Commodities

One of the results of the availability of nanotechfactories is the commoditization of many tools and devices. In Highland culture a commodity may best be defined as an economic good which has no quantitative differentiation across markets, i.e. it is fungible. In the case of created goods, that is technological objects as opposed to commodity resources such as minerals, agricultural products and other raw materials, it is the combination of nanotechnology and Intellectual Property Law which has resulted in commoditization.
Basically under Highland law the issuance of patents and copyright is severely limited as compared to the I.P. practices of the Progressive Era. Many types and classes of devices are excluded from patents entirely. Software is entirely unpatentable, although patterns and blueprints used by nanotechfactories may be copyrighted. Reports, liturgical works and performance media cannot be copyrighted, though properties like songs and plays, as well as written works may be, by the author, composer or song writer.
Copyright law in the Highlands allows for a single 15 year period of copyright during which the author of a work may have sole right over their work. This includes the licensing, but not sale of the copyright. Copyrights terminate upon the death of the owner.
Patents are even more limited, as items to be patented must be new, useful and non-obvious. Biological process, breeder designs and drugs cannot be patented. Patents are held for 10 years and cover products from the time the patent is registered.
Anything not under patent or copyright is considered in the public domain. The vast library of nanotechfactory patterns in the public domain may be used by anyone to manufacture commodity devices. Of course the typical Highland citizen is unlikely to own a nanotechfactory, with the possible exception of a food factory in their kitchen and possibly a small handyman's minifac. So throughout the Highlands it is much more likely that a Highlander will buy commodity products produced locally by a general fabrications establishment than that they will produce it themselves.
Cost of such devices is typically the price of the raw stock needed for the device and overhead for the fabricator. This makes commodity prices very low compared to the pre-nanotech era. For example a smartphone in the Progressive Era could cost up to a Parliament (about US$1000.) A CMC, the modern TLA equivalent which has many more features, can typically be had for P0.25 (US$250). Clothing, created by a fabric extruder nanotechfactory, is even cheaper than the twenty-first century equivalent, even though made of smart material and containing many enhancements not possessed by the heavily trademarked and patented Progressive Era clothing.
Typically art, excluding writing and the written scripts, music and lyrics, are not protected by copyright or other intellectual property laws. That means that performance artists are limited in their ability to record a performance and suck continuing value out of said performance. Artist may charge to view their work, be it the physical work of a painter or sculpture, or a particular performance, be it dramatic, comedic or musical, but recorded performances are not protected. This has resulted in the collapse of the media empires of the Progressive Era and the flourishing of both amateur and professional theater.
This has also resulted in the increase of patronage in all of the arts, not just in the support of artists by the very wealthy, but also through the voluntary support of designers, artists and performers through private donations. I can't but a copy of a recording artists performance, well I can, but I can also download or make a copy for free, however I can also donate to them because I like and appreciate their performance and want them to be able to afford to continue to perform.
A whole culture of such benefactors and patronage exists in the Highlands and there is a notable portion of workers, not just in the arts, but also in other fields who subsist on patronage rather than conventional employment.

The University System

Residential educational institutions in New Diasporia, at least in the Highlands tend to follow the monastic traditions rather than the German based university model of the progressive period. These institutions are infused with the rhythm of the liturgy through participation in the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours. While not all students will participate in each activity, some members of the community will participate all functions on behalf of all the members.
Even the largest universities tend to be divided into colleges. Each college is centered around the four part structure of its chapel, library, dining hall, and houses. For many colleges the fifth structure consisting of the monastic community of monks and/or sisters also exists.
There are several key elements which make these schools different from those that existed in the progressive era. First the requirement that students attend formal meals in hall. This has many benefits in both physical health and spiritual wellbeing. Next of course the houses are all gender segregated. More over each house has its own chapel, where is reserved the Blessed Sacrament. Broadly speaking the environment of each house room, often decorated and named, is designed to edify the occupants rather than drag them down to some common level of perceived equality.
Although education continues to in some way an optimal combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, exams and coursework, it is not limited to the relationship between teacher and student or even between student and student, but also between all and God.
Since it is impossible to build the total man or woman without recourse to the
pillars of grammar, mathematics, and rhetoric this is the basis of education in all subjects. History and language, mastery of both Latin and Greek, as well as modern language stands as primary requirements for later mastery of science and engineering.
As in previous times there is no substitute for the rule of thumb which says that one must spend at least 10,000 hours to master a field. The idea that one can putter around for a few hours a day for eight months a year and somehow earn a degree as an expert in the subject has been purged. Students are expected to spend a majority of their time on studies, for most of the year. This makes time off, primarily on Sundays and feast days, as well as the joyous seasons of Christmas and Easter all the more sweet.

