Now that I've got (just a little :-X ) free time I'm writing up an alternate timeline for a new campaign. I'm just posting here about the setting, not house rules and the like. My initial idea is probably going to generate a blizzard of criticism, this won't be politically correct for this site ::)
No K-F drives. No FTL. No jumpships, nor warships
The original Kearny-Fuchida theories were debunked and mankind developed at subluminal speed. Everything else is the same as canon, fusion technologies are unchanged. The Terraforming of Mars & Venus is almost the same: in this timeline they didn't cut corners on the projects (particularly Venus). So, Venus continues as a lush, profitable world (and in many ways the focus of this seting). here's the practical details:
Take the classic map of the Human Sphere; The inner worlds ( the first ring, from Terra out to 250 LY ) represents colonies- cities, towns, etc.- on Venus. The core worlds and capitals of the five Houses are all on Venus, and most of the succession wars were fought on this world, Needless to say, this is why the succession wars were so deadly. Total population of Venus is ~7 billon, divided among the five successor states.
The second ring of Inner Sphere worlds, out to 500 LY or so, represents colonies- habitats, really- out in the Asteroid belt. Yes, much of human space is Belter territory. All of the five successor states have their Habitats, some big and some small. Most are robust enough to withstand Mech combat, but not all. Violence on the level of the Second Succession War wreaked havoc out among the Aseroids. Total population: 2 billion. Some habitats are large indeed.
Past 500 or so light years represents colonies/habitats past Neptune, out in the Oort cloud. Even in the canon timeline it is easy to hide out there; many times the only way to find someone is to physically go there. And it's a biiiiiig volume of space. The RWR and Taurian Concordat could set up shop, and grow undetected for quite some time before being discovered.
Terra and Mars are unchanged from the canon timeline: always Terran hegemony turf, later ComStar. Titan and the Titan Shipyards too, which gave the Hegemony- and later Comstar- considerable leverage over the rest of humanity.
So far so good. For your average mechjock, nothing really changes. Your house lord embarks on a campaign and you sally forth to wreck the other side. One battlefield blurs into the next. But here's a complication: during the Star League era Cassie DeBurke and team did develop the HPG technology. Of course, its usefulness was limited- realtime communication with your forces invading Ceres is certainly important when your command bunker is on Venus- but there were ramifications. The breakthrough led to new Magellan projects. Magelan II sent probes equipped with HPGs to nearby systems ( that the original Magellan probes had found ). With the technology of the Star League these probes were able to achieve .9C, arriving much faster the the first probes. Magellan III sent pre-fab colonies and colonists using a form stasis technology (what was used to keep Devlin Stone on ice for a time).
So, in the Successor State era there are colonies outside the Terran system. But they're not able to directly influence events; they have HPGs, and thus both sides know what's going on, but limited to slowboat transportation they are limited to being passive spectators.
Or are they? Are the 'Hidden Five' worlds of ComStar among these extrasolar colonies? It's a very very long trip, but ComStar would have access to resources that are basically untouchable by the Successor States.
So this is my idea for an alternate setting. It's still Battletech, a lack of jumpships and warships won't threaten the battlemech's status as king of the battlefield. Dropships and Asf are still there, unchanged.
Opnions? Coments? Fuel for a dumpster fire? Give me some feedback :) :)
