Fully Automated RPG

I had this idea for an adventure. I wanted to post it here so I don't forget it, and also to share it in case anyone else wants to use parts of this.

~

Players investigate a fatal industrial accident in a mining project by a fault line management agency. They discover that the deceased had uncovered a conspiracy: the agency has been slowly infiltrated at multiple levels by members of the suicide cult NostroCramo. This group believes that the world is a simulation, and seeks to crash the simulation to liberate themselves and anyone else who is trapped in it, and they've become convinced that triggering a massive earthquake will do it.

To do so, they've infiltrated the Seismic Management Division of the Pacifican Department of Geology, which is responsible for conducting deep subterranean operations to execute small controlled releases of energy along fault lines. Their plan has been to use the agency's resources to do the exact opposite purpose: instead of modeling out the safest way to release energy, they've been setting up an energy release meant to trigger the biggest possible release along the entire San Andreas fault line ever: the first magnitude 10+ quake.

The players have to investigate the death, discover that the accident was really a murder, uncover the conspiracy, then make their way through mine shafts to disable the charges. They must work their way all the way to the location of the largest charge in a bunker sitting 7 km down within the earth's crust. They can initially be trying to move undetected to avoid motivating the cultists to trigger the charges early, and then later be racing them down to the last and deepest one.

(I'm calling it "Rock-a-bye Baby" for now, although I'm pretty sure I can do better than that. Feel free to suggest cooler names.)

I created a brief introductory video explaining the premise of the game, another describing the premade characters, and four actual play videos to show folks what the game looks like in practice!

I've uploaded these to YouTube and of course PeerTube as well!

https://video.everythingbagel.me/c/fully_automated/videos

https://www.youtube.com/@FullyAutomatedRPG-nz1wh

I don't plan on making any more content at the moment, but I'm glad to have a few videos that I think might help people who want to know more get a clearer picture on what this is. And if we happen to make more video content in the future, we now have somewhere to put it!

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Parable of the Sower is such a good book.

First, it's interesting that it starts right about now. The book starts in mid-2024, and even mentions that its an election year. That was a fascinating experience to read a scifi book in the moment in time in which it is set. It still feels like it takes place about 20 years in the future. It was written 31 years ago, so politically things have seemed to move as many steps forward as backward. It seems like a lot of things have not gotten better and worse than when Butler wrote it, so in some sense I feel like I'm looking at it as a near future in the same way as when it was written a generation ago. I guess I'm glad things didn't go as badly as in the story, but it's rough that the looming threat from 30 years ago feels the same distance away now as then.

Second, it's painful to read. Although the events described in the book haven't happened in the book's setting -- California -- the social collapse and migrations described have happened in Honduras, Gaza, Yemen, and certainly others I'm not aware of. It was really hard to read that and know that it was already real somewhere.

Third, as a solarpunk novel -- and really as general fiction -- it feels like it should be part of a high school curriculum. It's really well written and an engrossing read. Since publishing Fully Automated, I often relate solarpunk stories to that game. What might I have added to the game if I'd read this before? How well does it naturally fit? One thing that struck me is that her emerging in-world faith -- Earthseed -- reminds me quite a bit of elements of Seekerism, a new faith tradition in Fully Automated. I wish I'd known and included direct references to Earthseed, but it's nice when the game has alignment with great works that I wasn't directly familiar with.

Has anyone else read this? What do you folks think?

I finally got around to making a playlist of the music used to score the starter campaign, Fully Automated: Regulation!

I think it's a collection of real bangers. I hope that for people who haven't played these stories, this might give an enticing taste of what to expect. And for people who might've played, perhaps it takes you back to some memorable moments.

Demonstration of Power

• The stakeout: “This DJ” by Warren G
• Fight scene!: “Dare to be Stupid”, covered by The Cybertronic Spree
• Roll credits: “Fine”, by Lemon Demon

Psychonautica

• Opening Sparing match: “Champion” by Buju Banton
• Entering neurospace: “Just dropped in” by Kenny Roger
• The mindscape: “Ghandi, Dalai Lama, Your Lord & Savior J.C.” by André 3000
• Dance battle: “Do the Damn Thing” by Rupee
• The Bathhouse: “Ants to You, Gods to Who?” by André 3000
• Android assault: “Robot Rock” by Daft Punk
• Synthesizing the cure: “The Oligo Separation Verse” and “Analytical Gangster” by True Speak
• Roll credits: “Pony” by Deluxe

Piece of Mind

• Surf Intro: “Cecilia Ann” by The Pixies
• Fighting back: “Headshot” by she
• Starting the investigation: “No Time for Dreaming” by Charles Bradley & Menahan Street Band
• Sneaking around: “The Sensual Woman” by The Herbaliser
• Piecing things together: “Cause for Alarm” by The Heavy
• Research montage, pt.1: “Metrocenter 84” by Sunset Neon.
• Research montage, pt.2: “You Rock Me” by she
• Making a plan: “Drag and Drop” by the Soul Motivator
• Showtime: “Swing Break” by the McMash Clan, feat. Kate Mullins
• Showdown: “Mastermind” by Deltron 3030 and Dan the Automater
• Showdown, cont’d: “Don’t Get In My Way” by Zach Hemsey
• Roll credits: “UNLVD” by Socalled

