As the System Turns (Content, Collaboration)

I love this picture.  

I had a skype session last night with a member of one of the boards I frequest (hi Alexander!) who had some thoughts on TDE.  The session was quite productive, and as I went to bed I made a couple of decisions that are going to shake up the setting as it stands.

First off, Alexander pushed me to think a bit more locally and figure out the level of tech and connectivity the average person has in TDE.  I thought this over last night and this morning and the more I think about it, the more I think that cybernetics, augmented reality, and biomods will all be fairly commonplace.  This gets us to a very wired society, but without having to push into transhumanism or the singularity.  I'm starting to get a feel that the technology of the setting is a bit like cyberpunk, without the 'punk or dystopia.

Alexander asked about artificial intelligence.  On the whole, AI does not exist - its all augmented human brains and "smart" programs doing the heavy programatic lifting.  There will be one notable excpetion to this rule - another source of potential energy to break the setting.  We will get into that later.

Then Alexander noted that he felt Mars would be the jumping off point for colonization of the System, not Luna.  Thats fascinating.  I can see where the argument comes from - the major effort for getting to Luna is to escape the worst parts of Earth's gravity well and overcome the friction of the atmosphere.  Once you are to Luna, its mostly a matter of a little extra reaction mass and time and you are at Mars -- which has a lot more resources and a real atmosphere to play with.  The best Luna offers is proximity and some supplies of He3 and limited supplies of ice.

I'm really starting to lean towards Alexander's point on Mars vs Luna.  What I think I am going to do is pick the Commonwealth, whole hog, out of Luna and plop it onto Titan/Saturn.  Luna becomes a backwater for most of TDE's history - a place for military bases, mass drivers, and some He3 harvesting.  Mars was the jumping off point for colonization - which is why it was rapidly built up the way it was.  However, once Mars got its independance, Earth lost a lot of its infrastructure resources for maintaining its colonies and has embarked on a crash program to make Luna "the new Mars."  This adds a bit more tension to Mars/Earth and makes Luna a bit of a boomtown in 2191 - lots of construction and optimism.

The other historical conflict that came out of Alexander's points was the Jupiter/Saturn conflict.  Alexander felt that Saturn was a better location for mining volatiles back in TDE's past.  Again, I can see his point.  Distance is a problem for Saturn, but its radiation and gravity wells are siginficatly less onerous than Jupiters'.

So, building from that, I think there has been a historical economic rivalry between Jupiter and Saturn.  Both were settled in the relative early days of colonization with an eye to getting volatiles and rare elements back to Earth and Mars.  Different companies and different interests threw their lots in with Jupiter or Saturn depending on their priorities, processes, and resources.  In the end, Saturn "won" in the sense that the Commonwealth was formed with Saturnine entities at its core (the Commonwealth will still include stations and polities from around the System, but it is most populous and headquartered around Saturn).  Jupiter volatile interests have dwindled as fission and antimatter have become more commonplace - leaving the hundreds of colonies and stations around Jupiter balkanized.

Saturn is where people go to make money.

Jupiter is where people go to get away from everything else.  

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I really like these developments -it gives the System of TDE a bit of a dynamic history, while also providing some good ideas for campaigns.  Alexander's ideas are really good and pushed me to rethink some of my assumptions - merci.

An Earth Less Ordinary (Content)

Earth, like Mars and Ceres, has been difficult to write.  The vision I have for Earth is the anti-unified government.  I'm tired of seeing the fractious nature of humanity glossed over for a literary convenience.  Frankly, unified Earth governments are boring.  I want an Earth that barely hangs together, with myriad of competing interests driving the powers-that-be apart.  I want the things keeping the motley band of Hegemons and Corporations together is the bureaucratic inertia behind the UN and the fact that the one thing the Hegemons can agree upon is how much they hate the idea of colonial Independence.

The problem with such a wonderful complicated political and social landscape is that you actually have to define that complicated relationship and give a unique face to the various powers.

This is my lame attempt at a start.  This is supposed to be Earth - I need a lot more content and detail to do it justice.

Humanity’s Cradle -- Earth: Earth is the most developed and populated planet in known human space.  It is the cradle of humanity and boasts the largest, most affluent, and most educated population in the Solar System.  Currently, the planet hosts just under 50 billion people, a number closely regulated by strict laws about population growth.  It also boasts the most diverse, and some would say, Balkanized population in the System.  Earth is home to 71 independent countries, eight Trans-National/Hegemonic blocs, and 17 corporate entities that have secured a special independent status for themselves.  These varied interests are often at each others’ throats, both on earth and off.  

Earth is dominated by a number of large political and economic entities that span much of the globe.  The many Trans-National alliances create a club of hegemonic blocs that dominate much of the planet’s territory.  Land ownership by individuals is a rare right offered in only a few of the smaller countries, with the nation states, and by extension the hegemonic blocs owning and regulating most of the land resources of the world.  Thus, despite the relatively advanced state of political theory and identity politics, the nations of earth are still very much tied to the land they claim.  The blocs, along with their member states, operate the largest militaries on the planet, able to project power into humanity’s home like none other.  The nations and blocs have also been the traditional lead in the colonization effort, and many operate and maintain extensive off-Earth holdings.

Earth is also home to a number of Sovereign Corporate Entities (SCE) that have the same rights and responsibilities as their nation-contemporaries.  These 17 corporations are often more liquid than the nation-states.  They operate their own, usually small, security forces and have seats within the UN and its committees just as any traditional nation does.  The SCEs can also grant citizenship – usually to its employees and their families.  Like the Hegemonic Blocs, the SCEs maintain off-world colonial holdings.

The third pillar of the political and social sphere of Earth is the United Nations.   Despite numerous existential crises over the decades, the UN remains the premiere venue for multilateral affairs.  Over time, it has seen some of its powers grow, especially in regards to the colonies.  Similarly, in Earth affairs it has seen its role and scope retracted as the Blocs and SCEs have maneuvered the polity to serve more as their own tool for securing their interests.  However, the UN still maintains a sizable political influence on Earth, and while difficult, still does intervene on the behalf of the General Assembly or Security Council in Earth affairs.

Earth is a mess of conflicting goals and shifting alliances. The times they do come together is against Mars or to pool their exploitative resources off-world... and even then, there are a number of on-world interests that are ready to take advantage if the Hegemons drop their guard.  While the Hegemons dominate, they do not act with impunity.  Even small states have a vote in the UN’s General Assembly and the renaissance of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a direct result of failed attempts by the Hegemonic Blocs to bully countries like India, Argentina, and Nigeria.  In fact, many in the NAM are sympathetic to the anti-colonial movement off-world (if only because the successes of the colonies come at a cost of Hegemonic power), and a handful of independent aggressively advocate for increased colonial independence.  While much of this maneuvering is simply a balancing of powers, some nations really do believe in the morality of self-determination and are willing to make principled stands against the Hegemons and the subservient UN.  

