Juce734 wrote:So you would want only a more modern history then? Or a completely fictional one? Am I reading that right?
To a point Yes, that way it Still leaves plenty of Crowdsourcing breathing room for developement reasons. Anyone can 'just strip' stuff right out of todays news paper and say
"That is what happened, but with superheroes"... Which is fine, But also Very campy.
I say we Pick a date sometime back a few decades ago, back when the Net, TV, & history books Couldn't pick up on everything and right on the cuff of when they were about to (Late 30's to mid 40's) and then move on from there.
►Yes in
1939 The Soviet Union invades Finland and starts the Russo-Finish War...
►Yes on
June 22 1941 Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of Russia) takes place...
►Yes on Dec 8th 1941 Japanese attack Wake island.
BUT, as time goes one the Secret history of the world takes place and Slowly drives the Earth of H.U. further and further away from the realities of "Other PB earth dimensions (further and further from Our Real world Timesline)...
For some Unknown reasons (Cosmic Forge in my games) the HU World Timeline continues to Unnaturally "SNAP" back towards a more Our Earth like time line, despite the continued and ever increasing inclusion of super humans.
This is driven in part by the (Truefully existent) machinations of an ages old orginization of world wide social engineers ["Puppet Masters"] who have had Many world events so well plotted and planned out, for the ultimate purpasses of creating their age old dream of a New World Order (from which they intended to rule), that they keep attempting to "BUMP" that global plan back into place... BUT as time has moved on and the Oddness of the "Superhuman Phenom" has continued out of control, That plan has become ever increasingly distant and That (By the late 80's, earily 90's) intentioned timeline ultimately becomes impossible...
As was intended anywho.
That same group had intended to bring about a Utopia in which the Little people (us) existed in an assumed Perfectly regimented socialist society, while they would be the "Undeposable" facistic leaders of their individual countries, all ruled over by a god-like puppet king.
As the 20th century rolls on though, an Unnaturally large wave of Superhuman energy will surge across the surface of the world where Normal Man (and woman) start to show ever evolving signs of power. This started off as the Pulp Fiction heroic era and was Easily squeltched at first by the Puppet Masters. Anything born that was "Not quite Human" (Mutants) was seen as a potential threat to the Masters plans (controlled/directable racism like with whites & black is easy to deal with... But mutants are ALL differant), or the existance of Extr-Dimensional and Terrestrial, would be covered up, used and destroyed.
News papers would print retraction, new channels would (after airing "Unwanted news") simply continue with the news broad cast and a variant recap of the "Original" story... That way the majority of people would think "Hey, maybe I just heard things wrong, best to move on"...
Those who Didn't would, in time, come to Labled as "Conspiracy theorists" and Nut jobs!
Those are dambing words to call humans (even when Blatantely untrue) as humans are social creatures and as such, being called those trems is a Reputation death sentance. You're an Insta pariah, anathema and no longer someone Other people would wish to be associated with, even if they secretly agreed with you. THAT is the power of the Need to fit in. In OUR REAL WORLD, that is a potent way to control the people, with fear of total and complete ostracization. Only crazy people would never see the need to be ONE with those around them, after all we humans Need each other to survive... well don't we?
And by the time Humans started flying in droves (around the 1950's) that time honored method of subtle mind control all started to fall apart. After all, how can you say "There is no such thing as Aliens! That is all crazy talk spouted by tinfoil hat
wearing scittzos", when a Giant UFO is hovering Over the Whitehouse Lawn???
So Yes WWII happens, Yes Korean War & Nam, Yes to The Beetles and the Brittish Invasion, yes to the 'Free Love' era, and Yes to many things, but as the 20th century was nearing it's closure, the Puppet Masters could no-longer maintain the level of control they'd had decades prior. One or two superhumans could be whiped from the Human conscience over time, but not 10, then 100, then 1,000, then Ten thousand, One hundred Thousand, and then a million!!!
Something, an event sparked an overwhelming amount of Whatever type of energy it was that caused superpowers to develope and with the ever increasing number of super powered beings jumping forwards into the spot-light, it enacted a similarly responding growth in the number of OTHER classes of super humans.
The Puppet Masters had even had plans (as far back as the 1940's) to use every technique' they'd had at their disposial, to remove the existance of Century Station from the hearts and minds of the people... And they would have gotten away with it if not for the furthing emergance of supers. See, there is something About Century Station that they never wanted out and they'd intended to make us alll forget that it had ever existed at all. In time Not one human living on earth would have remembered he cities existance.
A machine, a spell, mass psychic powers, control over the media, all would be employed to help erradicate that Blasted cities existance from the hearts and minds of man... But alas... Heroes stopped them just before they could complete their plans!
Further proof of what those who shall be called 'THEY' feared most. That Supers were just Too unpredictable. But by the mid 40's it was just too hard to kill That many budding supers. Control was becoming the main method of dealing with them. Control and hope! Hope that whatever was causing this would soon end, but it only increased.
NIGHTSPAWN, BtSN, SYSTEM SHOCK, ROBOTECH, N&SS, DEAD REIGN, ADVACED RECON...
And many other worlds would succomb to the plots and plans of those same Puppet Masters, except that is untill the day some of those worlds Too got their own wake up calls and were delivered from the clutches of Mad Men... Only to be delivered in some cases, into the waiting arms of Other much more evil hands!
Magic exists, Psychics exist, the Supernatural exists, Mutants and superhumans exist, aliens extra-dimensions beings exist, why even Angles & Demons exist... And they can all be hidden and destroyed, but not when cosmic fate determines that one of those worlds needs a wake up call... For NO force or group of being on earth has a Worse destination (unknowingly) instore for the universe than those same Puppet Masters.
So in a way, the humans of Nightspawn/bane earth or Rifts earth, and even System Shock and Dead reign are ALL very lucky, as the (never to be known) alternative was far far worse.
NOW WHAT???
Well, as of the late 1980's and eairly 1990's all of those people the World Movers [Puppet masters] had grown and cultivated where no more. Those that were to be were never born and those that were part of their plans had aged long past their expiration dates. By the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of that eras presedent, nothing was the same. Sure GM Motors HAD existed, and the Internet was in full swing but, one of those thing was part of the past and had already been replaced and the other was simply the Enevitable conclusion to the ever advacing nature of comunications technology.
MP3's never existed, by something, a program very similar Would be developedbut, it wouldn't be called MP3 (MPEG-2 Audio Layer 3). The names of and faces of things have changed but, allot of things stayed the same till the 90's. Century Station and the inevitable existance of Advanced alien & superhuman techs have changed All of that and the Puppet Masters 9try as they did) could simply Not stop it.
By the 2000's man was in space, on the Moon, on Mars, and certain government groups had gone even further into Outter and innerspace and all other spaces inbetween. Computers began to use standards of tech Beyond even that of the (by then simplistic) Quantum Computer. Photon Light based computers are nearing the market and by 2012 they'll be there... And That again wil cause yet Another paradigm shift!
See, you CAN make Illogical things logical again and, the above example is just one way it can be done...
More over the above example is just One of many ways that Every little thing can be explained, give you a base starting point and some solid background to work with, all while making it so that ALL PB game books can Still logically inter-act w/o coming off as being the perview of
Pure Geekdom!...
It Can be done and IT MUST BE DONE for everone to feel that this game is for them.
Give the Game a Mtea-plot to get some comon ground for all of us, then Kill the Meta plot before it Ruins the game... (Something White Wolf Never figured out and is one reason why they're going under).