Human Planetary Civilizations

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So I'm making my own setting for a space campaign and I'm looking for
interesting human worlds to populate it with. The idea for the setting
is that Humans managed to transport themselves through a worm hole to an
unknown part of the universe (it may not even by the same universe),
through some accident the wormhole colapses or moves (this wat I don't
have to worry about Earth and local star systems). After the wormhole
collapse the colonies on the other side go into a dark age as most don't
have the infrastructure to maintain space flight (and the collapse of
the worm hole also scrambles the method of moving between systems, some
kind of Jump Drive, for a hundred years or so). So I'm trying to come up
with some human civilizations that would have developed on the colony
worlds during this dark age. So far I have a primative world, a high
tech world, a genetic purist world (genetic engineering is banned and
gen-mod humans are second class citizens), a tough as nails mining
colony which had to survive on a harsh world (polluted atmosphere, high
gravity, incompatible local genetics), maybe a medeveil world, maybe a
psionic colony and maybe some kind of asteroid belt colony made of space
adapted humans. I need ideas for a few more colonies of humans, nothing
to strange or far fetched. The game will be taking place sometime after
the Jump drive is usable again (and the players will be unsure how long
it has been possible to jump, only that Jumping was done for the first
time 10 years ago). I'm planning on having the characters be law
enforcers for the United Worlds (hunting down pirates and other menaces,
thanks to the person that gave me that idea), and of course they are
going to be under orders not to get involved in local politics (which
might come up in an adventure or two).
So any thoughts on some interesting worlds for humans to come from?
Thanks,
Ken

 

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On Sat, 06 Nov 2004 00:52:59 -0500, Ken Vale
<Spam_Trap@no_chance_in_hell.com> wrote:

>So I'm making my own setting for a space campaign and I'm looking for
>interesting human worlds to populate it with. The idea for the setting
>is that Humans managed to transport themselves through a worm hole to an
>unknown part of the universe (it may not even by the same universe),
>through some accident the wormhole colapses or moves (this wat I don't
>have to worry about Earth and local star systems). After the wormhole
>collapse the colonies on the other side go into a dark age as most don't
>have the infrastructure to maintain space flight (and the collapse of
>the worm hole also scrambles the method of moving between systems, some
>kind of Jump Drive, for a hundred years or so). So I'm trying to come up
>with some human civilizations that would have developed on the colony
>worlds during this dark age. So far I have a primative world, a high
>tech world, a genetic purist world (genetic engineering is banned and
>gen-mod humans are second class citizens), a tough as nails mining
>colony which had to survive on a harsh world (polluted atmosphere, high
>gravity, incompatible local genetics), maybe a medeveil world, maybe a
>psionic colony and maybe some kind of asteroid belt colony made of space
>adapted humans. I need ideas for a few more colonies of humans, nothing
>to strange or far fetched.

To balance your purist world you need a Gattaca world where nobody who
isn't the product of genetic engineering can have a good job.

 

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David Johnston wrote:
> On Sat, 06 Nov 2004 00:52:59 -0500, Ken Vale
> <Spam_Trap@no_chance_in_hell.com> wrote:
>
>
>>So I'm making my own setting for a space campaign and I'm looking for
>>interesting human worlds to populate it with. The idea for the setting
>>is that Humans managed to transport themselves through a worm hole to an
>>unknown part of the universe (it may not even by the same universe),
>>through some accident the wormhole colapses or moves (this wat I don't
>>have to worry about Earth and local star systems). After the wormhole
>>collapse the colonies on the other side go into a dark age as most don't
>>have the infrastructure to maintain space flight (and the collapse of
>>the worm hole also scrambles the method of moving between systems, some
>>kind of Jump Drive, for a hundred years or so). So I'm trying to come up
>>with some human civilizations that would have developed on the colony
>>worlds during this dark age. So far I have a primative world, a high
>>tech world, a genetic purist world (genetic engineering is banned and
>>gen-mod humans are second class citizens), a tough as nails mining
>>colony which had to survive on a harsh world (polluted atmosphere, high
>>gravity, incompatible local genetics), maybe a medeveil world, maybe a
>>psionic colony and maybe some kind of asteroid belt colony made of space
>>adapted humans. I need ideas for a few more colonies of humans, nothing
>>to strange or far fetched.
>
>
> To balance your purist world you need a Gattaca world where nobody who
> isn't the product of genetic engineering can have a good job.
>

I suppose I do, though I was thinking that characters from the rest of
the colonies were most likely gen-moded in some way (even if it is a
mixed breed type thing), though a pure human is possible.
Ken

 

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In article <tOOdnYKKuJPn-xHcRVn-vw@rogers.com>,
Ken Vale <Spam_Trap@no_chance_in_hell.com> wrote:
>So I'm making my own setting for a space campaign and I'm looking for
>interesting human worlds to populate it with.

