Author: Fraser Simons

Hey folks! We are in the last day and a half of Hack The Planet, a cyberpunk and climate fiction, Forged in the Dark Game. We have only two stretch goals left to hit: producing a live actual play on Twitch and making every book in the print run a hardcover one. We don’t extend the life of our campaigns with Backerkit and Pledgemanger and we have discounted the PDF and the book significantly for backers as a thank you and reward for the increased risk a customer after the product comes out doesn’t have. This will be the cheapest way to get the game, hands down.

I’ve updated the page with more art and the various interviews about HtP. If you want to learn more about the game, the Kickstarter page should have absolutely everything you need.

The short pitch is that the game is cyberpunk married with climate fiction. Tropes found in cyberpunk’s now retro-futuristic elements recontextualized for a scenario where climate change occurred way faster than we thought. Where a massive Shelter is turned into a megacity of climate refugees and you play a crew of people trying to subvert the system or claw back power to use for their own gains.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/samjokopublishing/hack-the-planet/description

Im looking forward to watching this. Adam talks to Andrew about Girl by Moonlight. I missed the original stream and I am psyched for this game!

https://youtu.be/2D7UiC61PO0

https://youtu.be/2D7UiC61PO0

Hello all! Hack The Planet is live on Kickstarter today and doing really well. I really appreciate your support and the enthusiasm for this project. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Cyberpunk meets climate fiction…are people into that? I guess so!

In the past, I’ve always gravitated toward non-retro-futuristic aspects of cyberpunk and post-cyberpunk. Interesting that I’d be able to enjoy it now because of a pairing with climate fiction where it makes sense that tech has stopped in its tracks and moved in new directions. Gene-hacked crops to grow in infertile lands. Tech powered by other means than what we see today. Energy harnessed by the human body, working. Human ingenuity adapting the massive climate shifts. And people living on the fringes clawing back power for themselves for their own reasons.

It is always a good feeling to be working on a project you are incredibly excited about and have that stoked by people who are into what you are creating. Thank you very much, everyone.

Perhaps even more exciting is the ability to support some other folks I’ve seen in the community and who do great work themselves. I wish I could support more folks and I hope in the coming days, weeks, year–I will be able to with other projects.

P.S

Do you prefer this banner or the other one?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/samjokopublishing/hack-the-planet

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/samjokopublishing/hack-the-planet

Cyberpunk and climate fiction collide in just a couple days~

The project is live and funded, woo hoo! Link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/samjokopublishing/hack-the-planet/posts/2126639

https://youtu.be/pASXRfEn0QQ

https://youtu.be/pASXRfEn0QQ

Hey everyone! I’m working on a cyberpunk hack of Blades right now that I am really pumped for. I’m designing Hack The Planet, where a cyberpunk future we typically might see in the genre was halted by changes in our climate.

Much of the landscape was changed due to what became known as Acts of God. As our climate became radicalized it resulted in more than just heavy weather. Earthquakes, tornadoes, rising sea water, and the changes in rainfall—to name a few—resulted in the destabilization of government and banks, and the halting of technological progress on the massive scale we enjoy today (and typically see in the genre) as everything that could be mustered by what was left of governments was hurled at the problem, too late.

The characters are folks living on the fringes of society. The crews I’ve got so far are: an Akira style biker gang, people who live on an aircraft carrier who dive to the surface to scavenge, mercs, people in a convoy who chase Acts of God for scientific value (think Twister), and vice dealers.

When you choose a crew you also choose how you interact with Acts of God, taking a starter move for the crew that represents that choice. Do you kill the weather? Refine it for fuel, or perhaps mine it for data? There is also an overarching clock that tracks when Acts of God hit, making them special jobs that need to be dealt with (and still earn you Credits). I’ll have tables to roll on for creating these.

I chose Blades because it maps to this concept so well. The system does what I want it to do, scale and magnitude are already there, and making a crew and playbook is as accessible as Powered by the Apocalypse, for the most part. A lot is tied to a setting… but I think since it’s a game where cyberpunk intersects with climate fiction and is so esoteric it benefits a lot from providing that information to the players anyways.

I’m super excited about it and wanted to share what I’m up to, as well as gush a little about finding a system that works so perfectly for this concept I’ve had for some time. Thanks John!

Hello! I’m thinking of doing a inspired by Naruto/shinobi/ninja hack of Blades. Is this being done already and if so how far along is it? If it jives with what I want to do, it’d save me some work 🙂

Thanks!