Oh, man, you're up to the Lenins! I'm super exited to see the Terradyne setting!
GURPS Infinite Worlds Covers
- Thread starter rvbomally
- Start date
I just recently discovered that it's a separate setting, so I may update it to the original setting instead of staying in the early 21st century.
I'm a little confused at what you mean here. Do you mean you'll set it in the 2100s? Because that would be awesome.
I think the Lenin-3 map will be even more interesting for having Italy be the foremost Communist power.
Siva-5
Cross-posting from the Map Thread at rvbomally's suggestion, here's the Siva-5 world from the Lost Worlds supplement. The premise is an Indian-dominated world and the PoD is the Han Empire accidentally contacting the Indo-Greek Bactrian kingdom in 138 BC, leading to a Chinese-Bactrian alliance and by extension the preservation and flourishing of Indo-Greek culture (while at the same time redirecting all the steppe nomads away from Central Asia and into Europe). Europe and eventually China languish but the Indian nations (plus Japan) thrive and extend their reach across the world both politically and culturally. In the 18th century the militant populist Bhaktiya sect of Hinduism arises in Indonesia and a Bhaktiyan state based in Bali tries and fails to conquer the whole Indian Ocean, but the egalitarian ideas they spread plus the upheaval of the war spark 19th century revolutions, first in northern India for independence from the Kushan Empire and then in the Kushan Empire itself, establishing the democracy of Taxila in the former and the oligarchic Kushan Consortium in the latter. Upheaval throughout the 1800s culminates in another Balinese war at the end of the century, with Taxila leading the successful charge against Bali and subsequently riding a postwar boom to become the world's premier power, sparking ideological conflict across the world...
All that broad outline is in the book, most of the details apart from the major powers are mine; please forgive my terrible, terrible attempts at Indian-sounding names. The book says that this world has advanced biotech but doesn't go into any further detail; apart from that the tech level is basically equivalent to the same time (1947) in OTL.
Lenin-2A
I'm finally back! Here's Lenin-2A. What's that? Yes, this isn't the actual Lenin-2 in GURPS Infinite Worlds. Rather, it is my own offshoot[1], where the Autumn Wars do not happen, and the world "happily" marches along to eventual environmental disaster. Hey, rising sea levels are easier to deal with without nuclear war to top it off. Why did I make this decision? Because frankly, I find the pre-apocalypse Lenin-2 more interesting than the post-apocalypse variant[2]. This approach also requires me to make up less crap, since all Infinite Worlds tells us is that the Chinese remnants along the coast are doing the best. I may make an actual Lenin-2, post-apocalypse and all, but that is low on my priority list. It's more likely that someone would make a Lenin-2 based on this map,[3] which is more or less unchanged from what I picture Lenin-2's 2000 is like. Well, except for the fucked up climate, but the nuclear war screws that up even more in Lenin-2 proper.
On to the map itself. The USSA is fairly straightforward: Christian communists. So, basically Stalin meets Jack Chick, going by the TL's dystopian theme. The source material mentions the Christian Communist Congressional Party[4], and I've extrapolated that to an entire American Christian socialist alliance. In Europe, we have a conflict between Mitteleuropa and the Paris-Leningrad Pact. Yep, it's the old Central Powers-Entente rivalry, only this time with more communists! International brotherhood of socialists my ass. SJG agrees, mentioning that during the Autumn Wars, the reds spent just as much effort fighting each other as they did fighting the capitalist Chinese. China is definitely the richest country, its "booming economy, which as always relied very little on overseas trade," remaining strong even as the British and Japanese fell during the Summer Wars of the 1950s. China has a considerable military force, including a strong navy that can challenge the Western barbarians. They can even back the French government-in-exile in Madagascar, something I made up to demonstrate Chinese power and to keep the entire world from being painted red. As an aside, I picture the Russian Soviet here being far more centralized and Russian in identity than the old USSR. Too bad for Borat and his pals, they get their culture destroyed on top of being used as slave labor for the Soviets' agricultural and space programs, getting meager rations, not getting their families sent to a Siberian gulag, and lungs filled with toxic and radioactive dust for the trouble. Welcome to the worker's paradise, comrade.
One of the most readily apparent traits of this world is the weird basemap. Yeah, I raised the sea levels, added Atlantropa, and screwed with the Great Lakes[5]. SJG describes Lenin-2's governments (except China, funnily enough) screwing over the environment much as the Homeline USSR did. Since these communist governments have control of most of the world, they ended up screwing the entire world. So, worse global warming, in addition to really dumb projects like draining the Great Lakes and Atlantropa. The Mediterranean is quickly drying up, replacing fishing areas with toxic dust, and the sea itself is clogged full of pollutants. The Sahara is expanding, despite that new sea in Chad. It's a doomed world, even without the specter of nuclear war.
