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View Full Version : Days of Future Prime (Another Community World-Building Project - Sci-Fi version)



The Rose Dragon
2009-03-23, 01:59 PM
The rather unwieldy acronym stands for "Yet Another Attempt at a Community World Building Project". This time with a sci-fi flavor rather than fantasy.

((The post-apoc still stands. Post-apoc makes everything cooler. Yes, even that.))

_/_/_/_/

Welcome to PrimeTech Inc. Guide to Safely Leaving Your WMD Shelter! If you are reading this, today must be your 77291st day in your chosen shelter. Which makes it 10 days past the estimated safety period of 211 years and 211 days since the sealing of your WMD shelter.

This guide aims to prepare you for all possibilities that might have come to pass since your shelter was closed off, based on all plausible fictional and non-fictional works on a grim future written by the time of this introduction's diction. It is our goal to make your supposedly grim future into a bright one which will shame your pre-shelter lives.

Most readers will want to read the sections 1, 2, 3, 5 and 11. The shelter technicians should also familiarize themselves with the section 7, as it contains the technical knowledge necessary to open a sealed PrimeTech Inc. WMD Shelter door.

We do hope you have enjoyed your stay with us, and hope to accommodate you again soon.

Regards,

PrimeTech Inc. Vice President
James Vic Edenson

A SAFER BATTLEFIELD FOR A SAFER FUTURE

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-23, 02:00 PM
(reserved)

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-23, 02:14 PM
(reserved)

MageSparrowhawk
2009-03-23, 04:59 PM
I don't have much to say about this quite yet, other than it looks really cool, and I'll be happy to help pitch in ideas.

:biggrin:

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-24, 10:51 AM
The first post is actually intentionally vague so you won't have to feel tied to the things I've established when pitching in.

So feel free to ask any questions and I'll give you the answers I have in mind.

LucyHarris
2009-03-24, 11:11 AM
Hah, I love it, especially the humorous slant it has.

So will this be a tongue-in-cheek post apocalypse?

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-24, 11:21 AM
So will this be a tongue-in-cheek post apocalypse?

That was not my initial intention, but I'm willing to go with whatever people are comfortable going with.

My idea was over-the-top in style, but gritty in substance. So while there would be a certain feeling of pulp action in presentation, the world itself would be rather deadly and grim.

My main inspirations are Bioshock and Fallout, if that helps you define it better. But it is still a Community WBP, and it will be the majority that will decide on the details.

UserClone
2009-03-24, 11:47 AM
Are you crappin' me? Fallout is the epitome of tongue-in-cheek post-apoc! This'll be great!

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-24, 11:58 AM
Are you crappin' me? Fallout is the epitome of tongue-in-cheek post-apoc! This'll be great!

Fallout 2 is. Fallout itself is much more grim and dark than the sequels (except for the ubiquitous references to the '50s), which is what I was aiming for.

((Interpretations may differ.))

MostlyHarmless
2009-03-24, 02:54 PM
I've never played Fallout or Bioshock but I like tongue in cheek. I'll see what I can contribute, being a veteran of the first CWB effort.

UserClone
2009-03-24, 10:56 PM
Plan to see at least one variety of domesticated mutant riding squirrel.

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-25, 08:55 AM
Whoa, one step at a time J!

First, we need to determine the kind of apocalypse (or apocalypses) we want. Then we can see if it is compatible with mutant riding squirrels.

If we do have riding squirrels, though, they should be silver, three-tailed and highly intelligent.

UserClone
2009-03-25, 10:06 AM
*scribbles notes*
Three-tailed, you say?

SurlySeraph
2009-03-25, 12:18 PM
Well, we could do a good ol' nuclear armageddon scenario. It's cliched because it's classic.
Or we could do some kind of mutating horrible biological weapon. Plague, zombies, mutant zombies, and nanomachine swarms that eat or forceably incorporate themselves into living things are all good.
Ice-nine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-9) It's been a long time, so most of it has been converted into normal ice by cosmic radiation. The world is still in an ice age, though, and evolution has gone wonky.
The aliens invaded. What happened is unclear; they might have an iron grip on the world, an iron grip on some areas while others are ruled by squabbling human resistance factions, might have been already overthrown by humanity (plunging what's left of the world into anarchy), or might have just gotten whatever they wanted from us and gone home.
And, of course, combining two or more of the above is always fun. Perhaps the aliens unleashed ice-nine as a barrier between their remaining enclaves and the mutant zombie biker hordes created by nanomachine experimentation by the human resistance.
One scenario that I've never seen done is that the aliens took over and created a nice stable society that everyone's content with. And then a few hundred years later the vault-dwellers wake up, the diehard resistance faction unleashes zombie plagues, and society collapses all over again - but it's our fault, not the aliens' fault.

UserClone
2009-03-25, 12:31 PM
Oooo...I really like that last one. It still has that new-car smell!

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-25, 01:33 PM
One scenario that I've never seen done is that the aliens took over and created a nice stable society that everyone's content with. And then a few hundred years later the vault-dwellers wake up, the diehard resistance faction unleashes zombie plagues, and society collapses all over again - but it's our fault, not the aliens' fault.

It's probably not done because it does not quite have the survival aspect of most post-apoc settings.

Your post brings up another point: what is the current state of the world? Do all shelters open at the same time, causing a sudden world-wide restart of (a semblance of) civilization? Do some open prematurely, leading to already established settlements? Did some people outside the shelters survive the apocalypse?

