In my games, anyone---regardless of their intentions---that is from a hypercorp and is anyone above a middle manager is immediately viewed with suspicion and a lukewarm reception from most autonomists at best. Bioconservatives are also guaranteed to not really feel welcome at all, regardless of whether they want to integrate into the community or not. More "cosmopolitan" places like Locus aren't quite as intolerant of them, but they're the exception. Scum, on the other hand, are much more tolerant of outsiders. When they're not murderous, desperate pirates themselves, anyway.

Well Extropians and Titanians (maybe those from Morningstar too?) wouldn't arouse as much suspicion in autonomist habitats, but that's because they're, well, Extropians and Titanians. It's not so much as "evil capitalist pig-dogs" and "state pigs" as it is "evil hypercapitalists" and "Consortium snakes/Loonie bigots". Oligarchs and indenture holders, to many autonomists, fall under "evil hypercapitalists". But for larger stations like Locus, I'd imagine that they regularly import certain goods from the inner system so people from there don't suffer irrational scrutiny as often as a smaller autonomist hab. And the scum are basically everywhere, so they're dealing and trading with people from all over, hypercorps included.

Something to keep in mind: outer system might have the allure of "everyone's equal" and "we all work together" that sounds lovely and hippy and boring at first, but remember that the further out you go, the more you're essentially entering into subsistence farming analogues. Outside of the major habs, like the Uranian moons, if you don't pull your weight, fuck off. If you throw your weight around, fuck off. Communes, which I'm going to lump a lot of these out-system habs into as a loose category for simplicity, tend to attract a lot of outliers, and even the most open-minded group is going to have to call it at some point that you, sir, madam, or other need to go. Goes hand in hand with the rep economy they favor too, which I would stress more than the social stigma trait. Out system, particularly in smaller habs, your acceptance or stigma is weighed by the waves you make in the habitat. So [em]what[/em] you are, like an uplift or sleeved into an ugly case, is nowhere near as important as what your mesh profile has in it or what you end up doing. As for biases, let's break it down by automist type. I'm deliberately painting with a wide, gritty brush to address some of the concerns up above. [strong]Brinkers[/strong]: Stigmatized against anything in-system. Venusian, Tharsian, LLA, PC, Titanian, Jovian...you're what we're out here to escape. Think about what your brinkers are running from and build their prejudices from that. Further out system, anti-Ultimate prejudice will be more common along with the usual anti-hypercorp. Many remember Eris. Social stigma: Inner System; Military; Statist; Bioconservative; Religious/ethnic/political/philosophical membership (not ours) [strong]Anarchists[/strong]: Choose the specific breed of anarchism you're dealing with, and speaking [em]as[/em] an anarchist, trust me, the prejudice will often be one fiercest one step removed. Anarcho-capitalists and anarcho-communists generally don't get along in tight quarters with limited food and air. Anarcho-sydicists will be wary of any outsiders at all. Anarcho-pacificsts will turn a glare at anyone affiliated with the Ultimates or other military factions, and likely any capitalist groups too from in-system. Think the Wildlings/Free Folk from A Song of Fire and Ice. Their similar ideals of freedom and independence don't mean they don't hate each other's guts. Historically, anarchists are often anti-religous as well, though that will be very case-by-case. Social Stigma: Inner System Statist (any); Anarchist (any other than dominant strain); Hypercapitalist; Jovian [strong]Extropians[/strong]: You see