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Okay, an experiment.
I have yet to start laying out even the broad strokes of a timeline for events after 12/31/1999.  And I thought, hey, maybe I could see if a dozen heads converging on this would be better than one.  So I'm issuing a request/challenge -- let's brainstorm up the as-yet-unwritten history of the IST world together.
A few notes.  First, I'm not going to guarantee this will be exactly -- or even close to -- what I finally use.  But as the old saying goes, that's the way to bet.  Anyone who contributes anything that ends up in the final timeline will get a credit on the book/PDF.  But you've also got to release the rights to me to use your contributions, because I will have to be able to do the same to SJG when the time comes.
If you're cool with that, well, let's begin.
I have a few things in mind to start with. 
First, before anything else -- IST was starting to diverge strongly by the end of the 1980s, and my timeline for the 90s kept that up, although it was perhaps not nearly as divergent as it should have been.  The prime directive here now is that there is no need to parallel "real" history except for irony and/or humor.  We can go anywhere.
Second, the Infinite Worlds PDF for IST mentions a reality quake on 1/1/2000.  We're going to keep that, as the primary mechanism of the Wall -- this date was a nexus point for any number of possible futures to come into being, depending on which groups, gangs, governments, and/or conspiracies came out on top in the battles between their various plans and schemes.  Most of the outcomes were bad -- hence the varied visions of apocalypse received by precogs beforehand.  However something as yet undefined happened, and a "good" -- maybe not best, but good -- timeline resulted.  I want to figure out what that something is, or even if we need to define it at all.
The 1990s timeline on my website ends with Chinese forces poised to roll into both Hong Kong and the Korean DMZ.  I want this to turn into a full war, lasting anywhere upwards of five years.  (Working from 13 years later, we have a lot of freedom to do wild things, and this will be one of them.)  What is the result of this war?
9/11 does not happen.  It took several different sociopolitical trends converging in a specific way to motivate Bin Laden and al Qaeda to attach the US the way they did, and most if not all of them didn't happen (or happened very differently) in the IST world.  This is not to say something similar doesn't happen -- but when, where, and by/to whom?
If I think of/remember anything else I want nailed down firmly at the start of this little project, I'll add them to this post.  In the meantime, feel free to brainstorm.
And don't worry, I won't just be sitting back and making you do all the work.  I'll be jumping in and adding my own contributions.
In advance, thank you.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Bob, I sent you an email with a basic release. Let me know what else you need.

I don’t have a lot of time before I have to get to work, so I’m just throwing some ideas out there. Let’s start at the beginning in 2000. Some ideas I have, based on Bob’s criteria:

1. The reality quake "spooks" China into attacking (whether or not it does, they can use that as grounds for launching the assault) Hong Kong. They claim that the Reality Quake was caused by scientific experiments in Hong Kong (no matter how ridiculous that claim may be).
a. As a basic idea, I was considering that China caused the Reality Quake and launched the attacks, before they were truly prepared, as a way to draw attention off of them.
b. We’ll need to decide on the events and intensities of Reality Quakes around the world.
c. We’ll need to decide on when the “good” event occurs, and what it is. As an example, in my own, personal IST universe, that would be the manifestation of Stephanie “Pink” Aldermaine in 2010.

2. China attacks both areas with (Low-powered) mass-produced supers (not necessarily "vat-grown,” could be normal peasants “upgraded” by some process). They’re broken into narrow categories (all their bricks are nearly identical, ditto their blasters), with “true” supers being the only, real variation.

3. They launch the attack, first, on Hong Kong—due to their stand-off with British and American troops in the area.

4. The attack is quick and efficient, allowing them to maintain control of the city before IST Reinforcements can be teleported in.

