ideas for dead alternate worlds

[Mark Rand]

In my campaign, there are many Earths. An extradimensional race known as The Builders remove whatever killed people from dead worlds and put parts of them into pocket universes for mages and other heroes to use as all or part of their base. Here are the worlds I came up with.

 

The cold war is in full swing.

 

The United States is a theocracy. The man in charge is served by a group of women known as "The Holy Virgins." They bear the Seal of Solomin and are veiled in public.

 

Islam is the principal religion. According to text books, 90% of the world's population practices it, 5% are Jewish, and the remaining 5% comprise all other religions.

 

There is no sun. Radiant energy comes from the planet itself and hydrogen has is the principal fuel. The wealthy live in fortified mansions and drive around in armored cars because cat burglars, muggers, kidnappers, and such take advantage of the permanent darkness.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

If you don't have it you ought to look for the 4E supplement Champions In 3-D. It has a bunch of suggestions for alternate worlds, and even a fairly decent random generator.

 

Anyway, here are a few that are either favorites of mine from that book or are well-known classics:

 

"The Enemy" (Nazi Germany/Imperial Japan/Soviet Union) defeated the United States and established an imperial branch of their own regime over America.

 

The dinosaurs never became extinct, mammals didn't evolve to dominance, and sentient dinosaurs are the civilization of the planet.

 

Magic is very strong and reliable, and took the place of technology: people commute on flying carpets, watch entertainment on crystal balls, heat their homes with captive fire elementals, etc.

 

The Aztec priests commanded actual divine magic from their gods. When the Spaniards arrived they were easily defeated, and then the Aztecs crossed the Atlantic and conquered Europe. The rest of the West eventually followed, and now provides living sacrifices for Aztec altars.

 

Alien invaders conquered the Earth and decimated the human populace. The few remaining humans are hunted by the aliens for slaves, experimental subjects, or food.

 

The Earth has become toxically polluted, the ozone layer is gone, gene-tailored diseases got loose... whatever the reason, the surface of the world is inhospitable to Man, so the survivors hunker in underground shelters.

[Lucius]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

Ideas for dead threads.

[Mark Rand]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

Lord Liaden, I once had Champions 3D and agree that it's wonderful.

 

The idea is, of course, that these are now dead worlds.

 

During the cold war, both sides developed chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. On the cold war world, somewhere between the late 50s and early 70s, a bio weapon got loose and killed everyone within a week. Inspiration: the movie The Satan Bug.

 

In the Islamic world, The Roman Empire fell, from within, before The Crucifixion.

 

The theocratic world was inspired by the reign of the Prophet Incarnate mentioned in some of Heinlein's works.

 

The dark world is based on Night Girl's world in the Legion of Superheroes books from DC Comics. (Night Girl was a member of the Legion of Substitute Heroes in those books.)

[BoneDaddy]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

What makes these worlds dead? I'm confused (sometimes quite easily). Maybe a better question is: what do you mean when you say "dead" with reference to these worlds.

 

"Go ahead - there are other worlds than these."

[Mark Rand]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

What makes these worlds dead? I'm confused (sometimes quite easily). Maybe a better question is: what do you mean when you say "dead" with reference to these worlds.

 

"Go ahead - there are other worlds than these."

 

All sentient life has died out on all of them. On some worlds, only plant life exists.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

What makes these worlds dead? I'm confused (sometimes quite easily). Maybe a better question is: what do you mean when you say "dead" with reference to these worlds.

 

"Go ahead - there are other worlds than these."

 

I'm with BoneDaddy here. Did you want ideas for alternate worlds that have died, but parts of them were preserved by the Builders and are still "alive"? Did you want the PCs to encounter worlds that are dead, and just want rationales for what killed them? Or did you want the Builders to have preserved only the forces that had killed these worlds, like some kind of apocalyptic arsenal?

[Mark Rand]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

I'm with BoneDaddy here. Did you want ideas for alternate worlds that have died' date=' but parts of them were preserved by the Builders and are still "alive"? Did you want the PCs to encounter worlds that are dead, and just want rationales for what killed them? Or did you want the Builders to have preserved only the forces that had killed these worlds, like some kind of apocalyptic arsenal?[/quote']

 

The idea is that the Builders use parts from worlds where all intelligent life has died out to create bases, or parts of bases, for wizards and their friends.

 

I originally created them for my "Batman's hometown is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not Gotham City, New Jersey" thread (URL to be edited in later) to exolain why the Batcave is in a pocket universe instead of under Wayne Manor. (All rights to what was under the Southwestern Pennsylvania were purchased, in the 1700s, by, I believe, the coal industry.)

