565 lines
23 KiB
Markdown
565 lines
23 KiB
Markdown
Hope, it's a simple word but one we all need to experience now.
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# Autonomous Garden
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"All fictions are the seeds of reality" - Wakest
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## Table of Contents
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[**Chapter 1: Setting**](#setting)
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[Themes](#themes)
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[Terms](#terms)
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[Technology](#technology)
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[Locations](#locations)
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[Campaigns](#campaigns)
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[**Chapter 2: Characters**](#characters)
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[Defining Characters](#definingCharacters)
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[Attributes](#attributes)
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[Skills](#skills)
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[Traits](#traits)
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[Plot Points](#plotPoints)
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[Secondary Attributes](#secondaryAttributes)
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[Goals](#archetypes)
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[Values](#archetypes)
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[Wealth](#wealth)
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[Credit](#credit)
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[rep](#rep)
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[Archetypes](#archetypes)
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[Downtime](#downTime)
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[Tutors](#tutors)
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[**Chapter 3: Equipment**](#equipment)
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[Aquiring equipment](#aquiringEquipment)
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[Item List](#itemList)
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[Clothing and Protective Suits](#clothingAndProtectiveSuits)
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[Communication Equipment](#communicationEquipment)
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[Medical Equipment](#medicalEquipment)
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[Surveillance Equipment](#surveillanceEquipment)
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[Survival Equipment](#survivalEquipment)
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[Tools](#tools)
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[Personal Weapons](#weapons)
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[Personal Armor](#armor)
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[Shields](#shields)
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[Vehicles](#vehicles)
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[**Chapter 4: Action**](#action)
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[Actions](#actions)
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[Dice Rolling](#diceRolling)
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[Action Tests](#actionTests)
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[Skill Tests](#SkillTests)
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[Unskilled Tests](#unskilledTests)
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[Attribute Tests](#attributeTests)
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[Complexity](#complexity)
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[Opposed Action Tests](#opposedActionTests)
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[Action Definition](#actionDefinition)
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[Acting Fast](#actingFast)
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[Action Types](#actionTypes)
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[Social Actions](#socialActions)
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[Resolving Combat](#resolvingCombat)
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[Initiative](#initiative)
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[Surprise](#surprise)
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[Movement](#movement)
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[Attacking](#attacking)
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[Defending](#defending)
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[Combat Modifiers](#combatModifiers)
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[Injuries](#injuries)
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[Recovery](#recovery)
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[Hazards](#hazards)
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[**Chapter 5: Game Moderating**](#gameModerating)
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[Safety First](#safetyFirst)
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[Running the Game](#runningTheGame)
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[Improvising](#improvising)
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[Running action tests](#runningActionTests)
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[GM Assitants](#GMAssistants)
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[Improvising](#improvising)
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[Session 0](#session0)
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[Designing Adventures](#designingAdventures)
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[Game Balance](#gameBalance)
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[Pacing](#pacing)
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[Plotting a campaign](#plottingACamaign)
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[Occult](#Occult)
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[**Chapter 6: NPCs**](#NPCs)
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[Humans](#humans)
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[Non Human Characters](#nonHumanCharacters)
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[Non Human Traits](#nonHumanTraits)
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[Animals](#animals)
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[Moreaus](#moreaus)
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[Spirits](#spirits)
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[Cryptids](#cryptids)
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[**Appendix**](#appendix)
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## Design
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This game is based on the principle of “function over structure.” What does
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that mean? Basically, it means that this game is concerned with how useful
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things are in play and not with exactly how many wound points remain in the
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left leg. The system works by placing more and more negative modifiers due to
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damage, until things stop working. Anything not covered by standard attributes
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(numeric ratings that tell you the effectiveness of things in a given field)
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are covered by “Perks” and “Flaws,” modifiers with variable uses.
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This is called an effect-based system and allows us to use fairly simple rules
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to cover a large number of situations, rather than rely on an arcane “one rule
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for every situation” set.
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## Game Elements
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### Objects of the Game
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Autonomus Garden is about exploring the world and the characters. This is an
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infinate game, where the point is to continue the game, there is no beating it.
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### Default Player Characters
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### Default Antagonists
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State agents, corporate mercenaries, and fascist militias all make great player
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antagonists.
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### Game Units
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Autonomous Garden defaults to using Meters as a game unit however for gaming
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groups that are use to imperial measurements, these can easily be substituted
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for yards, without breaking anything.
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### What you need to play
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In order to begin playing you will need the following:
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+ At least one copy of these rules, which will tell you how to run the game. It
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is useful if each player has access to their own copy of the rules for easy
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reference
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+ One character sheet per player
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+ A pencil
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+ A set of six sided dice(Between 3-6) per player or digital equivalent.