5. As the world is watching Hong Kong, they launch a sneak attack on Seoul.

6. The attacks (obviously) easily overwhelm IST Seoul and Hong Kong.
Quote:Bob Schroeck wrote:

9/11 does not happen.  It took several different sociopolitical trends converging in a specific way to motivate Bin Laden and al Qaeda to attach the US the way they did, and most if not all of them didn't happen (or happened very differently) in the IST world.  This is not to say something similar doesn't happen -- but when, where, and by/to whom?
Idea #1:
How about attacks on one or more IST bases by a jihadist movement? After all, one of Bin Laden's stated reasons for his attacks on America was the presence of an American military base in his home country. Perhaps the IST either had a base in Saudi Arabia or was in the process of building one there, so you get similar results due to similar input. Having Bin Laden as the mastermind adds verisimilitude since you'd expect someone with a noted fixation on destroying symbolic structures to be involved in a plot to destroy symbolic structures.
If you do go with this scenario, I do suggest inventing a name other than Al-Qaeda (since that would be stretching the parallels a bit too far) and to not go with a complete failure of the attack (since that would feel like Inglourious Basterds style wish fulfillment). On the other hand, the 9/11 attack was the culmination of years worth of semi-successful lesser attacks and only worked so well because of the civilian construction of the Twin Towers. I'm certain that IST buildings are designed to be much more rugged, so either the attack is only a partial success or the attackers are using MUCH more force.
Perhaps the timeline could be seeded with notes regarding ineffective jihadist attacks using car bombs and missile strikes, culminating after several years with some sort of bunker busting attack by a military aircraft hijacked via telepathy/mind control drugs/teleportation swap/surgically altered imposter/etc.
xxxxxx
Idea #2:
Blame Canada! Evil Canada is always fun, so have some sort of political scandal result in an electoral upset that leaves a group of hardliners in charge of the Canadian government. These people take Patriot Act/Gitmo style policies to the sort of Big Brother ends that are feared in the real world. Perhaps they respond to American gun violence leaking over into their country by closing their border with the US. You could have televised debates about building a heavily patrolled border fence to keep American criminals out.
And in case it matters, I release any and all rights to these ideas to Bob Schroeck, and expect no remuneration of any sort.
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"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV
I think it might be more interesting if Bin Laden's—accidental—death, caused by an IST intervention, triggered something. He becomes a martyr to “the cause” even though it was an accident. But, really, with the removal of fossil fuel dependency, the Middle East will atrophy. Which would be more than enough for zealots in that area to launch attacks on Fusion reactors. So, we do have to keep in mind that the Middle East won’t play too much into world politics. Sure, there’s always a place for petroleum byproducts, but it’s not going to give them all the wealth they enjoyed in our world.

Tertiary question, Bob: How much can we crib/use from other GURPS products? Especially 3rd Edition. I have some ideas that can make use of Warehouse 23, Aliens and Creatures of the Night.
Quote:Mark Skarr wrote:
But, really, with the removal of fossil fuel dependency, the Middle East will atrophy...  Sure, there’s always a place for petroleum byproducts, but it’s not going to give them all the wealth they enjoyed in our world.
If the IST world is no longer dependent on fossil fuels for their energy needs, but you want the Middle East to still matter, Bob just has to handwave a new demand for petroleum products. Perhaps oil is a key ingredient in whatever super-substance makes up the newest generation of lightweight armor. America's oil reserves make it a military powerhouse, while the entire world struggles for access to the Middle East's oil supplies so that they can make their own super suits and armored vehicles and fortified buildings. This may also explain how despotic Middle Eastern regimes remain in power despite a fraction of their populations having super powers; they're using their oil to produce crude knockoffs of the armor produced by the major industrialized nations and using that to outfit their soldiers.
And in case it matters, I release any and all rights to these ideas to Bob Schroeck, and expect no remuneration of any sort.
----------------------------------------------------

"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV
We don't know that Bob does want the Middle East to be relevant. Israel is still relevant, but the rest of it doesn't have to be. It will be relevant to the third-world, where they can't invest in Fusion Power at the same level as the first- and second-world. But, there won't be nearly as much money flowing into the Middle East.

