• They have perfected time travel and use it routinely.
• It is a utopian society, but not a perfect utopia: it has its discontents, such as Chuck De Nomolos.
• It is in contact with numerous alien worlds, none of whom have as many excellent waterslides as Earth does.

Is it so hard to imagine that Frank’n'Furter is another of these discontents? One who stole a time machine and warped his way back to the Seventies (or possibly the Fifties)? Frank’n'Furter’s mission may have started out as something similar to that of Rufus, but somewhere along the line, he got corrupted by his exposure to the Earth of the twentieth century.

This might go a way towards explaining certain unresolved mysteries of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, such as where that motorcyclist came from, and why Frank’s guests were quite so unconventional. Indeed, their appalling fashion sense is much more explicable if none of them are natives to the time of the convention, and all of them are simply wearing modern garb without really understanding it.

It’s also interesting how similar the names of Rufus and Riff Raff are. Is it possible that they are the same man at different points in the timeline? That Magenta, rather than being a sister, was actually a wife? (Riff was presumably making an ironic reference to their cover identities when he addressed her as his sister.)

Whatever the truth may be, it’s probably just as well that Bill and Ted never visited Castle Frankenfurter. Who knows what might have happened?

If it was the crew of the Next Generation era who encountered Frank and his associates, things would play out somewhat similarly, although not too much so. Certainly Riker would have little problem with sleeping with anyone or anything that offered, while Deanna would no doubt be moved to compassion for Rocky’s plight just as Janet was. In this case, it would Wesley – terrified by the unsubtle advances of Columbia and Frank – who saves the representatives of Starfleet, most likely by trapping the aliens in a holodeck simulation until Picard can find a more lasting solution. (It’s also quite likely that the J’naii (the androgynous bisexual aliens from “The Outcast” have some connection to the Transexuals – likely they are some sort of fundamentalist religious sect that broke away from the larger culture and fled to our galaxy.)

Things would play out rather differently on Deep Space Nine. While Frank would initially be intrigued by the offers of the Dominion, he’d turn on them as soon as he discovered that they couldn’t actually turn him into a shapeshifter. He’d be an unreliable ally against them, but Riff Raff might prove surprisingly effective in combat, assuming that his bloodlust could be curbed.

Out there in the Delta Quadrant, the crew of the Voyager is the most likely to find the permanently eclipsed world of Transexual. Unfortunatey, we know too little about this world to speculate about it too much. One does wonder what Janeway and Frank would make of each other – I suspect there would be mutual attraction, but that they are both too strong-willed to form a lasting union, especially once Frank’s more unsavoury habits come to light. And in the Doctor, Riff Raff might finally find a sympathetic ear.

Mutiny on the Bounty
The traditional view of this one is the view we’ve seen in nearly every fictional depiction of it: that Fletcher Christian and his men were just nice fellows reacting against the tyrannical Captain Bligh. However, considering the later records of both – Christian and the boys abusing the natives of the Pitcairn, Bligh being the most reasonable of the early New South Wales Governors to the Australian natives, there’s certainly room for doubt.
This holodeck simulation would put cadets on the command track in the position of Bligh, trying to maintain order on the Bounty – ideally after they had formed sympathies for Christian and the other mutineers. It is important for every commander to understand that some situations are no win.
(Yes, Kirk would have hacked this one too.)

Star Wars
The Mirror Universe is terrifying and disturbing place, but in its own brutal and machiavellian way, it remains a meritocracy, like the true universe. It is relatable, even comphrensible.
The world of Star Wars is much, much worse to a Starfleet Cadet. Not only is the government in this world dominated by a caste of midichlorian-powered genetic supermen, but every attempt to build a governing consensus – or even just to learn who your goddam father is – is undermined by deception, distrust and selfishness. Even perfectly normal emotions, such as anger or sadness, can cause a person to turn on all their friends and family. It is a nightmarish world where there is no chance for any good to survive without corruption in the long term.
It is recommended that counsellors be made available to any Cadets requesting them after this simulation.