 

As far as what killed the people, any diseases that have done so were neutralized by the Builders before removing pieces from them and putting them in pocket universes.

 

Here is the promised URL: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33841.

[Karmakaze]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

Although... none of the worlds mentioned in the inital post are 100% dead, just unpleasant.

 

I ran a campaign a while back where the game city had been fragmented into dozens of alternate universes. Only the PCs (and the villains responsible) could perceive the change. Everyone else had been transformed into whatever was appropriate for the fragment they were in, perceived that the whole world was like that, and would "translate" if they crossed a barrier between fragments. Some of them were pretty notably unpleasant (and some pretty benign).

 

One of the fragments was dubbed "Wraith World" - essentially, some sort of creatures appeared at night, feeding on people (and possessing the husk). They could not cross mystical barriers (including holy ground, etc.) but could have their possessed husks fire weapons into "safe" areas. By the time the PCs wandered over, there weren't a lot of people left.

[Susano]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

World of Darkness -- the vampires won. The world is mostly empty, with the undead hiding dormant in the deep dark places away from the light. There may be other undead (ghouls and the like), and there might even be lycanthropes in the wilderness.

 

World of the Living Dead -- the zombies won. The world is in ruins after the war against the walking dead. Whole cities are in ashes, most land animal life large than a rat has been eaten or killed and the dead themselves may finally be decaying to the point where they are no longer mobile.

 

A variant is the Marvel Zombies world, where the zombies retain some semblance of sapience, but need to feed on human flesh to keep the hunger at bay.

 

The Stand -- super-virus wipes out everyone. The world is mostly intact, just empty of all people. Variants include the world of the Triffids, where everyone has been blinded and died off, and semi-sapient plants rule the world.

 

Waterworld -- the world has been flooded by global warming. Not enough land to support man, so they eventually all died off.

[LoresLost]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

The two worlds I think of when you say 'dead alternate worlds' are:

1. Dead world from 2000 AD Judge Dredd. Dead world is where the undead Judges Death, Mortus and Fire come from. They judged their world and convected everone of the crime of life.
   
2. Wally World from the JLI. Wally world is where the Exstremist come from, all but one are androids of the original group. Under the the twisted leadership of the only non android they killed everyone except 'Wally' (Walt Disney character in suspended animation). Who the JLI rescued.
   

 

My weird little list

[Basil]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

Nitrogen Fix World: As per the novel Nitrogen Fix, but the humans didn't manage to survive, and nothing evolved.

[Mark Rand]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

World of Darkness -- the vampires won. The world is mostly empty, with the undead hiding dormant in the deep dark places away from the light. There may be other undead (ghouls and the like), and there might even be lycanthropes in the wilderness.

 

World of the Living Dead -- the zombies won. The world is in ruins after the war against the walking dead. Whole cities are in ashes, most land animal life large than a rat has been eaten or killed and the dead themselves may finally be decaying to the point where they are no longer mobile.

 

A variant is the Marvel Zombies world, where the zombies retain some semblance of sapience, but need to feed on human flesh to keep the hunger at bay.

 

The Stand -- super-virus wipes out everyone. The world is mostly intact, just empty of all people. Variants include the world of the Triffids, where everyone has been blinded and died off, and semi-sapient plants rule the world.

 

Waterworld -- the world has been flooded by global warming. Not enough land to support man, so they eventually all died off.

 

I think "The Stand" is the "Cold War World" after the super-viris wiped everyone out.

[Mark Rand]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

If you don't have it you ought to look for the 4E supplement Champions In 3-D. It has a bunch of suggestions for alternate worlds, and even a fairly decent random generator.

 

Anyway, here are a few that are either favorites of mine from that book or are well-known classics:

 

"The Enemy" (Nazi Germany/Imperial Japan/Soviet Union) defeated the United States and established an imperial branch of their own regime over America.

 

The dinosaurs never became extinct, mammals didn't evolve to dominance, and sentient dinosaurs are the civilization of the planet.

 

Magic is very strong and reliable, and took the place of technology: people commute on flying carpets, watch entertainment on crystal balls, heat their homes with captive fire elementals, etc.

 

The Aztec priests commanded actual divine magic from their gods. When the Spaniards arrived they were easily defeated, and then the Aztecs crossed the Atlantic and conquered Europe. The rest of the West eventually followed, and now provides living sacrifices for Aztec altars.

 

Alien invaders conquered the Earth and decimated the human populace. The few remaining humans are hunted by the aliens for slaves, experimental subjects, or food.

 

The Earth has become toxically polluted, the ozone layer is gone, gene-tailored diseases got loose... whatever the reason, the surface of the world is inhospitable to Man, so the survivors hunker in underground shelters.