One thing that comes to mind is that planets are big and unlikely
to be homogeneous, any more than the nations in Neartica or the Neotropical
zone are, even though the nations in them might think of themselves as
such.

[In other words, Texans aren't really identical to New Yorkers
and if you look hard, you can tell Rene Levesque from John Crosby].

Given the persersity of humans, you'll probably get at least
one case where a group, which I will call Despised Minority [DM],
moves to DMland, where they work hard and build up an attractive
enough economy to make settlement of people from WeHateDMistan,
who themselves only mildy dislike DMs and whose kids, rediscovering
the culture of the homeland, will hate the DMs with a passion and
feel entitled to any benefits they have gotten from living in
DMland.

--
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/
http://www.marryanamerican.ca

 

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Ken Vale wrote:

> So I'm trying to come up
> with some human civilizations that would have developed on the colony
> worlds during this dark age. So far I have a primative world, a high
> tech world, a genetic purist world (genetic engineering is banned and
> gen-mod humans are second class citizens), a tough as nails mining
> colony which had to survive on a harsh world (polluted atmosphere, high
> gravity, incompatible local genetics), maybe a medeveil world, maybe a
> psionic colony and maybe some kind of asteroid belt colony made of space
> adapted humans. I need ideas for a few more colonies of humans, nothing
> to strange or far fetched.

Most of your planetary differences seem to be based on technology. You can
take a look at possible technologies and decide what parts you want to
emphasize to create a new world. You might have a world which disapproves of
science and formal education, all education is done through apprenticeships.
Another world might be based around entertainment; everyone can play an
instrument, politics is a matter of who can produce the most entertaining
campaign, and so forth.

Since your game is going to have contact between different worlds, you might
also look at trade. Decide what a world's major imports and exports are based
on the local culture.

Jefferson
http://www.picotech.net/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/

 

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"Jefferson" <Jeff_Wilson63@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:418d3d54$0$210$75868355@news.frii.net...
> Ken Vale wrote:
>
>> So I'm trying to come up with some human civilizations that would have
>> developed on the colony worlds during this dark age. So far I have a
>> primative world, a high tech world, a genetic purist world (genetic
>> engineering is banned and gen-mod humans are second class citizens), a
>> tough as nails mining colony which had to survive on a harsh world
>> (polluted atmosphere, high gravity, incompatible local genetics), maybe a
>> medeveil world, maybe a psionic colony and maybe some kind of asteroid
>> belt colony made of space adapted humans. I need ideas for a few more
>> colonies of humans, nothing to strange or far fetched.
>
> Most of your planetary differences seem to be based on technology. You
> can take a look at possible technologies and decide what parts you want to
> emphasize to create a new world. You might have a world which disapproves
> of science and formal education, all education is done through
> apprenticeships. Another world might be based around entertainment;
> everyone can play an instrument, politics is a matter of who can produce
> the most entertaining campaign, and so forth.
>
> Since your game is going to have contact between different worlds, you
> might also look at trade. Decide what a world's major imports and exports
> are based on the local culture.
>
Here's some evil movie corporations you might want to use (just change their
names and...) These companies might decide the flavor of a planet and
govern major imports and exports...

