Victorian Champions: Extrapolated Consequences

[Metaphysician]

Having recently read DH #39, and its Victorian Champions scenario. . . cool scenario. However, it would obviously lead to a massively changed timeline.

 

-Obviously, you have supers, at least a few dozen probably by the end of the war. However, you have them showing up publically in numbers several decades earlier than the usual comic timeline. . . and centered in Britain, not the US

 

-First contact in 1902. Even if all the Martians in the attack force are killed. . . you've got whatever wreckage of their tech is left. Plus, there is Mars, and an incentive to go find out if anyone else is coming. . .

 

-Stovepipe Stella. Int 33 supergenius whose already focusing on advancing the general tech level. I doubt she's going to stop post-war.

 

So, my pondery- What would the world look like, in this setting, for the rest of the 20th century?

[Rage]

Re: Victorian Champions: Extrapolated Consequences

 

I'm going to say a cross between Girl Genius and Tom Strong.

[Grimble]

Re: Victorian Champions: Extrapolated Consequences

 

A very good question. It would be very hard to say how an alternate present would turn out from a radically altered point over 100 years earlier. If I were to run a campaign starting in Victorian Champions, I'd take it in steps towards the present.

 

The Great War would be very different, but eerily similar. Same trench warfare, but there would most likely be human-made armored tripods and early mecha. Varieties of altered Martian gas. Heat rays. I think I'd add early computers by now. You get the picture.

 

World War II would be Gernsbachian. Transmittable power. Jets and flivers and hover vehicles. Death Rays and other energy weopons. All sorts of tech spanning many tech levels...

 

This is assuming that the Earths nations didn't work together better after finding a common unearthly enemy. Space travel would accellerate quickly after the Martians attack. I'm sure there would be a race to see who could be the first to deliver a supply of earthly viruses to Mars to elliminate the threat.

 

I'm hard pressed to give a view of the "present" of that world. So many things could go much differently.

 

 

Grimble

[OddHat]

Re: Victorian Champions: Extrapolated Consequences

 

I agree with Tom Strong (in it's more serious mode) as a model for a world where Supers appear in the Victorian period, if you're going to allow them to have an impact on the world at all.

 

WWI could end up getting sparked by a disparity in Martian technology and Supers distribution between England and Europe. England hogs the best stuff for itself, and recovers quickly thanks to its indigenous Supers, while Europe goes from moderate sympathy towards the people of England to paranoia over what exactly the british government plans to do with all that technology. France and Germany could attack England together, almost overwhelming her before she is able to push back with her Supers and a few rebuilt Martian War Machines. America does eventually get sucked into WWI (allied with the UK), but its role is much less significant. The Black Smoke is released again, this time by England, killing tens of thousands but also creating the first true French and German supers. The war ends with Europe up to the Balkans devastated by English war machines and Supers, and with England herself in ruins once more. Colonies all over the world, seeing the weakness of the European powers, start clamoring for freedom. Supers and superior technology accelerate the pace of rebuilding but don't stop the Great Depression, and WWII rolls around somewhat early (around 1932 or so). The first atomic weapons are used by Germany on London and Paris in 1934, leaving Germany the theoretical victor in the conflict, but guerrilla warfare backed by occupied Europe's few remaining Supers and financially supported by America prevents Germany from holding the continent. The Black Smoke is not deployed again, and so relative newcomers to the Great Game like the emerging USA and USSR remain dependent on their allies for Super-technology and the occasional assistance of a Super. European Jewry is exterminated almost entirely. Germany emerges as the one true world power, forcing ruinous treaties on England and France, and demanding lesser reparations from the non European minor powers involved in the war.

