GURPS AE1 poll
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Max Sinister
Banned
Let me tell you a bit about my decision:
- Dixie: The POD is OK (though I wondered how William Walker managed to conquer Cuba - it was still Spanish then, would they let him do that? Maybe the US told them about Monroe doctrine - would be quite ironic if you think about what would happen later), but I doubt that Germany (after winning WW1) would be able to hold its empire for so many decades. And that there still would be slave states around in the 1980s too.
- Reich-5: FDR killed: OK for a POD. The US being stuck in the depression: Could be. Pelley swept into office: Well, maybe. But Germany conquering Britain (in 1940), the Russians and making Pelley its lackey - sorry, that's too much. And I also wonder whether the Nazis could've made that many technical achievements.
- Roma Aeterna: The POD is OK, again. History repeating (same adoptive emperors as OTL)... ok, for the sake of the good story. No Jesus / Muhammed: Maybe. But so few changes during so much time, with the old Pantheon growing and growing instead of being replaced (at least in parts) by Mithras or a similar religion... too unbelievable.
- Shikaku-Mon: This ATL somehow seems to be based on the premise that its people have a psychological defect that makes them let the wretched kings (Charles II, Louis XVI) and the corrupt Catholic church get away with almost everything if they only make some half-hearted reforms from then to then. I also wonder what makes people become synarchists... this ideology has nothing that could appeal people...
- Ezcalli: Carthago discovering the New World... could be. Galleys crossing the Atlantic becoming a routine? OK, they didn't say that the Carthaginians did not invent caravels (they knew about ships, and they certainly had an incentive!). The potato effectively undermining Rome's authority... ok, I've read Jared Diamond. The Aztec culture developing exactly as in OTL... ok, that's ASB. But OTOH, after such aa POD everything could actually happen... ;-)
- Gernsback: They said that Tesla and Anne Morgan became friends in OTL... is a marriage between the mad scientist and the rich girl a POD too big or not? What happens afterwards is OK... if tesla's inventions would work, that is. (In AE2 or Time Travel the Gurps authors claim that Gernsback has other natural laws than Homeline!)
- Dixie: The POD is OK (though I wondered how William Walker managed to conquer Cuba - it was still Spanish then, would they let him do that? Maybe the US told them about Monroe doctrine - would be quite ironic if you think about what would happen later), but I doubt that Germany (after winning WW1) would be able to hold its empire for so many decades. And that there still would be slave states around in the 1980s too.
- Reich-5: FDR killed: OK for a POD. The US being stuck in the depression: Could be. Pelley swept into office: Well, maybe. But Germany conquering Britain (in 1940), the Russians and making Pelley its lackey - sorry, that's too much. And I also wonder whether the Nazis could've made that many technical achievements.
- Roma Aeterna: The POD is OK, again. History repeating (same adoptive emperors as OTL)... ok, for the sake of the good story. No Jesus / Muhammed: Maybe. But so few changes during so much time, with the old Pantheon growing and growing instead of being replaced (at least in parts) by Mithras or a similar religion... too unbelievable.
- Shikaku-Mon: This ATL somehow seems to be based on the premise that its people have a psychological defect that makes them let the wretched kings (Charles II, Louis XVI) and the corrupt Catholic church get away with almost everything if they only make some half-hearted reforms from then to then. I also wonder what makes people become synarchists... this ideology has nothing that could appeal people...
- Ezcalli: Carthago discovering the New World... could be. Galleys crossing the Atlantic becoming a routine? OK, they didn't say that the Carthaginians did not invent caravels (they knew about ships, and they certainly had an incentive!). The potato effectively undermining Rome's authority... ok, I've read Jared Diamond. The Aztec culture developing exactly as in OTL... ok, that's ASB. But OTOH, after such aa POD everything could actually happen... ;-)
- Gernsback: They said that Tesla and Anne Morgan became friends in OTL... is a marriage between the mad scientist and the rich girl a POD too big or not? What happens afterwards is OK... if tesla's inventions would work, that is. (In AE2 or Time Travel the Gurps authors claim that Gernsback has other natural laws than Homeline!)
Max Sinister
Banned
*bump*
I decided to go through Gurps AE again; here are my Critics about the various TLs from it.
Dixie:
- Too many events modeled after OTL (Malcolm Little as VP of JFK?). Of course, since the authors don't favor the Chaos theory, this happens more often.
- Why does William Walker take Cuba, and why does Spain allow it? They should be able to defeat his Nicaragua.
- How does Germany hold out in the west, although they not only have to fight France, Britain and Belgium, but the CSA expedition corps too?
- The republicans are said to have carved out the "hollow" western states in an attempt to win in 1864. ITTL, escaped slaves will settle there. How does that work, if the freesoilers were anti-Black?
- If the Ottoman empire collapses soon after WW1, why does A-H manage to live on?
- Pavel Milyukov was the leader of the liberal-democratic Kadett party. He wouldn't have made Russia Socialist.
- "Hamburg sound" of the "German invasion"? I don't see how the kaiser's conservative, militarist Germany could fill the place of OTL's swinging Britain.
- Women in the US manage to become equal in every way, including serving in the USMC and committing as many violent crimes as males? Does that make sense?
- A propaganda trick making Mao pro-Confederate to defeat national China is OK, but turning North China after his death into a CSA-like republic, where the owners of the big latifundiae reign??
Reich-5:
- Hitler didn't want Siberia. It's too big to control, and he needs it to sent "superfluous" Slavs there. He had planned that Japan somehow watches the place and takes care that no strong Slavic state will develop there.
