Simply as grim, dystopian post-apocalyptic visions of the world have held an enduring place in fashionable tradition, tabletop role-players have woven tales of barren wastelands, burnt-out city hellscapes and eerie cyberpunk capers. However with dwelling in troublesome, turbulent occasions comes a need to see extra visions of a future the place we determine to make issues higher. That want is on the core of hopepunk, a time period coined by writer Alexandra Rowland as the alternative of “grimdark.” As hopepunk and its sibling style solarpunk develop into extra fashionable within the cultural creativeness, increasingly TTRPG designers are bucking the grim apocalypse tendencies and taking part in with visions of the long run that prioritize care, neighborhood, optimism, and pleasure.
Hopeful spins on the post-cataclysm style run the gamut in tone and setting, from Machine Age Productions’ futuristic, solutions-oriented Flatpack to the community-focused, Powered by the Apocalypse-influenced solarpunk of Dyer Rose’s Arcology World; from Norton Glover’s high-flying prairie-rewilding journey Buffalo Commons to the shitpost-y, “be homosexual do crime” glory of Riverhouse Video games’ This is a Game About Fishing.
![A collection of sample characters from Return to the Stars. Left to right, a superhero-looking woman in a white leotard; a Crowe looking woman holding a welding torch; a Black child doing yoga; a white man in a red blazer; a woman in a shiny purple dress wearing a headscarf; a shorter woman with curly hair using futuristic glasses to read a holographic document; and a red-haired, muscular woman with a backpack and warm winter boots.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kF-y5E3RCM48yQUjxL0N1ke0Wy4=/0x0:4169x2000/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:4169x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24632406/Return_to_the_Stars_character_lineup_copy.jpg)
Picture: Festive Ninja
“Folks have an intuitive sense that there’s darkness on the earth and need to course of and confront that with a grimdark recreation or a horror recreation,” Mark Salabauskas, writer and lead designer on the Fate Core-powered area opera RPG Return to the Stars, advised Polygon in an interview. “I believe, in the same manner, plenty of video games […] try for these extra optimistic notes. We’re realizing that we need to be higher than we’re and outline ourselves, and we have to have areas to do this.”
The area opera aspect of the sport emerged through the begin of the Trump administration, as Sabalauskas was attending conventions and enthusiastic about media that gave him hope in darkish occasions, particularly Star Trek, which was initially created at a time of violent change and upheaval. The sport is, partly, a love letter to geek tradition (the analogue to the Galactic Federation is known as “The Conference Authority”) and the methods sharing tales helps us make which means of the world, and whereas Sabalauskas acknowledges the problematic parts of that tradition, he finds one thing hopeful within the shared, communal enthusiasm of it. “There’s a lot vitality from that, and that vitality is normally coming from a really pro-social place,” he mentioned.
The world of Return to the Stars is one among post-scarcity — 120 years in the past, an important catastrophe made galactic journey unimaginable. Now, the Conference Authority sends adventurers on missions to journey to the celebs to not conquer, however to reconnect. Developing with the mission is a crucial cornerstone of character creation, and Sabalauskas mentioned in a geek-culture-oriented, plentiful society the place individuals spend their time “questioning if the third reboot of Yuri on Ice within the twenty fourth century was one of the best” or sitting by the pool whereas robots deliver you margaritas, discovering causes on your character to decide on to place themself in danger and assist others prompts compelling storytelling and reflection in an area of security and abundance. Mechanically, Return to the Stars creates area to take action with in-game area for downtime and reflection, and in-between session choices for inventive tinkering to boost future periods.
In 2021, creators Jo Walton and Eric Stein held the Applied Hope jam, a recreation jam centered on RPGs, zines and extra centered on solarpunk and utopias. Two of these video games got here from creator and recreation grasp Gabriel Caetano. One, Maker, is a solo journaling recreation about imagining unimaginable futures. “Day-after-day as I think about myself embarrassing my now 2-year-old child to their friends in teenagehood […] I understand I really feel hope,” Caetano writes within the itch.io notes for Maker. “And I hope that by imagining this in no way unimaginable future, I’m a Maker, and that by imagining any futures in any respect, it’s Made.”
