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http://www.stargrunt.ca/settings_hist/gzg_timeline/gzg_timeline.htm
Assignment/Competition:
Knowing as you do the major and minor factions in the GZGverse, put together
an alternate timeline of you own for submission to the list. Assume the idea
is to preserve a 'fair portion' of the factions and some of the major events
of the timeline (where that makes sense).
Write up a replacement timeline and perhaps a few point form notes explaining
any major factional or flavour changes in the setting.
Post here or link here on the list.
For one thing, it's interesting even as a way to collect a bunch of alternate
possible timelines and settings (could be useful for players of the game). For
another thing, it could give all of us some ideas including Jon.
Reward: None as such, but if there is a timeline and some notes in a
publishable format, perhaps I can post various entries on www.stargrunt.ca as
alternate settings. There is also the challenge of the thing: How to keep some
of the central aspects of Jon's creation while still applying your own sense
of
'what would be most likely/interesting' to it.
I will work on my contribution starting this weekend.
> On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 12:51 PM, Tom B <kaladorn@gmail.com> wrote:
That's a tall assignment my friend. If I was to work on changes I'd probably
take the following tired direction:
1) The UN Blues are far (and I mean *FAR*) too effective. Nowhere in the fluff
does it explain how the Blues actually found a pair of brass ones. I'd fix
that by reducing their ability to do much other than wag a nagging finger and
point to published "resolutions."
2) I'd bring a more corporate feel to the timeline -- I'd assume
Governments would rely more on the commercial entities to develop
space flight/exploration/exploitation. I'd have corporate
"misunderstandings" etc.
3) I'd probably keep the alien menace appearing when they do.
4) I'd create entries showing how the major power blocs formed -
probably starting with a row between North Korea and South Korea that
eventually pulls the US and China into it. Russia would probably hang back a
bit and then come to the aid of the Chinese. The UK joining up with the US.
The French do what the French do and the Germans would eventually own Europe.
5) I'd have the aliens hitting Sol just as they are now but that being more a
function of a poor Human response than UNSC's ability to hold.
D.
Tom B schrieb:
> textfilter: chose text/plain from a multipart/alternative
One idea is to let the GZG-verse start as alternate history some decades
in the past, rather than as purely a near-future SF development, that is
likely to be overtaken by events anyway.
Possible starting points could be
- some Victorian SF setting
- The Cold War gone hot at some point (Cuban Missile Crisis, for
example)
One idea that I find especially intriguing is the following:
- Sometime in Summer/Autumn 1941 Adolf Hitler is killed under
circumstances never properly clearer up. The Wehrmacht takes over Germany,
purging the nastier elements of the Nazi Party and establishing
a moderate military dictatorship.
Immediate consequences:
- The holocaust, barely started, is stopped. While Jews continue to be
a suppressed minority under German rule, they are not exterminated.
- Policy in the conquered territories of the Soviet Uniion is changed
to make it attractive for the people to side with the Germans, among others, a
putative Romanov heir is presented as future Czar (leading to the later
Romanov hegemony). With their help, the Wehmacht fights the Soviet to a
standstill.
- Less threatened by the Nazis, the US do not declare War on Germany
and concentrate on Japan instead.
- Britain is in a difficult position and ends up making peace with
Germany and joining a confederation with US (a project actually suggested by
Churchill at the time), thus creating the NAC.
- The Pacific War is finished more quickly, before the Manhattan project
achieves results. Politicians out for a "peace dividend" stop this
"boondoggle". The plans for nuclear weapons are shelved. Other powers, through
spying and their own scientists become aware of the possibilities, but none
actually go to the effort needed to actually try
to build the bomb.
Longer term consequences are a blend of actual history and GZG ideas:
- Lots of Jews emigrate to Palestine, creating Israel pretty much as it
actually happened.
- German-held territories are controlled not directly, but through
various Quisling regimes. Over the years, Germany loses its grip over Europe
and the various GZG powers emerge, Germany becoming the NSL, Vichy France,
Fascist Italy, Franco Spain etc. becoming the FSE. Also, these dictotership
mutate into democratic countries as the result of secular trends toward more
liberal governments.
- Decolonization of Africa and Asia goes forward basically as in the
present history. Later developments lead to
- The Communist takeover in China results in actual union with Russia
(the old Cold Warriors' nightmare), thus forming the ESU.
- The UN is formed pretty much as in real history. All sides agree that
the world needs a place to settel disputes short of massive wars.
Certainly not too nice a place, not black-and-white, but lots of grey,
and one with an intriguing mix of possibilities.
Greetings Karl Heinz