Back to the Future
This is an object lesson in the dangers of letting untrained personnel mess around in the timestream. Even with the best of intentions, McFly and Brown spin off alternate realities at a ridiculous rate (and a faster one than they themselves recognise, too). Although time is less precarious than depicted in this simulation, it still serves as a handy warning. (If this simulation is unavailable, some episodes Doctor Who may be substituted.)
The Department of Temporal Investigations insists that this simulation be viewed by all Engineering and Science crew; it is recommended, but not compulsory, for Command crew.

The West Wing
The major purpose of this simulation is to persuade cadets not to interfere with politics, either on the worlds they find, or in the Federation itself. It is not the place of the military to get involved in politics, and as even a casual experience with this simulation will show, non-involvement is often simpler and less stressful also.
This has been chosen above other political simulations due to its idealism, in order that it be less obviously discomforting to cadets.

Network
An optional, but useful primer on Ferengi psychology. Indeed, when this film was shown on Ferenginar, it was interpreted as a moral tale about the foolishness of disobeying the rules of acquisition.
Supplemental materials are available to explain to cadets the more difficult concepts, such as ‘corporations’ and ‘money’.

Credit where credit is due: this article is largely inspired by Siskoid’s brilliant series of articles about using various films as Doctor Who settings, and the Star Wars section was inspired by David Brin’s article about those films.

Delta Green in 2045 -
Delta Green acheived a significant victory over Majestic-12 when it succeeded in getting the team of Burris and Patterson elected as President and Vice-President respectively. The ascension of Patterson to the Presidency after the assassination of Burris allowed Delta Green to pursue its goals on a national scale, and the 2010 purge of mystics and occultists was a dream come true for many Delta Green members. Thousands of cultists were slain and their artifacts seized. What no one realised until too late was that Patterson had been reading the Necronomicon, and had become corrupted. The establishment of NERCC was considered odd, but not unreasonable. By the time Patterson suspended elections in 2024, it was apparent to everyone with eyes to see – and too late to do anything about it.

The merger of almost all government agencies into the National Emergency Resource Control Commission has meant that the agents of Delta Green and Majestic-12 are far more likely to be working together than ever they were in the past. Unsurprisingly, this has led to an unprecedented level of infiltration and dubious loyalties for members of both organisations. For the most part, this is due to Majestic-12′s co-opting of NERCC to serve its own ends. Majestic-12 controls NERCC, and after the death of President Patterson, that meant they ran the United States as well.

As a result, the Delta Green of 2045 is even more paranoid and secretive than that of 2001. The classic cell structure is still in use, but codenames and passwords have become more elaborate – and Delta Green is stingier than ever in giving out information. On the other hand, the wide-ranging powers given to NERCC agents, not to mention the state of more or less constant martial law that the United States exists under, make carrying out missions easier than ever.

As a result of the new secrecy, most Delta Green units are even more autonomous than has been the case in the past. They investigate and assign their own missions, and information filters up to the leadership gradually. The leaders of Delta Green in 2045 often appear weak and indecisive to the lower rungs of the organisation, but in fact, their apparent refusal to act is a logical consequence of their possession of more data than any field agent. Only they see the Big Picture, and they are prepared to play a waiting game until they can strike and conclusively remove Majestic-12 from its position of power. This goal means that many Delta Green missions concern more political than occult goals, as Delta Green attempts to forge a coalition of dissidents, revolutionaries and foreign aid to unseat ProGov.

Majestic-12 in 2045 -
MJ-12 is stronger today than it has ever been. No longer does it have to worry about keeping the real dirt from the government – since the establishment of the ProGov, it is the government. President Adam Hammond is also the head of Majestic-12, and all key cabinet posts are filled by other members of the group. Although their conspiracy is still unknown to the general public, the fact that some sort of old boys’ network controls Washington, and thus America, is common knowledge. But to most people, this is in some ways virtuous – it’s considered more honest, and less corrupt, than the old days of the military-industrial
complex and the like.

