Purely hypothetical...

[Bob Schroeck]

---

Hell, I would think that the anti-Western sentiments of the general populace of some Middle Eastern nations would make it difficult for general mind scans. How do you find the terrorist in a crowd of people who all hate you?

---

Leaving aside the fact that under GURPS global scans like that are actually rather difficult to begin with, I'd say look for general, immediate intent, nervousness or other emotional states you'd associate with someone about to perform a terroristic act. If you're just looking for J. Random Cell Member, well, that'd be a lot harder, yeah.

-- Bob
---------
It's spelt "Frodo Baggins" but it's pronounced "Throat-wobbler Mangrove."

[Ebony]

---

Leaving aside the fact that under GURPS global scans like that are actually rather difficult to begin with, I'd say look for general, immediate intent, nervousness or other emotional states you'd associate with someone about to perform a terroristic act. If you're just looking for J. Random Cell Member, well, that'd be a lot harder, yeah.

---

I was thinking more of Bob the UN Psi riding in a Humvee as it drives through Baghdad or Kabul, scanning for terrorists, being overrun with the general antipathy of the general Muslim populace, but I see where you're coming from. Ebony the Black Dragon
Senior Editor, Living Room Games
http://www.lrgames.com
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[Bob Schroeck]

I think we're both agreeing that, yeah, the populace acts as a very efficient psi shield.

-- Bob
---------
It's spelt "Frodo Baggins" but it's pronounced "Throat-wobbler Mangrove."

[M Fnord]

Here's my question for the hypothetical IST revamp: would you still be using the "IST World in the 1990s" timeline as a baseline? Seems to me that the '90s timeline sets up more than enough dark & scary stuff (the US led by Pat Buchanan for chrissakes!) that anybody doing anything on 9/11/2001 seems a bit redundant...---
Mr. Fnord, interdimensional man of mystery.
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Bob Schroeck]

Yeah, I was definitely going to go with the existing 1990s timeline. Where it goes after the 90s, though... the timeframe is a bit too short to invoke the historical pendulum effect, but I would certainly think that there would be some kind of reaction to the reactionaries, somewhere.
And I still haven't settled on what, if anything, happens as the analogue to 9/11. Or when.

-- Bob
---------
It's spelt "Frodo Baggins" but it's pronounced "Throat-wobbler Mangrove."

[robkelk]

---

And I still haven't settled on what, if anything, happens as the analogue to 9/11. Or when.

---

Well, something has to happen in late-2000/early-to-mid-2001 - there's a Wall up that annoys more than a few precogs, and that had to come from somewhere...
Edit: Oh, and does the Wall work the other way, too? (That is, once the world's timeline gets past it, does it block postcognition?) No need to answer immediately, but I think it should be mentioned in the update.
-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Valles]

---

Well, something has to happen in late-2000/early-to-mid-2001 - there's a Wall up that annoys more than a few precogs, and that had to come from somewhere...

---

...First case of AI reproduction? IE, AIs designing new AIs?
Ja, -n
(Talking about singularity...)
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[M Fnord]

---

..First case of AI reproduction? IE, AIs designing new AIs?

---

That could get out of hand so fast as to mutate the setting beyond all recognition.
Though I'll gladly pay extra for a new IST edition with a sidebar on "Transhuman IST." %)---
Mr. Fnord, interdimensional man of mystery.
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Bob Schroeck]

That means I'll actually have to get familiar with Transhuman...

-- Bob
---------
It's spelt "Frodo Baggins" but it's pronounced "Throat-wobbler Mangrove."

[crazyjoe]

Bob Schroeck wrote:

---

If something happens on 9/11, it's going to be something different, if only because I don't want to slavishly follow the "real world" when
the timelines have diverged so much in the previous 20 years.




And John, yes, al-Qaeda's roots go back farther than GW1, but the core issues that prompted
the 9/11 attack, according to the best sources I've read, all revolve around the US presence in Saudi Arabia (and the mideast in general, but mainly the
"infidels on holy ground" thing).



-- Bob


---------


There's no wrong way to eat a Rhesus.