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+ A set of XNO cards per player (Optional but recommended)
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# Chapter One: Setting <a name="setting"></a>
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"Cooperation, not competition, is the very basis of future survival and of
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existing life systems" - Bill Mollison
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In *Autonomous Garden* you play members of your community council delegated
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ith various tasks to keep your society running.
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The old empire has torn itself apart, but unfortunately a shell still remains.
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The empire has fallen, the earth is healing. But not without long standing
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wounds, attempts to engineer technical solution to climate change have only
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accelerated global weirding, sure the megaflora might capture more carbon but
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some species have also mutated by the genetic splicing used to create them.
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Sorcerers walk the night streets to bioluminescent mushrooms as the local
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cryptid is spotted in the community food forest.
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Within the ashes of the old word, new or should we say old ways of organizing
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our societies have become more common. Ones where people have say in their
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communities and don't have to worry about systemic bigotry. One where people
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are relearning to live with the more than human world and not against it. But
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not everyone feels this way, and there are those who want to go back to the old
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way of doing things.
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Of course the task ahead is a great one, we only want the world.
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## Themes <a name="themes"></a>
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“There is an intimate reciprocity to the senses: as we touch the bark of a
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tree, we feel the tree touching us; as we lend our ears to the local sounds and
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ally our nose to the seasonal scents, the terrain gradually tunes us in turn.”
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— David Abram, Spell of the Sensuous
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There are several themes that make up *Autonomous Garden* some of which may not
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be familiar. Knowing these themes in important for setting the tone of the
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game. All of the themes to no need to present themselves in every campaign but
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getting most of them is ideal. A campaign that takes place in a small commune
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will play different than one that takes place in a city.
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### Anarchism
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Anarchist themes revolve around personal freedom, social equality, and how
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society can be organized. Anarchism seeks to remove all hierarchy unless it
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proves itself necessary. Direct democracy and consensus voting are common.
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### Community
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### Consequences of the Past
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Environmental damage done in the name of profit, social damage done to control
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a population. It deliberately subverts systems that prevent the brighter future
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from happening.
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### Ecological Living
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What is it like to live in a community that doesn't export the cost of living
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onto the more than human world, in order to make a quick profit.
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### Hope
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The future is not nihilistic, in fact, it is quick optomistic. Things can get
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better if we make them. This doesn't mean its a utopia but more of a protopia,
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able to improve it's self from our current state to something one would want to
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live in. While Hope here doesnt mean blind faith, that politians will "do the
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right thing", or some technology will come around allowing westerners to live
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the way they have without causing ecocide. It is the hope that things can
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better than what they are now and most importantly is that nothings stops this
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from happening right now.
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### Positive Technology
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Technology has largely failed to lessen the workloads for works under
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capitalism, as it just means that the production can be increased by any gains
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in efficiency the new technology provides. Used democratically however, the
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efficiency can be used to reduce labor while still meeting the needs of
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society. Some technology can outright improve the lives of those who use it.
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### Paranormal
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Magick happens, but for most people it only appears as coinsidence, where it is
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easily written off. Aliens abduct people but it doesn't mean that they are
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taking people up on a nuts and bolts space craft. Large hairy hominids wonder
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the forests and sometimes they'll talk to you telepathically. What is usally
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called the paranormal interacts with the normal world in subdte ways that only
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a few ever incounter.
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### Decolonization
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## Terms <a name="terms"></a>
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**Affinity Group:** A group of friends/comrades that work together for a common
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goal. They are small and intimate enough that they are resistant to outside
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influence, but they still have enough power to get things done.
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**Anarchist:** A political system that is against hierarchy, the state, and
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capitalism as all of these are violent.
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**Appropriate Technology:** Technology that is designed to be sustainable,
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small, and appropriate the context of its use.
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**Archology:** A monolithic structure build around environmental integration
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with the human world.
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**Artificial Scarcity:** The illusion of, or limited access to something that is
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abundant. The most common use is by a market economy.
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**Capitalism:** A market economy, in which work places are privately owned buy
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an owning class, where a working class is coersed into selling their labor at a
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fraction of its value to generate profits for the owning class. This system
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demands infite grown that does not concider enviromental damage a cost of its
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operation.
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**Civilization:** An urban centric hierarchical society that depends on rural
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agriculture.
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**Communism:** A classless, stateless, and moneyless society.
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**ITEK:** Is the Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge that a culture has
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that keeps themselves in a good relation with the more than human world. It
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includes how to care for land and animals for the benefit of all.
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**Green Washing:** Giving misleading information about the environmental impact
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of a products or service. These still usually benefit empire.
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**Nouveau liberal:** Someone or something that is posing as solarpunk.
