Story Idea Thread: post your ideas here!

[Zyobot]

Due to how fascinating I find the idea, I’ve been contemplating a TL that I’m thinking of calling Panarchist Patchwork. That is, it involves people choosing which of the various worlds/dimensions dominated by a certain form of political organization they favor—liberal democracy, fascism, some strain of anarchism, or whatever else—and being ISOTed to their place of choice appropriately. Maybe as a caveat to prevent the denizens of certain realms from wanting to conquer others (i.e. a Nazified world seeking to conduct ‘Lebensraum’ everywhere else), people who choose to live within whatever system forget about the existence of other worlds.

And if they’re dissatisfied with the governments they live under (or perhaps lack thereof), they’re presented with another opportunity to change their mind. I can see particularly capricious individuals changing which world they live under every so often, which is no doubt helped by the fact that everyone has unlimited opportunities to change which realm they inhabit.

[lordroel]

Jun 14, 2020 17:24:57 GMT Zyobot said:

Due to how fascinating I find the idea, I’ve been contemplating a TL that I’m thinking of calling Panarchist Patchwork. That is, it involves people choosing which of the various worlds/dimensions dominated by a certain form of political organization they favor—liberal democracy, fascism, some strain of anarchism, or whatever else—and being ISOTed to their place of choice appropriately. Maybe as a caveat to prevent the denizens of certain realms from wanting to conquer others (i.e. a Nazified world seeking to conduct ‘Lebensraum’ everywhere else), people who choose to live within whatever system forget about the existence of other worlds.

And if they’re dissatisfied with the governments they live under (or perhaps lack thereof), they’re presented with another opportunity to change their mind. I can see particularly capricious individuals changing which world they live under every so often, which is no doubt helped by the fact that everyone has unlimited opportunities to change which realm they inhabit.

Would it work.

[Zyobot]

Jun 14, 2020 18:02:47 GMT lordroel said:

Jun 14, 2020 17:24:57 GMT Zyobot said:

Due to how fascinating I find the idea, I’ve been contemplating a TL that I’m thinking of calling Panarchist Patchwork. That is, it involves people choosing which of the various worlds/dimensions dominated by a certain form of political organization they favor—liberal democracy, fascism, some strain of anarchism, or whatever else—and being ISOTed to their place of choice appropriately. Maybe as a caveat to prevent the denizens of certain realms from wanting to conquer others (i.e. a Nazified world seeking to conduct ‘Lebensraum’ everywhere else), people who choose to live within whatever system forget about the existence of other worlds.

And if they’re dissatisfied with the governments they live under (or perhaps lack thereof), they’re presented with another opportunity to change their mind. I can see particularly capricious individuals changing which world they live under every so often, which is no doubt helped by the fact that everyone has unlimited opportunities to change which realm they inhabit.

Would it work.

I think that at least on the surface, it'd solve problems relating to the deep divisions that have ensnared our politics, both recently and throughout all of human history (e.g. Nazis and Stalinists each get their own, closed-off realms to inhabit, so there's no need for them to go for each others' throats). But even leaving aside possible implications that escape me at the moment, I think it'd be too much of a 'happily ever after' sort of existence for everyone to make a completely compelling, plausible TL.

For example, maybe one of the conflicts is that there's risk of someone from Realm A accidentally winding up in Realm B, with some specific examples turning out rather benign if not entirely without problems (i.e. someone from an American constitutionalist world winding up in a social democratic one). Other combinations, however--such as a military detachment from a Nazified realm winding up in a world run into the ground by the Khmer Rouge writ large--would prove far, far worse.

Another, less obvious peril is that, if the titular network of realms somehow collapses and people with different ideological tastes can no longer live within their own bubbles, they won't be accustomed to mutual compromise and coexistence like we in the real world are (for the most part, that is). For that reason, there'd be far more fighting and disobedience of whatever authorities claw their way to the top, likely culminating in a bloodbath that quite probably makes even the World Wars look tame. Maybe you could get libertarians and Christian democrats to largely leave each other alone and team up when needed, but getting fascists and communists to extend the olive branch to one another--let alone to the various non-authoritarians who abhor their murderous, iron-fisted ways--will likely result in a Cold War between them, at best.