Ownerhsip for the common good

One of the basic premises of Christian social cultural interaction is the responsibility of the landowner to utilized his land not only for his own profit, but also for the common good. An extension of this is the concept that except in certain limited cases it is everyman's right to access public and privately owned land for the purpose of recreation and exercise. This is often called the right to roam and is instilled in Highland law. It does not include garden land, commercially developed land, with the exception of most agricultural or common land.
Access rights apply primarily to access on foot. Rights to fish or hunt are often constrained to some extent. As are rights for exploitation, for example the difference between picking berries to eat and picking them to sell, or even bake into a pie.
Since roads are relatively uncommon on most high TL Highland worlds access to most areas is by portal or air. Beyond that most places are joined by tracks or trails, some of which are quite long. Cross country hiking, in places where the fauna is not dangerous, or only a little dangerous, is common practice.
One may not disturb others or damage property. Use of powered vehicles, especially land bound vehicles may be restricted, either by the landowner or more broadly by the local government.
This is a strong positive right, in that only the government can restrict it under most circumstances. Private landowners have a right to privacy in their own homes, the right to limit hunting and fishing on their own land and the right to set aside gardens of reasonable size. Larger tracks of agricultural land is generally accessible, though the roamer bears responsibility to ensure that no damage results to crops due to his presence.
These rights do not apply to Church land which is used for religious purposes, such as Church grounds, monasteries and convents. It does apply to mountain, moor, heath down and waterways used for mundane purposes, including supporting cloisters and charities.
This right includes permission to camp in wilderness areas, provided zero-foot print camping methods are used. It also includes the right to ski, ride and fly to these areas.

Village of Santa Monica

The Village of Santa Monica is a typical Highland population center. Located on the Blue Highway world Cecilia's Promise, Santa Monica is named after the mother of Saint Augustine because the settlers claimed waters of the bay to be "as clear as the tears of Saint Monica as she prayed for the salvation of her son, Augustine."
Like many such habitats the center of the village is the parish church, the Church of Saint Monica.  With a population of about fourteen hundred, the Village of Santa Monica is about standard size for a population center on Cecilia's Promise. This does not include the nearby agricultural residences, which make up a separate dispersed settlement.
The architectural style of Santa Monica is post-nano modern. Like all villages the town is a collection of individual residences, commercial structures and official buildings. Official structures, besides the parish church, include the Parish Seat, that is the local government center, the Grand Post Office, and the Transmat Portal.

Official Structures

Parish Seat
The Parish Seat is a two story structure which includes the the office of the village council, the constable's office and the central repository, the local mirror of Cecilia's Promise inter-web.

Grand Post Office
The Grand Post Office is the local branch of the Highland spanning system. In the case of Santa Monica the office itself is attached to Params Deliveries and General Fabrications. The local Postie position is part time, and occupied by the proprietor of that establishment. Message traffic is downloaded vie satellite and package goods delivered via the transmat portal, which is also under the administrative control of Mistress Param, owner of said establishment.

Transmat Portal
Santa Monica's transmat portal is a standard mix use permanent portal. Mixed use means that it is designed to be used by both pedestrians and cargo. Permanent means that it is commonly maintained in an open state, that is both portal openings are more-or-less fixed in their connected state. Dry goods and drums are translated through the portal using transport sleds.  The farside of the portal is located in Ellisa, a small port city near the planetary capital.

Commercial Establishments

Params Deliveries and General Fabrications
Commercial buildings are dominated by Params Deliveries and General Fabrications, which has one of the village's commercial nanotech factories. Hettie Param is the local Postie and also handles commercial package mail. Much of the small industrial raw material importing, used to support home and small commercial nanotech fabrication comes through Params. The General Fabrications portion of the establishment tends to concentrate on the making of low to medium tech quick fabs, which require fairly simple design specs and a limited number of stock materials.

