1888

I was asking about the SG universe gates, but yeah, you're right. Sort of a big crystal ball effect, where your perspective of the other side can change depending on the viewing angle.

you die, since the horizon only lets matter through one way

>unless they only contact low-technology worlds
They've just got to take out a few solders here and there and take their weaponry and armor, then form an A-Team battalion of sorts. I mean, you know how well the British are at stealing-er, I mean collecting cool shit off other cultures.

The word your elooking for is
>re-appropriating

>We're also pretty good at stealing countries, so watch it, you cheeky bugger.
But honestly this idea sounds pretty excellent. I mean, the GM has control over the worlds they can visit. Futuristic British space colonists sounds pretty damn cool.

>Victorian Era black ops team that are basically the Praetorian guard.
I didn't know how much I wanted this. But now I do.

Sounds like an easy excuse to use all those crazy "John Carter of Mars" style races that don't fit into anything else.

So simple... so effective...

You go back. It was never explained for how long the wormhole really lasts and this it's perfectly fine to assume the connection is long enough to move you back. Especially since the lenght of travel also never was really measured, so it can be in fact a situation where the "tunnel" doesn't really exists and you go from gate A to gate B with a blink of an eye, while you, inside, percieve the "tunnel"

You are disintegrated. One character was actually trying to use that as execution method.

There was no retcon, the iris is something the SGC installed in the gate, somehow.
Other gates don't have one and the iris needs to get replaced several times because it is damaged. There are attacks effective against it.

You can just shoot a rocket through it. Or use automated observation. There was one episode where the gate was buried after meteor shower, pointing up beneath the ground.

They shot a rope and hook through to climb into the cave created by the whoosh effect, then dug up to the surface.

>the tau'ri catch the attention of Ra and the Goa'uld
>they conquer Earth because humans don't yet have the technology to resist
Doomed from the start.

If you can fit an Iris, and replace an Iris, can you make a big movable Iris with a lid on?

At the same time the much lower technological level might hide them/make them not relevant from higher powers, compared to an early space age civilization.

What do you mean with 'movable'? The normal iris is already movable because if anything gets caught up in the woosh effect it stops existing.

There is no point in moving it a lot, because it functions by being nanometers away from the event horizon, crushing anything coming in before it regains it's structure. Adding more movement to it is just an unneccesarry amount of risk.
That's also why it would be very hard to implement an iris with Victorian era tech.

Wait I thought being caught by the whoosh just forcefully send you through it?

No, it wouldn't.
The Goa'uld want Earth because the Tau'ri make good slaves, they've been looking for Earth ever since humans rebelled against Ra.

Wait I thought being caught by the whoosh just forcefully send you through it?

Heh. I should read that lore again, it's been 10 years since I watched it, I remember, did human were indeed from earth or not?

Yes.
Humans evolved on Earth, with some meddling of the Ancients I think. Goa'uld used to possess Unas, but switched when they came to earth because humans were better suited to use the tech of the Ancients, which all of the Goa'uld tech is based on.

>put gate on pivots
>when not in use, point gate up
>enemies come through gate, fall back into gate
This is an elegant solution that resolves all land travel, but not any gliders or other small flight craft “Threading the Needle.”

>Did they ever mention what happens if you try going through the wrong side of a gate?

>You are disintegrated.
Not quite. It’s more like any matter that *fully* goes through the wormhole will be lost or destroyed in some way.
You can stick your hand back through with no ill effect.
O’neil does this once to keep the wormhole open, thereby preventing those on the otherside from dialing another gate.

>You go back.
Wrong, matter goes one way only.
Although energy can go both ways, so a Star Trek Transporter beam could probably pass through.

>It was never explained for how long the wormhole really lasts
Kinda wrong.
The maximum time length is 38 minutes without an uber power source.
The minimum time length is exactly however long the plot of that moment in that episode requires; They stick to this law pretty closely.

That was that, thanks!

So OP

did you keep the friendly alien immigrant?

