Parallel Universe Ideas?


Books

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16

I'm planning out a writing project that involves travel to parallel universes, a la Sliders. But I'm having trouble coming up with ideas for parallel universes that go beyond the gimmicky "The world has been taken over by such-and-such civilization/technology/biome/natural disaster!"

I tried searching for random articles on Wikipedia for inspiration, but it turns out most of Wikipedia's articles are for obscure Eastern European villages, football clubs, and Bollywood actors.

So now I'm turning to the Paizonians. What are some cool/fun/dramatic parallel universe ideas to explore? (And I'm excluding cosmic-level differences, so no deadly meteors or tinkering with the fundamental constants of physics.)


Depending on the time period, might be fun to see what would happen without specific cultural influences (ex if Justinian was killed during his service with the Excubitors, if some sort of plague or natural disaster killed off all horses and similar breeds in pre-history before they could be domesticated, etc).

It's also fun to see what happens if multiple groups have discovered the ability and meet in a universe where neither is native. Extra fun if they are travelling via differing methods, which neither is well-equipped to understand.

-TimD


I'd take advantage of the conversions threads. The community has a lot of ideas on this.

I made one awhile back about Zombieland and what it would take to make it.

Zombieland


You might get some inspiration from watching the tv show Fringe.

Years ago ran a game based on the premise that each time the spell "wish" was cast it unknowingly created an alternate reality.

I could fill you in on more info if you are interested but I'd probably bore you.

Silver Crusade Contributor

Do you have a specific base culture in mind? Like, are we talking about alternate Earths, or establishing an original world and then sliding to that world's alternate timelines?

This sort of thing has always fascinated me - I'm using it in my shared-campaign Golarion, for example. ^_^

I also had a villain in my homebrew who was shifting the world's timeline until he undid an ancient war's events.

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16

I'm talking about alternate Earths, not a fantasy setting at all. In this scenario, the parallel universes are the result of time travel, so all the differences would be traceable to human meddling with history at some point.

Silver Crusade Contributor

I see. I'm not much of a historian, but if I come up with something, I'll pop back in.

One line of thought I would consider is "decision points" - points in history that would change the future greatly based on as few variables as possible. What if the Archduke of Sarajevo (I think) hadn't been assassinated? What if Columbus were never heard from again? The old classic: what if Hitler got into art school?

Just my first thought. ^_^


RainyDayNinja wrote:
I'm talking about alternate Earths, not a fantasy setting at all. In this scenario, the parallel universes are the result of time travel, so all the differences would be traceable to human meddling with history at some point.

Oh. In that case there's a thread around here somewhere that talks about historic changes that would spawn an alternate earth.

I'll link it if I can find it, but feel free to do a little search fu on your own.


Heck the sky's the limit with this.

Playing Civ 5 right now and tinkering with religions.

How about one where Christianity never became dominant in Europe?

Or one where Mohammed was killed by a runaway cart or something and Islam was never founded. That one seems like it would be really interesting.

Or how about if the Mongols took Western Europe? As I remember the story, it wasn't really any brilliant military effort that saved them. The Khan died, so everyone had to go back to Mongolia to vote for a new Khan.

Or Persia defeats the Greek defenders and Frank Miller can never write a comic that got turned into a vaguely homoerotic movie?

Or Lincoln escapes assassination. That one would be really interesting.

Or Churchill was removed in some kind of putsch, and England makes peace with Germany like Hitler wanted. Personally I think that one ends with Soviet tanks on the shores of France about 1948, but opinions differ.

Or if you are really kinky... the Red Sox never trade the Bambino to the Yankees, and the Yankee franchise suffers a century of frustration. That one might be marketable.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Parralell Universe stories get interesting when they hit on something you relate to personally. They work best with taking a hit on established characters. Golarion falls a bit short on this compared to other game worlds as it's a bit lacking on personalities that are as well known as an Ellminster, Mordenkainen, or Flint. Sure you can do a "What if Aroden hadn't died?" Scenario but gods aren't very good characters to work with.

That's why they are such a popular thing in comic books. It got to the point where an semi-official naming convention was done up for the ones in Marvel. (which is now obsolete with the current multi-verse foldin, but that doesn't matter here.) You can revisit estabished characters, twist them up, and even kill them off.