Moranti Livery
The village itself is small enough that every structure is within walking distance, indeed this is one of the criteria that distinguishes a village from a larger entity, such as a town, which may have some form of public transportation network, either transmat or vehicular. However residence do sometimes need to travel to the surrounding agricultural homesteads or desire to visit local wildlands. The irregular nature of such activities makes the personal ownership of transport capsules economically wasteful. Moranti's has capsules for rent at reasonable rates for a multitude of uses. Some are small enough to use the transmat portal, others are large enough to use for general hauling. Autopilot capsules act as taxi's and delivery vehicles.

The Clay Jar Pub
For nearly all of human history there has existed establishments where people could buy meals and enjoy a sociable drink. In many places such businesses become community hubs. The Clay Jar pulls in business from the surrounding agriculture community as well as from Santa Monica.

Wing's Inn
Primarily an eating establishment Hosea Wing's hostel also has a dozen or so bedrooms which can accommodate village visitors. The Inn has two semi-regular residents, but most of the other rooms are typically available for travelers. Breakfast is typically included in the price of a room.

Broadline Fabrications
A general purpose technology fabrication facility, Broadline provides the main local source for nanofactory produced items, which are typically made to order from their extensive design catalog. The dozen or so employees include two design engineers who can spot design items or turn external designs into product at a modest cost. Their large nanofactory machines also provide the main fabrication facilities for the surrounding agricultural community.

Greengold's Market
Primarily an outlet for local agricultural products, such as dairy and meat, Greengold's also carries a small number of processed food items. Most residents travel to Ellisa regularly to get larger quantities of drygoods and stock food items.

Church of Saint Monica
The Parish Church complex includes the church itself, the associated rectory, the residence of pastor Fr. Martin Wolf, St. Augustine Hall, the parish's fellowship building and the parish school. The parochial school serves approximately 800 students.

Urban Life

The span of history of the New Diasporia actually ranges just over a century. Most of the great social trends originate from before that period. By the time of Fr. Borland Barnes and Joesph Gutierrez a Unified Catholic Church was already in existence. The Great Compromise was in place. In many ways the first wave of the New Diasporia was made up of people who had problems with both those facts of history. Only more slowly did the Church and society follow in successive waves.
The just of those facts means that throughout all extra solar space human civilization is barely a century old. For almost all of that time travel was limited to conventional road and air vehicles. Even in the farthest reaches of the Wilds civilization, or what passes for it, is just a generation or two old. In the oldest and most primitive places perhaps as many as six generations have passed since the invention of the B/G engine.
This tends to mean that on any particular world history is not too deep. On Earth it is not unusual to see structures several hundred years old. It is even possible to see man made structures thousands of years old. This is not the case on other worlds.
Because of the pace of technological development and the speed of transport cities tend to be smaller than the old Earth cities. Most terrestrial cities are old. They formed at transportation hubs, which is why so many cities were founded where rivers meet each other, or meet the sea. In the age of rail cities were founded at rail heads and junctions. Even in the pre-industrial age cities sometimes were built at places where gold, silver and iron could be found. Only in the age of the automobile did population centers swell over the land, tied together by concrete and asphalt ribbons.
In the Highland cities, towns and villages, founded before the mid-twenty third century, it is common to have roads and highways connecting buildings and other population centers. On many worlds these artifacts of an earlier age are abandoned and unused. At least by human traffic. Interior roads are still sometimes used to transport goods using autonomous robot vehicles. On others settled during the last seventy years often commercial transmat portals are still in use, connecting roads or monorails over vast distances. Some settled recently have no roads at all, with all transportation via transmat portal.
A matrix may be used to help determine the probable mixture of transportation technologies. Many of the other cultural and social characteristics of the world can be inferred from the combination of when the world was founded and what is it's present Tech Level.

Present Technology Level	A	B	C	D
Founding Year
2320
2310
2300					Nanotech
2290
2280
2270
2260					Transmat
2250
2240
2230					Hyperdrill
2220
2210					B/G Engine

Any Highland world founded after 2300 A.D. and founded at TLA will lack roads. Transmat portals will provide the primary transportation technology. Cities will be small and widely dispersed, perhaps even over several continents. A city, village or town is really more a designation of jurisdiction than of geographical area, since the shopping district can be in one place, the residential district in another place and facilities for space traffic somewhere else. Cities are differentiated from villages in that a village will have shopping, residential areas, churches and perhaps even a monastery all within walking distance, with transmat portals primarily used to travel to other places. Such population centers are not primarily vehicle friendly (since vehicles are seldom if ever used) and walkways and pathways are laid out with aesthetic and architectural considerations in mind rather than vehicular. If transportation is need to areas not served by transmat transport capsules will be used.These worlds are represented by the dark blue area of the graph.