Personally, I think reducing the importance of the Middle East would be an interesting direction to further differentiate the IST world from our own.
It's a good question, about the Middle East's relevance, and one that we might want to explore, given that with new energy technologies in OTL, the current projections are for the US to need no foreign oil in a few years, and in fact to become an exporter again. I was reading an article a few weeks ago on what will happen to all those oil-supported oligarchies when they no longer have the money coming in to keep everyone happy...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Another thought I had as I drove home from work. I need to decide on the "end state" of the world so we can work toward it. TL, flavor, look, feel... I don't want it too far away from the "real world", but it has to be significantly divergent. If that's not inherently self-contradictory.

Let me think on that over the weekend and see what I come up with.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
I’ve come up with some issues we need to address, pretty much first.

Issue 1:  The reality quake hit 1/1/2000.  No problem.  But, where and when?  If it happens at any specific time and place, that place (presuming it survives) will lay claim to its importance in the rest of the world.  For those who really want the Middle East to be relevant within the IST World, we might see about having it happen there, but I, for one, don’t think the Middle East needs to be terribly relevant.

Issue 2:  What occurred with the Reality Quake?  How long did it last?  How did people even know something happened?  Basically, before we can have China attack, we need to determine what the reality quake was, and what happened.

Issue 3:  What is the war about?  Without knowing this, we’ll have a hard time keeping it going in the right direction.

Issue 4:  This war will be World War III.  We have to keep that in mind as there is no way around it—especially since Bob wants it to last for, at least, five years.  It will become obvious, very quickly, to all sides, that the only way for this war to end is A, the elimination of China, or B, China conquering the world.  If (and more likely, when) China breaks out the WMDs . . . what is going to happen.  We will have to address this very carefully.

Issue 5:  What aid will the Meeron and their new allies offer to the UN-backed world?  Is China prepared to fight an interstellar war against non-human aggressors.  A battalion of TL10, battlesuited Kronin mercenaries teleported into the middle of Bejing would be pretty disruptive.  Even assuming the Chinese have teleport shields, having space-support means that, at some point, someone will suggest dropping a rock on Bejing.

Issue 6:  Military Super Teams.  Barring a miracle, the UN will lose the ability to restrict member-nation military super teams.  World War III will give every member-nation precedent to maintain a standing, metahuman brigade to defend against non-member-nations who likely have one.  The first thing I thought of, which may or may not be the way Bob wants to take it, is that the Meeron and the Confederation recognize the UN as the Earth’s government.  Non-member-nations would have no voice in determining interstellar relations.

Issue 7:  World War III will be the most trying time, in history, for both the UN and the IST.  I don’t think that’s an “issue,” but I think it’s something we need to keep in mind.  We need to almost tear the organizations apart.  That way, when they pull themselves together, they’ll be stronger than ever.
I know I'm just posting "problems" right now, and no solutions.  But, I'm trying to get the challenges on the table, so we can work through them together.
Bob, if you're feeling adventerous, you might see about creating a sub-forum in the IST area, so we can have multiple treads without cluttering the rest of the area.
Mark, that's a very good idea. I'll do that right now.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Last Free Human

Aghh! Time to break out my timeline notes and get to work. Obviously my timeline is very different from the one proposed (China was too busy fighting the alien invaders to do anything else) but some of the other stuff might (hopefully find a home).

Now if only i could magically generate time.

M
Michael R. Smith (lastfreehuman@gmail.com)
GURPS IST Aleph Wordpress (http://istaleph.wordpress.com/)
GURPS IST Aleph Twitter (http://twitter.com/IstAleph/)
Trek This! Wordpress (http://dthiller.wordpress.com/)
My Blog (http://lastfreehuman.wordpress.com/)

Seraviel

Adding my own point of view, especially as a starter of WWIII:

-With a lot of troops for the IST being moved to HK / Seoul because of the nascent war, and if it happens the Middle East effect, a lot of smaller group that are either opposed to the IST or want to profit from the situation are going to come out. You can go from known and visible ones (KKK and the like) to created ones (US Separatist who want to return to the original 7 states, Ultra-democrats or Ultra-republicains with agendas, racism against non-redheads, etc.) for fun.

-If the IST can't manage the strain, a wave of vigilantism might come out of the situation, since other people with powers might come out of the woodwork due to the rising chaos. This makes for great intros to new characters, but makes the problem worse, as the law can't always discern the vigilantes from the terrorist / radical / criminal groups. A few errors from justice can cause an upswell of anti-government / IST feeling as a well-known / popular vigilante ends up unfortunately dead in the hands of those who were supposed to be the good guys.

