Help with Setting design

[Were-Sandwich]

I'm going to be starting a PbP d20 Future game on the boards soon, and I'm making my campaign world. Unfortunatly I've hit a creative wall. This is what I have so far.


The year is 2567.

Earth is gone. A nuclear holocaust caused by an unprecedented arms race rendered it uninhabitable, and populated by twisted abominations. Humanity has fled to orbit, and cities and colonies on other planets in the solar system. This is our world.

2020: First permanent colony established on Mars. Other planets soon follow.

2103: Fusion discovered by Britain’s torchwood institute. They keep it quiet

2120: Britain launches an all out military assault on all other nations. Thanks to their fusion technology, they quickly conquer Europe, but the other continents put up more resistance.

2123: The first nukes are launched. America and China launch a co-ordinated nuclear attack on London, Edinburgh and Cardiff. Britain retaliates with Fusion Warheads, annihilating America, China, Japan and most of Africa. The nuclear winter that follows forces humanity to abandon Earth.

2200: Britain completes its conquest, invading Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune colonies, and all orbital Earth platforms.

2295: Pluto colonised.

~2430: Biodroids begin to be used in industry and later, the military. Lasers become widespread

2500: Neo-Nazi’s fail abysmally at wresting control from the British Empire.

Earth

The nuclear holocaust known as ’23 blues has left the Earth damaged beyond repair. The whole planet is radioactive, covered in ash and wasteland, populated by mutated monsters, the remains of once normal creatures, know as ‘Dregs’ by Londoners.
New London is the only settlement on Earth, built in 2250 in a vain attempt to terraform Earth back to its former glory. After that scheme failed it became a city known for its large population of Bounty Hunters, criminals, hitmen and prostitutes.
Many stations orbit Earth, the most famous being Serenity and Divinity stations.

New London
Pop: 30 million
Type: City
Resources: Illicit substances, Illegal Weapons, Black Market Goods, Hookers
Law Enforcement: Almost Non-Existent
Special: Restriction goods are treated as being one step down the restriction ‘ladder’. Illegal to Military, Military to Restricted, Restricted to Licensed, Licensed to unrestricted.

Serenity Station
Pop: 2 million
Type: Space Station
Resources: Craftsmen
Law Enforcement: Highly regulated

Divinity Station
Pop: 1000,000
Type: Military Space Station
Resources: Military Base
Law Enforcement: Military
Special: Houses 900,000 soldiers, 10,000 fighters and pilots, 10,000 support personnel, 10,000 Fire support Mecha, 30,000 Genetically modified Helix Warriors, 1 Star Carrier, 4 Dreadnoughts, various smaller gunboats, habitation and deployment equipment for all.


Mercury
Mercury is known colloquially across the Galaxy as Hell. It is a fiery planet of unimaginable heat. Its only settlements are the great prisons, Avernus, Dis, Minauros, Phlegethos, Stygia, Malbolge, Maladomini, Cania and Nessus. Each is a hive of pods, containing convicts kept sedate with Neural scramblers, colloquially known as Haloes. Hence the phrase ‘Going to Hell with a Halo’.
Not much survives on Mercury’s surface, except large Insectile life forms, known as Demons. These acid breathing bugs are extremely territorial, and attack anything that comes near.

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i263/WereSandwich_2006/Demon.gif


Prison
Pop: 100 guards, 100,000 convicts in stasis
Type: Prison
Resources: None
Law Enforcement: Custodian Establishment

Demon Hive
Pop: 1,000,0000+ Demons
Type: Hive
Resources: None
Law Enforcement: None necessary

Heat: Any one outside a terra-formed prison compound on Mercury’s surface, must make a DC15 fort save every round or take 1 point of fire damage

