andrewrgross

It's got little instructive explainers worked into the story. Good art, too.

I'm looking for a GM and players for a post-capitalist scifi adventure game.

The game setting and system are from an indie RPG called Fully Automated! (We have a community: c/fullyautomatedrpg )

I'm one of the developers, looking for a GM and possibly players on behalf of some other players who don't have quite enough people to start a new group.

The Game

The game takes place 100 years into our post-capitalist future. It's cyberpunky in style, but with an optimistic, earthy flavor. It uses a custom 2d10 system, but it's very flexible and modable if you prefer something else. The GM is welcome to use the rules as described in the manual (which are very straightforward) or just graft the campaign onto their preferred system.

We're currently playtesting a new campaign and we've got a few too many players for one play group. The extra players asked if I could look for a GM and a few more players to make a second group. I'm actually a player in the first test group, and we're 5 weeks into what is really a helluva campaign. It's a lot of fun and very well written. I expect it to be about 10 sessions, but don't really know.

The Campaign

The campaign is called "The 1000 Year Cleanup". The players are sent to the backwoods of New Hampshire by a supply chain specialist who thinks that they've found indications of a long-buried toxic waste dumping site. Salvaged records suggest that a local landowner helped a chemical corporation illegally dump tons of toxic slag during the later years of the Global Climate War. Sixty years later, the slag is now sought after by a company that recycles toxic waste into useful, non-toxic industrial products. But the whole area is in in the process of being rewilded. Deconstruction crews are dismantling what's left of some largely abandoned ghost towns. If the players don't find the waste, soon there'll be no one left to ask and no roads by which to remove it, and the toxins will simply leach into the surrounding hills in slow silence for centuries to come.

(There's also a little twist! I don't want to reveal it to anyone who might want to play, but if you're interested in running the game (or just curious), message me and I'll clue you in.)

In terms of play, it's a bit like an extended Star Trek away mission if it took place amidst a big ecological restoration project. It's a very cool vibe that most players will find surprisingly easy to get into. Let me know if you'd like to play!

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/16130943

My mom was complaining that the city has limits on how many leaves that they'll pick up, and she's got bags and bags of leaves stuffed into black garbage bags. This seems like a problem that should have some kind of backyard solution.

I've done a cursory search, and see that leaves are very compostable. They can also apparently be turned into "mold", though I don't fully understand what this means.

But I also see that there is a lot of variety in compost bins, and they're quite expensive. So I'm wondering: what's the best strategy for making leaves go away? She's not specifically interested in the product of the leaves, she just wants to find somewhere to put them after she rakes them up. Any ideas?

My mom was complaining that the city has limits on how many leaves that they'll pick up, and she's got bags and bags of leaves stuffed into black garbage bags. This seems like a problem that should have some kind of backyard solution.

I've done a cursory search, and see that leaves are very compostable. They can also apparently be turned into "mold", though I don't fully understand what this means.

But I also see that there is a lot of variety in compost bins, and they're quite expensive. So I'm wondering: what's the best strategy for making leaves go away? She's not specifically interested in the product of the leaves, she just wants to find somewhere to put them after she rakes them up. Any ideas?

I gotta say that I feel weird reading this examination of Octavia Butler's notes.

I'm reading Parable of the Talents right now, and I had to stop. It's gotten too fucking dark. It's about the fascist takeover of America by Christian Nationalists, and a major character just died, and there is sexual exploitation of children... I really like Butler and Parable of the Sower, but this just got so dark I decided to read the summary and find out if I wanted to read more, and I don't think I can read this, at least not right now.

Reading about the unpublished sequels feels even worse. It seems like Butler had a head full of so much darkness and cynicism, and her published works were just the processed output after she managed to find the least brutal version of her thoughts. These books were her at her most hopeful! YIKES.

I like her and these books, but I just had to vent about some of this.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/14202920

There was a post on Reddit that praised the ubiquitous "Dear Alice" commercial, and inevitably a comment criticizing praise for a commercial. This led to me to wonder more about who it was that made this famous solarpunk advertisement. The answer is an animation studio called The Line. I went looking at some of their other work, and came across this interesting demo short for what appears to be a proof of concept or pilot for a solarpunky animated monster hunting series.

I don't love the heavy use of guns. But setting that aside, I think the art is interesting. I'm fascinated to see what people are doing with the artistic and conceptual toolset solarpunk offers, and I think this is a use case that I wouldn't mind seeing more of.

Unfortunately, this demo is as far as the project went. But I'm happy to see that the folks at The Line appear to have some broader interest in solarpunk, and I hope they keep putting it into practice in unique ways.

There was a post on Reddit that praised the ubiquitous "Dear Alice" commercial, and inevitably a comment criticizing praise for a commercial. This led to me to wonder more about who it was that made this famous solarpunk advertisement. The answer is an animation studio called The Line. I went looking at some of their other work, and came across this interesting demo short for what appears to be a proof of concept or pilot for a solarpunky animated monster hunting series.

I don't love the heavy use of guns. But setting that aside, I think the art is interesting. I'm fascinated to see what people are doing with the artistic and conceptual toolset solarpunk offers, and I think this is a use case that I wouldn't mind seeing more of.

Unfortunately, this demo is as far as the project went. But I'm happy to see that the folks at The Line appear to have some broader interest in solarpunk, and I hope they keep putting it into practice in unique ways.

Springfield, Ohio became suddenly famous nationally when Trump claimed that an influx of Haitian migrants were devouring residents' pets. I went looking to see what the town is experiencing from the perspective of local news, and it looks surprising nuanced.

It appears that the town saw a rapid influx of migrants fleeing violence in Haiti. The town has since experienced a strain in its ability to function in notable ways because of the population shock. The issues include a sudden reduction in the housing supply and an increase in traffic and inexperienced drivers. One particularly bad traffic accident killed a child during a school bus crash.

The city government has seemed to largely avoid blaming new arrivals themselves. However they've expressed a sense of betrayal towards Biden and the federal government for granting thousands of people entry into the country without appearing to recognize any responsibility for helping them resettle or aiding their destination cities in accommodating them. Additionally, they've begun investigating local businesses which they suspect used the expansion of visas for Haitians seeking asylum as an opportunity to seek out low-cost workers while concealing their role in creating a population shock for which the city was unprepared.

I must say that I think the city government makes a reasonable point: those of use who want to offer foreign visitors safety and dignity in American must also demand that our government takes responsibility for helping them relocate to a town in which is expecting their arrival and has been aided in making that arrival successful.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/13236888

Not givin' up

Not givin' up