Lying at the heart of human expansion into the universe, The Rythellan Empire, a large planetery system, spanning 23 planets and home to the magnificent Planet-Cities.

Culture & Politics
A society with many levels and layers of societal structure, but in the end, it comes down to high up in the city you live.

High Society
The richer you are, the higher up you live. The Emperor's Palace is the single highest point on the planet.

At the very highest levels security is handled by the elite Emperor's Guard and Diplomatic Core - the highest trained, enhanced soldiers and diplomats in the Empire.

The city is ruled by the Emperor,and the Rythellan High Council, consisting of representatives of the Noble families and the Grand Corporations.

The lower part of the city is run by gangs, engaging in fierce territorial struggles. As you travel higher you gradually come under the protection of the Rythellan Police, as well as the security companies employed by the large corporations.

The levels below 10 km are considered dodgy, being the playing ground of the criminal underground, where petty warlords, Ruthless drugdealers and scheming prospectors meet with all the riff-raff you can expect from such a vastly populated and modern society.

Crime
The bottomfeeders are the slumdwellers, who live in the muck and sewage of the upperclasses, where life below 6 km, means wading through a thick fog of pollution, an oily cestpool of the outcasts, inept, addicted, mutated and discarded citizins of the city.

A dangerous place, where life is worth nothing and where young gangs roam the levels, desperately looking for a quick buck or a way out and upwards.

Economy & Credit sytem
The Ryth Credit is accepted for trade in all known human civilisations as a unit of currency.

Credits are virtual only, available on cards, or implanted chips, everyone in the civilised worlds use the Rythellan method of Payment and has a bank node taking care of all credit transactions, purchases, sales, trades, bids and basic banking.

Marked credit chips are keyed to an individual, but can be easily traced when they are being used. Unmarked chips allow for under the counter type transactions. So why the distinction? I think that if the player is taking a job or contract from either a gang or a corporation the type of card used to receive the payment affects the amount of money earned.

Gangs, or a small corporation, will happily pay more for the anonymous service than an unmarked recipient can deliver - while a 'legal' job will have the employers frowning on the use of an unmarked card for instance.

Credits can also be borrowed from banks, or from smaller, more ruthless microloan companies. Gangs also offer loans, for the truly desperate. Loans have to be repaid, and the type of loan decides the repayment method, and the time it takes to get the money. It might sound boring, but I would like to keep it realistic in that way - you might need some quick money for a specific weapon upgrade that you need for a mission or job. The successful completion of that job would give you the ability to pay off the loan. Or, you might look at equipping a group of people, and rather than go through a slow buildup of completing minor jobs and mission you can apply for a loan from a financial institution - if you have the relevant ID and documentation.

Credits can, and rightly so, be gotten from killing various enemies, in the form of marked and unmarked cards, but most of the money should come from completing jobs. Say you kill a guard from gang X, and pick up his goods. In there is a marked card, which has some credit on it. You take this to the relevant place/person (this decision still has to be made) who then for a small fee, or a percentage, rips the card so that you can use it.

Prices for various weapons and implants still have to be decided - that can come later.

Food
People have to eat, right? On the other hand, making the aquisition of food a big part of the game would make it rather boring in my not-too-humble opinion. Maybe a certain amount of money has to be spent on food, but that's where the players involvement should stop.

Since Rythellan is essentially a city of massive buildings entirely covering the surface of a planet, the question of where food comes from has to be answered. This might not be the most original idea, but food can be grown in massive orbital farms, using hydroponics.

Of course, this implies that there should be a safe, convenient and above all cheap way of getting to these orbitals and back, and this could even feature in the game itself. People have to either live on the orbitals, or shuttle there on a daily/weekly basis to go to work. That takes care of vegetables.

The poorer residents, those living in the lower city, should also have some basic subsistence (erh, spelling? sorry) gardens. This is merely there to add some character to Rythellan for the player, as is a lot of the descriptions here.

Water

This is more interesting than the food issue. Since I have always imagined Rythellan as a dry world, not desert, but not a steaming jungle, the supply of water does provide some entertainment. I imagine a massive water recycling network, running through every building, with pumping stations, and lower level reservoirs, maintenance shafts and massive central feeder pipes providing all sorts of interesting opportunities and routes through the buildings. Water should also be expensive, which implies that the rich would flaunt it in some way.

You slowly enter the massive room. Mist sculptures rise around you, and condensation starts to form on your armour. Nobles have their own rules, but you have never imagined that anyone would have so much water simply floating around, coloured strands and clouds weaving patterns across the walls.

So, water is expensive, and it is not that readily available. I'll see what I can come up with to replace showers with.

Transport

Well, were would we be without walking? That's the start. Rythellan is too crowded to allow any form of personal transport like cars, so people make use of 'lines' - moving strips similar to those we use in airports. There are also plenty of lifs, large lift-platforms, small service lifts, stairs, escalators, 'tubes' between buildings, 'lines' between buildings, and public domain 'hovers', like automated taxis. Hover's are the quickest way to get between buildings, but they cost money.

This deals with local transport, or at least the easily available short-range public transport. I have something else in mind as well, but that is being kept for a bit later.

City of Shade

Former Capitol of the Rythellan Empire, now one vast network of industry, trade, prospectors and investors and a well established underground trade and criminal base of operations.

The large room was strangely luxurious, for this level of Rythellan, and seemed to be designed purely as an informal waiting area - several couches and chairs were carefully arranged in small groupings.

A small water sculpture twisted and flowed through an endlessly repeating set of patterns in the centre of the room, placed there purely to make a point - whoever owns this place has money to burn.

One entire wall was a window, or at least a projection of the external world, another rare artifact for this part of the city, just above the informal boundary between the spheres of influence of the mid-level police and the lower level gangs.

The view was dominated by hovers blurring past, little automated bubbles shuttling their human cargo - streaks of colour against an otherwise dull backdrop. The sky was not visible at all, this far down...

Several other people were in the room as well, and their purpose seemed to be the same as yours. They seemed competent enough, for the most part. The details of the job was still not clear, but the amount of money offered as payment was way too much too ignore. You had no idea who your employer is at this stage, but from the surroundings it was likely to be a corporation - the interior of the room was pure corporation style.

There was no entertainment, but no one was speaking either - trust is not easily gained. You have been in here for almost 30 minutes now, and you wondered what the delay was.

Everyone is gathered in the room already, and you are waiting. Next post will be the job description. You can use the first post to get used to your characters, to get comfortable with their personalities and what you think they would do - this will also allow us to see how the other players take part.