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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DMScott" data-source="post: 1935963" data-attributes="member: 11734">Maybe, maybe not. Science fiction is entirely about the basic assumptions you make; whether it's hard sci fi or not depends mostly on how consistent you are in the application of those assumptions. Couple things to remember:1) You can take any current tendencies you like and use them as basic assumptions; sticking to the dominant trends is one way to do things, but certainly not the only way. Revolution is at least as important an agent of change in society, culture, and knowledge as evolution. A monitored/controlled/backed-up future is one possible vision of what could happen, but certainly not the only one.2) Humans have never had a monolithic culture on any kind of macro scale, and it's safe to guess that trend will continue. So even if you do go with the monitored/controlled/backed-up future, there will be regions where that is only a theory or ideal rather than the actual situation on the ground. A classic sci-fi schtick is to put the protagonists (your adventurers) in those regions. Star Wars does that, Firefly does that, Babylon 5 does that, the Foundation does that, games like Traveller do that - heck, even Star Trek does that at times. Nothing wrong with using the same model for a campaign.IMHO, the way to do it is to say "this is the type of campaign I want", work out that that is, then figure out how the future could unfold to get there. Sounds like that's what you're starting to do, which is good. Just keep in mind that what looks plausible or even inevitable now may well have no relation to what actually happens - for evidence of this, look at any point in history and read what they thought about the future, then look at how things turned out. Chances are, there's roughly zero correlation between the two, even over short periods (like the 20 years between the end of WWI and the start of WWII, which included at least three major world-shaping events that almost nobody predicted). So don't get too hung up on what you think a plausible future society is - all it needs to be in order to be good hard sci fi is consistent, which is a different animal.</blockquote>

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