In January of 2023, I sent an email to a friend asking if a set of notes I’d written on how to write solarpunk RPG stories was any good. And they replied that their honest opinion was that a set of was largely useless, as there was no real audience of people with the interest to use it AND the motivation and creativity to write something from scratch. They said that if I wanted to popularize this, the only thing that would make sense would be fully playable adventures that were ready to run. So that’s what Jack and I started working on.
I think the first beta draft was released in July or August, and then shortly after Crom joined the project as the first person outside of me and my brother.
Around October was when I thought the end was starting to come into sight. I briefly wanted to finish before the end of 2023, but around November we had our first developer meeting and decided to shoot for February. By that time, we were play testing and there was great progress, but we also kept having bits of project creep, because we kept having new ideas, especially as new people joined the project.
I think you came on around that time, so you know the next few months. And now here we are!
I work for a large biotech manufacturer doing field work. I – and thousands of other field engineers – are assigned company cars, which are all ICEs....
I agree. I like the kind of dichotomy of how his persona is sort of like a cyberpunk edge-lord, but he’s clearly got a very prosocial, constructive, ethical worldview.
That’s why I felt like he was a good fit for the game. I have no idea how popular the channel is, or whether people will even recognize that the character is a reference. We’ll see.
I had a recent conversation on Mastodon with an Israeli American who was complaining about the rampant increase in antisemitism he’s experienced, and then the devastation and sense of abandonment he and other Israelis feel… and it was tragic.
It’s a country that has been traumatized, but is also now addicted to unhealthy coping strategies. A lot of these people feel constantly victimized, and its a legitimate feeling, but they don’t seem aware of the degree to which they’ve formed a society designed to maintain a permission structure for constant fear and hate.
I feel so badly for these people. But unfortunately, the situation demands that we stop them from continuing this atrocity.
You know, part of it is that I grew up drinking in the same propaganda. I GET the arguments.
In one sense, a lot has already ended. I think a lot of people in Israel – I’m thinking primarily of those we used to think of as non-radical – are in grief. Not just over Oct. 7, but because they know subconsciously that the good times are over. They were living in a fantasy, and now comes a rude awakening.
Either they accept a far right fascist police state or they give up the dream of unchallenged dominion over what they believe is their birthright. Either way, their dream of a progressive, modern, fully-Jewish state over the whole region was never possible because it required ignoring the reality of millions of unwanted people, and now they’re crashing into the hard realization that the dream is dead. I think it’s possible for that to be replaced with a new dream that includes equal rights for non-Jews, but that’s still going to be a painful process that millions of people will have to be dragged into.
And now I have to witness both the pain of people I related to in some way, and also the reminder of what we’re all capable of. These people are tying their brains in knots to perpetuate generational horrors against a subjugated group, like a kid who escaped a childhood of abuse only to grow up and perpetuate the same thing on their kids. And not only that, I’m not naive enough to think I wouldn’t be capable of it too. I come from a different circumstance, but if I’d been born there? I’d probably be on board. No one wants to believe this, but most likely, so would you. So would most of us.
Add to all this that I’m also clear-eyed that there are plenty of people who do not have the mental complexity to protect one group of people without dehumanizing their oppressors. I don’t really blame them, but I can see that in their heart, they don’t really mind mass slaughter, they just have different preferences for who should be on the receiving end. Would they care if it was me? Or my kid? I pray I never need to find out. My plan is to just keep trying to make a world where everyone is safe and hope it works out.
I think it’s fucked up when people create ideological conditions for personhood. The whole point of fundamental human rights is that we afford them to everyone. It’s not like it’s an accident that we give them to the very worst people. That’s kind of the core concept.
If you’re opposed to the concept of universal human rights, I don’t love it, but I can accept that. I think that’s probably a majority opinion, honestly. But I just feel like whenever someone says that a group of people “aren’t people”, I think we should make sure we’re not tip-toeing around that. It should be out on the table.
Can you explain this reference? Everyone keeps mentioning a Harold, and I see that it’s getting upvoted a lot, so I think I’m the only one who doesn’t know what this means.
I don’t think Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben-Gvir will like that, because they really hate it when the UN tries to do UN stuff at them, but that sounds like a very appropriate request.
It’s going to be awkward to listen to John Kirby explain into a microphone why having peacekeepers from the unarmed peace force standing in the vicinity of a lot of women and children in the area that Biden has insisted the IDF not kill everyone is helping Hamas.
In what reality is Taylor known for making bad music?
I don’t really listen to her stuff, but I’ve heard it and none of it sounds off-putting. I’ve also never heard anyone who likes music complain that her music is unpleasant to listen to.
Can you think of the coolest thing that you found out about later that you’d dismissed while it was popular?
I can’t think of something I actively talked down, but I remember watching Star Trek (TNG) for the first time in my mid thirties (about four years ago) and thinking, “Boy, if I’d known about this while it was on, I’d probably have been obsessed with it.”
I definitely hear it from time-to-time. I often probably hear it without knowing it’s her. I heard that song “It’s me… HI. I’m the problemitsme. It’s me: Hi. everybody agrees…”
As you can tell, it kinda got in my head from repetition a few times, and I didn’t know it was hers until long after I’d heard it.
But I don’t listen to much music overall. I sometimes pick up CDs from the library to burn to my computer, but I don’t listen to Spotify or the radio, so I miss a lot of stuff.
It's happening: we've launched Fully Automated on itch.io! (fully-automated-rpg.itch.io)
We’ve released the game on itch.io!...
Cats playing with robots proves a winning combo in novel art installation [Ars Technica] (arstechnica.com)
Request: Help making an executive summary to advise my company to electrify our vehicle fleet IMMEDIATELY
I work for a large biotech manufacturer doing field work. I – and thousands of other field engineers – are assigned company cars, which are all ICEs....
This 3D prints roundup includes an awesome braille training cell! [Voidstar Labs] (youtu.be)
Files are here: thangs.com/…/Braille Training Cell - 6MM-1037863...
Israel troops continue posting abuse footage despite pledge to act (www.bbc.com)
The BBC has analysed 45 photos and videos, which include those of detainees draped in Israeli flags....
Arab League calls for UN peacekeepers in occupied Palestinian territory (www.aljazeera.com)
meme (shota.nu)