Stargates pass matter one way but radio waves both ways. The only dangerous thing is the splash which disintegrates matter on contact. The event horizon is simply impassable from a dialed gate to the dialing gate.

So pivoting it so the portal points up when not in use and capping it with a big steel equivalent of the Iris works, for a given value of "works" - doesn't protect against anyone using something that flies and can break through, but that'd be damn hard to stop anyway.

Seems pretty cool, and allows for a lot of Space 1889-style stargate adventures

No.

An incoming gate will obliterate any matter touching the splash. They glossed that over later on the show for cinematics, but the impossible iris can only be closed after the incoming gate is established.

Why is the iris impossible? Have you ever really looked where it comes from, where the aperture slides out of? That's right, it's IN the gate. Inside the inscrutable and indestructible machine built by Ancients there's room for a flimsy titanium assembly that deploys over yards to within a micrometer's precision and becomes nigh indestructible in the process. And remember, it's not a wall, it's so close to the event horizon that it keeps matter passed through it from reconstituting. Never mind that the titanium has its own surface structure and the puddle is a puddle with ripples of a totally different shape...

The best way would be to box the unused gate in megatons of granite and hope that nothing comes through that can tunnel through rock.

You could retcon it so that the earth gate has an energy shield like the Atlantis gate. Would that work? Have way it to be energy efficient etc?

hand wave it*

You could do anything you want.

The issue is whether it will mesh well with the Stargate aesthetics and the gas light tropes.

True enough. I could definitely run the game exploring the themes of responsible government and exploitation, and as a foil to that, have a second d power get involved with the human/gou'auld conflict who is a meddling 'higher power' who irks the Victorians but also gives them a mirror to reflect upon...

What's a good 'overlord' race that I could introduce? Non-Canon of course. Maybe technocrats? Uplifted consciousness? Not!-replicators?

Well that picture is cool so maybe some bio-mechanical race that has advanced well beyond the humans. They can seamlessly interact with and control our primitive human technology making them pretty dangerous.

I always felt that the dieselpunk civilizations had a lot of story in them. They mirror earth society more than tribesmen, and they face similar conundrums vis-a-vis science and technology.

...to make them a threat maybe have them discover fusion? Of course they're even worse equipped to deal with this than earth was for the Manhattan Project. But now they're building ships and maybe they're decades behind earth vessels, but they have fusion cores and guns that unload energy at an alarming rate.

Whole sector ruled by an XCOM equivalent. Advanced medicine and engineering, developed locally and stolen from system lords. Basically an "evil" stargate command with some scp and centrum mixed in for flavor. Anti-corporate and anti-religious, but racism is nonexistent.

Maybe make them more advanced in one area, like psychiatry or pharmacy? Not everything needs to have a bigger gun than the guys last week.

Def gonna run a few sessions centered around that concept.

I kinda feel I wanna make them retroactively antithesis of themselves; like, yeah, theyve reached a singularity of technology, but their designs ended up with millions of voices in chaos, not concert. So mind uploads work, but theres no consensus on progress forward. A million voices shouting in madness, not consensus. Maybe even total war on a grand scale.

But it would nicely undercut that HFY meme with a less advanced carbon copy that is more mighty regardless. Ship combat could be interesting. It's usually commando missions in SG-1, actual capital ships facing off is either over in seconds or a drawn out stalemate with both crews racing to gain the upper hand by repairing their systems first.

To see the Daedalus face off against a bunch of ironclads and them dominating in a direct confrontation leaving the Daedalus to bring cloaking, transporter, and on-board gate technology to bear in a hail mary to even the playing field...

Thats a cool idea, this crazed anti-hivemind sort of techno-civilization

I always thought the Wraith were cool as fuck for a bad guy

>Did they ever mention what happens if you try going through the wrong side of a gate?

>Nearly everybody misreads the question and tries to explain what happens if you back through an incoming wormhole.

Sorry, bro.