Olives Fair in Love and War

• Vampire fight: “Dark Entities” cover by Daniel Guerra Caballero
• Roll credits: “Birdhouse in your Soul” by They Might Be Giants

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/13032570

> One of my ongoing goals is to emphasize reuse in solarpunk media – both through my own projects and whenever I get the chance while helping others through suggestions or editing. > > There’s a wealth of stuff all around us which could be repurposed in creative ways, and solarpunk art and fiction has a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate that ingenuity and thrift. > > A lot of that stuff is in cars. So here’s some notes I’ve pulled together from various online discussions and from many people’s recommendations in solarpunk spaces. It’s not exhaustive, its probably not all good advice, but it should be good enough for a writer to casually drop into a description of a room or workshop, or for an artist to include in the background of a scene. Something that shows that this isn’t a scratch-built future, that they’re repurposing existing stuff wherever they can. > > Think of all the weird ways postapoclyptic movies dress the sets with misused items from the present – here’s a somewhat practical guide to solarpunk set dressing with the guts of cars: > > The big stuff: > > * Depending on the vehicle, its frame (if it has one), axles, and wheels can be used to make a trailer, cart, or similar. (I’ve definitely seen trailers that were just the back half of a pickup truck with a tongue and hitch welded on.) Bonus: the bearings in car wheels tend to be better than those used in regular trailers. > * The transmission from a vehicle could be rigged up to a wind/water mill to adjust rotational velocity of a sawmill or other industrial application. Some power tools, like lathes, use vehicle transmissions: https://www.practicalmachinist.com/forum/threads/truck-transmission-for-lathe.240574/ > * Steel leaf springs can be removed from their bundles (they’re long, flat pieces of steel stacked and bound together with strips of steel) and are favorites of blacksmiths for making swords and knives because of the type of steel used. > * Earthships can be made with stacked tires packed with rammed earth: https://earthship.com/systems/garbage-management/ > > The Electronics: > > * Alternators can be used to generate a wide range of amperage and voltage, suitable for different needs, including (in a few specific cases) welding: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/diy-low-cost-generator-from-vehicle-alternator-alternating-generator.1843/ > * The terminology here is a little confusing – early cars had DC generators (sometimes called dynamos), then they switched to AC alternators. But modern ’emergency generators’ still use alternators hooked up to an engine. So if you’re looking for something to convert motion to electricity, perhaps to attach to a water wheel, a vehicle alternator (and some belts to adjust the speeds) could do the job. > * Some caveats: suitable vehicle generators and motors will likely work better, and to get an alternator to work you may need to either include a power source of 12v to excite the alternator, or to to replace certain internals to include permanent magnets. You'll need to mess with the gear/pulley ratio to get the right (high) speed too. > * The electronics in most cars are usually all designed to run off 12 volts, which can be very convenient for a household with solar panels depending on their setup. If a household has a low-voltage DC battery bank (some do, some don’t) then dropping the battery voltage a few times to power car parts comes with a smaller efficiency loss. > * These 12 volt electronics include things like the cab lights, headlights, radio/entertainment system, backup/surround cameras (perhaps for a security system?), all of which could be placed in a home on a circuit providing the same power they’d get in a car. > * LED headlights make for decent grow lights. Different models hit different parts of the spectrum, but generally they’re sturdy, run cool, and don’t take much power. They might not be as fine-tuned for plants as a dedicated product but they’re common and probably not being used for much in a solarpunk society. > * Alternative use: outdoor lights, indoor spotlights, light on a wagon, rickshaw etc. > * A car air conditioner could cool some small storage room decently. With big living rooms, it would have difficulty https://permies.com/t/177638/Convert-car-air-conditioner-home > * Cars have lots of small electric motors with various advantages and disadvantages: you can pull motors from the blower, power windows, and windshield wiper motors have a fair bit of torque and can be decent actuators for some projects (I’ve seen them included in robotics projects). > * The blower and motor could be used for ventilation elsewhere. > * Starter motors are tricky – they’re designed to provide a lot of sudden torque to briefly turn the engine, and not to run for a long time. So they don’t fit a lot of our usual use-cases for electric motors. I’ve seen forum posts that describe using them for hoists (like to lift heavy things) but that’s about it so far. > * There’s plenty of wiring in a car which can all be reused as long as the gauge is correct for the new use. > * Automotive Relays are used to enable a low amperage circuit to switch a higher amperage circuit on or off, making the control systems safer. One example given was switching on heaters in a thermal storage water tank. There’s a fair number of forum threads where people link arduinos to automotive relays to control things the arduino couldn’t handle on its own. > * Car batteries have long seen alternative uses – they might be the one car part used most outside of cars. As vehicles go hybrid and electric, their bigger, more powerful batteries become more common. Even when they weaken overtime, the lower power density doesn’t matter much for fixed installations where weight isn’t a factor, so old electric car batteries show up in homes and local grid storage systems: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2023/11/old-ev-batteries-solar-power-grid-backup-b2u/ > > Moving fluids: > > * Various pumps and tubing can be used for moving fluids (though the original purpose/contents will restrict what you can use them for). > * The tubing, tanks, pumps, and other parts used for windshield washer fluid are probably the safest car-fluid-handling components to reuse for non-car things (with a lot of rinsing and cleaning): https://www.mountainbuzz.com/threads/reusing-wiper-fluid-jugs-for-drinking-water.97053/ > * Possible uses could include aquariums and hydroponic setups (This may stand out to fish keepers though, who are very cautious around how they handle the water for their aquatic friends and who would be leery of traces of methyl alcohol wiper fluid contaminating it. https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/376583-windshield-wiper-water-pump-as-ato-pump/) > * Car radiators work well for heat exchange, their intended purpose whether they’re in a car or not. This can be part of systems for heating or cooling. > * Copper brake line can also be used in heat exchanges. > * Fuel and brake lines should definitely not be used for things like potable water. But you wouldn’t be using potable water for heat exchange anyways, so contamination from the radiators, tubing, or brake line won’t make much difference there. > > Odds and Ends: > > * Inside the rubber squeegee part of windshield wipers is a long thin strip of good quality spring steel. Lockpicking folks like it for making tools. > * Catalytic converters might be useful for other kinds of filtering? Maybe not in wood stoves though: https://permies.com/t/96864/Misusing-car-parts-cleaner-cooking > * Certain vehicle exhaust parts can be used to make rocket stoves: https://permies.com/t/15611/Auto-exhaust-muffler-pipe-parts > * https://permies.com/t/129517/Homemade-Wood-Stove-Propane-Tank > > Cosmetic stuff: > > * Seats: couches, chairs, porch swing, etc, fabric, foam stuffing for stuffed animals. > * Windows are tricky because the shapes are weird, which can make framing them difficult, but they could be set into clay or concrete or similar building materials. > * Hoods, roofs, and body panels offer some large sheets of metal which could be used for sheds. > > Last but not least, there’s always conversion to run on woodgas (something I’ve depicted in a photobash) for some limited uses, or conversion to electric. And if all else fails, you can always melt them down for your society’s steel manufacturing needs – electric arc furnace smelters running off a green grid, recycling, are about as close to zero emission steel as you’re likely to get, and the metal is already refined so I think you could get pretty tight control over the quality on the output. > > But I hope you’ll consider some of the above possibilities too. The parts are out there, we might as well use them. > > Thanks for reading! Like I said, this is by no means an exhaustive list, so if you know of something I’ve missed, or see something I got wrong, I’m happy to edit it! > > Also available here: https://jacobcoffinwrites.wordpress.com/2024/09/04/using-every-part-of-the-car-a-resource-for-solarpunk-writers-and-artists/

