[Astromancer]

Try this one...

That I Should Rise...

This is a Golden Age Sci Fi background. Basically, right after WWII an American discovers anti-gravity. Within a few years this superscience led to FTL drives, Fusion Power, High-Temperature Superconductors, and several other technologies. America made the first Moon Landing in 1948 and the first Moonbase by 1949.

The fading Empires of Europe decided to replace their lost Asian and African colonies with extrasolar colonies. America, by mining the Asteroids, freed itself of all need to buy minerals of any kind from the former colonies. With no interest from the West, most of the former colonial world made deals with the USSR. Which lead to stagnation and poverty, and bitter accusations.

In the 1960s large numbers of people from the West (which includes Japan, Korea, and Taiwan) settled in extrasolar colonies, The first Asian Nuclear war (India/Pakistan) occurred in 1970 and the flow became a flood.

In 2020 the USSR attacked to conquer the Americas, India, and China. Within five years Earth was sterile and totally lifeless.

Humanity is scattered across the stars. England, France, The Netherlands, Japan, and Brazil, all have colonial Empires based on the settlement of Earth-like Garden worlds. Many of these worlds were already inhabited. (As this is a rift on Golden Age Sci Fi these Aliens are of the "Exotic Humans" type. Think Vulcans and other Star Trek aliens). The USA preferred to settle terraformable worlds with no multicellular life.

This meant that the American settled worlds grew very slowly at first. The peoples who settled on Garden worlds were dominant politically, economically, and culturally by the 22nd century. But as the 23rd century begins many of the Terraformed Worlds are becoming fully habitable (super science is being used in the terraforming and all the worlds chosen were far better candidates for terraformation than Mars ever was).

As the American settled worlds come to equal and surpass the Empire Worlds in population, the people who settled the Garden worlds are beginning to have problems. First, the local diseases have begun to adapt to human beings. This has radically reduced the birth rate. Secondly, the alien populations of these worlds no longer wish to defer to the humans, They want their worlds back.

The colonial empires feel bitter and hopeless. The American worlds, since they never practiced Interstellar Colonization, just Interstellar Settlement, they have no qualms about saying that they don't approve colonial domination of sophant life. As the American settlements have made massive strides on the American race question and are almost universally social democratic societies they've few easy points of cultural vulnerability.

Basically, this is an adventure setting. The Colonial worlds are exotic, rich, and politically unstable. Think about the last years of European control in places like Egypt, India, Indonesia, Morocco. Think about twentieth century China. These places are grand for adventures. Heck, your PCs could be fighting the power to free ancient peoples from colonial exploitation.

This setting can be semi-realistic or you can throw in Psi-Powers and Alien Gods, whatever you like.