For those of you who have changed the history of our world to better suit your games, what did you do and how did it go? What worked and what didn't? What advice would you give to someone intending to create alternative history?
Quote from: Shipyard Locked;893127For those of you who have changed the history of our world to better suit your games, what did you do and how did it go? What worked and what didn't? What advice would you give to someone intending to create alternative history?
Charles II keeps Tangier. Pike and Shot meets Beau Geste. Played for quite a while, and people had fun in it and with it.
Kept it very historically accurate, which made it all much simpler. My advice is to know the period and then keep it accurate and as simple as possible for the players.
Quote from: Shipyard Locked;893127For those of you who have changed the history of our world to better suit your games, what did you do and how did it go? What worked and what didn't? What advice would you give to someone intending to create alternative history?
Goto http://www.alternatehistory.com and read some of the more highly rated timelines. The best alternate histories make one change and follow through on the rippling consequences of that change.
While I never used an alternative history, I have used the technique by participating to handle the World in Motion portion of my fantasy sandbox campaigns. Same ideas just applied differently.
My personal favorite is Decades of Darkness (http://www.alternatehistory.com/decadesofdarkness/) where the early death of Thomas Jeffersion during his presidency causes the United States to spiral down a very different and far more darker path than our own history. Conversely Germany and Russia had a much better time of it in DoD.
Having run a few, I'd say don't worry about what works for alternate histories in general - worry about what works for your group in this campaign. There is plenty of stuff that may be bad for alternate histories in general, but that are still fun for you and your group to play in.
Examples:
I ran a campaign based on the world of Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, which has massive changes to history because of the continuous presence of domesticated dragons. Add on to that a general pulp flavor for the whole campaign. Still, it was a lot of fun, and we pulled from a lot of real history, the series, and pulp fiction.
I also did a slightly straighter alternate history about successful Icelandic settlers in the New World, in 1392. It wasn't terribly realistic either in terms of being the most plausible chain of events, but it was a consistent setting that was enjoyable to play in.
Thanks guys, especially for the link.
Never really created an alt-hist from scratch, but I was more than happy to go crazy with Ken Hite's Day After Ragnarok. The first adventure had Otto Skorzeny kidnapping J. R. R. Tolkien, with Freddy De Guigand recruiting the PCs for the SIS to investigate, and then things started getting really weird.
I don't know if this counts as it is future history but...
When I was in college in the 80s I ran a Robot Warriors campaign. I extrapolated current trends and took the idea that Islam becomes the dominant religion during the next 100 years. I didn't call it "The Caliphate" but that is essentially what it was. Muslims took full control of Russia, India, the Middle East of course, most of Africa and a good chunk of southern Europe. "The West" comprised of everything else: the two American continents, Australia, most of Europe, China. In addition human technology allowed us to put colonies on the Moon, Mars and the Jovian and Saturnian moons.
I forget the exact reasoning but the Muslim Union decided it was time to control and convert the whole world, so World War III bursts out. No nukes are involved but massive carnage quickly builds as battle Robots lay waste to the cities of the world. At about the same time alien spacecraft are seen probing the solar system. The PCs lead the way in defending the planets and America from invasion.
It went well. The campaign lasted a long while. The history was plausible enough to easily suspend disbelief and provided a wide range of territory to adventure in. I ran scenarios that took place in Cuba, Tehran, Moscow and off-world. Sometimes they were fighting Muslim mecha, alien mechs and ships and in one adventure the American Autoduel Association. Fun was had by all.
If you want to have some fun thinking up alternative history, I highly suggest spinning yourself some 100 years in one of the Paradox games, and then try to write up the world that happened.
That alternate history website is really great. I never ran an alternate history game of my own making as such (a couple of published games that could be called that in a way), and generally prefer a real-history game. But I did once run a brief "Sliders" type game of characters jumping from one alternate reality to another; I used that site for a lot of inspiration.
Quote from: RPGPundit;894720I never ran an alternate history game of my own making as such (a couple of published games that could be called that in a way), and generally prefer a real-history game.
Wait, wait... Isn't
Dark Albion's setting "alternate-history" (technically speaking)?
I'm sure that pretty much every review I've read says so...
Quote from: JesterRaiin;894723Wait, wait... Isn't Dark Albion's setting "alternate-history" (technically speaking)?
I'm sure that pretty much every review I've read says so...
It is a closely related sub-genre to alternate history but it more of the alt fantasy, hidden history genre than an alt history. A true alternate history has a single point of departure (PoD) that could happen in the real world then everything follows from there.
To make it confusing the PoD could be the introduction of magic into a world that was normal up to that point. But from what I remember reading Dark Albion is a fantasy world that happens to have strong parallels to our own history.
Quote from: estar;893208Goto http://www.alternatehistory.com and read some of the more highly rated timelines. The best alternate histories make one change and follow through on the rippling consequences of that change.
While I never used an alternative history, I have used the technique by participating to handle the World in Motion portion of my fantasy sandbox campaigns. Same ideas just applied differently.