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/12735795

> Hi! I'm hoping to hear people's thoughts on what my city, New Orleans, would look like in a perfect solarpunk world. > > Most solarpunk art (which I love to see!) Seems to be praire/plains or forest inspired, and definitely one of the issues we have that I want to avoid is people bring environmental and ecological policies and thoughts from those two biomes to other ones (because they're seen as kind of default). > > So, New Orleans! Lots of interesting challenges to address, including: > > -tornados (so we need safe rooms and to withstand them > > -hurricanes (there's probably no way to withstand these, instead maybe something that's kind of designed to be refixed once a year, since that's what happens anyways) > > -flooding, both hurricane-associated and flash-flooding throughout the year (definitely no basements, honestly maybe no first or second floors either). > > -extreme heat (feels-like gets to 120F/50C at least a couple days a year) > > -extreme cold (not nearly as bad as the heat, but can be brutal enough that they turn schools into extra shelter for our > unhoused for about a week each year) > > -end of the river (we're at the end of the Mississippi, so we're definitely more silt than soil) > > -swamp (New Orleans is sinking, our ground isn't particularly stable) > > -agriculture (I'm really not sure farming is a great idea. It's hard to find local crops that grow in the wetlands--even lists of indigenous foodways focus more on upstate, where traditional planting would work. Can we farm in the wetlands without turning it into a farm?)

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/12656646

> Created by /u/joan_de_art on Reddit.

I just wanted to share that I recorded an upcoming episode of the Solarpunk Presents podcast!

I recorded it last Thursday, so I'm guessing it'll probably come out in September. I hope it went well. I'm a little concerned I was overcaffinated and also got too excited and might sound like it. But hopefully that won't be too much of a problem.

I'm very excited to hear it. The conversation felt very lively, and I'm eager to see what comes of it.