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Next up will be some expansion of Earth, I think.  That or a redefining of the term "diaspora."

Personality Politics Pt 1 (Content)

Revolution Comes With a Price...

I'm happy to report we are on our way to some art.  I have contracted an artist that can work with my budget and help add form to the swirling chaos that is floating around in my mind.  Hopefully in the near future we can have some original art on the blog -- something to help define the visual style of TDE.

Until then, lets talk about NPCs. For anyone that knows me,it will not be a surprise that I base the planets and the people that populate them on my travels.  Usually, the personalities of TDE are gestalts of various peoples from North America, Africa, and Asia... but sometimes not.  Sometimes they are the creation of people I think should exist - in terms of real world politics and society.  Certain social movements, or political events seem to have an unseen hand behind them.  In many parts of the world, people don't want to accept that policy and major decisions are made through happenstance and mistakes - they prefer seeing connections where there are none.  Its a more interesting and simpler world if its all the fault of some shadowy agency or clique.  South Asia, in particular, loves conspiracy stories.

The said (or maybe not so sad) fact is that the world isn't run by complicated conspiracies.  Its just not.  However, in the world of TDE I can mix real world experiences with real world crazy conspiracies to come up with personalities just plausible enough to be believable.  My gol is to populate TDE with a number of interesting NPCs and personalities to prompt the GM's creativity and campaign design, and the player's desire to explore the setting.

Here are two NPCs that help define TDE's setting for me:


Jacob K Sugiyama (Mars/Venus): The former OCRI Administrator of Mars.  Once considered little more than a tool of the Hegemons, his progressive ideas, fiery personality, and aggressive political tactics brought him fame and popularity - on Mars and throughout the System.  OCRI and the Hegemonic powers lost control of Sugiyama along the way, and Sugiyama morphed into the lead agitator for Martian independence.  His successes brought him even more notoriety and what has now become an inner circle that is more a cult of personality than a loyal set of advisers.  Sugiyama is considered by most of the Solar System as the father of Martian democracy and the current anti-colonial movement.  He is also corrupt as hell, and unexpectedly lost in Mars' first Prime election.  He seethes with anger and resentment privately, but publicly vows to "recapture the heart of the Martian Democratic spirit from the usurper."  Sugiyama lives on an aerostat in Venus, in part because he believes Martian forces loyal to his rival, Jeehan Burt, will assassinate him if they get the chance.

Jeehan Burt (Mars):  Jeehan is the first Martian Government's Prime.  He rose to power as a grassroots organizer, and for a time, worked with Sugiyama's Free Mars movement as a young advocate.  Burt became disgusted with Sugiyama's centralized decision making, and lost faith in the movement.  That Sugiyama's direction turned out to lead Mars towards its freedom, came as a major shock to Burt, who reconsidered his choice to drop out of politics.  When the first Martian elections arrived, Burt came out of retirement  spent a veritable fortune, and traded on his reputation as a successful lawyer for Martian rights to propel him to a shocking victory.  Now, Burt, whose main political experience is organizing protests against the types of leaders whose position he now fills, must struggle with the leadership role demanded of him.  Thus far, Burt has defined himself to the Martian people by claiming he is a fresh break with the autocratic tendencies of Sugiyama.  It remains to be seen if Burt can define his administration on its own merits and accomplishments. Worse, a number of powerful Earth political and economic entities lost significant assets during the Martian war for independence  and the last couple of years as the planet asserted its identity.  Now, those same Earth powers want their stuff back, and see Burt as less decisive than Sugiyama.  The powers of Earth smell blood and the sharks are starting to circle.



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I really need to pound out some words on Mars over the next couple days.  If you don't see me tomorrow - its because I am struggling with the marginal protagonist of the setting.

Dwarf Planets, Giant Problems (Content)

Something I talked about earlier - and I will talk about again - is the idea of "potential energy" for the setting of TDE.  What I mean by the phrase is that I want the setting, as written, to be a snapshot of a very dynamic place with a lot of things going on.  TDE should be a setting in motion once the players are introduced.  Like a held drawstring, there is a lot of energy waiting to explode once the right catalyst is added -- and the right catalyst should always be the PCs.

So, here is an example of that potential energy: the Huns.  The Huns present the PCs with a number of heroic (and challenging) things to do.  There is a looming natural disaster, a refugee crisis, and while not mentioned int he entry below -- some very dire political machinations that could mean social upheaval on Mars.

Its up to the PCs to resolve one or more of those crises -- for good or ill.


The Huns: Venus, which is the most recently settled inner planet, was just starting to hit its stride in 2126 when it was positively identified that a massive collection of migratory asteroids are heading right for Venus.  The asteroids, nicknamed the "Huns," were originally detected in the Oort cloud as early as the 2080s -- slightly off the ecliptic.  The significance of the discovery was not, at first, identified.  The odd behavior of the distant Huns was attributed to an eccentric orbit around the sun.  In the end, it was their unusual positioning helped mask the Huns until they began transiting close to the core system.  The danger the Huns present was finally confirmed late 2180s when scientists revealed that the Huns would travel into the inner system.  Numerous trajectory analyses were made, with most indicating that the Huns would miss the inner planets or possibly hit fast-moving Mercury.  Scientists were initially more concerned about the Huns’ gravitic influence on settled space.  Further study as the Huns started to transition past Pluto raised a number of concerns, as newer trajectory estimates had the likelihood of the Huns hitting Venus jump into the more-likely-than-not range.  

The primary Huns (Genghis and Attila) acts as sweepers for smaller planetary objects like asteroids and comets -- which are called "kith-warriors."   The leading theory on the appearance of the Huns is that they were larger planets that were ejected from a supernova explosion.  Their expulsion, many millennia ago, put them on a trajectory near to the Sun, which captured them and brought them into its gravity well.  

As of 2191 the Huns are between Jupiter and the main belt and continuing to head in-System.  There are about 4 years before the intersection of Venus and the Huns.  Thus, the System now struggles with a growing refugee crisis as a large number of Venusians seek new homes.  Of course, Earth doesn't want them (it maintains a very carefully controlled population numbers) and Mars/Mercury/Jupiter can only absorb a certain amount.  Cue low-level conflict by the desperate refugees, food shortages, looting, and whatnot on selected stations and aerostats.  

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I want a lot of bits of potential energy seeded throughout TDE.  Wars, political crises, hostage situations, peace keeping, social upheavals... they will all be in there.  I want to give the PCs and the GM a lot of ideas on what they can, and should, do with the setting.

Oh, and Canada? Where you at?  Since I am basically an honorary Canadian by now - more of you should be reading this blog.  Over the weekend I think I got 3 total pageviews from your great country.  Booo.

Deciding What the PCs Do. (Mechanics)

What do the PCs do in TDE? 

