AH Title and Description Game

[ThatOneGuy]

The Cotton Crystal

In an alternate British Empire where they were unable to get large portions of Egypt and India, when the South was blockaded it threw British textile industries into limbo. As the American Civil War dragged on into late 1861 the HMS Trent was boarded by the Americans in search and seizure of CSA diplomats. The threat to British textiles, combined by public outrage over the Trent Affair, brought Great Britain into the Civil War. The Americans were then forced to invade Canada in a bloody campaign that almost buckled the Lincoln Administration and forced the USA to the peace table.

Land of Smiles, Land of Tears

Thirteen Days of Rage

The End of the Beginning

 

[Miss Teri]

Land of Smiles, Land of Tears

Walt Disney is able to build his dream EPCOT community in Florida in June 1962. However, in a few months, the Cuban Missile Crisis turns into a full on nuclear war, and the EPCOT community loses contact with the rest of the world. The story follows a family who moved away from the Orlando inner city, hoping to start anew at the seemingly idyllic EPCOT. However, with the nuclear war, they are put into an even more precarious situation, as the administrators become more dictatorial, reflecting a exaggerated version of a 50's America, and soon riots begin. The family feels trapped in the heavily planned city, and they have no avenue for escape. Eventually a large rebellion occurs, which allows people to finally escape EPCOT, if only for a short amount of time. The family and other refugees get into contact with the remnants of the US army, who transport them to a resettlement camp, with internees bound for California. They hope to finally reach that paradise in California, under the watchful eye of newly elected President Disney....

Red Nights in Barcelona: The History of Communist Spain, 1976-2000
or
Dr. Moonlove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Nuked the Moon.

 

[Barbarossa Rotbart]

Dr. Moonlove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Nuked the Moon.

A satirical TL about the Race to the Moon during the Cold War loosely based on Stanley Kubrick's classic Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Here both the US and the USSR experiment with nuclear drives and use them in literal race to the moon. But unbeknownst to all a crazy US general send a nuclear missile after the Soviet space vessel...
This TL was hailed as one of the most innovativ TLs ever written and won a Turdledove Award. And even a motion picture is in planning...


Choose (and write at least four sentences! But more would be better. And no ASB, please!)
The Day Magic Returned
or
The Third Siege of Vienna
or
Sultan Recep the Great, or: The Rise and Fall of the New Ottoman Empire
or
Mode à la Égyptienne - A Fashion TL
or
The United Kingdom of Scotland and Northern Ireland
or
The Return of Horus and other Tales from Neo-Pharaonic Egypt

 

[Pesigalam]

Choose (and write at least four sentences! But more would be better. And no ASB, please!)
The Day Magic Returned

In this AH TL in the style of noir fiction the initial POD is the extinction of the Psilocybe mushroom species in early 1900s due to rapid spread of a bacteria with anti-fungal properties. The main protagonist of the TL is Ludwig Himmelblau, an Austro-Hungarian detective investigating the appearance of a new street-drug known as "magic" that is spreading like wild fire across the empire in the year 1999. Searching the seedy underworld of Eastern Europe, Himmelblau discovers the source of the drug: an ancient cave in the Carpathians where some spores of the Psilocybin mushroom have survived. The cave was found by members of the Rusin mafia in Galicia, who developed the monopoly on magic mushroom cultivation and use it to finance their criminal and terrorist activities. Detective Ludwig leads a raid on the mafia compound in the mountains and in the process all the mushrooms are destroyed. All but one: Himmelblau finds a single mushroom that survived the raid and, although his partner begs Ludwig to save it for scientific reasons, the detective concludes that "some things are to dangerous to be returned to humanity" and crushes the shroom into mush.


Beetles and Bedouins -- a Swarm on the Somme spinoff starring Lawrence of Arabia

OR

Spider Silk and Manx Milk

OR

The Coup of Marshal Semyon Timoshenko

OR

The Mitre and Papakha -- Tales from the Reign of the Cossack Pope

 

[Chris Oakley]

The Coup of Marshal Semyon Timoshenko

A mutiny within the Red Army leads to the overthrow of Joseph Stalin in 1937; within less than two years after the coup the Soviet Union is at war with Nazi Germany and Japan.

The War Of The Unicorns

or

The Shift Hits The Fan: How The Tunguska Explosion Opened A Gateway Between Dimensions

or

The President's Alchemist

 

[Miss Teri]

The Shift Hits The Fan: How The Tunguska Explosion Opened A Gateway Between Dimensions

Exactly what reads. The 1908 Tunguska event opens a strange portal. When a few brave Russian settler go into the isolated region to examine the crash, they mysteriously disappear. However, the Russian government, wrapped up in World War I, and later the Revolution and Civil War, doesn't investigate this event in an isolated region. 19 years later, Soviet geologist Leonid Kulik and his team examine the site for meteorite iron, and find a strange portal. When the team goes inside, they find the missing Russian settlers, who still look as they did in 1908. They learn that the settler had apparently entered the portal only a few weeks ago (having subsisted on food they brought with them, and some creatures they had found). Kulik and his team find themselves on a strange grey planet, with strange fungus like creatures on the ground, and alien creatures walking around. After looking around for a few hours, the combined group returns to find that several months had gone by since the Soviet expedition had entered the portal. The discovery, indicated by the fact the Settlers didn't know that the Tsar had been overthrown years ago, leads to more extensive Soviet investigations into the portal.
They find that the planet is likely in some parallel Universe, where the laws of physics are different. Stalin and the top brass of the Soviet military consider how to weaponize this. Having figured out the nature of the time difference, the Army begins to keep reserve forces in the dimension, who are called upon during the most tense moments of World War II. They find that the inside of the fungus like creatures apparently causes sickness and death (confirmed by one of the settlers, who stated one of their group died after consuming a fungus) , so during the siege of Leningrad, spies place spores into the German food supply, and the German offensive suddenly collapses. Also, the portal becomes known as "the ultimate gulag," where especially heinous offenders are sent, far from the portal, without any means of getting tracing their way back, to fend for themselves, while time moves quicker in our world, meaning even if they get out, years would've gone by.
The advanced nature of the portal leads to a greater understanding of physics, meaning the Soviet Atomic bomb is built and tested in 1947, rather than 1949. However, soon, it isn't just the Soviets who know. Germans still sick from the spores, as well as the records of doctors who examined those sick Germans, are captured by the allies, who discover the strange spore in their bodies. After determining the alien nature of the spores, they realize that the soldiers had gotten the spore during the Siege of Leningrad. From there, American and British scientist wonder if the Soviets had access to them. Then, in 1953, a Ukranian scientist defects to the US, revealing that he had been placed in the portal in 1938, and was forced to stay there and do research away from his family. This starts a CIA program to find and gain access to the portal themselves. This culminates in the events of 1960, where scientist in the US finally open a portal of their own. However, the KGB is not about to let the Soviet edge go to waste, and begin to sabotage the experiment, which gains the attention of certain beings the Soviets hadn't seen.....


Red Nights in Barcelona: The History of Communist Spain, 1976-2000
or
Kamikaze Failure

 

[Barbarossa Rotbart]

Kamikaze Failure

The Kamikaze, the 'mystical' thyphoon that destroyed the Mongolian-Korean invasion fleets in OTL and ended both invasion attemps of Japan (1274, 1281) prematurely, failed to achieve this thec socond time in this TL. So Kublai Khan managed to conquer most of Japan and to dispose the japanese emperor becoming the sole ruler of the eastern half of the known world. Since then the japanese people pray that the Kamikze will throw the foreigners back into the sea and that they will be able to free their islands. But that never came to pass...




Choose (and write at least four sentences! But more would be better. And no ASB, please!)
The Third Siege of Vienna
or
Sultan Recep the Great, or: The Rise and Fall of the New Ottoman Empire
or
Mode à la Égyptienne - A Fashion TL
or
The United Kingdom of Scotland and Northern Ireland
or
The Return of Horus and other Tales from Neo-Pharaonic Egypt

 

[Pesigalam]

The United Kingdom of Scotland and Northern Ireland

In the early 19th century the French-Revolution-inspired rebellions in Britain succeed in overthrowing the monarchy and setting up the "1st British Republic". The Royal Family chooses to flee to Scotland wherefrom they maintain their control and claim to rule all of the UK. The Indian March of Paul is a surprising success, in 1837 Canada becomes a republic, and in 1848 southern Ireland wins independence. Thus by the 2nd half of the 19th century the British Empire has been reduced to the "United Kingdom of Scotland and Northern Ireland". TL mostly explores the global cultural importance of a rapid decline of British power in the 19th instead of the 20th century as well as the impact of the events on the collective psyche of the inhabitants of the British isles.

