I actually found the potential of the Mars setting fascinating for a campaign. I came at the idea of Mars with three overarching research questions:
A) What would the politics of Mars look like across each of the eras?
B) Could the experiences of the isolation during the Occupation era lead to the rise of Mars nationalist organisations or sentiments (Mars First and/or Mars Independent)?
C) How would that nationalist sentiment sit in a broader political climate over time?
I still haven't quite finished it all yet, but I'll share some of the known facts (from core) and my own extrapolations up to about the Orion War era. Most of the questions I've got from each era are open questions which I refer to backwards and forwards throughout each explanation.
Occupation Era Known Facts:
* Mars was not occupied by aliens during the Occupation period.
This could give rise to a 'never conquered, never surrendered' rhetoric or mentality to any nationalist movement. It'd be applied retrospectively, probably as justification for some later part of the rhetoric and not expressed coherently during the Occupation period.
*Mars was isolated and left to its own devices to survive or fail during the Occupation period. Result: 40% mortality and terminal health problems, other health and maintenance issues (failing infrastructure) discovered after contact was re-established during the Expansion era (core 145).
1) What would be the cultural impact on the Mars colony of such a large mortality rate?
2) How would that isolation event shape concepts of Mars nationhood?
Expansion Era Known Facts and Questions:
3a) During the Expansion era, what effect would access to media about the PCEG trials on Earth have on Mars?
3b) How much of the PCEG anti-collaborator rhetoric would shape the Mars narrative?
3c) How much of the anti-collaborator rhetoric would be turned against Earth to explain the horrors of isolation?
The nationalist reasoning and rhetoric here is: Earth collaborated with aliens during the occupation (we know, we've seen the broadcasts). Earth left us alone to die (lived experience of the isolation). Earth caused this. Death to the collaborators! Never forgive, never forget, never again! Never conquered, never surrendered (from Occupation era). Welcome to hard-line Mars nationalism
* The privations of isolation were relieved with food and supply convoys from Earth during the Expansion.
4a) How would that relief effort play into the Mars national narrative?
4b) Too little, too late? Possible line of Mars nationalists (as an extension of reasoning from 3c)
4c) Earth as saviours?
Perhaps a polar opposite position from the nationalist line. Reasoning: Isolation happened (lived experience). Bad things happened (lived experience). Earth didn't forget us (to counter the nationalist rhetoric). Probably seen as a naive position by hard-line nationalists (but at least it establishes a possible spectrum of sentiment)
4d) Something in between?
There would have to be a moderate middle-ground position, I just can't think what that would look like enough to articulate into slogans.
* Mars becomes a space training hub for Earth and Mars. Prestige is attached to being Martian.
5a) Could that 'point of pride' in being Martian become arrogance or hubris?
5b) Would the Expansion era be the first point at which the nationalist pride sentiment is coherently voiced?
Orion War era: Things get interesting for Mars during and after the Orion War era.
* Increased trend of contact with aliens during this period
6a) How would that increased alien contact trend play against that initial 'never conquered, never surrendered' rhetoric from the Occupation era nationalist?
6b) Is 'contact with aliens' the same as 'collaborating with aliens' from a hard-line perspective? (see 3b and 3c)
* The Treaty of Parella and the Return (core 172)
7a) Could the Treaty of Parella be seen as another Earth betrayal of Mars (similar to the effect of the Treaty of Versailles and its impact on the rise of German nationalism during the inter-war period)?
7b) Could the Treaty of Parella be used as vindication by Mars against future alien collaboration?
That's all I've got so far. I think there's still more to do with the Orion era and definitely more stuff from Artifact era to go through (Unification Charter and Parella Station Defiant, particularly). I'll get back to it when my brain's not so fried.
Some of the specific questions:
1/2) The biggest changes are in order to prevent casualties from isolation from reoccurring in the future. After reestablishing contact, Mars's first priority is to set up the facilities it had been missing the first time it lost contact to fill in the gaps of their dependency on Earth. And every Martian learns the tools of survival, which on Mars means everyone is a mechanic.
