Mars 2100
The year is 2100CE or thereabouts. The actual date is not that important. The important thing is that several decades ago, one of the world’s major nations sent a major manned expedition to Mars...one way.

Not a mission of exploration and return, but of exploration and colonization. Despite 20th century treaties making the non-terrestrial bodies of the solar system a joint resource of mankind, the precedent of a permanent settlement by a single nation set a dangerous precedent. Despite some Earth-bound jingoistic puffery and diplomatic posturing, the only viable response by other nations was to do the same thing. Within a decade, there were small permanent colonies on Mars belonging to China, the Russian Federation, The European Union, the United States, Japan, India and the Pan-Arab League. Over the subsequent decades, the population of each colony has risen to up to several hundred people.

Each colony is technically self-sufficient, able to produce its own food and air, but in practical terms, each colony also needs supplies and material from Earth to replace high-tech items that gradually wear out or break. Ever so gradually, individual colonies are developing their own manufacturing infrastructure, but for such a small group of people in a hostile environment, it is a slow process. Think of it like the colonization of North America by Europeans. The early colonists came here to stay, but they still imported tea and sugar and manufactured goods from elsewhere for quite a while. Each supply shipment might also bring along a handful of new colonists, specialists in some field that has become necessary due to the increasing population. For instance, a doctor specializing in pediatric care, as there are now children who were born on Mars.

Each colony is in an uneasy relationship with the others, reflecting international tensions back on an Earth that is becoming more crowded and resource-poor each year. Colony leaders generally follow the lead of their founding nations at an official level, but Mars is a long way from Earth and unofficially, relations between colonies are often different than the official stance presented back on Earth. As Earth’s resources deplete and its population rises, the threat of all-out conflict looms. No one on Mars has an army, but while everyone says their colonies are peaceful and scientific, everyone also believes that other colonies have some weaponry, and so everyone makes sure that their colony has some as well. But Mars is not quite a mirror of Earth. There are those in each colony who have realized that they are beyond the reach of direct influence of their home nations, and have chosen to break with the past, to be “their own people”, ideologically and nationally. There is no practical means of incarcerating someone on Mars, since everyone is already marooned on the planet and confined to the fairly small habitats which are the only places capable of supporting life. Taking a skilled professional out of circulation harms an entire colony, and these people have enough numbers that they simply cannot be ostracized. So, the home nations on Earth accept the fait accompli with as little comment as possible and simply make better efforts at selecting “loyalists” for new additions to their own Mars population.

Players in Mars 2100 will be colonists at one of these national or multi-national enclaves. You can be loyalists or separatists, whatever you want. You will also be playing the role of an entire faction in that colony, a group that is aligned with your beliefs and your personality. You as a character do not necessarily lead this group (though it is possible to rise to that position), but your player does influence how it responds to stress and outside events. Mars 2100 is not an rpg in the typical sense. You are not a hero, out to have epic adventures in the big wide world. You are an ordinary person, highly intelligent and skilled, whose “adventure” is simple survival, and whose world is a cluster of habitat domes in the nearly airless wastes of Mars. Mars 2100 is all about the “epic fail”. You, your corresponding belief group and the other players and their belief groups will be pitted not against monsters or evil geniuses, but against stressful situations in an environment where failure might not be a survivable option. You cannot go back to Earth, you cannot just leave your colony and strike out on your own, and the loss of skilled people or vital equipment for any reason puts the survival of everyone in your colony at risk.

Mars 2100 is a strategic decision-making game with a strong role-playing element. The things you do as an individual can affect the strategy of the group you identify with, and vice versa. For whatever country that you as a player are from, look at your past history. Riots, civil wars, threats of secession, racism, intolerance, obstructionism or apathy or incompetence in the face of economic crisis or natural disaster, poor leadership, lies, bribery, whatever. All of these have the potential to arise in Mars 2100, and because of the small population they can escalate from zero to disaster with amazing speed. How many fanatics does it take to fatally destroy the integrity of a habitat or life support system? How many riots does it take to destroy vital equipment that cannot be replaced in time to avoid catastrophe? How many hate crimes does it take to generate permanent hostility between groups? How much factional or self-serving bickering does it take to delay necessary action until it is too late to make a difference? Mars is not a forgiving environment. If something goes wrong, it must be dealt with. Unlike on Earth, it cannot simply be delayed until it is someone else’s problem, because whether you like it or not or whether you deal with it or not, the consequences of the problem will affect you. As the person who guides the actions of a particular subset of your colony, you will be making decisions not just for yourself, but for a group, and those decisions will affect your survival. If you succeed, the actions you take increase your factions’ influence and importance in the future. However, quite often, the result of faillure will be the total obliteration of your colony.

Thankfully, Mars 2100 is just a game. If you fail and everyone dies, you simply pretend it didn’t happen. You have learned a weakness or flaw in either your belief, your strategy or that of some other group. And then you can go back and try it again. The goal of Mars 2100 is to survive and thrive against every sort of technological failure, natural disaster, political upheaval or emotional crisis that can be imagined. And not just that, but to do so in a way that you as a player would be comfortable living with and that humanity as a whole can live with. Can you succeed on Mars where several thousand years of civilization on Earth has failed? Can you forge a society that works without tearing itself apart every time something pushes the “stress” button?

Note: Mars 2100 is still in development and is looking for playtesters. The final product will be an interactive pdf formatted for the iPad, but usable in printed form or on other devices.