This is the introductory flavor text to a tabletop RPG I’m working on (which is currently in beta if anyone wants to try it!). For context, the game is meant to provide solarpunk action adventure, and is intended to deliberately subvert the tone of cyberpunk RPG games. Constructive feedback is encouraged.
" Ablation narrowed their feline eyes as they assessed the situation. The Basalt Assault crew had the team pinned down. Ore was barreling towards them at terrifying speed. With all other options gone, Ablation silently prayed to the spirits and took their only shot. It was a desperate fade-away from behind the three, but it landed. The net swished. And the crowd lost their shit.
Just then, an urgent message broke through Ablation’s call block to appear in their HUD. It was from Rez, and read “PRIORITY 1”. Ablation grabbed their comm collar from the courtside bench. The moment its conduction speaker contacted their neck the ringer blared to life in their head.
“Hey Rez. Report?”
“Suppression-extraction. Malibu. I’m enroute to you now. Can you clear Pegasus a space?”
“Yeah. Who’s the target?” Ablation turned to the other players. “Make some room!”
“It’s a commune of fifty sovereigns. They refused assist yesterday. Since then their primary and backup heat absorbers failed.”
Ablation looked toward the virtual indicator in their AR contact lenses. It was quickly replaced by the sight of the actual rotorcycle as it approached in biospace. By now the crowd on the grassy hillside and the neighboring balconies were looking in the same direction.
“What’s the timeline?”
“They say they have enough gel to hold out 30 minutes, so… that.” Dust momentarily gusted around Ablation as Rez decelerated sharply, setting Pegasus down on the half court line as they cut the rotors. Ablation disabled away mode on their HUD and saw the flood of reacts from the crowd, along with an excited greeting emoji from Pegasus. Plus a warning from Ore that Ablation had better get back safe and finish business.
“You still know how to don a firesuit on the back of a bike?”
Ablation popped the cargo trunk, doffed their shoes and skirt, and stepped into the lower half of the firesuit. They threw their things in the trunk and swung a leg over Pegasus’ back seat. “That’s funny, Rez. Spin it.”
“Alright, Peg, you heard ’em: if they fall off they can’t blame us for flying too fast.” Pegasus gave a laugh react and a thumbs up and spun up her rotors. The park and its crowd dropped away fast, and Ablation’s vision filled with briefing text and the real time location of an airship steaming towards the plume of smoke rising from one section of the Santa Monica mountains. The rescue would be dangerous and uncertain. But then again, saving something always is. "___
If I weren’t already knee deep into building my own world, I’d be tempted to write some modules. I love putting systems to the test. I’d be curious to see how the world responds to chaotic and/or evil players.
I think part of the allure is being able to do things you couldn’t get away with irl. I think your chase and aerial maneuvering scenarios might be a good way of really opening up the possibilities of the world.
Hopefully you might get the chance eventually. I’d like to release version one – for free – by the end of the year, then update it when new stories and mechanics get completed.
If I were to fulfill my overall goal, this would eventually form at least part of the genesis of a generalized solarpunk gaming genre. It doesn’t matter much whether it’s called Fully Automated, but I hope that going forward, this game isn’t a novelty, it’s something people within this community are generally familiar with, or at least there’s an alternative that fills a similar role.
Anyway, this probably won’t be the last you hear of it. When it reaches milestones, I’m going to promote it here and on all the solarpunk communities I can find.