Gamemaster Culture (IF)

Hard Science-Fiction Setting

The solar system is both very divided and culturally cohesive. History has shuffled people around, mixing genes and cultures and creating new hybrids, while old minority have clung to or even recovered their past. With universal translation, the pressure to learn a major language disappeared, and when the large political blocks fractured, the pressure to conform disappeared. At the same time, living conditions have become more similar across humanity, creating similar solutions to the problems we all face.

Abundance Society

Humanity has never been richer. Industrial automation and hydroponic farming makes everyday resources abundant. After the struggles of the 21st century, basic income was recognized as a human right; no-one outside degenerate polities lacks food, basic necessities, care, or access to education and information. With genetic engineering, many of the causes of need and impulses to crime were eliminated and most people live to 200 years of age. You no longer have to work to survive, you work to achieve self-realization and social standing.

Money still exists even when basic goods are free; personal services, handicrafts, pastorally produced food, and luxury housing still have a cost. People work to afford such perks, but most are able to find a job that aligns with their own interests. The average work week is 20 to 30 hours; some work 4 to 6 hours a day, others prefer fewer, longer days. Caretaking employs many, taking care of children, even your own, is considered a profession. Dangerous, uncomfortable, or simply unpopular work nets higher pay, rising until the needed workforce volunteers. This can make pay rates highly variable; some exploit this by changing jobs almost daily.

This all took a hit during the Fall; people were ordered to work, with those lacking appropriate skills often ending up in involuntary work parties. When the crisis abated, this was quickly abolished, but resentment and distrust lingers, mostly directed at Earthforce that stepped in to handle the crisis.

Personhood

With genetic engineering, many things once decided by birth can now be altered. Common genetic programs brought most of humanity to the point where no-one performs much below what was once average. Poor health, eyesight, birth defects, and vulnerability to mental ill-health can all be pre-empted. Ageing is routinely postponed; most people live 200 years or more, maintaining the health and flexible intellect of youth.

Gender and sexual expression have become matters of choice, while the differences between the sexes have narrowed. On average, women are physically stronger and more resilient under stress than they used to be; men have become more cooperative and socially agile. Fertility is fully under conscious control — conception must be willed, and no longer declines with age. Painful menstruation and involuntary menopause are conditions of the past. Ancestral features can be altered or erased, though this is uncommon today. All of this is voluntary, and many choose to retain older ideals. Virtual reality experiences allow people to try new roles before undertaking therapies that would alter their bodies more permanently.

Greater changes are achievable, if somewhat dangerous and controversial. Cosmetic changes, such as altered skin color or adding fur, tails, or animal ears, have long been popular in various subcultures. Adaptations to different environments are possible, facilitating life in microgravity, low gravity, and even underwater.

Posthuman Genetic Modifications

Not everyone thinks this should be done. The Earthforce Medical Service continually reviews medical standards, caught between conservatives and radical post-humanists who want more change. Rules used to be stricter before the Fall; adaptations to the harsher post-Fall environment are now widely accepted.

Race Race has an entirely different meaning than it did historically. It is seen as a group of related ideas of beauty. When appearance can be easily altered, no-one is forced into a certain racial phenotype; instead it has become fashionable to select one you feel expresses your individuality, often but not always among your ancestries.

Education & Lifepaths

Large families are normal, with parents usually 50 years of age or so. It is not unusual to start over with a second family in a much later relationship. A large part of the work force is engaged in fostering and educating the young, giving young people rich sources of nurture, education, and apprenticeships. Education begins around age fire with human interactions and general education, with specialist skills taught from age 15 in apprenticeships or virtual reality. Age of majority for Earthforce voting is 25, most polities also use this as the official date of adulthood, tough some activities — recreational drugs, vehicle operation — are allowed around age 12 under adult supervision.

