Pink Tentacle has a post about seven futuristic mega-projects that would make awesome settings for a sci fi novel – I am so going to steal some of these ideas and incorporate them in the Voyagers setting.
And then there’s Billybob884 who posted a paper model Halo ringworld to Devianart. You can print it out and assemble it yourself – Pretty neat!
Roy Prol posted a bunch of fairly cool videos to YouTube, many of them contain fairly cool ideas that could be expanded into entire settings. Check them out:
Anti-Water Device:
Earth with Saturn-like rings:
Floating Gardens:
Clockwork City:
Man-Made Islands of the Future:
As an aside, the City Coaster and Floating Garden videos combined do remind me of Bioshock: Infinite…
If you like world building or even just map-making, you should watch Jerry’s Map on Vimeo and read the guy’s (sadly fairly empty) blog. He has been working on a constantly-evolving, huge map since 1963.
Finally, this vimeo video has some great shots of Jerry’s Map mounted on a wall.
LoveThesePics.com posted a photo gallery about a Tour of the abandoned Fix Flags amusement park in New Orleans. Very creepy photos, and very post-apocalyptic. Absolutely reminds me of Wasteland or Fallout. The park could easily be the HQ of the Killer Clowns, which is probably a staple of Postapocalyptica.
The site seems to have some pretty cool photo galleries in general… awesome for inspiration.
Tsojcanth had an awesome idea, one-page-dungeon designs in an organizer like notepad booklet. Whatever do you call those? Anyway, he took small notebook and put maps and notes into it. I absolutely love this idea, and I am going to steal it – I put some of these notebooks into my Amazon shopping cart already.
One of my favorite Science Fiction authors is H. Beam Piper. He lived from March 23rd, 1904 until early November 1964, when he tragically committed suicide. He chose to kill himself because he – incorrectly – thought that his writing career was at a dead end.
Piper’s work can be divided into roughly two parts, or two “settings”, if you will. His “Paratime”storylines deal with alternate worlds and alternate timelines; the Paratime Police deals with incursions and problems in different timelines; their society jealously guards the secret of travel to parallel worlds while exploiting the same for their own benefit. If you ever read GURPS Time Travel (or the GURPS Infinite Worlds setting), you will find that Paratime was the main influence for their setting.
The other group of stories by Piper is usually referred to as the Terro-Human Future History. It’s basically an example of the “consensus cosmogony” that science fiction writers only needed – and still need – to hint at for the reader to make assumptions about the future of human history.
The history of H. Beam Piper’s Science Fiction stories diverges early from our own timeline, the UN collapses and World War III leads to a follow-up organization, the Terran Federation. It is World War IV that completely devastates the Northern Hemisphere. The southern nations rebuild civilization, and the Hyperdrive is developed in circa 2126, finally bringing mankind to the stars.
Piper’s setting is notable because its society is not American-based. His characters are a very wild mix of nationalities, and for example major universities are in Australia and South America rather than the US and Europe. Culturally, there isn’t all that much difference, though.
Mankind’s early exploration of interstellar space is run by the Terran Federation, which charters company to colonize and exploit various worlds. So for example there’s the Chartered Uller Company, and so on. These companies act pretty much like their British equivalents that settled North America.
The Terran Federation expands and then fights a war against the System States Alliance, a group of worlds that declares independence. The resulting war eventually triggers the collapse of the Federation, and a long time of anarchy descends on human space before the Empire revives interstellar civilization.
A quick Terro-Human Future History Bibliography:
There’s a magazine (fanzine?) article in which Piper published a rough timeline of his Future History, and is worth a look after you read some of his books:
There are two Piper stories that are not, technically, part of Future History, but which fit really well:
Piper’s works were among those that influenced the Traveller Role-Playing Game. Off the top of my head:
Ever since I discovered Piper – way too late in my life – his work has been a major influence on my own sicence fiction designs.
If you want to read Piper, my recommendations are:
The other stories aren’t bad, but I think those are the best of the crop.
Enjoy!
Found these on Youtube. They are what inspired the TV show “Futurama”. They are perfect inspiration if you want to create an alternate history or a pastiche.
“I was going to write like James Branch Cabell, which would have taken a lot of doing. Before that, I was going to write like Rafael Sabatini, and like Talbot Munday, and like Rider Haggard, and even, God help us, like Edgar Rice Burroughs. … Eventually I decided to write like H. Beam Piper, only a little better. I am still trying.”
— H. Beam Piper, The double:bill Symposium interview
By random chance I came across Life after People on local TV tonight – the 2h original version, not the series. While it is hardly perfect – Wikipedia lists some criticisms or omissions, and I can come up with several more – it is still an inspirational film and a good idea to watch if you’re into post-apocalyptic fiction / gaming.
Here’s an assortment of links you might find useful.
How-To’s
* Map-making tutorial using The Gimp.
Inspiration, Locations
* Photos from Paris Exhibition, 1900. In color.
* Abandoned subway stations in New York City
* The Uros people of the Titicaca lake live on floating islands, which is a cool style of living for a conpeople.
Science Fiction Stuff
* Tests have shown that it is possible to protect long-duration missions from solar wind using a magnetic shield.
* Scientists figured out that Mars’ loss of atmosphere to the pressure from solar wind isn’t a slow, gentle process; instead it is quite violent: Solar Wind Rips Up Martian Atmosphere.
NaNoWriMo 2008 Research
* Wikipedia on radioactive fallout
* Wikipedia on fallout shelters and blast shelters
* Mount Weather government bunker
* Gas masks vs bad smells: Gas masks do not filter out odors, unless they are designed for the job, but vick vapor rub is a work-around used by law enforcement and emergency workers.
* Geiger counters
* Compound bows – bow hunting is done in the US