Obviously, some of the answers rely on the chosen apocalypse. I personally lean towards the ice-nine idea, since I've had a similar thought (a supercooled stable crystal which self-propagates through ambient moisture - and inexplicably forms what appear to be jungles of ice).

I'm not so keen on the biological and nuclear weapons part, though, considering the motto of PrimeTech Inc.. In that case, we'd need to decide the exact place of PrimeTech in the order of things. We can get rid of PrimeTech almost entirely, too, but that'd mean getting rid of the "theme" of the first post (prime numbers).

The alien scenario can be rewarding if done well, but it would mean we'd have to establish two sets of civilization: a human one and an alien one.

Also, how do we decide on something in the first place? We don't exactly have the luxury of opening polls, so it'd have to be something that can be done in this thread. Anyone with more experience, feel free to pitch in.

MageSparrowhawk
2009-03-25, 03:18 PM
here's an idea...nuclear apocalypse. Some of humanity hid away, bunkers and such. the rest of humanity tried to eke out an existence on what little livable land there was left. Then the aliens came. They noticed the annihilation caused by the war, and decided to help. They basically landed, saved the people who were still alive (and on the surface) then left. A good portion of the world has remained a nuclear wasteland, but a portion...say Australia (or that size of an area) is practically paradise. Everyone who hid themselves away emerges to find just the devastation they were expecting, with all the mutant creatures and other nasty things. however, they also start finding tech that they weren't expecting...some of which will protect itself when the 'vault-dwellers' (I like that word) try to 'salvage' it.

Thus, crazy-scifi stuff as well as post-apocalypse goodness.
how's that sound?

Voidhawk
2009-03-25, 05:52 PM
One interesting idea I've toyed with a few times is the arival of a teraforming "package" from space containing semi-biological, semi-nanotechnological organisms, that try and change the planet into a form more suiting they're alien originators.

Humans battle the growing alien forest-machine continously, but eventually realise that any method that would destroy the invader would also completely wreck the planet for them as well. But time is running out, and they have no other method they can implent quick enough. So they retreat as many people underground as they can, and Nuke 'em from orbit (it's the only way to be sure!). They then wait out the ensuing nuclear winter, and return to a much changed surface with the intent of rebuilding all they've lost.

Then the alien colonists arrive. Now, they were expecting to find a nicely teraformed planet, ripe for settling; but instead they find a mix of half transformed areas, mutated wasteland, and very, very, very pissed off humans. The aliens technology is individually superior, but they weren't expecting a fight, are few in number, and the planet itself isn't exactly freindly towards them.

And... que fighting!

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-25, 05:58 PM
And... que fighting!

Did you just... sum up C&C's plot? :smallbiggrin:

Well, obviously not. But I've had a very similar idea until I realized EA can sue us over it.

Voidhawk
2009-03-25, 06:36 PM
I did think about halfway through typing that it sounded like the CnC games, though loads of things have dealt with the same sort of stuff.

My main influence was a short book by Ian McDonald called "Tendelo's Story", in which a nanological packgage lands in Africa and procedes to exponetially re-format the ecology into a bio/nano forest, and the attempts of the human world governments to fight it (mostly unsuccessful) and keep everyone out of it. It turns out that though the packages creatures/machines eat all plants and most animals, the nanos are capable of telling if life is sentient and does not destroy those who are, though it eats their clothes :smalltongue: The governments were fighting it because it provides everything that a person needs. All the forest's fruit is edible, the nanos it infects you with make you immortal and resistant to... everything, and it is capable of constructing anything and everything if instructed to in the right way (ie, via the nanos in your brain). It even grew giant databanks filled with the alien's knowledge of the universe in easily accessable form. It was a gift. What it did destroy however was the existance of the economy, the notion of rich, and any kind of power over others, which was why the govenments were fighting it: it changed everything too much. The story ends with three other packages landing in North america, Europe, and Australia.

Anyway, feel free to co-opt as much or as little as you like. I liked the idea myself of having the aliens be as much in trouble as the humans, maybe more so, attempting to build themselves up, but being continually ravaged by the humans and the planet. They go to pieces as much as the humans. The remenents of the nanos might have broken too, so they no longer recognise their origional creators, and attack everyone. I always thought of it being more of a "Two races on one hostile planet" kind of thing, neither really prepared for the job, but both with strengths.

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-25, 06:42 PM
OK, one question.

Cross-breeding: for or against?

SurlySeraph
2009-03-25, 08:04 PM
It's probably not done because it does not quite have the survival aspect of most post-apoc settings.

Oh, but it can!


Your post brings up another point: what is the current state of the world? Do all shelters open at the same time, causing a sudden world-wide restart of (a semblance of) civilization? Do some open prematurely, leading to already established settlements? Did some people outside the shelters survive the apocalypse?

Here's what I'm thinking.


The alien scenario can be rewarding if done well, but it would mean we'd have to establish two sets of civilization: a human one and an alien one.

