Weird idea for a supers campaign setting

[megaplayboy]

So, whilst navel-gazing about the nature of reality, I hit upon a really weird campaign premise.

Basically, around 2025 or so, quantum computers have developed sufficiently that they can predict future natural events(like weather forecasting 2 weeks in advance, astronomical phenomena, and so forth).  One day, a quantum computer projects that a distant galaxy, a billion or so light years away, will simply blink out of existence suddenly.  Scientists don't know what to make of this prediction, until it actually happens one day in 2030.  Some further disappearances of distant galaxies begin to cause a quiet panic in the scientific and expert community.  It appears that reality/existence is falling apart and, based on calculations, the Earth itself will cease to be within about 25 years.  

Multiple major countries begin to work on funding research projects to try to understand what is happening better and try to find ways to avert or reverse this cataclysm.  It involves experts from both predictable fields and from unexpected ones(comic book writers, for instance).  Eventually, counting national, private and collaborative projects, about a baker's dozen of huge megaprojects are underway around the world, and after 2 decades of steady work, one of the results is the appearance of superhumans and superhuman beings.  Somehow they are the key to reversing premature onset entropy or POE as the crisis is called.  But they only have five years...

 

 

[steriaca]

53 minutes ago, megaplayboy said:

So, whilst navel-gazing about the nature of reality, I hit upon a really weird campaign premise.

Basically, around 2025 or so, quantum computers have developed sufficiently that they can predict future natural events(like weather forecasting 2 weeks in advance, astronomical phenomena, and so forth).  One day, a quantum computer projects that a distant galaxy, a billion or so light years away, will simply blink out of existence suddenly.  Scientists don't know what to make of this prediction, until it actually happens one day in 2030.  Some further disappearances of distant galaxies begin to cause a quiet panic in the scientific and expert community.  It appears that reality/existence is falling apart and, based on calculations, the Earth itself will cease to be within about 25 years.  

Multiple major countries begin to work on funding research projects to try to understand what is happening better and try to find ways to avert or reverse this cataclysm.  It involves experts from both predictable fields and from unexpected ones(comic book writers, for instance).  Eventually, counting national, private and collaborative projects, about a baker's dozen of huge megaprojects are underway around the world, and after 2 decades of steady work, one of the results is the appearance of superhumans and superhuman beings.  Somehow they are the key to reversing premature onset entropy or POE as the crisis is called.  But they only have five years...

 

 

Not if someone has access to time travel. 

[Lord Liaden]

Given the premise of your world, what would the focus of stories/campaigns be? What would the supers have to contribute beyond what the researchers have found or can find?

 

Traditional conflicts between superhumans won't seem very important if the world has only five years left to live. Unless there are supervillains who embrace nihilistic anarchy, and the heroes have to put them down.

[Steve]

I’m a little confused by the premise. Wouldn’t the vanishing of a galaxy a billion light-years away have happened a billion years ago? We would only just now be seeing it.

[Lord Liaden]

I remember a story in Adam Warlock's comic series dealing with a villain called the Star Thief with that MO, in which someone in their letters page raised that very issue. IIRC the writer went on to posit that the Star Thief was also taking all the light emitted from those stars at the same time as the star itself, so we on Earth would see its disappearance in real time.

[megaplayboy]

5 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Given the premise of your world, what would the focus of stories/campaigns be? What would the supers have to contribute beyond what the researchers have found or can find?

 

Traditional conflicts between superhumans won't seem very important if the world has only five years left to live. Unless there are supervillains who embrace nihilistic anarchy, and the heroes have to put them down.

I think it would emerge that the underlying problem could only be addressed by superhumans.  I think the world at large would be aware of some kind of crisis but not fully cognizant that the end was near.  I expect that there would be some opportunistic villainy.  The culmination of the effort might be to seek to "reboot" the universe the way comic book companies reboot comic book universes.  

[Ninja-Bear]

6 hours ago, steriaca said:

Not if someone has access to time travel. 

Perhaps that’s what is causing the problem?

[steriaca]

2 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Perhaps that’s what is causing the problem?

Might be...

 

Has anyone seen Malkronous?

[megaplayboy]

One of the sub-themes is that the various competing projects may create "factions" vying to be the ones to succeed.  

