New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[Prince Charon]

'Emperor Elon I of Mars' sounds kind of pulpy (though even in this kind of timeline, he might never be Emperor of Mars.

[Kale]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

'Emperor Elon I of Mars' sounds kind of pulpy (though even in this kind of timeline, he might never be Emperor of Mars.

Slides very easily into a "Tales of the Solar Patrol" campaign. Mashing that up with 'realistic' space exploration would be a very weird parallel indeed.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Kale

Slides very easily into a "Tales of the Solar Patrol" campaign. Mashing that up with 'realistic' space exploration would be a very weird parallel indeed.

Weird equals good.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

'Emperor Elon I of Mars' sounds kind of pulpy (though even in this kind of timeline, he might never be Emperor of Mars.

I can't imagine he'd have any interest in a career in politics -- and that's basically what an emperor does for a living.

To be good at politics, one must be a persuasive people-person who is quite comfortable with human ambiguity and the serial mediocrity produced by committees.

Based on what I've seen, Musk is much more of a, "Why should I have wasted time discussing it?" sorta guy.

Even the most powerful and despotic emperors spend an inordinate amount of time and energy finding ways to balance the demands of competing factions. Musk is definitely a, "my way or the highway" guy.

Bezos is the same way, I think.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

I can't imagine he'd have any interest in a career in politics -- and that's basically what an emperor does for a living.

To be good at politics, one must be a persuasive people-person who is quite comfortable with human ambiguity and the serial mediocrity produced by committees.

Based on what I've seen, Musk is much more of a, "Why should I have wasted time discussing it?" sorta guy.

Even the most powerful and despotic emperors spend an inordinate amount of time and energy finding ways to balance the demands of competing factions. Musk is definitely a, "my way or the highway" guy.

Bezos is the same way, I think.

Agreed. Both men prefer to work in areas were we as a society encourage their kind of attitude. Entrepreneurship and politics follow radically different logics, and neither makes much sense to philosophers. It leads to lots of sniping and silly theories about who could do who's job better.

[dcarson]

I can see him being called the Emperor of Mars however with no legal meaning. Like Emperor Norton but with more sanity and money.

[Luke Bunyip]

I'd start to worry if he started advocating changing Mars's name to Dune. Just saying...

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

I'd start to worry if he started advocating changing Mars's name to Dune. Just saying...

I've not seen any indication he's a huge fan of Frank Herbert.

Musk's names for SpaceX landing barges seem patterned after those of ships in Iain Banks' Culture series, though.

Of Course I Still Love You
Just Read the Instructions
A Shortfall of Gravitas

As far as I can tell after a brief search, it appears Blue Origin's landing barge retains its name, Stena Freighter, even though (traditionally) ships change names when they change owners.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

Our jokes about Elon remind me of the tired old trope of the corporation that functions as an Elvil Empire. Frankly, the mindset that makes a good CEO doesn't work as a dictator. I'm not saying their aren't people who could take both roles. More than a few historians suggest that Gustavus Adolphus was as successful as he was because he understood the economics of running an army in the early 17th century. Basically, he ran the army as a corporation separate from the state, thus he could field powerful forces without bankrupting Sweden. A system that wouldn't have worked at most other times in history.

Assume that a corporation has taken over a star sector, and they are running it as ruthlessly as in any dystopian novel. Problem, the corporation is a lousy model for running any kind of nation. Not only is life miserable, but the stock prices are falling!

The PCs are a group of rebels within the system that want to save society by getting the corporation out of government. Problem; many people want immediate violent revolution. As that would create a long term breakdown of the system both to remove the old system and build the new one (not to mention coming up with a new system) billions of those dependent on the old system, including vast numbers of the brutally exploited and downtrodden, will die because of failure to deliver needed supplies.

The PCs must take over the system from within and change how the system works without shutting down the supply system.

Tricky, isn't it?

[PTTG]

Depending on your opinion on intra-party conflict, having them start out as a rag-tag group of rebels ranging from "I-just-want-my-slice-of-the-pie corporatist" to "motivated reformer" to "academic leftist anarchist" to "setting things on fire anarchist," and eventually having them disagree on how far to take things could be a fantastic story builder.