There are bizarre timelines, and then there’s Lagoon-2. On this world, fish-men rose out of the sea in 1954… just in time to help keep humanity from being slaughtered by an incursion of warped Ant-Men from inland. Today, humanity more or less is safe whenever they’re within ten miles of saltwater. Go past that, and things get… Weird… very, very quickly.
Infinity finds this place alarming, but profitable: the culture has frozen worldwide into a somewhat demented perpetual rockabilly extravaganza. Turns out that there are two things that Ant-Men can’t stand: salt water, and rock-and-roll. Which is one reason why Elvis Presley just got re-elected President, and why most remaining countries are almost literally ruled by their Top 40 lists. It’s not really a place for disaster tourism, but lots of people want to go to Lagoon-2 and try it anyway.
Lagoon-2, 1973
Current Affairs
Thrill as Humanity fights off the threat of the evil Ant-Men! Shiver as cruel mandibles threaten to feast on society! Cheer as Men and Mermen bring the fight to the enemy!
Divergence Point:
1954: nuclear testing apparently produces ant-men and fish-men that breed true.
Major Civilizations
Chinese (Empire), Islamic (Diffuse), Japanese (Empire with rivals), Western (Bipolar), Fish-Men (Unitary)
Great Powers
British Commonwealth (dictatorship, CR4), United States of America (representative democracy, CR4 along coast, CR1 inland), Greater East Asian Self-Defense League (oligarchy, CR3), Cuba (oligarchy, CR4), Republic of China (feudal, CR5), Republic of India (feudal, CR3), The Realm of the Fish-Men (dictatorship, CR2)
Worldline Data
TL: 7, plus various bits of Mad Science!
Quantum: 6
Mana Level: none in salt water, low within ten miles of a significant body of salt water, high outside of those areas.
Centrum Zone: Red
Infinity Level: R6
Nobody’s really sure why setting off atomic bombs on land produced a species of rapacious, vicious Ant-Men dedicated to enslaving humanity for their brood-pits, while setting off the same atomic bombs on the water produced instead a race of admittedly ugly, but actually rather pleasant Fish-Men who were willing to help out mankind in their sudden and brutal war against the Ant-Men. But that’s what happened… and then things got weird.
The basic rule of thumb is this: anyone who lives within ten miles of a large enough body of salt water is safe from Ant-Man depredations. Something about the water, something about the background magic that apparently got rejuvenated by all the atomic blasts, nobody’s sure. From ten to about thirty miles, things are fairly dangerous, but reliably so. Past that point, things get weird. Not just Ant-Man weird: Strange Magic weird, Mad Science weird, Bizarre Cults weird… the gamut of strange, really. There are quite a few human communities and even cities out there in the Ant-Lands, but surviving adventurers report that those places are consistently just a little bit… Weird. When they’re not being “sacrifice your party to the Sock Gods” Weird.
Needless to say, there’s been a population shift (and associated die-off). The USA claims all its old territory, and even makes a stab at keeping the more vital interior mines and manufacturing facilities functional until they can be replaced by coastal facilities. Well, it does that when it’s not defending its own capital, which lies just outside of the safe zone and seemingly a popular target for attacks by the Weird. The USA has also annexed Panama outright, and whatever Caribbean islands that couldn’t make a deal with a resurgent (and decidedly newly-monarchical) British Commonwealth. In the East, the no-longer-Communist Chinese are staring at the no-longer pacifist Japanese, and the Japanese are staring right back, and only the strong presence of the Fish-Men in the Pacific is keeping the two countries from starting a war. Elsewhere, India is consolidating its hold on every plot of arable land within reach, the Mediterranean is about to see yet another naval war between Islamic North Africa and Catholic Southern Europe whether the Fish-Men (or the Israelis) like it or not, and every mercenary adventurer with a machete, a salt-water squirt gun, and a guitar seems determined to go to Rio de Janeiro and get in on the looting of South America.
All of this being done with musical accompaniment, of course. As noted earlier, rock-and-roll music (including country, blues, western, and some folk) can knock an Ant-Man back on its rear legs in short order. The countries of the world have fully grasped this, which is why musical instruction has been mandatory in the United States since President Cash’s first term. It’s also why English is even more prevalent in this world than in Homeline’s: when it comes to beating the Ant-Men back, it’s going to be either America’s Rockabilly, or the British Invasion. Only Japan’s Kaiju-Rock can hope to compete with that super-sound that’s going ‘round…
Outworld Involvement
Infinity imports a lot of music and films from Lagoon-2, and that’s largely it. White Star generally runs its operations out of Rio, where it is easy to pass off a load of rare earths or generic industrial materials as ‘salvage.’ There are some researchers studying the odd mana levels, but this is one world where Infinity feels (with justification) that it actually understands why magic and Weirdness are fluctuating in Lagoon-2 the way that they do. Infinity’s biggest problems are in trying to keep people from going and playing adventure tourist: Lagoon-2 is not really a safe place to visit, but a lot of idiots try to anyway.
In contrast, Centrum hates Lagoon-2 with a passion. The very idea of it seems to offend the average Centran on a visceral level; possibly the only reason why Interworld hasn’t just dimension-nuked the timeline is because doing so would probably only spawn more Ant-Men. This means that any Centrans encountered on Lagoon-2 are almost certain there in order to avoid the notice of their own government. This does not mean that they will be allies to Homeline, however. Probably the exact opposite, in fact: if they were going to simply defect they’d do so.
Other Lagoons
There was a massive fight in the academic community over whether this timeline deserved the ‘Lagoon’ or the ‘Merlin’ designation; eventually the ‘Lagoon’ faction won out. The original Lagoon (now Lagoon-1) is of course a myth parallel where the Creature of the Black Lagoon was real (Lagoon-2’s Fish-Men are clearly of the same species, although they can speak human languages).
The material presented here is my original creation, intended for use with the In Nomine andGURPS systems from Steve Jackson Games. This material is not official and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games.
In Nomine and GURPS are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games, and the art here is copyrighted by Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy.
Dang, I’d like to *play* this .. in a Bethesda / Black Isle sort of way .. and maybe in a GURPS type setting. The latter would depend on the skill of the GM and how long I have to get familiar with GURPS…
.
Mew
GURPS is incredibly easy to wrap your mind around at the conceptual level. The base mechanic is a 3d6 bell curve that mimics what humans are actually capable of, and the physics try to model real life (if sometimes a bit simplified).
So what you can, and can’t, do is incredibly easy to grok.
.
Want to test your skill or attribute? Roll 3d6.
If you get your level or under, you succeed. 3 always succeeds (if success is possible) 18 always fails.
.
Combat advances in one second intervals, and is more tactical than normal. But you’ll be spending most of it doing “step and…” so it really isn’t very hard to pick up. The major thing is that you generally get to roll defense if someone successfully attacks you to nullify the damage. Some people hate this, I’m one of those that love it. Also, you don’t have very many HP. But at zero (and for a while below) the threat is losing consciousness, not dying. So it isn’t quite as nasty as it first appears.
.
It’s character creation that’s complicated, because you do most of your work right up front. (But it’s still nowhere near as bad as Hero.)
Oh, my. I have a vision of The Bugaloos in that timeline. And it is AWESOME!