Venus
Venus is a dying world. Sent flying off from Jupiter in Earth’s prehistory, Venus established an orbit between Earth and Mercury. Unfortunately, that Orbit was a decaying one. In 200 years, Venus will be nothing but ash, sucked into the sun. Until then, it is a prime holiday destination. Its climate is like that of pre-’23 Blues Spain. Its oceans are full of glorious blue water (a rarity nowadays), its beaches covered in golden sands, full of bronze skinned, bikini wearing women and patrolled by muscley beefcake lifeguards. Its like a whole planet covered in Baywatch. The mainland is covered in lush jungles and wide open plains, perfect for expeditions or safari’s.
Venus’s wildlife is very aerial. Most creatures are capable of flight. The seas are teaming with giant Jellyfish, or giant Manta Ray like creatures, but who knows what the deeps could hold? The land bound wildlife is mostly airborne, but there are some giant crustacean creatures that live in the jungles.
Each year, Venus’s temperature goes up by about ½ a degree.
Holiday Resort
Pop: 3 million
Type: Resort
Resources: Tourism
Law Enforcement: Lax

Orbital Space Port
Pop: 1000
Type: Port
Resources: None
Law enforcement: Customs

Holidays on Venus: A 1 week holiday on Venus is a DC 20 Wealth check, with a +3 to the DC for each additional week.


Mars

Mars is colder than Earth, but not as cold as some of the outer planets. Its terra-formed surface is covered in buildings in a ring around the planets equator. The rest is still barren wasteland, inhabited by nothing but flying Dragons (The colloquial name for 30ft long flying reptiles that inhabit the planets surface).
The city area is the main heart of the British Empire. Its capital, New Birmingham, is situated in the City Ring round the planets equator. It is full of administrative offices, and pen-pushers. Most legal stuff goes on here.

New Birmingham
Pop: 2 billion
Type: City
Resources: Lawyers, Office workers, Bureaucrats etc
Law Enforcement: Extremely tight.
Special: The royal palace is here.

The problem: The Gas giants. Who in their right mind would live there? There's nothing but Hydrogen and some helium, so there's no breathable atmosphere. There's no ground to walk on, and there are no resources worth mining. So, whats there.

The only other option I thought of was having Jupiter burned out. Just, set on fire by some terrorists and burned away.

So, any help.

[Thomas]

The problem: The Gas giants. Who in their right mind would live there? There's nothing but Hydrogen and some helium, so there's no breathable atmosphere. There's no ground to walk on, and there are no resources worth mining. So, whats there.

Er... nothing. Why would there be? (Although Traveller had some funny aliens that lives in gas clouds.) Aside from there being nothing to breath and not much of anything to stand on, the pressures are unimaginable and lethal.

Most planets in our solar system are utterly uncolonisable. Why would you need to destroy them? There's just nobody living there. Your "problem" is nonsensical.

A word of advice: even if you're just doing space opera, find out something about planets, space, etc., or your writing is going to end up quite silly. (As in Space 1889 silly. That game works because it's supposed to be camp, but modern SF is supposed to take reality into account.)

Even better advice: if you're going for total space opera, use other solar systems where you can make everything up.

[Fax Celestis]

Have the gas giant populace be gas miners. Certainly you'll need a variety of gases in manufacture.

[bosssmiley]

There are always the Jovian moons (except Europa, which has been off limits to humans since 2001 ;) ). Peter Hamilton's "Nights Dawn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night%27s_Dawn_Trilogy)" trilogy did a fun take on a superficially idyllic Jovian-orbiting future society, although I always preferred the retro Eurolunacy of Mutant Chronicles (http://www.sebman.com/) for RPG fluffiness. :)

IIRC Dungeon/Polyhedron did a mini-game called Iron Lords of Jupiter that did a pulpy Barsoom/Buck Rogers take on life on Jupiter. Something about a low density layer in the atmosphere. Bad physics, good fun. :D

[Were-Sandwich]

Er... nothing. Why would there be? (Although Traveller had some funny aliens that lives in gas clouds.) Aside from there being nothing to breath and not much of anything to stand on, the pressures are unimaginable and lethal.

Most planets in our solar system are utterly uncolonisable. Why would you need to destroy them? There's just nobody living there. Your "problem" is nonsensical.