[1] Hey, SJG did it with Centrum Beta. Two can play at that game.
[2] I have a similar opinion on Fallout. If Bethesda gives us a Fallout spinoff RTS set during the Resource Wars, I can die a happy man.
[3] Hint hint.
[4] Subtle, SJG.
[5] Well, I didn't. The sea level rise is from @Zauberfloete, and the Great Lakes from @Kaiser K.
On to the map itself. The USSA is fairly straightforward: Christian communists. So, basically Stalin meets Jack Chick, going by the TL's dystopian theme. The source material mentions the Christian Communist Congressional Party[4], and I've extrapolated that to an entire American Christian socialist alliance. In Europe, we have a conflict between Mitteleuropa and the Paris-Leningrad Pact. Yep, it's the old Central Powers-Entente rivalry, only this time with more communists! International brotherhood of socialists my ass. SJG agrees, mentioning that during the Autumn Wars, the reds spent just as much effort fighting each other as they did fighting the capitalist Chinese. China is definitely the richest country, its "booming economy, which as always relied very little on overseas trade," remaining strong even as the British and Japanese fell during the Summer Wars of the 1950s. China has a considerable military force, including a strong navy that can challenge the Western barbarians. They can even back the French government-in-exile in Madagascar, something I made up to demonstrate Chinese power and to keep the entire world from being painted red. As an aside, I picture the Russian Soviet here being far more centralized and Russian in identity than the old USSR. Too bad for Borat and his pals, they get their culture destroyed on top of being used as slave labor for the Soviets' agricultural and space programs, getting meager rations, not getting their families sent to a Siberian gulag, and lungs filled with toxic and radioactive dust for the trouble. Welcome to the worker's paradise, comrade.
One of the most readily apparent traits of this world is the weird basemap. Yeah, I raised the sea levels, added Atlantropa, and screwed with the Great Lakes[5]. SJG describes Lenin-2's governments (except China, funnily enough) screwing over the environment much as the Homeline USSR did. Since these communist governments have control of most of the world, they ended up screwing the entire world. So, worse global warming, in addition to really dumb projects like draining the Great Lakes and Atlantropa. The Mediterranean is quickly drying up, replacing fishing areas with toxic dust, and the sea itself is clogged full of pollutants. The Sahara is expanding, despite that new sea in Chad. It's a doomed world, even without the specter of nuclear war.
[1] Hey, SJG did it with Centrum Beta. Two can play at that game.
[2] I have a similar opinion on Fallout. If Bethesda gives us a Fallout spinoff RTS set during the Resource Wars, I can die a happy man.
[3] Hint hint.
[4] Subtle, SJG.
[5] Well, I didn't. The sea level rise is from @Zauberfloete, and the Great Lakes from @Kaiser K.
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Love it. Don't blame you for preferring this to Lenin-2 proper.
There's something funky at the top of the second column of notes. My guess is you originally had a different #7 and it didn't all get erased? Also, there's something of an editing error on the map itself, just south of Bulgaria.
Lenin-3
Here's Lenin-3. I actually had this one finished for years, and only recently upgraded the map to match my modern style and to add the Moon colonies. It's an interesting if rather implausible timeline, where Mussolini stays socialist and then manages to become leader of Italy anyway. I suspect the PoD is that Mussolini does not oppose the Italian socialists' desire to maintain neutrality, and does not fight in WWI. He then leads the Italian socialists to victory in revolution in the 1920s, possibly supported by the Soviets. SJG does say that he intervenes on behalf of the Catalan workers in the Spanish Civil War and does not help the Soviets during WWII, so if they did support him, then he's not very grateful. I have Spain coming under the control of a syndicalist "Third Republic" that stays neutral along with Italy. Mexico being socialist was SJG's idea; not really sure what's going on there. I picture the Soviets being less successful during WWII, not entering the German Reich proper, while the Western Allies manage to take it, restore the Weimar Republic (albeit under a much-improve constitution), and break off bits of Germany so they never become powerful enough to start another war. SJG mentions the US-UK alliance becoming more technocratic with its "Manhattan Initiatives;" beyond expanding the US-UK alliance, I didn't really do much with that. No Atlantropa or stupid shit like that. I added Russia and India into the Grand Alliance, and I suspect both of them are doing better than their OTL counterparts. Same with China and Brazil, who are leading their "middle of the road" Third World Order. After the collapse of the USSR, there isn't much of a Cold War left, but to say that Italy and the West are buddies would be inaccurate.
Gernsback
Nice map, rvbomally! I've actually made one of my own I'd like to contribute.