Any world founded before 2300 A.D. but after 2260 A.D. and founded at TL A or B will have some form of road network. If they are still TL B they will have a mixture of commercial transmat portals and vehicle lines. Transmat assisted monorail and roadways allow trans continental and trans world travel using public trains or private road vehicles. Air travel will be relegated to orbital or extra-planetary transport. If they have advanced to TL A it is likely they will have abandoned roads. Streets will be relegated to older, economically depressed areas. New villages and towns will resemble those seen on worlds in the dark blue area of the graph. These worlds are in the medium blue area of the graph.

Any world founded before 2260 A.D. after 2210 A.D. will have as extensive a road network as would be required without transmat technology. Any population center which pre-dates the mid twenty-third century will have extensive road or rail or public transportation systems. If the world has advanced to TL B some of these systems, especially those between population centers will have been replaced with commercial transmat portals. If they have advanced to TL A whole population centers with their road systems may have been abandon in favor of more advanced, nanotech produced, villages and cities supported by transmat technology. Those areas not abandoned may be occupied by the economically disadvantaged or they may have been upgraded, with their street re-purposed as tracks or walkway or built upon as newly reclaimed land.

Worlds still at tech levels below B will still use their roads and public transportation systems. Gravity assisted ground vehicles and transport capsules will make up the majority of transport. Newer materials might be used for roads, and it is possible that planned communities could exist which separate vehicles from pedestrians. With lots of land and relatively few people the overcrowding existing in many areas of Earth is seen less, at least in the Highlands.

Outside the Highlands a much greater variety of technology mix and social and cultural geography is possible.