If anyone knows of other opportunities to talk on streams or podcasts, let us know! You can offer to go on yourself or refer another person. Cheers!

Earlier today, I saw this thread on Mastodon: https://writing.exchange/@[email protected]/112965146817661555

In it, the poster wondered what solarpunk cars would look like, and speculated that we already agree that they'd be lightweight small cars with electric drive. I wrote up a few posts in response, and gathered up some reference images, and I think they might be useful for folks looking to add detail to streets in Fully Automated.

I'd argue that in a solarpunk world, most personal travel should be feasible with public transit in one form or another, and with bikes or other similar pedal/electric contraptions filling much of the last-mile needs. And FA! offers a wide range of vehicles from ropeways and airbus to trains and streetcars and ferries that fill those various public transit niches. Likewise, most cargo should be being moved by train, airship, or ocean vessel.

But that still leaves a lot of gaps: last mile transit, especially for heavy cargo, and personal conveyance for people with disabilities and other needs spring to mind. FA! has some wild/exciting stuff like personal rotorcoptors and gliders here, but what would some of the more mundane vehicles look like?

I think with most transportation handled by public transit, car-ready streets are likely going to be de-prioritized, if only as a matter of cost/resource allotment. I picture a lot of them shrunk down to make room for parks, gardens, and sponge-city permeable surfaces and basins, leaving something wider than a bike path, but narrower than our current default.

I think we'd see road networks used mostly to reach local destinations, and public transit hubs, and that the vehicles on those roads would generally travel much slower, and could be held to much lower safety standards than modern cars.

In real life there are a dizying array of contraptions people come up with in alternative vehicle competitions - hybrid electric, solar, and pedal-powered machines sort of partway between a bike and a car. If the roads are no longer the sole domain of cars and high speed limits, and bikes weren't restricted to narrow bike lanes and paths, I could see people building all sorts of things to suit their needs for local transportation and cargo capacity.

Ideally they'd be open source, DIY things which reuse as many existing parts and materials as possible. I've gathered up a few of my favorite examples here:

The vhelio modular electric/pedal hybrid vehicle looks pretty crude, but it offers a crazy variety of configurations, I could see some descendant of it, a bit more developed, being common on streets.

!

Here's another take on the design:

!

Electric rikshaws are a practical city vehicle, small but with large carrying capacity:

!

I'm not even sure how much taxonomic difference there really is between them and ebike tricycles:

!

I think the four-wheeled, cargo-hauling, recumbant velov armidillo bicycle cart is especially cool.

!

We might even see mini-car-like things like the UD MUUV Velocar:

!

I think the closest fit to modern day vehicles would actually be trucks (albeit often smaller and more utilitarian than many of the giant pickup trucks we have now). But for moving heavy items for the last few miles trucks are a good form factor.

I photobashed some art of one using a streetcar pantograph rig, set up to haul heavy stuff for a library of things: !

Full post here: https://jacobcoffinwrites.wordpress.com/2024/01/16/library-economy-heavy-items-delivery-collections/

As for what they would look like - if we didn't need every vehicle to be able to fly down freeways and survive 180-mile-per-hour crashes, they could be much simpler than what we have now. Something along the lines of electric kei trucks, small cabs, large beds, not intended to double as a mini van or daily driver. This article had a kind of cool example: https://slrpnk.net/post/11465754

!

!

Another potential truck answer is Woodgas conversions of old Internal Combustion Engine trucks. https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/01/wood-gas-vehicles-firewood-in-the-fuel-tank/

I think these make sense for rural areas, for specific tasks, by farmers, forest managers, and others whose work takes them impractically far from public transit. Woodgas conversions emphasize reuse of existing machinery instead of new manufacturing. It doesn’t require high-tech electronics like electric vehicles.

!

These are less practical for the kind of quick trip to the store or daily commute which has shaped our current society. A woodgas vehicle takes awhile to start up, and because the fire needs to burn down, doesn’t make much sense for short trips. They might be used for hauling produce to town, supplies out to forest management camps, research sites, and other remote locations. And perhaps for road trips by campers and other people who might borrow one for awhile. I could also see hobbyists having a lot of fun with them.

The wood could be sustainably sourced, using scraps from sawmills, harvested invasive trees, brush, and even dedicated coppiced plantations of especially fast-growing trees like paulownia elongata. though its important to note that while this can be done well, the last time these vehicles were used in massive numbers (during WWII) they led to deforestation. They make sense in small doses, and with some careful management of their inputs.

One last bit of art - I featured a bunch of big woodgas trucks, smaller electric kei trucks, electric rickshaws, cargo bikes, and a modernized chinese wheelbarrow in this scene of McMansions being deconstructed and the materials salvaged in this photobash: !