Nope! We pull a Stargate, and have the aliens be humans, who via a wormhole or such ended up on a different planet hundreds of thousands of years ago and ended up advancing a lot faster than we on Earth did. Eventually, they find out about Earth's existence and come back to conquer us.
Despite Earth's resistance, the aliehumans eventually succeeded in destroying all of Earth's governments. Much of the world was devastated in the conflict, by . While diehard factions of native humans continued to launch occasional attacks from their bases in lands that weren't worth developing - Antarctica and regions that were made nearly uninhabitable during the war.
Midway through in the war, Primetech - a powerful corporation whose lobbyists and ex-board-members effectively controlled most of Earth's governments - built numerous well-hidden underground vaults, fearing that the outsiders would destroy all "true" humans, so that one day an uprising could be staged. In the 200-odd years between the sealing of the vaults and their opening, society got pretty peaceful.
While the aliehumans were always the ruling class and received higher privileges than any native could hope for, advanced technology like flying cars and incredible medical care kept the masses happy with their aliehuman overlords. Any aggression in society was directed into wars against the Resistance groups, which always launched periodic raids and terrorist attacks, but never accomplished much. Over time, the aliehumans' haughtiness relaxed. Interbreeding between alien and native humans became common, and a mixed-descent middle class arose.
Things seemed primed for a glorious future. And then the Resistance got its act together.
After about 170 years of living with primitive technology in hideous wastelands, the Resistance managed to steal or invent a new weapon of mass destruction, possibly ice-nine. While it didn't let the Resistance fight the aliehumans on their own terms, it let them drag the aliehumans down to [I]their terms. Once again, much of the world was devastated. The aliehuman government might have recovered from the catastrophe if the vaults hadn't started to open.
Since no one knew about the vaults except for those who were interred in them, several major cities and military bases were constructed over vaults. While the vaults were intended to all open simultaneously, some of their timing mechanisms malfunctioned, many of the residents became sufficiently confident and impatient that they forced the doors open. The result - thousands of highly motivated, healthy resisters armed with the very best pre-collapse weaponry suddenly appearing in major cities, factories, and other strategic locations - was a deathblow.
Today, a few enclaves of the original aliehuman government cling to power. Most of them are isolated, weak, and terrified of both the outside world and uprisings by their own native citizens.


Also, how do we decide on something in the first place? We don't exactly have the luxury of opening polls, so it'd have to be something that can be done in this thread. Anyone with more experience, feel free to pitch in.

Two methods: an informal poll ("Post for which idea you think is best") or decide that, as the topic creator, you think one idea is the best. I vote for the former. :smallwink:


OK, one question.

Cross-breeding: for or against?

For, with one caveats. Unless we use my suggestion of human aliens, it's best to have the hybrids be created, not just the product of spontaneous Forbidden Love. That is, the aliens designed the hybrids, which as part-human were better adapted to the planet than they were, to be their successors. Unfortunately, not all of the hybrids really liked the "continue to oppress one of my parent races forever" idea.

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-25, 08:12 PM
Two methods: an informal poll ("Post for which idea you think is best") or decide that, as the topic creator, you think one idea is the best. I vote for the former. :smallwink:

Yeah, as the topic creator, I decided it should be done by informal polls.

Wanna argue about it? :smallwink:

SurlySeraph
2009-03-25, 08:27 PM
Yeah, as the topic creator, I decided it should be done by informal polls.

Wanna argue about it? :smallwink:

I... I don't think so... :smalltongue:

Voidhawk
2009-03-25, 09:55 PM
For, with one caveats. Unless we use my suggestion of human aliens, it's best to have the hybrids be created, not just the product of spontaneous Forbidden Love. That is, the aliens designed the hybrids, which as part-human were better adapted to the planet than they were, to be their successors. Unfortunately, not all of the hybrids really liked the "continue to oppress one of my parent races forever" idea.

I agree. Any protein-based aliens we meet might be similar, but not that similar. Unless they're a literal version of us, as in the Stargate one. Even then it might be a streach, as there are many species on Earth that have diverged enough in ten millenia to cause interbreeding to be impossible, even without complete population separation due to cosmic-space-wiblies.


Wanna argue about it? :smallwink:

I...er..um...
...You know what? Yes! How's them apples!:smalltongue:

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-26, 07:39 AM
So, here's a list of the ideas we've got so far.


Nuclear showdown
Alien invasion
"Ice-nine" disaster
Terraforming
Biological warfare

UserClone
2009-03-26, 10:21 AM
Unless we use my suggestion of human aliens, it's best to have the hybrids be created, not just the product of spontaneous Forbidden Love. That is, the aliens designed the hybrids, which as part-human were better adapted to the planet than they were, to be their successors. Unfortunately, not all of the hybrids really liked the "continue to oppress one of my parent races forever" idea.

Hm. I dig this, very X-Files.

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-26, 03:06 PM
So, any other apocalypse ideas out there? The sooner we can choose an apocalypse (or three), the sooner we can move on to other things.

We just need three more to start a substantial polling.

MostlyHarmless
2009-03-26, 03:41 PM
For voting, I have used a third part polling site. We did that for ToB several times. I forget which one we used, but the options are probably all different now anyway. Just google. There's bound to be an option that gives free limited polling features. Although, in the beginning, we just started a thread for the vote and counted up the polls. If we have less than 10-20 people voting, that's not too hard.

How about this idea.

A meteor strikes the Earth, unleashing a catastrophe the likes of a nuclear fallout without the radiation. Most organisms die and the planet falls into a new ice age. But the planet eventually self-corrects and the ice retreats. However, the axis has been shifted and the old north pole is now at a lower latitude. This allows the ice caps to melt...revealing long frozen alien vessels that arrived on Earth many millenia ago. They thaw out and find a planet of adapting life. Bunker people don't come out yet. The aliens are the same aliens, just different vessels as some that arrived, oh at about the dawn of man and actually genetically engineered man's existence. This new group attempts to do the same but with different existing life forms: orangutans? gorillas? lemurs? raccoons?

Humans emerge to find the morphed creatures promulgating and learning from the aliens. Sort of pseudo Planet of the Apes.


