Welcome to the fifth writing club update!
As I’m sure is the case with many of you, the news on my feed has been getting greyer along with the clouds outside, and so I find myself looking to solar punk as a glimpse through those clouds, at a better possible present.
I hope you are keeping safe and warm, and that your projects have been a source of strength and comfort for you.
Onward to our Participants!
- @JacobCoffinWrites - October goal
- @hazeebabee - October goal
- @grrgyle - October goal
- @okasen - October goal
As always, anyone and everyone is extremely welcome to comment or share their own work. And if you’d like to be included in the next writing club update, simply say what you’re working on this month.
Have a good November, folks. :)
It was a pretty busy month! I did the research into solarpunk shipping that I talked about last time - I gathered up everything I could find on modern cargo shipping done primarily using sails, along with some of the alternative systems they bolt onto modern day freighters to save some fuel, and wrote it up here:
https://jacobcoffinwrites.wordpress.com/2024/10/15/nautical-solarpunk-a-resource-for-solarpunk-writers-and-artists/
I aimed for a very broad introduction to sailing, how it’s done now, the new designs and technologies either already in use or still on the drawing board, viable old sail tech, and hopefully everything else you need to get started, no matter what kind of solarpunk sailing you’re hoping to depict. For depth, it’s full of links to more technical resources. Personally I find that the stuff intended for the public like press releases is too light on details for writers, and the industry resources are too focused and siloed to get a good intro to the whole picture, so I sort of aimed for in between. There’s also a bunch of stuff that’s hard to find (or know to look for) unless you read industry magazines. I hope it’s helpful.
I then finished up a photobash of a cargo ship at sea. This is my second one but it’s much brighter and happier than my previous cargo ship scene. It’s very much the brainchild of someone from the Naval Architecture subreddit, who was tremendously helpful in explaining design considerations. Their design is an oddball, with four folding, junk-rigged masts, all offset from the centerline in a zigzag pattern. They made some really convincing arguments and it was genuinely too weird not to make.
After that I got back to work on the campaign I’ve been writing for Fully Automated! I’ve been making character art for all the NPCs, filling in and editing sections of the document that just had notes before, and adding concepts I’ve learned about since I took a break, like rocket mass heaters, masonry heaters, and savonious wind turbines to the scene details here and there. I’m working on getting descriptions/backstories for more NPCs written, and stats assigned for everyone.
It’s looking like we’ll try a playthrough starting this Thursday! It’ll be my first time GMing anything, let alone a campaign I wrote. Though I’ve played a few TTRPGs and watched a lot of games so hopefully I’ve picked up some good habits. We’ll see soon enough!
Congratulations on all your progress this month! I’ll be studying your Nautical Solarpunk resource in detail, as the world I’m working on features a river and port somewhat prominently. I was going to gloss over the ship designs, but why not sprinkle a little extra haecceity into the story when one can. :)
I would love to hear your takeaways on your first experience GMing. It’s been decades since I’ve run a campaign, but I still remember the thrill and challenge of balancing the plot points you want to hit with that pesky gremlin, player agency, haha. (At one point I resorted to just forcing my players to be kidnapped to get them to another scene - not the best interactive storytelling on my part.)
Just a hunch but you strike me as a fairly detail oriented person ;) so I wonder how you’ll handle players missing some obvious detail or plot beat. Ah! So fun! I envy you.
So exciting youll be doing your first playthrough of the game! I hope everything goes smoothly & I bet seeing it get played will give you lots of ideas of new things you want to add on or change lol
I also took a look through your nautical slrpnk write up and its so useful! Detailed, accessible, and well organized.
One thing that popped into my head while reading through it is wondering if there’s the possibility for hybrid sail and solar ships. I know they’re working on making solar fabric & if the sails were made of that fabric maybe they could produce enough energy to support things like reefer ships and other things. It would also make folding masts more viable because the stored solar energy could power the boat as it enters port & needs to lower the masts in order to fit under bridges. It’s not a modern ship usage (which i know you were focusing on) more of a scifi concept that might make sense in a fictional setting.
Thanks! I hope running the game sessions will provide some good perspective and things I missed. I’m told the only thing you can count on as a GM is for your players to surprise you.
Solar sails are a cool idea - I think the feasibility would mostly depend on the fabric. How sturdy it is, whether it can stand up to the strain of pulling the ship along in a full wind, how well it handles being rolled up and unrolled again and again.
Yeah lol, other minds have a way of going a completely unexpected direction. It can be fun to see how an outside perspective views your world though :) ive definetly thrown off a few GMs with my unexpected game choices lol
& yeah the logistics are way beyond what we could do currently, more so a cool sci fi concept to daydream about