SliderTrek

[First of Two]

I've been working on a new multi-episode arc to torment my players with.

I want to create an 'accident' which catapults the ship and crew into various 'alternative' universes (Mirror Alliance, Mirror Terran Empire, Khan's Empire, Vulcan/Romulan Empires, Yesterday's Enterprise, Erdenreich, etc.), as seen in "All Our Yesterdays."

Now, I know quite a bit of work has been done by Sjohn and a couple others for the defunct (I think) Mirror Universe Sourcebook, and I've gathered all the information I could find on IT.

What I'm wondering is if anybody here went into further detail on any of the OTHER alterniverses, beyond the descriptions that were given in the time travel sourcebook.

[Dan Stack]

http://www.geocities.com/breschau_of...lls/Intro.html

My H.G. Wells mini-campaign. Included visits to a Borgiverse, an alternate 24th century (Confederacy prevailed in US Civil War), and a visit to the late Cretaceous.

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[Aedh Rua]

Hmm....

I developed an Edith Keeler derived "Nazitrek" universe a number of years ago using the FASA system. I have a Master's in German history, so it had a certain morbid interest to me to develop a world where that history had turned out as badly as possible.

It was set in the TOS period. The essence of it was that the Nazis had conquered an empire roughly the size of the TOS Federation, and were locked in a cold/hot war with a Romulan-Klingon Alliance, which was literally fighting for survival.

Extrapolating from this, the fates of various TOS races might be as follows:

Humans: Geneered into "Master Race" similar to Khan & company.
Centaurians: Occupied and exploited, rather like "Space French".
Vulcans: Identified with Jews and exterminated.
Andorians: Honorary Aryans, but not permitted geneering.
Tellarites: Enslaved, rather like Slavic peoples.
Axenari: Enslaved.
Tiburonians: Enslaved.
Deltans: Exterminated as sexual deviants.
Ardanites: Inhabitants of Stratos exterminated, Troglytes enslaved.
Argelians: Exterminated as per Deltans.
Rigellians: Exterminated as Vulcanoids.
Orions: Enslaved, except where outside Nazi jurisdiction. One of very few races to actively seek Klingons rule.

Other than the advanced biotech, which mostly results from being able to experiment on large numbers of live victims, Nazi technology is roughly equal to the Klingons, which is to say, slightly behind the TOS Federation. The lower tech is mostly due to the elimination of the contributions of Federation member races, and the diversion of resources to genocide. The artificially high intelligence of the geneered "Master Race" helps the Nazis quite a bit, but cannot make up for all of the deficiancies of their system.

All-in-all, it is a world which makes the Mirror Universe look like paradise. Your sliding players would probably have a very hard time just surviving. Still, it might be useful as a sort of worst-case-scenario world for your people to visit.

Alternate histories are another hobby of mine, so you may get some other, less grim, possibilities from me.

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Slan agat!

[Aedh Rua]

Another note on Nazitrek. To get the feel and style of a Nazi dominated world will be harder than you think. It's not just a matter of uniforms and armbands. In this respect the episode "Patterns of Force" did not entirely succeed.

To get the flavor of real Nazi Germany, watch the movie "Europa, Europa". It captures the mixture of respectability and lunacy quite well. So, oddly enough, does the novel "Fatherland", though the movie does not.

Nazitrek just can't be Star Trek. It's more like an ultra-clean "Leave It To Beaver" surface, with David Lynch underneath.

In the 23rd century, imagine clean, even luxurious starships crewed by people who think that Vulcans and Romulans REALLY ARE Jews, and that Jews are somehow trying to pollute and destroy their Aryan genes.

If you get it right, the results should be extremely creepy, more like horror gaming than alternate history.

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Slan agat!

[SIR SIG]

Sliders! Noooooooooooooooooooo............!!!

Seriously though would the PC's handle that much jumping around?

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SIR SIG a Aussie TREK Narrator

[Lee T]

Originally posted by Aedh Rua:
To get the flavor of real Nazi Germany, watch the movie "Europa, Europa". It captures the mixture of respectability and lunacy quite well. So, oddly enough, does the novel "Fatherland", though the movie does not.

I would dare to say that the novel "Fatherland" is a must read if you want to do a nazi-federation. It shows very well how would behave a world dominating nazi government. When I read it some of the scenes were so creepy I thought that David Fincher aka "the guy who directed Seven" could do something nicely horrible with it (I didn't know there were already a movie).

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Hoping You'll understand all of this

[Lolth-org]

Another good book to tap into for a another look at an alternate future(one that's dominated equally by the axis powers) is Philip K. Dicks "The Man in the High Castle". An interesting read.

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The pain, the pain. I think a neuron
just short circuited. *thud*

[Sarge]

If you're going to run any adventures on Earth, there are a couple of good GURPS books that might give you some ideas. They're called Alternate Earths and Alternate Earths 2.

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<<<<

LUGTrek isn't really dead. Not as long as we remember it.

[Christian]

And if you can find the defunct RPG Reichstar, it will have a ton of good stuff in it for this type of campaign.

Question - is the Q continuum constant per quantum state, or are there multiple continuums out there? Gah, that's a horrible thought.

[Christian]

Of course, I can think of some worse realities than Nazitrek.

How about... Cthulhutrek. The Great Old Ones are from the depths of space.... I'd love watching Troi's player having to make a SAN role.... bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Sorry, I'm better now. And I know that's WAY off topic, so I'll stop. ;-)

[Cmdr Corellis]

You could always try a Napoleanic Earth, or possibly Roman Empire type.


