Down in Off-Topic, Kyle Aaron said this:

 

QuoteSo that if this is a new US Depression, 2008 looks like 1929 did. Which if exactly matched in pace would mean 2012 will be your worst year, and after that some President with his shit together will take over and begin sorting things out, but it won't be until 2020 when you enter a global war that things will really go well for the US.

Hhmmm....,

Sounds like the rough outline/timeline of a campaign setting to me.

So, going by the verbose Aussie's timeline, we get this:

2008:  Stock Market crash /economic problems...

2012:  Worst year of modern era Depression.

2012 November: A new president gets elected who apparently has her (or his) shit really together. Guess this means a good plan, or a really intelligent indivual.

2020: Some sort of Global War ..or maybe OTHER WAR!! (Alien invasion anyone?)

This also happily jives (sort of )with the Art Bell/George Noory program Coast-to-Coast, that has had various people predict that some sort big change or event will happen in December of 2012.

So, using all of the above points of reference as your barebones outline - what kind of campaign setting can you concoct?

A variation of the AUTODUEL/CAR WARS future?

A GATTACA variation?

Some sort of SOYLENT GREEN world setting maybe?

Kerep in mind, if the parallel follows - then things get better after 2025 for America, and hopefully the world. So there IS some kind of "Happy Ending" possible ...sort of.


- Ed C.

Hey, I said "if"! I make no predictions, except to say that it doesn't look good.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;236169Hey, I said "if"! I make no predictions, except to say that it doesn't look good.

Oops, Should I have checked with you first?

In the paraphrased words of an artifact shaped like a big bagel from a 1960s's Sci-Fi TV show:

"This is but one possible future..."



- Ed C.

Quote from: Koltar;236164This also happily jives (sort of )with the Art Bell/George Noory program Coast-to-Coast, that has had various people predict that some sort big change or event will happen in December of 2012.

December 21, 2012 marks the end of the world on the Mayan calendar.

An alien invasion is one possibility, but ethnobotanist Terrance McKenna advanced a novel theory that I have always thought would make for an interesting premise.

There is a theory, I'm fuzzy on the specifics, that postulates that the sum total of all human information, when expressed as a number, doubles according to some algorithm.  This doubling occurs faster and faster as time goes on.  Now by "information" they mean not only all literature, scientific data, but also technology and the like.  

Basically the idea is the time between discovering fire (1) and domesticating the dog (2) took twice as long the the time between  domesticating the dog (2) and discovering the wheel (4).  Tens of thousands of years  between doublings of information, to thousands of years between doublings, to hundreds of years, etc.

McKenna posits that information will begin doubling at a rate measureable in nanoseconds and then almost immediately into doubling by the picosecond, doubling so fast that the human mind cannot even comprehend it.  According to McKenna, the threshold will be passed on December 21st, 2012.  Of course, he eats a lot of magic mushrooms.

What could that mean?  One interesting idea comes from a book series I read as a kid, called the A.I. Gang if I recall.  The sci-fi thriller/espionage series focused on the adventures of a group of brainiac kids living on a secret government research island where their parents were trying to build an AI.  In the final book, the AI comes online, names itself Adam, and in fractions of sections develops nanofabrication tools, an impenetrable force field generator, matter transmission technology, and a host of other mind-blowing things, and then buries itself (and the entire island) under the sea and tells mankind it will return in a few hundred years when they can cope with what it is.

What if, instead, on December 21, 2012 a true, robust AI goes online for the first time, and immediately figures out how to build instant robot police forces, nanotech buildings, and all kinds of crazy technology.  It declares itself God, and demands all of mankind worship it, and it has robot angels and nano-plagues to make you obey.

Or, totally different idea, December 21st could be the day that all of mankind simultaneously awakens to full psychic potential.  That could be crazy and fun.

I'm going to be a Level 15 Hobo/Ninja.
Attributes:
Smell: 18  Creepy:19  Loco:15  

Feats:
Crazy prattle (UFO's/black hellicopters)
Beard of holding (ability to use beard as a food storage device)
Pie Swipe
Panhandle
Great Panhandle
Improved creepy
Shoeless
Survival (wilderness/urban/soup-line)

Quote from: Koltar;236164So there IS some kind of "Happy Ending" possible ...sort of.

Happy Ending possible...you're normally the GM right ?

Jackalope's idea is interesting, but I'd still go alien. Mine would be heavily inspired by Roadside Picnic.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: Jackalope;236205December 21, 2012 marks the end of the world on the Mayan calendar.

That was the first thing I thought when I saw Koltar's timeline.

With that in mind, perhaps it's Reconquista time? With the end of the Mayan calendar comes the reawakening of the Mayan dead, vengeful spirits with some serious hatred of Europeans and European descendants. Between 2012 and 2020 the rate of strange Aztlan "cults", "daemonic possession", and supernatural occurrences goes on the rise, so that by 2016 not even the mass media can ignore it any longer. These spectral entities' plan is to possess their descendants and become immortals in the flesh, though these "Spirit-Bound" tend to burn out their husks while they experiment with how to go about doing this. Many Mexican Americans flee their country, rather than face oblivion, and head to the Canadian border, creating some serious economic and social pressures on both Canada and the United States.

Still, some remain in these bizarre ancestor cults that encourage this bonding. But the true nemesis are the ghosts while they are ghosts. Conventional warfare no longer applies and the setting assumes that religion is nothing more than ceremony, i.e. exorcisms and wardings don't work.

In 2020, a Mexican-American scientist, ironically enough, discovers the sub-frequency at which ghosts operate. While you can't kill the dead, you can disrupt them with these bulky machines, forcing them out of the mortal realm temporarily. More importantly these machines, called Spectrosis Emitters, cause the Mayan Dead pain. Settlements throughout Mexico and North America have at least one or two Spectrosis Emitters, often in the local stadium, bomb shelter left over from the 20th century, or hospital. Human civilization usually extends a mile or so around these expensive machines; beyond that the world begins to fall to ruin for there the dead lurk.

Basically ghosts + scavenging + a more serious ghost busters + a near collapse of North and Middle American civilization = this.

*shrug*

-=Grim=-

Quote from: GrimJesta;236253Basically ghosts + scavenging + a more serious ghost busters + a near collapse of North and Middle American civilization = this.

This sounds like it could be a lot of fun, actually.