SFRPG

It can be okay to have a society that is doomed, just so long as it’s not dead yet.

If you have a lot of them that’s a bit of a bummer, but just a few, if they’e doomed in somewhat different ways, can be okay. One time, when I was running a campaign for what would have been scouts if if had been Traveller, the party landed on a coral-fringed tropical island. The gorgeous, happy, half-naked locals lead them to a temple where a groups of priests chanted a litany at them: “We’re very glad you’re here, beecause out diet is deficit in alpha-linolenic acid and iodine, and we’re living on top of a superplume.” But it turned out that they didn’t understand what it meant.

The area doesn't have to be unstable to have a bit of geothermal energy. Britain has very few and rather pathetic earthquakes, but it also has hot springs in Harrogate and in Bath: https://www.thermaebathspa.com/news-info/about-the-spa/spa-history/
https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/GeositesBath

Bits of Bath are liable to collapse into underground caverns not because of quakes, but because people have been quarrying limestone out from under the town for centuries, plus groundwater dissolving the limestone away.

What strontygirl said.

Also, there´s Iceland - they have so much geothermal energy that even now they have to think sideways to use it all. They heat up their sidewalks in winter, and a secluded bay in summer (to make it warm enough to bath in, despite being near the arctic circle). No major earthquake risk, but quite a lot of volcanism.

_________________
Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards. Sir Frederick Hoyle
Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in a cradle forever. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Man has earned the right to hold this planet against all comers, by virtue of occasionally producing someone completely bat**** insane. xkcd #556
Just like people, stars can be very important without being terribly bright. Phil Plait, "Bad Astronomy"

Thanks, I hadn't thought about the low-level thermal activity - I was thinking Yellowstone...

_________________
My friends call me Richard. You can call me Sir.
www.XmasDragon.com