alxd ✏️ solarpunk prompts

#gameDesign #gameDev insight:

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/shadowlands-games/terraforming-mars-ttrpg#top is launching a #TTRPG based on the #terraformingMars #boardGame

It focuses on building infrastructure, building ecosystems (even if in a techno-solutionist way) and generational play, seeing the changes over decades and centuries. I would love to use it as a base for #solarpunk #games .

So WHY does the quickstart feature combat rules, but not social conflict rules?

Can we really imagine, focus on nothing else than shooting each other?

Terraforming Mars - the official TTRPG

Based on the award-winning board game Terraforming Mars and officially licensed by FryxGames, Terraforming Mars the tabletop role-playing game takes the board game experience to the next level.

BackerKit
Mar 8 at 11:13amWeb
Show threadalxd ✏️ solarpunk promptsMar 8

The quickstart - https://shadowlandsgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Terraforming-Mars-TTRPG_Quickstart-.pdf - features:

- ERAS
- ABILITIES & SPECIALTIES
- SOLVING TASKS
- ENGINEERING RULES
- MENTAL STRESS
- COMBAT

then, "WHAT YOU’LL FIND IN THE COREBOOK":

Social & technical crisis: Most conflicts in Terraforming Mars will be solved with your wits
& mind, not with your fists. The new mechanics will keep this kind of crysis exciting without
need for violent exchange.

Yeah, I'm not seeing this from the rules.

Show threadNinjaDebuggerMar 8

@alxd

Also the game is explicitly capitalist and anti-freedom, as is the white supremacist family who owns all the terraforming mars stuff, so maybe don't support their bullshit at all.

Show threadalxd ✏️ solarpunk promptsMar 8
@NinjaDebugger and here I was hoping it would support Blue Planet style anti-colonial stories ;)
Show threadFrank CavilMar 8

@alxd Good heavens what is that monstrosity, and why has it been funded to the tune of a quarter of a million?

I can only imagine the answer to your question is that folks would be put off by that sort of thing - and even if they aren't, the campaign has clearly focused on the kind of overpriced, overproduced content that somehow definitely does appeal to a wider audience.

I am so very out of the RPG loop if this is what the people want.

Show threadalxd ✏️ solarpunk promptsMar 8

@frankcavil I've been looking into Solarpunk RPGs (and other kind of games) for some time, looking for something that could encourage bigger audiences to imagine a future where the violence isn't default.

https://alxd.org/notes-towards-a-solarpunk-game-design-overview.html#notes-towards-a-solarpunk-game-design-overview has a lot of my notes

Notes Towards a Solarpunk Game Design - Overview

Solarpunk Game Design Sketch by Scan101 I've always been interested in game design and how subtly it can teach and influence us. It's not only how a given game is constructed on the surface, but also what emergent behaviours it can induce in us - and make us internalize, more or less consciously. I find Solarpunk fascinating as a genre which is connected to - but distinct from - other kinds of climate and science fiction. Its many perspectives are an attempt to balance a big, global narrative of saving the planet and creating a sustainable civilization with a very humane and communal perspective of our way there. I've been working on this blogpost for a year and I see that it's never going to be as comprehensive as I would like to. In the spirit of "done is better than perfect", let me then present you with my Notes Towards - and hope that you find them useful! Game Type Legend V - Video Game B - Board Game / Card Game R - Role Playing Game / Storytelling Game What makes a …

alxd - solarpunk hacker