Umbrella Corporation (Resident Evil)
Tyrell Corporation (Blade Runner)
OCP (Omni Consumer Products... Robocop)
Genom (Bubblegum Crisis)
Weyland-Yutani Corporation (Alien)
Cyberdyne (The Terminator movies)
Rekall (Total Recall)
Water and Power (Tank Girl)
Hereti Corp
Delos Corporation (Westworld)

Gattaca Corporation (Gattaca)
Zorg Industries in The Fifth Element.
Manchurian Global,
ConSec from SCANNERS
Yo-Yo-Dyne (Buckaroo Banzai)

Wolfram and Hart (Angel)
Morley Tobacco (x-files) later showing up in V:tR
Kronos Corp. is the evil company from The Guyver.
Trade Federation (Star Wars)

Men-Tel Corporation (Fortress)
Wing Kung Trading Company
King Oil Industries (The World is Not Enough),

Carter Media Group (Tomorrow Never Dies),

Zorin Industries (A View to a Kill),

Drax Industries (Moonraker).
ENCOM (from Tron)
Aegis Oil from On Deadly Ground

 

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James Nicoll wrote:
> In article <tOOdnYKKuJPn-xHcRVn-vw@rogers.com>,
> Ken Vale <Spam_Trap@no_chance_in_hell.com> wrote:
>
>>So I'm making my own setting for a space campaign and I'm looking for
>>interesting human worlds to populate it with.
>
>
> One thing that comes to mind is that planets are big and unlikely
> to be homogeneous, any more than the nations in Neartica or the Neotropical
> zone are, even though the nations in them might think of themselves as
> such.
>
> [In other words, Texans aren't really identical to New Yorkers
> and if you look hard, you can tell Rene Levesque from John Crosby].
>
> Given the persersity of humans, you'll probably get at least
> one case where a group, which I will call Despised Minority [DM],
> moves to DMland, where they work hard and build up an attractive
> enough economy to make settlement of people from WeHateDMistan,
> who themselves only mildy dislike DMs and whose kids, rediscovering
> the culture of the homeland, will hate the DMs with a passion and
> feel entitled to any benefits they have gotten from living in
> DMland.
>

Well the picture I have of it is more along the lines of "hey we just
bough a planet and are in the process of moving in," when "oops the
wormhole and the jump points seem to have stopped working." So yes the
planets do have mostly homogeneous cultures, they don't cover a lot of
land (less than a 1/4 of the planet in most cases. This is not to say
that there are not differences between sub-groups of the colonists, nor
does it say anything about any space crews that may have been caught in
the system when the Jump points failed (doubtles they either integrated
into the culture or established a seperate city/country). What I'm
looking at is the principal settlers of the planet and who they were and
what they have become over the years. I will throw in a world that has
several coutries and a UN type set up as well.
Ken
PS: I just added you to my livejournal friend's list (you posted the
link on rec.arts.sf.written).

 

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Ken Vale schrieb:
>
> So I'm making my own setting for a space campaign and I'm looking for
> interesting human worlds to populate it with.
-snip

You should look out for the old Gurps Space Atlas series, esp. #3 and
#4.

Bye
Ingo

 

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Warren Okuma wrote:
> "Jefferson" <Jeff_Wilson63@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
> news:418d3d54$0$210$75868355@news.frii.net...
>
>>Ken Vale wrote:
>>
>>
>>>So I'm trying to come up with some human civilizations that would have
>>>developed on the colony worlds during this dark age. So far I have a
>>>primative world, a high tech world, a genetic purist world (genetic
>>>engineering is banned and gen-mod humans are second class citizens), a
>>>tough as nails mining colony which had to survive on a harsh world
>>>(polluted atmosphere, high gravity, incompatible local genetics), maybe a
>>>medeveil world, maybe a psionic colony and maybe some kind of asteroid
>>>belt colony made of space adapted humans. I need ideas for a few more
>>>colonies of humans, nothing to strange or far fetched.
>>
>>Most of your planetary differences seem to be based on technology. You
>>can take a look at possible technologies and decide what parts you want to
>>emphasize to create a new world. You might have a world which disapproves
>>of science and formal education, all education is done through
>>apprenticeships. Another world might be based around entertainment;
>>everyone can play an instrument, politics is a matter of who can produce
>>the most entertaining campaign, and so forth.
>>
>>Since your game is going to have contact between different worlds, you
>>might also look at trade. Decide what a world's major imports and exports
>>are based on the local culture.
>>
>
> Here's some evil movie corporations you might want to use (just change their
> names and...) These companies might decide the flavor of a planet and
> govern major imports and exports...
>
> Umbrella Corporation (Resident Evil)
> Tyrell Corporation (Blade Runner)
> OCP (Omni Consumer Products... Robocop)
> Genom (Bubblegum Crisis)
> Weyland-Yutani Corporation (Alien)
> Cyberdyne (The Terminator movies)
> Rekall (Total Recall)
> Water and Power (Tank Girl)
> Hereti Corp
> Delos Corporation (Westworld)
>
> Gattaca Corporation (Gattaca)
> Zorg Industries in The Fifth Element.
> Manchurian Global,
> ConSec from SCANNERS
> Yo-Yo-Dyne (Buckaroo Banzai)
>
> Wolfram and Hart (Angel)
> Morley Tobacco (x-files) later showing up in V:tR
> Kronos Corp. is the evil company from The Guyver.
> Trade Federation (Star Wars)
>
> Men-Tel Corporation (Fortress)
> Wing Kung Trading Company
> King Oil Industries (The World is Not Enough),
>
> Carter Media Group (Tomorrow Never Dies),
>
> Zorin Industries (A View to a Kill),
>
> Drax Industries (Moonraker).
> ENCOM (from Tron)
> Aegis Oil from On Deadly Ground
>
>
Thank you, I do need to think about companies. Say what would happen if
a company had ventures on several planets and then any method of
communicating with each other was lost for about 100 years? Who would
own what? Mergers and backtracking would become a real pain.
Ken

