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V45 - Alternate Timeline vs Completely Fictional
🕑 Added 2022-05-11 10:45:16 +0000 UTC
While much of the narrative tone and overarching ideas for V45 are clear in my mind, some big pieces such as where it's all set are still up for exploring.
Originally I planned to set it primarily within our Solar System but on a very different & alternate timeline. I'm talking alternate to the extent that the Earth and planets have physically developed differently, or it's set at a point in time where everything is much different to the current state of our own Solar System. And while the raw ingredients from many civilization & cultural elements we're familiar with exist in this alternate setting, they've developed from different origins and along different paths, taking on recognizable yet new versions of themselves.
I'm personally a fan of this blend of 'real' and fictional. It feels more grounded to me to include aspects of our world/history and fun to use them in different ways. However I worry about how far things might have to be fudged to become a suitable sci-fi setting. For example, if you wanted some of our planets beside Earth to be hospitable/habitable, can that be explained in a cool way or is that too obviously manipulating things to suit your needs and breaking 'believability'.
Perhaps it's better to set things within a completely fictional place, where you have more freedom and are less compared to the reality of our own worlds/universe. Or perhaps I'm overthinking things and the fictional aspects and changes of an alternate timeline can be pushed as far as you want as long as it's well thought out and believable within its own rules.
I'm keen to hear anyone's thoughts on this! I'm clearly no professional writer but very much enjoy creating worlds & settings.
Comments
Samuel Martin III
Doses of both! You're the creator brother! We're just ready to go on a journey into your incredible universe!
Jay
Even if it’s terra formed you don’t need to explain much just do it in exposition.
John Fulton
I'm not sure it needs to be alternate for it to work. You already have the far future to work with. There's a scriptwriting term called "Double Mumbo Jumbo" that basically means you generally want to have the least number of "magical" (or scientifically theoretical), leaps for the audience to get into your story. Exceptions exists (like the Marvel universe), but almost always for very specific reasons (superhero abilities are more symbolic than realistic--the hero and their antagonist represent psychological ideas in conflict). Warhammer 40k works on the same basic principle. Superficially all the factions are very different, but at the basic level most of them run on some level of tech or warp power (magic). Very few actual differences in kind, if that makes sense.
Helia
Its not too difficult to use our existing solar system, even if magic or super science is not involved, for things to be different. You can use events like Mars never lost its atmosphere or Venus Greenhouse effect end's and its a proto earth ripe for colonization! For Earth it self make a prediction on how the world may be if some orders never came to power; Like if the Christian church never got adopted by the romans so it remained a small cult that never did much for shaping western culture (and by extension none of the other Abrahamic faiths), or even maybe the Romans never got off the ground at all so the Persians or the Ancient Egyptians never faded into the Twilight and their cult's and culture became the dominant western influence. These are just tangential examples of how a story set in "our world" can have a lot of freedom to be different with just needing some exposition integrated so people know what's up. TL:DR - You can use "our World" for a lot of things and can be different as long as it gets explained so the audience knows what's up.
Dan Brayve
All honesty, you do want you think is right because obviously you know more than, at least, I do on film making and the sort.
Justin Lancaster
I kind've like the idea of a completely fictional setting, but populated with things and references to our own timeline. Almost as if when we watch it we feel a strange familiarity that we can't quite put our finger on.
chromicacid
Perhaps the settling of other planets in the solar system could be explained in an alternate timeline where none of the Space Shuttles blew up and public interest in space did not wane from the 1980s through the next couple decades. Showing these space shuttles in a museum display with a brief explanation of their alternate timeline storied careers and the advances in space technology spurred on by them, plus an alternate "Space Shuttle 2" (and maybe 3) alongside it could be a concise exposition about the space technology gap between our timeline and the alternate timeline. Getting into space is not easy. Every kilogram matters. Even grams matter. You need light yet strong materials and light yet strong motors and hydraulics, plus protections against radiation and hazardous environments. Alternate advances in space technology could lay the groundwork for these mechs.
Curious Cat
Alternate Solar system sounds cool. Like what if Shumerians/Egyptians/Roman Empire and other previous civilizations had high technologies at their hands, sprinkled mix of analogue, digitaland whatever fictional computers and stuff.
Christophe Duron
Probably biased because of wh40K, but hey. What makes great sci-fi is great lore. If you pick our own solar system in a different time setting you can quote our current history as ancient events which gives you a deep source of lore already.
Batcat
There are pros and cons to both. With an “alternative history/universe” type deal you have a jumping off point and you have a lot of themes you can use as inspiration for other factions (the ubiquitous Ancient Space Egyptians™ come to mind) and you can explore more large-scale what-if scenarios. But in a “completely fictional” world you’re free to do whatever. You can still draw inspiration from our world but you generally have more freedom to handwave stuff. At the same time, in sci-fi, there’s always a certain amount of hand waving when it comes to details, which can work to its benefit. A mix of the two could be an option. An alternate history/world based on our own, but set in a different solar system. Then you have the freedom to create the planets and environments you want and aren’t bound by anything, really. I did, however, vote “Alternative”. I think our own Sol System isn’t often explored much past Earth itself and seeing it developed could be pretty cool. And with sci-fi tech and hand waving you’re still free to make what you want
Jesse Mester
Oooooo this is gonna be awesome
Embo
sounds awesome either way
Gabriel Wismer
Using our solar system as a starting point, and then changing things as needed is probably a good idea. There was a time in our history when people believed that strange lines on mars were canals built by Martians to stop their planet from drying out. It would be interesting if in a alternate Timeline, things like that were true.
Burgi
i voted "alternate" and agree with the more grounded way thinking. but i would not "can that be explained in a cool way or is that too obviously manipulating things to suit your needs and breaking 'believability'." go too far. if you explain everything, everywhere, everytime, it could become kind of boring. like star wars after they "invented" the midi chlorians. somehow the force isn´t that magical anymore, it´s kind of chemistry/physics now.
Igattori
I voted alternate solar-system. It can be much more sophisticated and work intense if you wanna do it right and by the heart but it has the potential to draw ppl in by itself.
Stefan Mewa
I find it interesting to see how familiar themes are evolving into alternative settings, but it's critical for the explanation to be believable. Not necessarily 100% realistic, but reasonable, so deep background research and world building is a must. Even with a completely fictional world it's impossible for our human mind to avoid recurring themes and references to our reality. In the end it's the same amount of work, if not more - as one needs to invent almost everything AND keep it believable. I also have a feeling that Solar System is too little "exploited" in media and I'd love to see more settings growing around it. We still haven't discovered most of it as we keep finding more unexpected things in our "hood" - a great room to speculate and invent stuff.
BotBot
I think that if you're aiming to root certain factions in recognisable cultural tropes from our own history then going for an alternate history timeline helps a lot with that. In terms of believability I think time heals all wounds, if you want to say someone terraformed Mars, if they did that in 100 years that's not believable, but if you say it took 2000 years then it's ok. Also I think having these big kind of pivot events that divert their timeline from ours is something fun to play with.
Neil P
I like "what if" scenarios, it gives you a jumping off point from which to start your story and allows you to retain things we are familiar with, so not everything has to be invented from scratch, but also allows you to explore what is different.
Joshua Crager
What ever protects you legally. Don't want another GW situation.
MadMasha
I vote other. have it based on an alternate version of our timeline as the roots to explain the setting, tech, motivations etc. But the focus of it is in another stellar system that gives you the fictional freedom to do what you want beyond the bounds of our own solar system.
Laughingskull
Honestly could go a bit of both have something weird happen like alternate reality of sol system merges with ours or some artificial planet winds up orbiting our sun
