Themed Space Colonies

[Charleson Mambo]

So I have been kicking some ideas around as I attempt to do some world building and I could use some help coming up with starting points for themed colonies.

Suppose that space travel is relatively easy and cheap, and that groups much smaller than say a planetary government can scrape together enough funds to go out to a frontier planet and set up their own colony along whatever lines the wish to try. (Religious settlements, social and/or political experiments, historical reenactments (of different level of accuracy), and even sub-cultures or fandoms.)

What kind of cultures, historical settings, etc, do you think would be likely? Possible? Obvious failures people will try anyway?


Charleson Mambo

[sir_pudding]

You might want to read John Barnes Thousand Cultures novels (starting with A Million Open Doors) which deals with this very topic.

There's also Brett Evill's setting Flat Black. Which you can read about on these forums here, or it's dedicated Wiki.

[Astromancer]

Another type of group will be ethnic reconstructionists. Example: many of the smaller ethic groups in Europe, the Bretons, Catalans, the Frisians, ect, feel their cultures are being driven extinct. Which is pretty much true. If you had cheap space travel, there would be ethnically themed colonies from every continent. These would include colonies from non-endangered cultures you feel endangered.

[robkelk]

"Until now in world's history, whenever we've had a dark age, it's been temporary and local. And other parts of the world have been doing fine. And eventually, they help you get out of the dark age. We are now facing a possible dark age which is going to be world-wide and permanent! That's not fun. That's a different thing. But once we have established many worlds, we can do whatever we want as long as we do it one world at a time." — Isaac Asimov, speech at Newark College of Engineering, 1974

We've been doing this sort of thing over in the unofficial Gernsback-2, also known as Fenspace. Here's the "too long, didn't follow the link" version: Taking a look at the sort of people who would want to go into space, we've got the Star Wars fans' colony, the Larry Niven fans' asteroid belt colony, the Babylon 5 fans' space station, the Firefly fans' closely-connected colonies, the Heinlein Society's colonies, and the Trekkies running ships everywhere... and that's just the more famous groups of Fen. It's both logical and fun to assume the people who want to go into space are going to keep being the same people they are now if they actually get a chance to go into space. Somebody's going to try almost anything – some of them won't survive, some of them will thrive beyond their wildest dreams.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Brett

Well, as general categories you have:

• Religious separatists, who want isolation from other religions, but plan no radical innovations in their way of life,
• Religious utopists, who have a religious inspiration for a vastly better society upon a radical new plan.
• National separatists, who want isolation from other ethnic/national groups, with greater or lesser intentions to revert to half-abandoned folkways (at the extreme these shade into recreationists).
• Secular subculture separatists, who want isolation from mainstream culture and other subcultures.
• Secular utopists, who plan a vastly better society upon a radical new plan, but with plans inspired by humanist reason rather than reliegious inspiration. These include e.g. communists, socialists, libertarians, social democrats, and about three dozen kinds of anarchists. Not to mention lesbian separatists, hippies, and bunches more groups with non-political utopian dreams. Given a futuristic setting with social science robust enough to support an engineering discipline, these might include people with a plan that will actually work—if everything goes right. Future utopian visions might be very strange, e.g. Huxley's Brave New World etc.
• Affinity groups. Just plain folks with no special plan for societies, but with pre-existing social bonds and ties of affection among them, shared values to some extent, and a feeling of common purpose. The basis of such a group might be local, or it might be through some social organisation such as Rotary or the Venture Scouts.
• Diffuse groups. Just plain folks who set forth e.g. as customers of the same colony promotion company, with no pre-existing ties, no common purpose, and likely not much in common.
• Exiles and refugees, perhaps (if worlds to colonise are cheap) including convicts.

This might be the most apposite section for this topic: http://flatblack.wikidot.com/long-history#toc6.

You forgot state or corporate sponsored colonies peopled with recruits to expand the power of a given institution.

Or the de facto colonies on a conquered world formed by the conquerors crowding together in their own districts.

More interesting is the possibility of a Roman or Habsburg style military colony with land given for military service. By allowing periodic activation, the GM has the possibility of a genre shift from military to pioneering setting.

