Pseudonymous Bear5d ago

Are there any good #SolarPunk #TTRPG or rather what would a good solar punk TTRPG look like?

It feels like a fairly conflict-lite genre, a peaceful, almost utopian aesthetic often used as a point of contrast with a story’s main setting. TTRPGs on the other hand tend to be very conflict focused.

I have seen vaguely solar punk board and video games that focused on exploration or construction “in harmony with nature” but I don’t know how well that transfers to the tabletop. I think I would like that (I always end up playing builders anyway) but I don’t know about other people.

If I were to spin up a “solar punk” game this week “punk” communities would be mere oasis in some sort of post-cataclysm world with the PCs delving into the wild for reasons (salvaging from the ruins, trading with other settlements, laying the foundation of a new town, et cetera). Part of building that sort of setting is working the nature of the cataclysm and pre-cataclysm world.

Show threadJacobCoffin5d ago
@pseudo_ursus I've been running (and preparing to publish) one where the players are searching a mostly-abandoned exurb (which is undergoing deconstruction and rewilding) for thousands of tons of industrial waste illegally dumped there decades before. The idea is that when they find it the environmental restoration co-op that hired them will extract the waste and provide it to the geopolymer industry where it's a useful input. But the investigation unearths a cold case murder and coverup
Show threadJacobCoffin5d ago

@pseudo_ursus speaking more generally I think there are a few good options for conflict in a eutopian setting:

Cleaning up harms left by the past- usually environmental, but this could also include regressive cultural stuff

Conflict around scarce resources: my go-to is land because even in a post-scarcity setting the amount of land is fixed and there's lots of room for argument over how we use it. This could be as simple as a disagreement over turning a bike path back into an active train line

Show threadJacobCoffin
@pseudo_ursus my preferred solarpunk TTRPG tends to cast the players into the role of mediators in an escalating conflict, fixers trying to get some big project with a lot of stakeholders done, or investigators in some kind of crime or other mystery past or present.
Mar 22 at 9:07pmWeb
Show threadJacobCoffin5d ago
@pseudo_ursus There's disagreement over how to handle confrontation/violence in these games but I prefer to set things so that the players are fairly normal people in a society where violence has real consequences and let them roleplay from there. I've thrown I think fairly realistic situations where other people are unreasonable, even violent, at them and multiple groups have done me proud by de-escalating, negotiating, and otherwise cleverly sorting things out. They've been pleased with that
Show threadJacobCoffin5d ago

@pseudo_ursus
I think the really interesting stuff takes place in investigations, negotiations, and dialogue, so I tend to build campaigns around that stuff.

As far as finding reasons for conflict, some of the most acrimonious arguments you'll find are between people who 90% agree with each other. A solarpunk society has plenty of room for that.

I think you can find plenty of drama in the trade-offs and nuances in something like whether to clear way for a new train line or green power line

Show threadJacobCoffin5d ago
@pseudo_ursus we've also done campaigns around political thrillers/conspiracies (reinforcing the guardrails of a better society and testing whether bad people can still find ways to amass personal power); around investigating a successful heist and around preventing one (if anything planning a heist is probably easier in a society with safety nets when people have more time); and resolving conflicts between two families, as their growing feud starts impacting their larger community