![The cover page for Roots & Flowers shows a male and female presenting pair below a tree, which is blooming. Both are rendered in thick, black lines on a sepia page. The subtitle is “A Solarpunk Game about Community and Caring”.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/k_drRxkOV8kOLettJdt5pHlsR9A=/0x0:2481x1749/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:2481x1749):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24632417/Roots_and_Flowers_v002__02.jpg)
Picture: Gabriel Caetano
![The character creation page for Roots & Flowers lists options like mediator, caregiver, engineer, co-operative, savvy. You can with be a flower or a root — insightful, light beings or conscious, practical beings.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Q_ipQHSXApdgQWjNLrYiFPFXTE8=/0x0:2481x1749/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:2481x1749):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24632418/Roots_and_Flowers_v002__17.jpg)
Picture: Gabriel Caetano
![A page from Roots & Flowers about creating community. It includes an example: The Baobab Community is close-knit and boasts a culture of proactivity. Our biggest challenge is the environmental legacy from the World Before.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UbGE6IaLUn3glJ2qArs6UsE1uvs=/0x0:2481x1749/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:2481x1749):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24632419/Roots_and_Flowers_v002__20.jpg)
Picture: Gabriel Caetano
The opposite, Roots and Flowers, is a solarpunk hack of John Harper’s Lasers and Feelings, which is able to quickly be obtainable on Role. For Caetano, solarpunk encourages individuals to not think about a totally completely different world, however what occurs with our personal when from this turning level, we go in a unique course. “It doesn’t erase what has occurred and what’s taking place, nevertheless it tells us we will nonetheless make a flip or a number of turns,” they advised Polygon.
In Roots and Flowers, the desk develops a neighborhood collectively and performs as its troubleshooters, working collectively to assist and enhance the neighborhood. Two journey tentpoles of the sport are the Legacy, the repurposing of applied sciences, buildings and different relics of the World Earlier than, and Ancestry, the tales and customs of household, neighborhood elders and the land itself, the place gamers might discover how these traditions survive. “We’re a part of the biosphere right here. We aren’t above it or completely different from it, and […] ancestral teachings can present us tips on how to work with the world round us in a extra balanced and wholesome manner — and likewise be taught from the errors that we make. […] That’s what Ancestry and Legacy replicate on this recreation,” Caetano mentioned.
Roots and Flowers and Maker got here at a time when Caetano was rising weary of the standard grim, cynical tackle post-apocalyptic views. For them, the standard Mad Max-style view that everybody turns into their worst selves within the face of apocalypse is a really white, male, Eurocentric view of the world, even because it’s ending. They cite Avery Alder’s Dream Askew, a diceless, GM-less recreation the place an apocalypse happens in waves and a tight-knit queer neighborhood that has at all times existed on the margins is already working to rebuild, for example of a recreation that emphasizes these concepts.
“If you’re indigenous wherever on the earth, in case you are queer or trans, in case you are from the worldwide south, we exist in a post-apocalyptic stage already,” Caetano advised Polygon. “Imagining what could possibly be is a beacon of hope. We’re interacting with different individuals who will help. As a lot as there are firms and capitalism and billionaires who simply need to see most of us lifeless or in a survival state, we even have tight-knit communities that come collectively and remedy their issues regionally.”
![A purple saxaphone player with eight tentacles for legs. They’re floating over a green, flowering field. Key art from Marvelous Mutations & Merry Musicians!](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zseBa2lmMxmh1vw6b4RWGYgUdIo=/0x0:1275x1650/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1275x1650):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24632441/mmnmm_flat_singles_comp_P_gina_18_copy.jpg)
Picture: Wendy Yu
Wendi Yu, creator of Marvelous Mutations & Merry Musicians!, a collaborative post-apocalyptic RPG additionally featured within the Utilized Hope jam, quotes the literary critic Fredric Jameson in explaining why the awful apocalyptic view is so prevalent: “Somebody as soon as mentioned that it’s simpler to think about the tip of the world than to think about the tip of capitalism.”