If you are a DM with a long established and indepth campaign world, then you're pretty much set to go.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Maybe look at failed assassinations? And imagine what would have happened if they had succeeded?

Or what if the Orvilles had crashed? Or if the Hindenburg hadn't?

What if England gave the American Colonies some seats in the House of Commons, and the Revolution never happened?

What if Firefly wasn't cancelled?

What if electrical technology was dominated by Tesla and not Edison?

What if Marilyn Monroe hadn't died?

What if war erupted during the Cuban Missile Crisis? What if Kennedy died in that boating accident? What if his brother was convicted of that murder?

What if the Supreme Court ruled the other way in Bush v. Gore?


I've thought it would be a cool to take many small changes, so everything looks normal and they can't tell they've actually changed universes, until little things start popping up, more and more until they find the big change is whatever brought them there that they have to deal with as the heroes.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Have you looked at the Wild Cards series? In addition to being a super heroes series, it has lots of historical divergences, like Castro being a ballplayer, Buddy Holly not crashing, etc.

What if Nixon wasn't caught? Then no President Ford, and maybe no President Carter. What if Naturalized citizens could be president, so Schwartzenagger was able to run for POTUS?


Pick a key point in history, think about what would happen if it had gone differently? What cascade effects would result?

Pick an assumption that we live by that is so basic that everyone, even highly aware people, take it for granted (like "humans are the most advanced species on earth"), and change it.

Mirror worlds can be interesting (where everything is the same except for one key detail (ethnicity, species, sex, so on), and can be an excellent tool to explore social issues.

Post apocalypse ala Mad Max is a bit trite, but consider different kinds of apocalypse, such as alien invasion not for destruction but colonization (like space Europeans), or rise of powerful entities from within the core of the earth (for slow but inevitable Loveceaftian existential doom), or science run amok (cancer cure causes side effect of vastly diminished fertility, a "last generation" scenario).


What if the Chinese had continued their sea explorations, and opened trade with Europe, instead of Europe contacting the Chinese?

What if metallurgy and writing were developed 1st by the North Americans instead of the Euro-Asian civilizations?

What would the result be if the British had been able to not just raid and burn the White House in 1812, but actually hold the territory?

Would Upper & Lower Canada have joined the Colonies in rebellion, if the Canadiens had all been exiled to Louisiana instead of being allowed to stay under British rule?

What if Attila had been more visionary, and instead of sacking Rome and leaving things to collapse into the Dark Ages, he had instead conquered Rome and revitalized the Empire, so that the Dark Ages never happened and Rome retained its dominance of Europe and the Mediterranean region?

What if the Library of Alexandria had been preserved?

What would the Asian theater region be like today if Chiang Kai-shek had defeated the Chinese Communists?

What would the world be like if Nixon had authorized the use of nuclear weapons during the Vietnam war?

Just a few ideas.

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

What if the Pope was Spanish, instead of Italian, during the Spanish Inquisition and they are still in charge of the Catholic Church today?

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Calex wrote:


What if Attila had been more visionary, and instead of sacking Rome and leaving things to collapse into the Dark Ages, he had instead conquered Rome and revitalized the Empire, so that the Dark Ages never happened and Rome retained its dominance of Europe and the Mediterranean region?

What if the Library of Alexandria had been preserved?

Are the Huns a kind of Visigoth? Cause then we could have a Steamgoth genre!

Togas and Telegraphs! Gladiators by Gaslight! Mecha-nized Legions! Imperial Airships!


What if...

* Julius Caesar Survived Assassination on the Ides of March?

* Americas had been discovered in the 1800s?

* Hitler died in the Pustch of 1923?

... and other, other and other. The possibility is infinity!

Silver Crusade Contributor

What if the native people of the Americas were more resistant to European diseases?


what if the \south won the civil war?

seriously, you want alternative history, read something by Harry Turtledove.

My favorite is when a race of alien lizards invade earth in 1942.


RainyDayNinja wrote:
I'm talking about alternate Earths, not a fantasy setting at all. In this scenario, the parallel universes are the result of time travel, so all the differences would be traceable to human meddling with history at some point.