Regardless of what happens, here's what I'd like to see in general:
1. at least one new race the humans have to 'deal' with. That adds some diversity for PCs.
2. A mix of tech and non-tech post-apoc weapons/tools/etc.
3. A transformed landscape, ruins of cities to explore.
4. Lost knowledge. People find technology but they have no point of reference and have to learn what things are. This is always fun for role-playing. "Hey, dude, you're wearing a toilet on your head"

kopout
2009-03-27, 10:06 PM
Idea

An engineered virus causes the death of almost every placental mammal. Some humans survive by hiding in vaults others by random immunity within 3 years there are less than 10000 people left alive on the earths surface, many of them closely related. centuries later isolation, mutation and inbreeding mean that there are now at lest 8 separate spices of "human" not including the vault dwellers and the descendants of scientists in antartica. Now the aliens arrive. Why they are hear is up to you, they are running from a war/they are colonists/they come from the future of earth/ they are from the future period/they are lost / they are the alien version of the batlestar galictica/ any combination of those. they are almost out of food and they couldn't make a hyperjump if they wanted to.They are hear to stay and they set up a city or two and admire the primitive natives (the post-humans) who view them as gods. Then the vault dwellers emerge and throw a wrench in the whole thing by saying to the aliens " you don't belong hear" and to the mutants "ahh monsters! kill 'em all"

as long as the alieans are truly starfish (that is like the trope the don't have to be sapeant echinoderms) I'll be happy.

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-28, 04:21 PM
New page (for most people, but not for me)!

List of ideas:


Nuclear showdown
Alien invasion
Terraforming
Ice-nine disaster
Biological warfare
Meteor strike
Global misalignment
Jungle world
Wrath of the gods
Other (please explain)


I added two to the list so we have a sizable list of ten.

Wrath of the gods is obvious, I assume.

Jungle world is where the world turns into a jungle all around, as even the seas become rich of kelp and other plants.

So, we need to choose the primary apocalypse now. Everyone gets one vote, except for the project leader (yet to be assigned) and me (not until the project leader is assigned), who get two. The second vote should probably be used only to break ties.

The vote format should be the following until we can find another alternative for voting.

VOTE - ((Insert vote name here))

So, an example vote would be:


VOTE - Ice-nine disaster

So, vote away.

SurlySeraph
2009-03-28, 11:28 PM
VOTE - alien invasion

MageSparrowhawk
2009-03-29, 01:59 AM
Wrath of the Gods? May I suggest something along those lines? I personally like a little touch of fantasy in most everything...and I've found that Sci-Fi can benefit from this too. >.> (If you don't like this idea, that's alright...I'm just throwing this out there)

A number of years in the future, someone without care finally obtained a nuclear weapon. The first-strike systems everyone already had prepared went off, but thankfully not much past that. It still left large sections of the earth unlivable, and more than half of the still-living people hid themselves away, hoping for a new world to appear out of the ruins. The destruction also had a secondary effect that no one was expecting. It woke something up.

The 'old gods' (not like the C'thulu ones, more like nature-spirits) woke up groggy, and very pissed off at humanity messing up the Earth as much as we had. Slowly, massive storms, volcanism, natural disasters, you name it; all began building up. At first it was suspected to just be coincidence, but the longer, and more violent it became, the less likely this seemed. And it didn't look like it would end anytime soon. Thus, the people who were left attempted to 'make amends'.

After a while, the 'old ones' had exhausted themselves and the destruction subsided. They hadn't been worshiped in a long time, and so spent what strength they had all at once. However, their actions had unlocked something left closed for eons. However...there was practically noone left to take advantage of the newly awakened magic. (I'm thinking something very low level...eg. caster shells ala Outlaw Star. Potentially strong, but not well understood or prevalent.) There were perhaps ten to one-hundred thousand people left on the surface, barely hanging on. Then they came.

A meteor struck Earth, and it was seen as an omen. No one was able to find out what happened, as it impacted an uninhabited and separated area of land. The first ones that were seen looked something like small, metallic creature (think Stargate replicator-y). They appeared to be just the scouts and explorers. Occasionally, a larger creature would appear, but their forms would never be the same. Thankfully, they never seemed to be violent, though when attacked, they were...quick and thorough. When eventually there was a group sent to investigate, they weren't heard from again.

Then everyone who decided to hide themselves away clambered out of their holes...and didn't like what they found.

How about that? Annoyed regular humans, finally released from being cooped up for an extended period of time. Psudo-magic using humans...in very small number. And an advanced collection of machines with a hivemind that have claimed Australia (or somewhere like that).

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-29, 05:39 AM
Personally, I prefer my sci-fi without magic (though a bit of psionics is OK, which is a question I was going to ask later). So Wrath of the Gods would be more like "the meek shall inherit the earth" and less like "the kami have found us unworthy".

Though your vote is still valid if you reformat it.

kopout
2009-03-29, 04:31 PM
other
this


An engineered virus causes the death of almost every placental mammal. Some humans survive by hiding in vaults others by random immunity within 3 years there are less than 10000 people left alive on the earths surface, many of them closely related. centuries later isolation, mutation and inbreeding mean that there are now at lest 8 separate spices of "human" not including the vault dwellers and the descendants of scientists in antartica. Now the aliens arrive. Why they are hear is up to you, they are running from a war/they are colonists/they come from the future of earth/ they are from the future period/they are lost / they are the alien version of the batlestar galictica/ any combination of those. they are almost out of food and they couldn't make a hyperjump if they wanted to.They are hear to stay and they set up a city or two and admire the primitive natives (the post-humans) who view them as gods. Then the vault dwellers emerge and throw a wrench in the whole thing by saying to the aliens " you don't belong hear" and to the mutants "ahh monsters! kill 'em all"

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-29, 04:43 PM
OK, we have a lack of definition for the primary apocalypse.