My personal favorite is Decades of Darkness (http://www.alternatehistory.com/decadesofdarkness/) where the early death of Thomas Jeffersion during his presidency causes the United States to spiral down a very different and far more darker path than our own history. Conversely Germany and Russia had a much better time of it in DoD.
What a great resource! thank you!
Quote from: tenbones;894783What a great resource! thank you!
It's great stuff, yes.
Alternate History PrimerAlternate History is a genre/sub-genre that focuses on postulating a "What-if" alternative to an event (or non-event) in history and creating a story from the ensuing changes. It is commonly lumped in with science-fiction and many science-fiction author also have written an alternate history story or novel.
The straight alt-history story starts with a single point of departure from our own history and follows the ensuing changes. From this basic setup a number of different type of sub-genres of alt-history have evolved. In publishing this takes the form of a novel or short story. In the alternate history forum the preference is a series of vignette post in a form like this.
QuoteGuilford Courthouse
North Carolina, British North America
March 15th 1781
General Greene put down the telescope. Stunned by the sight before him. Cornwallis broke the counterattack of the third line of American troops, but at the cost of firing into his own troops. Again using the telescope he examined the Continental troops and saw that they were reforming in good order. Examining the British troops, the general saw the exhausted men reforming into ragged lines. Scanning the battlefield he spotted Colonel Tarleton rallying troops, and on the far hill Cornwallis himself making a similar survey. "Tarleton's quarter" he thought.
Again putting down the telescope, Greene came to a decision. The opportunity was too good to pass and his troops were in far better shape. Time to bag General Cornwallis and Tarleton. Turning to his aide, "Give the order that we make another attack".
Timeline of the United States of America
Excerpts taken from Charles Courtney's .1775 to 1783, The First War for American Independence .. (c)1903: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Used with permission.
Timeline of the United States of America
Excerpts taken from Charles Courtney.s .1775 to 1783, The First War for
American Independence .. (c)1903: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Used with permission.
BATTLE OF GUILFORD COURTHOUSE
The Battle of Guilford Court House was a battle fought on March 15, 1781 just outside of the present-day city of Greensboro, North Carolina, during the First War for American Independence. The battle saw 1,900 British troops, under General Charles Cornwallis, fighting an American force, under Rhode Islander General Nathaniel Greene, numbering 4,400. The battle began after General Conwallis marched 12 mile from Little Horsepen Creek and attacking the American position at Guilford Court House. After forcing the first and second line of American troops to retreat, British forces attacked the third line of 1,400 Continental Regulars.
Slowed by the rough terrain the left and right flanks of the American forces attacked the British advance. The left side repelled the British while Washington's Cavalry destroyed the British right. Collapse seemed imminent when Cornwallis gave the order to the newly arrived artillery to fire right into the melee. This temporally halted the American attack. General Greene, sensing imminent victory, ordered fresh attacks. Again Cornwallis ordered the artillery to fire into the ensuing melee. The American were again halted. Cornwallis then ordered the troops to reform and retreat from the battlefield. Greene bloodied twice by the British Artillery ordered his men to stand their ground allowing Cornwallis to retreat. The final count was 153 killed and 401 wounded for the Americans. 312 killed and 732 wounded for the British. The battle forced Cornwallis to fall back onto his base in Wilmington and secured the independence of North Carolina.
A completed timeline on the forum will be a long series of these vignettes showing the reader the point of departure and what happened in the years and sometimes centuries to come. In most of these timelines there is a discussion afterward over the accuracy and plausibility of the post. Sometime the author convinces his audience and sometimes the author will revise his post. And this can go on for months in some of the major time-lines.
In the case of the above, the point of departure was the fact the Battle of Guildford Courthouse was an narrow American victory instead of a narrow British victory. This lead to General Cornwallis NOT to make the trek to Yorkstown and instead stayed in South Carolina and Georgia. The climatic battle of the Revolutionary War was the Battle of New York and in the resulting peace South Carolina and Georgia remained British colonies.
JargonPoD - The Point of Departure, the event or non-event that initiates the alternate history.
OTL - Our Time Line, a shorthand that indicate that the poster is talking about something that really happened in our history.
ITTL - In This Time Line, a shorthand that indicates that the poster is talking about something in the alternate timeline.
ATL - Alternate Time Line, the same as above.
ASB - Alien Space Bats An opinion that the resulting events are so improbable that they must have been caused by Alien Space Bats. Not necessarily negative as there have been a series of entertaining alt timelines written where the PoD was sometime improbable or impossible.
Skippy the ASB - A recurring character used by some authors. He/She from a extremely technologically advanced civilization and capable of a variety of doing any number of improbable or impossible things to timelines. Looks like a incarnation of the devil with bat wings. The most common things people have him doing is transporting people or places back and forth in time and space.
IOST - Island in the Sea of Time. A alt-timeline where via ASB a place or person is transported back in time and space. The timeline then unfolds from that point on. Named after S.M. Stirlings' Nantucket series where the Island of Nantucket is transported back to the Bronze Age from 1998.
