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[TheBiggerFish]

Would play.

[GiglameshDespair]

Funnily enough, I'm not familiar at all with Eclipse Phase other than a vague awareness of similar concepts and themes. I don't really mind - they're also in the books and other inspirations I mentioned. That said, I probably should get familiar with Eclipse Phase, it might be right up my alley.

I love the setting of Eclipse Phase. There's a goddamn uplifted octopus cartel. It's amazing.
It also had super-ai grow out of control and devastate earth, leaving colonies scattered throughout the system.

I do have some questions about your setting, though:

What about the other planets? You mentioned they're colonised, and a little bit about them, but how do they differ planet to planet? How many colonies are there, relatively?

How combat heavy is it likely to be? How lethal is combat?

How is the economy and buying things likely to work, as many places seem past scarcity?

[Digital Hellhound]

Funnily enough, I'm not familiar at all with Eclipse Phase other than a vague awareness of similar concepts and themes. I don't really mind - they're also in the books and other inspirations I mentioned. That said, I probably should get familiar with Eclipse Phase, it might be right up my alley.

uplifted octopus cartel

There is nothing about these words that I do not like.

Funnily enough, I'm not familiar at all with Eclipse Phase other than a vague awareness of similar concepts and themes. I don't really mind - they're also in the books and other inspirations I mentioned. That said, I probably should get familiar with Eclipse Phase, it might be right up my alley.

I do have some questions about your setting, though:

What about the other planets? You mentioned they're colonised, and a little bit about them, but how do they differ planet to planet? How many colonies are there, relatively?

How combat heavy is it likely to be? How lethal is combat?

How is the economy and buying things likely to work, as many places seem past scarcity?

To be honest, I haven't fleshed out the surviving colonies that much. Partly this is because I want to give the players freedom to define these parts of the world in their apps and otherwise, partly I've just put more thought into other parts of the setting. How they differ from planet to planet is a bit hard to answer - they've all tried to adapt as needed to their environments and conditions, but even on one specific planet each settlement or community might vary a lot in looks/adaptations, culture, customs. Terraforming is limited; mostly people try to get by with augs and alterations that protect against their native conditions (as well as protective suits, shields, etc.), so usually these are communities with a high focus on survival and a constant awareness of the dangers around them.

I've also not fixed down the number of colonies. Mars has the most and the largest, while extreme environments like Venus and Mercury are home to much smaller communities of radically changed humans (and the occasional robotic society). Titan, Enceladus, etc. also have sizeable colonies - you can expect at least an attempt at a colony at every world with even the slightest chance of long-term (trans)human habitation.

Combat is an element, certainly, but I won't push it at the players from every direction. Non-combat options should always be present (though sometimes combat might be the best option, I won't force it on anyone). I'm not sure how lethal to call combat - not really unforgiving or brutal, but not a walk in the park either. Medium lethal?

Some places are past scarcity when it comes to everyday needs, yeah, but rarer advanced technology and resources, fame, favors and, of course the classic, information still carry weight in these places too. This is a setting where secrets are guarded pretty jealously, so information can be much more valuable than any gold. Players might not always get rewarded in cash for the missions they do, or want to be. That said, most of Sol still lives with limited resources and more traditional currency systems.

[IronyOwl]

I love the "you're a bunch of freaks, who knows what the guy next to you is gonna look like" thing you've got going there. I feel like leaving the rest of the colonies vague until someone visits them or is hit with inspiration is a good move.

What's the structure of the game like, sandboxy with quests?

[ATHATH]

I'd join that, DD.

[Digital Hellhound]

I love the "you're a bunch of freaks, who knows what the guy next to you is gonna look like" thing you've got going there. I feel like leaving the rest of the colonies vague until someone visits them or is hit with inspiration is a good move.

What's the structure of the game like, sandboxy with quests?

At its heart, this is a world of individuals, rather than states or empires - it gives me great pleasure to populate the game with characters and little groups each stranger than the last, each pursuing their own goals and making their own path in the world. So yeah, having a cast of freaks is a big appeal to me.

Sandboxy with quests, yeah - probably with the players as one group, but now that I think about it, it's been too long since I've run a game with individual player plotlines. In any case, players providing their own goals and/or plot hooks is encouraged, but they'd be free to muck about and just adventure across Sol as they wish.

[My Name is Immaterial]

I'd definitely be interested in a game like this. My only question is this: why is technology at such disparate levels across the system? In our world, undeveloped/third world countries have the Internet, robotics, Ipads, etc, they're just a lot less common. It's more about the economy and infrastructure than it is about arbitrary tech-levels. For example, why haven't the Remnants sold their advanced tech to Orbitals?

[Digital Hellhound]

I'd definitely be interested in a game like this. My only question is this: why is technology at such disparate levels across the system? In our world, undeveloped/third world countries have the Internet, robotics, Ipads, etc, they're just a lot less common. It's more about the economy and infrastructure than it is about arbitrary tech-levels. For example, why haven't the Remnants sold their advanced tech to Orbitals?

I think you might mean Orbitals sell their advanced tech to the Remnants, but yeah, good question. Well, to some degree, the tech does get around - the Remnants aren't really below the Orbitals in any critical area when it comes to tech level, though what they have is generally more utilitarian, clunky and unrefined. Like your third-world example, Orbital tech can be found throughout Sol, just not ever-presently. You have to take into account that this isn't a true post-scarcity world. The infrastructure to support Orbital-level tech throughout society just doesn't exist in many places, nor do they have unlimited access to necessary resources. The Orbitals could change this, most likely - but they generally have a non-interventionist attitude to the rest of Sol (or, alternatively, a paternalistic superior one which doesn't want the grumpy children to get access to all the cool toys, depending on the Orbital). Such projects would require a consensus unlikely to manifest in the diverse Orbital society. The most powerful Remnants, in the same vein, also have the potential for the same, but still possess a sizeable isolationist and distrustful streak, always prioritizing themselves first.