Full text here: https://jacobcoffinwrites.wordpress.com/2024/05/02/deconstruction-crew-disassembling-abandoned-mcmansions-so-the-material-can-be-reused/

A gentleperson in the Discord opined that the world guide lacks definition in its addressing of all the major catastrophes. Specifically, they pointed out that these catastrophes are pivotal, culture-defining events. How we navigate them informs so much of the present. That means that it underserves the game world if they're hand-waved away.

This document is an opportunity to elaborate on how various problems were addressed and what marks they've left on society. Feel free to add your own ideas freely! We can edit for clarity later.

This is from the solarpunk images collection of pickledtezcat. It was shared with me by @[email protected] . Here's the description of this piece:

>A bit of Afrofuturism with this one. >One of the scenarios I'd like to include in my pen and paper RPG project.

I just discovered this artist, but I'm immediately going to reach out and see if they'd like to collaborate on anything RPG related. This is great.

This is from the Utopic Cities collection by artist aerroscape: https://www.deviantart.com/aerroscape/gallery/91089978/utopistic-cities.

It was shared with me by @[email protected] . I really love all these. Here is the artist description of this piece:

>a back & front cover art commission for Lino Zeddies, an activist for a better world and author from Berlin. >In his book UTOPIA 2048 he creates a what-if scenario, where you wake up in the year 2048, realizing how favourably the world has developped after major changes in the financial system have been made. His book is now available in many online stores printed and as e-book. >___________ >this is a photo manipulation to about 30%. Sources: altered, licensed and open source web photos, own photographs and google earth images >___________ >feel free to share this artwork! you may use the artwork non-commercially, according to the creative commons license (CC BY-NC-SE 4.0)

This is a Powered By The Apocalypse game meant to run general space western adventures. It offers opportunities for play similar to Star Trek, Firefly, The Expanse, Babylon 5, etc.

First, as a general concept, I dig it. Second, I think the execution is solid. I'm looking through the quick start and the starter adventure, and this looks a lot like what I'd dream for the Fully Automated space expansion to resemble. It's tech level is quite a bit higher, but the structure and the art and everything is really well done.

The attached link is to their Kickstarter for the published edition. It's already been fully backed, but it only has a day left, so if anyone wants any of the rewards, act quick,

Here is a link to the Itch.io page. The game seems to have undergone about four years of development and refinement, and it looks very professional. https://goldenlassogames.itch.io/starscape

The Itch page no longer links to the game, as they've withdrawn the beta versions as they prepare for their official release, but the game docs are still available on the publisher's website through Google Docs:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xW13wUMX-WWKMuHA7dkjW6S4bzRkE3Fr

I would like to try this some time. And when we get around to a space expansion, I hope I might be able to talk to folks on this developer team, because their tastes are pretty much my tastes.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/12129345

I’ve been working on writing a campaign(?) adventure module(?) For Fully Automated for the last couple months now. It’s the first piece of solarpunk fiction I’ve written, and it includes almost every setting concept I’ve been playing with in my Postcards from a Solarpunk Future series.

It’s a sort of treasure hunting adventure, where the players are on a quest to find several tons of illegally-dumped industrial waste, which is useful in the production of geopolymers. Through their investigation they’ll explore a mostly-abandoned town which is in the process of being deconstructed and rewilded, talk to locals and work crews, and hopefully unravel a cold-case murder mystery lost to the region’s chaotic past during the setting’s Global Climate War 60 years before.)

Writing this has been really fun - I think partially because I love worldbuilding, so I'm happily writing all the locations and options I can think of, knowing the players will only visit a subset of them.

I’ve gotten far enough along that I think I can start photobashing together some art for some of the locations the players might decide to visit (starting with this bike kitchen in the village where the game begins).

In my postcard about deconstructing McMansions to reclaim the building materials and rewild the land, a few people brought up simply repurposing the buildings. I’d been batting around the concept in my head for awhile before then, but had struggled to figure out how to render a scene that showed everything I wanted it to.

I ended up using pretty much every idea I had for those scenes in the campaign’s starting village (a planned community which has repurposed an abandoned wealth enclave and its golf course as communal housing, workshops, and a food forest. That means I can put together photobashes of specific spots within that village, which I think is more achievable.

So here’s the first of the set. It shows a little bit of a repurposed discount mansion, but focuses mostly on the old back yard. The concrete patio has been removed, the large lawns and nearby golf course have grown into proper forests, and public paths have been brought right up to the house. The pool house has been turned into a bike co-op, and the swimming pool has been converted into a sunken greenhouse or Walipini.

Generally when you end up with an old swimming pool you don’t want, your options are to tear it out and fill in the hole, just fill in the pool, convert it into a natural pond, or (perhaps the least common answer) build one of these. Which one you pick will likely depend on your goals, the quality of the structure, and how far down your water table is. If it’s too high, it can lift an empty pool like a concrete boat, or cause other structural damage. But if circumstances are right, and the pool is intact after being abandoned and empty for a good many years already, it might be worth repurposing.

