tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post1164927834710445485..comments2024-03-27T22:32:17.055-05:00Comments on Jeffs Gameblog: Adventures in the Nth ImperiumJeff Rientshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17493878980535235896noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-29149426727556676362009-12-19T14:13:06.579-06:002009-12-19T14:13:06.579-06:00It sure is mind boggling.
Thinking some more it r...It sure is mind boggling.<br /><br />Thinking some more it reminds me of the sf writer Samuel R. Delany. His short novel "The Einstein Intersection" is a really crazy story about aliens who not knowing what humans were (yes, past tense) are acting out the cultural myths of humanity. Thus we have Billy the Kid and Robin Hood walzing about in a very surreal sf setting. Go read it, very inspiring and could probably work well as inspiration for something as crazy as this.<br /><br />Nothing involving uncle Fred can be bad, by the way. I haven't read anything by Nietzsche in far to long. I need to re-read some of those classics on my shelves.AndreasDavourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17170806742393291962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-63119748734675911092009-12-17T18:40:53.943-06:002009-12-17T18:40:53.943-06:00Wonderful concept! I'm only catching up on my ...Wonderful concept! I'm only catching up on my blogging now and I just read up your post on this. Reading it got my mind churning on so many possibilities- even a traveller or gurps game!spielmeisterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09247265293145424283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-5409882711235089482009-12-17T17:00:10.227-06:002009-12-17T17:00:10.227-06:00Dude, that's awesome! Congrats!
____________...Dude, that's awesome! Congrats!<br /><br />___________________<br /><a href="http://xboxlivegenerator.com" rel="nofollow">Xbox Live Generator</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-90940750658048883052009-12-17T12:51:21.212-06:002009-12-17T12:51:21.212-06:00As much as I love this concept out the whazoo, I&#...As much as I love this concept out the whazoo, I'm afraid I would be inclined to agree with cappadocius' train of thought.<br /><br />In a fashion I'm think that the prominent 'Human' species of such a setting would have as much similarity to us as we have to the Adelobasileus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelobasileus). I'm thinking the scenes at the end of the film 'A.I.' but even more extreme.<br /><br />Still, it could make an awesome transhuman setting if approached similar to the RPG Sufficiently Advanced.Adam Dicksteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04840144928096089178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-28141630757937061802009-12-17T12:01:15.830-06:002009-12-17T12:01:15.830-06:00cappadocius, I'm aware of the scales involved ...cappadocius, I'm aware of the scales involved and I acknowledge your problem. It just doesn't concern me the least. I want humans, so I ignore the problem. If you were a player in my campaign, I'd probably say "You're right. Your PC is absolutely convinced that there shouldn't be humans in the year 100 Trillion. Now go find out what is really going on."Jeff Rientshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17493878980535235896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-34511658197627265692009-12-17T11:57:27.190-06:002009-12-17T11:57:27.190-06:00Maybe a group of humans have been in some bizzarro...Maybe a group of humans have been in some bizzarro stasis (or some crazy hyperspace time displacement- whatever) for several billion years and they came out a while ago and established a civilization.Aoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00145284080419502886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-7031461128525711142009-12-17T09:23:42.000-06:002009-12-17T09:23:42.000-06:00@cappa - the cool thing is you *could* have a whol...@cappa - the cool thing is you *could* have a whole new human race - that time period has too many quantum possibilities that you might not repeat our race. You get to make up a whole new history. Maybe even make some genetic modifications. :)Michael S/Chgowizhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02052820400496340137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-71367793282564371212009-12-17T09:16:34.486-06:002009-12-17T09:16:34.486-06:00100 Trillion Years, Jeff! Sol has been dead for 9,...100 Trillion Years, Jeff! Sol has been dead for 9,950 <i>billion</i> years; the "current" era is 1400 times farther away from 2009 AD than the BIG BANG. Having humans around <i>at all</i>, even as a genetic race memory, just doesn't work for me. Encounter Critical is great fun, I love Deep Time settings, but I'm just too aware of how incomprehensibly vast a scale of time that is, and how <i>quickly</i> biological evolution works on a scale that large.