A Wank - A wank is where the author clearly showing favoritism towards one country or group. Everything goes right for them, not impossible ASB type stuff but highly improbable none the less. The more notorious example is Harry Harrison Stars and Stripes series about an alternate Civil War. A definite United States wank where everything goes right for the USA after the British joins the war on the side of the confederacy. The USA manages to peacefully reunite with the Confederacy, beat the United Kingdom, and liberate Ireland.
Notable WorksIf Had Happened Otherwise
Bring the Jubilee
The Man in the High Castle Novel
For Want of a Nail
this is seriously hardcore alt-history and reads like a textbook, you been warned. But it is first really detailed alt-history published and a decent read if you like reading history books.
H Beam Piper's Paratime
Lest Darkness Fall
Guns of the South
the best of Turtledove's Novels.
The Rest of Turtledove Novels
warning he gets repetitive and thinly disquises real world events as alt-history events. For example in The Presence of My Enemies, is basically fall of USSR applied to a story of the last surviving Jews in a late 20th century Third Reich.
Turtledove's Juvenile Series.
Science fiction has had a tradition of writing serious novels targeted at grades 7 to 12. Turtledove did this for a series of alt-history novels that are inter-related. This series is surprisingly a lot better than most of his regular novels.
Fatherland
a so-so alt history but one of the first to be a popular best seller.
Island in the Sea of Time series
The 1632 series.
A West Virginia town gets transported into Thuringia, Germany in the middle of the Thirty Years War. A huge series with a rabid fan base churning out novels.
The Emberverse series
Starting with So Dies the Fire these novels are the flipside of what happened to our world after Nantucket gets whisked away to the Bronze Age. Basically an ASB fiddles with the electrical constants, and the gas law to make electronics, high explosives, and high pressure technologies useless. Billions starve, and the survivors rebuild from the rubble. But the ASB aren't done yet so the situation turns out to be a lot more complex than let's reignite civilization.
The Man in the High Castle Series
This is the best alt-history made for TV or movie bar none.
Slider
Popcorn Alt-history but a sometime fun roam of a group of people "sliding" from one alt-history to another.
Quote from: JesterRaiin;894723Wait, wait... Isn't Dark Albion's setting "alternate-history" (technically speaking)?
I'm sure that pretty much every review I've read says so...
It's not really an "Alternate history" in the standard sense I would use for that term. A regular "alternate history" is a timeline that has some point of variance from our own that then leads to a very different world (e.g., the American Colonies lose the revolutionary war... and then what?).
Dark Albion is pretty much the history of the War of the Roses as it happened, but with magic and the supernatural added into the mix. There are differences in that some other details are different (religion, some of the other countries, names, etc.) but it doesn't actually diverge in its chronology from the general timeline of events.
Quote from: RPGPundit;895751It's not really an "Alternate history" in the standard sense I would use for that term. A regular "alternate history" is a timeline that has some point of variance from our own that then leads to a very different world (e.g., the American Colonies lose the revolutionary war... and then what?).
Dark Albion is pretty much the history of the War of the Roses as it happened, but with magic and the supernatural added into the mix. There are differences in that some other details are different (religion, some of the other countries, names, etc.) but it doesn't actually diverge in its chronology from the general timeline of events.
I see.
This is one of things I often wonder about and it's a bit relevant to the topic, so: let's say you have an "alternate history" setting where certain real-world things (like cities, people, events) exist, EVEN if the events that led to them don't exist in this setting. The best example for this would be a city named after a certain real-world saint, who didn't exist in that setting (or simply, didn't gain much recognition, etc).
The question is: would you rather drop the case and change it, or keep it and simply introduce something that explain its existence. In that former example - the city is named after a guy (bearing same name) who was important to its citizens because of his war efforts, or something.
I'm not really sure what you're referring to. Are you talking about Albion now? Or some other setting?
In any case, if it was named after someone who surely didn't exist, I'd rename it. Since cities tend to be built in areas of geographic significance, it can make sense for them to still exist in a place even if they're not named the same.
Quote from: RPGPundit;896308I'm not really sure what you're referring to. Are you talking about Albion now? Or some other setting?
In any case, if it was named after someone who surely didn't exist, I'd rename it. Since cities tend to be built in areas of geographic significance, it can make sense for them to still exist in a place even if they're not named the same.
It was "in general" question. And I got my answer, thanks. :)
------
Edit: it was my 666th post here.
Rejoice people, for Evil walks the land. :cool:
The closest I ever came was after all the Scarlet Pimpernel playtesting I did. I diverted both my main fantasy groups onto it for a few months, and as a reward I plunked their regular fantasy characters into Revolutionary Paris, both groups at once. Their only instructions were that they all understood French, and that they could indulge themselves.
They wound up storming the Salle des Machines during a session of the National Convention and slaughtered most of the deputies, including Robespierre, Danton and St Just.
I've used a Balkanized American as the basis of a Cyberpunk setting. The 'break' point being the send term election (in a highly corrupted process) of Dan Quayle. Yes, it was quite some time ago.