 

Jumping forward to 2007, racism and Eugenics are as casually accepted today as they were in 1930, and Ethnic Cleansing is considered an unavoidable reality of war. Minor wars burn constantly throughout the world, but Europe has remained relatively stable under the German boot, with the rest of the West having the same relationships (roughly) with Germany that they have in our world with the USA, colored by the fact that Germany was a conquering power rather than an outsider called in to counter an aggressor. America is a backwards, agricultural power fr the most part, but New York remains one of the world's great cities, having absorbed large numbers of Jewish and English refugees, including a few Supers. Most of Asia is under the heel of the Japanese, and the great powers of the day are Germany (with a decided technological advantage) and Japan (with the huge Chinese population to draw on). India is firmly in Germany's camp.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Victorian Champions: Extrapolated Consequences

 

An alternate option, if you want for more prevalent supers, is to have the regular use of Black Dust by the Martians produce an ambient low level contamination, resulting in a continuous, but low level, stream of further illness or death. . . or superhuman power. This could especially happen if the Martians don't figure out where the superhumans are coming from, and thus make more and more usage of the Black Dust. . .

[OddHat]

Re: Victorian Champions: Extrapolated Consequences

 

An alternate option' date=' if you want for more prevalent supers, is to have the regular use of Black Dust by the Martians produce an ambient low level contamination, resulting in a continuous, but low level, stream of further illness or death. . . or superhuman power. This could especially happen if the Martians don't figure out where the superhumans are coming from, and thus make more and more usage of the Black Dust. . .[/quote']

 

You could follow the Wild Cards pattern, with Black Dust contamination from the Martian War and the English use of the weapon in WWI continuing to cause death and outbreaks of Supers world wide well into the 1950s, and make the genetic changes caused by the dust inheritable, giving a steady supply of Supers as long as you need them. Throw in some super soldier experiments around the world to keep refreshing the pool, and if you have to have a major American Supers presence allow a second martial invasion to take place in NJ.

[Grimble]

Re: Victorian Champions: Extrapolated Consequences

 

An alternate option' date=' if you want for more prevalent supers, is to have the regular use of Black Dust by the Martians produce an ambient low level contamination, resulting in a continuous, but low level, stream of further illness or death. . . or superhuman power. This could especially happen if the Martians don't figure out where the superhumans are coming from, and thus make more and more usage of the Black Dust. . .[/quote']

 

Ah! So, the Black Smoke would take the place of elevated magic in the standard Champions Universe. Just like the alien virus in the Wild Cards Universe.

 

I like this idea a lot.

 

 

Grimble

[RPMiller]

Re: Victorian Champions: Extrapolated Consequences

 

Very interesting ideas...

[freakboy6117]

Re: Victorian Champions: Extrapolated Consequences

 

hmm while the story line is rather dark and disturbing the comic series scarlet traces and its sequel Scarlet Traces: The Great Game might be well worth a look.

 

these two graphic novels feature a dystopian alternate early 20th century where the British empire rules the world with retro-engineered Martian tech. definatly well worth a look even if used just for colour for what a post invasion England might look like.

 

The creators also produced a adaptation of war of the worlds to tie the whole series into a sort of trilogy.

[OddHat]

Re: Victorian Champions: Extrapolated Consequences

 

Two other, unrelated, quick thoughts.

 

Ken Hite recommends that when developing an alternate history, it's often best to ask what you want "now" to look like and then work backwards. My own campaigns almost always follow this pattern, including my Wold Newton Superhero setting. So, if you want a Gernsback Earth with superheroes and an eternal British Empire, it might be easier to start from there and then ask what steps it took to create that world.

 

As I'm sure you're aware, Planetary and LoEG are both great potential sources for this sort of thing, and I'd add the Avalon TPB by Moore. All require heavy tweaking for the setting under discussion, but they also all start with Supers in the Victorian era and look at a world that comes out of that. One interesting bit in the LoEG commentaries notes that some of London's architecture in that series, such as a cross-channel bridge, came out of stories by Wells and Verne. Might be worth thinking in terms of the future as seen from the Victorian era.

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: Victorian Champions: Extrapolated Consequences

 

A couple of years ago, I found a 'Victorian Supers' - type campaign setting for

the GURPS system, and the event that brought about the birth of superhumans

throughout the world was the 'dusting' of the planet by the tail of a comet

that had just missed striking Earth. I can't remember what the URL for the site

was, but if I can find it, I'll post it here.

 

 

Major Tom