Science Fiction, Urban Future

When I was younger, when you’d ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d answer with “space detective.” That response is a little more than snark. In my formative years I was exposed to a lot of dramatic sci-fi, from Blade Runner and Metropolis to Cowboy Bebop and The Sixth Element. I grew up in suburbia. Urban life was so unreachable to me that it was as foreign and enticing as a high fantasy world. In my mind, science fiction will always be linked to the city. It’s a genre where people of technological excess have to navigate labyrinthine living structures. New machines are developed with the purpose of helping people live either closer or further apart.

I’m a graphic designer, mobile device repair technician and salesman, and occasional column writer and illustrator. At least, that’s what I get paid to do. One of my assignments for the Aethera Campaign Setting is to flesh out Complex Four. It’s a metropolis-sized colony on an asteroid in the Amrita Asteroid Belt. Now, when Robert approached me about Aethera, the first thoughts that came to my head were hard-boiled crime stories. I imagined detectives in tattered beige coats pursuing truths they should have pretended were dreams, with worn faces that betrayed knife fights. I thought of bounty hunters, bail bondsmen and cleaners on the gray side of order. I dreamed of kung fu hooligans and gun kata specialists dancing on rain-slicked streets so that secrets remain secrets.

I wanted a little corner of this game’s world to make that happen. The largest city of the lawless Amrita region was the obvious choice. Now that I’m older, I like my fiction just a little more complex than what I described above. I’m a huge fan of David Simon’s The Wire; in fact, our very own Robert Brookes and I hung out in Baltimore several years ago, and that particular city left a mark on the both of us I imagine. It would be disingenuous to characterize Baltimore through the crime-ridden lens of The Wire. The people of Baltimore are resilient, tough, and not to be crossed, but they are also lively and kind. But Baltimore is still a city in a precarious state and I channeled some memories of it in Complex Four.

Before I go on about the colony proper, another place that inspired me was New Orleans. I’ve never been there myself, I’m ashamed to admit. I lived in Austin, Texas when Katrina hit, and I wound up meeting and befriending several refugees from there. New Orleans just so happens to be the subject of another David Simon series, Treme, which I love despite its lack of a clearly defined conflict outside of the bureaucracy of living in a post-FEMA city. Treme didn’t hesitate to devote several episodes to Mardi Gras, or showing downtrodden people earnest trying to party. It’s from this that I remembered that Complex Four should be this grimy, depressing, and dangerous place, yet is a blast to hang out in. 

I thought something was missing from the concept until I remembered that the pulp fiction of the era included the first golden age superheroes and masked avengers. I also thought about the vigilante class that’s about to premiere in the Ultimate Intrigue book, and wondered if there was a way to accommodate players who want to play Green Hornet or Zorro in space. So, I decided that Complex Four’s also home to a small but growing population of community volunteer superheroes. A little less Avengers, a little more Rain City Superhero Movement. Good deeds don’t go unpunished though, so I recommend GMs punish anyone trying to run a superhero vigilante; the best ones have tragic backstories, after all. 

So Complex Four is a former mining project turned bandit storehouse turned full-fledged metropolis after the discovery of some especially rare resources. It has an interesting, if relatively recent history, and is a hub for war refugees, vicious yet charismatic gangsters, promising scientists, economic opportunists, and creative dissidents. It’s a melting pot of people who gather together because of promises and convenience. 

You would be forgiven for thinking that I prefer playing campaigns where society is complex and morality is ambiguous. It’s true that this is my preference in fiction. But I also enjoy killing things in my dice rolling games. I am aware many people want to just kill things sincerely. So, there are plenty of things to just kill in Complex Four, if you so desire. Giant amoebas, rogue shaolin mantises, dudes with guns, and maybe even the occasional nihilistic demagogue.