Alt History RPs?

[Arawak]

How much appeal do alt history roleplays have on this site?

I have an idea for a alt history RP that involves a successfully industrialized china that has a global hegemony of tributaries (no, china doesn't conquer the world, simply has global cultural influence of varied degrees) (and a somewhat detailed idea of how this even came about in my head- basically neo-confucianism doesn't successfully nip industrialization in the bud and the southern song successfully rebuff the mongols a la greece vs persia (the mongols than get chased out of the north, where than Ganghis or one of his sons decide to invade the weaker, but still wealthy nations in the west)... This given 500 or so years leads to a world where the middle kingdom is the domineering force of the world, unchallenged from heights of Tibet to the distant Americas (or whatever china would call the place)).

Thing is, i'm unsure if many people would play it here since I go around advanced and don't see that many alt histories around here. Am I just looking in the wrong place or is alt history just not a big thing here?

[Dinh AaronMk]

Trying looking in NRP then.

That said, I put alt-history down as one of the more difficult things to tackle since simply saying "X" tends to ignore a plethora of other factors at play. Per Song-era China: they were falling apart as they were during Genghis Khan because the Song Dynasty had lost the Mandate of Heaven, or the Chinese ideology of who has the right to rule and their authority had pretty much eroded; which is why and how the Mongols could take advantage of them.

Personally, the only alt-history I have the patience for is Precipice of War, if because it's been going strong so long we've learned to work out the peculiarities of the core premise so it presents itself as being more coherent. Having said that: I do appreciate seeing more in the way of fantasy RPs. Alt-history RPs come with a lot more baggage than people tend to anticipate to make a workable premise. It's not really as simple as saying "X-changes so Y-continues in a different direction".

So back to the case of the Song: their authority and right to rule had eroded or was beginning to erode enough that another Great Khan would eventually sweep in and take what they wanted from China. But really: Mongol rule in China wasn't really regressive. That was the Ming.

[Arawak]

I know the Ming are where things get very repressive. But Mongolian conquest was pretty much the reason the Ming were so totalitarian if I recall- they didn't want to get conquered by Nomads again. Than they got conquered by nomads again (well, technically they had them take control since everyone was sick of the Ming, whatever).

The point of departure is more in limiting the influence of neo-confucianism somehow, so the market society the Song had isn't nipped in the bud.

I figured if neo-confucian influence was reduced it may cause the series of events that eventually lead to a industrial china, though saying industrial china does ignore that a Chinese Industrialization would look a hell of a lot different from Britain's. And than things just get more different from there when you consider how different a Europe invaded by mongols would be or what of India or what of Chinese contact with the New Worlds and how different that can play out from Spanish conquest... okay I can definitely see your point. Hard enough to do alt history alone, imagine a dozen people with totally different skill levels and knowledge bases!

Probably could work better as a fantasy RP where a china-like culture (or hell, even some culture very different from anything on our world) that has a global hegemony over a diverse world I suppose, similar concept but much easier to work with?

[Makky]

I love alternative history.
But probably not for the same
reasons as the ones that bring in
the paragraphs on this thread. *u*

[Dinh AaronMk]

I love alternative history.
But probably not for the same
reasons as the ones that bring in
the paragraphs on this thread. *u*

@Makky

Is this some sort of haiku or are you afraid RPGuild has the same sort of ridiculous text wrapping as 4chan?

[Makky]

@Dinh AaronMk Neither. It's me OCC.
And lazy. Elo there. Heard of that site.
Too scaredy cat to go on it ever.
Seeing context, I'm guessing you
mean it "lacks of text wrap". ^_^;;