Majestic-12′s only real problem is with their alien allies – it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the aliens have shared all the technology that they care to. And while MJ-12 isn’t gaining any more from them, it’s still stuck with covering the tracks of a demanding and (to human modes of thought) erratic superior power. ProGov’s Vietnam-like war in Cuba, and determination not to let it go at any cost is entirely at the direction of the Grays – and even Hammond still doesn’t know why the aliens want them to do it.

The Miskatonic Society -
As recently as the 1990′s, the Miskatonic Society and Delta Green were allies, if uneasy ones. The Society occasionally collaborated with various agencies – Naval Intelligence, the NSA and the DEA primarily – to assist in vanquishing Mythos-related threats. It assumed that all these contacts were in the course of legitimate investigations. But in 2002, the head of the Miskatonic Society discovered that Delta Green was not the officially-sanctioned organisation that the academics had believed it to be, but a rogue army within the government. Aware of its multi-agency nature, but unsure of Delta Green’s true size or the breadth of its infiltration of the myriad of government agencies, the Miskatonic Society’s ruling council decided, by a majority of one vote, to break its ties to Delta Green. They did this mostly by deliberately misleading their Delta Green contacts, most of whom were field agents. That this resulted in the deaths of these field agents was regrettable but necessary in the eyes of the Miskatonic Society.

The secrecy of the Society, along with its paranoia of government interference, has meant that they have had few contacts with either Delta Green or Majestic-Twelve, although some Delta Green agents have noticed that certain civilians turn up as bystanders at Mythos-related events too often for it to be a coincidence, and have started a low-key surveillance of them, which may well lead Delta Green back to the Miskatonic Society at some point. For its part, the Society assumes it is stalked by government agencies – but it does not know for sure as yet.

The Mythos in 2045 -
This list only covers those entities and races whose circumstances are significantly altered from those presented in the Delta Green books. If these beings are not listed below, it may be assumed that they are largely unchanged from the present day.

Cthulhu: In the late 20th century, the Cthulhu cult changed its tack, and the dreaming monster recruited among the rich and powerful of the United States. Over the last 20 years, especially since the ProGov coup, its influence in the US has dwindled to almost nothing. And yet, still it lies dreaming in Ry’leh. Considering these two details, the silence from behind the Bamboo Curtain seems ominous, particularly given China’s proximity to the drowned city. If Cthulhu has been infiltrating the Chinese government, it has done a thorough job. Intelligence reports suggest that almost half of China’s navy consists of submersible craft – and sonar imaging over the last 13 years has shown that they have been engaged in what seeems to be an effort to minutely map the entire floor of the Pacific Basin. Or perhaps they’re searching for something down there…

The Deep Ones: like many of the hidden races, the Deep Ones have experienced something of a resurgence in recent years. The deformities caused by Tolliver’s Disease, not to mention the general lack of care about toxins and radioactive wastes, have led to a society that, if not accepting of deformities, is at least inured to them. The Deep Ones have intensified their matings with humans, with the resulting prevalence of the Innsmouth Look being more or less ignored. Someday soon, the Deep Ones will rise – and when they do, can Cthulhu be far away?

The Ghouls: The Toller was a godsend to the corpse-eaters, and it seemed that their long time of waiting was over at last. But like all golden ages, it couldn’t last. The supply of corpses ran out, but the numbers of ghouls were at an all time high. Delta Green led the fight against them (often covered as part of NERCC’s anti-gang campaigns), and today, only a few scattered families of ghouls survive in the US. The books of Mordiggian are still out there, and every so often, someone new turns – but the Ghouls are no longer a serious threat in America. However, large numbers of them escaped the pogroms via the Dreamlands, and in Africa and India, they’re more numerous and dangerous than ever. Fortunately for humanity, the division in their ranks between the Keepers of the Faith and the Heretics has only intensified, and most ghouls in 2045 are likely to be slain by their own kind in brutal turf wars.

