Based on WoA, SotB, and any other source materials, can we make a guestimate for a timeline of important events? I don't think it needs to be precise. It would just be nice to have numbers to throw out to the players that make sense. If people offer suggestions, I'll update this post.

T-0 years Today

T-?? years The Treaty of Heinlein

T-15 years Worlds War ends (source: WoA)

T-?? years The Big One earthquake and tsunami.

T-?? years Beanstalk construction completed (10 years about construction begins)

T-?? years Beanstalk construction begins

T-?? years The Blackout

I don't have the book on me atm and don't remember the relative dates, but iirc the completion of the beanstalk is mentioned as **35

There are a few dates that Worlds partially nails down, but then purposefully refers to only within the current century. This is done on purpose to avoid weirdness such as Blade Runner taking place in 2019; by keeping the exact century unspecified, they leave it up the GM to decide how long it takes for humanity to get its act together (or apart as the case may be) and carry out the events:

In as much as what year it is currently, the Quito Accord is described as being "at the back of everyone's mind as to what will happen should they be allowed to expire".

Do you have page numbers for these?

2 minutes ago, drainsmith said:

Do you have page numbers for these?

I will eventually, but a lack of OCR'ed PDF makes this a bit more difficult. Help appreciated!

Page 188 WoA: "Fifteen years have passed since the Worlds War"

I believe Jack Weyland is still alive and doing business, so that may give us some more clues. He was an adult with a successful business when he and his wife devise his nanotube weaving tech. Construction of the SE started shortly after. If he were 35 years old when the SE was started, he would be 45 at completion. I think it is not unreasonable for the Beanstalk to be around 40-50 years old. Which would make Weyland 85 to 95? I doubt he is much older than that. Just picking some averages here, we get

Pretty sure Jack is still alive. Lets not forget advances in medical technology means the rich can live longer.

I pictured the present as around the 90s, with the Worlds War lastimg a few years amd ending around the mid 70s.

Bioroids were introduced 30 years ago. So before the Worlds War.

See my comment here:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/287985-the-timeline-is-a-complete-mess/

I went through everything in detail, and it is so full of contradictions it is just impossible (and this is just the hard dates, ignoring what would would be possible or plausible in certain time frames). Actual setting time could be anywhere from 2055 to 2255.

I don't especially care about the hard dates myself. I'd be content to know roughly how long ago big events happened.

5 hours ago, BruceLGL said:

See my comment here:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/287985-the-timeline-is-a-complete-mess/ 

I went through everything in detail, and it is so full of contradictions it is just impossible (and this is just the hard dates, ignoring what would would be possible or plausible in certain time frames). Actual setting time could be anywhere from 2055 to 2255.

It can't be in the 21st century. It mentions the internet being destroyed at the end of the previous century.

Also the present day is more likely to be 2X70 at the earliest to 2X95 at the latest.

5 hours ago, BruceLGL said:

See my comment here:

https  ://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/287985-the-timeline-is-a-complete-mess/ 

I went through everything in detail, and it is so full of contradictions it is just impossible (and this is just the hard dates, ignoring what would would be possible or plausible in certain time frames). Actual setting time could be anywhere from 2055 to 2255.

Sound like the matrix done got hacked. Any time you notice a glitch, the Agents are on their way.

18 hours ago, Radix2309 said:

It can't be in the 21st century. It mentions the internet being destroyed at the end of the previous century.

Also the present day is more likely to be 2X70 at the earliest to 2X95 at the latest.

This is my point, any time you come up with can't be right, because there will be a fact against it. I would be more specific but I threw out my notes after I gave up. Also, you are assuming that the timeline is unchanged until the end of the 20th century, which is unclear (there are some fictional organisations that have their roots in the 20th century).

I think I'm going to set my game in 2150, and use the above relative timeline (using "years ago"), ignoring specific dates (2xxx) given in the books.

5 hours ago, BruceLGL said:

This is my point, any time you come up with can't be right, because there will be a fact against it. I would be more specific but I threw out my notes after I gave up. Also, you are assuming that the timeline is unchanged until the end of the 20th century, which is unclear (there are some fictional organisations that have their roots in the 20th century).

What fact is there against it being 2170 or 2270? It could even be 2370, although most people don't go that far ahead.

We know it is after 2X65 and before 2X99. The century doesn't actually matter that much.

I prefer the 22nd century with the given dates. It is close enough that the political landscape shouldn't have deviated, but also pretty distant, being over 150 years from now.

> We know it is after 2X65

I do remember that I come to 55 as a starting point because of the time between '35 as the beanstalk completion and a few android development that are tied to this event indirectly in Worlds of Android. This is of course contradicted elsewhere that there is more time passed since the beanstalk was completed. No one fact can be relied on, make up your own mind.

22 hours ago, BruceLGL said:

> We know it is after 2X65

I do remember that I come to 55 as a starting point because of the time between '35 as the beanstalk completion and a few android development that are tied to this event indirectly in Worlds of Android. This is of course contradicted elsewhere that there is more time passed since the beanstalk was completed. No one fact can be relied on, make up your own mind.

It isn't contradicted. It is after 55, but it can be later.

Androids came after the Beanstalk, and Androids were introduced 30 years ago.

So it has to be at least 65. And it is likely later than that to allow for more development on the Moon and Mars. I would expect those hostile environments also incentivized the Androids, and the introduction of Androids would increase competition for Labour leading into the Worlds War.

Braver groups could still well place the timeline on the 21st century (it's a fictional version of our world in the end). After all, look back what the world looked like a hundred years ago from now. Not one living person then could ever have imagined what technology is capable of today, and likewise some dreams of the scientist back then still remain dreams.

On episode 24 of The Dice Pool Podcast, Sam Gregor-Steward says the "present day" date is 2X79 and that it might have been moved to 2X85 (he seems uncertain).

In my games I'm going with 2185, seems reasonable enough to me, and if that's not accurate when we get there, I won't be alive to complain anyway.

Shadow of the Beanstalk pg 88.

Text description for Guided Missile Launcher.

Most guided missile launchers share the same general design principles as their ancestors from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

This entry hints that the year is at least 21xx.

4 hours ago, russellprideaux said:

Shadow of the Beanstalk pg 88.

Text description for Guided Missile Launcher.

Most guided missile launchers share the same general design principles as their ancestors from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

This entry hints that the year is at least 21xx.

Nice find.