This is a pretty common quesrion when I end up talking about the setting with some of my friends who have designed games.  Its one of those core questions that good designers build their game around.   Jared Sorensen, who is a bit like the mafia don of the indie rpg movement, has done a lot of thinking on what makes a good rpg.  Some of his conclusions can be found here:  http://memento-mori.livejournal.com/288677.html

Each test, a challenge.  

Of note are his “3 Questions?”  These questions, once answered, help hone a game’s concept to a razor (and playable) edge.  What does the game do?  Why does it do this?  Is it doing what it is supposed to? 

When designing and exploring other games, I have struggled with Sorensen’s three questions – which is reflective of the quality of my ideas rather than the utility of the questions.  To be frank, I haven’t done a lot of thinking about the three questions in regards to TDE.  Instead, I focused on the depth and plot points of the setting.  Now that the setting is taking on a life of its own, its high time to runt to Sorensen’s three questions.  It’s time to really think about the PCs, their role in the game, and how to build the game to support my goals.

The thing about the three questions is that it really focuses on the “game” part of roleplaying games.  RPGs are composed of a number of elements, but the mechanics and setting are the two foundations.  

I am favor setting over mechanics.  Ever since  I got into rpgs back in the late 80s, I defined games not by their mechanics, but by how much I liked the setting.  Good setting could trump crappy mechanics in my book.  My focus on setting makes the three questions a bit of a hurdle for me – the answers they prompt do not come as easily to me as for others.  That said, the best rpgs are the ones where mechanics and setting support one another.  So, just because its hard, or I don’t get the essence of the questions in my first answers, doesn’t mean I can shy away from the questions.

One important caveat (and CYA) before I get into it – answering the three questions is an ongoing process.  It’s a thought exercise that can, and should, continually evolve as the game takes more shape.  So, my expectation is that I will need to revisit the three questions from time to time. 

Q: WHAT IS YOUR GAME ABOUT?
Jared Says:  If you write a D&D clone, your game is not about "adventuring in a medieval fantasy world." Your game is about characters advancing in efficacy in order to meet greater and greater challenges.”  Do not confuse the genre, setting or color details with what's most important: the premise and structure of the game.

A: What TDE Is About:

The game is about characters (Jammer Pilots) using ever more advanced technology – black ops and experimental stuff – while being given tougher and tougher missions in order to affect positive and significant change in the setting. 

Q: HOW DOES IT GO ABOUT THAT?
Jared Says:  If you're designing that D&D clone and you put in a lifepath system as part of character creation, what does that accomplish? In order to fufill the requirements set by the first question, you must "put your money where your mouth is" with the discrete game elements. If that lifepath is purely cosmetic and doesn't affect the character's abilities or the game mechanics, then why is it in there?

A: How TDE Gets There:  

TDE will use the One Roll Engine as the baseline.  Its is mechanically sound, easy to learn, quick to execute, and offers interesting modification options.  Building from the ORE, TDE will create mechanics that allow the players to “requisition” advanced technologies to tailor their equipment loadout to the mission at hand.  TDE will offer the GM and players opportunities to mechanically change setting elements. 

Q: WHAT BEHAVIORS DOES IT REWARD AND/OR ENCOURAGE?
Jared Says:  The obvious game element to focus on as a "reward" is some kind of character advancement system. But this can go the other way as well; what behaviors does the game punish and/or discourage? If the ultimate goal of Call of Cthulhu is to die or go insane, does the game encourage this? Do insane characters get special abilities? Or is running/fighting rewarded and encouraged (as it is in Dungeons & Dragons)?

A: What Behaviors TDE Will Reward:

I want TDE to encourage cinematic moments. I want the system to encourage players to have their PCs take chances – and go for the big win – the type of win that shakes the foundation of the Solar System.  

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I need to do some thinking about the mechanics, me thinks.  

Join the Party -- The Utility of Jammers (Content)

A Wanzer, from Front Mission -- an inspiration for the Jammers. 

One thing I have discovered about my writing is that I do my best stuff when I am working with someone.  I find new energy when I can bounce ideas off of people, and my prose is more direct when someone else can call out my crazy ideas and pull them back.  Part of the reason I am doing this blog, and airing my ideas for all to see, is that I am hopeful a handful of you out there will see merit in The Difference Equation and decide to help out.

Luckily, I have had a number of people step up so far and help.  I pitched my core setting concept to a bunch of friends, and they gave me initial feedback.  Since then, I have asked a couple published rpg writer friends to look over the core catalog and timeline to see what they had to say.  The setting has evolved considerably since those first few collaborations, to the point where I think many of the original group would be surprised to see how far things have progressed.  Its a better, more exciting setting specifically because of those first key pieces of feedback.

...and now there is Brandon.  Brandon is a buddy I met on the Dream Pod 9 forums.  I am convinced he is responsible for at least half the hits that come in to this blog -- and he single-handed carries on a conversation over on G+ that pushes me farther and farther into the setting and forcing me to make smart and critical decisions about the direction I am taking the game.

Brandon has been so helpful, he went so far as to start tentatively writing some content.  His stuff is really good.  Real good.  I am happy to have him and his insights on board.

So, I'd like this, the last content post for the week, to focus on one of Brandon's contributions.

The Best of Bad Options: Jammers in Modern Warfare:  The few major capital ships built by the SCEs and major powers of the Solar System are often leviathans that carry firepower strong enough to cause major damage to colonies and enough reaction mass for sustained combat burns.  Their downside, however, is their enormous mass and detection signature.  In space, it is nearly impossible to hide a ship due to the advancements of sensor technology.  Mass detection devices are used regularly by every colony and ship as a means of observing asteroids, comets, and other debris that might come dangerously close to impacting with stations.  The tremendous velocities of these naturally-occurring projectiles makes them a viable threat to all. The mass detection devices are also used by the powers to montior each other's naval shipyards, allowing nations to be made aware within hours of when a ship is departing from a specific area.

For this reason, any unannounced departure of capital ships from their dockyards is tantamount to an act of war by all powers concerned, and the space command structures often announce at least a day prior of any patrols in order to avoid provoking an international crisis.

With this current state of affairs, Jammers have become a vital necessity for the powers.  Their small mass allows them to be transported aboard most any ship available, and it is not uncommon for them to be given specialized ships designed expressly to be innocuous-looking, even ragged in appearance, while actually housing an entire team of Jammers and the facilities needed to maintain them.

Due to Newton's Third Law of Motion, mass-drivers and railguns using kinetic energy projectiles are limited in distribution among space-based Jammer squadrons, and their ammunition typically includes a self-destruct mechanism contained within their spikes so that if they do miss their target they do not present a threat to innocent travelers in the area surrounding a hot zone. Missiles, while slower on initial launch, are also safer, and include the same self-destruct mechanisms, often made tamper-proof so that industrious pirates do not attempt to retrieve the weapons after they have been armed and launched.  Lasers, meanwhile, have become the long-range weapon of choice, but their enormous power requirements typically mean that a Jammer must be equipped with an auxiliary power system to maintain the weapon for prolonged skirmishes.  To offset this, Jammers will also carry aerosol chaff that can be used to diffract the laser's intensity and lessen its pinpoint killing power.

