United Federation of Alternate Worlds

This is an out of universe description and discussion of the UFAW Setting. For an in universe description see A Visitor's Guide to the Multiverse

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The United Federation of Alternate Worlds (UFAW) is a "Topian" science fiction setting designed for narrative stories or role playing scenarios. Topian means that the setting is neither dark and bleak nor cheery and saccharine, but instead strives for a realistic depiction of the future where progress continues yet problems still remain. The defining feature of the UFAW is its mastery of Interdimensional Portal technology and as the name implies the setting spans many thousands of alternate realities with more able to be "discovered" and added to the setting at any time. The rationale behind the setting is to allow a large number of different kinds of micro-settings, characters, races and technologies to mingle together in a controlled manner not typically possible in universe settings without major plot holes of contrivances. The high level goal of the macro-setting is to allow maximum flexibility without allowing things to go "off the rails" and this is achieved by creating an organization with enough plot inertia such that the actions of any single narrative event, even ones that are highly consequential on a tactical level, are unlikely to upend the whole.

Overview

Just a century or two shy of its first full millennium in existence The United Federation of Alternate Worlds presents itself as a large multicultural civilization that would be recognizable in composition and structure to our non-Alternate Earth as it has existed over the last few centuries. Surprisingly, the presence of alternate realities does not fundamentally alter the well known dynamic of living in one nation among many on a single planet or one planet among many in a galaxy. Having duplicate universes that may or may not differ significantly from one another presents more of a policy challenge than anything else, so denizens of the Federation are not typically impacted by the presence of these additional realities any more than someone living on a singular Earth would be impacted by any particular foreign countries.

As mentioned above the UFAW is neither a utopia nor a dystopia, but continues to represent Western ideals of progress wherein sentient individuals work to better their quality of life both within and between generations. Because the Federation does not command infinite resources problems like poverty, inequality. crime and violence persist, but the elimination of these woes remains a goal even if it is ultimately unattainable. Likewise while generally peaceful any civilization that extends across thousands of universes is bound to run into conflict and while able to mobilize vast quantities of resources to counter any existential threat the Federation is also well aware that there are equally powerful civilizations running around that would see the UFAW or and of its members or affiliates as a threat or a target.

The Federation is as boring or as exciting the way that real life is boring or exciting. There are no pervasive gimmicks in this setting like constant war, post-scarceness or big brothers because from a societal point of view the UFAW is intended to be the bread and not the sandwich. Still, there are a few key ingredients that do provide a bit of special flavor.

Breadth and Depth

The UFAW is an expansionist civilization, but expansionist in the 21st Century notion and not the 19th. Expansion means new opportunities and new blood. When the Federation incorporates a new reality, species, nation or society it is not only gaining new customers to sell two and new resources to command, but also the vibrant individual and cultural capitol that wards off stagnation and provides for raw material for creativity and innovation. However while the public face of expansion is motivated by the well proven notions of trade and multiculturalism, the Federation harbors a deep cultural paranoia that their entire civilization stands at the precipice of collapse and ruin. This paranoia is borne from a constant parade of horrors from realities where history was not as kind to its inhabitants. Not only do immigrants from these more dystopian worlds import their cultural shell shock, but the constant publicization of those worlds' narritives and their depictions in popular media has stoked the fears of the Federation citizenry that such a fate could befall them in the same way that media can amplify fears of violent crime or foreign attack.

While more typical forms of paranoia often leads to xenophobia or racismm, the sheer diversity of horror stories have made it difficult for these sorts of fears to take hold (although some "popular" antagonists like AI's and hive minds do face prejudice). The policy response to this paranoia has manifest itself in the form of an above average level of military spending and preparation and also the Breath and Depth policy of expansion. Breath is the notion of protecting "Centers of Civilization" (think homeworlds or core worlds) by expanding outward in all directions to keep potential threats at bay while Depth is the notion of expanding to similar realities so that in the case that any one high value world is destroyed there will be others to provide support and/or fill the void.

The cultural paranoia and the Breath/Depth policy has actually driven the Federation to become remarkably inclusive of other races and species that share similar core cultural values when compared with the "typical" majority human civilization. The general feeling is that when faced with such unknown or unknowable threats rejecting a potential ally based on their color of their skin or fur is irrational. In fact the whole feeling of being "in it together" has kept the Federation remarkably cohesive. How much this is an intentional poly by the leadership to manipulate people is open to debate, but the truth is that there is a lot of bad shit out there in the multiverse and just because the UFAW is paranoid doesn't mean there aren't antagonists out there to get it.

Breath/Depth is not a euphemism for blind expansion and Breath/Depth type policies not only promote expansion, but also the right kind of expansion that makes the increased Breath and Depth mean something more than just distances on a map. Because the Federation is ultimately on the hook to provide for the common defense of all its nations and citizens it has final say on how new worlds are colonized and now new realities or civilizations are contacted. This doesn't mean that out beyond the frontier there isn't a bit of a Wild West mentality, but these policies allow one to rely on not only the location of the nearest cavalry outpost, but also under what circumstances it will come to your rescue.