Beetles and Bedouins -- a Swarm on the Somme spinoff starring Lawrence of Arabia

OR

Spider Silk and Manx Milk

OR

The Mitre and Papakha -- Tales from the Reign of the Cossack Pope

 

[TwiliAlchemist]

Spider Silk and Manx Milk

A timeline where the Silk Road isn't plundered to death and instead lasts a few hundred years longer. It follows a trader from China with a container of Spider Silk to trade with traders on the Isle of Man. After many long days and nights, he reaches the Isle of Man and trades milk for his silk.je begins his return trip home when he is killed by the man who he traded his silk to before he even left the island.

Commander Cascadia!!

Don't wanna be an American Idiot!

James Bond vs. Maxwell Smart. (It doesn't have to be about those two people btw)

 

[Chris Oakley]

Commander Cascadia!!

A satirical future history TL about a Seattle DJ who starts a movement to get Washington, Oregon, and Northern California to secede from the United States.

From Bad To Worse To Just Plain F***ed Up: A 2016 Election ATL

 

[Shiva]

From Bad To Worse To Just Plain F***ed Up: A 2016 Election ATL

A black comedy ATL written by user Communeatard that was conceived after someone in chat quipped that the election couldn't possibly be any worse.

Communeatard's TL starts to diverge when Donald Trump has surprising amount of turn out at his primary rallies, prompting David Duke to throw his hat into the Presidential ring, while on the Democrats side, actor Sean Penn also chose to run for the Presidency. The end results of the Primaries saw David Duke and Donald Trump dominate the GOP primaries, while Sean Penn defied gravity (and the DNC's attempts to stuff the ballot box) to secure the nomination and announced Bernie Sanders as his running mate.

The GOP's convention was pure chaos since neither Duke or Trump secured enough votes to secure the nomination, which gave the GOP Establishment hope of just throwing them both out, until the bitter rivals allied, with Trump securing the Presidential ticket with Duke as his running mate. The result were riots both within the convention and outside the convention, leaving hundreds injured, twenty three dead.

On the Democrats side they were confronted with Sean Penn's past scandals, like the allegations of spousal abuse, his support for Hugo Chavez of Venezuela (who was opposed by both American political parties), and a number of casual racist statements made over the years. Not to mention that some worried that he didn't actually know enough about politics to accomplish much as President. Though the Democrats convention was noted to be more successful than the Republican's, simply because there wasn't a massive riot.

Communeatard has been keeping the TL active, taking ripped from the headlines issues and incorporating them into the story in real time, while also showing all new crisis's in the Trump/Penn match-up, a stunned public, a bewildered global audience, and a horrified political establishment in Washington DC.


Hannibal, General, Conquer, Cannibal, Emperor

or

The Great Game Comes Crashing Down

or

Manichean Triumphant

or

Margaret Thatcher, 40th President of the United States

 

[Miss Teri]

The Great Game Comes Crashing Down

A TL dealing with an Anglo-Russian War stemming from the so-called "Great Game," starting with increased tensions left over from the Crimean War. This, along with Russia's seeming expansion into Central Asia, causes Britain to increase its presence in Afghanistan. This culminates in a border conflict in 1870, which instigates a war between Britain and Russia. The result is a long difficult war over the notoriously difficult Afghanistani landscape. Both British and Russian soldiers suffer severely, both due to the terrain, and hostile natives who don't appreciate being pawns in a conflict between two powers. Stories of the brutal war, as well as the behavior of certain aristocratic commanders against lower class soldiers, causes protests in Britain, while patriotic fever is whipped up in Russia to justify the invasion.

Eventually, however, a group of Indian soldiers begin mutiny to protest their treatment. Resentment from the 1857 Savoy Rebellion begins to resurface, and the subcontinent is quickly imbroiled in its own independence conflict. The Russian government begins to fund the rebellion as a way of diverting attention from the war. Tired from having to fight two wars, and exhausted, the British navy begins its own mutiny. Finally, the British and Russian governments are forced to the negotiating table. India is given more independence and autonomy, and Russia is given control over Afghanistan. This marks the start of the decline of the British Empire, but also the rise of the Russian Empire as its replacement as the most powerful empire on Earth...


