 

Their primary enemies are The Mutant Superiority League (Lead by Mystique and Nightcrawler, but also including Rogue, Blob, Coldsnap (Iceman), Deathgaze (Cyclops), Replicator (Jamie Madrox/Multiple Man), Psylock, Viper and Absorbing Man (Sabastion Shaw)); The Hellfire Club/Hellions (Emma Frost as the White Queen and Arch Angel as White King leading Power Sink (Rogue), The Human Blowtorch (Pryo), The Cucoos, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver (both of whom do not acknowledge Magneto as their father).

 

Steve Rogers was killed in Korea by Winter Soldier.

 

The Avengers include Iron Patriot (James Rhodes - suit built by Tony Stark for his friend who was rendered a quadriplegic in a flight accident); Hercules, Storm, Janet Van Dyne (Hank Pym went nuts and uploaded his consciousness into a machine becoming Ultron, frying his brain in the process), Hawkeye, Captain Marvel, and Carol Danvers (who never had a secret ID). Tony Stark is too busy living in the bottle to be Iron Man (plus that name was taken).

 

Bruce Banner was killed by the Gamma Bomb (at least his body was never found).

 

The Hulk is a mindless monstrousity that first appeared a few weeks after Banner was killed. The Hulk is presently in a stasis chamber on the moon. There has been some speculation that Banner is the Hulk, but there has been no evidence to support.

 

Thor was never banished from Asgard, and killed Loki when he showed his true colors.

 

The Fantastic Four consist of Miss Fantastic (Sue Storm), The Invisible Man (Johnny Storm), Inferno (Ben Grimm) and Dr. Living Stone (Reed Richards, in a play on words of 'Dr. Livingston I presume?')

 

Peter Parker never got rid of the symbiote, which gradually turned him darker and darker. Spider Man frequently teams up with Punisher. And he has killed off most of his rogues gallery.

 

Frank Castle never became the Punisher.

 

But Luke Cage did.

 

Matt Murdock is a high-priced mob-lawyer who moonlights as the villain Dare Devil. Who tookover Kingpin's network after Spidey killed him. Of course, it was Murdock who pointed the webslinger and Punisher in his direction to begin with, sooooo

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I've never used alternate timelines before because of the cans of worms they seemed to open. I'm taking the plunge with my new campaign. There's still only one Earth and one timeline... but the future changes as time travelers and precogs use their knowledge of the future to change events. The most important NPC, the gadgeteer hero Doctor Future, is both preconitive and has a time machine: He gathered the PCs from various doomed futures to make sure those futures never happen. Meanwhile, several other heroes and villains are time travelers who seek either to create particular futures or prevent them from happening.

 

I'm not sure if this fits the OP's criteria of interest, but I'll describe the doomed futures of the PCs if anyone wants.

 

Dean Shomshak

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Superheroine Earth

 

Alternate Timeline where both the Marvel and DC Superheroes exist, but their genders are reversed.

 

The Avengers

 

Iron Woman - Tina Stark

Maiden America - Stephanie Rogers

Thora - Dr. Donna Blake

Hornet (Male version of Wasp) - James Van Dyne

Giant-Woman - Holly Pym

 

The Justice League of America

 

Superwoman - Claire Kent

Batwoman - Brooke Wayne

Wonder Warrior - Dylan Prince

Flash - Barbara Allen

Green Lantern - Hannah Jordan

Aquaman - Angela Curry

Martian Manhuntress - Jane Jones

 

The X- Woman

 

Professor X - Charlotte Xavier

Oracle - Scarlet Summers

Marvel Man - John Grey

Icewoman - Brenda Drake

Angel - Wendy Worthington

 

Justice Society of America

 

Spectre - Jaime Corrigan

Hawkmaiden - Carrie Hall

Starwoman - Tanya Knight

Black Condor - Daniel Lance

Hunter - Henry Wayne

Power Lad - Kyle Starr

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Stanhope Ring Earth

 

The Japanese win the Battle of Midway after turning toward Midway instead of away as they did in our timeline.  Only the Dive Bombers from the Hornet attacked the Japanese fleet, damaging only two of the four Japanese carriers.  The remaining two managed to sink the Yorktown and Hornet, and damaged the Enterprise.  The Japanese invaded Midway, and the U.S. was forced to concentrate on the Pacific at the expense of fighting Hitler.  In 1945, before D-Day could be mounted, Hitler and Stalin concluded a separate peace making an invasion of France impossible, starting a three way Cold War.  The U.S. used the Atomic Bomb after being bogged down in the invasion of the Japanese Home Island.

 

All three sides had taken heavy losses, and began experiments to develop new kinds of soldiers using experimental technology, which led to the Superhuman population boom in the 1960s.

 

 

Note:  Stanhope Ring is the name of the commander of the Hornet's Dive Bomber Squadrons during the Battle of Midway.

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One idea I've worked with is to build a universe off early 1e/2e books, ignoring later material. That means using the characters and fluff text from the 1e rules, Escape from Stronghold, The Island of Doctor Destroyer, Deathstroke and maybe some stuff from Enemies and Enemies II.

 

The 2e books included official descriptions of VIPER and UNTIL beyond the sparse notes in 1e. I prefer to work off the latter, and make a roll my own version.

 

Escape from Stronghold contains a nice piece of fluff text which lays out a campaign background that works for me.

 

Deathstroke introduced Special American Tactics, covering the US specific super-agency niche.

 

Basically, superbeings emerged on a large scale in the mid-late 70s. (There were individuals before that). This precipitated a crisis.

 

Mechanon nearly toppled the US government in the late 70s. UNTIL was admitted into the US during this emergency, and was allowed to stay until SAT was ready to replace them.

 

Besides PC groups, there are three major superhero teams in the US, based in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. There is also a Canadian team.

 

The year is 1981...

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Alternate Earth - President Dent

 

Harvey Dent shoots the Joker because of the coin flip.  He becomes a public hero, and vows the bring in the Batman who he blames for Rachel's death.  Bruce Wayne pays for the cutting edge plastic surgery that restores Harvey's look, and in doing so causes the villain Clayface when the process it stolen by a actor turned criminal.  Dent is elected Governor, then President after defeating the Incumbent due to his handling of Bane's take over of Gotham City.  When Superman is revealed after General Zod's attack on Metropolis, President Dent enlists him to find the believed dead Batman.

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There are a bunch of different universes that have been published for Champions.

 

Gestalt.

PS238

4th Edition CU

Aaron Allston's Strike Force universe

 

I suspect that a universe or two could be built out of the various Blackwyrm products, independently of the official CU.

 

Autoduel Champions & Robot Warriors could form the basis of worlds too. Come to think of it, Lands of Mystery, the "Lost World" supplement for Justice Inc, contains a neat setting. Oh, yeah. Justice Inc (and Pulp Hero) describe a world that could be either the past or a parallel world.

 

Then there's the Champions: New Millenium universe. Easily convertable.

 

There are a bunch of other games that had official conversion systems between their systems and Champions. This allows access to worlds based on their scenarios and characters:

Silver Age Sentinels (Reality Storm)

Villains and Vigilantes

Superworld

 

Other games lack such systems, but can be converted less formally:

Mutants and Masterminds

Golden Heroes/Squadron UK (a British game)

 

and, of course: SUPERHERO 2044!

 

The latter is a very fine example of how create a rich background in the fewest number of words. Shame about the game itself.

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