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Our story follows the crew of the spaceship Absolute Magnitude. It is a partnership of bounty hunters who travel the Solar System trying to apprehend various criminals and lawbreakers, while earning cash through the occasional odd job and scattered petty crime. More specifically, our story is about the characters, their personal growth, and the history that is pieced together over time. Some "episodes" may be less heavy on this and feature spaceship chases, intense violence, and convoluted gun battles, while others will be snippets of flashbacks interspersed with the crew eating cheap sandwiches at a diner or other mundane, ordinary activities. This world is fairly similar to the real world, and will ostensibly aim to be just as balanced in its dark and light-hearted situations. Just with more jetpacks.
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Venus was the second planet colonized by humanity, which has since widely been regarded as a mistake. Colloquially called "Man's Final Frontier", Venus is the modern-day equivalent to America's Wild West, in that the ISSP are unable to form a base on the crowded desert planet and thereby have been unable to successfully enforce law on the planet. Venusians reside in an underground city that spans the entire planet, only accessible to those landing at night when the sun is on the opposite side of Venus. Aside from the prevalence of drugs and crime, Venus is known for being a hiding spot for those on the run from the law, or hackers who wish to broadcast as far from the ISSP as they can. Because large-scale farming is virtually impossible in Venus's cramped subterranean quarters, almost all food and drinks are synthetic. Venusians are descended from too great a number of groups to have a "mother culture", though wealthy Venusian culture and artwork is strongly influenced by romanticized views of China's Heavenly Empire period.
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Mars was the first planet humanity settled on after the United States declined to allow Japan access to the moon. It is too close to the sun's solar winds to be completely terraformed, so civilization exclusively exists in temperature-regulated dome cities built into the planet's many craters and the subterranean tunnels connecting them. Because the first space colonizing nation was Japan, Martian culture is intrinsically Japanese in its racial demographics, social conventions, culture, and cuisine. As a result, the influence of the Yakuza and small-time triads is an unavoidable problem throughout all of the planet, though it is particularly prevalent in East Mars, which is considered poorer. Mars is the most corrupt of the colonies, with many political figures now comparing its flag -- a lone red planet in black space -- to a dishonorable, corrupt shadow of the planet's mother country. There are 10 ISSP hubs on the planet, which is frequently cited by the Martian government to bolster their claims of Mars being the safest, most advanced colony.
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Earth, the home of humanity, exists in a strange limbo between veneration and abandonment. The planet is intrinsic to humanity's history, though because much of the data, logs, and sites important to this history have been swept away in the planet's many global storms, most of humanity's early historical achievements have been preserved in documents, while a few have been sent to safer planets for true preservation; Evening Snow at Kanbara hangs on the walls of a Martian casino, Tutankhamun's sarcophagus has been at a Jupiterean museum for decades, The Declaration of Independence is displayed at the ALC's government headquarters, and so on. Earth now exists as something of a historical resort while the impoverished descendants of those unable to flee the tropical planet scratch out existence in shantytowns built into the remaining dry land.
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The American Lunar Colony, or ALC, is an exclusively American colony located on Earth's moon. It considers itself "The Last Stronghold of America", and although the United States of America is not completely submerged, it has replaced the country for all intents and purposes. Lunarians are the leaders in the world's entertainment and fashion industries, much like the original USA, and although the moon has been terraformed, it still retains a number of cities whose skyscrapers make indents in the moon's visible curvature. On the moon, American law supersedes all others, meaning that the ALC does not recognize the ISSP's bounty-reward system, instead using their own American bounty-reward system, which rewards bounty hunters with Lunar Credits instead of Yen -- the most notable difference in the two currencies is that Lunar Credits are exclusively on discs, unusable for illegitimate transactions.
