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Woohoo! I love to do that sort of thing.

What I do when I have an RP like that, is that I explain the countries and things that people need to make their characters. In other words, if every one has to start on a certain planet and can only choose from the countries on that planet, start with that. Only explain as many countries/whatever as you feel like critiquing when a player who is almost but not quite up to par makes their profile.

Similarly, only explain the history that is directly important to character creation. If it's a lot, then you can split it up by country so that people who know what country that they want their characters to be from, only have to read about that country.

Describe the government in one paragraph unless espionage and that sort of thing is going to be very important to your RP.

Maps are awesome, because they describe geography quickly. If they are going to travel a lot, then only have map(s) for their first destination, and then worry about adding more later.

I hope that helps! I run an RP with a lot of background info, but it's a fantasy RP, called Feretris in the subforum of the same name in this guild.

Well I always have the urge to explain every thing but then that could burn you out of course.

This is all coming from the point of view of someone who has problems with burning out as a GM.

With exactly how much information do you want to molly-whop your players? Don't generate tons and tons of information for a game that's only going to last one RP unless you plan on using it over and over again. You'll do a combination of burn out your creative juices and you'll have lots of people wondering why they needed to know about it in the first place.

As for maps: Combat maps are only necessary if you're going to have positioning matter a lot for fights. It is a requirement for hex-based combat systems, but not really a biggie for conceptual movement. Otherwise they might get in the way.

City maps aren't necessary, either, though lists of city features are a good idea, once again IF it's important. In a political/world-spanning game, a world map is a necessity, though if the item itself wouldn't be available to the characters there's no reason to make it available to the players aside from being friendly. Maps tie you into a specific way of doing things, with a specific layout of space imprinted on the scene.

You need a city map for the following purposes:
If you're building a city
If you're examining the city for clues built into its infrastructure
If you're invading or besieging the city

Essentially, anything in which where you are matters just as much as, if not more than, what you are doing requires a map. Do you really need a city map if you're going to go buy potatoes and then never come back? Is a world map necessary if you aren't going to enforce physical boundaries due to super-fast space travel?

The amount of information you need to generate for players is not that large if you don't plan on anyone else using your setting. Worry about generating enough to make it work for you before you worry about generating enough so that someone else can look at your setting and see a good deal of what you see.

Hex-based ... like Heroscape? I like Heroscape, but I think when one is playing with words it should be conceptual as words themselves are ... more or less. Anyway, I think that is about all the help I need. I'll just make a threa somewhere in Gaia with all the information one would ever need in my galaxy so that they can refrence whenever they need. As for the maps, I can make them look Old Age easily. Use some parchment and a fountain pen, then dip it in tea and burn the edges and you have an anicent map prop.