 

And, yes, there will likely be a nihilistic cultlike group wishing to bring upon oblivion and sabotage efforts to thwart it.  

[steriaca]

The destruction of the universe isn't going to stop Malkronous.  He'll wait it out in the time stream, avoiding cronovore sharks and becoming a time pirate.

[archer]

That premise would massively change the existing world. If the general public becomes aware of the end of the universe there would be:

 

1) Death cults

 

2) Cults designed to "pray away the end" and probably fleece the flock of all their money. Multiple messiah figures.

 

3) HUGE uptick in people turning to legitimate religions. HUGE uptick in religious factions meddling in politics worldwide. 

 

4) Survivalist cults. Low end would bunker up thinking that enough concrete might protect them. High end might steal or have enough resources to build starships to fly toward still-existing star systems in order to stave off the end as long as possible. Lots of new businesses springing up hoping to fleece the survivalists out of as much money as possible.

 

4) An unprecedented amount of self-destructive behavior. Casual sex. Alcoholism. Drugs. Extreme sports. Quitting their jobs to travel the world. How do you expect someone to put up with being a garbageman or doing any other job which doesn't get a lot of respect if the end of the world is literally around the corner? 

 

5) An end of planning for the future. High schools would be deserted as would college classrooms (though showing up to live at fraternities might survive for the party factor). No savings. Economic boom then collapse as everyone simultaneously withdraws their 401k accounts from the stock market. The Great Depression would look like a cake walk in comparison. 

 

6) A lot of abandoned vehicles and properties as people preemptively kill themselves. Assisted suicide would probably be quickly legalized in order to keep people from destroying property or killing others as part of their own suicide attempts. A lot of scams around the new assisted suicide service industry (killing people then claiming they asked for suicide, changing wills, etc.).

 

7) Alien invasions as aliens raid soon-to-be-extinguished star systems for resources to fuel their own stave-off-the-end-of-the-universe schemes.

 

8  Huge amount of crime problems. People robbing banks in order to experience what it's like to have money at least once before they die. People tracking down their old bosses and ex-wives to settle scores. Vigilante justice against politicians and people who are publicly accused of crimes but still walking the streets. Since there literally is no future, there's no reason for ordinary people to hold back and abide by societal norms. If superheroes and supervillains emerge into public knowledge, I'd expect a lot of completely normal people to play dress-up as part of their misbehavior.

 

9) Accelerated introduction of robotics and automation to replace people who don't want to do menial jobs during the end of the world. 

 

10) War between countries over resources. Mass migration from poor countries to rich countries. Massive inflation in most countries. Civil wars. Famines. Breakdown in international trade except through robotic ships (piracy and privateering against those). Letters of marque issued for online and real world resources. Possible breakdown of worldwide internet. Realigning of international alliances and traditional rivalries to reflect the new reality. Reintroduction of slavery in many places in order to keep farms and factories working...and to stave off various problems that could lead to riots and revolution. Reintroduction of capital punishment in many countries and an increasing number of crimes to which it applies. 

 

[Hugh Neilson]

Archer, I will note your outline relies on not only public awareness, but public acceptance, of the imminent end of the world.  How much evidence would be required to convince them?  How many will believe the science even if the science is fully available, and coupled with worldwide efforts to make the public aware of the issue?

 

Not seeing any real-world parallel or precedent for a world-wide event which massive numbers of people discount or disbelieve entirely despite huge effort by the scientific community to educate them, of course.

[archer]

14 minutes ago, Hugh Neilson said:

Archer, I will note your outline relies on not only public awareness, but public acceptance, of the imminent end of the world.  How much evidence would be required to convince them?  How many will believe the science even if the science is fully available, and coupled with worldwide efforts to make the public aware of the issue?

 

Not seeing any real-world parallel or precedent for a world-wide event which massive numbers of people discount or disbelieve entirely despite huge effort by the scientific community to educate them, of course.

 

Half the public seems to believe or wish the world will end anyway. Christianity and Islam both teach that the world is temporary and that's a significant amount of the world population. End-of-the-world movies and gaming is wildly popular...in part I think because people don't believe in their hearts that the world will last as it is...and half-believe they'll end up in a zombie apocalypse, global pandemic, or cosmic disaster of some sort.

