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Arestel
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Joined: Fri 23 Dec 2016, 19:57

Re: Problems of Setting

Sat 24 Dec 2016, 09:17

Sounds Great! Some ideas that we could be interesting:

- Who has the money to pay for those gauss carriers? The state? The Risksenergi itself or some branch? Does it become available to other companies? 
- How other surrounding countries react to this transport revolution (see Denmark's MAERSK company), and how other trade-heavy nations such as China rely on it?
- How does Magnetrine affects environment? Is it a clean energy? Or does it have some side effects? Maybe it is the cause that machines can become sentient? Or, contrary to the standard energy it makes nature grow at faster (and maybe uncontrollable) rate=
- Maybe Magnetrine has substituted the other kinds of energy completely? Oil drills, dams, even nuclear energy are only the poor's countries choice. In developed countries VHS, Commodores, 80's cars could still be existing but they are using energy coming Magnetrine (maybe no need to plug them anymore?)
- Magnetrine is actually alive? It can be processed for energy purposes but it is something living in raw state
- Robots are possible due to raw Magnetrine powering them up and its strange qualities
 
joth1006
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu 15 Dec 2016, 18:40

Re: Problems of Setting

Sat 24 Dec 2016, 09:38

Also, if you read the original Tales from the Loop book, you'll get a pretty good idea of how the setting works! It's a very cool book in any case!
 
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Björn Hellqvist
Posts: 133
Joined: Wed 07 Dec 2016, 20:41
Location: Sweden

Re: Problems of Setting

Sat 24 Dec 2016, 11:38

Sounds Great! Some ideas that we could be interesting:

- Who has the money to pay for those gauss carriers? The state? The Risksenergi itself or some branch? Does it become available to other companies? 
- How other surrounding countries react to this transport revolution (see Denmark's MAERSK company), and how other trade-heavy nations such as China rely on it?
- How does Magnetrine affects environment? Is it a clean energy? Or does it have some side effects? Maybe it is the cause that machines can become sentient? Or, contrary to the standard energy it makes nature grow at faster (and maybe uncontrollable) rate=
- Maybe Magnetrine has substituted the other kinds of energy completely? Oil drills, dams, even nuclear energy are only the poor's countries choice. In developed countries VHS, Commodores, 80's cars could still be existing but they are using energy coming Magnetrine (maybe no need to plug them anymore?)
- Magnetrine is actually alive? It can be processed for energy purposes but it is something living in raw state
- Robots are possible due to raw Magnetrine powering them up and its strange qualities
Good questions! I'm going to look into the matter more closely. Some of your ideas are the same as mine. I get a feeling we'll need to retcon Simon's ideas, fitting them into an industrial, economical and technological context. For one, I think nuclear power isn't that common at all, while hydroelectric dams are still around, as many were built before the new technology arrived.
My life fades. The vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos, ruined dreams, this wasted land.
 
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Svante Landgraf
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu 04 Apr 2013, 17:27

Re: Problems of Setting

Sat 24 Dec 2016, 12:15

I don't think you should be too occupied by how things really work. The game isn't about that, it isn't that kind of science fiction. The strange technology is more about the mood of Simon Stålenhag's art than about how the world would change if it was real. I also don't see any huge problem with having Commodore 64s and robotic AI in the same world. After all, we put people on the moon with computers less powerful than a watch today. You just have to look at Stålenhag's paintings and suspend some disbelief, I'd say.
(sound of spatiotemporal holocaust)
 
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Björn Hellqvist
Posts: 133
Joined: Wed 07 Dec 2016, 20:41
Location: Sweden

Re: Problems of Setting

Sat 24 Dec 2016, 12:41

I don't think you should be too occupied by how things really work. The game isn't about that, it isn't that kind of science fiction. The strange technology is more about the mood of Simon Stålenhag's art than about how the world would change if it was real. I also don't see any huge problem with having Commodore 64s and robotic AI in the same world. After all, we put people on the moon with computers less powerful than a watch today. You just have to look at Stålenhag's paintings and suspend some disbelief, I'd say.
I see nothing wrong with providing a logical background for those of us who like to have a rationale for the setting. It's better to have something that can be ignored by those who just want a cool setting, than to have one where GMs and players ask "but how is this supposed to work"? That's suspension of disbelief - putting the science into "science fiction".
My life fades. The vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos, ruined dreams, this wasted land.
 
