I've decided. I'm going to do a setting for SC3 based on the Solar System as it existed before the coming disaster that caused the Diaspora was dicovered. This may include the extrasolar colony in Alpha Centauri, but not the other colony ships, as they had not yet established themselves by this time. I am tempted to only refer to the extrasolar colonies in passing though. Setting up a viable Tech Level 8 society will be job enough.

I will use the random tables in SC3 to an extent - we know where the planets and moons of the Solar system are, their natural Conditions, and that Earth will be the most heavily populated world, but the details may be best determined randomly. It may be that Mars is not a popular place, and that Europa or Ceres are far more heavily settled. using an element of random generation will result in my having to come up with reasons *why*, which is always more interesting than doing the expected.

There should also be a heavy contingent of orbitals and stations, which are not there at this time. The cheap energy of fusion coupled with the cheap resources of in-system space make such a development likely.

Politically, the UN and it's member nations will be the prototype of the Leagues of the Cluster, with their member worlds. The UN does not rule worlds, but it regulates the space between them. A closer model for the Leagues than the current UN would be an amalgam of NATO and the EU, but the UN may grow into that - or absorb these entities - by the time of the setting, so I will go that way.

One thing I can do is add in a bioengineered solution for calcium loss in zero g. I have always assumed it, but it's best to place it front and center for this setting.

This would not be at all post-human. TL 8 bioscience is pretty much limited to non-visible changes in humanity. There will be early uplifts, and simple - but still sapient - robots, but the setting will be mostly human.

Average PSI will be 0, not the current -2, or the Cluster's 2. This is a result of early bioengineering, and the fact that the people sent to the Cluster later would not only be of a somewhat later generation, but be their best and brightest.

This culture will be shattered by the news of the impending disaster, and the culture that girds up its loins and sends ship after ship out into the unknown in faint hope of some of them surviving will be a different beast altogether - more like the US Home Front in WW II. This may be remembered by those refugees as a golden age, fraught with both danger and opportunity.

Any ideas you'd like to see implemented?

-clash

That's cool. Are you doing this only as a means of testing/stretching the system you made for setting creation, or are you intending to use the result as a setting you to play in and looking for cool ideas? I guess I'm trying to get to the bottom of the question 'Any ideas I'd like to see implemented' and wondering if I can meaningfully participate without having the book yet.

As an aside, if you put forth a situation in which a cluster is destroyed by some disaster and then wait to see how people respond, is it called 'Situational Cluster-Fucking'?

Yes.

I intend to release it for others, but playing with it first with my group - if it's a much fun as I think it will be, I'll clean it up and release it. I didn't think it was necessary to have the game to think of interesting ideas to do with our own solar system.



Ouch!

-clash

Started working on the Pre-Cluster last night. Re-read the intro to SC3, which I wrote half a year ago, and noticed some things I have to adhere to:

Venus was well terraformed, as was Mars. Cheap fusion power can really help with that that, though I suspect it was microbial action that helped terraform Venus. This does not say that these worlds were very settled yet, or that the terraforming was finished, just that it was well under way.

Jupiter's and Saturn's moons had thriving colonies. This is easy enough to adhere to!

The Belt was well developed. OK, No problem here!

The Centauri colony was thriving. Great, but out of the Solar System, so not under this jurisdiction.

The Barnard's Star and Wolf colonists were on their way And never did reach their intended targets. They tried to reach the 60 lY radius of devastation in time by coasting, but no one knows if they succeeded. Their ships were slow, and not intended for anything more than trips of a handful of light years. If they did make the limit, they probably didn't survive the long trip out. The Centauri colonists refurbished their ship, adding fuel tankage and improving engine efficiency with the latest Earth improvements, and definitely made it out in time, though by the skin of their teeth. They had to leave many colonists behind to die. Their ship will arrive in the Cluster 500 + years after the first ship made it.

So - I made up an orbitmap, with all the inhabited worlds - moons, planets, and orbitals - in the system, though I haven't placed the orbitals yet. I'll post that up tonight, when I get home.

Oh! When I said I will release this, I meant for free DL. I noticed I wasn't specific in my previous post. This is just a fun little mini-project for me.

-clash

Helium 3 mines on the moon.

Anything Extra-solar nothing more than a news item.You know about it but you aren't traveling there (and possibly would not like it if you did).

Vicious trade in artificial organs.

Secret gladiatorial anti-cultural underground movement that rebels against the "perfect" society. They fight crude uplifts to the death much like dog fighting today.

Flying cars...but realistic ones.

Automated cars that drive themselves.

A level of automation that pervades society is balanced by a hard and unforgiving underworld that trades in some commodity or form of money that is somewhat illegal mainly due to being unregulated.

Cool!



Perfect!



Love it!



Awesome! Pure awesome!



This one is no go for the prequel... Already established.



Yes!



Wonderful! Thanks, Bill! Great stuff! This is *exactly* what i was hoping for!

-clash

I was thinking about some sort of Prebendary system - a symptom of a top-heavy government wherein paid government positions, often ceremonial, were long ago awarded to influential civil servants and political patrons. These positions, however, became first hereditary and later saleable, such that they've been divided into fractions over decades. Thus a player might own the position of Speaker of the House for one week of the year, for which they receive that portion of the registered salary for the position. They might not even sit in the position themselves, instead subcontracting it to another individual or firm for a lower price. Which would lead to a whole class of people who might make their living as Prebend Contractors, expert in government work, who fulfil the prebend roles in lieu of the owners of the positions (who are, of course, very wealthy). It's all rather Babylonian. Perhaps the governmental system of one of the older colonies.

Also - space elevators on Titan where the atmosphere and surface might hinder landing.

Hey! That's weird and sweet! Thanks, Thalaba!



There'd have to be a huge population there to support it, though! Why would folks like on titan when they could live - I dunno - anyplace else?

-clash

I don't know why people live there. I was going by your statement that "Jupiter's and Saturn's moons had thriving colonies". I assumed that meant there was much to be had in the way of mineral extaction, and therefore wealth. The space elevator would be used to deliver payloads into space.

Now that I think of it - ice (fresh water) might be a very valuable product, and I wonder if it would be cheaper to transport ice around the solar system than to try to manufacture it. I suppose water might be a by-product of fusion reactors, though, but still - if you were going to buy bottled water, would to buy 'Titan Glacier brand water, untouched by man' or 'Fuzion Bottled Water: Forged in the Reactors of Mars to Power your body'? So surely there would be a whole fleet of ice haulers - probably in the asteroid belt.

I would guess that it's the valuable hydrocarbons of Titan that make it desirable, though not as living areas. I would guess the people keep to orbiters and send down tele-operated robots to mine the hydrocarbons.



Titan water would be full or ammonia, cyanides, methane, and other stinky, poisonous stuff. It would probably be better mined from Iaptus, which is mostly water ice on the surface. OTOH, Ceres has more water than Earth does, so maybe Iapetus supplies the local area with water, like Ceres does the Belt.

-clash