the red planet
So I pitched this to a certain organization which will remain unnamed for a LARP setting, and they didn't want it, which, fine, but I am gonna use it for something. Hell, you can use it for something, I don't care. It was originally meant to be a setting for lesser templates in the Cities of Darkness books, but you can do whatever with it. I am personally having some DC superhero feelings.
Anyway, as long as you are not the LARP organization to which it was pitched, or their lead storyteller from that era, you may use it freely.
“Mars was a distant shore, and the men spread upon it in waves… Each wave different, and each wave stronger.” - Ray Bradbury
The Red Planet
History
By the early 2040s, NASA and a number of privately-held corporations were successful in their vision of bringing the first humans to Mars. The first human explorers found that the planet was unoccupied as expected, and that under the proper conditions it would be possible to engage in moderate-scale terraforming of the Red Planet.
The work, however, would be difficult and dangerous, and the earliest high-domed settlements were often filled with high-paid workers excited to build a better life for their families on a new world. Those who came after – who built towering cities under sparkling domes – were the incarcerated and the desperate, forced to build a world they’d never get the opportunity to inhabit.
The settlers of Mars eventually sorted into two classes. Those who came to Mars with an unshakable faith in the vision of the colony founders, preferring to forget the unpleasantness of their home world and live repressed lives of fanatic optimism, ignored the misery of those in the lower classes and gave up basic freedoms in order to be safe, comfortable and well-fed. The Others were brought to Mars often under duress, either financial or correctional, and given little to no support to establish homes and lives. Forced to carve out their own tribes and families in the sub-structures of the domed cities, they learned to live under the shining chrome boots of the technological servitors of the Chosen.
In 2101, contact with the Earth ceased suddenly as the home world was engulfed in nuclear war. Only a few ships remain that can make the journey to Earth, and the scientific community on Mars feels quite certain that it is too dangerous at this time to make the journey.
In the aftermath of this disastrous revelation, the cults of the Chosen – that is, the upper- and middle-class residents of the dome cities – were quick to establish what they felt was the proper way of life and to codify their membership into a more formal organization, known as the Charter, which lists the rules and restrictions that govern its members’ behavior. Cynics noted that this included “traditional” gender roles and social values, meaning that the lifestyle of the Chosen is something of a futuristic version of the American 1950s. Further, the Charter makes it impossible for those not signatory to it – or descended from those signatories – to ever gain the wealth and power the Chosen hold.
In the sublevels of the cities below, discontent has only grown and many choose to openly defy the strictures by which the Chosen live – by living communally, espousing radical creeds, and desperately trying to create a world in which they and their children may safely live and grow without having it snatched away by the Chosen and their servitors.
And deep, deep beneath the Martian soil, the Martians slowly wake from their long slumber... troubled by the world above, by the changes in the world that have been wrought. Will they be the enemy of all? Or will they have compassion for the crying children on their soil?
Setting
The Red Planet
The action of The Red Planet is mostly set in the sub-cities, where the Others reside, and will ultimately lead characters to the subterranean cities of the Martians where they will either find allies or enemies in the Martians themselves. Even now, hints of the Martians' presence and sympathy can be found deep in the sub-cities, where the Chosen and their soldiers never go. Recently small springs or other water supplies have been found in the lowest levels, and when those who control those springs share them freely they continue to provide water even in unlikely circumstances.
It is hushed signs like these that have led the Others to hope that they might defeat oppression once and for all.
The Chosen are a constant presence in the lives of the Others, but should mostly be silent in their occupation of oppressive space. After all, why would they want to communicate with the cogs in their well-oiled machines? Muckraker journalists have been silenced, and attempts to make the Chosen see the cost of their actions have failed time and time again since the settlement of Mars.
It is the Servitors who most strike fear into the populace, the seemingly robotic soldiers and enforcers that enact the cruel will of the Chosen upon the population, with their gleaming veneers and remorseless dedication to the laws governing Mars.
Factions
The Chosen
The Chosen consider themselves “ordinary citizens,” although many among them hold the keys to vast wealth and power. They espouse a generic sort of belief in “God and Planet,” although what this means is anybody’s guess. Roles and cultural values are similar to those of 1950s America, with a focus on consumerism and conformity. They do not teach their children history, and prefer to focus on the wonders of the future they are living in... ignoring the high cost of those wonders for everyone else.
The Others
Everyone else on Mars. The Others came from every race and creed on Earth, and many have held onto their cultural traditions as much as they possibly could. As they were cut off from their home culture after their long voyages, the art and culture they brought with them is often anachronistic. Different groups have organized themselves in different settings, so the Others in one domed city will be culturally quite different from those in another. Their lives are dangerous and hard, but those who live in the sub-cities are generally tolerant of their neighbors – as long as their neighbors bring no specific threat or danger to them.
The Servitors
The Servitors appear as humanoid robots, gleaming and emotionless. They act as soldiers and enforcers, and the curious might wonder why not build them to be more efficient for their purposes. Technologists amongst the Others have been completely unable to find methods of subverting them because they hide a terrible secret. They are not robots but instead serve as housing for the intellects of Chosen at the end of their human lifespans, and thus are greatly invested in maintaining their way of life.
The Supernaturals
A small number of supernaturals found their way to Mars, although many felt that the risks and complications of leaving Earth were not worth the benefits of new territories. Supernaturals continue to maintain strict secrecy, and they usually find it easier to thrive hidden amongst the Others rather than become involved in the strict control of Chosen lives.
The Martians
The Martians do not live on the surface of their planet. Millennia ago, they built their cities many kilometers beneath the planetary surface, taking their most valuable resources (including water) with them. They are currently at the end of a dormant century, and will slowly wake and encounter the characters in Phase 2. Phase 1 will be littered with hints of their presence, as humans have previously not detected them.
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Themes
Counter-culture
The humans of the sub-cities (sometimes called the Others) choose to fly in the face of the strictly ordered lives of the Chosen. They build and borrow counter-culture ideas from their memories and the books and files that remain from Earth. They reject ideas that are not helpful in their quest for survival and ultimately self-determination and adopt, create, and synthesize as best they can.
(OOC note: Under no circumstances is this an excuse for players to appropriate cultural practices considered closed by their living originators).
Retrofuturism
While the major aesthetic of the chronicle is the futuristic vision of the Cold War era, many of the same themes of that era may be enacted in this chronicle. The paranoia of the Chosen reverberates into the streets. Others may not be as strictly bound by the aesthetic of the time, and must rely far more greatly on one another for survival.
Mood
Hope
The various factions of The Red Planet all look towards a hopeful future, albeit with very different visions of what that future should entail. The Chosen hope to maintain their chokehold on the resources and power in their world, to continue to build better lives for themselves and their children. The Servitors hope to support them in that goal. The Others hope that they can overthrow their oppressors and find a new way to live peacefully on Mars. The Martians hope too, that they might find the inheritors of their world to be worth helping to live there.