-The IST itself might face issues as war situation can sometimes elevate to posistions of power people who shouldn't be there. This makes it even more difficult for the IST since they fight on two fronts: both inside and outside. It might even cause WWIII to last that much longer.

That's all I have for now. Feel free to use it as you will. I release all rights to those ideas.
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.
Quote:Mark Skarr wrote:
Issue 4:  This war will be World War III.  We have to keep that in mind as there is no way around it—especially since Bob wants it to last for, at least, five years.  It will become obvious, very quickly, to all sides, that the only way for this war to end is A, the elimination of China, or B, China conquering the world.  If (and more likely, when) China breaks out the WMDs . . . what is going to happen.  We will have to address this very carefully.
I don't think the situation necessarily has to go all the way to WWIII. If China's land grab leads to a call for worldwide censure, it could be possible to develop an international consensus regarding a trade embargo. The China of the time may have been vulnerable to such a tactic since it had less civilian industrial infrastructure that present day China (especially if IST China heavily prioritized developing military assets over civilian infrastructure in reaction to the greater threat level of the IST world).
While some UN members may be obstructionist in such an effort, videos of Chinese military atrocities smuggled out of occupied territories combined with evidence that China may be using supers in a military capacity could provide a tipping point in global opinion. China's allies declare neutrality, but are unwilling to risk global censure by publicly trading with them (black market trade continues). After that, it is mostly economic warfare backed by military power that slowly wears away at China over the next five years (with extensive weapons smuggling to partisan groups).
All major battles occur either on the ocean or in or near contested territory (in much the same way that coalition forces liberated Kuwait without immediately toppling the entire Iraqi regime in the real world). Fears regarding the likely results of escalation mean that neither side ever resorts to WMDs. At no time is anyone with WMDs desperate enough to believe they must resort to such weaponry. On the other hand, a sunken nuclear sub could result in a memorable ecological disaster that convinces both sides to keep WMDs well outside of the combat zone.
In the end, China's military bureaucracy is replaced by a new faction due to widespread public unrest spurred by rapid inflation, food rationing, higher taxes, the ongoing military draft and spiraling fears of nuclear war (maybe there is even an avian flu outbreak). The new leaders admit no wrongdoing, but lease Hong Kong back to the British for 99 years and pull back to the DMZ (maybe they even pull out of Tibet, assuming they were in Tibet in the first place).
Death toll? Fairly high, especially in the war zones, but still not at WWII levels. More like Korea and Vietnam combined. Bloody and horrific, but the planet isn't a radioactive crater.
http://koreanwarstuff.com/korean-war-death-tollhttp://www.statisticbrain.com/vietnam-war-statistics/http://warchronicle.com/numbers/WWII/deaths.htm
And in case it matters, I release any and all rights to these ideas to Bob Schroeck, and expect no remuneration of any sort.
----------------------------------------------------

"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV

Last Free Human

2004 AD. Meeranor admitted as a non-member observer nation by a vote in the UN General Assembly.

M
Michael R. Smith (lastfreehuman@gmail.com)
GURPS IST Aleph Wordpress (http://istaleph.wordpress.com/)
GURPS IST Aleph Twitter (http://twitter.com/IstAleph/)
Trek This! Wordpress (http://dthiller.wordpress.com/)
My Blog (http://lastfreehuman.wordpress.com/)
New thought re: Chinese war. What if China hadn't planned on crossing the DMZ? After China successfully attacked Hong Kong for what they felt were valid reasons, North Korea rushed the DMZ in a blatant megalomaniacal land grab without first informing their allies. China had no choice but to back them up after the fact. It was this unexpected stretching of the Chinese military and logistics chain (turning Korea into a war zone means China has to provide most of the food, clothing, medicine and other necessities for both North and South Korea for the entire duration of the war, since they're in no state to provide for themselves).This is one of the major reasons China eventually loses the war.
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"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV
Keep in mind that nuclear weapons have been used, repeatedly, by terrorist elements (the PLO) and in a “stand up” war (between Iraq and Iran) in the IST world. China, who has been conducting above ground nuclear tests, will have no problem breaking out bigger and nastier things. The genie has already been let out of the bottle here. They have no reason not to do it. They’re independent of the U.N. and don’t need anything from them. Their sanctions mean nothing to China.

