OK...we're coming up on a couple of episodes for our campaign where the crew's vessel is going to encounter Ferengi (led by Vash of all people) raiding an Iconian transit node. Along the way, the Ferengi will accidently cause a major boo-boo in the power system that will force the characters to evac to their ship using the Iconian transporter. Problem: the blast goes off while they are in transit, shoving their vessel (pick your own pseudo-science explanation) into an alternate universe.
This universe: the Germans won WWI. The Eugenics War saw the Germans and Singh's people work together. The world is now under the Third Reich (no, not that one...) which was formed by the marriage of Khan Noonian Singh to the daughter of the kaiser. Now the kaiserreich stretches across the same approximate area as the UFP. They have formed a commonwealth (Gemeinschaft Kaiserliche dei Planeten) with the Andorians (who they fought and eventually brought into the reich), the Klingons (who they fought, beat, and usurped), and a few other races.
The Vulcans are a main thorn in the side and are loosely allied with the Cardassian-Romulan Alliance (which includes such 'lowly' races as the Betazoids, Vulcans, and other 'undesireable' races.)
The crew will attact the attention of raumsflotte (Starfleet or close enough). Their ships are similar to the normal UFP ones, but they kinda stalled around the mid-2300s. Cheyennes, Constellations, Excelsiors, etc... They don't use warp drive, prefering the space folding drive of the Taurhai; they don't have replicators and transporters (why? it's different!).
There's is a heirarchical structure: there is still an aristocracy on Earth that is tied tightly to the military; the commonwealth is also hierarchical, with Earth at the top, Terran colonies next, Andorian colonies and other allies, Klingon colonies and other subject races, and the other guys. (Boo! Hiss! Roll the Wagner!)
Still working on how to get them home eventually (I'm saving Q for the pull their chubbies out of the fire move.)
Melbourne, Australia. Winner of the First Trek Survivor Trivia Show, and Bearer of the Steve Long Pink Elephant Stamp of Learning. :)
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Sounds pretty good, so far.
But why would ship development stall? If the Bad Guys are as expansionist as I think they are (the impression I gained from your description), then ship development would be accelerated from Starfleet's timetable, not stalled.
What sort of ship do the PCs have? If it's older (Excelsior, Constellation, etc...) then they won't have any major problems until one of the Bad Guys boards their ship (and sees the additional systems). If it's newer, then the Bad Guys will hound them to the end of the Universe to get their hands on this new technology.
Just a couple of thoughts...
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How do I set a Laser Printer to stun?
Here's a thought. One of the main reasons the Nazis never had nuclear weapons was that they refuse to use "Jewish Physics"
What not say that some of the lesser races (Vulcan, Tellerite, etc) were responsible for some of the major breakthroughs in the Federation tech development and that is why this reich is not as advanced.
Just a thought
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Aslan Collas
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Star Trek:Strange New Worlds;
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Ferengi Rule Of Acquisition #76: Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.
Actually, Aslan, that sounds pretty credible. i would assume a lot of the advances came from the star faring races ahead of the humans.
Good call, dude.
As for the Jewish thing. i figure since the Germans won WWI in this universe, Hitler was just another semi-recognized austrian painter. No holocaust. (Well, save for everybody Khan didn't like...)
Sounds good! My only quibble is: if ship tech "stalled" around the early 2300's, why do the ships use subspace folding tech, which as stated in the Taurhai description is more advanced than Feddie/Romulan tech of the late 24th Century?
OK, to help out with this: The technique as described sounds like the Elway Theorem dimensional fold tech used in TNG "The High Ground". Data did say the Federation had experimented with the idea, but it proved too dangerous. Maybe the alternate Starfleet consider it worth the risk, or they conquered a species with tech that could remove the side effects. If you're using Spacedock ship rules, I've been knocking together stats for a Taurhai Star Dragon, and represented the subspace funnel drive with the coaxial warp drive (which states the ship still needs nacelles, explaining why the alternative SF ships still have them!). The descriptions of the way the two drives work are almost identical.
Hope this sparks some ideas!
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"The more top brass briefings I attend, the more I want to take a phaser to the whole lot of them..."
The Kaiserreich ship design might stall due to sheer lack of stimulation. That is, if aliens know that they will be colonian subjects forever, why try to develop anything that their masters will use.
A system which rewards people based on performance will always out-perform one which rewards people based on birth, whether that birth is the result of class, ethnicity, or species. Note that democracy is less imprtant to military-economic performance than fairness and the reward of excellence, at least IMHO.
The only exception to this is if you have genetically modified life forms. They might be able to better even than a meritocracy.
Also in this scenario there's been no huge war lately: the Borg and Dominion are still in their respective chunks of the galaxy. The Cardie-Romulan Alliance is busy with other matters & are mostly cold warrin' it with the reich.
Basically, after a near 400 year reign, the reich is loosing steam.
I know this is off the current topic, but speaking of Alternative Universes I was wondering if anyone else went "what the..." when the DS9 writers brought their version of "Mirror, Mirror" Universe to the screen. I found the history leading up to the Alliance's takeover highly unlikely. I liked the fact that Spock rose to control the Empire, but does anyone think that that Spock would dismantle all his border defenses and leave himself open for invasion? I mean, he was the most dangerous and devious person on ISS Enterprise (next to Kirk of coruse), he was not a peaceful man. Thow still logical, that universes Vulcans were bred for war not peace. Also given the violent nature of the Empire I think if he tried to make the Empire as peaceful as was said in DS9 he would have been assassinated, Tantalus field or no, before he could completed the task. Stopping the expansion of the Empire would have cut the power base of alot of people.
I just think the writters blew off alot of interesting material based on the old concept and came up with a rather silly concoction of their own, they should have left well enough alone. Dark Mirror (I believe that is the title) was a good novel and could have been a good starting point for other stories. Why could they not have done something like that?
Yes, you're quite correct, Phantom. It is off topic, and when you get right down to it, completely irrelevant. The beauty of a game is that you can come up with your own version of the Mirror Universe; one that conforms to the needs of your story. The TNG episode Parallels established a near-infinite series of parallel universes. The one in DS9 served the needs of the DS9 milieu, centring on the Bajorans and Cardassians.
The Mirror Universe in my campaign is patterened after the "historical records" from the Voyager episode Living Witness. I've made some cosmetic alterations ("dagger through the planet" commbadge, etc...)
It was off-topic only from the point of view that complaints about the show's take on the Mirror Universe is more appropriate to the Star Trek Chat forum - this is, after all, the the Narrator's Ready Room.
On the other tentacle, it's useful as a springboard for one of my favourite rants... The Mirror Universe, or indeed any alternate universe is fodder for any GM to do exactly what he or she wants. Don't like the DS9 version where Spock's noble experiment failed? Change it!
In my game, the Empire lives! Spock was more circumspect in his attempts to reform the Empire. When he was found out, he sabotaged the Enterprise-B and assassinated Admiral Kirk. He made contacts with the Romulans and eventually took refuge on Romulus... All of this is in rough parallel with the mainstream Trek universe, but twisted in much the same way that the original Mirror, Mirror was. Here, the Romulans are good guys who fled Vulcan when Surak the Merciless conquered the planet. The Klingons are the TNG Klingons writ even larger- Wagnerian Klingons, if you will.
[This message has been edited by Owen E Oulton (edited 03-18-2001).]
Alternate Universes
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