rpg

Re-colonization. The region WAS belonging to your patron nation, then some sort of catastrophe forced people out of it, now the place can be recolonized safely, after someone fixed it and clears all wildlife (or worse) that overtaken it.

One idea that pops to mind is simply learning about the strange and sometimes dangerous flora and fauna of a new region... or, more fantastically, about its spirits. Rather than having the tension come from the usual "and we need to find X kind of resource to exploit in the process" (since that's more colonialist thinking), there should be a dawning realization that the region itself is in danger from something the PCs need to stop.

I think there's a lot of space with fantasy and magic to handwave away a lot of the the ethical ickyness of colonization.

Completely off the top of my head:

You could have some part of the world protected by a magic shield. Many thousands of years ago some major player country in the world just magically closed their doors to the world. No one has been in or out since, and a lot of details have been lost to time.

Scholars have studied "the wall" for ages, and it's clear that something is changing. Many believe that whatever force has maintained it is running out.

Various world powers have begun stationing military camps outside of it, no one knowing what lurks inside or what might come out. Fear of the unknown. Tensions are high.

Some more enterprising folks are making plans to try and exploit what will be sudden access to unknown land, resources, and perhaps riches.

The players could have been hired by some research organization to discover what happened to this ancient civilization. Are they still around as a society isolated for millenia? Are they gone? How was "the wall" made and how was it maintained? Any information will pay, and having it first pays more.

Or they could be hired by a group intending to settle the new area, as a greed thing or because some group of people are being displaced by a large military force and need somewhere else to settle. Could have some plot about keeping traditions in unknown and different environs, and trying to mesh ancient technology with their lives.

Small holes start appearing temporarily in "the wall", but too high up to access and they close too fast to get in or out. Whoever hired the players believes they've identified where the first (or one of the first) ground level one(s) will appear, and that they can hold it for long enough to send the players through.

Could go in a lot of different directions with that, and you could have some distinct "phases" to the plot.

Maybe the players are the first in, maybe they aren't. As time progresses others may get in with differing goals. Other researchers with different focuses, settlers, people running into this new space to escape outside things, smugglers trying to make/find new routes, thieves and plunderers trying to score, greedy land barons trying to take over by being one of the first to make a settled foothold.

Options for how you handle the civilization inside too. Are they gone due to some magic shenanigans like Elder Scrolls Dwemer? Did they pass away in isolation? Are they strong and ready to rejoin the world? Looking to do conquest? Scattered survivors of a fallen isolated empire?

As a big change, the wall can fall completely a certain amount of time in and now there's all of that plus militaries and other larger forces scrambling around.

But I think the colonizer ick can be sidestepped with having the players supporting displaced peoples seeking refuge in a space that was previously inaccessible due to magic bullshittery.

@juergen_hubert Maybe hunting down radioactive/psionic portals that emit corrupting death - which is why the region is now mostly wilderness rather than heavily inhabited. The goal isn't to make the region safe for colonization, but rather just to help those who already live there.

Note that the original reason for the players to go on this adventure could be different, but finding their first portal changes things.

Being on the receiving end of superior military might the player characters are forced into exploring the frontier to escape the military that has conquered or is in the midst of conquest.

Red Hand of Doom is a good inspiration for this premise.

The characters are hired to take a one-way boat journey to deliver a MacGuffin, they are shipwrecked or ambushed once they arrive and are effectively stranded in the frontier until they find a way back.

Gods of the Forbidden North is a good inspiration for this premise

There is some sort of valuable material in high supply but unknown locations within the frontier, the players are developing a stronghold or part of a stronghold that needs this material so the players are tasked with recovering it, during the course of it two factions come into focus one that is neutral or positive of the ecological harvesting as it expands civilization, while the other is negative of the ecological harvesting.

@juergen_hubert so my current campaign has the setting being semi-apocolyptic, we compare it to the fall of Rome. In the center of the map there's the Blasted City, which was destroyed (we recently found out they kept the Word of Destruction in a box, which was opened, a PC has this box, it's gonna be a problem). But it means the setting is kinda close to post-Roman Europe but with more violent collapse.

There's the old Lizard Folk empire and their scattered remnants, the late comer orcs, the scattered peoples, forest spirits, lots of ruins, and nomads. The goal isn't really making the region safe, but most of the time it's us tripping over forgotten dangers and then getting into conflict with the many forces trying to settle this area. We're slowly building the history of a thousand years of this land being unsuccessfully colonized, and the many problems that has caused this.

I dunno, this is fun but it's probably not an answer to "what do"

@juergen_hubert One frustration with Star Trek, and a lot of science fiction works, is that they rarely show scientists doing science, much less make it central to the plot.

A common Star Trek episode setup is something like, "Captain's Log: we're in the Greek Name system, recording spectral data, which gives us time to..." and whatever the episode is actually about.

Anyway, I'd like some science fiction once in a while that's about scientists doing science. That kind of exploring.