Space-based Jammer squadrons on deep space missions typically use a highly-reflective armor skin, like silver, which helps to avoid visual detection when further away from the sun's light. Nearer to the gravity wells, this is changed for a brighter color scheme allowing visual recognition from friendly units and also from civilian ships passing in the area. Planet-borne Jammer squadrons will typically use a mimetic skin that can be charged or heated to change and adapt its colors to the surrounding terrain.  Due to the enormous firepower carried by most Jammers, deep space combat is short and vicious, with pilots using stealth and surprise to overwhelm their opponents. Any engagements that last longer usually occur near stations and other large objects that provide cover and concealment and also mask the mass of the Jammers from enemy sensors.

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Awesome, right?  I edited a bit, but not much.  90% of the above is his - and is the result of some very smart and intuitive mental leaps on his part.

If anyone else out there has ideas they want to contribute, please do so -- here, over email, or on G+.  If I can get this setting and game to a point where it gets published, I promise you will get the credit you deserve.  This isn't me just trying to steal other people's ideas -- this is me trying to open up my playground so other people can play on the jungle gym.

...and selfishly, like I said, the more interaction with others I have as I hash out ideas, the better my stuff becomes.  So, for that and many other things, welcome aboard Brandon!

The Defining Moment of a Future History (Content)

Lets move on to a bit of history for The Difference Equation.  I'm designing this setting from the gorund up - starting with the modern day and advancing it to 2191.  I'm a detail and history guy, so burying into the details is where I like to work. That said, I got some great advice from a writer friend of mine that told me not to get too buried in the minutiae of the project -- too much detail will stymie the players creativity and, at some point, too much detail yields diminishing returns.  So, my struggle is to focus on generating new content for the setting and ignore my burning desire to go into the monthly updates of the future-history.

I've seen a lot of timelines as a roleplayer, and many of them leave a lot to be desired.  History defies easy categorization - so when I see a timeline that arbitrarily has one major event per year - the historian in me reels back in disgust.  Likewise, too many events bunched up and appears like the writer got lazy.  There is a happy middle ground out there, and the middle makes a lot of sense.  Why some rpg designers ignore history class and their instincts to create wonky timelines I will never understand.

Where does that leave me?  It leaves me working on the broad brushstrokes of the setting, and dropping hints here and there of the deeper history (with the intention to get back to it later - if all goes well).  That said, there are a handful of periods where I treat myself and dive in - spending some time to detail the specifics of the hows and whys.

One of the most important events in the future-history of The Difference Equation is the devastating Population Overshoot of the 2090s.  Looking back on how the setting has come together, the Malthusian Crisis is the major event that defined the future of The Difference Equation.  The legacy of that event lasts well into the starting date of the game, and provides a useful macguffin for the colonization of the System.

Without further adieu:

The Population Overshoot of the ‘80s:  In the end, Thomas Malthus was (mostly) right.  The rapid population growth of the 2060s and 2070s brought with it a sudden catastrophe in the 2090s as food stores and crops proved insufficient to maintain the population level.  Anagathics and improved medicine made it so fewer and fewer people did.  Much of the world focused on the financial impacts that the "Methuselah" generation created, and few paid attention to the handful of scientists warning of a pending ecological disaster.  With estimated yearly growth worldwide of nearly 5%, the estimated census recorded the population at just over 20 billion people in 2099 -- about the maximum the planet’s food and water resource could handle.  Unfortunately for humanity, it had to learn the hard way the upper end of the population that Earth could support.  

For the first time in over 1600 years, the world’s human population drastically retracted and decreased in a few chaotic years.  Along with the amazing strain placed on the environment, numerous animal and plant species, once thought relatively safe from environmental pressures, died off in mass extinctions – further endangering the biome.  All told, mass starvations and unchecked diseases claimed over 3 billion lives from 2099 to 2116.  It would be two more decades of concerted effort by numerous organizations to stabilize Earth’s environment.  Many cultures and ethnicities that had survived into the new millennium died out - unable to cope with the rapid planetary changes.  Still to this day the UN maintains a strict vigil over the environmental and agricultural resources of the planet and each nation and independent corporation employs strict financial and legal penalties for exceeding family growth quotas.  While the devastating threat of the turn of the century is no longer, its legacy lives on in a much more conservative mindset.  Interestingly, this Malthusian Crisis led to an increase in the reputation of farmers, nutritionists and pharma experts.

Another unintended effect of the Population Crisis was the rapid acceptance and advancement of off-world colonization.  Colonization is now seen, at worst, as a necessary process to relieve the population stresses on the planet.  In fact, more than any other single effort, the standardization of off-world colonization and the eventual affordability for much of the population was critical in drawing down the Earth population and giving the biome time to heal.

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Next up? I think its time to talk about inspiration. Its about to get heavy.

A Title- At Last!

The Difference Equation

There it is.  Thats the name of the setting-that-had-no-name.

I wanted something that emphasized the nature of the game - grounded in mundane science fiction, but surrounded by a plotline and vibrant world that is anything bu mundane.  A Difference Equation, according to wikipedia is:

"In mathematics, a recurrence relation is an equation that recursively defines a sequence, once one or more initial terms are given: each further term of the sequence is defined as a function of the preceding terms."

The Difference Equation RPG.  

Difference Equations are the root of Fibonacci numbers, and is a process used to calculate populations, digital communications, and economics -- all of which play a central role in the setting.

"Difference Equation" also harkens to a related term "Differential Equation" -- which is the hart of all sorts of maths that would make the setting go.  Physics, propulsion, engineering, biology, economics...

But, most importantly, is the inclusion of the word "Difference."  As I envision it, that is what the PCs are -- the difference between a static world and a dynamic one.  The difference between chaos and order, activity and entropy.  The PC's very existence is what will kickstart the setting into overdrive.  Ready/Steady/Rock!

So, yeah.  Love it.

There it is.

Finally.

The Fires of Faith and Science -- Mercury (Content)

I meant to stay away from the Blog one more day - to give myself some time to recharge.  But I can't.  I had a couple good writing sessions this weekend and I figure I should keep the content flowing.

Battered and Bruised, Mercury Still Has a Few Tricks Left...

So, next up is Mercury.  I really like Mercury and how it will play a pivotal roles in the politics of the Solar System.  The concept behind Mercury was developed partly as a reaction to the disservice too many other SF games give faith and religion.  I don't want to ram anything down anyone's throat, but all too often SF games simply do away with religion as a relic of the past.  Just as disappointing, many SF games decide to replace religion with science -- making it a zero sum game of belief.  I don't see it that way.  Discarding faith as point of an SF setting is boring, lazy and unrealistic   More importantly,keeping elements of faith and religion make for some wonderful plot elements to use for some challenging and fascinating stories.  Anything that helps drive good storytelling stays in this setting.  Done deal.