A word of advice: even if you're just doing space opera, find out something about planets, space, etc., or your writing is going to end up quite silly. (As in Space 1889 silly. That game works because it's supposed to be camp, but modern SF is supposed to take reality into account.)

Even better advice: if you're going for total space opera, use other solar systems where you can make everything up.

I never said this was our sloar system. Its just a very similar one. with the same names. yeah. thats it. I considered having nothng living on there, but I'm, trying to make something interesting on all of the planets so I have a variey of places to send them.

[LoopyZebra]

Perhaps Jupiter and it's moons are the place for mining stations (the gases could be used for fuel, the water on Europa for drinking, etc.)? They could be still active, or perhaps they were abandoned to lack of feasibility and are now hideouts for pirates, or something in between. If business is poor, then you could have a bunch of poor people with high crime, where a mafia controls the local govenrment, or if business is good, a gold-rush type of atmosphere.

Also, why Britain? It seems to me that Britain wouldn't invade the rest of the world because "they felt like it". Did they fall to a dictatorship after a depression? Or perhaps a different, authortarian country was responsible (China, for instance, or a resurgent Russia, would fit well)? I just don't see a democratic Britain invading everything.

EDIT: It might be good to change the names too, because most people (including the players) are going to assume that that place is similar to real life, while Venus, for instance, is very different in your world.

[Thomas]

I never said this was our sloar system. Its just a very similar one. with the same names. yeah. thats it. I considered having nothng living on there, but I'm, trying to make something interesting on all of the planets so I have a variey of places to send them.


That doesn't change that you can not live in gas giants. The pressure, the fact there's not a lot of solid anything...

The moons of gas giants (and other large planets; a big enough gas giant might act as a closer, secondary "sun", even) are far more likely to be viable for dwelling.

Like I said, read up before you make up SF or space opera.

(It's not Earth, but... it's got Britain and Nazis and... okay.)

[Fax Celestis]

That doesn't change that you can not live in gas giants. The pressure, the fact there's not a lot of solid anything...

The moons of gas giants (and other large planets; a big enough gas giant might act as a closer, secondary "sun", even) are far more likely to be viable for dwelling.

Like I said, read up before you make up SF or space opera.

(It's not Earth, but... it's got Britain and Nazis and... okay.)
Not in, in orbit of. On a mining satellite or something.

[Premier]

Also, why Britain? It seems to me that Britain wouldn't invade the rest of the world because "they felt like it". Did they fall to a dictatorship after a depression? Or perhaps a different, authortarian country was responsible (China, for instance, or a resurgent Russia, would fit well)? I just don't see a democratic Britain invading everything.

Exactly. Pulling a fast one like that in, say, a superhero game deliberately mimicking the campness of the golden age of comic strips is okay, but today's sci-fi audience (and if your players weren't a sci-fi audience, they wouldn't be playing) doesn't buy stuff like that. Nations don't just wake up one morning and decide to take over the world, not even dictatorships and the like.

Also, how does fusion power give England an unstoppable army? It's just another method of energy generation, nothing more. A fusion-powered tank or airplane will be destroyed by a missile just as easily as an ordinary one. And what if they won't have to stockpile diesel and kerosene? Not that big a deal.

[Thomas]

Also, how does fusion power give England an unstoppable army? It's just another method of energy generation, nothing more. A fusion-powered tank or airplane will be destroyed by a missile just as easily as an ordinary one. And what if they won't have to stockpile diesel and kerosene? Not that big a deal.

There is a connection, actually. Most advanced weapon projects and concepts stumble in energy requirements; they'd take inconceivable amounts. Advanced energy production allows for more efficiency, more compact energy, and makes it possible to employ more outrageous and energy-intensive concepts.

Just by itself, having a fusion-powered tank is no advantage; but when you combine that with other SF mumbo-jumbo technology (force fields, cloaking devices, fusion weaponry, lasers, etc.), you're in business, so to say.