The Great Race of Yith: the psychic aliens’ campaign of mental abductions has become more sophisticated – abductees now choose themselves, simply by using any of a variety of Environmental Modules that prepare the mind of a netrunner to be taken over by one of the Great Race. In fact, the addition of the right selection of skill chips can make such an imposture almost impossible to detect, particularly given the reclusive lifestyles of many netrunners.

Hastur and the King in Yellow: It seems likely that at least one Australian city was absorbed into the dimension of Carcosa during the last days of the plague. Certainly, this would explain why satellite imagery of the depopulated continent has trouble picking up parts of Sydney and Melbourne which should be there according to Australian government maps from 2035. The chaos and suffering caused by the Toller and the Grand Slam have turned more and more people to the worship of the Unspeakable One, and his power is on the rise in 2045.

The Hounds of Tindalos: The decay in social values has led to a resigned acceptance of the drug trade on most people’s parts, and no drug is more widely accepted than the apparently harmless Coca Loco. A small but growing percentage of those who have experienced the time-shifting effects of this drug have attracted the attention of one or more Hounds. The 2040′s in particular seem to represent an all time high in Hound manifestations, although only the Miskatonic Society has yet realised this – and even they haven’t made the connection with Coca Loco. If this goes on, the Hounds will surely soon be detected – but by whom is an open question.

Ithaqua: Most of Ithaqua’s followers had believed for years that the stars would come right at some point in the 2030′s. When this didn’t happen, most of them deserted the cause or committed suicide, weakening the cult. The few fanatics who still worship the windwalker ascribe the depopulation of Australia in 2037 to their master, although most serious mythos scholars agree that he had nothing to do with it. Although the worship of Ithaquaa is at an all-time low, it should be noted that those worshippers there are tend to be heavily armed and highly trained survivalist fanatics. Fortunately, their god keeps them mostly to remote areas, but they should not be underestimated.

Nyarlothotep: If anyone knows the truth about what happened to Australia, it’s the Crawling Chaos. Not that he’d ever tell a human. Nyarlothotep’s attitude to humanity has always been that of a child whose favourite toys are a selection of action figures and a blow-torch. All the changes that the last few decades have wrought upon humanity have only made us more interesting toys…

The Sand Dwellers: These strange non-humans have been hunting human psychics for decades now, using them to sow nightmares and despair among humanity. To what extent they have succeeded in this goal is unclear – certainly, to the average person, life in much of the world is a living nightmare, but it’s questionable that a group numbering so few could have had much influence. Unless, of course, they were targetting exactly the right people. The deserts where the Sand Dwellers are known to have dwelt in the twentieth century are located in the same region as Area 51 and Edwards AFB, after all. Or could it be that the Sand Dwellers, for reasons of their own, are fighting against the Mi-Go?

The Serpent People: Unknown to most of the world, many Serpent People now live in Australia – since they go unclothed and usually run about on all fours when above ground, most observers believe them to be some sort of mutant goanna species. Some signs of their presence have been observed via satellite, but are assumed to be the work of human hands. The total number of Serpent People alive in 2045 exceeds that of any previous era since the Hyborian. One day, they’ll be out to reclaim the world for themselves and their masters.

Shub-Niggurath: Although the True Love Study Group was almost entirely wiped out in the purges of the 2010′s, Shub-Niggurath’s other worshippers, the Skoptsi and the Corporacion have survived. Indeed, through its infiltration of the Traffs, La Corporacion is stronger than ever. Alone among the Elder Gods, Shub-Niggurath, in its guise as a fertility deity, benefitted from the Toller. Although the death toll was high, people wanted to believe in something that could grant new life, and the Beast with a Thousand Young fit the bill. Although worshipped under a plethora of names throughout the Third World, it is South America that is the true stronghold of Shub-Niggurath, and the followers of the Black Goat are busily consolidating their power there, waiting for the day that they can claim the rest of the world too.

Crime -
The Network has, as always, prospered with the changing times. Changes to the American legal system have made the black market even more lucrative than it was during the Prohibition Era, and the general level of corruption, particularly in NERCC, means that they have fewer legal hassles than ever before. The legitimisation of the Mafia suited Stephen Alzis perfectly, although the coming of the Russki-Yak has been a setback. Although the Network has several times demonstrated its power to the Russki-Yak, there remains a stubborn resistance to any outside domination in the latter organisation. The Russki-Yak have learned much from the Network’s methods, although how much exactly is unclear.