Personally, I think al-Qaeda's a bit low-power to be a world-class threat in a superhero world as it is in the
real world. Instead, my idea was to have it absorbed, alongside other radical islamic terror groups, into a larger organisation with better funding, and
actual air, sea and land power. In short, something like Hasbro's Cobra, DC's Kobra or Hero's Viper, but with an islamic bent. Led by a fanatical
and charismatic military genius, and equipped with high-tech weaponry and the ruthlessness to use them, this organisation's overall goal would be uniting
the Middle East into a single Islamic Empire worthy of the heirs of Ali.

[Bob Schroeck]

I'm getting a definite legless reptile theme here.

Okay, let me lay something on the table. I'm not inclined to use Islamic extremists as a major Big Bad if I get my act together and write IST2. I've got too much else going on in the world that is much bigger -- like the Red Chinese. And, frankly, the United States; while I had no specific plans or "historical" events in mind, I did intend -- unfortunately rather presciently -- for the US to stop looking like a well-meaning if somewhat interfering elder brother and turn into an intolerant bully. The idea was to trap Europe and the Third World between these blocs and see what happens.

Islamic extremism just doesn't have the same engine driving it in the IST world that it does in ours. As of 1999, Iraq and Iran are both moderate democracies -- most of their extremists blew each other up (along with a fair percentage of their people). And while many of the same leader-figures may still be around -- Bin Laden to cite the obvious example -- the mutual annihilation of two radical Islamist governments and most of their populations is still fresh in many minds, and there are far fewer willing recruits. And as I've noted elsewhere, other than those two nations, there is no Western military presence in the Mideast. (And even there, the UN peacekeeping forces are mainly drawn from armies in the region.) There are far fewer points of outrage that the extremists can use to whip up followers. (Yeah, Israel. For the foreseeable future of the IST world that's going to be as much a target/provocation as it is in the real world. I'm not sure that New Palestine or whatever it ends up being called will help, sadly.) But for the most part America is thoroughly far away and as long as it gets its oil is more concerned with Castro's saber-rattling than anything happening in the Mideast.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[crazyjoe]

Definetly looks like you set Islamic Terror to be a lesser evil in your IST. So much for that idea. Still, I like the idea of an army of sneaky, shadowy
terrorists wanting to tear down the Western world. Although I guess something more like the Brotherhood of Nod approach might work, with a single charismatic,
possibly immortal leader (shades of Ra's Al Gul).

On the other hand, Red China rising as the next great "Evil Empire" has a lot of potential. Although I've always imagined a Superheroverse China
as having a lot of trouble policing it's own superhuman population. See, I kinda imagine Supers in China being like a wuxia movie set in modern days:
Individuals with phenomenal fighting skills and extraordinary abilities who exist in a kind of 'alternate world' outside the bounds of normal society,
doing battle and settling scores outside the reach of more mundane authorities. Of course, in this case the Chinese government would still have it's own
Supers to help impose order, but I'd wager they'd spend as much time dealing with internal strife as they would dealing with outside threats.

[Inquisitive Raven]

I hope you don't mind me resurrecting the thread. I joined this forum because I recently got my hands on GURPS 4e and
was going through my 3e books to see what needed updating and found IST high on the list.

Anyway, I noticed in crazyjoe's timeline that there isn't really anything south of the equator. This seems like a major oversight that you will need to
remedy. In particular, at the end of 1990, South Africa is a ticking timebomb and I wouldn't expect things to get any better. In fact, I think there is a
pretty high probability that it would've exploded by the end of the 1990s.

[Bob Schroeck]

Hi, Raven, and welcome to the Forums!

Oh, certainly something will happen with South America. I very deliberate set it up as a powderkeg -- well, I had to, as someone else had already created Doc Rad and his Latin American hosts, and they weren't going to exist in isolation. Exploded? Mm. Yeah, maybe, but we're probably envisioning two different types of explosion.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Inquisitive Raven]

Ah, but I'd been mostly thinking about South Africa's new methods of enforcing Apartheid. Different continent. And
yeah, different kind of explosion.

[crazyjoe]

Well, if nothing else, there's always the good ol' standby of an Alien Invasion.