I think the questions in points 3 and 4 would largely balance each other out, with a handful of people on either end of the spectrum causing problems one way or another.
5a) There's probably an element of that. As Humanity expands into the rest of the galaxy, the hubris could become evident when there proves to be little need for a Mars colony, as it's not exactly convenient to travel to for any of the more important locations (Earth, Ceres, Saturn), nor does Mars itself provide much in the way of helping Humans survive.
5b) It would have to be; the soonest the Martians would possibly know what happened on Earth wouldn't be until contact is reestablished during the Expansion Era.
6a/b) Would play out differently among different subcultures on Mars, and for sure some would see any amicable contact with aliens as a betrayal. That said, Mars never has an anti-alien movement anywhere near as strong as what Redland has, as a point of reference.
The biggest influence the Orion War has from Mars's perspective would be the influx of demand for the kinds of expertise (piloting, mechanics) that Mars excels at, so the war is quite a financial boon for the Martian economy.
7a) There's a lot of Humans everywhere, Mars included, not happy about the Treaty of Parella. This sentiment comes to a head during the Artifact Era, in particular the Backdoor Incursion incident (core 194).
7b) There'll be plenty of opportunity for both vindication and humiliation for anti-alien sentiments in the next sourcebook; that's one of the bigger historical themes of the following century. :)
I'll go ahead and post the flash fiction story The Martians here, as it may help inform these questions:
Mars Colonial Mission Report, Commander Andrew Grossman
June 6, 2050
Hello commissioner,
I've got great news about the in situ project. Yesterday, we successfully created the first test article made entirely from materials here on Mars. As you're aware, the early plastic deposition printing tests were unsuccessful, and ever since then, we've been working with the metals found in the Martian surface soil. We've found the most promising of these to be the pyroxenes, and that's just what we used for this part. This test article is a plain rod composed primarily of augite, and simply extruded from the smelted metal.
We are ready to proceed to the next phase, which I believe will be a straightforward task. This phase will involve creating more complex parts by using a laser sintering process. Once we have perfected this process, it will be simple to create all the replacement metal components we need, which means we will have a much reduced need for redundant parts and a far greater self-reliance.
Local manufacture of parts is the last major component of self-sufficiency we have remaining to accomplish. Obviously solar power has been providing our electrical needs, and for fuel we have been using the Sabatier reaction for years, converting the Martian atmosphere into methane. And of course, last year, we had a similar milestone with food when we ate our first full meal grown entirely in Martian greenhouses.
So today was a big step for us here on Mars, but I've heard there's some significant news from Earth. I know you're trying to protect our mental wellbeing, but I really must insist that we are informed about developments as significant as the first contact with aliens. Don't ask how we got around your firewall, I'm not giving that up, but throw us a bone, here. Who are these aliens? Do we have any standing orders with regards to them?
Cmdr. Grossman
Mars Colonial Mission Report, Extended Mission, Acting Commander Samantha Zubrin
March 29, 2054
Another sol, another problem. I wish I had more training, or just more preparation. I'm in over my head here. We all are.
We lost pressurization on Delta Dome today, with twelve people inside it. Only three of them managed to get to the emergency breathers before passing out, buying them enough time to be rescued. Early diagnostics are suggesting that it was one of our in situ repairs that failed—some kind of structural weakness in the augite part, or maybe in the connections to the main base parts. I wish we could do something to improve that, but Dr. Kilmister was our chief metallurgist, and we lost him two years ago. If we're going to make any improvements to the formula at this point, someone's going to need to start from scratch and just study the hell out of our encyclopedias.
The nine deaths, in combination with the ones we've already suffered, have brought us to a morbid milestone: we have now lost over 25% of our original mission crew. The mission parameters as originally written would have called for an unconditional mission abort at that number, but that's not really an option for us. We haven't even had so much as an email from Earth in over three years. For all we know, we might be the last Humans in the universe. It's not like our measly little 2-meter telescope can tell us whether or not there's life on Earth. Not that it stops us from looking at it every chance we get.