“Submit-apocalyptic media retains the premises of our personal world even when the world is gone, and that’s one thing that issues to me lots,” Yu advised Polygon. “There are techniques that oppress us, and the best way we take care of nature and the local weather disaster and capitalism and a complete host of oppressions that include these techniques, however they will go away after the tip of the world — it’s not essential to deal with them as one thing that may maintain occurring. In the event you maintain a Mad Max imaginative and prescient of the post-apocalypse, you say that’s human nature, that’s who we’re. Even with out society, that’s who we’re.”
The concept for Marvelous Mutations emerged from various concepts without delay, together with discussions with Yu’s mates about desirous to discover battle decision in TTRPGs past violence and different prospects for post-apocalyptic fiction. Yu’s in-game world is one the place the apocalypse is sort of out of dwelling reminiscence, the place former wastelands are actually teeming with life and photo voltaic vitality powers the panorama, and whereas firearms and battle are relics of a distant previous, dwell leisure is very valued. Gamers assume the position of itinerant mutant musicians, touring the world and performing, and doing no matter else they please, be it serving to individuals or trashing their rooms on the inn. To construct out the journey, gamers take turns constructing a music setlist to steer the temper on the desk, or naming any gameplay or narrative aspect they want to embrace and coming to a consensus in no matter method works for them.
![A hooded figure plays guitar while a mushroom man plays accordion. From Wendy Yu’s Marvelous Mutations.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_dTwHxRVgfHoUJGDG3urtdk9ddw=/0x0:1275x1650/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1275x1650):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24632452/mmnmm_flat_singles_comp_P_gina_22_copy.jpg)
Picture: Wendy Yu
![A demon man with a long tentacle tongue and wings plays a black guitar. From Wendy Yu’s Marvelous Mutations.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1jaEu0cOksS1guMbzByb2cZMCns=/0x0:1275x1650/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1275x1650):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24632451/mmnmm_flat_singles_comp_P_gina_13_copy.jpg)
Picture: Wendy Yu
![A woman with a boar’s nose sits in profile amongst flowers. From Wendy Yu’s Marvelous Musicians.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-WUNfmREv-CiaqtoOZsDjnmOqgc=/0x0:1275x1650/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1275x1650):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24632450/mmnmm_flat_singles_comp_P_gina_11_copy.jpg)
Picture: Wendy Yu
![A cat-faced giraffe person and a lamb-faced bug person, both playing guitar. From Marvelous Musicians.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9dHgp55qLSa5r2ck-CjiTk3hgJs=/0x0:1275x1650/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1275x1650):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24632449/mmnmm_flat_singles_comp_P_gina_09_copy.jpg)
Picture: Wendy Yu
“Somebody mentioned they wished the sport to function a battle of the bands, in order that guided the journey that we have been having, and another person mentioned they wished one thing a few haunted hospital and so we needed to construct upon that,” she mentioned. “I believe that’s very cool to have these various things individuals suppose are cool and attempt to combine them collectively and attempt to inform the story collectively relatively than have all of it come from the thoughts of the one who’s working the journey.”
One among Yu’s different video games, Here, There, Be Monsters!, is a rules-lite, queer, anti-fascist response to monster-hunting media from the monster’s perspective, and together with Marvelous Mutations, a via line emerges of empowering what’s seen as anomalous or monstrous in mainstream society. Yu says these themes are essential to the best way she interacts with the world. “It doesn’t matter what they inform you, there’s nonetheless weirdness and surprise in all places,” she writes in the itch.io introduction to the game. “On the edges and cracks of ‘regular’ life we exist, we persist, and we resist: the monsters, the magicians, the anomalies, the freaks, and the outcasts. We collect within the shadows, making an attempt our greatest to dwell our lives in a world that, when it doesn’t precisely concern or hate us, doesn’t even imagine in our existence.”
