Pale Blue Dot 1.1

[NinjaCow64]

[OP copied from other thread, rewrite in process]

Pale Blue Dot is a forum game that focuses on the colonization of the solar system. Beginning in the 22nd century, players will take control of a terrestrial power engaging in a new space race. They will discover that, despite the idealism and wonder of the early era of space exploration, humanity will bring into space the same sins that were on Earth: avarice, bloodlust, and pride.

The game will be divided into two phases: in the first phase, updates will span a century and focus on the initial settlement of the solar system. Stats will be simple and the game will be conceptual. In the second phase, updates will be considerably shorter and focus on the central conflict of the game.

Spoiler Phase One :

There will be ~four updates in phase one. Each update will introduce several new polities, created by players, to gradually populate the setting until hitting a desired playerbase of 12 to 14 players.

Update Zero (2020 to 2100) will focus on the Earth itself and the selection of the terrestrial powers. It’s the great powers of Earth that will spearhead the first proper settlement of the solar system, but not all of the potential candidates will survive the rigors of the 21st century with a functioning space program.

Update One (2100 to 2200) will focus on the first colonies. As humanity enters its third century in space, the first proper settlements will be formed across the inner solar system. The Terrestrial Powers dominate this era, sponsoring colonization, exploitation, and exploration.

Update Two (2200 to 2300) will introduce the outer planets. The terrestrial powers will be increasingly challenged by the colonies, who will be less and less tied to the Earth as multiple generations have now been born in space. The outer solar system will be settled, not just by the major powers but by a bevy of minor polities and movements unrecognizable to the 21st century.

Update Three (2300 to 2400) and onwards remains a mystery.

Spoiler Phase Two :

In Phase Two, the timespan of the game drastically shortens. Developmental choices made in Phase One will now be converted into more detailed statistics, describing the state of the solar system at the beginning of the phase.

Spoiler Initial Sign Up :

For Update Zero, I am looking for one of two things:

Either an application as a Terrestrial Power, or an expression of interest in joining for Update One or Two. Expressions of interest will help determine the number of players selected at each interval, as I’ll select fewer players in the initial phase if I’m not expecting more later.

For Terrestrial Powers, I am looking for 3 or 4 nations based on existing polities (ideally some combination of the United States, China, India, Russia, China, and European Union, but I’ll accept a great wildcard). I am also looking for all the selections to simultaneously exist together (the “One China” policy). If you’re not selected you’re encouraged to pitch something again for Updates One and Two. Selections will be made based on the quality of the application and the overall interests of the game.

Sign Up

Polity Name: The full name of your nation, along with any shortened names
Color: What color should be used, in any visual aids, in RGB format.
Summary: provide a summary of your polity in 2100, touching on aspects like geography, government, development, and international relations.

Distribute 8 Points between the following four categories to determine how your nation has managed the various crises of the 21st century and provide a brief description of what they represent:

• Government - How has your nation navigated the conflict between liberal democracy and authoritarian regimes?
• Climate Change - How has your nation dealt with shifting climate, including changes in arable land, natural disasters, and refugees?
• Technology - How has your nation managed the runaway growth of technological progress, including surveillance, artificial intelligence, and genetic modification?
• Society - How has the society of your nation, the basic relationship of your citizens between each other, held up against increasing atomization imposed by capitalism?

Distribute 4 points between the following categories to describe your polity's early space program:

• Orbital Manufacturing - The construction of shipyards and heavy industry in space makes it secure from natural disasters.
• Space Colonization - The movement of significant population into orbit or off-world colonies is incredibly expensive but can provide a base for future expansion.
• Interplanetary Exploitation - The extraction of raw resources from the moon, near earth asteroids, and other planetary bodies offers the potential for a significant economic return.
• Domestic Investment - Space Exploration is an expensive endeavor: it is politically popular and economically sound to focus resources on Earth.
• Militarization - As space interests grow more valuable, their security is a larger consideration. Militarization increases the odds of conflict occurring, but also the odds of victory.