Those are some initial thoughts of mine, anyway. Maybe I'll add more, depending on what else I think of and how set on writing this TL I feel.

[Zyobot]

As another fanfiction idea, I’ve been contemplating a Ben 10 and Pokemon crossover story for a while. Specifically one where Albedo, who’s Ben Tennyson’s evil counterpart clad in red, gets sent to the latter and wakes up as a Pokemon. Though I’m still deciding on certain details, such as whether he finds himself in Unova or what kind of Pokemon he wakes up as (I’m personally leaning towards a Snivy or one of its more ‘evolved’ forms), he’d still retain his genius intellect, ability to speak like a normal human, and be equipped with a ‘Pokematrix’ that serves the same purpose as the Omnimatrix/Ultimatrix once did. Except, of course, it scans the DNA of, and enables Albedo to transform into, different Pokemon instead of the usual aliens from his native universe.

With his plethora of unique abilities, I’m trying to think of ways to not make Albedo an instant Mary Sue who overawes everyone with his sinister brilliance and utter invincibility in battle (at least, not for the first while). As such, some ideas I’ve come up with to make him more fallible include social awkwardness and getting accustomed to his new range of transformations—especially since the rules for official Pokemon battles cap how many times he can transform. This would, of course, otherwise amount to a trump card in most cases due to how Albedo can assess, adapt to and counter in ways that no other Pokemon can (i.e. by transforming into precisely the type or species that a given opponent is vulnerable to). So maybe he’d need a trainer to help him through it, even though Albedo being Albedo, he’d insist on having more freedom and autonomy than typical Pokemon get from their owners.

Given enough time and the proper training, he seems like the kind of Pokemon who’d strategize and make their own decisions during battle, rather than rely on the trainer to do the mental work and shout orders at pretty much every juncture. And in cases where his trainer lets him do his own thing, the lack of loudly proclaimed instructions would give Albedo an edge when it comes to blitzing and surprising his adversaries.

[Zyobot]

Now I'm thinking of a science-fiction world-building project that I'll probably call Outer Edge or something along those lines. This work would feature what would essentially boil down to the 'Old American West in space', with a good dollop of anarcho-capitalist social organization thrown in for good measure. To that end, it'd feature themes like wayfaring fleets, asteroid-mining, artificial habitats and progressive settlement of the great unknown.

Perhaps to introduce some level of conflict as opposed to simply world-building, I might create a distant, more mysterious central authority that wants to re-assume control over these wayward, exploratory fringes. And, perhaps instead of being a conventional oppressive government attempting to do so, it might be a far-out, incomprehensible civilization semi-comparable to an evil version of The Culture from Iain Banks's works. Complete with all-powerful AIs who provide habitats for trillions and trillions of contented subjects, of course.

[James G]

When I was doing my short VC piece the other day, one of the conflict scenarios was Baltic Unrest.
Within the Baltic States, a situation arises where ethnic Russians there, in Estonia and Latvia especially, less so Lithuania, are suported by Moscow in trying to destabilise the governments. There would be attacks on state institutions and military bases. NATO assistance to the Baltics would too draw their attention.
Moscow directs this, all for a bigger goal than the Baltics, and keeps it's hands clean enough for plausible deniability.

[fieldmarshal]

Vague idea for a near-future (2030s-2050s) WW3 scenario where the OPFOR is a loose alliance of "Revisionist Powers,” namely Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea — and Turkey, which leaves NATO in the 2020s following a crisis over Cyprus and carves out it’s own sphere of influence in Central Asia and North Africa.

Despite numerous conflicts between them (such as Russo-Turkish competition in regions where their interests conflict — parallels with pre-Axis competition between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in the Balkans and North Africa) they are all allied in their opposition to the US/Western Europe-led world order, which is beginning to crack and bow amidst various domestic crises, such as new pandemics, political and financial instability, and terrorism of all colors.