 

And a significant portion of the US population seems to believe in all sorts of things without evidence other than the president having tweeted it out at some point of time or the other.  

 

So I don't have any trouble thinking that enough people would believe to cause total chaos. 

[megaplayboy]

I think that a large portion of the public won't take it seriously until the end is fairly near(when the Andromeda Galaxy blinks out of existence, e.g.), and the government will be trying to pump up optimism and hopefulness to keep the economy and fabric of society from collapsing.  It may be part of the early storyline that the heroes have to show some signs of small success in order to stave off global depression(in the emotional sense).  

[Hugh Neilson]

How hard would it be for authorities to dismiss anyone asserting the world is ending as mentally unstable?  We already do, don't we?

[Lord Liaden]

It would be easier to justify public hysteria if it was just the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy that are disappearing, instead of whole galaxies. Harder to deny the reality when anyone can look up at the night sky and see the evidence. Of course people in rural regions will notice it before city dwellers do, which will lead to initial skepticism in the latter and give the panic time to build.

 

To deal with the light speed time delay, say that the phenomenon started with distant stars but is accelerating as it gets closer to Earth, with the gaps between stellar disappearances going from millennia, to centuries, to decades, to years, etc. That would make the change more readily visible from our perspective, would boost the sense of urgency, and also suggest that the cause is something in our region of space.

[archer]

5 minutes ago, Hugh Neilson said:

How hard would it be for authorities to dismiss anyone asserting the world is ending as mentally unstable?  We already do, don't we?

 

Not very difficult at all.

 

On the other hand, it would be difficult to accumulate any significant resources without telling people why they're being accumulated. Even with a cover story, you're going to have to tell a large number of people what's really going on. You don't have any idea how any individual person is going to react when you tell him, much less after you tell him and he's had a while to think about it.

 

I guess the game could be about superpowered assassins who run around trying to silence and discredit people who are trying to spill the beans.

 

Even people who start out really wanting to keep the secret are going to end up telling spouses, priests, talking after getting drunk, committing suicide and sending evidence to the media, or just being sloppy with physical security of the project's paperwork.  

 

Which congressman wouldn't want to be the first one in front of the microphones to break the story and use the public outcry to try to grab control of the project?

[megaplayboy]

I don't really envision the setting as being that grim and bleak.  The heroes are overwhelmingly likely to succeed eventually.  There may be some early indicia of success, like preventing a nearby star from blinking out.  And the simple miraculous appearance of superpowered beings is likely to instill a greater belief that a "miracle" will save humanity.  

In terms of resource allocation, I expect that for the first decade or two preceding the start of the campaign, the spending is in the "black box budget" territory, a few tens of billions a year.  When the crisis becomes more public, the funding will be increased to trillions per year.  

[Asperion]

Wouldn't it be possible that the use of the quantum computers is somehow causing all these changes to reality that were mentioned? Since those computers operate on the quantum level, it might be possible that they "use up" some aspect of reality whenever one of them is used, no matter where. As a result, reality will be disappearing, the faster with more people using more of them.

[archer]

2 hours ago, Asperion said:

Wouldn't it be possible that the use of the quantum computers is somehow causing all these changes to reality that were mentioned? Since those computers operate on the quantum level, it might be possible that they "use up" some aspect of reality whenever one of them is used, no matter where. As a result, reality will be disappearing, the faster with more people using more of them.

 

I'd thought the same thing.

 

However, that would imply on some level that humans were the first to come up with quantum computing and using it to model the universe.

 

Assuming "humans are best" closes off a lot of potential creative space in the campaign universe.

 

2 hours ago, megaplayboy said:

I don't really envision the setting as being that grim and bleak.  The heroes are overwhelmingly likely to succeed eventually.  There may be some early indicia of success, like preventing a nearby star from blinking out.  And the simple miraculous appearance of superpowered beings is likely to instill a greater belief that a "miracle" will save humanity.  

 

 

The tone of the setting is of course up to you.

 

But the people who are aware of the problem also being aware that "the heroes are overwhelmingly likely to succeed eventually" is something to be carefully established if you don't want your players wondering why people aren't freaking out.

 

2 cents