 

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Ken Vale wrote:

> Thank you, I do need to think about companies. Say what would happen if
> a company had ventures on several planets and then any method of
> communicating with each other was lost for about 100 years? Who would
> own what? Mergers and backtracking would become a real pain.

While the legal and economic details would differ, I'm sure the end result
would be that extra-planetary partners would have effectively no interest in
or control of the company. At best an extra-planetary inheritor might get a
nominal payment for the prior nationalization of his inheritance.

Jefferson
http://www.picotech.net/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/

 

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On Sat, 06 Nov 2004 07:22:02 -0500, Ken Vale
<Spam_Trap@no_chance_in_hell.com> wrote:


>I suppose I do, though I was thinking that characters from the rest of
>the colonies were most likely gen-moded in some way (even if it is a
>mixed breed type thing), though a pure human is possible.
>Ken

OK, then how about a Brave New World, world where everyone is
genetically customised for the job they are intended to do?

 

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Ken Vale <Spam_Trap@no_chance_in_hell.com> writes:
>>

>I suppose I do, though I was thinking that characters from the rest of
>the colonies were most likely gen-moded in some way (even if it is a
>mixed breed type thing), though a pure human is possible.
>Ken

A what now?

--
Chimes peal joy. Bah. Joseph Michael Bay
Icy colon barge Cancer Biology
Frosty divine Saturn Stanford University
www.stanford.edu/~jmbay/ THE CALLS ARE COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE

 

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In article <d4WdnfFKNoN_oxDcRVn-vA@rogers.com>,
Ken Vale <Spam_Trap@no_chance_in_hell.com> wrote:
>James Nicoll wrote:
>> In article <tOOdnYKKvJPn-xHcRVn-vw@rogers.com>,
>> Ken Vale <Spam_Trap@no_chance_in_hell.com> wrote:
>>
>>>So I'm making my own setting for a space campaign and I'm looking for
>>>interesting hvman worlds to popvlate it with.
>>
>>
>> One thing that comes to mind is that planets are big and vnlikely
>> to be homogeneovs, any more than the nations in Neartica or the Neotropical
>> zone are, even thovgh the nations in them might think of themselves as
>> svch.
>>
>> [In other words, Texans aren't really identical to New Yorkers
>> and if yov look hard, yov can tell Rene Levesqve from John Crosby].
>>
>> Given the persersity of hvmans, yov'll probably get at least
>> one case where a grovp, which I will call Despised Minority [DM],
>> moves to DMland, where they work hard and bvild vp an attractive
>> enovgh economy to make settlement of people from WeHateDMistan,
>> who themselves only mildy dislike DMs and whose kids, rediscovering
>> the cvltvre of the homeland, will hate the DMs with a passion and
>> feel entitled to any benefits they have gotten from living in
>> DMland.
>>
>
>Well the pictvre I have of it is more along the lines of "hey we jvst
>bovgh a planet and are in the process of moving in," when "oops the
>wormhole and the jvmp points seem to have stopped working." So yes the
>planets do have mostly homogeneovs cvltvres, they don't cover a lot of
>land (less than a 1/4 of the planet in most cases. This is not to say
>that there are not differences between svb-grovps of the colonists, nor
>does it say anything abovt any space crews that may have been cavght in
>the system when the Jvmp points failed (dovbtles they either integrated
>into the cvltvre or established a seperate city/covntry). What I'm
>looking at is the principal settlers of the planet and who they were and
>what they have become over the years. I will throw in a world that has
>several covtries and a UN type set vp as well.