Anyway:

reddit.com/r/Stargate/comments/4dnhm5/what_would_happen_if_you_would_try_to_enter_a/d1sti30

Dear god, that thread
I may have to homebrew more concrete rules on how the gate works, just for playability alone

in my table top game I house ruled that the iris is a product of captured Goa'uld tech, specifically the morphing helmets used by the Jaffa.

Its used on a larger scale, and activated by running a current through it. A kind of Memory metal that works BOTH ways.

The thing that I found off with the iris was that almost nobody besides SGC used something like it, even if they clearly have the technology for it and are aware that hostiles can come through the gate.

Then again, I guess the show would have been boring if they couldn't use the gate to go places.

>One member of the flagship team is a cunning linguist
>Sometimes they come across shit for him to decipher
>But generally, everyone in the galaxy and beyond speaks English

One idea would be to have the SG1 Stargate be a really weird one. That's why no dialing device, existence of an Iris, how they found it in the first place, and it's bizarrely high energy requirements.
Make it clear that it was one Ancient's pet project that was not the norm for any Stargate system but that they managed to crudely jam into the local system and connect it to mains power, and by some small miracle it actually works.
The beta gate was Earth's actual normal gate, and is largely just a standard local galaxy gate.

But I imagine by the time the writers thought of other solutions or better explainations it eas too late to retcon so they just worked with what they had.

might as well continue the space magic if youre going with experimental gate and say it gives people traveling through it knowledge of languages to handwave the everyone speaks english thing

It was just a plot device to stave off the goauld onslaught for another season before they realized the goauld could all be power blind idiots.

In the lore it was always just a poor stop gap because ships could glass any planet in a few weeks if someone was willing to expend them for that long. It became complete utter nonsense when it was almost melted from an ancient device microwaving a sending gate that dialed faster than earf by that half ascended goauld.

Oh great! One of my favorite scenes.
Go ahead.

youtube.com/watch?v=whfMMfR4KKw

But seriously what a SG game needs first and foremost is a team of protagonists that cannot be reduced to gun, tits, lexicon, n- err Jaffa.

A stable wormhole cannot be formed when a suitably dense material (such as granite) blocks the aperture (hence why burying the gate worked for thousands of years). This prevents dial-ins.

The kawoosh cannot form with an iris in place, that was instead a few times by Carter in the series.

So, instead of an iris, have the gate on a pivot downwards into a dais on the floor, the event horizon will eat the floor up to a perfect micrometer level precision, instant iris.

Teal'c states once that a Jaffa once tried entering a gate from the wrong side and the results were horrible.

the exact words were "most unpleasant"

Also, the ancient gates with DHDs had tonnes of safety features, they may just spit you back out if the DHD is controlling the gate. The reason it was so hazardous in SG-1 was because humans bypassed a lot of these safeguards just to get the gate to dial with a supercomputer.

Would a suitably dense liquid like mercury work?

The biggest problem with the Iris for 1888 is actually that the any incoming British would not be able to signal for the Iris to be opened. As the first operational radio for communication was in 1894. So even if they had an Iris, the only way they would know to open it or not would be if an incoming connection is at a secluded time and from the correct world. A team would not be able to come back early if the Iris was in place.

scheduled time*

Throw rocks at it in code. still makes a bang noise even when closed.

Or fire a revolver in code.

Yep, 3 shots spaced, then 3 shots fast.

That, I understand. Might have to do some handwavium, and have Nikola Tesla be on retainer with his mad inventions, as a cameo npc. His "wave induction transmission devices" might become their all clear devices.

Not really.

Just fix it on tracks and carve a slot for it. When not in use, slip it into cavity so it's surrounded on all but one(narrow) side with high-density solids like

Could work.

>>britainbritainbritain
Fucking disgusting.
Why can't the Prussians or the French or the Spanish discover the stargate?

You can have a gate when the sun doesn't set on your Empire buddy.