Each Marvelous Mutations and Right here, There, Be Monsters! embrace D100 rolling tables for character constructing, with the previous providing options for mutations characters might have and the latter together with a desk of doable backgrounds. “In Marvelous Mutations, I attempted to make it very centered on how if the world ended, we will construct one thing anew, however even when the mutations have been nonetheless there, the main focus was extra on the world, a world inhabited by all types of weirdos and freaks — and they’re all mutated as a result of it’s a bizarre fantasy world, and it’s an excessive instance of how numerous and colourful humankind truly is,” she mentioned. “For Right here, There, Be Monsters!, I wished one thing extra aggressive to attempt to specific my frustration with the standing of issues, however I wished individuals to play it and have the potential of having some sort of cathartic expertise taking part in via your personal monstrosity as empowering.”
![The cover of Here There Be Monsters evokes old-timey, black and white and silent horror films. A winged serpent composed of fleshy human bits stands on a black background. The white text on the page is blown out, as if the projectionist had something a bit off in the screening room.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6UOUAfiAQ7RH2W98eXqoC0Gceqw=/0x0:1121x1589/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1121x1589):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24632475/here_there_be_monsters_cover.jpg)
Picture: Wendy Yu
As optimistic or solarpunk future-oriented video games differ in construction and setting, the creators say the collaborative nature of tabletop lends itself to that sort of hopeful neighborhood constructing. “I believe what’s nice about tabletop uniquely is that there’s that ensemble nature,” Sabalauskas says. “You’re being a fan of different gamers across the desk, you might be wishing for them to have their highlight moments and their contributions, that it’s not some done-to-death ‘chosen one’ narrative.”
Yu says one of many pinnacles of constructing an area group or neighborhood the place individuals care about each other is creating areas for play and enjoyable. “Having enjoyable collectively and taking part in collectively can strengthen [our ability to] resolve conflicts and learn to act in collaboration, and that’s one thing I attempt to simulate in my video games with the collaborative mechanics and the tone of the writing,” she says.
Caetano agrees that role-playing video games are “a type of social experimentation” that displays the perform of a neighborhood — a handful of individuals sit down, agree on guidelines and norms out of their very own will and volition, work collectively towards a objective, and resolve disagreements collectively. However even for those who create that mini-community on the desk, its collaborative objectives should be in-game violence and destruction. “You are able to do all of that and nonetheless write a recreation that will get individuals to be colonizers, like Dungeons & Dragons,” they are saying. “You go in there, you kill issues, take their shit, promote it to another person, develop into extra highly effective, repeat. You possibly can nonetheless break and invert these rules however considerate recreation design can take you to locations the place you possibly can rethink, rethink and rearrange social preparations, and for those who have a look at these processes, you possibly can learn the way additionally they occur on a big scale.”
The builders that Polygon spoke with fervently imagine that this type of play can even encourage studying and progress that may be utilized to our on a regular basis lives. As discussing security instruments in tabletop has develop into far more commonplace, Caetano says they’ve internalized sure practices referring to security instruments of their private life, equivalent to when parenting. For instance, they’ll play a recreation of pretending they’re going to eat their youngster’s meals, however take breaks within the interplay to verify in and remind one another it’s all in good enjoyable. “This interplay, regardless of how critical or intense it could appear, is only a recreation, and we each know this and it’s clear and it doesn’t take away from the enjoyable,” they are saying. “We are able to be taught classes from the video games that we play and we will develop with them, and allow them to form us too.”
“I believe tabletop is in a spot [for] individuals who care about [the] which means of the challenges [their] characters face,” Sabalauskas says. “Whether or not they’re coming at it from a spot of grimdark or horror or cynical cyberpunk or from a really utopian place like my recreation, or a really pastoral place like Wanderhome, they’re enthusiastic about what’s the which means of what gamers are doing and the way will we let individuals do issues which might be enjoyable, however form of line up extra intently with what it means to be a human being and to navigate the world we’re in.”