Gerontocracy

With people routinely living to the age of 200 and luck and wealth can allow you to live up to twice as long, power is gathered in the hands of the elderly. Therapy maintains fluid intelligence over time while crystalized intelligence still accumulates over time; older people simply have more skills to use. A stable economy also benefits the old; long time savings and interest means many old people are rich. Well-sestablished politicians have the support of stable constituencies. The backside of this is that old skills do lose in value as new technologies and social issues develop, but not enough to overcome the advantages of age.

It is not that young people lack opportunities; education is free and run by enthusiastic teachers with long experience. Entry level jobs are available in most sectors. But advancement is slow; few elderly retire to make room for the new. Two trends have grown out of this; older people do retire to focus entirely on their personal interests, and young people become colonists to find opportunities in faraway places where few are senior to them.

Law, Custom, and Jurisdiction

With the plethora of independent polities, each of which may have its own special laws and customs, justice has become a complex labyrinth.

Space Law

The Bern Space Accord of 2066 set the convention for space law, modeled on Earth’s old nautical laws. Intended as temporary, this accord is still in place, though amended over time. The rule was practical for Luna ports and early stations, but it remains in force across the System despite being outdated for larger hubs and interplanetary traffic.

Earthforce Senate law is a bare-bones set of regulations that mainly applies to shipping and the rights of shippers, crews, passengers, cargo, and salvage. These rules are sometimes draconian — they require you to provide assistance to save lives while offering little protection for ships.

Colonial Law

Colonial "law" is only partly codified — local customs and security regulations are often just as harshly enforced, and a neme may not be able to interpret these subtleties. You can be punished for breaking a local custom even if it is not strictly written. The general trend here is that you are expected to render help to anyone who asks for it, beyond what space law requires.

Jurisdictional Limit (JL)

Local authority extends to 0.01 light-seconds (≈3,000 km) from a habitat or body; beyond that, Earthforce claims jurisdiction under Senate law.

Patchwork Rules

In habitats a patchwork of rules apply. Usually a new habitat begins with the laws of its mother polity, which are then amended and appended to fit local needs. This creates lineages of laws that share many elements, often based on old legal traditions like Common Law, Civil Law, Sharia, or the Confucian legal tradition, with only minor local differences. But two neighboring habitats can belong to different legal traditions and use completely different systems of law. Air, water, and light are always regulated commodities; tampering is a felony everywhere, assuming you escape the lynch mob.

Habitat qualification

To claim a Jurisdictional Limit, a site must qualify as a habitat. The usual threshold is at least 100 permanent residents with autonomous life support, and a published charter with a continuous navigation beacon broadcasting its legal code. Prospectors, work barges, and small stations that do not meet this requirement fall under their sponsor’s jurisdiction for internal matters and Earthforce Senate law for conflicts between vessels or expeditions. Polities sometimes try to extend “local” space by seeding nearby habitats under the same charter; this can backfire when those stations declare independence.

Ship jurisdiction

Large ships with crews or passengers of 100 or more may claim a temporary Jurisdictional Limit while under way, provided they are outside any habitat’s JL and broadcast an active flight plan and beacon. The temporary radius is 0.003 light-seconds (≈900 km).

Conflict of limits

• Habitat JL prevails over ship JL; the ship’s claim collapses to its hull and interior.
• Between ships, precedence is determined by the Right-of-Space protocol: the ship with the earlier-filed flight plan corridor stands on. If equal, the less maneuverable vessel stands on. If still equal, Earthforce arbitration applies.
• Between habitats, JL is merged if they share a charter. If not, it splits at the midline, with a narrow 0.0003 light-seconds (≈100 km) neutral buffer for traffic. This can get tricky when trajectories intersect.

Enforcement

All JL-eligible sites and ships must broadcast Charter ID, JL class (Hab or T-JL), current center, and ephemeris. The Right-of-Space (RoS) protocol resolves overlaps in seconds; notices are binding, and penalties apply if ignored. Search-and-rescue overrides all other jurisdiction. The Accords Mediation Service (Senate) has oversight of all judiciaries. In practice, the Earthforce Navy (Commons) enforces space law rules and local authorities enforce colonial law.

