circle-of-worldbuilders

Scope

What is your motivation for building this world?

I want to create a spaceopera that has a look and feel like Star Wars / Star Trek / Babylon 5 / Stargate / Firefly / Dark Matter / altered carbon / Ghost in the Machine / Valerian etc. and many more recent shows where PC and NPC are tested in morale, actions and more.
People and their actions are the carriers of the story, technology is only one means to do it. (just like magic). I also want to do something with Atlantis, so thats on earth and the domed city of splendor.

What are you hoping to get out of it?

I hope to write lore, short storys and interactions, campaigns for my players/readers to talk about. during this process i also hope to learn new insights and ideas to worlkd build even more fantastic lore.

What is the Hook or Unique Selling Point of your world? What makes it unique or different?

Starting out in various classes and roles as characters in our solarsystem they will be able to explore the solar system and earth. They might find out that space is vast and has lots of adventure to find inside and beyond our own solarsystem.

Theme

What’s the Genre of your World?

High tech up to the point it is inistinguisable from magic. Old relics and powerfull items are there to be found, explored and investigated and used.

How does the world feel (player experience)?

At first they will live as species adpated to the relative safe circumstances in Atlantis. When they decide to leave the planet the players might team up (or not) and find the larger solarsystem as a playground. Life outside the ome is much harder and certainly less forgiving. They -the pc- have to adapt and learn to navigate their way in many different ways to survive. There are some strange rumours that needs some answer. There are questions to answer, things to find out. an itch to be scratched to find what actually is going on.

What is the tone of your world

Depending on their actions and choices, travelled routes, visited locations they -the pc- will find safe havens that are deathtraps (but feel pleasant) or huge dumps that are virtually off the grid and safe. There is no magic, but there are always forces and powers to investigate and unknown to our PC.

What is the character agency level like?

This depends on decision made, companions, (unwritten) rules the PC follow or break. They might find ways to get into the more elitarian levels, join a military branch or become a body guard. The big question will be finding information and making decisions as individual or as group. Those decisions can have far reaching consequenses and could have a great impact on the solar system or even further.

What are the recurring themes which reinforce the genre, tone and feel of your world? (Give three examples)

1. Encounters with a unknown species with strange and/or weird convictions and rules to live by 2. Spacetravel, combat and technical know-how about (misleading) surveillance, ships and remote controlling, AI all come in play. 3. (silent/secret) gathering data, creating information, transporting and selling that information/data is key. (by extortion, hackjing, mindmelding, stealing / fighting / talking your way into it.)

META

Universe

The universe is large, there are many beliefs, many ways and there are multiple civilisations spanning huge amounts of space. Our solarsystem is just one of the many. As far as PC know it is insignificant.

Solar System

The solarsystem, about 2 billion years ago is a much different solarsystem. Spacetravel can be done by portals if you are extremely rich and have the equipment, or done by spaceship (if you have one). Spacetravel takes hours insterad of months, due to spoacefolding techniques. Also, the term rich is questionable. Having money (traderights), power (diplomatic) or knowledge is not the same. Most actions are based on actions and reactions in trade of goods, services and power. Honor is a thing, but the rules might be different for everyone. Religion depends on who you ask. Some are very devout and others have no religion.

Government

Every planet can have a council, and the council is allowed by rule of the one(s) ruling the solar system(s). There is always someone above the ones ruling. There is no galactic overlord or emperor. Not all planets have a ruler or owner. (also: not all planets/systems acknowledge a ruler.

"Drama"

The underground dwelling of Atlantis has not much to offer, unlike the metropolis above the ground. The majority of people below are there waiting until they are assigned to another job and to do labor. Most labor however is taken care of by robots without or at most very limited AI.
On a certain day something unexpected happens. Unexpectedly the robots protest against their work and then fall silent. Several people die due to this event. The people who are at home and watching VR suddenly see flashes and light effects. Only a few people suffer some effect. People are investigating the strange phenomena. Its the talk of the day and specialists do not know what has happened or why. In the next following months more incidents happen.