Just like any other element in the setting, I wont shy away from the bad and the good - and that includes faith.  Its a tricky subject, for sure, but I have never been one to back down from a creative challenge.

The closest planet to the sun has a lot going for it.  Its an amazingly tough place to live, but the rewards are enormous as well.  Heavy metals, antimatter, and harnessing solar energy have all played a role in making Mercury an economically attractive place.  How it became the second home of the Roman Catholic Church was due to an odd series of circumstances.  Now, the Church, which considered its introduction onto Mercury as a bit of a windfall, is discovering that nothing comes without a price.

So, we have Mercury, the new Vatican (of sorts).

The Fires of Faith - Mercury:  Mercury is an isolated polity, dominated by a number of small and isolated mining and research communities that either stay in the planet’s shadow, huddle in the shadow of the polar regions (with its dwindling water reserves), or embedded well into the crust.  Many of the communities are examples of innovation married to cutting edge technology - the result of existing in such an extreme environment.  The largest city, Tarshish, is built on what amounts to huge rails, and travels along the sun-line eliminator at a leisurely 14 km/hr, staying within the very narrow band of hospitable temperature ranges.  

Tarshish has a population of about 100,000, well in excess of the next largest community which is a habitat in orbit in mercury’s umbra.  Tarshish serves as the nexus of Mercurian trade and society and is the only large downport that can handle bulk Trans-A freighters.  The history of Tarshish, and much of modern Mercury, began with a series of small venture mining firms who established a presence in the Mercurian well.  While most stayed conservatively in orbit and the poles or only set down on Mercury for a few hours at night to harvest heavy metals and trace He-3, the Moors Company successfully lobbied and purchased a large band of land circumnavigating the planet’s equator for a relatively inexpensive price.  

Plans were put in place for a traveling city that would serve as Moors’ headquarters for their expanding planetary interests.  However, shortly after the tracks were laid, Moors went bankrupt and the rights to its territory passed legally to the OCRI Administrator who would serve as trustee and arbiter on which bids would assume ownership of Moors’ Mercury holdings.  In a wholly unexpected move, the Administrator transferred the Moors’ land rights to the Roman Catholic Church (RCC).  Despite numerous legal suits against the Administrator personally, and OCRI in general, the transfer stood (largely due to the sweeping powers Administrators were granted by OCRI and the General Assembly).  

While the RCC had put in a bid as a pro forma exercise, it did not expect to win the Moors’ holdings.  Mercury had, through happenstance, a disproportionately large number of active Catholics and Catholic-friendly Orthodox Christians working the mines and research stations (which is theorized part of the reason the Administrator made his decision).  With the rights to the region, the RCC contracted the CSE BR/BP Distributions to continue construction of the Moors facility.  In 2085 the new city, Tarshish, came online and almost immediately became a significant economic windfall for the ailing Church.  

Besides the booming He-3 trade, Mercury enjoys a number of other economic windfalls.  It's the ideal place to build a near-solar power system.  Huge microwave antennas and solar-powered lasers clutter the space in Mercury’s umbra - beaming light to solar sailcraft and microwaves/radiation directly to the inner planets for ever-increasing energy demands.  Mercury’s close orbit is also a major strategic issue for OCRI, as the huge microwave antennas and powerful lasers could do some damage in the wrong hands.

During the fall of 2028 Tarshish-based geologists announced they had found evidence of fossilized life buried deep in the mantle of Mercury.  In 2030, biologists and paleontologists from four different Earth-based research institutions, sponsored by the Vatican, confirmed the recovered rocks did carry what was clearly bacterial and nematode-like extraterrestrial life.  

In 2031, Tarshish is a veritable boom town of scientists, the curious, and watchful priests.  back on Earth, the Vatican closely controls access to Tarshish, the fossil records, and the Moor’s holdings.  Thus far, despite significant efforts, no other fossilized records of life have been found on Mercury.  Tarshish also serves as the central hub and frequent downport for off-planet trade - especially in the increasingly valuable antimatter trade (for which Mercury is the largest supplier).  Successful large-scale testing of antimatter powered capital ship drives has recently driven up anitmatter prices particularly for antihelium.  
 
Notably, despite controlling access to one of the most profound scientific discoveries of all time, the RCC has refused to officially comment on the discovery of extraterrestrial life.

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I think I finally have a name for the setting.  I will sit on it for another day, to mull it over - but I think, finally, we have a winner.  Stay tuned.

Stymied Growth - The Lunar Commonwealth (Content)

Alright, so now that we have some of the technology defined (Jammers, AIH Clones), I think it is time to get back to the political beasts of the setting.  Doing a quick wordcount, I see that I have just about 8,000 words written.  Thats about an eighth of my eventual goal - but its a good start.  Of those 8,000 words and 20+ entries so far, notably absent are the primary "protagonist" and "antagonist" -- Mars and the U.N.  I find that fascinating - its not for lack of thought or definition that they haven't been written up yet, its that other ideas pop in my head and I rush to get them into the catalog.   Further, I am finding that as I fill in other details about the setting, I am also defining the peripheral facts about Mars and the U.N.  There is a lot going on in this setting (potential energy), and a lot of it hooks into the brewing conflict between the U.N. (which is desperate to reassert its authority and quiet the questions about its ability to project power) and recently independent Mars (which sees its best defense against Earth as a strong offense that undermines its off-planet interests).  So, I heed Orson Scott Card's advice and sit on my ideas to allow them to ferment and germinate.

An example of defining the U.N. and Mars through the other entries is Luna.  It was developed, in part, as a quick thought exercise of each stage of Lunar colonization -- exploration, then mining, then as a vector for material movement, then as a colony profitable on its own, then as a tax/financial haven, and finally as a sophisticated society that can stand on its own (though, because of political considerations, doesn't .

Luna is also a good example of the complexity I want out of the setting elements.  I want every entity to have good and bad points to it.  I want conflict.  I want dynamism - I want the writeups and descriptions to paint a picture of societies in motion -- moving, evolving, and changing.  The content entries are supposed to be snapshots - and with Luna we have a colony that has hit its natural limit of subservience.  For it to keep growing it will have to make a hard decision - continue to be stymied by prioritizing Earth interests  or try to cast off the colonial shackles and go it alone.  Comfortable status quo or the lure of even bigger profits of change.  Invest in steady blue chips or a promising start up?  And as much as the SCEs control Luna, they will need the support of the people on whatever path is chosen.  Of course, freedom for Luna isnt necessarily a guaranteed paradise - in fact, the way the government and social support is structured, independence may be a very bad thing for the residents and citizens of Luna...