[James G]

East Germany survives into the mid-90s. Survives as in 'just about'.
The country is falling apart as people flee and the economy is in the toilet. There are sanctions and hostile neighbours plus an unfriendly Russia which has pulled out all of its troops.
People riot against oppression and severe violence. East Germany attacks a neighbour to the east or south: not the West.
NATO launches an air campaign and subsequently invades though without everyone fully on-side in this.

I had an aborted project along similar lines years ago though with a stronger East Germany. I've been thinking today about possibly refreshing the idea. But how to stop it being a curbstomp war over in a week?

[Zyobot]

Thanks to my revived interest in Classical Civilization lately, I’m contemplating writing an ASB TL to be titled Scattered Antiquity or something like that. It draws inspiration from Harry Turtledove’ works as well as New Pompeii by Daniel Godfrey, the premise being that a smorgasbord of ancient Greeks and Romans from important points throughout Classical Antiquity--everywhere from the Greek Dark Ages to the fall of the Western Roman Empire--are sent thousands of years forwards in time, multiple decades after 2020 in fact.

Depending on the exact time and place they’re all sent from, the downtimers will be situated on their own chunks of land that materialize across the world; Julius Caesar and his legions on a new island in the Ionian Sea, a swath of Hadrian’s empire showing up off the coast of North America, and so on and so forth. So pretty much every major nation will have their own set of confused Greeks and Romans to deal with, though given the tenuous geopolitical situation that’s been simmering for a while at this point, odds are they won’t be able to clean up the mess right away.

For obvious reasons, there will be various real-life Greeks and Romans who make appearances here—Plato, Augustus, and Constantine almost certainly among them. However, I’ll also include plenty of original characters in the story as well. Fictional politicians and downtimers aside, the main cast of this story will be Dr. Jack Lancer--an easygoing, but cynically paranoid archeologist and history professor who once served in a time-traveling U.S. Army Ranger unit--and the other members of his household. He has an eighteen-year-old adopted daughter named Astrid, who was originally born in ninth-century Scandinavia and rescued by Jack as a baby. She’s been raised American since then, and her inventing and programming skills will lend themselves well to the fact she’s an incoming engineering major at a local university. He also has a nephew the same age named Ryan, an awkward child prodigy who graduated from college early with a chemistry degree and works as a lab technician for a local R&D company. Then, there’s Domitia, a shy Roman girl from an aristocratic family who lived during Hadrian’s reign, and has since found herself in the Lancers’ care. I certainly have more characters in the works than just them (as was mentioned upstream), but it’s probably best I keep the specifics under wraps for now.

Setting-wise, this will again take place at least a few decades into the future (probably the mid-21st century, at the earliest). Technology will have had time to progress considerably by then, with big advancements in urban farming, robotics, nanotech, holograms, virtual reality and digital networks and interfaces; more military-centric versions of these will make appearances as well. I won’t divulge too much about global geopolitics at this time, apart from a sense of baited precariousness and certain countries having recently emerged from some big crises. However, you might see a few loose extrapolations based on recent trends that are baked into the future depicted here (but not enough to intrude onto ‘Politics and Current Affairs’ territory). As I’ve said before, though, conditions will be such that major nations with armies of Greeks and Romans in their backyard won’t be able to take care of the problem overnight; make of that what you will for now, insofar as what it shows about the troubles they've been facing lately.

Otherwise, that’s basically the meat and bones of what I wanted to summarize here. Now I just need to get started on reading and research (which I plan to create a separate thread for pretty soon). And brushing up on my art skills and online presence too, since I plan to publish artwork--drawings, comics, animatics, etc.--depicting the characters and setting at large. Maybe DeviantArt would be a good place to set up shop, though I doubt I’ll stop there.

