Arannia - Reworking some things to make it more original.

[Acrimone]

Just to elaborate on Pair ' Dice's point, there's an excellent passage in the Eric Flint novel 1632 where some West Virginians, their town having been transported back in time to (you guessed it) 1632, realize that they have to start "gearing down" their tech because what they have will be essentially useless now that they are separated from the rest of the industrial infrastructure.  They immediately start converting everything to gross-level tools, working on steam power, basic lathes, etc.

It's also an entertaining book.  I wish I could say the same for the rest of that series.

[Nomadic]

The point here I think is that after 300,000 years it would take something serious for humanity to not have regained their technological superiority.

[Pair o' Dice Lost]

The point here I think is that after 300,000 years it would take something serious for humanity to not have regained their technological superiority.

Granted.  I'm just saying it's not necessary to posit a full back-to-the-stone-age fall complete with deific intervention to explain why it takes them a while to recover; a simple removal of the infrastructure they rely on and a subsequent loss of knowledge will work for the first few thousand years.

[Acrimone]

Another point to consider... after 300,000 years it would take some serious interference for humanity to be the same species that it used to be.  The Neanderthals were replaced by the Cro Magnon, and they in turn by modern Homo Sapiens, in less time than 300,000 years.

That's a lot of time.

[Nomadic]

Indeed. I actually touched on that a bit. Humans may not be Human anymore so to speak. In regards to retaining some ability to regain technology. That is indeed viable if it is only a few hundred or possibly a thousand years after the fall. However we are talking many hundreds of thousands of years. In order to maintain some realism here you have to find some way to explain why after 300,000 years humanity hasn't regained its technology.

[Acrimone]

MAGIC!

[Nomadic]

Ah... so a wizard did it...

Blasted Wizards.

[Towel Ninja]

Hmm, I pondered this quite a bit last night and im pretty sure im just going to make an entirely new race that is just similar  in looks to human but different enough to not be human.

Or i also thought about having something like humans got to the point where A.I was become to intelligent and attacking humans so they launched something into space or under ground that makes electronics short out? Not quite sure how that would work but im thinking about it and it would also mess with lightning elementals im pretty sure.

[Acrimone]

There's your answer to both questions: the Humans made all of their tech require a biological human be present to ensure that AI wouldn't take over.

But now, milennia later, the people aren't biologically human.

Ta da!

People have tried to use the old technology to recreate things, but it just don't work no more.

So it's back to the drawing board with water mills and hand-pumped bellows.

Just a thought.

[Towel Ninja]

Hmm i like the idea, its interesting but it simply makes me think of the matrix, yeah we are required to be present but they could just farm us like a crop so we would be present but not quite "present". Im also planning to have bits and pieces of time travel in my worlds story line so maybe a time rift opened up in our medieval(not sure how thats spelled) and the rift took them x amount of years in the future? But i would have to make it to where an entire say capitol went through it...Lost city of Atlantis?

[Nomadic]

Pick a city that you like/think would work and do that. I have several times thought about doing just that. Here's an idea for you.

The city of <city name> was the home of a scientist greatly interested in fringe sciences. At this period in time the basics in time travel had already been realized but people commonly believed full blown time travel to still be impossible. He however became obsessed with trying to find a way to send people into the future. He began to tap into (highly dangerous) vacuum energy. His obsession had grown and he was willing to risk this. At one point his research went awry. He lost control of the dampers on a new device he had invented and he and everything within a <x mile> radius got shifted <x years> into the future. Sadly the overloading device exploded taking out him and his lab and setting off a massive EMP burst. The city is now little more than a husk of metal and glass filled with very panicked people. Nobody knows quite what happened though some suspect the (what the consider) insane researcher. In this new and strange environment many died who did not know how to fend for themselves or who had serious medical conditions. Now all that is left is the survivalists and those that have stuck close to them and learned from them. Over time they have discovered they aren't alone and are attempting to understand the history that has gone by and the new people's of the world.

Sure this sounds more like a single campaign or a story (and it would make an interesting one I think) but it also lays the base foundation for an interesting world. You can pick and choose as you want with this in order to shape something you like. Perhaps it is many years after the event, perhaps the players are from the other races and are trying to discover who these strange newcomers are.

[Towel Ninja]

Once again i must thank you!

I really like that story and i think i will use it just slightly altered, im starting to like the idea of having humans not be the dominant race. Maybe for the time travel to work there needs to be a large energy burst that the scientist made on his own but it destroyed him and his lab and so the only exit point in the time field would be something of equal or greater power, the nearest being the power put off by the skyfallen crashing into the planet. Hmmm, my brain is working once again!

[Nomadic]

Sounds good. Yea that's why I suggested using vacuum energy. I would put it in the near future (40-80 years). This way you still have people the players can easily relate to but the technological possibility to pull this off.

[Towel Ninja]

I seem to have come to a brick wall, Guns... If the city got transfered to the future, the guns would be fine cause emp wont short them.

[Nomadic]

Says who? We are already experimenting with energy weapons. At this point in time we have vehicle and plane mounted weapons that can shoot down a missile with a laser (as well as a vehicular microwave emitter that can make a grown man scream like a little girl). There is already research and testing in the works for personal energy weapons (and big naval weaponry). In 40-80 years you may well see little other than energy based weapons. These would short out during an EMP burst. Even conventional weapons are beginning to develop towards computer fire control for efficiency and accuracy and would also become useless. The only exception would be the rare person with his grandpa's Ruger. In this case it would likely now be a niche sport with ammo or the stuff with which to make it difficult to come by. At best your time travelers have enough ammo and cleaning supplies (remember guns need maintenance) for a few years if they are careful.

Alternately you could have the gun control activists in the city having successfully enforced strict laws against civilian carrying and the police aren't trekking around with big bags of ammo (meaning you have got an officer here or there that got caught in the time rip and has his sidearm and 50 rounds tops).