<br /><br />But make it all a bunch of crazy-ass non-humanoid aliens, and I'm on this like white on rice.cappadociushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03444938548248623609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-62951323825191447492009-12-17T05:00:48.267-06:002009-12-17T05:00:48.267-06:00For rules Critical Encounter would work or you cou...For rules Critical Encounter would work or you could go with good old Moldvay Lords of Creation (many famous persons real and fictional stated up already.) Heck if you wanted gonzo sci-fi technomagic you could even use Bill King's Wasteworld rules!Randolphhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03643391983738506935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-4660276006526879172009-12-17T04:59:35.757-06:002009-12-17T04:59:35.757-06:00This comment has been removed by the author.Randolphhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03643391983738506935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-46787741571323795742009-12-16T17:23:34.941-06:002009-12-16T17:23:34.941-06:00Man! You are creative, I want to eat your brains o...Man! You are creative, I want to eat your brains out!<br /><br />I like your idea a lot, however I'd like to address the idea of limited number of souls. <br /><br />Perhaps it would be better, to assume, that the souls have constant properties, but their identities differ from one incarnation to another. <br /><br />Let us look at the example of Hitler. In my concept, he's soul will always have the property of being a dictator and a xenophobe. However he won't always look like a little man with horrible mustache and haircut. <br /><br />I think that would give an opportunity to fiddle with some cultural motifs and tropes in a more inventive way. <br /><br />Imagine players landing on a "planet" or "colony", with a dictatorship. They suddenly realize that the authorities use the swastika as their emblem... They get uneasy, cause the reference is very obvious and triggers specific emotions. <br /><br />Now let's suppose that during the course of the adventure/ campaign they find out the same authoritarian government is planning to wipe out a specific group of people... What will the players do? <br /><br />I think that would be more interesting than just putting Hitler in the campaign.squidmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03486198900111225929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-81981875483126497092009-12-16T14:02:43.363-06:002009-12-16T14:02:43.363-06:00This is great! I like this setup purely as a scien...This is great! I like this setup purely as a science fantasy setting; as much as I dig Riverworld-esque settings, I'm not inclinded to include such a spin with this one. Instead, what appeals to me is that the setting offers the option of having a sort of "Phantasy Star" environment, with different quasi-medieval planets but also starships and lasers. As others have pointed out, with a setting this far in the future, you can pretty much justify any level of tech, including Traveller's "archaeotech." Likewise, you can have as many "alien" species as you like by making them evolutionary offshoots (or other species evolved to sentience). I particularly like the de-evolve/re-evolve cycle; very pulpy!David Larkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-31173916899031144042009-12-16T11:33:30.256-06:002009-12-16T11:33:30.256-06:00The remaining two are:
Black Hole Era - In this e...The remaining two are:<br /><br />Black Hole Era - In this era, according to the book, organized matter will remain only in the form of black holes. Black holes themselves slowly "evaporate" away the matter contained in them, by the quantum mechanical process of Hawking radiation. By the end of this era, only extremely low-energy photons, electrons, positrons, and neutrinos will remain.<br /><br />Dark Era - By this era, with only very diffuse matter remaining, activity in the universe will have tailed off dramatically, with very low energy levels and very large time scales. Electrons and positrons drifting through space will encounter one another and occasionally form positronium atoms. These structures are unstable, however, and their constituent particles must eventually annihilate. Other low-level annihilation events will also take place, albeit very slowly.<br /><br />Ciao, <br />GrendelwulfAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-86909207356898227802009-12-16T10:38:25.330-06:002009-12-16T10:38:25.330-06:00This comment has been removed by the author.Timeshadowshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09952601433965644275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-23835170734497630922009-12-16T10:36:45.141-06:002009-12-16T10:36:45.141-06:00"head a'splode!"