Red Nights in Barcelona: The History of Communist Spain, 1976-2000
or
One Night in Bangkok

 

[Pesigalam]

One Night in Bangkok

In this TL the Khmer Rouge are never overthrown and instead live on into the 20th century, evolving into the "North Korea of Couth-East Asia". The Khmer have violent relations with their neighbor including Thailand and Vietnam, constantly fighting some border spats with them. When the Thai King is injured in an assassination attempt and ends up in a coma the Thai government falls into panic. TL then deals with military and political figures trying to figure out who is responsible: Khmer agents... or Thai usurper opportunists?

Beetles and Bedouins -- a Swarm on the Somme spinoff starring Lawrence of Arabia

OR

Canine Communism -- or how Laika became the Premier of the Soviet Union

OR

The Mitre and Papakha -- Tales from the Reign of the Cossack Pope

 

[Barbarossa Rotbart]

Canine Communism -- or how Laika became the Premier of the Soviet Union

A satire in style of George Orwell's Animal Farm. Here a dog, Laika, the first dog in space, is promoted to the hightest positions although it is, being a dog, not even remotely qualified for being premier of the Soviet Union. Soon even the other 'elective' positions in the government is filled with animals. This is possible because the real power lies with the bureaucracy and the party and not with the soviets...

Choose (and write at least four sentences! But more would be better. And no ASB, please!)
The Third Siege of Vienna
or
Sultan Recep the Great, or: The Rise and Fall of the New Ottoman Empire
or
Mode à la Égyptienne - A Fashion TL
or
The United Empire of Great Britain and Germany
or
The Return of Horus and other Tales from Neo-Pharaonic Egypt

 

[Miss Teri]

The United Empire of Great Britain and Germany

Hanover decides to adopt a new set of laws in 1801, repealing the semi-Salic laws. Thus, in 1837, Hanover remains in a personal union with Great Britain when Queen Victoria takes over. This eventually results in a 1853 agreement to have Hanover formally inducted into the British Empire. This immediately causes friction with Hanover's neighbors, particularly Prussia. Prussia proceeds to invade Hanover in 1864, in an attempt to unify the German states. This causes the "Anglo-Prussian War" of 1871, which ends with an easy British victory. The resulting treaty forces a personal union between Prussia and Britain, which quickly turns Prussia into part of Britain. Deciding to take a page out of the newly desposed Fredrick's book, Victoria begins her own crusade to unify the disparate German states, ultimately resulting in a unified Germany under the British crown, which is called "The United Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland, Hanover, Prussia, Bavaria, etc." This newly formed superstate causes long time rival of both countries France to form an alliance with Austria and Russia in 1885 to oppose this new state. In turn, the United Empire (a fan nickname) forms an alliance with Italy and the Ottoman Empire. A parallel storyline looks into the new cultural trends of the new country, including each country becoming bilingual, German and British scientists exchanging ideas at the newly founded "International Institute", and a new brutal military force is formed, based on British formality and Prussian military tactics.

Red Nights in Barcelona: The History of Communist Spain, 1976-2000
or
A Diamond in the Rising Sun

(Please write four sentences or more)

 

[Evan]

A Diamond in the Rising Sun

The Hope Diamond is bought by one of the Meiji Emperor's exploratory teams and brought back to Japan. It excites little unusual note until it's stolen in the last days of WWII. Pro-peace and pro-war forces suspect each other, and almost turn to arms, before (after many adventures) it's found in the hands of a poor peasant whose family was recently killed by American bombing. He blames the Emperor for everything, saying, "At least he's now given me something good!" The only response he got was gunfire. Both parties ceremonially bear the stone back to the Emperor... just as news arrives of the Hiroshima bombing.

The Stars Only Twinkle

 

[TwiliAlchemist]

The Stars Only Twinkle

A timeline that follows the life of singer turned politician Aaron Presley. Aaron Presley was a rock and roll singer during the 1950s who, after serving in the army, ran for the office of Senator and won. He ends up running for President in 1972 and wins only barely against Barry Goldwater. The Presley Administration has problems with a worsening economy, high unemployment, and a nuclear exchange between India and China. Aaron Presley is remembered as similar to Herbert Hoover, but with many people wishing that he would've stayed with his singing career.

Don't wanna be an American Idiot!

James Bond vs. Maxwell Smart. (It doesn't have to be about those two people btw)

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

 

[Barbarossa Rotbart]

James Bond vs. Maxwell Smart.

