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So I've been running this idea through my head for quite a long time a world or universe (the former being more Pathfinder the latter more Starfinder) that is a perfect utopia with each nation or planet being the best version of various types of governments/societies Democracy, Socialist Communism, Theocratic, etc. (one i thought could be fun is a dwarven nation during something similar to the industrial revolution except w/o people dying in coal mines) but something causes the perfect balance to break or is about to break and the actual campaign is with the initial hook of fixing/keeping the balance from breaking. One idea i have it relied on powerful individuals or groups (either like high levels spellcasters or even deity level powers) to keep it from imploding and their dying or there's assassination plots something like that.
TBH Starfinder is my preference but my players aren't big fans of doing sci-fi campaigns (ive been trying to get them to let me DM or play iron gods, starfinder and/or star wars forever) so it would be a hard sell, so the planets might have to be isolated islands, which is another idea i had for how the utopias might collapse, the reverse of pangea, the islands have been slowly moving together and the ideologies literally smashing into one another would be catastrophic, still doesn't mean a diety wasn't involved, steering people away from inventing sea or space travel for example but maybe the deity(s) finally died or is dying after billions of years or something...maybe pulls one champion from each society to solve it i dunno,maybe each society has its own deity w/ it own champion, maybe one of said deities went rogue and wants to take all the islands/planets from the others i dunno there's alot of competing ideas in my head)
I'd very grateful for any suggestions on how to create several different utopias and how to destroy them i could also use some help with government styles but to be clear this is NOT a debate about real life politics just what would the best version of each government/society would look like (ie. Socialist Commune = non-sentient robots do all the "grunt work" allowing the sentient creatures to do whatever they want whether its art, invention, get high and watch netflix, etc.)
So uh yeah that's pretty much it. Hopefully I don't sound too nuts/ambitious :P
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Hmmm....I'm liking where your going, might be fun to have the various Utopias be based off of the characters since its a homebrew campaign and the villain(s) could be the catalyst(s) of collapse (ie. a druidic order arigin in a "Meatatarian" utopia). The actual characters wouldn't be like gods of each land but citizens of each land that they would see as utopias, if i still want to include dieties running or at least supporting each utopia i could maybe utilize mythic rules (or a similar system) to represent them being chosen as champions of those dieties. Thinking most of the dieties power is locked into keeping the utopias in check but they can grant a small amount to assist their champion in whiping out interlopers or w/e
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I don't know what scope you're looking at achieving but this idea has me thinking about an early episode of ST:TNG that I've just recently watched.
The name of the episode is Justice: It takes place on a truly utopian colony planet/star cluster where a hyper-advanced species of alien had evolved beyond corporeal form and now lives as gods over a kind of child race of human-like people who live their lives in pure excess, joy, and effective euphoria of perfect happiness, peace, love, and respect.
Well the problem came about because they have arbitrary laws that are just flat out obeyed by all their culture as they overcame crime by way of strict yet seemingly arbitrary executions of any crime whatsoever and it became such second nature for them to know and obey their own laws that they didn't for a moment even consider what justice was to those who were ignorant of their laws.
The episode was resolved by the crew more or less convincing the "gods" of the world to let them leave by Picard making a moving speech on the topic and allowing them all to leave while at the same time breaking the Prime Directive and ALSO the laws of the natives. It struck me as strange how offended and truly horrified the people were about their traditions being broken despite the fact that the law itself and the punishment were arbitrary and also supremely severe to the point where they act as if a great injury was done upon their society.
I could imagine in the months that follow the people would have to struggle with the realization that not only is their overlord/deity not exactly what they thought it was in that it was PROVEN to be fallible, but also the knowledge that divine unrelenting punishment is not a consequence of chaos or failure to follow their own rules. It could really start off as something so simple as some citizens very gradually enforcing their OWN free will instead of following the cultural norms, roll up into questioning of authority in general and eventually factions between those questioning their gods and the purpose of the existence versus the traditionalist holdouts. In a society that's THAT close to a utopia, even a tiny fracture in the veneer of perfection can destroy the whole illusion, and when enforcement of rules and law is effectively VOLUNTARY even the slightest hint of revolutionary thought can be utterly destructive, possibly even enough to cause their gods to give up on their "children" as a wasted project as they devolve back into a society that is torn apart by conflict.
I don't know if this is helpful to your idea but it's what this made me think about so maybe it could be useful.
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At the very least im going to watch the episode can i get the season/episode #?