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Although Jupiter is an inhospitable gas giant, its four moons are among the wealthiest and most stable of the colonies due to sulfur mining on Io and Jupiter, which is now used as a key component in space fuel. Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa are fully terraformed and are the closest to Earth's original temperature and climate, although there are various differences in the colors of their atmospheres, seas, and flora due to mineral differences in the various moon's soils. Culturally, the four moons are approximately equal mixes of "Earth Culture", which is largely Western in nature, though there is an underlying British element due to the colonies being largely invested by the remnants of Great Britain, limited mostly to a strong drinking culture, a fondness for tea and football, and a parliamentary legislative government almost identical to that used by the United Kingdom between 1801 and 2093. Because the four moons are perfectly terraformed, there are many anti-pollution and anti-urbanization laws in place to avoid repeating the mistakes of Earth. Because of this, those from Jupiter are stereotyped as being from unexciting "Gas station planets", though their strict laws and preservation-minded culture has left them with the universe's most natural hiking trails and forests. Jupiter is unique in that its terraforming includes genetically altered earth creatures, such as the Callistonian Megabear, and the Ganymedian Sea-Trout. The ISSP has a headquarters on each of the four moons, and one orbiting Jupiter itself.
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Like Jupiter, Saturn is a gas giant with a terraformed moon, Titan. Titan cannot be completely terraformed and is inhabitable by humans only in the southern hemisphere, though it is still plagued by intense, sub-arctic cold. Like their home planet, Titaneans are stereotypically viewed as distant, cold, and alien. The distance between Saturn and the rest of the world is strengthened by their being the only planet to have developed a language -- Titanean was originally a pidgin form of Mandarin Chinese, English, Afrikaans, and Spanish, though over time it has evolved into an entirely separate dialect. Titan houses the ISSP's prison for orange and red prisoners in a Martian-style dome on its northern hemisphere, though many Titaneans work on the prison due to the planet's small size.
This is a soft sci-fi setting, so I'm less focused on "how" than "how likely". Do robots exist? Yes, but they're more like C3P0 than Replicants. Do energy shields exist? Yes, but only giant ones that keep micrometeorites from shredding space stations. Do teleporters/FTL portals exist? That one's just a no. That's pretty much the pattern for how I'm fielding tech question; The future has cool stuff, but so much of it is too impractical or boring to give much notice. In addition, a lot of things we'd consider outdated -- corded telephones, matches, cassette players -- have been brought back out of functionality in space and romanticized views of humanity's past. People have always thought old shit was cool. That being said, since there have been some questions about the level of tech, here are some examples of technology I plan on being as common in this world as Star Trek's phasers, transporters, and slidey doors.
Synthetic Food Printers
Closer to a microwave than a printer, SFP machines turn flavorless beige goop called "Nutri-Flax" into various recreations of foods, using wooden dowels to recreate bones and a thin rice paper membrane sold separately to recreate certain textures. Though synthetic food is famous for its bland, freeze-dried taste, it has virtually eliminated the problem of hunger, allowing populations to grow where it is widespread. It is for this reason that Titan, Earth and Venus are given large quantities of tax-allocated Nutri-flax.
Spacecrafts
Space ships get smaller as they get newer. The newest models are one-person "racing" models, whereas the first spacecrafts were made from recycled warships and had hulking frames. Because the amount of electricity needed to charge a spacecraft's battery would be tremendous, all spacecrafts run on gas derived from sulfur, which is mined most prominently on Io. The Absolute Magnitude is about the size of a passenger bus, which is to say, it is not new or fast.
Plasma Weaponry
Guns that shoot energy, which melt things on contact. Used by most spaceships, and the rifles and pistols of the ISSP and those who can afford them through other means. They're banned from a few places due to their lethality -- If you shoot someone in the chest with a plasma weapon, not even modern space-age medicine could patch up the smoldering, grapefruit-sized hole going through them. If you shoot someone in the limb, that limb becomes a cauterized stump from that point down. You get the picture. Plasma Weapons typically cost as much as a crappy spacecraft, limiting their use to billionaires, government-funded soldiers, and those who have stolen from them.