a lot fewer of these guys out system because the fewer people you have, the less currency of any sort matters compared with collaborative effort. But you still get quite a few, and broadly speaking, anyone who appears to threaten their profits is looked down upon, regardless of how they do so. For one inspiration, look at Rapture from BioShock for an example of an Extropian habitat (albeit, one that went to shit, but the basic idea's there). "True" extropians also probably have a mistrust or dislike of anyone who hasn't earned their fortune the hard, libertarian way. Social Stigma: Collectivist; Brinker; Old Money; Neo-Primitive [strong]Chat Noir[/strong]: Hypercorps can just fuck right off, assuming we miss. Chat Noir is a militarized Anarchist stronghold, one focused around collectivist scientific progression. That means bioconservatives, extroprians, hypercorps, neo-primitivists, singularity seekers, hypercorps, and the Ultimates are going to get a cold welcome at best. Love and Rage has a lot to lose on Oberon, and you can easily extrapolate that mentality to other anarchist habitats. Precautionists may get a slightly warmer welcome, or at least a chance to explain themselves. Social Stigma: Hypercorp; Ultimate; Singularity Seeker; Extropian; Anti-Gatecrasher; Bioconservative; Inner System Military; Pathfinder/TerraGenesis/Go Nin [strong]Neo-Primitivists[/strong]: There's a lot of these out in the Rim, from simulspace-living cavemen to whatever kind of spun hab they can raise sheep on. Here is where you're going to find a lot of your isolationist religious communities (overlapping with Brinkers a lot), cults of personality/faith, and other groups that generally look down upon a technologically progressive viewpoint beyond using it to get back to basics. Human Neo-Prims are likely to be anti-Uplift, and Uplift colonies may share the inverse with just as much vigor. Social Stigma: Human/Uplift; Technocrat; Argonaut; Clanking Masses; Extropian; Statist; Singularity Seeker; Military; Gatecrasher [strong]Neptunian Art Houses[/strong]: Ah, my favorite overall part of the system or at least the part rattling around my brain the most. From reading the books, these are a peculiar mix of Brinker and Argonaut-esque ideologies, so draw from both groups for ideas of prejudices, but to draw another example from BioShock, no one has cold blood like an artist. There are so many synthmorph design houses out here that you probably see the most...perhaps not prejudice, but definitely derision toward baseline humanity that hasn't adapted to space. See also Ilmarinen. For the rest of Neptune, see the Brinkers. Social Stigma: Lunar Art House; Hypercorp (Go Nin in particular); Outsider; Extropian (varies); Neo-Primitivist; Bioconservative; Flat; Splicer; Meatlife/Metallife(Glitch) [strong]Outsystem Blue Collars[/strong]: This includes comet wranglers, Plutonians, and anyone who makes a living doing the hard work out there keeping other people alive. If Pluto's any indication, they're a suspicious lot who are prone to snapping out, so they're going to be wary at best of anyone with big words, nice suits, and deep pockets. And at each other, but hey, neighbors on the frontier, right? But this is probably where you see the strongest anti-meat prejudice in the system. You're seriously going to waste our resources needing air, food, and water when you're going to be hibernating and drilling spikes into iceballs most of your time? Get real. For inspiration: Deadliest Catch. Social Stigma: Hypercorp (again, Go Nin in particular); Meatlife; Bioconservative (the fuck are you doing out here, meaty?); Hyperelite

Eh, mechanics related to social issues are going to be up to fiat anyway. But the Ultimates have a PR problem by canon (thank you, overhumanists and Go Nin), and Remade are pretty distinctive. Honestly, I'd imagine it's a lot like seeing someone with a Blackwater T-Shirt at the store.