No, no! A British West Indies Federation set vp! Mvch more fvn!

[Brief version: everyone hated each other, nobody covld agree
how it was to be rvn, and it fell apart before the ink dried. I think
they got a cricket leagve and cvrrency vnion ovt of it]

>Ken
>PS: I jvst added yov to my livejovrnal friend's list (yov posted the
>link on rec.arts.sf.written).

I saw and reciprocated.

--
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/
http://www.marryanamerican.ca

 

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"Jefferson" <Jeff_Wilson63@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:418d88f5$0$210$75868355@news.frii.net...
> Ken Vale wrote:
>
>> Thank you, I do need to think about companies. Say what would happen if a
>> company had ventures on several planets and then any method of
>> communicating with each other was lost for about 100 years? Who would own
>> what? Mergers and backtracking would become a real pain.
>
> While the legal and economic details would differ, I'm sure the end result
> would be that extra-planetary partners would have effectively no interest
> in or control of the company. At best an extra-planetary inheritor might
> get a nominal payment for the prior nationalization of his inheritance.
>
Then you have a corporate wars...

 

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"Warren Okuma" <wokuma@lava.net> wrote:

:Here's some evil movie corporations you might want to use (just change their
:names and...) These companies might decide the flavor of a planet and
:govern major imports and exports...

Blue Sun (Firefly)
Microsoft
Disney
Pacific Gas & Electric
--
"It is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a
democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist
dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the
bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them
they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of
patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every
country."
-Hermann Goering

George W. Harris For actual email address, replace each 'u' with an 'i'.

 

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Warren Okuma wrote:
> "Jefferson" <Jeff_Wilson63@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
> news:418d88f5$0$210$75868355@news.frii.net...
>>Ken Vale wrote:
>>
>>>Thank you, I do need to think about companies. Say what would happen if a
>>>company had ventures on several planets and then any method of
>>>communicating with each other was lost for about 100 years? Who would own
>>>what? Mergers and backtracking would become a real pain.
>>
>>While the legal and economic details would differ, I'm sure the end result
>>would be that extra-planetary partners would have effectively no interest
>>in or control of the company. At best an extra-planetary inheritor might
>>get a nominal payment for the prior nationalization of his inheritance.
>
> Then you have a corporate wars...

Like the wars with the U.S.S.R when the exiled Russians tried to regain their
property.

Jefferson
http://www.picotech.net/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/

 

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Ken Vale schrieb:
-snip
> Thank you, I do need to think about companies. Say what would happen if
> a company had ventures on several planets and then any method of
> communicating with each other was lost for about 100 years? Who would
> own what? Mergers and backtracking would become a real pain.

Looks like a great campaign. Just at mohawks, attitudes and cyberware.

Bye
Ingo

 

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Realistically, you wouldn't have many *worlds* where
everything is based on entertainment etc. You might
have *city states* where this is true, but the
only way a whole world is likely to be very homogeneous
is if it's relatively small--one nation or smaller.

Again: Texas, Algeria, and South Korea are all on
one planet, but are more different than many of
the "planets" or "species" in much science fiction.

 

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With respect to:
Andre Norton-
Janus- a forest/farming world
Azor - a ranching world
Witch World- medieval w magic (psi) & ancient civilizations (magic via
psi/tech)
"Vodoo Planet" - African culture based hunting/VIP tourism/ecology
Zacathia (et al) - historians/archeologists
Fenris - a traping & mining colony

E.E. "Doc" Smith - the D'Lambert series - a traveling circus (which is
also the undercover Imperial "Troubleshooters")
as well as the Lensman series which has spawned A GURPS source book

Robert Heinlein & Norton
Ship based Traders

Lois McMaster Bujold -Barrayar (Vorkosigan) series- (GURPS books to be
available SOON!) This is a really good fit from your post description.

