Quote from: BillDowns;618285The thing that struck me was that this whole situation would be a short-term thing.  A decade, maybe 2 at the outside. By then, those extra-terrestrial colonies would be dead or self-sufficient.  With their very survival on the line, they would concentrate like crazy on achieving self-sufficiency.

The heyday of most adventurous periods rarely lasts that long before civilisation reasserts itself anyway, the golden age of pirates and the wild west being two examples. There are several ways to play it if one wished to extend the skyrunner period:

• Powers on earth could maintain an ongoing campaign of subterfuge and sabotage to keep the stations off balance and desperate
• Critical components might not wear down for several years, but when they do a replacement has to be gotten from earth
• Some stations become more self sufficient than others, and predatory activities might ensue - some stations mightn't even have the capability to become self sufficient, and the last thing the rest want is a bunch of refugees
• Being able to survive and being able to thrive are two different things, they might extend their lifespans considerably without permanent assurances of survival
• Even if they reach a stable technological level of self sufficiency, there are still many desireable items which only earth can provide, genes being but one, so the focus of the skyruns might shift from humanitarian items to luxury goods

Quote from: BillDowns;618285And in any case, without an extremely efficient drive system, it would have been much cheaper originally to build the colonies so that they supply themselves, either alone or via trade with each other.

Yes, maglaunchers, if I recall correctly they manage about $40 per kilo to orbit, $80 per kilo to high orbit. Also there's the consideration that groups on earth didn't neccessarily want stations to get self sufficient in the first place.

Quote from: BillDowns;618285Just as an example, if you have a colony on Mars, adding hydroponics facilities is trivial compared to the efforts in sending food from Earth periodically.

These would be more first wave stations really, meant to harvest easy to reach materials and ship them back to earth for processing. That might be all the colonising humanity needs for a while, then after that comes more complex and sophisticated infrastructure.

One additional consideration if the PCs don't want to take the ferocious risks involved with running the sky (ha!), or maybe just to get the ball rolling, the stations might trade for technological information. If the PCs can communicate with them, some espionage to exchange manufacturing details for a golden meteorite or two could be arranged. This might also be how the stations eventually find out about the S17 group plotting their doom, and arrange countermeasures without sending rods from god.

And then the PCs have to collect their million dollar stone before someone else gets it, or the authorities intercept them. The race is on!

Oh excellent, I love it when bits tie together. I've been struggling to come up with a reason for the PCs to go into the very dangerous bioterror/gang/mutant/mad scientist infested fringe zones, which are formerly coastal urban centres now semi immersed by low salt marshes and tidal flatlands. So far I've used recovering data, rescuing hostages, dealing with raiders, and getting away from pursuers. I suppose stealing drugs or money from smugglers would also be useful.

However recent research has turned the Kessler Syndrome into an ideal excuse for these runs here. The quantity of heavy metals like platinum and gold the asteroids furnished would have made extremely advanced batteries, equipment and materials economical enough for the mass market, not to mention hyperpure crystals for data storage and generally exceptional quality equipment only possible through zero g manufacturing. All of course no longer available, not for at least ten years.

So now we can add salvage expeditions to that list, for either really good equipment that is very hard to get, vanished entirely, or too expensive for anyone (magical items), components that can be added to existing gear as an upgrade, or just raw materials salvage if a cache of precious metal-laden goods can be discovered, perhaps from treasure maps of recovered blueprints, ships' manifests, or corporate order data.

This actually is a completely realistic template for monster haunted dungeon runs with gold scattered randomly about the place, except with plasma blasters and survival suits in listing vine festooned skyscrapers and flooded subways.

Random thoughts.