Spoiler Update Zero Recap :

Three interplanetary powers emerge: Russia, Europe, and the Corporate Cooperative, a transnational conglomerate based out of Oceania. The United States and China fall by the wayside, as social unrest and climate change leave them with poorly organized governments unable to sponsor major space initiatives.

Russia asserts military dominance in successive victories over Europe and China, establishing itself as the premier space power. Permanent settlements are established on the Moon, Mars, and the Asteroid Belt focused on resource extraction. Earth's climate and society decline dramatically.

Spoiler Update One Recap :

The continued expansion of the human race across the inner solar system pushes progress forward, but also sparks conflict. Russia and the Corporate Cooperative fight a devastating war over the asteroid belt that rearranges the political order. Most of the Earth's surface is uninhabitable due to rising temperatures, concentrating humanity in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Meanwhile, alien life is discovered in a subsurface ocean on Ganymede.

New powers emerge in space, first and foremost the autonomous high command of the Kosmicheskie Voyska, the Russian Space Forces, competing for control of the asteroid belt in the aftermath of the Asteroid War with Ceres, a European colony that achieved independence after a syndicalist revolution. Developing in the shadow of Russian military might, the space colony of Singreal established sovereignty at the center of a commercial network, where its interests in Mars clash with Atlas Mars, an increasingly militarized corporate state with ambitious designs on the red planet.

Spoiler Update Two Recap :

The system grows more crowded as it grows bigger, as humanity expands beyond the Asteroid Belt into the outer solar system. Earth's powers are focused on stabilizing the planet's environment, narrowly averting a runaway greenhouse effect, ceding the interplanetary stage to their colonies. The European Union is the chief coordinator of this effort and absorbs the fractured United States in the aftermath.

Ceres and the KV, eventually renamed the Belt and Moon Independent Corporation, fight a series of wars in the asteroid belt for supremacy, with the BMIC coming out on top. Atlas Mars attacks and expels Singreal and the Russian Federation from the Red Planet. The underlying issues are far from settled and the situation is tense going forward.

But new powers are rising: in the inner solar system, a penal colony transforms into an independent Mercury, while a long-term terraforming effort is begun on Venus by the Cloudy Skies Corporation. Beyond the Asteroid Belt, the Jovian moons become populated by a bevy of new powers like the European colony on Titan and the American-inspired New Columbian Confederacy in Saturn's Rings, or the UN mandate of the Refugee Directorate on Ganymede. Other groups, like the bunker-state of Atlas Belt, the fiercely independent Ares Colony on Mars, and the enigmatic technoreligious Neo Exodus Evangels claim space in the solar system.

Spoiler Update Three Recap :

Psyche!

[/QUOTE]

 

[NinjaCow64]

Reserved. Feel free to post.

 

[NinjaCow64]

Okay so I am planning to run this game with a very different set of mechanics. The rules are currently being written, to facilitate the transition to the new game I am planning to have a "boring turn" of 23 years and then move into a period of yearly "interesting turn" updates.

But first things first I want to know who is still interested in playing this game. If you were playing in the original Pale Blue Dot are interested in continuing this game as your previous country I would like to ask you to make an interest post in this thread and to send me a PM containing your last orderset so I have some more context moving forward.

 

[Lord Apple]

Hello, I am willing to return and reprise the role of the Atlantic Union which is as always trying its best. I don't have a recent order set though.

 

[LordArgon]

I too am interested in returning as the Neo Exodus Evangels, and I too don't have a recent orderset.

 

[Immaculate]

Interested.

 

[Double A]

Honk

 

[Kyzarc Fotjage]

Freemen Incorporated here

 

[Seon]

Interest

 

[NinjaCow64]

To clarify by “most recent orders” I mean the last set of orders that Shadowbound processed, the turn one orders.

 

[JohannaK]

I dunno

 

[Traveller76]

I am interested.

 

[NinjaCow64]

This probably won't come as a surprise to anyone but this is dead, it was overly ambitious to try and run this game during such a turbulent period in my life. I can't commit the time to this that it deserves. Sorry.

 

[Double A]

oof