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Tomas
Site Admin
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Joined: Fri 08 Apr 2011, 11:31

Re: Problems of Setting

Sat 24 Dec 2016, 14:14

Great discussion here. While I think Svante Landgraf makes a very good point - this is a game about Kids and Mysteries, not about technology - we will develop Chapter 2 further and explain a little more how the technology of this alternate '80s - magnetrine ships and robots - work, specifically how they impact society and the everyday life of the Kids.
Fria Ligan
 
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menschi
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri 16 Dec 2016, 17:19

Re: Problems of Setting

Sat 24 Dec 2016, 19:16

I like the way the Alpha book is written though -- it leaves the setting to be fairly open-ended and open to interpretation. Especially since the Gamemaster is supposed to ask the players for suggestions on scene locations pretty often.

As I'm in Chicago, it'd be easy for my group to set the story here. The University of Chicago built the first nuclear reactor under a stadium during WWII, and tested the first artificial nuclear chain reaction as part of the Manhattan Project. As that was still in the city limits, that reactor was relocated twice and is now about 6 miles west at the Fermilab accelerator laboratory. The ongoing rumor I heard in real life as a kid is that the bison that were brought in to graze on the land surrounding the facility were there to serve as "canaries in the coal mine", meaning if you saw they had toppled over dead, you were most likely bathing in lethal radiation. This rumor is vehemently denied by the facility of course....
Could definitely see the introduction of robots and such technology wandering around the accelerator area, for "safety" purposes. My feeling about the setting (as I've not had a chance to read the original "Tales of the Loop" book, is that the average person is stuck with 80's technology (VHS or Beta machines if you've got some disposable income, cassette tapes or even 8-track tapes are more common), but corporations or the government have started using robots and higher technology. So while that stuff wouldn't be prevalent, it's not so alien that adults would freak out if kids reported seeing some big robots wandering around.
"His name is Bobo. He knows no mercy."
-- Simon White-Thatch Potentloins (a/k/a Peanuts the chimpanzee)
 
aka_fatman
Posts: 69
Joined: Sat 26 Nov 2016, 08:52

Re: Problems of Setting

Sun 25 Dec 2016, 04:11

I see nothing wrong with providing a logical background for those of us who like to have a rationale for the setting. It's better to have something that can be ignored by those who just want a cool setting, than to have one where GMs and players ask "but how is this supposed to work"? That's suspension of disbelief - putting the science into "science fiction".
There can be several ways to justify old and new tech, and I like the idea of having more than one possible answer.

• You could say, "That's just TALES FROM THE LOOP" as a handwave but, as is evidenced by this thread, it's unsatisfying to some.

• There is the sense that perhaps it is like Cuba - locked away in a 50's era while the rest of the world is progressing.

• The Loop itself is causing strange anomalies. Sure, this tech has been around for decades, but why does my memory tell me it has only been around for a few years?

There are plenty of reasons why there's Commodore 64s AND robots. And some groups will demand a better answer than "there just is".
 
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Björn Hellqvist
Posts: 133
Joined: Wed 07 Dec 2016, 20:41
Location: Sweden

Re: Problems of Setting

Sun 25 Dec 2016, 11:05

• There is the sense that perhaps it is like Cuba - locked away in a 50's era while the rest of the world is progressing.
...
There are plenty of reasons why there's Commodore 64s AND robots. And some groups will demand a better answer than "there just is".
The "Cuba Time Bubble" isn't plausible, as the tech is obviously state-of-the-art and present everywhere. It could be that it isn't of a kind that's affordable for the private citizen, or not practical to use on a smaller scale (like the 1950's predictions that there would be small reactors everywhere, or nuclear-powered airliners).

It could be that the computers used for robotics are still pretty basic. They can be remote controlled. As for the Russian stray robots that have AI, it might be the result of an anomaly that has caused simple robots to attain independent thinking. It is hinted in the books that there are some funny shit going on in the USSR, and what if some failed experiment with a portal has led to a computer virus taking over the robots? That could be the reason for the AI pogroms mentioned.
My life fades. The vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos, ruined dreams, this wasted land.
 
ysarius
Posts: 55
Joined: Fri 16 Dec 2016, 02:06
Location: France

Re: Problems of Setting

Sun 25 Dec 2016, 18:11

Following Thomas, I was wandering if more than giving a logical, scientific, adult explanation of all those technologies, it was possible to explain thing as a teenager would do.

But it is true : some of them (maybe the geeks) will look for rational explanation (in class books for example) and try to give it to their friends. But do we have to consider that it is the only true explanation ? If so, it will be difficult to create "debate" between children. ;)
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