Hello all! I might be a bad solarpunk as my optimism is not an endless well but something I have to really work at. A far cry from my youth. I designed lots of material for two other games before having an “Aha!” moment and quickly prototyping what I will be submitting soon.

The first idea was for a spacefaring race that basically grows all their foodstuff aboard ships and uses the motion of galaxies to traverse interstellar space, rather than FTL drives. Think of it like super-slingshot maneuvers that take advantage of the motion of whole solar systems and the rotation of galaxies. While empires rise and fall, fueled by cheap FTL, these Babylonians subsist with the stars. But, it’s kind of a post apocalyptic scenario. And the mass of the ships would greatly outweigh the mass of life aboard them, no matter how efficient. So it didn’t fit the theme.

The second game is called “Denial of Service” and I’ve been working on it for a long time. It’s basically about the slow decline of a civilization and corresponding rise of reactionary and revolutionary forces. I know from Hannah Arendt’s writing, and research on many revolutions, that such events would not be fun and punk but harrowing and horrific. So I didn’t think it fit the theme.

The third game, that I will be submitting soon, is about optimism in the hear and now. It uses a standard deck of cards and faux betting to tell the story of how two players in the group achieved great success in love, in enterprise, in creating art, in making a casserole, literally whatever sparks inspiration to the players as they tell their story. It is called Good Fortune and I hope you all enjoy it.

How did you balance optimism and realism in your design process and submissions? Let’s get a good conversation going!

Edit: My game is submitted: Good Fortune!
Appreciate and return any feedback.