There are some beautiful and solarpunk photos online of real life versions of these, which have a far grander scale than what I’ve depicted here. This is more like the old pineapple pits, or a fancy version of the citrus trenches. Who knows, maybe they even cut away part of the floor so they could plant into the ground below.

The above-ground portion of the greenhouse is backed with an earthen berm/raised bed meant to help it maintain a consistent temperature. The retaining walls of the tiered bed are made from repruposed, broken-up concrete (sometimes called urbanite), likely sourced from the concert patio which was replaced with wood chips for better water permeability. Some full-shade plants like rhubarb and mint have been planted on the back slope, and a grape arbor has been built over it. Sweet peas are growing along the side where there’s more light. Raspberries and wildflowers grow around the rest of the smaller yard space.

In the background of the scene, an old pool house has been converted into a bike kitchen, one locations where the players will be able to obtain transportation.

A network of paths have been built all throughout the village, the food forest, and the region beyond. Even the town the players will explore is riddled with small trails and paths which the locals have built in lieu of trying to maintain a full network of paved roads. This was inspired by my hometowns' network of backwoods trails, and the downsizing to achieve a maintainable transportation network described in this article. Some roads obviously still exist because they're useful, but others have been washed out and never repaired because none of the current residents need them for anything, while new trails cut straight through properties nobody has lived in for decades.

The buildings are painted with colorful murals. This is always a challenge for me in these photobashes. I love the idea of a society that makes art everywhere for its own sake and I'd hope a solarpunk society would abandon some of the obsession with property values and would decorate everything from buildings to machines, in all kinds of styles. That might mean folk art with historical roots, like the zapista murals, it might mean carved panels on cabinets, or etchings on tools, metal sculpture, or who knows what. Embellishment not for commercial value but as self expression and messaging. So the topics and content would vary a lot.

I think there's a bit of punk in that, in refusing to paint or decorate with an eye on the resale value, like your house is a product for others rather than your own home.

So I try to include murals, carvings, and other decorations in my solarpunk art. Unfortunately I've also found that in my postcards, where the buildings are usually part of a cluttered background, murals can kind of act like dazzle camouflage, making it hard to tell what exactly is happening. So I'm still figuring out what works and what doesn't. (Ideally, I want the contents of the mural to be clear while also allowing for the building and the assorted stuff attached to it (plants, solar panels, other tech) to be easily recognized and understood. It's challenging and something I might revisit someday. I did try a version where the bike kitchen's mural was made out of silhouetted bike parts, but it looked less obviously like a paint job on a building, so I went with the mandala for clarity for now.

Overall I think this'll work for now, and get us closer to a playable version, though I am still messing with it, looking for something that'll hit that adventure story vibe visually. I'm going much more line-art-and-flat-colors for the character portraits, so we'll see if that works here.

Just sharing / saving some dope mural art.

The Fully Automated rulebook has some cool ideas on housing. I think this article has nice examples and discussions around features of successful apartment buildings/neighborhoods, including the vertical rather than horizontal stratification, which might be worth considering in solarpunk worldbuilding.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/11940937

> Pocket link

I just finished "Four Futures: Life After Capitalism" by Peter Frase. I'd meant to read this for a long time, but just got around to it. I wish I'd read it sooner. It's great!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22551901-four-futures

I was familiar with the general premise, as it's an expansion on an article Frase wrote for Jacobin in 2011 by the same name.

Has anyone else read this?

I've had an idea bouncing around that I haven't been able to form into a sentence, and I'm looking for help.

I feel like within Fully Automated there is a particular recurring concept in the application of science and medicine and engineering that is thematically tied to solarpunk philosophy, but it's one I can't quite describe.

One example is the use of medical putty to close wounds, and how it is incredibly physical, and messy, and interpersonal. And this is meant to resembles the way that rejuvenation typically looks is in the biological world. This is kind of a distinct alternative to things like a "hypospray" in Star Trek: their healing is very abstract. Whatever problem a patient has, it's not visible, and it's cure barely engages with them physically. It almost resembles prayer in its degree of clean disengagement from the problem.

None of us were born into the world packaged like an iPhone and shoved through an interdimensional mail slot. We grew from cells inside of a human body that sustained us, and then got shoved out of it covered in mucus. Hurray!

I feel like this theme is repeated in a lot of technologies: from the idea of building things out of layers of resins or other composites as opposed to just stacking a bunch of bricks to the fact that going into cyberspace still requires you to feed light into your optic nerves and vibrate your tympanic membrane instead of just shoving a magic jellybean into the characters' brains and declaring that they're all permanently connected to WiFi now.

But I don't really know how to tie all of that into a sentence that explains the principle or concept that these are examples of. Does this make sense to anyone else? Possibly in a way that they can describe?

Now that the game and adventure modules are out, we'd like more reviews in order to get taken more seriously when we reach out to professionals for blurbs and reviews.

The game is free, so all you have to do is make an account on DriveThruRPG if you don't have one, download the books, and after 24 hours if you go back to the product page, you can leave feedback.