I intended it to be "the apocalyptic event that caused people to enter the vaults in the first place". It will be a single description, not a long paragraph. There can be more than one event that would be deemed apocalyptic, but we're choosing the original one right now.

Also, the format for voting is supposed to be clear.

VOTE - ((insert vote name here))

...I'm not a good thread leader. That's why we need to select the primary apocalypse fast so we can get a project leader.

kopout
2009-03-29, 05:21 PM
vote Biological warfare

MageSparrowhawk
2009-03-29, 06:18 PM
ooooh...so that's what what you meant...

well then...drop the magic-y-ness from my suggestion, and turn it into:
Nuclear War+alien invasion
:smallbiggrin:

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-30, 06:08 AM
Which one? We're picking only one at this moment.

UserClone
2009-03-30, 11:07 AM
vote-Ice-Nine Disaster

MostlyHarmless
2009-03-30, 02:59 PM
VOTE - Biological warfare

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-30, 05:59 PM
By the way, you've got two and a score hours to vote or change your votes.

Currently, we have two votes for each of Alien Invasion, Biological Warfare and Ice-Nine Disaster, so I'd have to cast in the final vote to break the tie if it stays like this.

So, I really want someone new to come in and vote (and maybe stick around a bit and help us with new ideas).

Juhn
2009-03-30, 06:59 PM
So, 22 hours then? Plenty of time.

Depending on what exactly is meant by "terraforming", that could be cool. Planetary Misalignment also works: clean, simple, and effective.

Vadin
2009-03-30, 07:17 PM
Hark, a vote! Biological warfare

Yes, I've been watching. I might swoop in now and again to comment here or there. I'm interested to see what you guys come up with.

Diagoras
2009-03-30, 08:24 PM
Vote for Nuclear Armageddon

However, I've yet to see a nuclear Armageddon scenario that holds to realism. Ya'know, low initial death rate coupled with high death rate later from fallout/starvation/thirst, the possibility of existing state entities surviving the exchange scenario. That would be fun.

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-31, 06:02 AM
So, 22 hours then? Plenty of time.

Depending on what exactly is meant by "terraforming", that could be cool. Planetary Misalignment also works: clean, simple, and effective.

It's like Alien Invasion, only the aliens are not there (yet) and the planet is changing to suit their needs.

Juhn
2009-03-31, 07:55 AM
Well, if it's not a misguided human effort then I may as well VOTE for Global Misalignment.

Maroon
2009-03-31, 12:01 PM
I'm voting jungle world, but I suggest having it come about as a result of the nuclear showdown scenario: 'after the end', life aboveground (including a number of surviving human communities) has adapted to the new radioactive environment in a period of rapid evolution brought about by the nuclear disaster. Basically, life on earth has flourished, but the world has become almost entirely unlivable for the vault dwellers. These 'pure' humans can only go out in biohazard suits, live on recycled water, and can only eat food from the outside world after it has been composted and filtered by specially engineered algae. The humans that have survived aboveground have adapted to the hostile environment, by developing a thick radiation-blocking hide or becoming nomadic to avoid the fallout storms. You could call it nuclear jungle world if you want to give it its own category.

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-31, 02:19 PM
Five score minutes, everyone.

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-31, 04:03 PM
Aaaand the winner is...

Biological Warfare!

Congrats, bio-war fans.

EDIT: And if he is OK with it, I'd like to appoint SurlySeraph the project leader of the month.

SurlySeraph
2009-03-31, 10:59 PM
Sure, I expect to be around all this month.
What precisely does being project leader entail?

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-01, 04:51 AM
Well, you get to determine what we are going to vote for and you approve entries for the month. You also get to break ties using a second vote.

Note that prime numbers are important. If it ain't a prime number, you should probably try picking another number.

I retain my role has the lead designer and my right of veto.

So, now we need to determine the specifics of the biological warfare.

UserClone
2009-04-01, 09:34 AM
How about Nazi scientists that had been spared punishment for their WW2 crimes against humanity by working for the US gov't secretly created a virus that would attack and kill anyone who wasn't their ideal of genetically "pure." However, once the virus got out, it adapted more quickly than could have been predicted and it began to kill everyone and everything, the Nazi scientists included. Over 90% of Earth's species were lost. Now that no one knew how to combat the virus, the only way to survive was to mutate. Now there are all sorts of strange creatures living all over the globe, and most of it is uninhabited. The human race is down to about 100 million people, and maybe 75% of those are concentrated in one of three cities: New York, Beijing, and Sydney. The single exception to the mutations, oddly enough, were cancer survivors, and their children also bred true. No one knows if this was from the cancer itself or from one of the myriad treatments that cancer patients go through. The descendants of the cancer survivors are the only ones who look like perfect humans, the rest usually have some sort of obvious physical defect, a remnant of their progenitors' forced mutations.

Sound good so far?

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-01, 09:39 AM
89% and 73% are better numbers, since they are prime.

How do the cryptics figure into this?

UserClone
2009-04-01, 09:54 AM
Sure, if it matters, those can be the numbers, but since 91% is over 90%, I'd rather it were that. And the cryptics only predicted apocalypse, right? Not how it would go down. This happened way back in 2051, right when they predicted.


...are the cryptics the whomever it is that's obsessed with the prime numbers?