Gordon Dickson - Dorsai series
Describes several "splinter cultures" from earth and the weaknesses due
to their being "splinter cultures"






James Nicoll wrote:
> In article <tOOdnYKKuJPn-xHcRVn-vw@rogers.com>,
> Ken Vale <Spam_Trap@no_chance_in_hell.com> wrote:
>
>>So I'm making my own setting for a space campaign and I'm looking for
>>interesting human worlds to populate it with.
>
>
> One thing that comes to mind is that planets are big and unlikely
> to be homogeneous, any more than the nations in Neartica or the Neotropical
> zone are, even though the nations in them might think of themselves as
> such.
>
> [In other words, Texans aren't really identical to New Yorkers
> and if you look hard, you can tell Rene Levesque from John Crosby].
>
> Given the persersity of humans, you'll probably get at least
> one case where a group, which I will call Despised Minority [DM],
> moves to DMland, where they work hard and build up an attractive
> enough economy to make settlement of people from WeHateDMistan,
> who themselves only mildy dislike DMs and whose kids, rediscovering
> the culture of the homeland, will hate the DMs with a passion and
> feel entitled to any benefits they have gotten from living in
> DMland.
>

 

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Roger Connor wrote:
> With respect to:
> Andre Norton-
> Janus- a forest/farming world
> Azor - a ranching world
> Witch World- medieval w magic (psi) & ancient civilizations (magic via
> psi/tech)
> "Vodoo Planet" - African culture based hunting/VIP tourism/ecology
> Zacathia (et al) - historians/archeologists
> Fenris - a traping & mining colony
>
> E.E. "Doc" Smith - the D'Lambert series - a traveling circus (which is
> also the undercover Imperial "Troubleshooters")
> as well as the Lensman series which has spawned A GURPS source book
>
> Robert Heinlein & Norton
> Ship based Traders
>
> Lois McMaster Bujold -Barrayar (Vorkosigan) series- (GURPS books to be
> available SOON!) This is a really good fit from your post description.
>
> Gordon Dickson - Dorsai series
> Describes several "splinter cultures" from earth and the weaknesses due
> to their being "splinter cultures"
>

Thanks for the suggestions. I've read a few of the Vorkosgan novels
which did in part influence the way I set this up, though it is also
based on an online games called Eve that a friends used to play (while I
never played it the history and backstory were fascinating). I'll root
around and see what I can find in the way of those books you mentioned
(I've mostly read Fantasy books so my SF is a little weak).
Ken

 

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"Jefferson" <Jeff_Wilson63@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:418df860$0$208$75868355@news.frii.net...
> Warren Okuma wrote:
>> "Jefferson" <Jeff_Wilson63@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
>> news:418d88f5$0$210$75868355@news.frii.net...
>>>Ken Vale wrote:
>>>
>>>>Thank you, I do need to think about companies. Say what would happen if
>>>>a company had ventures on several planets and then any method of
>>>>communicating with each other was lost for about 100 years? Who would
>>>>own what? Mergers and backtracking would become a real pain.
>>>
>>>While the legal and economic details would differ, I'm sure the end
>>>result would be that extra-planetary partners would have effectively no
>>>interest in or control of the company. At best an extra-planetary
>>>inheritor might get a nominal payment for the prior nationalization of
>>>his inheritance.
>>
>> Then you have a corporate wars...
>
> Like the wars with the U.S.S.R when the exiled Russians tried to regain
> their property.
>
That will work as well... Need more guns though.

 

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Ken Vale <Spam_Trap@no_chance_in_hell.com> wrote in message news:<d4WdnfFKNoN_oxDcRVn-uA@rogers.com>...

> Well the picture I have of it is more along the lines of "hey we just
> bough a planet and are in the process of moving in," when "oops the
> wormhole and the jump points seem to have stopped working." So yes the
> planets do have mostly homogeneous cultures, they don't cover a lot of
> land (less than a 1/4 of the planet in most cases. This is not to say
> that there are not differences between sub-groups of the colonists, nor
> does it say anything about any space crews that may have been caught in
> the system when the Jump points failed (doubtles they either integrated
> into the culture or established a seperate city/country). What I'm
> looking at is the principal settlers of the planet and who they were and
> what they have become over the years. I will throw in a world that has
> several coutries and a UN type set up as well.

