I feel like I’ve made pretty good progress on the solarpunk TTRPG adventure module so far. I mostly focused on the soon-to-be disincorporated fictional town of Comity NH this time, building out landmarks, local characters, and a map of the site:

Red dots are potential dump sites. (The guy who agreed to ‘store’ the industrial waste owned a lot of properties). Narrowing down potential sites will be a big part of the investigation.

I now have a description prepped for every spot with a name, a list of characters at each with a description and writeup of what they know along with suggestions for dialogue. The map shows the old state routes because they’re relevant to the mystery, but I’m kind of hand-waiving that the place is actually riddled with tons of small trails and paths which the locals have built in lieu of trying to maintain a full network of paved roads barely anyone uses. I was inspired by the downsizing to achieve a maintainable transportation network described in this article. Some roads obviously still exist because they’re useful, but others have been washed out and never repaired because none of the current residents need them for anything, while new trails cut through properties nobody has lived in for decades.

I’ve split the current population and the named sites between locals (the people who’ve lived here for the whole time and plan to continue no matter what) and the work crews (the population of younger folks who are here to assist in the deconstruction of abandoned buildings, the rewilding of damaged habitats, in various research and environmental safety test type activities, etc. Generally the locals will be able to give the players clues about the past which can help with that mystery, and the work crews will be able to answer questions about the present thanks to their equipment.

Fairer Way, down in the bottom right corner, is the players’ starting point, at the end of the incomplete public transit system. They’ll be able to talk to people there, do some research, and find transportation to Comity.

The Fully Automated Dev team has actually provided a template for making modules that I quite like - it’s very organized and useful, almost academic in its layout. It’s helped me a lot. The only thing I’ve run into is that the original format seems to expect a somewhat more linear game - perhaps because I’m fairly new to actually playing/running TTRPGs, the only thing I’m counting on is for the players to surprise me, so I’m doing my best to build the locations and clues with no set order, so they can explore as they please. So I’ve been building an outline, but it only has the broad sweeps of events, and goes by location rather than chronology after that, which I hope helps. I’m very interested to see how the players handle the investigation, and if they’ll manage to think of avenues of inquiry that surprise me.

My goals now are to finish getting it organized and to keep filling in any gaps (there’s fewer than there used to be, but it still needs some detail work). The plan is to get what Andrew (lead dev) calls a minimum viable product so we can try running it, and then see what it needs from there. I did start on some art assets (a few character portraits and one scene of the bike co-op) but that’s mostly just keeping my attention span engaged.

This month was fairly productive for me :) I got another chapter drafted for my book, some new scene ideas written up, & did some restructuring of the outline.

I’m worried this month won’t be as productive, my moving date is 3 days away, my sister is visiting, & I start work again at the end of the month. Its going to be busy & im not sure how much time ill be able to find for writing.

My realistic goal for the month is to get my writing space set up in the new house. My lofty goal is to have another chapter drafted & a more structured outline for the first section of the book.

I’m looking forward to seeing what other people were able to get done this month :)

I wrote a poem about reclaiming language this morning

@grrgyle@slrpnk.net As promised, here’s a poem. It’s not the poem I told you about. I’m still… Nervous to share that one. It came from a very authentic place but I just… Don’t know. But this one is very personal to me.

Hey, everyone else, though. This poem, while very authentic to me, and very personal, contains EXTREMELY coarse language. It’s an accounting of a lived experience I had.

Hatred

So for my goal, I said I would

… finish my short story outline: characters, plot/events, worldbuilding (enough for the story anyway), beginning, conflict(s), and end.

I’ve done maybe 60% of that, but feel good about it, especially since it’s my first time looking it up and trying to make a “proper” outline.

My current conflict (as a writer, not like in the plot), is that it’s a story about colonialism and I’ve been thinking of my characters as indigenous coded, whereas I’m actually a white settler person. I’ve been reading through resources like this to help me through, but I worry that I don’t have the experience (speaking of lived experience, as well as writing chops) to pull it off with the care it deserves.

My thinking at the moment (and I feel like this might change easily) is to keep the details scant, rather than wade right in and risk botching the job. But then I run the risk of just gesturing lazily at indigeneity as some amorphous monolith…

Those challenges aside, my goal for August is to finish the outline of my short story. Actually, now that I know more about what’s involved in writing an outline, I’m even less certain than I was last month about finishing it, haha!

A haiku!

Grass

I have mowed my lawn.
The preying mantis left us.
She will not return.