All honest reviews are appreciated! You also don't have to read the whole thing to have an opinion. skim and report what you think.

This looks really good, and really interesting.

It's also really long, though. Time to start working through it.

Just a poem someone mentioned that I found touching.

Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to format the line breaks on Lemmy. Oh well.

I like to think (and the sooner the better!) of a cybernetic meadow where mammals and computers live together in mutually programming harmony like pure water touching clear sky.

I like to think (right now, please!) of a cybernetic forest filled with pines and electronics where deer stroll peacefully past computers as if they were flowers with spinning blossoms.

I like to think (it has to be!) of a cybernetic ecology where we are free of our labors and joined back to nature, returned to our mammal brothers and sisters, and all watched over by machines of loving grace.

With the release of campaign 1, we've now released all the starting content planned within phase 1!

Check it out, tell your friends. and consider leaving a review!

This came up on Discord, and I thought it was with sharing more broadly:

> Anyone have advice on handling a U-wolf PC? Anthropic bias is heavy. > ... > ok, got a coherant backstory from them, Third Generation from initial uplift, not all Aunts/Uncles are in the S5 range, and lifespan improvement is generationally incrementing upwarsd. > All of the pack that raised them are at least S4+, Moms are Foresters/Wilderness managers, Dad is a radio astronomer and hobbiest fisherman. > Walter Brown (the PC parawolf), is an informal coordinator using a BCI to keep connected to networks, and taking advantage of a very high Dunbar Number to maintain lots of distinct relationships.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/11678529

> Happy Free RPG Day!

I saw this post last night just before the sale ended, and grabbed a free copy of the Star Trek Adventures RPG core rule book.

If anyone would like a copy, message me and I'll share my copy with you (which I think is acceptable: as a rule, I don't encourage piracy of RPGs because I want to respect the creative work of others, but I got this free on sale yesterday, so it seems reasonable to share copies person-to-person).

Having spent the morning reading it, I'm very impressed. I've made it a priority to try and learn from other RPGs, especially any that take place in some kind of positive future. And I'm especially interested in ones like Traveler, this, and The Expanse, because eventually I'd like to release a space-based companion to the core manual.

This is a very cool game book. It's really rich in lore, and does a great job making the world seem intelligible to play in. Contextualizing the technology and making sense of the conflicts and player experiences in such a world is no mean feat, but this RPG does a really good job, imo, demonstrating ways of doing that.

Our indie dev group just released our third playable adventure! This is the climax of a four-part set! It is now available for free on DriveThruRPG!

It’s for a free, open-source game system/setting we made that’s like cyberpunk in a post-scarcity society. Check it out! Honest feedback is appreciated.

>A gang of whitehat biohackers suspect they're being targeted. That threat is about to get very real. > >On a sunny summer day, your help is needed escorting a eccentric researcher to a meeting with their collegues. It's been six weeks since unknown actors staged a daring armed robbery on their laboratory, and tensions are running high. But when this mysterious adversary puts their plans into action, it'll take all your skills and judgement to avert a nightmare.

This story continues to build on the previous two in its scope, complexity, and challenges to give diverse player and character types opportunitites to see more places, meet more characters, and find ways to use their specialities to help their communities in a story with around 8 - 10 hours of content.

Our second playable adventure is now available for free on DriveThruRPG!

>An adventurer is facing a mind-bending medical crisis. Are you prepard to join the rescue party? > >Psychonaut Psilosybe Vulgaris has fallen into a catonic state while testing a new psychadelic. Now her doctor and friends need the aid of some daring and capable first responders ready to do whatever it takes to find a cure, before her mind dissolves away to nothing! > >As the second published adventure within the Fully Automated! solarpunk game catalog, Psychonautica is written for new players who are ready for a more free-form adventure. Unlike the short and simple demo mission, this one has twists, turns, and opportunities for GMs and players to tell stories with a bit more freedom. > >Respond to a medical emergency! Explore the wild mental dimension of neurospace! Meet a wilder, wider world of characters in a story that stands on its own while planting the seeds for an even more climactic sequel!

Firebreak! A game of directable fire. With it's origins in the burning years and needing to train children to handle PPE for smoke, it's gradually evolved into a more playful mode. Over several days the competitors build quickwood structures and an artificial forest. The teams have "home trees" to protect and defend, and a limited supply of water to extinguish it. The central artificial forest is ignited and let spread before the teams can leave (leaf) their home trees. The sport supports a variable amount of teams. In some rural areas It's also considered a coming of age ritual in forested areas, which imparts valuable lessons about life and rescue work.

I found this story on Mastodon, about a maritime shipping disaster and the first-on-the-scene, questionably-legitimate emergency responders who rescue crew, contain the ecological impacts, and restore infrastructure damaged by a megafreighter crash before the official response can get into gear. And who take a bunch of loot when they leave.