What are the other..."head a'splode!"<br /><br />What are the other 2 ages after the Degenerate Era? Does Laughlin go with the Heat Death finale or something else?Michael S/Chgowizhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02052820400496340137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-90129925968420707942009-12-16T10:29:11.017-06:002009-12-16T10:29:11.017-06:00Or you simply have several species running around
...<b>Or you simply have several species running around</b><br /><br />Well, if I'm using Encounter Critical some people will be reincarnated as elves or wookeys or what have you. Maybe ordinary humans can be a rarity, genetic throwbacks as it were. That help you at all, cappadocius?Jeff Rientshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17493878980535235896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-52327613235068885802009-12-16T10:25:58.718-06:002009-12-16T10:25:58.718-06:00In that large of a timeline, humans could have gon...In that large of a timeline, humans could have gone (almost) extinct and have re-evolved from scratch a few times over. Or you simply have several species running around (prehistoric cavemen who are still oppressed by the evil tyrannical GeicoCorp to super-evolved Trekkie human/Organians. Anything goes. Everything old ius new again...and again...and again...<br /><br />Throw in a bit of Asimovian "Empire/Foundation" to advance/decline the human state of affairs and technology...with a dash of Warhammer's decaying Imperium...<br /><br />Thanks for the ideas; it's definitely something I will be looking into using. <br /><br />Ciao, <br />GrendelwulfAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-32988187085225916242009-12-16T09:36:37.108-06:002009-12-16T09:36:37.108-06:00I have to question that why there are humans at al...I have to question that why there are humans <i>at all</i> 100 trillion years in the future. Even with only about 5 billion years of life, not ONE life-form on Earth, not even the most conservative and simple of Bacteria, has survived unchanged to the present.<br /><br />Even with Eternal Recurrence giving you essentially human minds traveling down the ages, the fleshy shells those mind/souls inhabit are not going to be remotely hominid after 100 trillion years. That would knock me out of the "shared imaginative space" of the game so fast, and I'm able to suspend my disbelief enough to cope with the Enterprise encountering Abraham Lincoln floating in the void of space and the big excitement is "Abraham Lincoln is awesome!" not "Abraham Lincoln died 500 years ago and could not breathe in space"cappadociushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03444938548248623609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-20212667330816095102009-12-16T09:02:09.933-06:002009-12-16T09:02:09.933-06:00Oh wow. It's like a not-sucky Riverworld and t...Oh wow. It's like a not-sucky Riverworld and the Xeelee Sequence had a bizarro genius baby.<br /><br />Needs MOAR photino birds. :)Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04072272223837426211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-13269007768396970432009-12-16T09:00:39.245-06:002009-12-16T09:00:39.245-06:00@kelvingreen
Yeah, a cataclysm can buy you some ti...@kelvingreen<br />Yeah, a cataclysm can buy you some time, but at the scale he's talking about a couple hundred years ain't but a blink. <br /><br />Interesting stuff. Kinda shades of "Riverworld"BigFellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03052419088140204154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-91934804106416108502009-12-16T08:48:50.728-06:002009-12-16T08:48:50.728-06:00I was about to suggest the old "cataclysm put...I was about to suggest the old "cataclysm puts humanity back a few hundred years" chestnut, but I like your gonzo reincarnation idea better. Have you read Peter Hamilton's <i>The Reality Dysfunction</i>? It deals with some of the same ideas.thekelvingreenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01928260185408072124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-90808064851999118552009-12-16T08:22:52.280-06:002009-12-16T08:22:52.280-06:00Okay, two ideas from the shower.
1: A long while ...Okay, two ideas from the shower.<br /><br />1: A long while back I was reading a book dealing with reincarnation and one question that author tackled is why are there seven reincarnations of Cleopatra, six of Napoleon, and 27 of Allester Crowley? One suggestion is that each of them only got a part of the original and thus had only 1/7 of Cleopatra's beauty or 1/6 of Napoleon's military genius.<br /><br />So what if two 1/6th Napoleons are in the same sector wasting resources trying to prove they're the real deal.<br /><br />2: Continuing on the famous people riff, what about the Joe Blows who haven't been famous in over a trillion incarnations. Would they have a Famous Fairness League? Would they form the only part of humanity willing to adventure knowing this could truly be their last incarnation to make its mark before it's all a uniform grey ooze?<br /><br />That could be a great pool for all PCs to come from and a target for them to aim at.Pulp Herbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02486803457210325703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7652921.post-46331498099062345242009-12-16T07:58:30.205-06:002009-12-16T07:58:30.205-06:00Jeff,
Didn't anyone tell you drugs and books ...Jeff,<br /><br />Didn't anyone tell you drugs and books on cosmology don't mix.<br /><br />Or that I'm terribly jealous I can't think this up.Pulp Herbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02486803457210325703noreply@blogger.com