You copied that from the spanish, britbongstero. And your empire was mostly deserts, rocks and savages anyway. Except India, that one I'll give.
Also having another nation getting to The gate would create a fun new power-mechanic in 1800s europe with Britain actually having rivals.

I'm only teasing mate, I'm from a colony anyway. I agree though, having another country find the gate and changing the politics of the day would be cool

Me too, I'm just bored with The British Empire allways getting everything.

You just have to deal with the fact that British 1800's science fiction is more popular in the English speaking world than the alternatives for obvious and completely justified reasons.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong with this, but if my memory serves with the lore of Stargate (SG1, Atlantis, Universe), the Ancients were some of the first (if not the first) race to do intergalactic travel, and their original home planet was Earth. Upon realizing just how long any sort of galactic flights would be (much less trans-galactic travel) they built their seed ships with a literal shit ton of Stargates on them, sent them off in all corners/directions of the universe and just waited for the galactic ships to go and seed stuff. Meanwhile, back in Milky Way galaxy, they used the Stargate system to do near-instantaneous travel and started to colonize the rest of the galaxy.

They uplifted the Asgard after running across them, negotiated peace with the other super-advanced but very isolationist race, then started to regress in their technology and expansionist/colonization desires and focused on ascension. It was also around this time that they moved Atlantis off Earth proper and to the planet where SGC found Atlantis (because inter-galactic flying space city).

Then they experimented with the vampire-like worms of that galaxy, accidentally made them sentient after some gene manipulation and the worms absorbing Ancient DNA, and accidentally got into an inter-galactic war which they eventually lost, but not before hiding Atlantis and having the last Ancients either ascend or go back to Earth to re-colonize it and hope that their race would survive.

They did, eventually intermingling with the next humanoid race on Earth (neanderthals), which led to them passing on Ancient DNA into neanderthals, and voila, human beings.

Asgardians accidentally uplift the Gou'auld, and then accidentally make Replicators. Gou'auld start to piggyback along the Stargate system and claim it for themselves. Fast forward a few tens of thousands of years (ancient Egyptians overthrowing Ra and burying the gate, it being found again in early 1900s), and then we get the start of Stargate.

>>you just have to deal with the fact that people say they like sci-fi, worldbuilding, creative ideas etc but ACTUALLY they're all parochial as fuck.
Given the reaction to the Sad Puppies, I had very little doubt about that; but as a counterpoint I'm a non-native english speaker that enjoys british and american sci-fi. I'd just like something different every once in a while.

seems about right

dont forget the seeding of the galaxy with life via dakara

Translator microbes.
Farscape.

They are, but when you go all-in on visuals and costumes you've got less space to develop a truly dangerous and compelling personality.
Contrast Heath Ledger's Joker to Jared Leto's, for instance.

It's just more plausible for an expansionist, exploratory Empire to find it. And prussia/germany, for example, was pretty late in this race

The ancients came from the Ori galaxy.

>They uplifted the Asgard
[citation needed]

>the other super-advanced but very isolationist race
There's 2. Tauri are the 5th race (maybe)

>neanderthals
[citation needed]

>Asgardians accidentally uplift the Gou'auld,
It's no accident, and it's 1
> and then accidentally make Replicators
The origin of replicators is explained in detail, and it was a girl robot made by an old man, not the Asgarnians.

>and it's bizarrely high energy requirements
Honestly, that could easily be explained away as Ancient fuckery.

As soon as the Ancients figured out ZPMs, they didn't NEED to worry about power consumption any more. So why waste time making shit economical?

>the Ancients were some of the first (if not the first) race to do intergalactic travel
Yes.

>and their original home planet was Earth.
Ori galaxy.

>they built their seed ships with a literal shit ton of Stargates on them, sent them off in all corners/directions of the universe
Yes.

>they used the Stargate system to do near-instantaneous travel and started to colonize the rest of the galaxy
Yes.

>They uplifted the Asgard after running across them
They met the Asgard, who later found an Ancient database and downloaded a chunk of it.