The Financial Axis – Luna:  Luna is the home of the Lunar Commonwealth, a corporatist government that has built its success by bending over backwards to serve the Sovreign Corporate Rntity (SCE) agenda.  Luna was originally settled as a more convienant launching base for further exploration and colonization.  Additionally, the relatively large amounts of Heluim-3 in the regolith made harvesting a profitable endeavor for the handful of corporate interests that had the resources to establish a permanent presence on the moon.  Over the years and decades, the population of Luna grew - starting with a few homesteaders and eventually blossoming into a full fledged population.  

As the population grew and stabilized, so did Lunar economic interests.  Mass drivers were created to help move valuable materials across the inner system.  High powered lasers and masers were established under Lunar corporate oversight to help power the early growth of the solar sail trade.  In time, these material interests yielded to digital interests, with Luna leading the way in financial, solar web, and broadcasting interests.  Where once there was the moon of scientists and miners, there is now one of the most savvy and sophisticated societies on the System.  

In 2131 the Lunar Commonwealth is powerful, not due to its unity of purpose (it has none) or its military (which is laughably small) -- the Commonwealth is filthy, stinking rich and only getting richer in the current age of uncertainty.  As of 2131, the Commonwealth includes most of the Lunar city-states as well as a majority of habitats based in Earth’s L1 nd L2.  

Citizenship and due process in the Lunar Commonwealth is a tricky thing.  The Charter and subsequent legal codes that formed the Commonwealth was drafted over a decade, with competing interests constantly working to get their own loopholes codified.  Everybody had to get their share.  The end result was a document that falls just short of “hideously complicated” and “disastrously vague.”  However, the complicated legal and governmental structure serves the various corporations and their allies well, since they have the budget to hire the army of lawyers required to parse the various legal codes of the nation.  Its not surprising that with that sort of confused birth, the Commonwealth remains disorganized and politically schizophrenic.  

Citizenship in the Commonwealth is secured through paying a minimum amount of taxes.  All people that live in a city-state or habitat that has formally joined the Commonwealth is taxed by the Commonwealth, but only those that voluntarily increase their taxes beyond 50% of their income are granted suffrage.  Similarly, to qualify for the Commonwealth's extensive social welfare program, a member has to pay at least 30% of their income in taxes for five years.  This means that while the Commonwealth claims over 400 million members, less than a quarter vote and less than a third receive social support.  Still, the quality of life in the Commonwealth is generally quite high, meaning there are strict intake rules for the many prospective immigrants.  

The government of the Commonwealth is composed of 15 “seats” held by the taxpayers who pay the largest amounts.  This means, of the 15 seats, 13 are held by the leaders of corporations.  The Prime Minister position, which selects the government, is voted on by the Council seats.  Since a simple majority within the Council can oust a Prime Minister, government changes are frequent.  This leads to the schizophrenic reputation Luna so rightly deserves.  

Complicating things further is the fact that the Commonwealth acts, for all intents and purposes, as a sovereign state but still is technically administered by the OCRI with an appointed Administrator.  However, with the amount of money that flows through Luna, and the fact that everyone seems to have a direct stake in ensure the situation remains stable (and profitable), OCRI is under unstated orders to give the “colony” wide latitude in its own dealings.  One area where the Commonwealth's status as a colony is glaringly apparent is that it is only allowed to maintain a small self defense force and host a handful of OCRI bases (most of those bases are, not coincidentally, located near the many mass drivers located across Luna).  To their credit, most Lunans (and ‘Grangers) stifle their lingering resentment of the Crimson helmets.  The Commonwealth's status as a colony also precludes it from a seat in the United Nations and most inter-Solar bodies.  

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Next up, I think its time to talk about influences and priorities.  What do I hope to get out of the setting   What issues do I think need to be discussed?  I'm open to any feedback so far before I jump into dissecting my own motivations - so please, comment away!

Social Implication of Supersoldiers - AIHs (Content)

Okay, next up are the clones of the setting.  Once lauded as war heroes, they are quickly becoming an expensive and uncomfortable social burden on the society they helped create.

The AIHs (see below for the acronym) are a good example of the type of elements I want in this setting.  I want there to be hundred of plot hooks that are presented as "potential energy" -- events that, once the campaign starts, could rapidly change the face of the world.  At the point where the GM says the first couple of sentences establishing a new game, I want the setting to already be changing.  Each setting for each group should be radically different - especially if it is due to the PCs.  For the AIHs/clones - their world is close to exploding.  They are an under appreciated forgotten people, struggling with who they are, what they are, and where they are supposed to fit socially.  They are change just waiting for a catalyst.

It was a way better movie than it had any right to be...

When someone tells you all about their character - I want it to mean something.

There are major social and political implications of creating masses of semi-human soldiers, and I don't want to shy away from that discussion.  Just as importantly for the game, AIHs provide some really fascinating (and challenging) roleplaying options -- and, yes -- if a player wants a kickass supersoldier, look no farther.  

... And, in case it has to be said, if all the GM is looking for are supersoldiers to use for a plothook or all the Player wants is to play someone that can kick some major ass -- and both want to ignore all the social rigmarole I am embedding in the setting, that is not a problem.  You are not playing it wrong.

This entry is going to be more raw than the rest - I wrote it last night and haven't given it even the rudimentary pass I gave OCRI and the Jammer entries.  So, apologies upfront.  Don't judge me too harshly on the spelling and awkward turn of a phrase.



Bottled Soldiers -- The Initiated Aging Process (IAP):  As early as 2100, Martian scientists were exploring the use of clones as alternatives to labor-intensive careers.  Despite a number of predictions that humans would no longer be required for physical labor, 2100 still saw many humans involved in a number of physically-oriented careers (though those numbers were the lowest they had ever been in human history).  Warfare, in particular, still required humans for many key roles -- especially on the battlefield and to pilot the various full-sized and teleopertaed vehicles.  Automation and digitization of the world marched along, but humans were still needed to perform a number of key jobs.

In 2099 the Erinyes Doctrine outlined the process by which the Martians planned to free themselves from Earth’s dominion - and a key part of the Doctrine was to acquire large numbers of physical troops to overwhelm the C-in-C of Hegemon and UN forces in the Martian well.  Thus, Mars needed troops.  Lots of troops.  And Mars needed to make sure Earth interests were not alerted to the troop buildup.  

Erinyes initially called for 1.5 million troops at the outset of war - with a stead increase in numbers as each tear of combat ticked by.  Mercenaries and recruitment of native Martian forces could provide 500,000 of that number, but even the most generous statistical analyses from the CCFD had Martian leadership fall short of the targeted number.  Initially, the Martians enacted a crash-course of trying to digitize consciousness in the hope that they could transfer their experienced soldiers into synthetic warforms, but, like all similar experiments, the human mind refused to remain coherent away from a physical brain.  In time, the Martian executive turned their focus on to a parallel project -- the exploitation of clones.  In secret, the Administrator Sugiyama charged the Department of Defense to grow and train two million clones - and for those clones to be ready by 2100 for potential hostilities with Earth.  