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That was a great episode. You can look at a lot of Star Trek in general for Utopian ideas.
The federation seems about perfect. An earth with no poverty, major disease, war, or any real challenges. Jobs and societal standing are all based on skill and merit. Nobody wants for food or housing. Would be really awesome if Rodenberry could have explained how mankind got there.
Yet, for all of that, there are still troubles and conflict, it's just on an interstellar scale.
On a tangental note....
Just (re)watched STNG 1:25 Neutral Zone (first time for kids) - there are some humans that were frozen 300 years ago that the Enterprise finds - and the Enterprise crew is sickening (so are 2 of the 3 peopsicles) Picard acts like they are just the biggest inconvenience all episode (ugh, do we have to wake them?). No one thinks to tell the ships computer not to give them full access to the whole ship. No one thinks to assign a crew member to monitor them full time (or ask for volunteer history buffs to do so) or give them grief counseling until the woman (of course) breaks down in tears in front of Picard and then he brusquely orders Deana to deal with them & keep them out of the way. Anyway, the crew is all like "Oh, so strange these ancient people really feared death!" (the peopsicles are relativity young and frozen due to medical conditions Crusher finds trivial to fix) "Oh foolish ancient people - we no longer have money or care about accumulating material possessions.
Then later in the evening watched Picard S1 E2&3 (w/o kids) - and Picard's doctor is all squirrely/hesitant about telling him of a possible health issue - so much for 24th Century people being so well adjusted no one fears death. Then Picard visits an old acquaintance whose living in a future trailer in the middle of nowhere - and she bitterly complains about her "hovel" while he's living at his vineyard surrounded by heirloom furniture and heavy oak beams. In a deleted scene Picard threatens too fire a whole crew of peasant looking grape harvesters because one mocked a Romulan characters ears. Guess they aren't dressed like peasants and picking grapes in the summer sun 'cause they love grape picking. So much for no longer having cares about accumulating material possessions....
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OK so first off thanks for all the help so far I've got alot to check out here's what im looking at for reference so far including stuff from reddit and giants in the playground (none of this will be "the setting" just stuff to pull ideas from)...btw any suggestions for other forums to ask for assistance at?
- Various thoughts on how to break a utopia that aren't linked to any specific setting (ie. metricsystems post)
- Star Trek, lots of of star trek :D
- The Historical Blog mentioned by AVR
- Suggestion of having the <undecided powerful being and/or artifact> be damaged or lost resulting in outside interference coming through a weakened barrier and/or have things inside the Utopia(s) start to malfuction (ie. if utopia was achieved through robots or mass produced magic items getting alot of Ebberon vibes here)
- The Tippyverse (basically a setting based on hey teleportation magic is a thing why doesn't anyone really use it and how that would affect a world, teleportation would likely be absent or extremely limited in the setting im planning since it would make no sense that things would still be isolated, boats too but its still a helpful look into how magic can f~+$ things up economically and socially)
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?222007-The-Definitive-Guide-to-t he-Tippyverse-By-Emperor-Tippy
- Building a Magitechocratic society (based off of tippy verse but mostly limited to 3rd level spells or lower since the creator sees it much more likely to be able to gather alot of lower level spellcasters and their seems to be intention for this to be used for E6
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?242955-Building-a-Magitechnocrat ic-Society-Tippyverse-in-under-six-levels
- Spell Jammer (i know very little about this setting but it apparently involves alot of planar stuff and would be useful for isolating the "islands" but allowing for controlled travel between them for the PCs since their champions of the <undetermind powerful being and/or artifact>
- The persons campaign setting for spelljammer
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?116955-Castaways-upon-a-Planar-s ea%28world-in-progress-D-amp-D-3-5%29
Another source is "Repent said the tick tock man" which has an ordered society disrupted by a jester scattering jelly beans into the morning rush hour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Repent,_Harlequin!%22_Said_the_Ticktockman
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You may want to look at some real world cultures that had abrupt changes.
Easter Islanders after cutting down the last tree
Feudal Japan after meeting the West
Maori culture after meeting the British and French
South and Central American cultures after meeting the Spanish
Minoan culture after the volcano
I'm sure there are countless others. The two main causes seem to be environmental or external contact with another society.
Maybe you could have a global understanding where each utopia kept apart except for diplomatic niceties, essential trade etc. But a global environmental disaster has changed the rules and each society is now pushing its ideology over the others to reestablish their vision of a utopian society.