Mood

That which does not kill us make us stranger
- Trevor Goodchild, Aeon Flux

Overall, Great Ideas Grand Vision is a fairly optimistic setting. Humanity doesn’t have to fall down to evil and barbarism at a drop of a hat, great improvements are in fact possible. On the other hand, there is a price for all these opportunities: humanity will become something else. It might become something great, or something alien, or something plain weird, but the only way of remaining traditionally human is to avoid progress. And beyond humanity much else lurks, threats that have never even been imagined. The Li is just one of the simpler possibilities. These threats aren’t even necessarily bad or evil, traditional concepts fail here. Progress means change, and change means that the old becomes outdated and one day even irrelevant. The optimism is countered with a large dose strangeness.

Different planets have different styles. Some are assertive, ambitious places like Atlantis, New America and Nova. Others are more harmonious and consensual, like Arcadia and Ridgewell. Some are plain locked like Mary and Gaia. But even if there are overall cultural differences, there is also huge individuality among the millions of people. There are communitarian Atlanteans and radical Gaians. And each planet is filled with history, places to see and unexpected surprised – they are all as unique as the Earth itself. Just think of all the truly unique places that are within a few kilometres of where you are, and then multiply it by several planets. Still, it is useful to give each world a distinctive style. Describe the grand, flowering architecture of Traha with eloquence, while pressing the players with the frantic pace of Nova.

When using this setting, make sure to make change noticeable. Things change quickly in 2350, and radical alterations occur from month to month. The setting is not intended to be static – quite the opposite! The goal to show a world that is changing at a rapid pace. The future is undetermined, every action counts. This means that many things written in the setting will no longer be true after a while: NPCs will move around and implement their own plans, economies and societies change, new technologies are developed or recombined, entire worlds may be changed beyond recognition. That is the point. If the colonies remain roughly the same after ten years of game time, the campaign has missed the point.

Music

Overall theme: Beethoven's 7^th and 8^th symphonies, Vacuum: Great ideas Grand Vision, Liszt Les Preludes