Editing Epsilon (section)

== Neuland ==
Leftist Euro-anarchists with a participatory democracy (Govt Type 4, Law level 3, TL 10) and a bit of a fetish about computers and software (TL 12 electronics available), often called 'the Bakhuninite Extents'. One of the few places in Known Space you can get cyberware, but it is expensive.  Everyone is an eternal student plugging into online university, only local currency is used (Roks), handcrafted goods sold offworld at premium prices. Main exports subversive MMORPGs, expertly pirated media and software, freelance 'creatives', punk rock bands, designer drugs and financial brigands who use corporate buyouts to break up other states economies to keep their own ramshackle system going.

Everyone has a wristputer at the very least and is a memeber of several co-operatives and communes. They vote on everything and anything, and proudly say they are the freest people in Known Space. Critics say that is because they have no government and no laws, but that is an exaggeration. Neulanders are bound by all sorts of conventions from their residence arcology, work-group and the fact that pissing someone off can sometimes get you shot dead.

The locals only deal in their own currency, Roks, and no one may own more than 100 000, and are forced to spend the excess, which the locals claim keeps the economy buoyant. Everyone gets 50 Roks per month per year of residence from the Neuland Financial Cooperative, up to a maximum of 800 Roks, and citizenship is pretty easy to get. The NFC gets it money from exchanging credits to Roks and gets a cut from all exports and offworld earnings of citizens. It also runs banking operations on a number of other worlds.

Everyone also gets free access to the University of the People, a mostly virtual university giving high quality education in every imaginable subject, though understandably more staid jurisdictions don't take their economics and politics qualifications very seriously.

Physically Neuland is a low rise sprawl of pressurised 'arcologies' like blocks of flats with covered courtyards within and between them, with extensive tunnels recycled from mining operations connecting them. Private transport isn't common, but endless grav busses, taxis, ground cars and even rickshaws ferry people about the muddy half finished streets. On the outskirts of the main settlement this turns into factory buildings and metal works, abandoned and recycled as the fortunes of various communes rise and fall, interspersed with hydroponic sheds. A few outlying towns of a couple of arcologies each exist, and a wide hinterland of ramshackle farms, workshops and marginal enterprises extends for two hundred kilometers into the lichenous tundra.

Locally Neuland is usually called the 'Bakhuninite Extents', though if Bakhunin himself were alive to see what these nutjobs have made of his philosophy he'd probably wish he'd never bothered.

=== Characters ===
Neulander characters get +1 Education, but they also add (or subtract) their Education bonus from their Social Standing, and take an extra -2 for being part of a dodgy state that looks weird and subversive to outsiders. In any case their dedicated egalitarianism means no one can be below Social Standing 3 or above 10.

All have Computer 0 as part of their basic education, must choose either Streetwise 0 or Carousing 0 as their second education skill and have Gun and Melee Combat 0 as part of their educational options.

None can join the Nobles, Navy or Marines, and their Army, such as it is, has no officers.

All Neulanders start with a state issued wristputer weighing 300g and acting as a computer 1 worth 15 Roks, a filter/oxygen mask good for four hours outdoor use on Epsilon and a set of cold weather clothing.