China has had twenty-five of their thirty-years in their bid to breed a cosmic-level metahuman. They’re going to have a lot of research done, and know what they’re doing. They will have divisions of metahuman soldiers.

It will be World War III. It will take the entire world to fight this (maybe even more than one world!). The other non-friendly, non-member-nations (Libya, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, South Africa, and others) will jump on this opportunity to strike at a weakened U.N. It will go global in a matter of days. When units start getting mass-teleported into South Korea, and the battle raging for days with all signs pointing to months of battle . . . the non-friendlies will pounce.

This will be a World War. This isn’t going to be a pocket war. China has the ability to strike anywhere it wants. It may not ally with the non-friendly nations, but it will use them as distractions. China has tens of thousands of metahumans . . . and then there are the ones they’ve been breeding. No, this is going to be ugly, and dangerous.

It doesn’t seem to me like North Korea would be anything more than a puppet state. If they attacked, and China didn’t want to support them, they’d let them get their butt’s kicked, and then move in to North Korea and annex it. No, they’ve been planning this for several years—they’ve been “baiting” the U.N. and this is the culmination of it.
Heh. You guys are thinking this through far faster and in more detail than I. I just wanted a payoff for the escalation in the 90s timeline; I didn't want to have the Chinese wimp out.

Now here's the $64000 question -- if we do this, does it make for a better gaming world 10 years later? (And, in the tradition of the original IST, can we make the war a decent gaming setting of its own?) What are the post-war implications for the setting? I don't want IST25 to be a post-apocalyptic setting -- although the War is certainly another candidate for the Thing Behind The Wall...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
That’s been my boggle that I was sleeping on: How to make this war happen without the Earth being rendered uninhabitable.

We’re about to have a major world power that’s had 25+ years of unrestricted and unmonitored eugenics research become a primary belligerent in the most destructive war the planet has ever seen. Hence the “World War III” moniker.

I came up with a “solution.” I’m not sure I terribly like it as it’s rather heavy-handed and a bit heavy on the dues ex machina: Reality quake aftershocks undo the worst of the damage.

That gives us the added responsibility of determining who is responsible for the Reality Quake and making them interesting, because it almost has to be a sapient mind behind it.

My other idea, pretty much the same thing, just from a different perspective, was that the Reality Quake was the war. It wasn’t supposed to have happened, this was the war a different IST world suffered. A select group of heroes discovers this and discovers how to trigger another reality quake to put their world back on the “right” path. Trapping themselves “forever” in the other, apocalyptic, world.
Quote:Mark Skarr wrote:
That’s been my boggle that I was sleeping on: How to make this war happen without the Earth being rendered uninhabitable.

We’re about to have a major world power that’s had 25+ years of unrestricted and unmonitored eugenics research become a primary belligerent in the most destructive war the planet has ever seen. Hence the “World War III” moniker.
Keeping the Earth habitable is easy. some ultra powerful super with ecologically based superpowers died undoing the damage. Also, the United States supposedly destroyed its nuclear arsenal in 1987 (GURPS IST pg. 99), so I doubt America would be willing to lob nukes at China, as that would prove they lied to the world.
Regarding China's 30-year plan to breed cosmically-powered supers (GURPS IST pg. 72), note that metahuman genes were only tentatively identified in 1985 (GURPS IST pg. 98) and the war starts 15 years later in 2000. Beyond that, info regarding the plan was revealed in 1989 (GURPS IST pg. 99). What we don't know was if the plan had been ongoing for 30 years, had just started and was projected to last for 30 years, or was made up completely by the defector (unlikely with the potential for telepathic interrogation, unless false memories were planted within the defector by Chinese agents who wished to intimidate the United States with a nonexistent 'ghost' program).
Even if the program had been ongoing for 30 years at that point (41 by the time of the war), without some sort of forced growth or temporal acceleration going on, you've only got 3 or 4 generations in the program at most, and most of them would have been in the program before genetic testing for metagenes became a reality. If they're pushing things hard using surrogates or iron wombs, just have unknown hormones passing through the metahuman mother's placental barrier prove to be a catalyst for proper power development, therefore resulting in iron womb/surrogate birth metas being less powerful than normal.
----------------------------------------------------

"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV
Here is a quick summary I threw together for just January, 2000.

