Space Pioneers: The Bootstrap Settling of Space

(The following is a new setting for X-plorers RPG, independent from the setting presented in the book.)

PREAMBLE
Early colonists were refugees seeking to establish independence. They fractured from larger settlements.

Seeking to colonize out-of-the-way outposts and homesteads, these survivalists have been the very picture of bootstrap know-how in the last frontier: space.

At the same time, mega corporations—the offspring of multi-nationals on Earth—have emerged and thrived in interplanetary mining and manufacturing. In 200 years time, the sol system became well settled and corporate wealth grew as companies expanded into full-service mercantile vendors for the colonies. Space travel and other technologies (i.e, propulsion and aeronautics, aquatic exploration, terraforming and environmental engineering, robotics, beam and spectral weaponry, etc.) have become widespread, and best of all, cheap enough for the consumer market. It was time to venture out beyond the Oort Cloud and into interstellar space. Like the American west centuries before, the mega corps believed there was no better way than through the "selling of settling" to expand the human presence into space..

A Planetary Boon
With vast accessibility across the system, the family unit can now afford to invest in its own settlement venture. No longer are entire colonies or sojourn missions needed to found a settlement. A family of five can stake their claim on any non-corporate planetoid. In fact they prefer it. Corporations of course reap the benefits by being supply chains to successful settlements as well as struggling ones who look to arm and outfit themselves against marauders.

Through settlements the mega-corps see no end in sight for expansion and have a vested interest in their individual and collective success. Some companies may even intentionally saddle their customers with enough onerous debt as a means to propel their hidden agendas—if not profits.

Next file: SSA.2436