The shortcut the DoD was forced to use was Initiated Aging Process (IAP), which doubled the speed by which the human body developed.  Within 10 years, the DoD had, amazingly enough, a secret army of hale 20-year olds.  Unfortunately, the psychological and sociological pressures the the IAP process placed on the the clones was enormous.  Suicide rates for the clones were staggeringly high, and burnout was similarly astronomical.  By the 10 year deadline, more than 500,000 clones were dead or evaluated as combat ineffective.  

DoD researchers used every trick they could to prepare the clones for the upcoming war.  Military discipline and training weren't a problem - the young minds of the clone soldiers easily absorbed and processed their lessons.  DNI was experimented with as a way to impart advanced combat and piloting techniques - with some notable successes.  However, for all intents and purposes, the clones were mentally only 10 years old when they took the field.  

The deployment of the Martian clones (Artificially Initiated Humans, “Ayes”) had the desired effect of the battlefield.  Earth and UN forces had carefully plotted their numbers stationed on Mars to counter known Martian forces.  When the Free Mars movement revealed nearly two million unaccounted-for soldiers, the colonial forces were immediately placed on the defensive.  The UN and Hegemons never recovered the initiative, and eventually were forced off of most of Mars.  The initial battlefield successes of the IAP and its AIH shocktroopers prompted the Martian shadow-government to increase the numbers of AIHs in development - swelling the ranks of the Martian forces by the final stages of the war.  All told, over 60 million clones were created, trained and processed; and an estimated 40 million of them survive to this day.  

During the height of the Martian independence war, the UN spitefully passed Security Council Resolution 4161, condemning the use of AIHs and cloning as a tool of war.  The nascent Martian planetary government ignored the resolution and the Earth-side condemnation it spawned, instead turning back to the vats and developing the next iteration of cloned soldiers.  The UN noted significant moral challenges to the use of AIHs, and soundly condemned the routine savagery of the AIHs during, and after, combat.  Truthfully, the Free Mars movement regularly had trouble reigning in the excesses of the AIHs, though the Movement, and its successor the MDP, never admitted to mishandling the brutality of the AIHs.  

Today, Mars has a growing problem on its hands.  The MDP has millions of former soldiers, struggling to find meaningful work, who suffer from significant anomie, and of which many have sociopathic tendencies as a direct result of the mental stresses placed on them by the state.  These same dispossessed clones have skills best suited to combat and confrontation.  Many turn to crime, piracy or mercenary guilds to earn cash and find meaning.  The AIHs are also rapidly aging - creating entirely new mental pressures on the clones as well as precipitating a social services crisis.  

Mars knows it owes a steep debt to the AIHs - it just doesn't know how to repay them - or if it really ready to pay the cost.  

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I want AIHs to be a tough setting element for the game.  All too often, major issues like the implications of genetic engineering and wartime expediency are ignored - in literature and in games.  Time to change that.

JAMOR-V "Jammers" (Content)

More Mecha...

I'm exhausted tonight.  Got some writing in on clone soldiers and the war for Mars, which is good.  However, I dont have much left in me to pontificate on the nature of the game and why I made the choices I did.  So, in an effort not to think too much, I see that the OCRI entry is getting the most hits, so I figure give the people their bread and circuses and post some more content...

Not a Jammer - but one of the images I use for inspiration (from Front Mission)

The Future of Warfare -- Joint Atmospheric Maneuver / Orbital Regression Vehicles (JAMOR-V or “Jammers”):  Jammers were created in a joint venture between Australia and the United States, with the Aussies taking the lead.  As both countries developed colonial assets farther and farther away from Earth’s immediate orbit, a new class of vehicle was mandated for a series of very diverse missions.  The original design challenge was for a vehicle that could fight effectively on land, sea, air, orbit and the deep void of space while also being as fuel efficient as possible to allow long deployments.  Not surprisingly, when the media got wind of the design demands for the proposed vehicle, both the Australian and American militaries were humiliated.  

In what can only be called a fortuitous development, the program was not scrapped.  In part, this was due to both governments being focused on the population crash of the ‘80s and neither legislature getting the time to simply axe the experimental program.  So, despite a considerable cloud hanging over the project, requests for concepts were solicited.  Two proposals came back, one of which made it to the design stage.  

BAE Systems Australia in partnership with Lockheed-Martin proposed creating a war machine based on the human form, using a number of innovative technologies to ensure it could operate in just about any environment.  Two core technologies proved to be the key to the operations of Jammers.  The first was the creation of the Wibe True Gyroscope, and the second was the use of Spaulding-series of Direct Neural Interfaces (DNIs).  Both technologies were used for the first time in conjunction with another to allow for a large, mobile, humanoid form.  

The advantage of building a humanoid machine were enormous.  Tests showed that pilots that operated humanoid exoskeletons using DNI learned faster and generally reacted faster for longer periods of exposure.  This meant the prototype Jammers required relatively little initial training and allowed the pilots to operate at higher degrees of difficulty at later stages of their career.  The Spaulding DNIs also allowed pilots to subconsciously use energy-saving techniques by tapping into autonomic responses that maximized the output of the their own bodies.  Rather than need to invest considerable energy to building vectoring units across an entire craft so that it could maneuver in a war-time environment, the pilot only needs to shift the weight of the Jammer to get the same results - with much less energy wasted.  Better yet, each pilot already had a life’s worth of training by the time they interr’d  into the Jammer.  

A Jammer’s humanoid form allows it to effectively and efficiently transit each of the original design demands - land, sea and air (though, admittedly, aerial and void/space techniques normally require extra training).  Looking back, the 2090s are considered the beginning of the era of the Jammer.  The early part of the decade saw the battles of Valparaiso Downport, the Mare Imbium insurrection, and a host of minor conflicts in NEO and UEO.  Time and again, Jammers proved their worth, particularly in the running battles of Valparaiso and Mare Imbrium which both involved combat shifts through radically different environments.  Historical records show that from 2090 to 2100 Jammers were used in successful contacts on all the inner planets, Ceres, and the Jovian L4.  

It should have come as no shock to a student of human society or pop culture that once unveiled, Jammers and their pilots would prove to be enormously popular.  Holovids quickly grabbed on to the merging of man and machine and glamorized the process.  In short order, Jammer pilots were romanticized as daring warriors harkening back to a bygone age of action and adventure.

Truth is stanger than fiction, because while the Holovid industry was getting ahead of itself portraying Jammer pilots as devil-may care superstars, the real Jammer pilots were inadvertently proving the entertainment industry correct.  The first handful of engagements by OCRI Jammers and traditional combat vehicles operated by insurgents and pirates proved the worth of the Jammer concept.  The Holovids got it right, to some extent.