 

The United States now a Japanese colony? Oh, yeah! This is cool!

[Narratio]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

Here are a bunch of guys who discuss alternate history, other times lines and 'what if...' on the world. They're SF and history buffs and have some great throwaway ideas I've sometimes used in considering alternate worlds and time lines.

 

http://alternatehistory.com/discussion/index.php

[input.jack]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

I still dont get how a world can be "dead" if there are people living on it.

 

If there are no people, who is driving around in armored cars? What are the muggers and cat burglars? They cant be -people-.

 

If they -are- people, the world in question isnt "dead".

 

Sorry, Rand, but I dont get your terminology here.

[Mark Rand]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

I still dont get how a world can be "dead" if there are people living on it.

 

If there are no people, who is driving around in armored cars? What are the muggers and cat burglars? They cant be -people-.

 

If they -are- people, the world in question isnt "dead".

 

Sorry, Rand, but I dont get your terminology here.

 

I was describing the world before all sentient life ended.

[Susano]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

I was describing the world before all sentient life ended.

 

Oh... like Congress?

[Basil]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

Squashed the funny monkeys world: A comet or medium-sized asteroid fell on eastern Africa circa 1,000,000 BCE. All of those simians who'd realy gotten into bipedalism die in the conflagration. Nothing has evolved sapience in the time since.

 

Before the funny monkeys world: Heck, just go back to circa 1,000,000 BCE and use stuff from then.

 

Ebola's a piker world: A new strain of Ebola, or Marburg evolves (or a strain of some other hemorhagic fever that's "hiding out" in the African jungle). This strain has a significant incubation period (a week or two), and is infectious during the latter part thereof. It also has an airborne vector. It got out of Africa, and killed off all of humanity. Actually, it only killed off about 90%-95% of humanity; the diseases that bred in the mountains of corpses did in the survivors.

 

Other ideas if I think of them.

[Mark Rand]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

Since , in my universe, Batman is in Pittsburgh and the rights to the land under all of Southwestern Pennsylvania about two centuries ago, a cave under Wayne Manor wouldn't work. (The company that owned the rights to the land could find the cave and legally take Batman's stuff.

 

Dr. Arcane (Jason Blood without the demon) helped Batman find a pocket universe that serves as the Batcave. Unlike the traditional Batcave, this one is out in the open. The following are needed:

 

Repair, fueling, and storage facilities for the Batmobile, Batboat, Batplane, Batcopter, Batgirl's motorcycle, Alfred's van, and other vehicles.

 

Lab, shop, gymnasium, and medical facilities.

 

A trophy room, a library, an area for disguises, emergency stores, living quarters, and a method of getting rid of the bodies found there.

 

Much of this could be from the world where all sentient life dies out in the 1960s, during the cold war.

[Amber Nytstar]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

A possible future for one of my favourite TV shows...

 

A space exploration team attacked an alien outpost by mistake, and the aliens took exception to that and swore to destroy all life on Earth. Unfortunately, in this case, the humans didn't win the war.

[Mark Rand]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

A possible future for one of my favourite TV shows...

 

A space exploration team attacked an alien outpost by mistake, and the aliens took exception to that and swore to destroy all life on Earth. Unfortunately, in this case, the humans didn't win the war.

 

Would you be referring to Gerry Anderson's Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons?

[Zed-F]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

Grey goo world: Someone invented a nanomachine capable of replicating itself at an atomic level. It escaped and turned everything it could into more copies of itself. Soon the entire surface of the planet is covered in a meter or so of grey goo, and nothing else is left. Unless the nanomachines can't survive exposure to salt water. In which case there might be some people living in an undersea colony somewhere, or on a remote island or two that didn't have an airport.

 

Nova world: The sun went nova, frying the planet to a crisp. 'Nuff said.

 

Really, you could pick just about any world-ending catastrophe; there are lots of sites out there that discuss some of the 'more likely' possibilities. Or else you could go comic-booky and make up something a little more original.

[Susano]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

Did anyone mention the Rapture?

[nexus]

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds

 

"Rocks Fall, Everyone dies" The Earth is caught in the debris from massive collision in the asteroid belt and pelted by meteroic debris for months. The individual impacts aren't completely devestating (there is life) but human infrastructure and society is wiped out and the few survivors died from starvation, disease, etc a long time ago (obviously there were no PC/Protagonist types around to help them survive against the odds!)

 

I am curious about why some of the first worlds were listed as "Dead" or had to die because of what happened in them. For example, from an objective standpoint, Islam being the dominant religion isn't any "worse" than Christianity being the dominant religion.