Abuse & edge cases

Habitats sometimes set unreasonable rules and penalties to trap passers-by — “inspection fees,” “heritage light taxes,” or instant fines for minor etiquette slips — keeping Belt advocates in work for decades. Travelers swap warnings: don’t argue on the dock, pay the small fines, and appeal once you’re clear.

Common snares include:

• “Mandatory courtesy services” that you never asked for, then a bill on departure.
• Flag-of-convenience shakedowns — a charter you’ve never heard of claims you entered “their” space for three minutes.
• Quarantine pretexts — your cargo is held “for safety,” then storage fees grow by the hour.

When in doubt, let your neme log everything and ask for a written notice — most bullies prefer marks who leave no paper trail. Search-and-rescue orders override all disputes; if someone calls for help, rescue comes first and the arguing waits.

Religion, Meaning, Civil Rites

Practical, local, often syncretic.

• Storm chaplaincy and mutual-aid guilds.
• Pilots’ cults among Jovians; oath-taking before burns and entries.
• Quiet memorials for drift-lost; bone-ash in station gardens.

Religion, Meaning, Civil Rites

Religion in the System is highly varied and tolerance is widespread. It is simply difficult to maintain closed communities across space lanes. Most habitats adapt one of the major belief systems into their own local variant, but influence from other religions is commonplace. Very few attempt to enforce religion on visitors; faith is considered a matter for the core population. Occasionally this limits outside contact — if certain groups (children, women, minorities) are absent from the public spaces of a habitat, this is generally taken as a bad sign and affects its reputation.

Syncretic and System-born forms

Syncretism is the merger of different traditions and even specific gods, which is quite common in space.

• Storm chaplains serve as multi-faith leaders during crises — solar flares, hull breaches, famine — often qualified to minister across several religions. This is seen as normal in war or emergency, and has persisted into peace.
• Pilots’ cults flourish: oaths sworn before burns and landings are part of professional identity. Keepsakes and relics are common — an amulet blessed by a relic, a fragment of a wreck survived, or a personal charm carried on every burn.
• Memorials for the drift-lost are common. Bone-ash is spread into greenhouse soil, turning every visit to the gardens into an act of remembrance. The old Jewish practice of placing stones has spread widely across faiths.
• Early explorers and founders are often sainted or deified. Relics such as helmets, flight suits, or even recovered 21st-century probes are revered in shrines.
• Charismatic cult leaders thrive in long-lived societies. Their cults can persist for centuries, merging apocalyptic visions with worship of aliens, hyperspatial beings, or local natural phenomena.
• Religious art and artifacts are often represented in holographic displays, sanctified as representations of the original.

Orientation of worship

• A small liturgical compass (lighted marker) shows the required direction inside the sanctuary; the neme updates it as the station slews or precesses.
• Port and charter authorities publish the local frame so visiting congregations can align ad hoc spaces. Allowing another faith to use your place of worship is seen as meritorious.

Christianity

Ecumenism is widespread. Denominations dominate in certain habitats, but overall Christians find rigid boundaries difficult to maintain in space.

• Confessionals often double as privacy booths with active sound-dampening and anti-surveillance systems. Personal wearable confessionals provide this privacy with a highly encoded link to a priest within a few light seconds. These are highly controversial in authoritarian ships and habs.
• Eucharist uses synthetic wine or spirits, and communal bread-baking is sometimes a central ritual.
• Crucifixes and chapels are often placed in storm shelters, making spiritual protection synonymous with physical safety.
• Liturgical east is usually the Solar-Tangent rule: altar faces prograde within the orbital plane; entrances retrograde. Cislunar parishes often prefer the Earth-Facing variant (altar toward Earth). Spin habitats frequently adopt Spin-East along the promenade.

Atheism and rationalism

Atheist and rationalist communities frame meaning in human responsibility, natural law, and shared ethics rather than deities.