>then started to regress in their technology and expansionist/colonization desires and focused on ascension
They were hit by a plague and moved to Pegasus. They seemed to discover Ascension there.

>made them sentient after some gene manipulation and the worms absorbing Ancient DNA
Iratus bug became sentient because the Ancients colonised a planet that had them. Wasn't their fault.

>got into an inter-galactic war which they eventually lost, but not before hiding Atlantis
Yes.

>the last Ancients either ascend or go back to Earth to re-colonize it
They went back and decided to Ascend because everything else was so primitive.

>passing on Ancient DNA into neanderthals, and voila, human beings
Not neanderthals, but yes. Primitive species.

>Asgardians accidentally uplift the Gou'auld
No. Goa'uld reverse-engineered their shit from old Ancient stuff left lying around.

>and then accidentally make Replicators
Found them. One fan theory is that an Ancient decided to start the experiment back up once he got back to the Milky Way, with Reese, but it got away from him.

>Gou'auld start to piggyback along the Stargate system and claim it for themselves. Fast forward a few tens of thousands of years (ancient Egyptians overthrowing Ra and burying the gate, it being found again in early 1900s), and then we get the start of Stargate.
Yes.

I'd throw out the other races.

What if humanity simply hasn't encountered them? Start fresh and make the spirit of discovery a central theme.

Don't make the gate network a totalitarian regime, make it a trove of endless possibilities. Don't give any one planet/race/faction ultimate relevance, let the players decide who they want to deal with.

>Don't give any one planet/race/faction ultimate relevance
In fairness, it seems like the SGC wound up fighting the Goa'uld a lot of the time because they kept fucking with the Goa'uld.

After the Goa'uld went down, we started seeing quite a bit more of the network of less-advanced races that had existed in their shadow.

Fairness to whom?
The lazy writers? The braindead test audiences? The harebrained producers? The network execs of evil? The Air Force?

Make something then. OP is willing to enact the effort to make something that he wants.

>not using Shave and a Haircut

>British Empire colonizing primitive planets.

Yes.

YES. GIVE THE PRUSSIANS AND THE SPANISH GATES TOO.

I WANT TO PLAY IN THIS SETTING NOW!

I want a John Carter/Stargate/Zulu Rpg!

Ooh! Good point. I should take civ design choices from JC on Mars. That movie really had the "advanced but decadent empire" down pat

A joint venture between Victoria's royals is not a bad idea...

Crazy thought
Base is setup on diplomatically neutral Iceland for dual purpose; joint royal task force headed by the English(with her extended families), and access to volcanic features for the construction of a mad-science size geothermal dynamo electoral generation plant to service charge of a near depleted zpm.

Eh?

You get the bleak icy and rocky landscape of the northern Isle to work with, geographical isolation from the greater powers, and the opportunity for chap manual laborers that go BORK

Sounds like an excellent idea

And then! We can use lava as part of the main gate security features!

Without Radios there's no way to verify the identity of a returning force. They may as well just "Bury" the gate so it can't activate except at scheduled intervals.

>No fun allowed
Did you miss the brainstorming about using mad science radios from Tesla? Or maybe recovering ancient/goauld/handwavium tech?

Look for solutions man, not roadblocks

(On that note, you could theoretically have a critical npc or pc be the guy responsible for the "makes stuff work" inventions that keep everything working! Power, radio, even munitions!? )

>>the beta gate is discovered on an expedition to the north pole

How and when did the beta gate get moved to the north pole from the Ancient outpost in Antarctica?

Noted!
Mighty steamships will head past the horn of Africa, instead of the Canadian colonies!

Oh wow I didn't even notice that, but there were also antarctic expeditions.

Well yeah, but having strict time limits could be rather interesting. The gate straight up will not open if dialed at the wrong time, so you better wind those watches boys!

So wouldn't they just use ladders, climbing sideways until it became upwards?

Or are we going by early season and movie "flung through like a bag of bricks" travel?