[forcon]

Nov 24, 2020 17:30:19 GMT James G said:

East Germany survives into the mid-90s. Survives as in 'just about'.
The country is falling apart as people flee and the economy is in the toilet. There are sanctions and hostile neighbours plus an unfriendly Russia which has pulled out all of its troops.
People riot against oppression and severe violence. East Germany attacks a neighbour to the east or south: not the West.
NATO launches an air campaign and subsequently invades though without everyone fully on-side in this.

I had an aborted project along similar lines years ago though with a stronger East Germany. I've been thinking today about possibly refreshing the idea. But how to stop it being a curbstomp war over in a week?

Well, North Korea is a pariah and while it would certainly a lose a war with the south, it would be bloody. Perhaps you could have a significant pro-military faction and the imposition of hard-core Pro military laws bringing people into service as conscripts. Plus the GDR did have some decent equipment, MiG-29s, SCUDs etc.

[fieldmarshal]

Nov 24, 2020 17:30:19 GMT James G said:

East Germany survives into the mid-90s. Survives as in 'just about'.
The country is falling apart as people flee and the economy is in the toilet. There are sanctions and hostile neighbours plus an unfriendly Russia which has pulled out all of its troops.
People riot against oppression and severe violence. East Germany attacks a neighbour to the east or south: not the West.
NATO launches an air campaign and subsequently invades though without everyone fully on-side in this.

I had an aborted project along similar lines years ago though with a stronger East Germany. I've been thinking today about possibly refreshing the idea. But how to stop it being a curbstomp war over in a week?

I recall a previous iteration of the idea (on the first page of this thread, I believe) you described a surviving USSR that acts sort of like the PRC to East Germany's North Korea; certainly far from enthused by the GDR's actions and unwilling to actually commit troops to it's futile war effort, but still serving to frustrate NATO's attempts to prosecute war against East Germany (either by covert or diplomatic means, continuing to supply/economically support the GDR, or the implicit threat of military intervention however unlikely it may actually be). 

[La Rouge Beret]

Nov 24, 2020 17:30:19 GMT James G said:

East Germany survives into the mid-90s. Survives as in 'just about'.
The country is falling apart as people flee and the economy is in the toilet. There are sanctions and hostile neighbours plus an unfriendly Russia which has pulled out all of its troops.
People riot against oppression and severe violence. East Germany attacks a neighbour to the east or south: not the West.
NATO launches an air campaign and subsequently invades though without everyone fully on-side in this.

I had an aborted project along similar lines years ago though with a stronger East Germany. I've been thinking today about possibly refreshing the idea. But how to stop it being a curbstomp war over in a week?

Did that involve East Germany attacking Austria or Czechoslovakia? If so I remember that thread.

Anyway, you need NATO to be divided or to have a more pressing issue then resolving the invasion. Poland rolling westwards would make for a fun story though.

[James G]

Nov 24, 2020 22:02:56 GMT forcon said:

Nov 24, 2020 17:30:19 GMT James G said:

East Germany survives into the mid-90s. Survives as in 'just about'.
The country is falling apart as people flee and the economy is in the toilet. There are sanctions and hostile neighbours plus an unfriendly Russia which has pulled out all of its troops.
People riot against oppression and severe violence. East Germany attacks a neighbour to the east or south: not the West.
NATO launches an air campaign and subsequently invades though without everyone fully on-side in this.

I had an aborted project along similar lines years ago though with a stronger East Germany. I've been thinking today about possibly refreshing the idea. But how to stop it being a curbstomp war over in a week?

Well, North Korea is a pariah and while it would certainly a lose a war with the south, it would be bloody. Perhaps you could have a significant pro-military faction and the imposition of hard-core Pro military laws bringing people into service as conscripts. Plus the GDR did have some decent equipment, MiG-29s, SCUDs etc.