Robots
Generally the big, slow "HALT, INTRUDER" kind. Robots that are mentally powerful such as sentient computers require so much storage that they're localized and lack a physical form, whereas robots with a physical form such as Security models, Mining Models, Pilot Models, Police Models, and Pleasure Models have an obvious gap in the uncanny valley and act really "robotic". Sort of like those conversation-capable robots. They have human-colored skin and can kind of talk, sure, but there's something strangely inauthentic and parrot-y about talking to a robot.
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The Inter-Solar System Police, or ISSP, is the organization tasked with keeping the peace from Venus to Saturn. They are politically tied to the ruling government of each planet, though as a result this makes them susceptible to the corruption therein. They are equipped with state-of-the-art technology and arms, and because the bounty-reward program typically ensures the capture of individual felons, the ISSP mostly investigates large-scale, corporate, terroristic, or trafficking related crimes. As part of their bounty hunting program, they have a color coded classification system for everyone they have interacted with, including fugitives, prisoners, and felons.
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Blue criminals are considered the lowest threats, typically criminals of opportunity such as thieves and burglars, those arrested in domestic disputes, or associates of more dangerous criminals. The ISSP does not search for blue fugitives, instead choosing to arrest them at spaceports and other checkpoints, though bounty hunters sometimes bring them in for meager rewards.
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Green criminals are considered dangerous, though not moreso than any run of the mill crazed gunman or gang member. Though green fugitives are considerably more dangerous than their blue counterparts, they make up the largest classification and are actively sought after by the ISSP, so rewards are not necessarily larger. It is illegal for green felons to purchase security robots.
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Yellow fugitives, also called Gold fugitives by bounty hunters, make up the universe's murderers, rapists, arsonists, and initiated men of the yakuza and other similar groups. Though they are sought after by ISSP officials, they are frequently clever enough to avoid the police by way of plastic surgery, hiding on remote planets, or enlisting hackers to provide them false identities. This makes them among the most common high paying bounties to those brave enough to seek them out. Yellow felons cannot legally purchase security robots, or plasma firearms.
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Orange fugitives provide high-paying bounties, though it is almost certain that by the time they have become an orange fugitive, they have killed someone trying to collect that bounty. A classification typically reserved for mass murderers, pirates, and assassins, orange fugitives that manage to serve prison sentences are not allowed to legally purchase any type of robotics, firearm, or spacecraft. Unlike blue, green, and yellow prisoners, who are kept on prisons on Mars and Ganymede, orange and red prisoners are kept on Titan.
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The rarest and most dangerous classification, red fugitives are almost always caught at the end of an ISSP investigation instead of by bounty hunters, though their bounties are laughably high. Red fugitives are criminals who are considered dangerous enough for civillians unregistered with the bounty-reward system to kill or capture -- something the ISSP is famous for its stance against. Red fugitives are typically criminal kingpins, serial killers, spies, and murderers of political leaders, ISSP officers, children, or hostages. Red felons -- who are either extremely old, informants, or have taken plea bargains -- are monitored by the ISSP, and cannot possess or purchase robotics, firearms, or spacecrafts. Additionally, red felons cannot enter Earth.
The Past & Our Memories
The past, memories, and relinquishing or making peace with this past will be the central theme in Absolute Magnitude -- The RP and titular ship being named after the brightness of a star as visible to the naked eye, or in other words, our visibility of the image of a dying celestial body, long after it has died. Every main character has a past those around them are not fully aware of that they hold on to, while characters unable to let go of the past or come to terms with it -- such as fugitives encountered by the crew who would rather go out in a blaze of glory -- pay a fatal price. Each of the characters have parts of their past that are baggage to them in the present, while being rather unaware of the baggage that the other crewmembers carry until it is revealed through circumstance.