But even if we did know that everything was alright back on Earth, we still wouldn't have abort capacity. It's been over six months since we first started taking vital components from our ascent vehicle. Once we took the first piece, it was open season, and every department wanted something. Computers, pumps, piping, fluid tanks—you name it, we pulled it. There's been talk of knocking the frame on its side and using it as additional greenhouse space.
Even if not for the accidents, we wouldn't have been able to sustain the original crew regardless. We rationed our the food we brought with us as much as possible, but we knew it wouldn't last us more than 20 months. We converted every available square meter from the research domes into greenhouse space, trying our best but still knowing it wouldn't produce food enough to sustain a colony of our size. But then Theta Dome exploded, and suddenly, we had fifteen fewer mouths to feed. We've made it work since then.
Delta Dome's depressurization is a big problem in more ways than just the people it killed. Delta Dome was one of our hubs, which means three of our domes are cut off from the other seven that survive still. The medbay is in Beta Dome, but the storage unit with a lot of the medicines we need is in Mu Dome. One of the nine we lost today was literally there to bring medicine that Commander Grossman needs to survive; he's still in a coma, but he may come out of it one day. I hope so; I didn't have any plans on being the Commander here. In any case, I don't imagine the colony making it longterm if we don't get Delta Dome repaired, and fast.
Mars Colonial Mission Report, Extended Mission, Commander Samantha Zubrin
May 12, 2066
We made it. God damn, I can't believe we actually made it. The resupply is landing in less than an hour. We're all anxious, we're all hungry, and half of us are sick, but we're alive.
For twelve years, counting the casualties has been my duty. We lost 40% of the crew we initially came with. But our numbers are not quite as low as they seem. When we had no hope and no expectations of ever contacting Earth again, it was only a matter of time before the crew would start having babies. Ten babies have been born here in the last decade, the first children ever to be raised outside of Earth's gravity well. We lost the first two children in infancy to spinal deformations before we worked out how to compensate safely, but all the rest are in good health today. Though death has been a constant companion with us these years, those two were the hardest.
When I was first named Acting Commander, I tried to refuse—I wasn't nearly qualified for this. But Commander Grossman saw something in me I wasn't even sure I had in myself, and gave me more support than I could have imagined before he passed. With the resupply coming closer every second, we're about to sign off on the hardest chapter, and begin anew.
As of today, I am resigning my NASA commission and rank, and most of the original crew are tendering their resignations as well. We're not just a crew anymore. This isn't just a place we're stuck. This is our home, we are a family with ties stronger even than blood, and we're now raising the first native-born Martians ever to exist. I am no longer the commander here; I am just one citizen in this amazing, hardworking community. We are not astronauts; we are Martians.
I just realised I've been using a bit of mental shorthand in my notes that might need to be better explained. That is, the distinction between a 'Mars First' movement and a 'Mars Independent' movement within the nationalist spectrum.
Mars First: Probably the more benign (but certainly not benevolent) end of a Mars nationalist sentiment. I see it more as a xenophobic faction (Mars First for Martians!), with a focus more on national pride, internal capacity building and self reliance. Individual groups within the Mars First spectrum would vary in how strictly they adhere to individual bits and pieces of doctrine.
Mars Independent: I see this more as the ultra hard-line of Mars nationalism. The end goal for this type of faction would be full secession, independence and autonomy for Mars in any kind of political order. This would be the ultra radical fringe, taking more potentially benign internal capacity and self reliance goals to an ultimate extreme (full secession).
My other broad assumption in the Mars politics question is that the moderate centre holds as the status quo. The existence of both extremes (nationalists of various stripes and the 'Earth as Saviours' crowd) act as constant, dynamic political pressures to add conflict and tension. The relative power and influence of any particular faction varies within and between time periods.