2000 (January)China launches an attack on Hong Kong. Though the U.K. and U.S. soldiers are on alert, the attack quickly overwhelms any resistance. At the forefront of the attack is a battalion consisting solely of metahumans. All nearby IST Embassies go on full alert.

The Chinese delegation to the U.N. announces that the PRC has reclaimed the satellite that the U.K refused to relinquish. During the heated debate that followed a massive explosion (later determined to have originated within the Chinese ambassador, though no bomb residue was ever discovered) rocked the Security Council chamber. Launched concurrently with the detonation, the PRC and their North Korean puppets move through the DMZ and assault South Korea. Within hours Seoul falls, the surviving IST Seoul team members teleporting to IST Hiroshima. They warned that the entire attacking division appeared to consist of metahumans.

With the U.N.’s attention firmly fixed on Asia, with IST reinforcements being emergency-teleported there, while rescue workers rushed to New York, the drug cartels of Colombia launched their own attacks on IST Bogota and the southern U.S. Dozens of jugo-using terrorists burst onto the scene, overwhelming the little organized resistance they encountered.

IST Angola came under renewed attack as South Africa detonated a pair of pony nukes, one in Cacuaco and the other in Cabolombo. As the Embassy struggled to assist local civil authorities, a third pony nuke was detonated across the street from the embassy in Luanda, destroying it.
Hard-liners in the PLO detonate ten nuclear devices split amongst Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv in protest of the delays in creating a Palestinian home-land.  Syria and Lebanon invade the Golan Heights, and spill into northern Israel.  Egypt and Jordan move into southern Israel. Israel activates all of its metahumans to defend itself against the onslaught.

Moammar al-Qadaffi unleashes dozens of nuke-bearing terrorists on Italy and France for the murder of his “Bedouin ancestors.”  Weapons are detonated in Lyon, Marseille, Milan, Naples, Nice, Paris, Palermo, Rome, Toulouse and Turin.  The weapon in Paris destroys the Arc de Triomphe.
With its choice of locations, the Blue Demon appeared in Rome.

ETA:  Reformating, and added paragraphs about the Middle East and Libya.
ETA2:  Moved Blue Demon to attack somewhere a little more appropriate.  
If we had an ultra-powerful super with ecologically-based superpowers . . . they'd be able to stop the war pretty quickly. So, it’s “easy” in the same way that a Mary-Sue is easy.

But, more importantly, who is this super? Why haven’t we heard of them before? Sure, we could just “make one up” but that would be intellectually dishonest. This isn’t happening in a vacuum. Why didn’t they show up to miraculously repair the Exxon Valdez oil spill eleven years ago? Why haven’t they repaired the damage to Iraq and Iran? Jerusalem? There are plenty of ecological catastrophes in the IST world that they would be needed for. Spontaneously creating one to keep the war from being too devastating is GM Fiat and reduces any act that an adventuring party does to nil—we don’t have to keep that reactor from melting down, Dr. Fixaflat will be here soon to clean up the radiation and lead everyone in a rousing chorus of Kumbaya.

If Witchwind actually was Hexe, then, well, this would be a different war. We don't have these resources to throw at the problem. Creating those resources makes adventuring in the world irrelevant. “Boy, it sure is nice that these ultra-powerful supers let us play with our powers . . ..” That’s why I didn’t like my after-shocks idea. We need to come up with ideas to empower players, not marginalize them.