Development Levels

The UFAW makes use of a pair development indexes with which to categorize the development levels of both its own worlds and other civilizations that it encounters. These are somewhat more subjective scales akin to the HDI as opposed to more objective scales that rely on certain technological milestones or measures of energy consumption. Using notions of "development" creates better policy outcomes than hard objective standards if for no other reason than because technology is not uniform across the multiverse so in places where per-industrial societies can travel the stars it is more important to look at their per-industrial cultural practices than the availability of Faster than Light travel.

These levels are more than simple stats for policy makers because they actually govern the relationship that the Federation or any of its constituents has with any particular world. The two indexes are known as the Planetary Development Index and the Civilization Development Index and both work with a Class 0 being the least developed and a Class 5 being the most. The existence of two similar 5-level indexes does occasionally lead to confusion, but paying careful attention to context is usually enough to disambiguate which the speaker is referring to.

The Planetary Development Index or PDI is used to describe the amount of development of a planet within the Federation or one of its close affiliates. Occasionally the index can be used to rate sub-planetary entities, but that is typically a rare occurrence. More frequently these indexes are applied to entire systems or regions of space. The Importance of the PDI is because in areas with lower PDI rankings the Federation can assume more direct involvement in those world's internal affairs.

For the Writer

Setting Features

The UFAW is first an foremost a setting designed to cater to the needs of the writer or gamer looking for a fun and interesting place to base a story. Here is a list detailing many of the technical aspects of this setting that I find appealing and that have motivated me to think through the whole thing as opposed to just sticking with "universe" type settings.

• Mix and Match: Multiverse settings tend to scream "crossover" and the UFAW embraces this, but not in the Star Trek meets Star Wars style. Normally if one wants to use use large variety of weapons or ships or technology or interact with lots of different cultures that can end up driving the setting with the need for alien races or independent colonies/nations. A cross-reality federation allows one to bring in all sorts of fun and different design elements without seriously affecting whatever micro-setting one had in mind.

• Drama without Despair: Alien invasions, dystopian mega-cities and Helvetica scenarios all make for great drama, but not only does nuking a home world tend to limit your other options it can unintentionally bum out your reader who might need a little pick-me-up after a stressful day. This is basically how things work in real life. Places like Detroit exist, it may be hard to get out of their orbit, but at the end of the day there's more out there providing hope that things will get better and even within a typical lifetime. In the Federation you can go nuts blowing up Earth or trashing New York resting assured that there are others waiting in the wings if you later get a craving for pizza. There is still plenty of real tragedy, but there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

• Variable Scope:

• Isolation: If you want to have a knockdown, drag out fight in a populated city center, but need a good reason why that won't cast a post-9/11 pall across your society the Federation offers a an easy way to achieve this. Increasing levels of technology help to "shrink" society to bring individuals closer together. Jumping between alternate realities helps to expand things again and without having to preface a story with "in a Galaxy far far away." Moreover the Federation has something known as "strategic depth" so it can be attacked or invaded yet not be existentially threatened. At a very tactical level isolation means that you can have characters "run off" to other places to escape their past, but avoid having to make up some new frontier world that "attracts" all the lost souls.

• There's More than One Way to do It: The Federation doesn't bring together one type of tech with one type of magic, it brings together ALL types of tech with ALL types of magic. Don't like mixing? That's fine because not everything works everywhere. What better way to throw wrenches in people works than to have their special skill or ability stop working for them. On the other hand it can also lead to interesting combinations of systems or all one to find ways to balance them out against eachother so that all members of a mixed band can contribute.

• Local Color: The UFAW isn't like certain other Federations that really love to standardize. The UFAW is more organized like the EU with a mandate to not interfere with the local affairs of its constituent planets and nations. This means that there is still room for creativity and innovation as characters travel between realities, planets, nations and even sub-national entities. In most cases it is almost exactly like traveling around Europe, but some realms are more exclusive than others, some more strict, some wealthier, some more traditional, etc.

• Time Travel without the Paradoxes: Now everyone knows that tnless you happen to be Anne Anne McCaffrey the result of any time travel will be a Nazi victory. However when dealing with alternate realities you aren't technically time traveling because realities exist that are nearly identical to your own just offset by a few hundred or thousand years in one direction or another. Want to pop in on the post-war era to pick up a well crafted Battlecruiser for conversion into a starship? Go right ahead! Just because a reality is stuck in the past doesn't mean its future has been written yet.

• Friends and Hangers On: Don't much care for living in a country with even the semblance of rules and regulations? Your warrior race too proud to ever align themselves with Hewmans? The UFAW is not the Borg, it does not seek to assimilate every culture it runs into. If you have a society or civilization that doesn't quite fit in with a majority Homo Sapiens club then there is no need to try to fit the round peg into the square hole. The UFAW has a large number of different types of "affiliate" statuses so if you just want protection from the real Borg and want to drive through the Federation's nice clean portals then arrangements can always be made.

• Observer Status: