Human

Humans look ... well human

### Key Traits

Well-Educated, Professional, Safety First, Environmentally Conscious, Future-Focused.

## Appearance

While there are a wide variety of fashions in evidence on Earth, India is leading the pack in terms of setting fashion choices with many countries eager to import new Indian fashions. Popular outfits are inspired by this and have long and sleek vertical lines that draw the eye often in simple colours. Assymetric designs and diagonal cuts lend a modern flair, coupled with bold and simple colours rather than patterns. Make up is similarly bold, when it is worn at all.

At street level, synthetic leather, stark contrasts and cyberpunk clothing have become popular among teenagers while militaristic cuts are more common for those working in engineering or in
space as a form of uniform. Those who work in cutting-edge technologies often prefer coveralls for better all over protection from chemical spills or simple stains.

## History

It is 2238. The population has stabilised at 10 billion after the crash of 2050 when the population increase reversed and started decreasing over the following few decades.

Many companies and governments also saw the writing on the wall and increased the odds of people at least having one child by establishing a multitude of local crèche and babysitting establishments. The urge to find new technological solutions is as strong as ever and advances are coming thick and fast with new global patent laws that release patents after a decade if they’re not consistently used to ensure that scientific developments aren’t hidden by greedy corporations.

Nations still exist, but they have combined into various unions with practical appeal, and people have established several transnational lunar colonies and inhabited orbital satellites so that they can take advantage of those locations’ unique gravitational effects to develop new technologies. Mines have been established on some of the satellite moons and asteroids orbiting Saturn using computer-controlled and entirely uninhabited machines and the ore is then processed on the moon before the raw product is shipped to earth. This is an expensive endeavour that barely breaks even but it allows for the development of further technologies.

Unfortunately space travel has hit its limit in increasing shuttle speeds -- while it only takes less than a day to reach the moon, three months to reach Mars, and under two years to reach Saturn, it would still take a minimum of 50,000 years to reach the nearest solar system. Humanity had to accept this limitation and thus looked elsewhere and found interdimensional travel and the world that would be Last Hope. While cybernetic augmentations have increased to the degree that they can do things that the human limb cannot, it is generally agreed that it is better to use wearable technology than to have your limbs severed and replaced.

Those who require an augmentation often select one covered in a synthetic fabric that acts and appears similar to human skin with painted detailing that makes it almost identical to the human eye. This synthetic fabric can best be portrayed by using a foundation a shade lighter on that limb and a slightly puckered line around where the prosthetic would attach to the limb. Robotics have improved in leaps and bounds but androids that look humanoid still create an uncanny valley effect with a near life-look (but not quite) appearance.

No form of true artificial intelligence has ever been created, and therefore these robots are poor communicators that rely on automated speech responses (i.e. they say “I’m well,” when someone asks it how it is). The robots are incapable of understanding the meaning or value of conversations or to develop their own dialogue independent of recorded scripts. They are unable to form their own opinions and are entirely dependent on their original programming.

Humans also have settlements on the moon and Mars. There are roughly 400,000 people living on the moon, typically in tourism and scientific research division. Mars has a smaller population of 95,000 individuals due to the difficulty of reaching that planet. While humans have continue to explore interdimensional space through the use of drones since discovering Last Hope, they have not found another habitable planet anywhere near the drone arrival points and so have not attempted to settle another planet. Humans have attempted to reestablish contact with Last Hope but their drones never returned -- until recently.

## Psychological Traits

Humans are fascinated by the thought of magic. They have lived in a world full of different magical traditions despite a complete lack of magical availability on Earth. Although no proof of divinity or spiritual magic has been found on Earth, many humans still put their faith in various beliefs and ideologies. Thus humans have a degree of faith, of personal investment in abstract ideals, which is second to none.

Due to their long history of warfare, many humans are now quite anti-war and exceedingly world-weary of governments that try to build up a desire for war. Racial divisions have reduced substantially with many nations functioning within the fluid confines of something like the European Union. Gendered divisions and discrimination based on sexuality have disappeared in most nations.

