*https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1700980409/geoengineering-101
*
*Geoengineering 101: The Pre-Apocalyptic Board Game*
Action to stop climate change came too little and too late.
Geoengineering, although dangerous and unproven, is now on the table. A
world like this has no winners, but can you minimize the hardship your
regions face?
*The Story Behind the Game:* There's a wishful but dangerous line of
thinking that stopping climate change by cutting carbon emissions isn't
that urgent since geoengineering offers a technological fix. Scientists
have warned that while things like aerosols or cloud seeding could lower
temperatures, there are lots of unknown side effects, as well as equity
issues.
I had been exploring using games to illustrate the political dynamics in
climate issues, first with California Water Crisis
<https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1700980409/california-water-crisis> in
2014. Games are a great introduction to topics that involve systems and
multiple competing parties. Unlike a film or article, a game puts the
player in an active role, where their actions have an impact on the
outcome.
Geoengineering 101 started out as a concept entry to the November 2014
Board Game Designer Forum's Game Design Showdown
<http://www.bgdf.com/forum/game-design/game-design-showdown/gds-november-2014-empires-autumn-critiques>.
Critiques were highly positive and after several months of development
and testing, Geoengineering 101 is ready to go.
*How to Play the Game: *In Geoengineering 101, you're one of two to four
world leaders, and you have two parallel but sometimes competing goals:
One is to minimize the hardship your regions endure from heat, drought,
or flood. The other is to fully decarbonize the world economy. Only
by eliminating all fossil fuel use can climate change be slowed and the
game won. However, in the meantime, the air conditioners and pumps
running on fossil fuels can shield you from the some of the impacts.
*Though what is winning anyway?* A world where climate change has
gotten so bad that geoengineering is on the table is one without
winners, only those that lose less. There's only one way to "win" in
Geoengineering 101: have the least amount of Hardship when all Carbon
Tokens are finally removed. There's plenty of ways to lose: having all
regions destroyed by the climate going off the charts, or when all the
players suffer a total of 100 Hardship - which in a typical game, is
only 10-15 turns away.
*Side effects and delayed actions*
In Geoengineering 101, you'll take turns with other players to carry out
geoengineering programs or acts of deep green resistance. There's a
time delay to your actions, though: the program you initiate now doesn't
come up until your next turn. In between, other players' programs
happen and if uncoordinated, can trigger side effects that cause
hardship, randomize the sequence of future actions, or shift global
rainfall patterns.
The game takes inspiration from real climate science and geoengineering
ideas, as well as the political implications of different nations
unilaterally or cooperatively meddling with the weather. Enjoy the game,
but let's hope that carbon emissions can be stopped before we ever have
to play it for real.
*Game length:* 30-45 minutes
*Number of players:* 2 to 4
Game will be published Creative Commons CC-BY, and will be made
available in both hard copy and print and play PDF.
*Official Game Website*:www.californiarailmap.com/geo101
<http://www.californiarailmap.com/geo101>
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"geoengineering" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