• Procedure as mindfulness — checklist recitals and maintenance drills used as calm-focus practices before risky work.
• Secular chaplaincy — counselors trained in crisis support and bereavement without religious language; common in ports and rescue crews. It is surprisingly common for these to also be licensed for another religion, viewing it as a psycho-cultural practice.
• Humanist rites — naming days, coming-of-age vows, partnership contracts, and remembrance gatherings held in promenades or gardens.
• Moments of silence — pre-EVA or pre-burn quiet periods to center attention and honor risk.
• Codes and oaths — crew ethics and safety pledges read aloud at muster; violations treated as moral, not just technical, failures.
• Study circles — salons and lecture nights on history, science, and civic duty in place of sermons.

Islam

Islam suffered greatly in the Meltdown of 2055, shattering the authority of its factions and leadership, particularly those committed to violence. It now consists of a number of small, scattered communities.

• Prayer alignment (qibla) is tracked by neme software. Some Islamic habitats maintain orbits with their axis locked on Earth, keeping the direction stable.
• Wudu is performed with clean recycled water, with strict conservation measures. In some places sand is used symbolically, echoing early Islamic practice.
• Halal rulings on vat-grown or cultured meat vary widely; each habitat tends to establish its own interpretation, sometimes leading to disagreements with neighbors.

Buddhism

Three types of practitioners are common. The first are solitary Buddhists with little or no contact with a community. The second are those strongly aligned with a community but who may wander outside it for extended periods. The third live entirely within their community, rarely leaving its bounds.

• Buddhism has no problem accepting those of other faiths, seeing itself as a philosophy rather than a formal faith.
• Monks are willing to adopt security procedures such as wearing vacsuits, but try to go for basic colors with orange robes worn on top. Some prefer orange or partially orange body suits.
• Meditation chambers are kept at 0.1 g or more. Only masters can meditate in microgravity.
• Monks still collect alms despite abundance; this creates personal engagement between monk and layperson.
• Offerings are given in service time to the habitat as well as food.
• Imagery of rebirth is tied to airlock cycling and hydroponic renewal.

Hinduism

Hindus may be devoted to individual gods but honor all of them and the common spiritual lore they share.

• Puja (ritual offering) often uses open flame despite oxygen cost, making it a meaningful sacrifice.
• Temples occupy central promenades. Because of the gravity gradient, towers cannot rise far; some exploit lesser gravity “closer to heaven” at the top levels.

• Temples commonly face sunrise. In orbit this maps to Solar-Tangent (altar toward prograde or sunward by local custom).
• Most habitats focus on one god, but have minor altars to many gods.

• Festivals include processions, carnivals, and public rituals — sometimes daily mass exercises.
• Sacred rivers may be recreated in miniature, seeded with water brought from Earth. Most communities claim to have done this, some with tons of water, others with only a few drops.

Confucian tradition

Confucian tradition is a societal structure rather than a religion; individuals are often part of other communities.

• Ancestor veneration is deeply tied to habitat maintenance. Computerized citizen rolls and genetic archives create vast webs of ancestry, each individual responsible for honoring thousands — a demanding duty that confers status.
• Life extension makes age less apparent; many habs have formal rules for what appearance is acceptable depending on chronological age.
• Rites of respect are built into air discipline, silence in oxygen gardens, bowing in airlocks.
• These traditions strengthen cohesion but can become dystopian: absolute tracking and total social control in the name of harmony.

Judaism

Judaism continues as a diasporic faith, with many small and widely dispersed but resilient communities. Synagogues adapt readily to habitat life, and practices are pragmatic but deeply tied to memory.