Here's another social stigma you'd see outsystem: any morph with a high metabolism. Or for that matter, any with exotic biological needs. Obviously not true in habs where having extreme morphs is the whole point, but anywhere else, you're going to be a drain on resources, especially if you egocast in and had the thing built willingly. This gets more and more true the smaller the hab in question is, since resources are naturally stretched thinner. I've been pondering a lot of the artist groups I've known, and if as the books state, art is a huge element of anarchist habitats, you'll see a lot of social stigma toward military-style and "bourgeois" morphs. Furies, Reapers, Sylphs, and generally anything with a glitterati or combat focus being the obvious choices. Particularly in Anarcho-socialist/Communist habitats, you're going to see a preference for tough, reliable, cheap morphs, so basic splicers, exalts, olympians, bouncers, pods of all sorts, and of course synthmorphs. Hell, willingly sleeving pod or synth might even be a social [em]bonus[/em] since it might symbolize taking the less ideal personal option to benefit the whole. For that matter, getting ahold of weapons on such a habitat would be very difficult, because while you can do whatever you want, the whole community can see it and weigh in. So...Social Stigma: Armed? Again, it's terribly case-by-case. In the Neptunian Art Houses, fads have to come and go with the wind, so specific models of morphs might be looked down upon as passe or flawed. Though I doubt it's as vitriolic as on Luna; they might be big autonomist habitats, but you can't really afford to ostracize people too much outsystem without hurting the whole. Of course, that just means that a lot of the Neptunians are much more subtle with their prejudices. On the other hand, having a passe morph with striking biosculpting can turn right around to be a bonus: think of it like the trend of taking much-hated consumerist memorabilia and advertising and turning it into some kind of art installation.

It depends on the particular flavor. In high-independence Anarch habs, having a sidearm is going to be more acceptable, but even there, the question's going to come up "what are you expecting to happen?" In some especially hard-line individualist habitats, wearing weapons of any sort might even be a sign of fear. I'm just exploring the spiderweb, since any variant view on personal weaponry can drum up an interesting encounter. More collectivist groups are going to take issue with [em]personal[/em] armament, though. And beyond just the whole private property, wearing a weapon means you're expecting trouble, and if you're part of a collective, that implies you expect the trouble to come from the rest of the collective. This is vastly truer out system, since you're multiple AU from other groups in many cases and can see them coming months ahead of their arrival. Spinning up more than the voted-upon public defense armory or openly carrying one of that stash immediately sends a signal of "I'm expecting trouble," which is going to catch everyone's attention. And bear in mind that these are often small, fragile habitats. Point being not so much that you're going to punch a hole in the hull, but more that a hostile response to an outside force leaves the habitat very vulnerable to external superior firepower. A lot of people think that "Anarchist" means "I do what I want," but it gets very hard to justify carrying a weapon in environments like this. Sure, you do what you want, but everyone else can to, and if there's an instant hab-wide mesh vote about your weaponry and it comes back as "get rid of it," well, there you have it. That said, the Gunnery skill is probably well-respected regardless, since that reflects protecting the whole habitat (and realistically, that's where the battle's going to be mostly decided, with long range vehicle weaponry in space long before you get near boarding distance). And habitats where people are aware of or have had persistent issues with exhumans, exsurgents, or have a feud with a neighbor will probably be more lenient on a preparedness outlook, though even there you'd probably see people preferring things like e-tools over flex blades or shock batons.

Are any of the documented outer system anarchy habs direct democracies? The only place I'm familiar with that is more or less a direct democracy is Titan, where it is noted that there are lots of guns for personal protection.