Life in a distributist nanotech society

The most difficult aspect of adventuring in any society whose tenants are radically different from the players own is trying to imagine what life is like for the player characters. This is important because social norms color what kinds of choices are reasonable for the characters to make and so limit the options of the players. These limitations are most often enforced by the referee or storyteller or gamemaster, but automatic compliance of the players often is effected by how reasonable those limits seem.
Very few players would disagree with a GM who called a SWAT team in if their characters shoot up a police station. Their response might be different if the GM calls in a ninja hit squad because they've ambushed a Confederate scouting party in a U.S. Civil War era game.
So social environment is very important. If the society is radically different, say a devout Christian norm as opposed to the radical progressive secularism of the present day that still might not be that great a leap. The PCs could likely look back several hundred years to the societal norm of the pre-Reformation Christian eras. However such societies were very different from civilization in the Highlands, most notably due to the existence of nantechnology.
Now the limitations of nanotechnology quite put to rest the common fantasy of a nanite swarm creating a banquet complete with table, chairs, prime rib, and champagne cooling in its ice bucket out of thin air. Even so it is easy to see that a small group outfitted with a number of nanotech factories and the designs needed to utilize them would be quite independent of need for the economic structures typically organized along traditional capitalistic grounds.
While the economic structure practiced within the Highlands might be categorized as distributism, it is no more pure pure distributism than what is practiced in the twenty-first century United States is pure capitalism or what is practiced in twenty-first century China is communism or capitalism.
The very existence of nanotechnology makes old supply side economics obsolete. But even when anyone with a nanotech factory and a pile of materials can make just about anything there is still an advantage to a certain amount of specialization. Someone still has to design the patterns that factories use to create items. Metals, petrochemicals and other elements must still be mined, purified and transported. And even with nanotech factories it is still more efficient to grow a crop or raise a herd than it is to produce nano-tech food.
Some amount of capitalization, that is the concentration of capital for the purposes of investment still occurs. The difference being the lack of isolation from consequences which was inherent in the progressive era corporate system.
Corporations, as originally instituted, limited the liability of investors for debt beyond the amount of assets they had in the corporation. This shifted risk to the debtors of the corporation. In the 19th century this was extended to protect shareholders by limiting the corporation's liability in both contract and tort claims. This further isolated members of the corporation from accountability for the corporation's actions. In the 20th century, changing law served to concentrate authority for guidance of corporate actions in the hands of corporate managers, who were theoretically accountable to shareholders, but often beyond their actual control. This further isolated those controlling the actions of the corporation from the consequences of their actions, both moral and legal. Of course it was possible for governments to hold corporate officers accountable for illegal activities, and even for a corporation to be dissolved for a pattern of such activities. Such sanctions typically require extensive and expensive action on the part of government, with corporate officers often shielded from direct accountability and hapless shareholders punished through loss of asset value. This pertains to legal responsibility, attempting to hold corporations up to moral accountability was even harder. This ignored the inevitable corruptive effect exercised by many large corporations as they solicited beneficial laws from compliant political leaders in return for both legal and illegal bribery.
Like many types of destructive social patterns the initial consequence of the decoupling of cause and effect resulted in a temporary economic boom. Often such patterns extend for what in human terms is a significant span of time, making the inevitable consequences less obvious. But the cause and effect relationship is as true as the law of gravity. The consequences of the divorce of behavior consequences in the economic sphere would eventually lead to economic collapse.
As communism and socialism fail because they do not take into account the nature of man so to does capitalism fail when it too fails to take into account the concupiscence caused by original sin.
Adam Smith's "invisible hand" does not work when the natural balance of economic cause and effect is corrupted by government intervention, legal redirection of consequences or criminal intent. Corporations and capitalism on their own are neither morally corrupt or sinful. However in their original incarnation, that is chartered by governments, for the common good, rather than to realize corporate revenues for the state in the form of taxes or profits for the shareholders, corporations can produce enormous good and still produce profit, which is of itself not sinful. This is accomplished by keeping corporations closely regulated, focusing on the protection of the public good and limiting corporations to comply with the purposes expressed in their charters. This generally results in small corporations, which are closely regulated by government in the interest of the commons. Naturally this produces a lower rate of return than unfettered capitalism, but it also prohibits the fiction of the immortal corporate "person", beyond common morals and ethical constraints. It also tends to ensure profits over the long run, if limiting their unfettered expansion. In the Highlands this is considered an equitable trade.

Families

It should be no surprise that with the combination of thousands of worlds and faithful Christians and Muslims as the principle inhabitants of the universe of New Diasporia, that large families are the norm rather than the exception.
Family dynamics tend to be different from the historical trends. The Progressive Era tended to see the age at which couples initially married increase (as it also saw the duration of marriages decrease,  and eventually the total number of marriages diminish.) This was blamed on a variety of causes, but mostly on the requirement of increased education and economic factors. Historians agree that the real cause was a combination of unhealthy materialism and disordered self-absorption.
Modern Highland families tend to marry during their early twenties. This is made possible through the support of larger families which reduce the necessary economic burden of marriage. Marriages tend to last very long, since anagathic nanotech factories have extended human life far beyond earlier eras. Compatibility between prospective spouses is more readily assured by stringent Pre-Cana requirements for anyone contemplating marriage, as well as widespread moral support for the virtue of chastity.
Large Catholic families tend to include various members who choose not to marry, either for religious reasons or due to temperament. Not every man who chooses not to marry is suitable for the priesthood, monastery or hermitage.  Nor is every woman who chooses not to marry suitable for the cloister or religious life. Chaste single life apart from the formal orders of the Church is an honorable vocation, and one that carries no stigma. Some do eventually spend some time in discernment, but many return to the world to live on as ancillaries to their families as beloved aunts or cherished uncles or even to marry late in life.
Large families tend to accumulate greater wealth. They take better care of their older members, rather than pushing that duty off on the state or leaving it to the individual. Under Distributism many businesses are family businesses. A large number of brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins tends to mean that there are always enough family members interested in the family business to allow some family members to choose the Church, military or government as viable alternatives without effecting the ability of the family business to survive.
From a game play point of view this means the the chances are the individual Player Character  has a large retinue of near and far relatives, the balance of which may be at their ancestral home, but many who might be in the bosom of the Church, military or government and stationed almost anywhere.
It also means the lone wolf, orphan or solitary character is likely to have an unusual background. Of course it is not unlikely that adventures are more apt than not to have come from such an unusual background.