OOOoooo...What if these "cryptics" had been secretly giving specific people cancer on purpose in order to save them from the oncoming plague, but a few were caught and killed, and the rest were subsequently forced underground? Then when the rest of the world caught on to the cancer connection, they tried to seek these "cryptics" out, but to no avail. No one knows what happened to them, but the cryptics secretly hid in fallout shelters and vaults. Now, their vaults have been opening recently, and the virus has long since mutated into a form harmless to ordinary humans, so they are a threat to the cancer survivors' "status quo" of being the genetically perfect upper class. This starts an underground guerilla war between the Cryptics and the ones whose ancestors they sought to spare from the apocalypse.

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-01, 10:28 AM
Cryptics: those who live in crypts, i.e. WMD shelters.

91 is not a prime. It is divisible by 7 and 13.

UserClone
2009-04-01, 11:04 AM
Whoops, my bad on the maths.

Either way, it's not canon until it's voted upon anyway, right? So why don't we get a few other options posted first, then we can take a vote and IF mine wins that vote, we can have a vote about the cryptic aspect.

IcarusWings
2009-04-01, 02:42 PM
awww shucks, I missed the vote. I would of voted ice-nine disaster which would of evened the scores.

Shucks...

Anyway, how about humanity evolved rapidly to defend itself, and this gave rise to psionics?
Or should we have it more like Heroes, and every PC rolls on a table to see what genetic superpowers they have, such as pyrokinesis, empathy, technopathy or sonic manipulation.
Ooh!, maybe an uber psionicist unleashed ice-nine on the world, linking the two backgrounds, or maybe the virus is actually a form of alien bacteria which evolves far more rapidly than Earth-life forms and turns from bacteria to advanced civilisation in a matter of months?

Also whats the technology level going to be? are we gonna opt uber lazors like in star wars or are we gonna go with the more gritty fallout level(e.g. advanced in some areas but still normal in others).

Merlin

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-01, 02:44 PM
awww shucks, I missed the vote. I would of voted ice-nine disaster which would of evened the scores.

If you were quicker, my second vote would be on Ice-Nine as well.

Well, too late now.

I think we should determine character generation when we come to the specifics.

So, project leader, what are we going to determine next?

SurlySeraph
2009-04-01, 10:29 PM
Next we are going to determine:
a) What form the biological warfare that nearly wiped out humanity was: a prion, a virus, a bacterium, a fungus, or the interaction of 2 or more of the above.
b)Whether the bioweapon affects animals.
c) The main effects of the bioweapon: immediate death, zombification/homicidal insanity, grotesque physical mutation, two or more of the above, or write-in another effect.
d) Whether any form of the bioweapon is still in the environment.

MageSparrowhawk
2009-04-02, 01:04 AM
I'm going to go with a virus, that Kills (only Humans) fairly quickly. However, in a small fraction of cases (~2%), they survive and (after a few days of fairly serious physical pain) become healthy again. These people are known as 'survivors' and gain varied aberrant abilities because of the genetic rewriting the virus caused while they were sick. The disease has more or less disappeared, except for these people, where it still exists inside of them. It is not infectious, however.

UserClone
2009-04-02, 02:20 AM
I think I've pretty much got my opinion covered by my previous post(s), as far as the current vote is concerned.

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-03, 05:49 AM
I wouldn't go with a prion alone, because prions have no capability of spreading themselves save through direct contact. Thus, it would be the least likely to be used in biological warfare.

UserClone
2009-04-03, 09:04 AM
This is Sci-Fi, remember. Any silly pittance like a disease vector can easily be circumvented if you throw a big enough wad of technology at it.:smallwink:

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-03, 09:43 AM
Obviously. But there are certain aspects of each vector that makes it more or less suitable for a given effect.

If we wanted to go silly, we could use nanomachines (well, not nanomachines, exactly, but simply very small machines) that contained plasmids which could be cut with restriction enzymes and target-inserted into the exact location it would be most effective, due to the promoters in the region.

Indeed, targeting the area with the promoter for ribosomal proteins would be a brilliant idea.

Umm... why not do it this way? :smalltongue:

UserClone
2009-04-03, 09:52 AM
Because your average player (such as, indeed, myself) is not going to have a ****ing clue what you just said.

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-03, 09:54 AM
...oh. Right.

The average gamer should take molecular biology courses in the college, then. :smalltongue:

UserClone
2009-04-03, 10:21 AM
Uh, sure thing. You go ahead and pay for everything involved, and I'll make the time to attend.

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-03, 10:50 AM
Pay?

Colleges want money now? :smallconfused:

What is the world coming to?

[/threadderail]

kopout
2009-04-05, 05:39 PM
Obviously. But there are certain aspects of each vector that makes it more or less suitable for a given effect.

If we wanted to go silly, we could use nanomachines (well, not nanomachines, exactly, but simply very small machines) that contained plasmids which could be cut with restriction enzymes and target-inserted into the exact location it would be most effective, due to the promoters in the region.

Indeed, targeting the area with the promoter for ribosomal proteins would be a brilliant idea.

Umm... why not do it this way? :smalltongue:

logistics. You would need billions for each human being killed.

Edit:As FlWiPig pointed out no one would get it

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-07, 11:25 AM
Alright then, just scratch it.

I wonder where our glorious project leader has been.

SurlySeraph
2009-04-07, 11:11 PM
He's been wondering whether we were going to get more votes.
Looks like not.
So we've got a virus that only affects humans, killing most quickly but mutating some, that is no longer particularly contagious but is still in the mutant survivors.