Earth is a special case - many Earthborn even think the Orbitals are holding them back on purpose, letting the remaining rogue clouds remain and controlling access off and to Earth so tightly because they don't want Earth to prosper and overshadow them again. And they might be right - or then the Orbitals are just being careful, aware of the danger of another Descent and of widespread destruction should the often-unstable governments of Earth be allowed full access to high technology. Advanced tech does filter its way down to Earth, but the people there rarely have the means to maintain it without Orbital help.

(And sometimes Orbitals are just outright hypocrite dicks in this regard - smuggling high-tech weaponry to warring Earthborn gangs and capturing the resulting mayhem with nanocameras to be broadcast across Sol. Most Orbitals will condemn this, of course, but few can be bothered to actively fight to prevent it.)

I don't know if that answers your question, but I appreciate the chance to elaborate and flesh out the setting anyway.

[My Name is Immaterial]

No, I meant Remnants selling to Orbitals. I had thought Remnants were more advanced; since it said that they had highly advanced technology, so I assumed that they were the most technologically advanced, while the Orbitals just lived on the remains of the Old Earth.
Now, knowing about the infrastructure, I understand it better now. Thanks!
The Earth example is pretty cool, BTW.

[IronyOwl]

There's also the question of what a less advanced section is going to buy advanced tech with. Even if your trading partner isn't completely post-scarcity, the exchange rate on canned beans to autofarmers is probably going to be pretty crap.

[GiglameshDespair]

There's also the question of what a less advanced section is going to buy advanced tech with. Even if your trading partner isn't completely post-scarcity, the exchange rate on canned beans to autofarmers is probably going to be pretty crap.

Raw resources, so there's something to feed into those mass converters? Media - perhaps those japanese anime collections aren't just trash after all, in the future? Tech recovered from Echoes?

Nothing much, and that's why they're still so behind?

[Rolepgeek]

Looks pretty sweet to me. I'd definitely be interested in playing

So, for nanoclouds and hacking, is it assumed that they're just everpresent, and that makes it impossible to disconnect from the network? Or is it just so essential that doing it to avoid hacking would be like strapping your arm behind your back so it doesn't get cut off?

Oh! And you probably already know this, but Venus would be a lot easier to colonize than a lot of people think. Just not the surface. Nitrogen-oxygen mix is a lifting gas in it's atmosphere, and 50km or so above the surface, the temperature and pressure are fairly similar to Earth's.

[My Name is Immaterial]

There's also the question of what a less advanced section is going to buy advanced tech with. Even if your trading partner isn't completely post-scarcity, the exchange rate on canned beans to autofarmers is probably going to be pretty crap.

Luxuries, art, media, more broadly entertainment, workers (perhaps including indentured and enslaved labour), information, long distance transportation, etc. Interplanetary trade would almost certainly be a barter economy.

[IronyOwl]

Raw resources, so there's something to feed into those mass converters? Media - perhaps those japanese anime collections aren't just trash after all, in the future? Tech recovered from Echoes?

Nothing much, and that's why they're still so behind?

Possibly, but unless the matter-product rate was crap, you're still looking at selling the cheapest matter possible in exchange for immortality pills. That's probably going to be a LOT of dirt per pill.

Oh! And you probably already know this, but Venus would be a lot easier to colonize than a lot of people think. Just not the surface. Nitrogen-oxygen mix is a lifting gas in it's atmosphere, and 50km or so above the surface, the temperature and pressure are fairly similar to Earth's.

That's awesome.

Luxuries, art, media, more broadly entertainment, workers (perhaps including indentured and enslaved labour), information, long distance transportation, etc. Interplanetary trade would almost certainly be a barter economy.

Luxuries only work for really exotic stuff, ie 100% authentic gemstones forged in a planet's crust as opposed to autofabbed at the touch of a button. Art/media/entertainment only works if a bunch of regressed savages can fit the tastes of a more enlightened culture for some reason; not impossible, but probably not a standard commodity barring deathmatches or the enlightened people being too lazy to actually create art. Workers sound unlikely if the civ is post-scarcity unless, again, they're buying exotic 100% "organic" (<20% implants by mass) butlers or their autofab infrastructure doesn't handle certain rare tasks well. Information was specifically mentioned but, again, information on what? Gangland gossip? Long distance transportation isn't going to happen from orbitals to the surface unless, once again, they really want the experience of riding a 100% authentic train instead of just flying there directly. Orbitals to elsewhere could work, but again, would need a reason why the locals are better at getting around than the guys that don't know what "running out of fuel" is supposed to mean.

So yeah, there's opportunities, but most of them are probably pretty sporadic and/or low-yield.

[My Name is Immaterial]

Art/media/entertainment only works if a bunch of regressed savages can fit the tastes of a more enlightened culture for some reason; not impossible, but probably not a standard commodity barring deathmatches or the enlightened people being too lazy to actually create art.

My thought was actually along the lines of 'antiques'. The standard of rich, eccentric and an art lover was having Native American and Central African tribal art. Orbitals would definitely eat up Earthborn, Machine, or Outsolar art. Let's not forget, they can afford to buy whatever they care to.