Has anyone ever played Alternity? There was a book called Tangents Which dealt with parallel Universes. It seems to be that an alternate Traveller setting would handle the very well. You need just one tiny alteration in Jump Drive technology. Instead of Jump Drives 1 thru 6 you simply have the jump drive at TL9-15, capable of moving to an adjacent parallel Universe hex on the subsector map. Each hex instead or representing a parsec of space really represents a parallel Universe with a version of Earth in it usually. Each parallel Universe shares the same history as our Universe up to a point in the past, beyond that point history follows a different path from our own.
To start a parallel Earth campaign start with a Subsector Map and place the 21st Century Earth as we know it in hex 0405. UWP X867974-8. Now For Hex 0505 you keep the Physical part of the UWP _867 and you reroll the social data, I prefer to use a 1d12-1 to make the initial population roll and use 2d6-7 + Pop for everything else. 1d12 for the starport (E), 1d12-1 for the population (8), 2d6-7 + pop for the government (3), 2d6-7 + gov for the law level (0), and for the tech level 1d6 we have 2. If the tech level is less than 9 logically it can't have a starport so it reverts back to X so we now have the following UWP X867830-2, this matches an age circa 1400 to 1700. The government digit indicates a Self-Perpetuating Oligarchy. This sould be taken as the predominant government form for most of the nations on this parellel Earth rather than a world wide Self Perpetuating Oligarchy. Feudalism never died in this parallel Earth, this in turn has retarded technological development so that it remains at TL2. The explaination is that this world had no bubonic plague in the late Middle Ages, this in turn didn't kill large numbers of people which in turn didn't destroy the feudal system in Europe. The peasant remained tied to the manor system, the aristocrats and nobility remained in power and the development of gunpowder was discouraged. Slowly technology improved and ships capable of crossing the Atlantic were built. Knights in shining armor ran through the native Americans with their lances and swords, they brought no guns, so the Indians had only bows and arrows to fight them off, the full plate armor that the knights wore proved quite effective against arrows. Slowly the Feudal system was established in North America and it remained that way until the 21st century.
That is just one example of a parallel Earth. the basic procedure is to fill every hex on the subsector map grid with a parallel Earth in a like manor. Now how do these early 21st century humans from our own world visit these parallel Earths. Well at some point during the first or second decade of the 21st century, the Earth as we know it is visited by spaceships from a parallel Universe carrying representatives from a parallel Earth. This is the vangard of the Imperium, a TL15 Empire started long ago by the Romans. Rome never fell on this world, there were no dark ages, and technological development continued so that the Romans are 1,000 years ahead of our own 21st century Earth. After a brief battle, the Techno-Romans Conquered our own near future Earth with all the implications you can imagine. These Romans are pagans, Christianity never developed on their world, although they don't believe in their gods as much as they used to. (mostly their uneducated masses rather than their educated elite. Mostly what the Romans want is tribute, so long as the nations of our Earth pay tribute to the Roman Empire, they can keep their elected governments, dictators, or whatever, in return the Romans have brought in their technology TL9 - TL12, never their best stuff of course to maintain their military advantage, but the high tech helps the tribute paying nations to grow their economy so they can pay more tribute. The our some rebels on our Earth who don't like this situation and there have been a number of guerilla attacks against Roman Legionaries, and some Christian missionaries have gone to the Roman Earth to spread their gospel, and some muslims as well for that matter. Their are many other parallel Earths to explore in the meantime and the imported Roman technology allows the PCs to do just that.
Hows that for a Traveller setting?
To start a parallel Earth campaign start with a Subsector Map and place the 21st Century Earth as we know it in hex 0405. UWP X867974-8. Now For Hex 0505 you keep the Physical part of the UWP _867 and you reroll the social data, I prefer to use a 1d12-1 to make the initial population roll and use 2d6-7 + Pop for everything else. 1d12 for the starport (E), 1d12-1 for the population (8), 2d6-7 + pop for the government (3), 2d6-7 + gov for the law level (0), and for the tech level 1d6 we have 2. If the tech level is less than 9 logically it can't have a starport so it reverts back to X so we now have the following UWP X867830-2, this matches an age circa 1400 to 1700. The government digit indicates a Self-Perpetuating Oligarchy. This sould be taken as the predominant government form for most of the nations on this parellel Earth rather than a world wide Self Perpetuating Oligarchy. Feudalism never died in this parallel Earth, this in turn has retarded technological development so that it remains at TL2. The explaination is that this world had no bubonic plague in the late Middle Ages, this in turn didn't kill large numbers of people which in turn didn't destroy the feudal system in Europe. The peasant remained tied to the manor system, the aristocrats and nobility remained in power and the development of gunpowder was discouraged. Slowly technology improved and ships capable of crossing the Atlantic were built. Knights in shining armor ran through the native Americans with their lances and swords, they brought no guns, so the Indians had only bows and arrows to fight them off, the full plate armor that the knights wore proved quite effective against arrows. Slowly the Feudal system was established in North America and it remained that way until the 21st century.
That is just one example of a parallel Earth. the basic procedure is to fill every hex on the subsector map grid with a parallel Earth in a like manor. Now how do these early 21st century humans from our own world visit these parallel Earths. Well at some point during the first or second decade of the 21st century, the Earth as we know it is visited by spaceships from a parallel Universe carrying representatives from a parallel Earth. This is the vangard of the Imperium, a TL15 Empire started long ago by the Romans. Rome never fell on this world, there were no dark ages, and technological development continued so that the Romans are 1,000 years ahead of our own 21st century Earth. After a brief battle, the Techno-Romans Conquered our own near future Earth with all the implications you can imagine. These Romans are pagans, Christianity never developed on their world, although they don't believe in their gods as much as they used to. (mostly their uneducated masses rather than their educated elite. Mostly what the Romans want is tribute, so long as the nations of our Earth pay tribute to the Roman Empire, they can keep their elected governments, dictators, or whatever, in return the Romans have brought in their technology TL9 - TL12, never their best stuff of course to maintain their military advantage, but the high tech helps the tribute paying nations to grow their economy so they can pay more tribute. The our some rebels on our Earth who don't like this situation and there have been a number of guerilla attacks against Roman Legionaries, and some Christian missionaries have gone to the Roman Earth to spread their gospel, and some muslims as well for that matter. Their are many other parallel Earths to explore in the meantime and the imported Roman technology allows the PCs to do just that.
Hows that for a Traveller setting?