[codexgigas]

Britain really isn't a likely candidate for world-domination. A resurgence of czarist (or even communist) Russia makes sense, as would China. Of course, the most likely cause of a nuclear winter would be a rogue state (i.e. terrorists) who got their hands on old Soviet technology. That begins the alternate timeline in a believable place. It does, however, eliminate the idea of there being a space empire (unless the rogue state takes over in the confusion).

Of course, if you're going for an all-out space opera, with all the camp that entails, a resurgence of British Imperial culture could be a lot of fun, especially if the other planets end up being like British-controlled India, etc. I'd enjoy playing that, even if it isn't good sci-fi. Including demons and dragons in the setting does tend to sound like you're going more for a fantasy in space feeling, in which case you shouldn't focus as much on the "how" of how the advanced technology works.

As for the gas giants, they're mining colonies, a la Cloud City in The Empire Strikes back. Saturn and Jupiter have a ton of moons, which could all house colonies, which gives the planets an "inhabited" feel. That's basically the only use you can get out of them, unless some future technology can reduce the effects of pressure, so humans live in pressure controlled floating cities (you're already bending physics with settlements on Mercury).

Also, if Venus' orbit is detoriating that rapidly, it should be much closer to the sun than Mercury, and thus hotter. I do, however, like the doomed paradise feel that you've got going, but I'm not sure how you can feasibly save it. The fact that people are using a dying world as a vacation resort is morbidly funny to me.

[Umael]

That doesn't change that you can not live in gas giants. The pressure, the fact there's not a lot of solid anything...

At present technology, no. In foreseeable technology, unlikely. In unforeseeable, yes, but that's kinda cheating.

Jupiter (and gas giants like it) has a number of problems, and so far, the only way to address these problems would be artifical and contained environments, followed by massive terraforming.

Problem #1 - Radiation. As your spaceship full of colonists approach Jupiter, the intense radiation gives them enough lethal doses that they keel over.

Problem #2 - Intense heat. Jupiter is very hot - it radiates more heat than it receives from the sun. I would need to double-check, but I think it is hotter than Venus.

(Ouch! That's hot enough to melt lead! There goes your shielding against radiation!)

Problem #3 - Gravity. A spaceship is going to get pulled into Jupiter very quickly. Everyone suddenly weighs more. A lot more. Fighter jet pilots wince at just the thought.

Problem #4 - Pressure. Crush! Unless you can find a way to stay in the upper layers, the thick atmosphere of Jupiter is going to make the Marianas Trench look like Mount Everett.

Problem #5 - Atmosphere! I don't know about you, but breathing hydrogen isn't my idea of fun.

Problem #6 - Combustible accidents. You need oxygen to breathe. Hydrogen + oxygen + flame (remember, Jupiter's hot) = boom!


Solution! - Get a hydrogen mining station that snakes down a tube to just suck up the upper layers of hydrogen for fueling. Make the tube long enough and give your mining station shielding against the radiation. Burn the hydrogen as the sole source of energy. Make your mining station big. Have lots of them.


The moons of gas giants (and other large planets; a big enough gas giant might act as a closer, secondary "sun", even) are far more likely to be viable for dwelling.

You would need a much bigger gas giant than Jupiter to ignite into even a dwarf sun. Remember, Jupiter isn't even a brown star, and brown stars are crap for life-supporting systems.


Like I said, read up before you make up SF or space opera.

QFT.

(P.S. I ask purely out of curiousity, not to get competitive, but how much about world-building do you know?)

[endoperez]

Thus far, your world is great.

As has been said, the Gas Giants exist. There needn't be any use for them - pursuing possible leads can provide many interesting adventurers. There should be few huge artificial starbases, and at least plans to build an artificial planet. Again, adventure hooks.

Moons of all the planets offer many possibilities. Especially the ones closer to sun. What about Earth's moon? Also, what happens in the Asteroid belt?

Pluto is probably too cold to be 'colonized', but it probably could be a base for watching the stars and research center for travel to other solar systems.

Also, I personally don't think the idea of Britain invading the world is that strange. Britain was a big player when large parts of today's industrial powers were its colonies. If it got a chance and had a wrong kind of leader, it could try to get those back. If you want something more "realistic", what about this:

2020: First permanent colony established on Mars. Other planets soon follow.

