I am considering running an investigative/political mini-campaign is intended to be an intractable mess of differing ideologies, where there's no obvious answers but the players are charged with finding a way to muddle through democracy in a way that avoids a civil war. I'd love to get anyone's input on whether this would make for good gameplay and how it could be improved.
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New Mecca is a majority Islamic city-state housing a sealed spaceship said to contain the famous Black Stone of Mecca. During the Fall, a ship was commissioned to ferry the holy relics out of Mecca - it successfully evacuated to Jupiter but it refused transmissions and the Jovians placed it under military quarantine. Muslim pilgrims celebrated the (presumed dead) crew as martyrs and hauled the massive ship into a new habitat, renaming it the Kaaba.
Physically, New Mecca is a Reagan cylinder, a spun asteroid with a hollowed out central cavern 3 km in diameter. The Kaaba floats in the center of the cavern, always overhead. New Mecca's position, at the Sol-Jovian Lagrange point L1, is .37AU from Jupiter and represents the furthest reach of Jovian power. The gravity pull of Jupiter and the Sun is perfectly balanced at the L1 point, making New Mecca a useful port of entry for the inner system.
Socially, New Mecca is a devout community where 89% of inhabitants are identifying Muslims. Despite professing the same faith, major divisions exist both about the value of new technology and whether the faith should be modernized to attract more followers or preserved as it was pre-Fall (the most common fight is over gender rights, specifically whether the Quranic rulings on women were intended to be permanent or situational). The pro-tech movements see resleeving Earth infogees as a critical way to re-establish the faith and so dedicate much of their resources to growing clones and acquiring Earth survivors; they're split into Ascendants (orthodox) or Transcendants (progressives). The anti-tech movements rightly accuse new technologies for causing the Fall, and are split into Preservers (orthodox) and Reformers (progressives).
Politically, New Mecca is a full-fledged member of the Jovian Republic. The habitat is officially a democracy, and it quite democratically choses to be mostly ruled by religious groups. Executive functions are delegated to the Shura Council while legislative and judicial functions are delegated to the Sharia Council. The Sultan and his Parliament are officially elected by party-list proportional representation, but the a majority of voters usually "vote-by-proxy" using their local mosque or the Councils, so New Mecca's leaders were effectively appointed by the handful of decision-makers according to Muslim tradition. The Republic legally guarantees religious freedom, so much of Sharia law is enforced socially or through the voluntary but binding civil agreements required by most mosques.
Economically, New Mecca's physical distance from the Republic and its focus point as pilgrimages provides great opportunities to flaunt import restrictions, smuggle extensively, and allow normally banned transhumans to visit Jovian space. As part of this dance, three foreign spaceships are permanently parked outside of New Mecca: Haven houses visitors waiting for travel visas, the Atlas runs unlicensed nanofabricators, and the Fountainhead provides ego-casting and resleeving facilities.
The city has just entered an enormous succession crisis. The Sultan, Adnan al-Hasani, is dead in suspicious circumstances. Adnan died without a will and his only comment on succession was that the position of Sultan should go to his "eldest full heir". Unfortunately four of his five children claim that right.
- Ali Amir al-Hasani is eldest and a son, but was publicly disinherited on account of murdering the brothers of Rasad, the powerful leader in the Ascendants - sparking a conflict that nearly destroyed the habitat until Adnan's daughter Malak married Rasad. Ali Amir supports Malak's claim and is an atheist.
- Isra al-Hasani argues that that the Islamic half-inheritance of daughters is an out-of-date ruling. She claims the inheritance as eldest child after Ali and is a Reformer.
- Malak al-Hasani was born female but claims to be "male-of-soul". This was kept quiet until recently, when Malak and Ali Amir went to the Fountainhead and resleeved into each other's bodies. This made Malak physically male, Ali Amir physically female, and Malak's marriage to Rasad extremely complicated. Malak claims the inheritance as eldest male soul in the eldest male body and is a Transcendant.
- Naveed al-Hasani was seen as the most likely successor, but he stands accused of murdering Adnan by Idris, which would disqualify him if true. He claims the inheritance as the eldest "real son" (after Ali Amir's disinheritance) and is a Preserver.
- Idris al-Hasani is the youngest son. He argues Ali, Malak, and Naveed are all disqualified by their actions, claims the inheritance as the only son remaining, and is an Ascendant.