It's worth noting that 1/4 of a planet is still an area 6,000 miles
across. It's also worth noting that with any planet that has had a
technology collapse (which is very, very likely given isolation)
the majority of people won't travel beyond 10 miles from their home.
Odds are that all the separate colonization facilities would either
rapidly develop independantly, or will equally rapidly go extinct.
Even if the colony retaines high technology, the struggle to survive
will make a unified planetary culture difficult.

So here's a couple planets:

Enclave: As the planetary government collapsed, in order to survive
the colonists made their widely scattered cities as independant as
possible. Each fairly high-tech arcology (actually more like
village in size) has almost completely independant power, food and
material generation using advanced biotechnology, and quite diverse
cultures. Trade is minimal outside of information, and the
inhabitants are rather insular, believing strongly in the doctrine of
"sustrainability". Think of it as a Globe of Villages instead
of a Global Village. The inhabitants may strongly resent outsiders
who may rock the boat.

Anarchyworld: the colonists were unable to keep things together in
any real way- the entire world is a patchwork of hardscrabble
farmers alternatively ruled and terrorized by brutal strongmen.
Technology has collapsed, trade is nonexistant, and every year
fewer people make it to maturity. Still, there's something there
for the travellers to collect- all they have to do is find someone
they CAN trade with. Alternatively, someone may think the world
is salvagable- the characters may get involved with an interstellar
relief/rehabilitation effort.

Ruinworld: as above, except the planet wasn't so forgiving- the
last colonists dies off about fifty years ago. Now people from
offworld are moving in to claim the resources that were left
behind, and the decendants of the colonists are pressing their own
claims. Plenty of scope for "My name is Ozymandias, King of
Kings. Look on my Works ye Mighty, and despair!" quotes.


-Eric Tolle

 

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Ken Vale wrote:

> Thank you, I do need to think about companies. Say what would happen if
> a company had ventures on several planets and then any method of
> communicating with each other was lost for about 100 years? Who would
> own what? Mergers and backtracking would become a real pain.

Reminds me a bit of Jack Vance's _Ecce and Old Earth_, which involves
characters hopping from world to world in search of the original Charter and
Certificates that secured perpetual tenancy of Caldwal Planet to the
Naturalist Society of Earth centuries in the past. Whoever gets his hands on
the original deed to Caldwal can decide the future of the planet.

 

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In article <c02c3b0f.0411080906.8d6bb9b@posting.google.com>,
Dan Childers <dchilders@cablespeed.com> wrote:
>Realistically, you wouldn't have many *worlds* where
>everything is based on entertainment etc. You might
>have *city states* where this is true, but the
>only way a whole world is likely to be very homogeneous
>is if it's relatively small--one nation or smaller.
>
>Again: Texas, Algeria, and South Korea are all on
>one planet, but are more different than many of
>the "planets" or "species" in much science fiction.

I've notice that in, e.g. Dr. Who stories, and the GURPS Space Atlases. A
whole work summarized on two pages, including that world's special "thing"
which it does, and which other worlds don't. Or "the" culture of Vargr or
other interstellar species.

To a certain extent that might be a point of view of space adventurers
that bounce from world to world, never seeing much beyond the major star
port. Or a sparsely colonized world where there really is only one small
group. But think of the diversity of adventures set on Earth, and the
variety of cultures our intrepid adventurers experience. Pretty much all
of that could be happening on Blorgo VII, instead, if the space
adventurers stay on Blorgo VII long enough to see it.


--
"What are the possibilities of small but movable machines? They may or
may not be useful, but they surely would be fun to make."
-- Richard P. Feynman, 1959

 

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On 8 Nov 2004 09:06:44 -0800, dchilders@cablespeed.com (Dan Childers)
wrote:

>Realistically, you wouldn't have many *worlds* where
>everything is based on entertainment etc. You might
>have *city states* where this is true, but the
>only way a whole world is likely to be very homogeneous
>is if it's relatively small--one nation or smaller.
>
>Again: Texas, Algeria, and South Korea are all on
>one planet, but are more different than many of
>the "planets" or "species" in much science fiction.

However that is because they developed from separated roots.
Put down an initially monocultural colony with a single language and
make sure they always have the communication and transportation
capability so that all their parts remain in continous communication
with each other, and they aren't going to likely diverge all that much
(although of course they are likely to think their local differences
are much more significant than any foreigner would.)