Hello.

In this sci-fi NRP we are staying within one star system, as we do not need other stars systems. Not to mention this gives creativity to dealing w/ limited space involved.

Beyond these common traits, I want to know which scenario is the most appealing.

There is a several setups.

Beyond Tomorrow-
This scenario takes place a few millennia into the future after a dark age or two. Instead of aliens you get all matter of hew human forms along with all sorts of life that is descended from life today, but developing in radically new directions thanks to genetic engineering. The boundary between man, machine and animal has in many cases ceased existing, with artificial life, uplifts, digital life, ecosystems of machine drones and so forth all existing. Earth is a mess, but still habitable enough. Outside of Earth, life lives in networks of habitation zones within asteroids, in the clouds of Venus, in the depths of Europa and so on. Alien life could exist, but you'll need to give a case for it.

Centuari-
The closest star system to the sun and also a binary system with a K class and G class star. Alpha Centuari also has a red dwarf much further out. Alpha Centuari has worlds in orbit or either star or both, with a lack of any icy worlds except those floating in the extreme distance around both stars. Life here is harsh from the heat of the two stars bearing down upon you, and strange life is likely to have developed here. There are no AI custodians in this scenario.

Cygni -
A binary star system that exists little over ten light years away. One of these stars is a flare star, which means it erupts in large periodic flares. With 84 AU between both stars, stable planetary systems with more worlds exist With all matter of worlds. At the barycenter strange anomalous structures exist. This star system is a massive blank slate, so the arrangement of what worlds exist can be whatever we need it to be. It could be host to some ancient alien society that is just ruins now with its remnants making some of the alien factions.

Tau Ceti -
A sunlike star with lots and lots of asteroids in a debris disc 35 AU out and known exoplanets. The system would be built using the five known real exoplanets and fictional ones. Tau Ceti having native alien life is completely plausible, and we can have intelligent life occur multiple times across the super earths here.

Plan Lazarus-
In this scenario you have a human colony ship sent to a far off completely custom made star system to whatever we want it to be.

Other-
Don't like any of these? give an alternative suggestion!

Colonization methods:

-Seed Ship, all human players come from a seed ship that made the first generation of humans on the most habitable world in the system. Humans automatically getting adaptations for said EarthLike world.

-Stasis, all human players come from a stasis ship where everyone is waken up to begin colonization. A faster potential start up here, but much more expensive.

-Wormhole, a worm howl connecting the star system to sol. This option is not recommended, as it means two star systems.

-None, just stay in sol!

Alien/nonhuman biological life Scenarios:

-Only humans

-Primitive nonhumans only.

-Primitive nonhumans and super organisms only.

-Advanced aliens with human tech level as well.

Artificial intelligence scenarios:

-No self aware AI exists.

-Degenerative AIs only, which means stupid AI systems that once were smart but have degraded in quality over time.

-Self aware AIs, but no super intelligences.

-Degenerative super intelligences, but functioning AI.

-Super intelligences too, with all the problems they have.

Misc tech allowances;

-Weather manipulation technology

-Starlifting technology

-City worlds, living or dead

-Dyson swarms, living or dead

Also there are the perspectives. Perspectives is just a way of saying different situations a player may be due to what they picked. AI systems, sapience, mindless super organisms, digital minds, all options here if we do a future sol scenario. In a alien star colonization scenario, human advancement can be sent on a regression towards a dark age that allows us to start with technology hardly more advanced than today, just on a alien world now having to fend of whatever alien life we happen to now have to share the planets with. If there are alien AI systems hiding in the crust of that cryptic lava planet orbiting further out and whatnot is up to user discretion.

In general, when making an AI system instead of a civilization or super organism I expect you to not be as populous as the former. In general follow a balancing scheme of higher quality, less population. If you just wanna be some eldritch alien that fucks shit up, go ahead, just don't have a whole civilization of them numbering in the order of billions. You are allowed rediculously huge populations in this RP however, as even with small tech advancements from today the ability to support larger populations will be made easier by advancements in agriculture, habitation and building materials that would enable stuff like arcogies and colonies even on normally inhospitable worlds.

In short, do you want sol or some other star system to play a sci-fi NRP within a single star system?

Solar system it is!

Thanks for all the interest you guys have shown. I'll make a interest check for the sol concept okay?

Solar system it is!

Thanks for all the interest you guys have shown. I'll make a interest check for the sol concept okay?

Never joined the discussion so I have no clue, does it make the game a sorta "hard sci-fi" near future instead of an outright space adventure like most of these games?
I am thinking something like the Expanse's setting or perhaps even looser usage of the term "hard sci-fi", of course.

@Willy Vereb
Sorta, just set further into the future with more infrastruture development & biotech. It isn't meant to be space opera as it is meant to be more exploring what sort of societies would form after sol has been lived in beyond earth for centuries and the politics, conflicts and way of life which come from that. Imagine what sorta culture would develop after centuries of living in asteroid habitats!

Think of it this way, it's meant to be in the further future mainly so there is time for new cultures and societies to develop in the solar system distinct from what exists today and give time for infrastructure to age. In terms of colonization, with the centuries of time what you see is the development of biospheres in large habitation complexes. Earth also has a biosphere with lots of modified life forms.

Alien life wise I am a bit loose, in that I am likely to allow complex life on Europe that has distant genetic relations to us and whatnot going with a panspermia interpretation that life originated in the kuiper belt, not Earth.

This does allow for one to make new human species or uplifted animal species alongside AI, which means one can rapidly have uplifted octopi stand in for mollusc aliens or some bioengineered arthropod stand in for insectoid aliens (thanks to high oxygen & low gravity habitats). The ecosystems are within large habitation complexes, be it under the surface of mars, in a sky habitat in the clouds of Saturn or inside asteroid habitats. Really, wherever you feel would be logical for a habitat, there is a habitat. In short, avoid terraforming on a planetary scale and instead focus on making habitation complexes.

In regards to technology, just avoid advanced AI (the sort that manipulate reality and act as god stand-ins), star lifting, worm holes and tech in that realm. A dyson swarm is fine though, since that is just a bunch of satellites around the sun. Basically keep it within the early type-I range.

I may allow for one naturally occuring wormhole connecting to another star system, but it has to be a naturally occuring one we overlooked somewhere 50 AU or so out where we can place world types sol doesn't offer (mainly ocean planets) and give some space for alien life to exist beyond of subglacial seas or under rocks.