Quote from: HinterWeltThis is probably the best rationale I have seen. Outside of the standard of the genre but still, a good way to bring it into an RPG setting I could stomach.

Thanks,
Bill

Again, I point to my sig. Last line.

-clash

Quote from: AosI've given this some though too, actually. My solution: move the solar system 10,000+ into the future and have mars as a defunct and dying terraform project. None of the inhabitants have to know this, however, and this rational can be used to explain all the crazy monsters nd just about everything else, including the dwindling air supply.
In fact, I'm thinking of using just such a rational to construct a pre-mariner style sci fi solar system. The earth has been wrecked by atomic war, and is, at the start of the game, only a century two into recoverey, and only a couple of decades in space. When the earthers get into space, they find a swampy, water-logged venus, a crazy desert mars, and whatever the hell else you want. One added bonus to this is the solar system would be loaded with mystery tech, but instead of being the product of alien tech, like in 2001, it is the product of a fallen and only vaguly remembred human supertech civilization.
I'd use true20 though.

I just finished reading S.M.Stirling's "The Sky People." The main premise: it's 1988, but in an alternate history in which it is discovered in the 1940s/50s that Venus and Mars are very much like how they are portrayed in pulp and scifi, especially that of E.R. Burroughs. Venus is a lush, vibrant world, filled with dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals, as well as Neanderthals and "true humans" The arms race of the Cold War in our history is pretty much dispensed with as both sides of the Iron Curtain race to get into space. By 1988, there are colonies on Venus and Mars, and habitable planets are detected around nearby stars (remember, this 1988 has seen a race in which astronomical discovery has been funded like the arms race was funded in our timeline). But the fossil record of Venus only goes back 200 million years, and it seems that one of the native human languages on Venus bears a resemblance to the root language of many modern Earth tongues. Hmmm...wonder what that means...?

Quote from: ColonelHardissonI just finished reading S.M.Stirling's "The Sky People." The main premise: it's 1988, but in an alternate history in which it is discovered in the 1940s/50s that Venus and Mars are very much like how they are portrayed in pulp and scifi, especially that of E.R. Burroughs. Venus is a lush, vibrant world, filled with dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals, as well as Neanderthals and "true humans" The arms race of the Cold War in our history is pretty much dispensed with as both sides of the Iron Curtain race to get into space. By 1988, there are colonies on Venus and Mars, and habitable planets are detected around nearby stars (remember, this 1988 has seen a race in which astronomical discovery has been funded like the arms race was funded in our timeline). But the fossil record of Venus only goes back 200 million years, and it seems that one of the native human languages on Venus bears a resemblance to the root language of many modern Earth tongues. Hmmm...wonder what that means...?

That sounds pretty cool. I've read Sterling (Marching Through Georgia) in the past and been kind of underwhelmed, but I'll give this one a shot. Thanks.

Quote from: AosThat sounds pretty cool. I've read Sterling (Marching Through Georgia) in the past and been kind of underwhelmed, but I'll give this one a shot. Thanks.

Stirling's "The Peshawar Lancers" is also very good. It's an alternate history, set around 2024. About 1878, cometary debris smashes into the Earth, pretty much wiping out Western civilization. The British Empire's best minds determine that the winter that follows the comets is going to be very long. Disraeli decides to use the British merchant fleet to move the government, army, and as much of the skilled population as possible to the Raj in India. The Empire survives (barely) as much of the northern hemisphere descends into barbarism and cannibalism. By the early 2000s, the climate has long since righted itself, and civilization has been moving forward again. The setting is full of swashbuckling adventure, and includes huge mechanical computers, airships, external combustion engines, a Russian empire based around Satan-worship, and just-jawed heroes that would be comfortable in books by Talbot Mundy. Very, very fun setting, and there is an appendix in the back that details the history of the setting well enough to be useful for a roleplaying game.