On 21/5/20 4:23 pm, xxxxxx@gmail.com wrote:
> With TC not existing yet, did you (not necessary beyond making up what
> you need as you go) figure out what powers on Earth were in what power
> blocks, etc. during that period?
>
> I always enjoy that sort of speculation about how the global
> geopolitics would change by ISW 1 or any other sort of look that
> starts where we are now on Earth.
>
> There was a fair bit of that in the future history background of
> Stargrunt and Full Thrust (from which Power Projection came) in Jon's
> version of the future.
>
> http://stargrunt.ca/settings_hist/gzg_timeline/gzg_timeline.htm
>
> Some of the bits he put in there were uncannily like what's happening
> (and the possibility of a US Civil War is less non-zero than one would
> have thought a while back). I did think the Eurasian Solar Union
> (China and Russia) was unlikely as was the New Anglian Commonwealth
> (Brits which moved back into North America after WWIII and a civil war
> ravaged the US). But some of the other bits and pieces feel a lot like
> stuff that has happened. That timeline came from the mid 80s.
>
> Like the Twilight 2000 timeline or the one that they used to create
> 2300 AD's timeline, they all had the challenge of dealing with present
> or near future which are the most prone to roll along and not look
> like what you planned.... (if you'd have told me in 1999 that the tech
> environment was going to crash *after* Y2K, not because of it... or
> that there would be years of issues with banks, savings and loan,
> hedge funds, etc. and then now that we'd have Trump as a president and
> a pandemic like 1918... well, I'd not have come up with that timeline).
>
> I read one book from an ex-BBC HK/China bureau chief. It's speculation
> was China was the pre-eminent power in the long run. A few other
> authors have written series with that as a background. Of course, a
> scenario where unrest and interior issues could tear China apart isn't
> impossible either.
>
> Look what happened with NATO, the G-7, and the EU/EEC of late...even
> NORAD is a bit of a worry now.
>
> Anyway, the character backgrounds outlined some specifics of who and
> where for some things. Just colour perhaps, but it hints at a timeline
> and a geopolitical alignment that looks pretty interesting.
>
> And I think you've convinced me that to get players that are new fully
> engaged, something they can tie to (not so far off in the future or so
> far off in distance that they can't relate) is likely a great notion
> for a game setting.
>
> TomB
>
> On Thu, May 21, 2020 at 1:51 AM Alex Goodwin
> <xxxxxx@multitel.com.au <mailto:xxxxxx@multitel.com.au>>
> wrote:
>
TomB,

Yes, I needed to engage players from chargen - I'd made that mistake
already with this mob.  I also made a judgement call that the
xenophobic, totalitarian Terra portrayed in GT:IW's default present was
a bridge too far.

I didn't have to brew up the Terran scene - Paul Drye, Loren Wiseman,
and Jon Zeigler did a far better job than I ever could have in GT:IW. 
And with the late and lamented LKW involved, hard to be more official.

I'm running with "Using The Official History" sidebar, GT:IW p19, namely:

    "It should be obvious that the “future history” described here is
very unlikely to come about, even in those details that describe life on
Terra in the 21st century. GMs and players shouldn’t spend too much
effort trying to make the future history fit with current events! Many
Traveller fans assume that the game’s history diverges from our own
sometime in the mid-1970s . . . by no coincidence, about the time that
Traveller was first published."

About the only thing we've bolted in from OTL (Our TimeLine) is the
abortive Brexit, which the Old Dart unilaterally cancelled.  Still have
to work out dates for that.

Terran geopolitics are as per GT:IW, pp20 - 26.  Note the AZS nuclear
attack on Terra, canonically in 2148 AD, will probably not happen in its
canonical form.

Superpowers (collated from GT:IW, plus some of my own changes):

- USA

- EU (fast coalescing to a federation - only the Old Dart, France and
Germany retain any real capability of independent action)

- China

- India

- Japan

Second-tier powers:

- Russia

- United Korea (although coming up fast on the supers)

- Argentina

Third-tier powers:

- Thailand

- Australia (still reeling somewhat from New Zealand's accession as the
NZ Special Autonomous Region in the 2030s)

Alex

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