Next vote, which I'll resolve within 2 days this time:
a) How many people were in the vaults? Tens of thousands, several thousand, or several hundred?
b) How did Primetech determine who got to go in the vaults? Was it whoever paid the most, whoever scored the highest on their merit tests, or all their employees?
c) How organized is Primetech today? Is there still a CEO somewhere transmitting orders to the vaults; limited communication between the vaults, all of which fend of themselves; or are the vaults all completely cut off from each other?

MageSparrowhawk
2009-04-08, 08:08 AM
I think I'll hold off on voting again so soon, but I will bump this to see if anyone else is going to vote...

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-11, 04:01 AM
OK, I already had some answers for the new voting issues, so I'll throw them out, just in case.

a) 211 per crypt.

b) Different needs for different crypts. Crypt 1 was filled entirely with select PrimeTech Inc. employees. Crypt 2 was filled with the top brass of the government and the military. Crypt 7 was filled with 209 children (below age 13) and 2 adults. Crypt 13 was filled with representatives of 211 different belief systems. Crypt 23 was filled with people selected at, literally, the flip of a coin. Crypt 101 was filled with 209 men and 2 women. Crypt 103 was filled with 209 women and 2 men. So on and so forth.

c) This was a question I left specifically for others to come up with answers for. I was more concerned with the preservation of government rather than PrimeTech Inc..

TSED
2009-04-11, 05:20 AM
a) What form the biological warfare that nearly wiped out humanity was: a prion, a virus, a bacterium, a fungus, or the interaction of 2 or more of the above.
b)Whether the bioweapon affects animals.
c) The main effects of the bioweapon: immediate death, zombification/homicidal insanity, grotesque physical mutation, two or more of the above, or write-in another effect.
d) Whether any form of the bioweapon is still in the environment.


I'm going to vote for a fungus that kills slowly and effects animals.

It gestates for a couple weeks / months before it shows any symptoms. After the gestation period is done, intense wracking pains occur. The slow death involve terrible growths that burst into spores. It's not actually fatal itself, but instead is fatal because it uses muscles and skin to build the sporing mechanisms. This kills because of terrible lesions, heart-death, etc. etc. Wealthy people have survived it thanks to advanced medicinal techniques (that they could afford).

It's airborne, enters the lungs and then lives within fat cells. Once it's done its gestation period it creeps up. The first few spore-batteries (I forget what they're called :( ) are inconspicuous and unlikely to be noticed; it's only when the full effect starts kicking in.

What would these structures look like? Big black mushrooms growing directly from the skin?

Oh! Good idea, maybe. If they are mushroom structures, they use calcium that they wrest from the bones. Thus you can tell when something died in the area because of the brittle skeletal structure hanging around and the very-hard 'mushroom skeletons.' (That needs a good slang / scientific term.)


What makes it warfare? The USA was developing it in one of their secret labs. It was scrapped because they simply couldn't speed up the gestation time, but fungus spores have this amazing ability to get to places they shouldn't. Contamination, people being moved about, etc. etc. Several months later, people all over the world are breaking out in the lesions. You're infectious before you're noticed, and then once infectious you're fine for months.

Hard hitting.

It effects other mammals too, but has hard times with reptiles, birds, etc. (the lungs, skin, muscle issue) and are completely incapable of affecting invertebrates.

Now, this is a long time period later. Most of the people still around have inherited immune systems that can fight off the shroom plague (shrum plague, shrum death?, slang terms needed) thanks to the wealthy survivors and natural mutations.

Still, humanity was hit HARD. Areas with the fungus still exist and are threatening, and this is why several places are entirely abandoned. Major cities, etc. Doubt any one even lives in eastern asia, the east coast of North Ameria, almost all of the majority of Europe, or the stretch of California to Mexico City any more. Ironically, the biggest population centers will be the occasional medium cities of today.



This was a huge mass extinction, because mammals filled tons of niches. Adaptive radiation is kicking in and all sorts of nifty invertebrates are popping up. But unless we come up with a reason (o-zone holes?) please no 'rapid mutations giving us uberhumans and sapient landsquids.' Biology does not work that way!

That being said... Thanks to the adaptive radiation, maybe we COULD have a few new sapients. For aquatic areas, probably a cephalopod, as they're basically the smartest things without spines. Giant cuttlefish off the Great Barrier Reefs? Something large enough to get a big enough brain in the first place. I'm kind of digging the idea of sentient parrots or ravens coming out of the woodworks too. Very primitive still, but smart enough to learn and actually have conversations with humans (in the areas they're in).

So anyways, mankind has eeked out a living, hundreds of areas are being decimated ecologically (for example, African savannas need all those large ungulates and elephants and then the big predators (lions) to keep them in check, the plants don't know how to deal without large grazers and elephants making water pools and keeping the trees from making a new jungle, etc.).

So assuming the time frame is right, we can see all sorts of awesome new species, but nothing too drastic.

We have got all sorts of abandoned tech, and there are completely unknown areas. Cultures will have sprouted from some way or another from survivors (be it from paranoia or mutations being widespread) claiming religious superiority, xenophobia, genetic superiority, etc. etc. etc.

Despite communication systems being in place, the world IS shattered and splintered.

I've kind of lost track of where I was going with this. But I like the idea.

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-12, 03:19 PM
One small problem I see with that.

Fungi are very capable of surviving. Not as versatile as extremophiles, but if there is an organic carbon source, they will feed on it.

So, it will mean that there will still be fungi out there, ready to feed on the sheltered cryptics, who have lived without most microorganisms in the environment (especially since this is biological warfare and the crypts would be thoroughly sterilized) and thus likely have weakened immune systems.