2060: Asia takes lead as a new center of technology and science.

2103: Fusion discovered, almost accidentally, in Britain's torchwood institute. They keep it quiet, starting to research any military plans they and other countries had abandoned because of their enormous energy consumption.

2117: China tries to invade India, but India fights back. India uses a technological breakthrough to take control of China's computers, detonating one of China's own nuclear bombs on its silo and starting oppression. Great rebellions are triggered in China, and whole world sends in armed forces to take control of China's remaining nukes before they get into wrong hands.

late 2119: International pressure against India decision to detonante the chinese nuke finally causes civil war in India.

2120: Britain launches an all out military assault against India. Thanks to their fusion technology, they quickly conquer most of it. They continue to take control of the whole of China. During the following years, their military power and behind-the-curtains dirty deals force then the other other countries of Asia to 'rejoin' the UK as colonies.

2123: The first nukes are launched. US, Canada and France launch a co-ordinated nuclear attack on London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Nagbur, Pyongyang, Bangkok and Ulanbaatar. Russia joins the UK in its retaliation because its rich Eastern areas also suffered from the nukes, but its Britain's Fusion Warheads that annihilating most of North America and Africa - and Europe, as an Irelandish terrorist interferes. The nuclear winter that follows forces humanity to abandon Earth.

[Thomas]

(P.S. I ask purely out of curiousity, not to get competitive, but how much about world-building do you know?)

Not that much. I've got an SF-fan's knowledge of planetology and similar topics; most of what I know/believe is gleaned from GURPS Space (which I, of course, heartily recommend to anyone crafting any sort of SF campaign, whether space opera or hard SF). I wouldn't expect to get details right, but big stuff (like "You can't live in/on gas giants") is easy... ;D


Thus far, your world is great.
Also, I personally don't think the idea of Britain invading the world is that strange. Britain was a big player when large parts of today's industrial powers were its colonies. If it got a chance and had a wrong kind of leader, it could try to get those back.

Fusion power-plants sound much less plausible than Britain becoming an imperial power again, really. And it's very Space 1889, which may be sort of the feeling the OP is looking for here.

[Tanking_101]

Yeah I would totaly do something with the moons of the gas giants. Jupiter has like 17 and saturn has like 15 or something. I know they both have too many for there own good. Io is one of Jupiters moons I think and is made entirely out of frozen and liquid methane. I would also have gas mining platforms in orbit around the gas giants, and perhaps small military intallations to protect them. I would also have some sort of an under ground rebel society in the moon. Literally under ground maybe even remnants of the neo nazis.

[LoopyZebra]

Back to the social aspect, why Neo-Nazis? Wouldn't another group make sense? People only join radical groups when the current system isn't working, and as Britain is in control, it doesn't seem like any Germans would be poor enough to join up. If we go by Endoperez's history (which is more likely, but I still can't see Britain as a war-monger without an economic depression of Great Depression levels or deep dissatisfaction with the parliamentary British government, usually caused by economic concerns, but that's aside the point) wouldn't Asians displaced by Britain's warmongering make more sense for an organized revolution?

[Ethdred]

Why do you think Neo-Nazis (and please, there is no apostrophe in plurals) would have to be Germans? Though it does sound like he's using the term as a catch-all for 'nasty elements that we disagree with' - a common problem when people start bandying around words like fascism and nazism.

As for why would Britain start a war with the rest of the world - I can only assume that the people asking that question don't live here :)

On a serious note, you say that you only have a problem with Gas Giants - but what about the Asteroid Belt (or even the Kuiper Belt)? Presumably that's got things happening in it Also, Mercury apparently is only hot on one side due to its rotation - one face is kept permanently towards the sun. I can't remember the details of this, but you could probably dig up some research on the good old Interweb.

I go with the general consensus that mining platforms of some sort are what you want for the Gas Giants, and colonisation of their moons is where the fun is. Pluto as an observatory is a really cool idea!