Your suggestions seem to be centered on “let’s reduce China’s ability to wage a war to the level that a conventional war could be fought and won against them.” That’s not IST, and I’m pretty sure that’s not what Bob is looking for. This is Supers. This needs to be stories about small groups of amazing people working against incredible odds to do, not just amazing, but awesome things. We’re not talking four-color (IST isn’t, quite, four-color), but, we are talking supers. An IST team wouldn’t find any pleasure in just standing out there mowing down lightly-powered infantry. But, a holding action against powerful foes while they’re evacuating a hospital or school, that’s the job of Heroes. Flying into the heart of the enemy forces with a gadgeteer-created super-something (“hey, even I don’t know what it’ll do, you didn’t give me enough time to adequately test it”) should be the bread-and-butter of a group.

[sarcasm]Sure, China would have a problem with breeding kids.[/sarcasm] 15 is adult enough. Their plan was to be done in 30 years, not have the first phase of the plan done. And there’s no doubt that they’re less concerned about human rights now, than they were before Tiananmen Square. And keep in mind it was 1989 when we learned about the project . . . how long had they been working on it before then? Discovering the genes in 1985 may have simply sped up their process. It may have allowed them to focus on select lines and prune others.

China’s basic soldier will have to be able to stand up against U.N. Powered Armor Infantry. That should be our base-line for them. Powered Armor Infantry would be the main target that China has been planning to battle since the start.

Keep in mind that Colombia has the ability to “mass-produce” supers. Sure, they’re short lived (only 2d hours), but they were 1k supers in 3e! The basic character for IST was 600 points. China could have refined that down from an art to a science.

And the US may have destroyed its arsenal in 1987. Buchanan went off U.N. power in ‘98 and could have begun building a new, anti-U.N. arsenal any time before that. The technology and the infrastructure still exist, and, the US has proven that it can do some pretty amazing things with its manufacturing capability in the past.

We don’t need them to be weaker, we just need them to have an Achilles heel. The U.N. and the IST have some, pretty glaring, weaknesses (I’m figuring out some ideas for that, which could be interesting).
Idea:
The Chinese have a way of destabilizing the U.N. Catalyzed-Fusion Reactors. Either making them unstable and shutting down, or to over-load and have them melt-down. All member-nations would have to come off of fusion power a.s.a.p. or risk a major catastrophe in any of their cities. They could also insist that all Embassy’s shut their reactors down (doubt they’d get much of an argument from the U.N.) to prevent the same.

This would give China an overwhelming advantage at the beginning of the war—possibly letting them overrun Japan and other, major, parts of Asia. It would also be a key plot-point of the war as U.N. forces struggle to figure out both new power sources as well as a way to remove that ability from the Chinese or at least neutralize/shield against it.
Some things have struck me reading though this....

If the UN is capable of 'encouraging otherwise unaffected nations who are stable and comfortable - and are unlikely to politically want to go to war - into war with the threat of blackouts.... That's a rather dystopic angle. For that matter, is the threat of a blackout a little bit of an empty one, when someone realises that powerless farms won't produce food, and powerless factories don't produce weapons? Both of which are as important to an army as troops on the ground. A canny politician or two may well gamble that the UN threat of reactor interdiction on such a large scale is an empty threat if following through on it leads to the crippling of its own war machine. That right there is another battle of wills which may well determine the future disposition of the UN, depending on who succeeds. Having been through two World Wars already - I doubt the vast majority of the European continent would be excited to get involved in what is clearly thus far a 'Pacific War'. They may well instead try to negotiate some form of Energy for Armaments deal. Keep the fusion power burning, we'll keep supplying food, ammunition, armaments, medical supplies.

It seems a far more natural response than an immediate UN-led dogpile on China. Faced with actually having to follow through on treaty commitments, nations will baulk at massive bloodshed in another part of the world far away for someone else, while the UN itself may well baulk at cutting off its supply of men and materiel just to encourage them to fight. "We're going to war because they'll turn off the lights if we don't" is a poor stoker for a people's fighting spirit. "We must stop the evil totalitarian Chinese" a better one... but even so, China is 'far away'. Far enough to be somebody else's problem for the time being.