Metaphysical Purposelessness
The second major theme is the metaphysical purposelessness that surrounds our characters and the billions of other humans across the solar system. Our characters, like anyone else, should grapple with questions such as "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?" from time to time. The life of a bounty hunter isn't filled with purpose; it is weeks of drifting in the Absolute Magnitude along the asteroid belt, listening to bounty broadcasts in the hopes of finding a fugitive to help pay for their next meal and another day of pointless living. It is choosing whether to pursue the bounty of a man who killed his daughter's rapist, or pursue the bounty of a terrorist group defending Earth's last forest. Aside from the lives of our main characters, the fugitives they come across are often in purposeless situations, and usually only living to spite the ISSP, so there's doses of thematic waaangst from both angles.
Contemporary Loneliness
Seeing as humanity's population has recently passed twenty billion, it's easy to feel lonely in the world. Aside from the obvious fact that humanity is now scattered in the bleakness of space, the cyberpunk setting will add to this theme more than our characters -- Advertisements for dating, seeing the universe, and calling friends on other planets are everywhere, despite the obvious disconnect between the cheery, neon advertisements and the unwashed bleakness of the world. I'd love to write more about this theme, but there's no point since it can just be summarized with a picture of three or so people looking at their phones instead of talking to each other, captioned "WAKE UP SHEEPLE". If you read this far, stick a fitting literary quote beneath your character's name.
The past, memories, and relinquishing or making peace with this past will be the central theme in Absolute Magnitude -- The RP and titular ship being named after the brightness of a star as visible to the naked eye, or in other words, our visibility of the image of a dying celestial body, long after it has died. Every main character has a past those around them are not fully aware of that they hold on to, while characters unable to let go of the past or come to terms with it -- such as fugitives encountered by the crew who would rather go out in a blaze of glory -- pay a fatal price. Each of the characters have parts of their past that are baggage to them in the present, while being rather unaware of the baggage that the other crewmembers carry until it is revealed through circumstance.
Metaphysical Purposelessness
The second major theme is the metaphysical purposelessness that surrounds our characters and the billions of other humans across the solar system. Our characters, like anyone else, should grapple with questions such as "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?" from time to time. The life of a bounty hunter isn't filled with purpose; it is weeks of drifting in the Absolute Magnitude along the asteroid belt, listening to bounty broadcasts in the hopes of finding a fugitive to help pay for their next meal and another day of pointless living. It is choosing whether to pursue the bounty of a man who killed his daughter's rapist, or pursue the bounty of a terrorist group defending Earth's last forest. Aside from the lives of our main characters, the fugitives they come across are often in purposeless situations, and usually only living to spite the ISSP, so there's doses of thematic waaangst from both angles.
Contemporary Loneliness
Seeing as humanity's population has recently passed twenty billion, it's easy to feel lonely in the world. Aside from the obvious fact that humanity is now scattered in the bleakness of space, the cyberpunk setting will add to this theme more than our characters -- Advertisements for dating, seeing the universe, and calling friends on other planets are everywhere, despite the obvious disconnect between the cheery, neon advertisements and the unwashed bleakness of the world. I'd love to write more about this theme, but there's no point since it can just be summarized with a picture of three or so people looking at their phones instead of talking to each other, captioned "WAKE UP SHEEPLE". If you read this far, stick a fitting literary quote beneath your character's name.
[center]Character Name Goes Here
Image of Character Goes Here[/center]
[center]
[sub][b]Secret information from the "If You Read This Far Thing" goes here[/b][/sub]
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[u][b]Name[/b][/u]
[indent]Martian names are usually Japanese, Earth/Jupiterean/ALC names are usually Western.[/indent]
[u][b]Age[/b][/u]
[indent]Number goes here.[/indent]
[u][b]Appearance[/b][/u]
[indent]Describe the character's appearance.[/indent]
[u][b]Traits[/b][/u]
[indent]Description of personality, preferences, and background.[/indent]
[u][b]Strengths[/b][/u]
[indent]Name of thing your character is good at: And then a description of said thing.
Another one: Of those things.
[/indent]
[u][b]Weaknesses[/b][/u][/color]
[indent]Things your character sucks at: Description of said suckening.
Another One: Git gud.
[/indent]
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