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What we do in life echoes in eternity!!!!!!

[First of Two]

Thanks for the ideas for sources for NaziTrek. I'd heard of Fatherland but now I may have to check it out.

A Roman Empire Earth might be a good one, if we supposed what it might be like if the inhabitants of 892-IV ran a Starfleet.

But really, I was looking for more far-reaching scenarios. My players may have to spend a fair amount of time in each of the alterniverses, before jumping to another, so I was hoping to work up what the political and military situation might be in each one.

I've already started on a universe in which the Klingons never developed spaceflight (No Kahless to unify the culture, which remained embroiled in self-destructive war), so that in the present day the Federation only has a few smaller allies against a Dominion/Romulan Axis.

And BalkanTrek, in which the various worlds of the Federation were never unified, leading to a large number of small 'empires,' which are currently in danger of being gobbled up by their more powerful neighbors.

[Aedh Rua]

How about the Vulcan Empire?

The essence here is that Surak is killed with his family during the tyrant Sudoc's attack on Shihr-Kahr.

As a result, Sudoc unifies Vulcan, setting himself up as Emperor/Incarnate of Ket-Cheleb. He only lives a few years after this, and is succeeded by Sanshiin, who in this world remains a powerful and cruel mindlord.

Sanshiin establishes the Kolinahru as a sort of secret police cum cultural elite, the preservers of Vulcan culture. He is in turn succeeded by Tellus, who sets Vulcan on a path of interstellar conquest.

The Vulcans develop warp drive a couple of centuries later, circa 700 or 800 AD. From here, the Vulcans just conquer everything in sight, coming on the scene, as they do, at a time when virtually no unified competition exists.

As of 2370, the Vulcan Empire rules virtually all of the explored parts of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Their technology is very advanced, on a par with the Borg, and ahead of the Dominion. The government includes a theocratic emperor, the Incarnate of Ket-Cheleb, who controls both the army and the civil service. In addition it also includes an Assembly representing the leading noble houses of Vulcan. The Kolinahru have brought virtually every other order of mindlords under their sway, and combine secret police functions with a monastic role, and the provision of elite psionic troops.

All non-Vulcan races under Vulcan rule have been enslaved. Their role is in fact very similar to that of Klingon HaDIBach, in that they are able to live with relatively little oppression if they kowtow to their overlords. As in the TNG/DS9 Klingon Empire, which doesn't exist in this world, of course, the Klingons having been conquered centuries ago, the position of the conquered depends a lot on who the local nobles happen to be.

The political situation in the glaxy is that the Vulcan Empire is locked in a cold war with an alliance of the Dominion and the Krenim. The Borg are unable to really ally with either side in this conflict, and so are significantly weaker than in standard Trek. In any case, the Borg do not have a really decisive technological advantage over anyone, which means thay have to rely on sheer numbers to beat an opponent, not an enviable situation.

The Vulcans, conversely, are equal in sheer ruthlessness of the Borg, in scientific genius with the Krenim, and in subtlety/insidiousness with the Founders. Their position is a very good one.

The PCs would probably find themselves embroiled in Vulcan internal politics. The Incarnate, several noble factions, and the Kolinahru would all have uses for the knowledge of the existance of other worlds, and the PCs would be a valuable pawn for any or all of them.

The results could get really interesting. The style of such a campaign would be Star Trek, at least by comparison with Nazitrek, though the spirit which did most of the triumphing would be the Vulcan spirit. It would, however, be Star Trek as written by Gene Wolfe -- barbaric, intricate, and a little decadent, with vast doses of sex and violence.

To really do this world, you would need the LUG sourcebook, "The Way of Kolinahr". It would give you enough cultural details to make the whole thing believable.

Y'know, when I think about it, one could set a whole campaign in this world, with or without the sliders. It just might be the type of Star Trek which could finally interest my D&D obsessed players....

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Slan agat!

[Aedh Rua]

Actually, there could be all sorts of dissidents in the Vulcan Empire, some of them including remnants of the followers of T'plana-Hath, maybe the followers of Jarok, or Nirak, and other "good guys".

In addition, there would likely be much more unpleasant dissidents, as well. Cults might well exist devoted to the Pah-Wraiths, and other less pleasant beings. There would probably be a half dozen noble houses, at least, who would want to overthrow the Incarnate and take his/her place. Add to this assorted relatives of the Incarnate with more "legitimate" claims to the throne, plus a variety of terrorists/freedom fighters from conquered races, and you have enough material for many, many adventures.

The well known volcanic passions of pre-Reformation Vulcans could also be used to generate plots. The number of doomed love affairs, cases of bloody vengeance, feuds out of the Icelandic sagas, and duels over this or that would no doubt be legion.

If a ship from our universe crewed by standard Vulcans made the trek (sorry, grin)then things could get even more interesting. Imagine the stoic Vulcan science officer suddenly in a doomed love affair with a bloodthirsty noble princess, unable to control himself due to the Vulcan collective unconscious. Drama, indeed.

I imagine one could actually recycle a number of plots from Shakespeare. Romeo & Juliet, a version of Hamlet, a variant of Othello, and the "Scottish tragedy" would all be possible. Lear, too, probably, as well as Richard III, and Titus Andronicus, though I have been fond of the last named.

Fun, fun, fun.....

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Slan agat!

[Aedh Rua]

Make that, I have NEVER been fond of the last named.

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Slan agat!