East Germany was pretty well-manned with conscription. But maybe full-on, emergency conscription with no exceptions. A People's War indeed.
North Korea has geographical advantages which East Germany wouldn't though: three long borders. The regime would be hard-pressed to be so f*cking evil.
They were well-equipped in East Germany, yes. Very much so but none of it ever got a real work-out. A few 'volunteers' fought abroad but, as far as I know, East Germany never practised military operations on its own (without the Soviets) let alone ever saw military action. They didn't even go into Czechoslovakia in 1968 when everyone else in WarPac did.

Nov 25, 2020 0:46:21 GMT fieldmarshal said:

I recall a previous iteration of the idea (on the first page of this thread, I believe) you described a surviving USSR that acts sort of like the PRC to East Germany's North Korea; certainly far from enthused by the GDR's actions and unwilling to actually commit troops to it's futile war effort, but still serving to frustrate NATO's attempts to prosecute war against East Germany (either by covert or diplomatic means, continuing to supply/economically support the GDR, or the implicit threat of military intervention however unlikely it may actually be). 

Dang! You're right. The idea has long been in my mind. I've just read that again - two and a half years ago - and will think of adding some of those ideas to my overall idea.

Nov 25, 2020 1:08:14 GMT La Rouge Beret said:

Did that involve East Germany attacking Austria or Czechoslovakia? If so I remember that thread.

Anyway, you need NATO to be divided or to have a more pressing issue then resolving the invasion. Poland rolling westwards would make for a fun story though.

It was the Czech Republic they invaded. I had East Germany lash out when threatened and even - working with dissident Irish republican terrorists - put a commando kill team in Downing Street. It was fun but it went wrong so fast.
Divided NATO seems the best idea. Poland going west is actually quite a good idea! 

[La Rouge Beret]

Nov 25, 2020 17:47:10 GMT James G said:

Nov 24, 2020 22:02:56 GMT forcon said:

Nov 25, 2020 0:46:21 GMT fieldmarshal said:

I recall a previous iteration of the idea (on the first page of this thread, I believe) you described a surviving USSR that acts sort of like the PRC to East Germany's North Korea; certainly far from enthused by the GDR's actions and unwilling to actually commit troops to it's futile war effort, but still serving to frustrate NATO's attempts to prosecute war against East Germany (either by covert or diplomatic means, continuing to supply/economically support the GDR, or the implicit threat of military intervention however unlikely it may actually be). 

Dang! You're right. The idea has long been in my mind. I've just read that again - two and a half years ago - and will think of adding some of those ideas to my overall idea.

Nov 25, 2020 1:08:14 GMT La Rouge Beret said:

Did that involve East Germany attacking Austria or Czechoslovakia? If so I remember that thread.

Anyway, you need NATO to be divided or to have a more pressing issue then resolving the invasion. Poland rolling westwards would make for a fun story though.

It was the Czech Republic they invaded. I had East Germany lash out when threatened and even - working with dissident Irish republican terrorists - put a commando kill team in Downing Street. It was fun but it went wrong so fast.
Divided NATO seems the best idea. Poland going west is actually quite a good idea! 

I thought it was you!

Anyway I always liked that TL and from the rough notes that you provided think that it had the essence of a fun story. As an aside I always wanted to create a story that was focused on a former East German paratrooper, since they had a really niche capability that was under explored in fiction.

[Zyobot]

I'm not sure how ethical it'd be since it's based on someone else's basic premise (which probably counts as idea theft, for all I know). If they gave me the green light to use their idea and fill in the blanks myself, then I suppose I'd call it Requiem for an Era. The idea being that an era of Whiggish progressivism that kicked off with the Enlightenment period in the late eighteenth century--an era of increasing egalitarianism, cosmopolitanism, and evermore-present government that still persists today--will finally draw to a close around the end of the twenty-first century (or in the germinal decades of the twenty-second, at the latest). And, far from a gradual or peaceful segue into the more anachronistic social order to follow, the transition period will be an inferno. One that, once unchained after decades of simmering towards an irreversible boiling point, will make the excesses of the twentieth century look like dress rehearsal and render what we know as "Modernity" but a memory in the final analysis of things.