• Diaspora practice orients toward Jerusalem when computable; otherwise to Earth as proxy. Nemes provide a Yerushalayim indicator.
• Shabbat observance adapts to station clocks; many follow the local port charter’s week, but some communities fix their own rhythm, leading to multiple Sabbaths on the same promenade.
• Kashrut rulings vary on vat-grown protein and fabbed food; local rabbis or councils certify what is acceptable.
• Memorials for the drift-lost often use the Jewish custom of placing local stones. This has spread widely across faiths.
• Torah scrolls and other sacred objects are often supplemented by highly secured digital archives, but communities still prize physical scrolls, even if stored in vacuum-sealed cases and only displayed on holy days.

Language & Media

Understanding is cheap; attention is not.

• Universal translation flattens barriers; dialects explode anyway.
• Media microcultures by station; convoy dramas, storm ballads, pilot cams. === Etiquette & Daily Life === Small rules keep everyone alive.
• Door discipline, glove etiquette, tether norms, “wing/sheath” rules for Angel crews.
• Noise and light discipline in dense habs; glare policies for Lemure crews.
• Tail-space courtesy for Kobold workers; hydration courtesy for Melusine visitors.

Health, Risk, and Psychology

The body keeps the score.

• Degrav syndrome, regrav protocols, bone banking; centrifuge time as a benefit.
• Storm Time coping: sanctioned breaks with sealed amnesties; the Quiet After.
• Radiation budgets tracked like bank accounts. === Mobility & Travel === Distance is logistics.
• Ion routes replace dead sails post-Fall; depot towns as strategic nodes.
• Convoy protection rackets vs. certified escort guilds.
• Customs care more about vectors (biologic, memetic) than goods. === Security & Conflict === Violence adapted to tight spaces.
• Boarding doctrine, cutter warfare, airlock crimes.
• Pilot aristocracies (Jovians) vs. drone swarms (Belter pragmatists).
• Earthforce: guarantor and bully, depending on whom you ask.

Food & Culture

Abundance with taste gaps.

• Hydroponic staples; luxe agri belts; vat proteins with terroir branding.
• Festival foods tied to storm shelters, first-burn anniversaries, arrival days. === Sports & Games === Where pride lives.
• Spinball (by radius); hull races; micro-g grapples; wing regattas for Angel crews.
• Heavy-lift meets for Kobold clans; freefall parkour for Lemure crews.
• Ocean courses for Melusine in high-pressure arenas. === Crime & Shadow Markets === Where scarcity bites.
• Air/water skimming, credential forgeries, med-gene bootlegging.
• Wreck runs that “forget” to declare survivors; storm-time score settling. === Technology Norms === Ubiquitous, but not magical.
• AI as tool, not sovereign; audit trails mandatory in most ports.
• Medtech: reversible first, inheritable last; lineages licensed, not owned.
• Suit culture: personalization heavy; loaner stigma. === Timekeeping & Calendars === When is now?
• Station clocks by charter; convoy time by flagship; local sols on Mars.
• Storm clocks override all; every culture recognizes the all-clear.

Specific Customs

Besides these general norms, there are customs specific to various situations.

Storm Time

All across Sol space, post-Fall communities have adapted to recurring solar storms. Magnetic shields and heavy water tanks blunt the danger, but intense events still drive whole populations into mass shelters. This shared ordeal has produced a distinctive cultural event known simply as Storm Time.

Storm Time carries taboos and rituals that vary by station yet share common elements. At the signal — usually blue beacons or a two-tone siren — work, recreation, even sleep stop, and life shifts into Storm Shift. Families, strangers, and rivals crowd into shelter halls where normal distinctions blur. Class barriers soften, rules are set aside, and local law often grants a storm-time amnesty for minor offenses. The unspoken rule is absolute discretion: what happens in storm-time stays in storm-time.

Customs have flourished in this suspended space. Communal playlists and low amber lights create calm; storm kitchens distribute simple meals; children’s story circles carry traditions forward. In some places, shelters become clandestine meeting halls or spontaneous festivals, with music, drinking, and matchmaking — a brief ritual outside of ordinary time that lets off steam and keeps communities intact. The Quiet After — the silence that follows an all-clear — is observed everywhere as people return to their usual lives, without speaking of what happened in storm-time.