- Viktor Alchsneiss doesn't really sound German. And Günter Wallraff (OTL a famous leftist author) as his successor?!
- Suid-Afrika looks too big. Hitler'll prefer the border of Mittelafrika further south.
- Why isn't Egypt in the Italian sphere? Mussolini invaded it after all. They don't even have oil.
- Only 2 million Germans are said to have settled in the East. The nazis wanted at least 20 million in the first 20 post-WW2 years.
- I don't think the nazis could manage a spacelift until the 80s. We didn't IOTL, and we didn't hobble science like the nazis did.
- It's OK if the Japanese want to make the Home Islands an industry-free paradise again, but restricting cars as well?
- If the Democrats became almost Socialist under Wallace in 1940-44, and the Republicans crypto-fascist under Lindbergh, why does Taft manage a united Republican-Democrat ticket in 1948?
Roma Aeterna:
- Why is the knowledge of steam machines lost not once, but twice?
- Generally I'm not completely happy about the development of science.
Shikaku-Mon:
- How can the Japanese emperor become Catholic, if he's supposed to be the son of Amaterasu?
- One sentence is unclear: Do the Jews alone number almost one third of Brazil's population, or do all of the minorities put together do? (Latter's more probable. The country has over 500 million people after all.)
- The reforms made by Charles II and Louis XVI just happen at the right time. Parallels, OK.
- But I just can't swallow how Sweden and Japan maintained their empires and managed to defend them against all enemies. It's almost as bad as the rise of Draka.
Ezcalli:
- I'd like to have learned more about Roman trade with the New World (because the Teotihuacans learned about their legion), the Barbarian invasions (when was the Persian empire destroyed?)
- Why do the Aztecs keeps their cannibalism if they have European livestock too?
Gernsback:
- Why is fascist Italy a League member with veto power?
- Do the inventions make sense? Another sourcebook hints that TTL's laws of physics may be different.
- The uber-Japanese empire again.
- Why are the Jews even less popular than in Dixie?
I decided to go through Gurps AE again; here are my Critics about the various TLs from it.
Dixie:
- Too many events modeled after OTL (Malcolm Little as VP of JFK?). Of course, since the authors don't favor the Chaos theory, this happens more often.
- Why does William Walker take Cuba, and why does Spain allow it? They should be able to defeat his Nicaragua.
- How does Germany hold out in the west, although they not only have to fight France, Britain and Belgium, but the CSA expedition corps too?
- The republicans are said to have carved out the "hollow" western states in an attempt to win in 1864. ITTL, escaped slaves will settle there. How does that work, if the freesoilers were anti-Black?
- If the Ottoman empire collapses soon after WW1, why does A-H manage to live on?
- Pavel Milyukov was the leader of the liberal-democratic Kadett party. He wouldn't have made Russia Socialist.
- "Hamburg sound" of the "German invasion"? I don't see how the kaiser's conservative, militarist Germany could fill the place of OTL's swinging Britain.
- Women in the US manage to become equal in every way, including serving in the USMC and committing as many violent crimes as males? Does that make sense?
- A propaganda trick making Mao pro-Confederate to defeat national China is OK, but turning North China after his death into a CSA-like republic, where the owners of the big latifundiae reign??
Reich-5:
- Hitler didn't want Siberia. It's too big to control, and he needs it to sent "superfluous" Slavs there. He had planned that Japan somehow watches the place and takes care that no strong Slavic state will develop there.
- Viktor Alchsneiss doesn't really sound German. And Günter Wallraff (OTL a famous leftist author) as his successor?!
- Suid-Afrika looks too big. Hitler'll prefer the border of Mittelafrika further south.
- Why isn't Egypt in the Italian sphere? Mussolini invaded it after all. They don't even have oil.
- Only 2 million Germans are said to have settled in the East. The nazis wanted at least 20 million in the first 20 post-WW2 years.
- I don't think the nazis could manage a spacelift until the 80s. We didn't IOTL, and we didn't hobble science like the nazis did.
- It's OK if the Japanese want to make the Home Islands an industry-free paradise again, but restricting cars as well?
- If the Democrats became almost Socialist under Wallace in 1940-44, and the Republicans crypto-fascist under Lindbergh, why does Taft manage a united Republican-Democrat ticket in 1948?
Roma Aeterna:
- Why is the knowledge of steam machines lost not once, but twice?
- Generally I'm not completely happy about the development of science.
Shikaku-Mon:
- How can the Japanese emperor become Catholic, if he's supposed to be the son of Amaterasu?
- One sentence is unclear: Do the Jews alone number almost one third of Brazil's population, or do all of the minorities put together do? (Latter's more probable. The country has over 500 million people after all.)
- The reforms made by Charles II and Louis XVI just happen at the right time. Parallels, OK.
- But I just can't swallow how Sweden and Japan maintained their empires and managed to defend them against all enemies. It's almost as bad as the rise of Draka.
Ezcalli:
- I'd like to have learned more about Roman trade with the New World (because the Teotihuacans learned about their legion), the Barbarian invasions (when was the Persian empire destroyed?)
- Why do the Aztecs keeps their cannibalism if they have European livestock too?
Gernsback:
- Why is fascist Italy a League member with veto power?
- Do the inventions make sense? Another sourcebook hints that TTL's laws of physics may be different.
- The uber-Japanese empire again.
- Why are the Jews even less popular than in Dixie?
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