After Sean Connery decided not to reprise his role as James Bond for Thunderball and not replacement for him could be found Eon Productions sold the rights of the franchise to CBS, who began to adapt Ian Fleming's stories into a TV show. At the same time Mel Brooks developed his secret agent parody Get Smart for NBC. Both shows were seen as competitors despite the fact that they belong to different genres (action adventure for James Bond 007 and sitcom for Get Smart) because they have the same subject. So CBS tried to make their show a little less serious and NBC tried to make their show a little less funny in order to attract a larger audience. This led to both shows becoming more and more similiar to each other and even a two-part crossover between both shows in 1970.


Choose (and write at least four sentences! But more would be better. And no ASB, please!)
The Third Siege of Vienna
or
Sultan Recep the Great, or: The Rise and Fall of the New Ottoman Empire
or
Mode à la Égyptienne - A Fashion TL
or
The Return of Horus and other Tales from Neo-Pharaonic Egypt

 

[thezerech]

Sultan Recep the Great, or: The Rise and Fall of the New Ottoman Empire

A TL with a POD of an Army coup in 2009 led by Turkish secularists and Kemalists taking over the capital of Ankara, the coup becomes a situation similar to the Spanish Civil War, with government and coup forces holding different pars of Turkey. After eight months of civil war, with Recep Tayyip Erdogan holding onto Instanbul and with much of his government being killed in the conflict, the President of Turkey is declared president for life and assumes "temporary" emergency powers. After two more months the Kemalist forces face collapse as "President for life Erdogan" creates an unlikely alliance with Kurdish moderate forces. Because of the Kemalist nature of the enemy Erdogan uses Ottoman imagery in his propaganda, eventually the civil war polarized berween secularists and islamists leads to the Islamist faction abandoning Kemalism. With the collapse of the Kemalist forces, Erdogan now faces an Islamist-Kurdish alliance that doesn't seem like they could cooperate in a Turkish state, Islamist or not. Recep, decides to form a new multi national state, declares the "Ottoman Popular Islamic state" wi himself as 'Regent for life'. The state manages to rebuild the "Turkish/Ottoman" military apparatus. The kurds are granted massive rights and limited autonomy, this manages to bring the moderates in line. As civil war breaks out in Syria and Iraq the new Ottoman state whose has exited NATO intervenes against the government of Bashar al Assad. Iraqi sunnis ask for protection, war breaks out in Iraq between Iraqi sunnis supported by the Ottomans and the Iraqi shias supported by Iran. Eventually the Ottomans and Iran declare war, Russia upset about the fall of Bashar al Assad, joins the Iranians however the Northern Caucases explode in violence. The situation detiorates further by 2015 after a year and a half of war in the middle East and Caucases, when Oleh Lyashko's Radical Ukrainian gov't annexes Transdnistria, and skirmishes occur in Crimea between police and local Tartars (who have been given arms by the Ottomans). The U.S, NATO, and Israel who have been sitting on the sidelines in the Middle East make a deal with China to pressure both sides to peace, as the world economy cannot handle continued conlfict. Eventually Boris Nemtsov becomes president of Russia after surviving an assasination attempt, he pulls out of the Caucases and Crimea, "compromising" between Erdogan and himself by handing it back to Ukraine. The Iranian front collapses but due to terain and logistical difficulties the Ottomans agree to peace. Controlling Syria and the Sunni majority portions of Iraq. After two years Ergdogan declares himself Sultan of the new Ottoman Empire, however with the world economy in turmoil and without the threat of Iran of Russia the Kurds and Arabs launch an insurrection, the Army, and people tired of war overthrow "the mad Sultan", in the end the Kruds and Arabs form two seperate states, and Turkey is restored. Erdogan shoots himself as Army special forces work through his "Janissary guard" at his Imperial Palace. The world is in turmoil, U.S president Ted Cruz, and Russian President Boris Nemstov spearhead a series of peace treaties in the middle East. (That was lonoonnnnngggg but very fun).
WWI at sea; The story of the French Imperial Navy

 

[Isot the Terrible]

WWI at sea; The story of the French Imperial Navy

The Boulanger coup succedes, and the General declares himself Emperor. Russia and France are very closely allied in this scenario. 25 years later, in this timelines WWI, Germany concentrates its armies in the East against Russia, fighting a primarily defensive war in the West, and not invading Belgium, which keeps Britain neutral. The timeline concentrates on the war at sea between the French and German navies. The French navy is slightly more powerful than in our timeline.

Did the Earth Move for You?

The Rise of Wormwood or

A Still More Glorious Dawn Awaits