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... In other news, I have an artist in the wings.  We are finishing up another project and will then start talking about doing up some art for the Game That Has No Name.  Jammers will be at the very top of the list of things that need visuals, stat!

The Outer Edge of the Permissible (aka Why mecha?)

One of the challenges that this setting is going to give me is reconciling my vision of mecha-centric space combat and the hard-ish SF elements I want to feature.  I feel that adding elements of realistic politics is complemented nicely by realistic technology -- it creates an overall feel of being grounded in the possible (rather than the fantastic).

So.  Mecha.  Yeah.

You see mecha, I see possibilities!  

Thats going to be my conceit.  Mecha will be in the setting.  They will play an integral role.  In fact, the default PC will be a mecha pilot.  Mecha will set the very outer edge of what makes sense in terms of the science of the setting.  I plan to set parameters by walking backwards from mecha in terms of technology.  If it is less advanced than humanoid robots powered by DNI, then its probably permissible.  In this way, the technological setting element I just cant do without (and which might break the setting) will serve as a useful tool for defining other setting elements.

So, theres no getting away from Mecha.  Now, if I am going to ground the setting in what seems, at the very least, plausible then I have some work ahead of me (and probably no small amount of handwaving and demanding that Dorothy ignore the man behind the curtain).  I need to present mecha in such away that the reader finds them an organic extension of the setting -- and that means a lot of thought into what they look like, how the perform, and their background.

This will be my attempt at that.  I am very open to suggestions about how to improve the presentation and/or development of mecha in the setting.

Oh?  And why wont I get rid of mecha?  Because they are awesome.  Full stop.  They might not make perfect sense, but they are too cool not to feature in the setting.  Plus, I can do a lot of things to give PCs agency by using mecha.  Want to play in a military-style campaign?  Sure.  Want to play in a medical SAR-focused game?  Okay.  Want to fight in space?  No problem.  Want to fight underwater?  We can do that.  Want to do a kickass spinning kick while underwater while planning to blast into space to fight the forces of the colonial hegemons?  Yeah, thats possible.

No.  No they dont transform.  Thats not possible.  Sorry.

Tool of the Imperialists -- OCRI (Content)

Okay, so lets jump right into some of the content I developed for the game that has no name (yet).  A little background first, since I think insight into my decisions will help clarity why I chose certain design elements.  

I am writing entries into the master document a little like the entries in Dictionary of Mu.  I don't know why I chose this process, but there it is.  I went back and looked at the content written in this format a week ago and decided I liked it.  It adds a sense of immediacy and reader involvement - almost like reading a wiki-analog in 2131.  That, BTW, also led me to a couple other overall goals in the game - immersion through text (but that is a discussion for later). 

The SF game was born of a number of musing I've had over the years and am only just now putting to paper.  Orson Scott Card once advised to never write down an idea that comes into your head.  Instead, wait, and let it germinate   If you immediately forget it, it probably wasnt a good idea.  However, if you sit on it and mull it over for weeks/months.years - when it finally does get to paper it will be all the stronger for the consideration you gave it.  This setting is a result of that process.  There are ideas embedded into the Solar System that have been years int he making.  One of those ideas was the design decision to feature a Mars/Earth conflict where Mars wasn't the underdog.  The idea of a brewing conflict between OCRI (below) and the hegemons of Earth (to come later) against a recently liberated Martian polity was the catalyst for me to finally but my idea to paper.  

So, here is OCRI, the core antagonist of the setting (do be warned, this is still very and hasnt yet seen a good grammar or content editing pass):  

Despotic World Government, Just Add Black Helicopters!  

Civilization at the End of a Gun -- OCRI:  The Office of Colonial Rights and Integrity (OCRI – colloquially pronounced “Ohs Ree”) is a U.N. body empowered with a seeping mandate to “maintain peace and security in the Solar colonies.”  The UN charter in 2083 gave the High Commissioner for the OCRI the ability to call in support from standing UN security forces during crises or force majeur.  In the modern day, the High Commissioner of the OCRI is one of the most influential people in the System – with the ability to order significant member state and UN Peace Keeping forces to intervene in just about any situation. 

In 2131 OCRI is the single most powerful entity in the System.  Since its mandate was expanded in 2083, the OCRI now maintains a small but elite standing body of forces ready spread across the System ready to respond to contingencies (known, simply enough, as Contingency Forces).  When these OCRI “Crimson Helmets” aren’t enough to deal with the problem at hand, the High Commissioner can put out a call for the support of member states.  This support can come in a number of different forms, from financial to material – including the loan of personnel.  When member states provide support to OCRI, the resources come under direct control of the High Commissioner until such time that the emergency has passed.  Unfortunately, the (once again) broad and ill-defined mandate of the OCRI charter means that it has sometimes retained control of ships, personnel, and equipment for longer than the member state preferred, leading to some tensions.

The original charter for OCRI charter was relatively limited in scope and charged the standing Contingency Forces to patrol the port areas and gravity wells of the inner planets.  In certain cases, the Contingency Forces were given special dispensation to range outside of the wells and into the outer planets to track and engage pirates.  At the time, however, this was a rare occurrence, requiring Secretary General approval.  Not surprisingly, approval from the SecGen was only ever secured when the intelligence was undeniable.  The handful of instances when the Crimson Helmets did venture past the wells did not often turn out well.  Asking glorified customs agents to fight a shooting war with hardened pirates was a recipe for disaster.  It was the handful of high-profile failings that led, in part to the 2096 revision of OCRI’s charter.  The actual process was slow and highly politicized, and resulted in a drastically different OCRI.

Besides its current mission to respond to contingencies and emergencies and keep the peace, OCRI has an extensive bureaucratic and investigatory arm.  The “Rights” portion of the OCRI apparatus was originally created as a concession to the colonial lobby in order to ensure the OCRI had a role in protecting the rights and interests of the colonies.  “Rights” was only added to the original “OCI” moniker after a number of colonial-sympathetic member states refused to ratify the charter in the General Assembly.  The result of the intense negotiations and rewriting of the charter was the creation of the Deputy Commissioner for Colonial Rights, a position second only to the High Commissioner and legal status on par with the Special Representative for the Secretary General (PeaceKeeping).  The Deputy Commissioner’s office has a wide range of enforcement and investigatory powers to ensure the living conditions and legal rights are on par with Earthers.  In reality, the ORCI Rights sub-office has withered into little more than a rubberstamp for the more aggressive actions of the Crimson Helmets.

In the modern Solar System, the UN’s OCRI is a tool of the major Earth hegemons and is used as a tool to keep the various colonial independence movements marginalized.  This inevitably results in a directly antagonistic relationship with the United Martian Government, which is increasingly active in its effort to support and encourage sovereignty movements in the colonies.

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Comments and criticisms are very welcome - as are ideas that riff or add to the above.