Alternate Earths

“Alternate Earths” are worlds that are like Earth . . .
but different in some way. The differences might be
tiny (Kennedy’s picture is on the dime), huge (Kennedy
is now King of the Western Hemisphere), or unbeliev-
able (the Earth is ruled by intelligent lizards who have
the same cultures, languages, and politics as us).
A “reasonable” alternate history is sometimes called
a parallel world. Inventing parallel worlds is a great
intellectual game. One way to approach it is to pick a
historical event and ask, “What if this were different?”
What if Lincoln had survived Booth’s attack? What if
Chamberlain had stood up to Hitler? What if Eric the
Red had died in a brawl at age 16?
As the GM, you can invent any sort of alternate
Earth. You can assume as many basic points of differ-
ence as you like. But it is interesting to see what logical
consequences you can develop from one change. Pick
any historical event – great or small – and ask yourself,
“What if this had gone differently?”
For an entire campaign setting built around alter-
nate Earths, with many examples, see Chapter 20.