Fully Automated's setting is generally more responsible than the capitalist one suggested in this story, so there might be less of a vacuum for a group like this to fill. But the world is big and varied, and it has a messy history, with plenty of war and strife, in which groups like this could thrive. Some of them may still be around. And some regions might just genuinely need someone to step up and respond to disasters, regardless of legitimacy.

Either way, I think it's a neat concept with decent execution.

This is the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldjerking/comments/1d92dkp/rate_the_political_factions_in_my_totally/

I love everything about this, especially the gear and tactics. So badass.

I've been talking with folks about what might be the best tools for sharing photos for use when running games. In addition to maps, I enjoy showing players art and photos as backgrounds. We usually play on Roll20 virtual tabletop, and it acts like a little dollhouse or stage background.

Here are four photos I took outside the California Academy of Sciences, which is a museum in San Francisco with pretty solarpunk architecture. Does this seem like a useful way to collect up visual assets and make them easy for folks to find?

Between the large swaths of rewilded land in Fully Automated's setting (which is protected from any permanent development/dwelings) and the general availability of high tech stuff, I could totally see slow, wandering, nomadic houses being a thing (for good or ill, depending on who in the setting you ask).

!

>The vote to elect a new chair of the Pacifica Grid closes in four days, and an auditor thinks there's something suspicious going on. Records of an incident for the lead candidate's past have been destroyed in a cyberattack, and the manager responsible for the files is being mysteriously tight lipped. Keeping power in the right hands requires answers, and it's going to take a few determined problem solvers to get them!

After releasing the core game manual a week ago, we've now released our first playable adventure. It's a concise little one-shot that can be played in 2-4 hours, written specifically as an easy entry point into the game's world and rules.

Like the game itself, it's FREE! So check it out, tell your friends, and if you like this weird little story of hard-science sci-fi intrigue, please leave us a rating and review!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/482551/fully-automated-a-demonstration-of-power

I've been thinking about campaigns and discussing possible plotlines with my SO, and while we were talking about options for investigations and the reasons people might commit crimes even in a solarpunk society where everyone has enough, and they reminded me of this podcast which focuses on white collar crimes, their impacts on society, and the investigations around them.

Especially if your players are interested in playing investigators, I think there's a lot of potential in learning about the motivations and tactics of the rich and powerful in everything from taking shortcuts that make unsafe buildings, to illegally dumping chemical waste.

If you'd like to do that learning by listening to an entertaining podcast read by a fellow with a remarkably dry sense of humor, I'd very much recommend it.

Semi related, I'm currently planning a session or short campaign around searching for a decades-old illegal dumping site so it can be remediated, while providing useful inputs to geopolymer manufacturing.

Guess what?

WE'RE LIVE!!!

Fully Automated RPG is now available for "purchase" on DriveThruRPG!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/481979/Fully-Automated-Solarpunk-RPG

If you haven't yet had a look, check us out now! The book is free as in speech, and free as in beer! And if you like what you see, please rate us, review us, and tell your friends! (or foes!)

A GM play tester posted this on the Discord, and I'm very excited by this feedback. I think it's a great testimonial to share, and also a confirmation of our overall approach. Making the game system-flexible was a priority, so I'm really glad to hear that it works in actual use that way.

>@andrewrgross when I joined this discord like half a year ago or more, you asked me to share my thoughts on the game. I have finally had a chance to play. Or well, a completely overhauled version of the game, so I'm not sure if my thoughts are still worth much, but here it goes. > >I read the entire setting and came up with some more details for my own region, the Netherlands. I found some friends in my neighbourhood and we played in our own neighbourhood in the year 2124. Most were new to rpgs in general. I used my own monstrous homebrew mechanics that are a mix of Pathfinder2e and Powered by the Apocalypse, but extremely rules-lite. I made some pregens heavily inspired by the pregens in this game but turned to a more Dutch setting. I also came up with my own one-shot adventure about finding a missing sabretooth tiger (scientists were restoring extinct animals, not sure if I made that up or if it was in the setting already), including a neurodive/skidoo in a sabretooth tiger. > >All players absolutely had a blast. The new players had some trouble thinking of what was possible, but they asked a lot of questions and were very enthousiastic of being able to do anything. Two players were DnD veterans, but they really enjoyed the light tone of the setting. The light atmosphere was not a downside, as there was still tension (would they be able to find the tiger in time? would the neurodive go wrong?). We even had some combat in neurospace, which was just resolved like any other encounter and more freeform. I explained that a cyberdeck to the players was just like what a smartphone would be like for someone from 1924, and they got really creative with it, contacting their social media followers and looking up information, etc. > >We will probably turn it into a campaign, and next time they will make their own characters. For me as a GM, the whole setting really came alive from the rulebook. I think I will make the campaign about extinct animals being brought back.

We've released the game on itch.io!

Next, we need to post it on DriveThruRPG. But after 18 months, it seems we're finally ready to release!

Stay tuned as we release our many files across locations in preparation to begin promoting the game!