04-16-2021, 08:22 AM | #2211 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
Try this one...
This is similar to one I've done before but it goes in a different direction. The town of Cashel is the Government and academic center of the planet Emain Ablach a terraformed colony world. It's the first real city on a moderately isolated colony world, To touch on what that means, Cashel is the only place with a live music scene, a restaurant culture, theatre troops, or an active cultural life for several months travel. Cashel has high society (well a party scene with pretentions), a fashion scene, night spots. There is a publishing industry at Cashel, and films are being made. Cashel has the kind of energy and vibrancy associated with cities. Cashel also has the political energy of a city. Emain Ablach is a democracy on paper, but the rural society is generally dominated either by conservative religious groups or powerful landowning families. Cashel is the first city on this colony world, but everyone can see it won't be alone for long. Both the religious reactionaries and the powerful landowning families can see the way things are going and how they will lose power. They also know that if the cities don't rise on Emain Ablach, then cities elsewhere will rule their world from afar. This is a political game with the goals being power and freedom. the themes are the interrelationship between power and freedom (the powerless are rarely free) and the conflicts between power and freedom (because going for one will generally threaten the other). PCs could be power players, activists, or agents.
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04-17-2021, 04:02 PM | #2212 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
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04-17-2021, 07:12 PM | #2213 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
Quote:
I was also thinking of Leigh Bracket's The Long Tommorow. Cities have a long history of snobbishness towards the countryside. But cities are the source of cultural dynamism through most of world history.
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Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo Last edited by Astromancer; 04-17-2021 at 07:46 PM. |
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04-17-2021, 07:38 PM | #2214 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
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04-17-2021, 07:57 PM | #2215 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
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Meanwhile the religious leaders also understand the upside of cities for them as well as the threats to their dominance. Their answers are different from the landowner elites. Unlike 18th century England or France, the religious leaders aren't subordinate to either the state or the landowning elites. The religious leaders and the landowning elites are both allies and rivals.
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04-17-2021, 09:33 PM | #2216 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
I also found the initial description flat and stereotyped.
That said, there is a lot to explore in the concept of the conflict between a society dominated by its countryside, its cities (which almost always end up with some strong philosophical differences), and the outside world. One huge theme that you've described is change, and how you deal with it. Everyone wants something to change, but most people also have something they really don't want to to change, even when it must. When you only get to keep one thing, what do you get to keep? I've lived in a city with vicious politics all revolving around whose neighborhood is going to be transformed by an influx of mostly welcome new arrivals, and with odd laws and policies aimed at trying to keep the community from making the changes that come with growth. Change almost always come with both benefits and drawbacks. Another huge theme is identity. Is this city's identity as the great opponent of the country-side, or is it as its newest phase? What parts of the base culture are their own? What parts are not? When will the city act as a shield against the outside world, and when will it use the outside world as a lever against the countryside? Are the faction's goals actually tied to the identity of the place? Can you actually defeat your opponents without warping or destroying the identity of their supporters?
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Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! Last edited by ericthered; 04-17-2021 at 11:34 PM. |
04-18-2021, 05:05 PM | #2217 | ||||
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
Fair cop gov, I was trying to make something for all comers. Flat and stereotyped are common risks.
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Plus I have two different groups from the countryside (who are allies but desperately need different outcomes) rather than one group. Quote:
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04-18-2021, 08:45 PM | #2218 |
Join Date: Dec 2017
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
The culture of any one rural region can be fairly monolithic, but not always. Rural areas that don't deal with each other much can be VERY different. There's a certain level of resistance to change involved, since Mother Nature doesn't listen to oddball ideas, but beyond that, could be anything.
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04-19-2021, 05:30 PM | #2219 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
Quote:
Part of the communication issue here is I simply don't buy into the Romantic and Post-Romantic formulation "Countryside equals good, city equals bad."
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04-25-2021, 06:57 PM | #2220 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds
Try this one...
Long After the Trumpet No One knows why the Dead rose and destroyed the before people. Only the oldest Elders spoke to the survivors of the rising. Most of the Zombies rotted away long ago, and the dying are restrained in their last hours to keep them from killing folk. And once they are cold they are cut up and burned. Only a few get away. The few ancient zombies are terrifying monsters, but most zombies rot away quickly. They say that the villages to the southwest have been given a new vaccine that prevents one from rising as a zombie. The new folks from Cali in the West, where the Elders say they once made dreams, brought the vaccine. How do we get them to bring their wares here? Basically, a post Zombie apocalypse world. PCs start in a small village in what was once Colorado. Cali, on the West coast, the various kingdoms of the Mexca, and the Northern raiders are all trying to expand into your area. The Cali have the best tech, the Mexca are about TL4, the Cali seem to be an advanced TL5 with items from beyond that, The raiders, like your village folk are a mix of TL2 and TL3.
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Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo Last edited by Astromancer; 04-26-2021 at 06:46 AM. |
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