The Fate have therefore taken a more active stance in supporting various competitors of the Russki-Yak. Il Unione and the ‘Traffs are basically fronts for the Fate, but the real success story is the Triads. An alliance between the Fate and Tiger Transit was concluded in 2005, and forty years later, Tiger Transit still exists as a business, but its criminal operations have been totally absorbed into the Fate. Using Tiger Transit’s contacts as a starting point, the Network now controls about 60% of the Triads – and much of the remaining 40% also gives homage to Nyarlothotep, making them unwitting allies in any case. As a general rule, those Traids which deal in Coco Loco can safely be assumed to be affiliated with the Fate.

What this means is that the Russki-Yak and the Network are roughly evenly-matched. The relative diffusion of the Netwrok’s components – and the fact that many of them do not realise that they are parts of a larger conspiracy – is a weakness of the Network, but it is balanced by the flexibility that such a structure allows. At some point, there is bound to be a showdown between the Fate and the Russki-Yak, although with the two sides roughly equal it is impossible to say who would win. And very likely, it will all depend upon the whims of Nyarlothotep anyway.

Other Organisations -
The Karotechia: The aging Nazi triumvrate that ran Karotechia for six decades eventually succumbed to their own mutual distrust, and although the organisation still exists in name, it is far more a loose collection of fueding factions of deluded cultists than a disciplined organisation led by facist sorcerers in 2045. It seems that, rather than displeasing their masters, the Karotechia are simply no longer needed by them, and have been discarded. Their knowledge makes them dangerous to small groups of investigators, but they are hamstrung by their own madness and a lack of resources.

P.I.S.C.E.S.: The infiltration of the Insects from Shaggai, or Shans, throughout the intelligence services of United Europe was cemented by the suicidal attack of the Army of the Third Eye on Severn Aerospace in early 2007. Although nearly every member of the Army was captured or slain, casualties on the Shans’ side were also high. Many of the Insects were slain in the fighting, including every one of the few remaining Insects who were not born on Earth. As a result, the remaining Insects were almost entirely members of the faction that wanted to stay on Earth and take it over. The investigation of the terrorist attack by a combined United European team gave the remaining Insects the opportunity they needed to break out of England and begin taking over the rest of the world. So far, they remain undetected by any human agency, although the dissolution of NATO may have been a part of the MiGo response to the Shans’ actions.

The Skoptsi: Spared the worst of the purges by their CIA ties, the Skoptsi were nonetheless somewhat set back by the loss of many of their ally groups. Over the last 35 years, they’ve made a conscious effort to re-fashion themselves into a seeming more palatable to ProGov, with some success. Their willingness to play upon American fears of the Russo-Japanese and the Russki-Yak to keep their CIA allies has resulted in them being targetted for destruction by the latter group. Currently, the Skoptsi are considering relocating to South America, where the wide open spaces of the Amazon basin offer all the space the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young could ever want.

Minor Groups: Of the various other groups not covered above, few still exist in 2045. Phenomenon-X no longer exists, although there remain media groups like it that investigate the same sort of stories, such as The Paleoarchaeological Review and the Homo Sapiens League. In fact, every episode of Phenomenon-X is (illegally) archived in the massive data stack of Mythos-related info maintained by the Homo-Saps. The Outlook Group has been absorbed into the structure of ProGov. GRU SV-8 seems to have been likewise absorbed into the Russo-Japanese Economic Union, and possibly thence into the Russki-Yak. Finally, SaucerWatch are still out there, a little closer to the truth and a lot more determined after the persecutions they’ve endured at the hands of NERCC.

If you ever wanted a game based on what Riley did after he left Sunnydale, this is it. Delta Green protects humanity – insofar as humanity will let it – from the predations of the Mythos and its allies. They generally don’t worry too much about more mundane and earth-bound monsters – they worry about extra-terrestrials and other dimensionals, and those members of the human race who think that these creatures can be supped with (in truth, no spoon is long enough).