Iiiit’s Gernsback, everyone’s favorite superscience colonial lovefest (Local year 2007)! Note that the descriptions may come off as more negative than how the setting was portrayed in the sourcebook. I don’t care how flying my car is, racism is racism.
The PoD is Nikolai Tesla marrying Anne Morgan, the daughter of J.P. Morgan, in 1893, meaning his inventions get all the funding they need. By 1902, Tesla had prototyped a global wireless radio system. During world war 1, he even devised a way to transmit electricity wirelessly. These new technologies kept Wiemar Germany just stable enough to keep Hitler out of power, and the League of Nations became gradually less completely f*cking useless. Tesla founded an important League regulatory body known as the World Science Council. The League stood up to both Japan and Italy, staving them away from Ethiopia and China, respectively. France fell under a socialist government, but one willing to play ball with the rest of the Great Powers.
Only Stalin’s Comintern stood outside the friendly, smothering umbrella of the League by 1940. As relations worsened, Stalin began a Soviet nuclear program. But in 1951, a scientist leaked this information to the League, and the WSC demanded the USSR stand down. Moscow refused, and so began this timeline’s deadliest conflict, the Soviet War. The Western Allies fought the Soviets in Europe, while Japan swept into CPC-controlled north China. In 1953, as the atom bombs neared completion, the Ukraine rose in revolt against the Soviet Union, welcoming in League armies. In a rage, Stalin ordered the nuking of Kiev. His scientists were horrified he would nuke his own country, and the “Scientists’ Coup” caused pitched fighting in Moscow itself. Stalin would die in that confused battle, and the Soviet War drew to a close.
Afterwards, the League strengthened its position and Japan hung on to its gains in China, while Russia was divided up. Colonialism was now here to stay. The German Reich eventually drew up a better constitution and became the German Republic, second only to the United States and Britain in world affairs. The sourcebook says Italy is fascist, but I imagine the regime's kept its head down in order to survive after the Ethiopia scare.
Revolts are frequent in the middle east and India, and it’s no wonder. Without experiencing the horrors of Nazism, this world still buys into a great deal of psudoscientifc crap about the inferiority of this and that race, or womens’ place in the home. Basically, living here as a non-white male would suck donkey balls, if it weren’t for all the cool tech dulling the pain somewhat. Even a lower-class Indian laborer’s car drives itself, after all.
Iiiit’s Gernsback, everyone’s favorite superscience colonial lovefest (Local year 2007)! Note that the descriptions may come off as more negative than how the setting was portrayed in the sourcebook. I don’t care how flying my car is, racism is racism.
The PoD is Nikolai Tesla marrying Anne Morgan, the daughter of J.P. Morgan, in 1893, meaning his inventions get all the funding they need. By 1902, Tesla had prototyped a global wireless radio system. During world war 1, he even devised a way to transmit electricity wirelessly. These new technologies kept Wiemar Germany just stable enough to keep Hitler out of power, and the League of Nations became gradually less completely f*cking useless. Tesla founded an important League regulatory body known as the World Science Council. The League stood up to both Japan and Italy, staving them away from Ethiopia and China, respectively. France fell under a socialist government, but one willing to play ball with the rest of the Great Powers.
Only Stalin’s Comintern stood outside the friendly, smothering umbrella of the League by 1940. As relations worsened, Stalin began a Soviet nuclear program. But in 1951, a scientist leaked this information to the League, and the WSC demanded the USSR stand down. Moscow refused, and so began this timeline’s deadliest conflict, the Soviet War. The Western Allies fought the Soviets in Europe, while Japan swept into CPC-controlled north China. In 1953, as the atom bombs neared completion, the Ukraine rose in revolt against the Soviet Union, welcoming in League armies. In a rage, Stalin ordered the nuking of Kiev. His scientists were horrified he would nuke his own country, and the “Scientists’ Coup” caused pitched fighting in Moscow itself. Stalin would die in that confused battle, and the Soviet War drew to a close.
Afterwards, the League strengthened its position and Japan hung on to its gains in China, while Russia was divided up. Colonialism was now here to stay. The German Reich eventually drew up a better constitution and became the German Republic, second only to the United States and Britain in world affairs. The sourcebook says Italy is fascist, but I imagine the regime's kept its head down in order to survive after the Ethiopia scare.
Revolts are frequent in the middle east and India, and it’s no wonder. Without experiencing the horrors of Nazism, this world still buys into a great deal of psudoscientifc crap about the inferiority of this and that race, or womens’ place in the home. Basically, living here as a non-white male would suck donkey balls, if it weren’t for all the cool tech dulling the pain somewhat. Even a lower-class Indian laborer’s car drives itself, after all.
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Excellent! This was far down on my to-do list, so I'm glad you got to it first.