This lasts, of course until local circumstances change that position. With the UN being weakened and otherwise having its attention directed, another European war may start as the local gallery of rogue nations takes opportunities they wouldn't otherwise have. As is the way with World Wars, it may well end up being a coalescing of multiple simultaneous conflicts as separate theatres form alliances, rather than the immediate BLAM! most people expect WW3 to be. World Wars historically don't start Global... they become global as more and more parties are dragged in, or other conflicts spill over. World War II was a seperate European War and a Pacific War that merged either when the United States was dragged into it, or when the Axis formed. World War 1 triggered as a Balkan war until every surrounding empire dogpiled and got dragged in by competing alliances in one long daisy-chain of historical grievances and alliances dating back over a century.

From a meta-standpoint - there's also a few years of war to fill, requiring turning points and an ebb and flow to give it narrative. A merging of the European conflict, or the ignition of a European conflict may well be a turning point in favour of the UN at it's Darkest Hour.

Ultimately when the dust finally settles, the UN as it has been will end up somewhat like the League of Nations after the last World War. The LoN worked for a while to prevent local wars and do some good, right up until its methods of maintaining peace were rendered innefective and it was made irrelevant by circumstances exceeding its capability. Once one nation found it could stand up to the League, that was it, its control was finished. The League itself clung on until 1946 - throughout the War. It's final act was to pass on the majority of its assets and more successful agencies on to its successor. The UN as it has existed in the IST world has just been made obsolete by events exceeding the capability of its methods of control. The end result is going to be a few new memorials, a few smouldering rubblepiles and a new UN organisation determined to prevent another war as destructive as the last onem while inheriting its more succesful agencies.

Complicating matters may well be the interference of extraterrestrial organisations now, and the knowledge that humanity is no longer alone.

The history of this 20th century may well be summarized as:

"My grandfather died in the Somme. My Father died in Arnhem. My son died in Hong Kong. And now my Grandson?"

I'm also forced to wonder if the act of preventing small wars between large nations means that, when a war does ultimately happen, it happens big. Similar to the theory governing network failures.... the more reliable and interconnected you make it, the more likely that any failures you have will take down the entire grid.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
I’ve been putting thoughts together about this, Dartz.

My idea was that the two Chinese wars are simply the catalyst. As I put in the January synopsis (recently modified), when China attacks, everyone assumes that the U.N. is going to be busy dealing with them, so, everyone with a grudge decides “hey, now is the perfect time to even the score.” So, within a matter of days, or weeks at the most, the rest of the world is struggling with some level of war.

An idea I’d had about how the U.N. stays relevant, and “in control” is that, during this time of global war, their embassies are distribution points for food and medical aid. Injured, or non-combatant, supers would continue to man the embassies and aid local, civil authorities during their emergencies. In areas that become totally cut-off from their local authorities, the U.N./IST takes over immediate authority on a temporary basis, and governs the area—and, in many cases, does it better than the legitimate government in the area.

This would put the areas in a quandary when control is re-established: the U.N. did this better and more fairly than their official government—and their government is “hostile” toward the U.N. Civil unrest and disobedience will paralyze numerous, on-the-fence countries until their governments make amends to the U.N.

In other countries, where the U.N. has to take direct control of the country, the U.N. decides to administer them directly. This proves effective and efficient during the rebuilding effort. As the U.N. can directly monitor the use of their funds and resources, these countries recover the quickest. Amidst complaints of the U.N. trying to become a one-world-government, the evidence of their efficiency becomes apparent.

However, at the end of the day, the U.N., as it exists in the IST universe, will not survive the war. What comes out of the war, will be stronger and more capable. But, it will still be called “The United Nations.”

If we want the U.N. to survive, the idea of having the war be the reality quake, which gets “undone” by the selfless sacrifice of a select team of supers seems the most expedient. Of course, this only works as long as everyone remembers the war. Even those who were killed in it.

This way, everyone can see how horrible the world would be when not following the U.N.’s ideals. After watching millions (if not billions) of people die in a horribly overwrought war, most of the world will be willing to step back from the brink and come back to the negotiation table. A table owned by the U.N.
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