For the world of Buffy, this presents a change of pace – heavier on both firearms and intrigue, but hey, it can be nice to have an army on your side (or, as the season eight comics illustrate, absolutely Hell to oppose one). The creatures of the Mythos are a level of strangeness beyond what Buffy usually has to deal with, but not impossibly so. The kind of enemies that Angel fights in his own series, particularly in the last three seasons of it, are a good model for this sort of thing.

Either way, you’re taking a hopeless struggle against the ever-encroaching darkness and opening up another front in it – but your players will probably thank you. Probably.

Moving on to the fifth season of Buffy, there’s Dracula. Now, it’s unclear which – if any – Dracula stories are canon in the Buffyverse. Even the original novel itself may not be canon. But what is implied to be canon is the movie “Dracula – The Dark Prince“, in which Rudolf Martin – who played Dracula in Buffy – plays him again.

Finally, there’s the Initiative. Which has been around since the 1940s, and is referred to at least once as a kind of “super soldier project”. Much like a certain other upcoming Whedon project, which also revolves around a super soldier project, and something else also referred to as the Initiative – the Avengers Initiative, that is.

Be sure to check back next week, when I’ll be discussing these connections morely…

And with vampires having the same rights as any other citizen, there’s less and less that a dubiously legal organisation like the Watcher’s Council (or, later on, the Slayer Army) can do. And as much as Angel and the gang might want to help, their hands are largely tied: too many of Wolfram and Hart’s clients are vampires for them to be able to do too much about it.

It seems to me that the smartest play to make at this point – not to mention the most ethical – is to start mass producing the soul restoration spell. This would have one of two effects, depending on the vampire: either the good guys get another ally in their fight (while reducing the enemy forces by one at the same time), or they at least succeed in immobilising the vampire in question with guilt, taking them out of the fight entirely.

Other likely options would be poisoning the artificial blood the vampires drink, and a mass consecration effort to make sure there’s more and more holy ground that vampires can’t enter. And of course, if the Slayer’s side could learn the whole silver weakness thing, too, well, that wouldn’t hurt their chances either.

Now, as Sauron’s transformation suggests, vampires in Middle Earth are probably not on the side of the angeValar. If Sauron knows them well enough to take the shape of one, then it seems likely that there’s been considerable contact with them, and they are no doubt numbered among the servants of the Shadow.

But, as of the conclusion of The Lord of the Rings, the Shadow is no more. In fact, King Elessar Telcontar has gone out of his way to make peace with former foes, and granted the lands around the Sea of Núrnen to those survivors of the Mordorian regime who may wish to dwell there.

What more opportune moment could there be for the cause of vampire liberation in Middle Earth? Now is the time for them to swear vows of abstinence and (possibly begging a little help from Elves, Ents and anyone else with a little alchemical wisdom) to create a synthetic substitute for blood.

Given the point from which vampires come in the history of the First Age of Middle Earth, it seems likely that the oldest among them will be Elves, have traded some aspects of their immortality for a less desirable state of it. (Presumably there’s some enticement that makes the trade-off worth it, but Mandos knows what.) Others will be Men, of course – Black Numenoreans from Umbar seem particularly likely candidates, but any race that has dwelt under the Shadow might see some turned in this way.

Once they’re out, of course, they might well become more widespread. Men and Elves from anywhere might be tempted – indeed, it might well be more tempting to Elves now, as a way of holding on to the magic that is otherwise only savable by taking ship to the West. But what of the other races? Ents are presumably at no risk from vampires, having no blood as we would understand it – but the other intelligent races, the Hobbits, Dwarves and Orcs of Middle Earth, they may be more vulnerable.

Indeed, what if the Wizards – Radagast the Brown, or the two Blue Wizards who passed into the East – are not safe from the fangs of vampires? Middle Earth might find itself once more threatened by a Dark Lord, or at least a Goth Lord.