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Okay, this is in fact a bunch of related sub-questions, but I'll try and sum them up in one:

How has the physical workings of the Moon -- home to the new central hub of humanity: Luna -- changed in the world of Mutant Chronicles compared to what we have in real life?

  • How long is a day in Luna?

  • What's up with gravity?

  • How does the atmosphere work?

  • If these resemble Earth IRL, how has humanity achieved that? With what technology? (And hasn't that tech become corrupted by the Dark Symmetry?)

  • Water? Where does the water (and proper quantity of it) come from?

The core book, as far as I can remember (don't have it on me atm), strongly implies that life in Luna (the greatest city of humanity, located on the Moon) is quite similar to what we have (I mean had, in the noirish 1940s-1950s, to be more precise) on Earth. Days with 24 hours, Earth-like gravity and atmosphere, etc. But real life physics don't really allow that... at all. So, the Moon must have been brutally terra-formed.

Are there official sources on this? Where? If not, are there quality fan explanations? Or do you have a plausible (in game plausible, that is) theory?

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    \$\begingroup\$ @Pureferret I haven't seen the movie, and considering what I've read about it, don't even plan to, but afaik the movie was only (very, very) loosely based on the rpg. Here's a funny forum where people discuss what MC was: forum.rpg.net/… :) We played it in the "Lovecraft in a noir retro-future / 1950s" way, like many other groups. \$\endgroup\$
    – OpaCitiZen
    May 19, 2013 at 12:30
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    \$\begingroup\$ As I recall, only the "thinking machines" were corrupted by the Dark Symmetry, so a clunky retro-future terraforming plant would have been safe. Since Luna is the first colony, I don't think they had AI when it was being settled. (But my internal MC timeline is hazy since I'm more familiar with the canon of Warzone, which was different from the RPG.) But more generally, I think physics was ignored in favour of space-opera-horror; consider that the Legion invades by crashing citadel-ships deep into the crust of planets, and somehow they and their contents don't disintegrate on impact. \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    May 19, 2013 at 19:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ We are going to answer this with the new Mutant Chronicles RPG coming this Winter. In the meantime check out Our Facebook Page for more info or www.modiphius.com. We have been doing a lot of work on the background story to help fill in all the gaps and the first release starts during the mission to Pluto...! \$\endgroup\$
    – Chris Birch
    May 23, 2013 at 23:56
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ChrisBirch Thanks, Chris. Looking forward to your releases, and maybe a fresh answer here once they are available. \$\endgroup\$
    – OpaCitiZen
    May 24, 2013 at 6:09

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The same way that Endor in the Star Wars movies has Earth-equivalent gravity: it's part of the genre conventions to ignore such details.

Like Star Wars, Mutant Chronicles isn't science fiction, it's science fantasy (specifically, dark space opera). While exploring the science of the setting is a hallmark of science fiction, paying much attention to how stuff works is antithetical to the genre of science fantasy.

How does the Death Star generate enough power to explode planets? How does the Dark Symmetry of the Dark Legion and the Art of the Brotherhood work in physics terms? How did the Thinking Machines achieve sentience? How do ships generate gravity so people can stand on decks that are parallel to the axis of thrust? The answer is: the authors didn't care, because caring about the physics is not why they made these settings. They were made for fantastical, cool imagery in a science-flavoured but not science-controlled universe. This auctorial choice has significantly influenced the setting, so the blatant disregard for physics is embedded throughout.

So, you can focus on exploring the science and figuring out the physics, but the settings will fight you with apathy and inconsistency every step of the way. You may enjoy that challenge! If so, more power to you, and you're in good company with people who have tried to develop internally-consistent frameworks for all kinds of science fantasy settings, from Star Wars to Terminator.

If you don't want to fight with the setting though, just shrug and say "because" when you wonder how something works and it takes more than a few seconds to find a plausible answer. "How does the gravity work?" you ask Mitch Hunter when you find yourself suddenly transported in-universe. "How the hell should I kn— Look out, a Necromutant behind you!" *blam* *blam* *blam*

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Well,

Not really rules, but I'd have a look to some sites regarding the moon.

I'd start with NASA's Moon page, there I'd check the Apollo program and the Moon Facs where you can see that:

A lunar day (or the time it takes from sunrise to sunrise) on the moon is approximately 708 hours

Another good source of information is Moon Connection that has also a page about Moon Gravity and also some more Moon Facts

Some other maybe useful links are the Moon Landing Map, and the Apollo Program Summary Report and maybe the page with the Apollo Drawings and Technical Diagrams

This pages will not solve all your questions, but will give you some interesting info about the moon... it's a start...

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