Since we’re doing cyberpunk this month in the General Gaming section, it seems appropriate to touch on cyberpunk and the Alliance.
Short version: the Alliance isn’t really a cyberpunk world.
Slightly longer version: the Alliance isn’t really a cyberpunk world, but there are places that come close.
Within the Alliance proper things are usually too nice to spawn a real dystopia, and when something happens that threatens to, there are systems in place to keep it from getting too out of hand. If the problem is natural, one of the Patrol’s functions is the provide relief. There are also private organizations that help out. Economic issues can be addressed by the Alliance Council, and at the very least ensure the economic pyramid on an Alliance member world doesn’t come to too sharp a point.
Similarly, major political issues like a would-be dictator trying to turn a representative democracy into an autocratic dynasty are addressed outright in the Charter, with remedies up to and including “forcible removal” by the Troubleshooters. As for the kinds of borderline-fascist dictatorships cyberpunk thrives on, the Patrol would be landing troops as part of a peacekeeping mission.
Since cyberpunk isn’t just an aesthetic, but also requires certain socio-economic factors, the Alliance just doesn’t fit the bill. If anything, the Alliance Council exists specifically to keep cyberpunk from happening.
On a smaller scale, there are organized criminal elements on most worlds, and the available technology does support isolated patches that would appear cyberpunk-ish at a glance. You’ll have most of the staple characters in most startowns. Cyborg mercenaries, drug dealers and other assorted service providers, shifty-eyed fences, all of them exist. On some worlds, there are corporations with far too much power for anyone’s good. So someone could run a cyberpunk-style adventure or three in quite a few places, but that’s like saying all of Europe is a Mafia-run criminal empire because there are mobsters in Sicily.
At the end of the day, though, there are very few places in the Alliance that come close to Judge Dredd.
Outside the Alliance is a different story. There are several non-member worlds that could be turned cyberpunk with very little work. Most of these are along the lines of having significant corporate or criminal influence in the government; pirate safehouse worlds are notorious for this.
Corrado is a fascist state run by what amounts to a criminal dynasty, with the vast majority of the population living well below the Alliance’s general standard of living so the ruling family can have their platinum-plated toilets. They stay in power by keeping the populace in perpetual fear of what would happen if Dear Leader was ever removed. All “news” sources on Corrado are little more than propaganda to further this agenda, featuring endless stories about local resistance groups, Thabbo raiders, void pirates, and a dozen other threats, none of which have any interest whatsoever in the place.
The second most inhospitable planet in the system is home to a penal colony. While a terrible place to live, it does contain rare chemical compounds. Huts are thrown up over dig sites by construction crews, and miners are sent in as soon as the air is pumped. The volatiles on the surface bleed into the hut while people work, skin contact is dangerous, and if most of the substances get into someone’s system he’s a dead man. Outside the pressurized areas, an unprotected man will die in minutes. Miners are serving out sentences for heinous crimes (or annoying the ruling family for real or imagined criticism) and will theoretically be returned home when their sentences are up, but in reality almost none survive more than a year.
Kaglimmir was originally founded accidentally by the survivors or a void pirate shipwreck. The Shameful Lust’s FTL antenna array was smashed in the crash, so they were forced to send their distress call over standard radio instead. Sixty-two years later the Satan’s Plunder picked up their call and responded. When they realized what had happened and that the planet was now colonized by the descendants of the Shameful Lust’s crew, the Captain helped them stake a claim. By the time anyone realized what had happened, the Kaglimmir Cartel had fortified the system so well the Patrol knew they wouldn’t be able to clear the pirates out without taking at least three Thabbo Killers out of the Thabbo Operational Area to deal with Kaglimmir’s orbital defenses. Needless to say their Alliance membership was revoked, and the Patrol keeps a close eye on the system.
Outside the major ports, Kaglimmir is a pretty standard world. It has a relatively hospitable climate and large tracts of farmland to support its people and the crews of Cartel starships. Most of the population lives lives like people do anywhere in the Alliance; King Rafael Fireblade has made it clear that interfering with the non-pirate population will be seen as a great personal affront, and his son Lucius is following suit. Major ports, however, are hives of scum and villainy. Take the average startown, replace the cops with insane drug addicted space pirates, and crank everything up to 13.
Rumors on the Eastern Frontier speak of a world that ships its political dissidents to a barely-habitable world somewhere to spend the rest of their lives as slave miners. This is not to be confused with Corrado’s penal colony. Despite it being technically illegal to interfere in non-Alliance internal matters, there are also rumors of special operations teams working to find this planet, the slave mines, and the world responsible to put an end to it. Just who is behind these teams is the subject of even more rumors ranging from private interests, political rivals, the Alliance Council, and all of the above.
If you really want to run cyberpunk adventures in the Alliance, you can. They’re probably better as a change of pace than an entire campaign though.