TSED
2009-04-12, 03:41 PM
One small problem I see with that.

Fungi are very capable of surviving. Not as versatile as extremophiles, but if there is an organic carbon source, they will feed on it.

So, it will mean that there will still be fungi out there, ready to feed on the sheltered cryptics, who have lived without most microorganisms in the environment (especially since this is biological warfare and the crypts would be thoroughly sterilized) and thus likely have weakened immune systems.

Hmmm...


Vaccines?

Orally taken / inhaled fungicides as a resource for cryptics to have to buy? (They get all sorts of better tech at the cost of needing it).

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-12, 03:45 PM
If we could mass-produce antibodies or vaccines, we probably wouldn't have an apocalypse in our hands. It would be better if there was either a reason the fungi died, or if we used a different organism.

MageSparrowhawk
2009-04-12, 04:32 PM
...like the one I thought was already decided on?

Nothing personally against your idea, I do kinda like it, but as far as I understood it, we had already moved past that stage...

and in response to SurlySeraph's questions, I'm going to go with tens of thousands in the crypts, each crypt holding several hundred people.
Most of the crypts were separated from each other by design or wear to the communication systems, though there are still a number of small pockets that stayed connected. I'm not sure how there were chosen, though a least a number of them were just plain random...a lotto if you will.

TSED
2009-04-12, 09:04 PM
I thought they were still voting as there was only one option and one vote for it?

Meh. Oh well.


1) Who says it's mass produced? If a vault dweller decides to leave for the surface he gets the small supply.

2) Maybe it was developed far too late to save the majority of the world.

3) Fungi's dead because all the mammals it could infect have gone. Extinction by being too efficient.



Now, I wonder how it would deal with, say, whales...

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-14, 06:24 AM
OK, one way to settle this.

Surly, did we decide on the virus or not?

SurlySeraph
2009-04-14, 05:38 PM
We decided on the virus.

Also, there are a couple hundred people per crypt (tens of thousands of people in total), the population makeup in each crypt is unique and different from every other crypt, and a small minority of crypts still have communication but the majority do not.

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-14, 05:55 PM
Yay for decisiveness!

OK, maybe now we can start posting about specific crypts. I'm gonna take Crypt 13, if you don't mind.

SurlySeraph
2009-04-15, 07:57 PM
'Kay. At this phase, each poster will describe a particular crypt. Said crypt becomes canon unless it's too ridiculous. Say as much or as little as you want about it.

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-19, 07:22 AM
WMD Shelter #13

Location: Seattle, WA, USA

"For thou art our Highfather,
And thou art the Lord of Wednesday
And thou dost sat on the Throne of Olympus
And hallowed be thy name"

These are the words Crypt 13 lives and dies by.

WMD Shelter #13 was intended as a social experiment, to determine the compatibility of different faiths. The original inhabitants of the Crypt were 211 representatives of 211 faiths and perfectly average followers of their chosen faith: they were not zealous, but they did more than pay lip service to their beliefs; they were neither genetically nor academically superior and those chosen to fill crucial positions (such as physician, technician, etc.) were only above average and capable of passing on their knowledge but not of new breakthroughs.

The initial years of the experiment were quite successful. While there were moments of increased tension due to ideological differences, the crypt was quite peaceful, as the common moral of the people inside were not to harm a fellow man.

It only took fifteen years for the first problems to arise. By that time, the second generation was born and of age to decide their own faith. However, there were no clergy or any equivalent to teach the specifics of a faith and both parents of a next-gen child were of different faiths themselves. What is more, there was great interaction in the isolated environment of the crypt and the second generation rarely had coinciding beliefs (except for the aforementioned "do no harm" clause). Their faiths were often a mish-mash of formerly established religions and showed signs of straying from the ideal of harmony in difference.

The third generation blended even more faiths as the second generation married and bore children. The fourth had two major schools of belief that seemed to be eerily similar, but still opposing each other.

By the fifth generation, there was only the Faith.

The merging of so many faiths created an abomination that could not be recognized before the war. It still wanted brotherhood, unity, and harmony, however, and the crypt was now united under one faith and two people: the Patriarch and the Matriarch.

Two more generations passed, and soon after the eight generation was born, the crypt was reopened. The initial scout team soon encountered a group of survivors who still held to the beliefs and scripture of old.

The result was a bloody skirmish and an easy victory for the cryptics.

The Faith did want brotherhood, unity and harmony, but it no longer believed in peace, acceptance and tolerance. Seven generations of blending, indoctrination and isolation caused a society of zealots to arise, who thought in binary: you're either with them or against them. There are no buts, no gray area.

There is only the Faith.

((It is unknown what PrimeTech Inc. would think of the results, if they indeed remember the original purpose of the Crypt 13 - or if they are indeed still intact.))

IcarusWings
2009-04-19, 04:15 PM
I'll take 7 and 3.

Crypt #7

not much to say, it housed the governmental leaders, but it leaked so now they're all dead. this left the world in political turmoil(I like the idea of having some crypts leak, causing huge wholes in our society and class system, and the whole system having to be revised).

Crypt #3

This is where Primatech's enemies went. all under the pretense of trying to save them. But Crypt #3 was specially programmed never to open. That's until a group of circle members uncovered it and blasted down the doors.

The Circle

A resistance group that was formed of the surviving army, navy, police, swat and secret services. They fulfill a similar role to the Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout 3, the staunch lonely guardians who strive to uphold and restore the ideals of the old pre-apocalyptic world.

Merlin