The main dangers on Earth involve drug abuse and criminality caused by heavy regulations and low employment levels. Most jobs that involve physical labour, and many that involve administrative functions, have been completely mechanised in a post-scarcity economy where a minimum standard of living keeps people focused on art, recreation and social services. However the disparity between the rich and the poor remain strong. The wealthy can travel to the moon for a weekend abroad while the poor are sometimes relegated to watching movies in small cookie cutter accomodation.

Humans enjoy spending their free time with a variety of structured activity designed to be both enjoyable and instructive. They want to learn new languages, arts, crafts, play videogames competitively, watch performances, and keep themselves fit, and it should all be efficiently taught and incredibly fun.

Their urge to squeeze whatever they can into their lives seems to be caused in part by media encouragement and social competition (there are \*lots\* of ranking systems online that provide a little slice of fame). Innovation and self-improvement are huge mantras which simply cause more frustration among those who are unable to afford these opportunities.

### 10 Cultural Cores

1. Technology First
2. Being the First is key
3. Recycling is Key, Waste is Monstrous
4. Oversharing
5. See the humanity in everything
6. Come in peace, but keep your hand on your gun
7. Multi-tasking is King
8. Interest in trying new food but a disinterest in meat.
9. Greetings are typically waves,handshakes and bows
10. Work Health and Safety

## Species Perks

**Scientific Solutions:** Humans may ask a single question of the Game Masters regarding scientific or technical knowledge per session even if they don’t have a core or skill to reflect that knowledge. This is because humans rely on science to survive in many hostile environments.

**Mutation Resistance:** Your body is so bound to the principles of science that you can’t be mutated by mutagenic infohazards, psionic effects that change the body or other non-scientific sources.

**Illusion Piercing:** Your mind is more prone to resisting the attempts of others to affect your senses. At the GM’s discretion, you will be provided with information on what will really be happening around you in certain scenes. Everyone else can only rely on what the illusory props and NPCs are doing. This perk doesn’t affect holograms or other technical illusions.

**Infohazard Resistance:** Due to your body’s inherent abilities to resist attempts to change it, you are only affected by every second infohazard. In the long-term, this means that you can survive exposure to twice as many infohazards as the other species.

**Mind Control Resistance:** Once per day you can ignore a single mind controlling effect. You choose the effect.

**Medicine Dependent:** You require a twice daily dose of Immunoboost to benefit from natural healing and avoid location-specific damage (i.e. a shot through the heart is instant death). Humans on Hope are at risk of suffering from a flesh-eating fungus if they don't receive regular doses of Immunoboost in most warm clients.

## Common Phrases and Naming Conventions

Names can be any of those common to earth

* “All shiny and chrome” = Used to describe something as valuable, normally said in a low tone of voice.
* “Bakebrain” = Drug addict, makes poor decisions, can’t think clearly
* “What a breakdown!” = It’s gone poorly, group has made a bad decision
* "Bleeding Edge” = aka faux trendy people pleaser, i.e “you really wanna be bleeding edge, don’t you?”
* “Chalk-out” = To die (as in chalk outline).
* “Cred” = Money, due to credit cards.
* “Culture vulture” = Media representative.
* “Don’t worry, they’re a sharealike” =Generous, helpful.
* “Freaker” = Criminals who use drugs or cyberware prosthetics for appearance’s sake.
* “Kludge” = Makeshift, temporary, sloppy and inefficient solution to a problem.
* “Incentivise” = A demand for money, aka What’s in it for me?
* “Razor” = Someone who’s always thinking up good ideas, a great new innovation (That’s razor!)
* “Sheeple” = People who are overly compliant and don’t think for themselves.
* “Slick” = Someone who’s very professional, said in admiration.
* “Slam it!” = a swear word
* “Sprawler” = ugly building, project or object that takes up more space than it should.