[jason taylor]

A state or corporate sponsored colony would have colonists that suit their patron's needs. This includes survivability and efficiency in producing the desired product among other things.

These can have their own exoticism. The Nexine of Traveller were genetically modified to breathe underwater so that they could mine the local reefs more easily.

[Astromancer]

Another theme is the colony formed after a shipwreck or forced landing. It's not a theme chosen by the setlers, but it is a conventional story theme. Think post-apocolyptic crossed with Wild West/Frontier.

Similar to this is the failed of troubled colony that started out as something else but fell apart and the survivors are now putting it back together. Different factions could be fighting as to how to put it back together.

[Charleson Mambo]

Thanks for all the replies and sorry for not having replied earlier.

I usually start threads with a very general question so as to leave room for all those juicy tidbits the group mind comes up with, which has hit pay dirt this thread.

Now, since Astromancer has hit upon the main conceit of the setting I'm building I'll get to a more specific question.

I'm thinking of a planet where a number of different ships have crash landed and the survivors have had to adapt to the local conditions (ie mostly deserts and a need to remain mobile), and where group identity has become a strong social group so each town/territory will have a strong (and easily defined) look.

So I think I will go with the cheesy but succinct form of: "Like (easily recognized society/sub-culture but with X and Y changes."

Any suggestions?

Also the game will be Martial Arts + SciFi, so each group will have their specific Style. (I think I'll start another thread for the campaign specifics.)

Charleson Mambo

[Irish Wolf]

Originally Posted by Charleson Mambo

I'm thinking of a planet where a number of different ships have crash landed and the survivors have had to adapt to the local conditions (ie mostly deserts and a need to remain mobile), and where group identity has become a strong social group so each town/territory will have a strong (and easily defined) look.

So I think I will go with the cheesy but succinct form of: "Like (easily recognized society/sub-culture but with X and Y changes."

Any suggestions?

Also the game will be Martial Arts + SciFi, so each group will have their specific Style. (I think I'll start another thread for the campaign specifics.)

Charleson Mambo

Well, if you want cheesy, you can go for things like a high desert/chaparral region, where a local edible herd animal lives; develop an Old-West-like culture, and their Martial Arts style could be Gun Fu...

...a mountainous region where various subalpine city-states have cropped up, like some sort of cross between Shogunate Japan and ancient Greece...

...grassy plains, and a nomadic culture with a common religion, combining Sioux and Bedouin concepts...

...the mind veritably reels!

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Charleson Mambo

Now, since Astromancer has hit upon the main conceit of the setting I'm building I'll get to a more specific question.

I'm thinking of a planet where a number of different ships have crash landed and the survivors have had to adapt to the local conditions (ie mostly deserts and a need to remain mobile), and where group identity has become a strong social group so each town/territory will have a strong (and easily defined) look.

So I think I will go with the cheesy but succinct form of: "Like (easily recognized society/sub-culture but with X and Y changes."

Any suggestions?

Different groups would have different ideas about how to adapt to a desert. I could see a French Cultural Nationalist group modeling itself on French Algeria and France Outre-Mar generally. They would stay very French and seem to make no adaptations (although they would adapt, they'd just hide the adaptations).

A group of Terraformers might go all "DUNE" and try to reshape the climate and ecology. This could be played as a Utopia/good guy culture or as Fremen-like fanatics, or as a disaster bringing hell in its wake.

I like throwing parahumans into a setting like this. Groups of Desert Adapted Parahumans would thrive and from several different types of society.

Homo Superior Parahumans with long lifespans might form enclaves of remnant technology, they could be the "Wizard/Elves" of the setting. Groups of Parahumans less adapted to the setting might form interesting cultures to survive.

Imagine a Parahuman group created by a decadent Empire to be entertainers, courtesans, and toys. They'd need to sell their talents to live, they could become the settings "Gypsies." The talents and gifts that made them excellent courtesans would make them good at reading people and telling them what they want to know, they very skill a Fortune Teller needs if she or he can't actually read the future.