Which one could argue is an inevitable result of large populations. More people create more problems to adjudicate, and eventually the number of problems needing voting gets to the point that if you truly got to vote on everything, you'd do almost nothing but. Though to be fair, anarchists in the real world do that too. Actually, pirates during the 1600s were often a good example of this: "captains" were chosen by the crews to act as a leader when a single authority was needed, such as combat, but if they pissed off the crew too badly, they'd lose their power and another would be chosen. Outside of those situations where an authority was needed, they were just another member of the crew. Most anarchist habitats of different stripes are going to have some version of this if they're at all grounded in reality. You defer to the people whose skills are most applicable, and at first blush it might even look like any other place in the system with leaders and hierarchies. But the difference is that it's a structure built on collective choice rather than codified into society, like a ministry, and kept on an "as needed" basis. This actually is much, much more feasible with the tech EP has. Surveillance being what it is, even in anarchist habitats, a chosen representative has even more eyes on them at all times, and it's much harder to consolidate power without someone catching on. But that's getting kinda tangental. The point I'm making isn't that any given anarchists are anti-weaponry or not (other than An/Pacs, obviously). But anarchist habs aren't scum barges, where you can pay your way and no one cares, or small towns where you can just drive through. You only get in because you're on the same page as the collective, or one of the collectives, and because you have something to offer that the collective agrees is worth having. This necessarily lends itself to -- on paper at least -- smaller but more cohesive societies because people are at least partially on the same page. That cuts down a lot of conflict seeds right there. It also means that groupthink is a very real thing, and anyone who rocks the boat in ways the group doesn't like is on much thinner ice than in more diverse areas. With regards to weapons, given the above...unless you're on a place like Chat Noir which is essentially two steps from being under siege (Xiphos is right next door, and the Ultimates don't give a shit as long as the money's good), you only need them if there's an obvious threat, in which case everyone is armed for mutual protection, not individual defense. And this is drawing from the anarchist groups I've seen, but they tend to be much, much more prone to settle differences in ways that are just as fierce, but less violent. Debates before a group, for example. Hell, a lot of anarchist groups might even have a time-accelerated simulspace specifically to let people with a beef fight it out quickly so the rest of us don't have to put up with it any longer than needed. Going back to the original topic, while I disagree with the assessment that social stigmas need to be widespread ("systemic" prejudices just mean "within a system," which in EP can be very small and isolated indeed)...the more I think about it, the more UnitOmega's absolutely right from a mechanics standpoint. The mechanical traits are very, very much inner-system biased, which granted is where most people live, but yeah, it falls apart outside those locations. I'm actually thinking that a better system would be some kind of neutral trait based on potentially contentious aspects of your character, because from how the books are written, Social Stigma (Anarchist) should absolutely be a thing in-system, and even more so in Jupiter, but at that point you start rapidly getting to the point that EVERYTHING can be a significant social problem and the CP bonus becomes a headache.

uwtartarus wrote:

Right, that is what spurs this debate primarily: what should I allow for CP? Social Stigma (Pirate) sure... but Social Stigma (AGI)? Which through later digesting actually makes sense. Rationally, Outer System types think "oh we are so enlightened we won't be prejudiced against AGI who are definitely a different thing than ASI like the TITANs" but in practice, sociocultural prejudice still exist, and thus a possibly penalty across the spectrum. The GM discretion allows for flexibility in when it applies. Faction declarations should apply only in specific cases, like "Oh this cop hates Scum and you are publicly a member plus are sleeved in a heavily modified one that is currently high as a kite. So you take a -20 to social tests against him." But the Scum as a faction are sometimes embraced, like by rebellious Lunar youth, etc. So Factions shouldn't get the CP benefit of the stigma/prejudice. The fact that there is a mechanical return on these negative traits make it so that they need to apply beyond one group. Obviously Jovians hate all of the Anarchist types, and most of the Outer System probably dislikes the Jovians, though I think they trade and get along better than some suspect, I don't think the Jovians are full on North Korea, more Iran maybe? People can enter and leave, but there are local restrictions (nanotech instead of alcohol?).

It's said in Rimward that any citizen can request an exist visa to travel outside the Republic, but they usually have to have a good reason for leaving. Civilians and non-persons technically can't leave, but in practice officials turn a blind eye to them leaving. Vacation visas are offered only to Europa (though I don't see why they'd do the same for Luna, too, given a common bioconservative meme). Citizens re-entering the Republic are heavily screened for illegal stuff but they're ultimately let back in. I'm not sure exactly what the Jovians would trade for in the outer system aside from a few raw materials. Of course, by the books you'd think they'd trade for better technologies to better protect their citizens from Jupiter's hellish radiation, but since I think it's really fraking stupid that the Jovians somehow have medical technology on par with the solar system yet lack basic technologies to protect from radiation, "because Luddites", I usually just say in my games they have that technology in their Reagan Cylinders, books be damned. Also can I just say how stupid it is that the Firewall book implies porn is banned in the Republic? [i]Really[/i]? I'm not buying that for one second. Okay I'm opening up an off-topic can of worms that doesn't need to be opened up in this thread, but holy heck man.