If this is so, then you really really need to read the guns of the south by Turtledove,

South African white surpremisits travel back to 1860 and give Robert E Lee ak-47's.

Dark Archive

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What if Emperor Constantine picked Mithraism over Christianity as the new state religion of Rome?

What if the civilizations of North America had not only not succumbed to a massive plague, killing off 90% of them before the Europeans arrived in force, and instead it was the Europeans who brought back plague to Europe, leading to Native Americans 'discovering' a smashed-back-to-the-dark-ages Europe a few decades later, and colonizing it?

What if Egypt never fell to the point of Rome's breadbasket, but continued to expand, ending up a dynastic empire that lasted as long as China and influenced all of the surrounding territories of the Middle East / Persian Gulf, lower Europe and central Africa?

What if the rock never fell, mammals never got bigger than rats, and the sapient civilization on Earth is humanoid deinonychus-descended Sleestak? :)

What if Alexander lived longer and / or his kids weren't complete screw ups who squandered all of his achievements?

Same, but replace Alexander with Genghis Khan.

Same, but replace Genghis Khan with Adolf Hitler.

What if Jesus came back, and continued his trend of discouraging churches and temples and priesthoods and hierarchies, and the Church, as it became, never formed, and the faith remained a more Buddhist-monk-like order of wandering shepherds-of-men, robed and sandaled and unshaven, living off of the charity of those they minister as they travel the world, spreading the word?

What if the endless wars and crusades in Europe and the Levant led not only to ladies staying home and running the castles and inns while their husbands and sons went off to fight (and often didn't come back...), but progressed to the assumption that women would handle business and commerce and end up running everything, while men stuck to making war, leaving the reins of power increasingly in the hands of women. The same sort of women's liberation that WW2 helped kick off (thanks to an entire generation of women coming to appreciate having their own money, and not being entirely thrilled about giving that up when the war ended and the men came back), but almost a thousand years earlier...

Dark Archive

Set wrote:

What if Alexander lived longer and / or his kids weren't complete screw ups who squandered all of his achievements?

Same, but replace Genghis Khan with Adolf Hitler Martin Bormann.

Soon on Amazon Prime.


What if Wizards never pulled the plug on our beloved Dragon and Dungeon magazines, and stuck with 3.5?

Dark Archive

What if George Washington refused to take the mantle of "King" or "President" but instead crowned himself "Padisha Emperor of All the Known World for Life" and set America off on dreams of expansive Puritan Imperialism.

Dark Archive

What if Nikolai Tesla was as mad and inventive as in our world, but was also as good at patent-trolling and stealing credit as Edison, utterly dominating US energy policy and leaving Edison to die penniless and discredited instead?

What if the Civil War never happened, and the United States was the nation north of the Mason-Dixon line, while the Confederacy was an allied nation to the south?

What if a Chinese fleet bombed the hell out of Portsmouth and Calais, and then claimed them as their territory (as Britain claimed Hong Kong), to force the ports to remain open to their opium shipments, forcing Europe at gunpoint to buy their product? What if the sun never set on the Chinese empire?

What if Britain didn't choose to hand over Palestine to the displaced Jewish people after WW2, and the Allies went with their second choice, and the new nation of Israel was founded in Baja, California?

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Michael Chabon wrote The Yiddish Policeman's Union about the Jews being moved to Alaska.

Liberty's Edge

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What if she turned right?


What if the Dauphin had managed to escape to exile during the French revolution, and managed to set up an Imperial French gov't-in-exile from the colonies?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
RainyDayNinja wrote:
I'm talking about alternate Earths, not a fantasy setting at all. In this scenario, the parallel universes are the result of time travel, so all the differences would be traceable to human meddling with history at some point.

The whole point of Parallel World stories is to ask ... "What If?" or if you're using DC's language.. "Elseworlds". So pick your favorite What IF scenarios and run with them.

The best recent movie explanation of this theme because it dispenses with the great historical gimmicks pandemic to the genre was the independent movie "Second Earth" which came out last year. The plot being is that suddenly a literal copy of the Earth appears in the sky. And it's discovered that this "Second Earth" is populated by copies of the people of First Earth. (of course the Second Earthers call themselves the "First" earth, but I digress.) It's up there with "Moon" for the more quiet exploration of an SF theme.

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