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**Permaculture:** Is a practical design philosophy intended to help us live and
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prosper in an environment, while working with nature in a positive way, using
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solutions based on careful observation of natural ecosystems and common sense.
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Permaculture is a collection of indigenous thoughts that have been collected
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but lack indigenous thinking.
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**Personal Property:** Property that is owned for use of it's owner.
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**Private Property:** Property that is owned to generate profits for
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it's owner, usually not occupied by its owner.
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**Profit:** The difference between the cost of operating private
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property including paying its workers and the revenue that they
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generate.
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**Socialism:** An ideology that that's states that the workers should own, the
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work place, residents should own their home, etc and classes of people are
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abolished. Theoretically this could include a state but has never been
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demonstrated.
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**Solarpunk:** Anti authoritarian ecological fiction.
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## Technology <a name="technology"></a>
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Most technology of **Autonomous Garden** resembles the same tech to use today
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and indeed almost all of it are things that exist today. Speculative fiction
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often takes things that exist and makes them more common. *Appropriate
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Technology* puts multiple similar solutions in place where they best fit and
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self sufficiency for those using it.
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### Biotech
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Over the last few years new technologies in biotech have emerged. Most notably
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Stimpacks, a small injectable that can replicate the regenerative effect of
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reptiles. Most injuries can be healed with a week and even severed limbs can be
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fully regenerated with in 2 months.
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### Heating and Cooling
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Lowtech heating and cooling ease the burden of powering buildings with little
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to no energy usage.
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#### Geothermal Heating/cooling
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#### Green Roof
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#### Masonry heating
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#### Terracotta Air conditioner
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### Energy
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The decentralizing of energy opens up a variety of ways individual and
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communities can power their homes and buildings. Many of these technologies
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wouldn't be out of place in past centuries but don't let that fool you into
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thinking they can't liberate people from capitalist control.
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#### Composting Power Plant
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In the 20th century Jean Pain created a technique for generation heat and biogas
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from brushwood compost. By collecting brushwood from near by woods, the
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composting power plant can produce methane gas for fuel, heat water, and create
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humus for fertilizer all without any strong oders. Best of all this is a
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set-it-and-forget-it system, meaning it doesn't require any maintenance outside
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of new brushwood every 8+ months.
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Modern Composting power plants can be made as small as 2x2m which is enough to
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heat water 65°c, thanks to the use of polyethylene tubing less tubing is
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required to heat.
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Methane producing piles usually require a larger area as they have a tank in
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them, filled 3/4 full with the same compost, which has been seeped in water for
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2 months. The tank is hermetically sealed and connected to a reservoir. Once
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distilled the methane can be processed to be used as fuel for cooking or in
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generators. This fuel is equivalent to high grade petro.
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#### Hydro
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Humanity has been using hydro power for around 2,000 years. The old way was to
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power the machines with mechanical transmission, but in the late 19th century
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electricity became utilized as a way of powering machines.
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##### Mechanical Transmission
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Wooden water wheels appeared more than 2,000 years ago, there were a few
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different designs but the most efficient one was the vertical overshot water
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wheel, which could convert 50-60% of its potential energy into usable energy.
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In the 18th century, iron water wheels appeared improving this to 65-85%.
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The modern water-powered prime movers that we use today convert over 85% of
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their potential energy into usable mechanical power at the shaft of the
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turbine and are 10 to 20 times more compact than the water wheels of old.
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##### Electric Generator
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Hydro electric generators come in various sizes from being able to power a home
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to a city block. In addition to the water wheel, an electric generator is
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connected to wheel. On average a hydro electric generator only converts about
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half of the water energy into usable energy.
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#### Solar
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Maybe the most popular idea of renewable energy, and where the genre gets it's
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name. Solar power uses the power of the sun, to generate energy.
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##### Solar PV
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Solar PV or Solar photovoltaic generates electricity from sunlight. Solar PV
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panels can be installed in most places where they can collect sunlight.
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##### Solar Water heater
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##### Solar Air Heater
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This device is made of a plywood box with a clear pvc or glass panel and some
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form of aluminum inserted inside painted matte black to collect heat. It has 2
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air vents one going into the bottom and the other the top, both will run into
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the building to be heated, and at least one fan to pump the air thru the
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system. Variations on these are numerous, but soda can and window screen are
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popular.
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Solar Air Heaters are not meant to replace a traditional heat source but can
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supplement it, depending on the setup they are able to provide up to 40-60% of
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heating needs. Minimum useful sizes for these are 1.2 by 2.4m and will usually
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cover a whole south facing wall for maximum effect.
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#### Stirling Engine
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#### Wind
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For more than two thousand years, windmills have been built from recyclable or
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reusable materials. When electricity producing wind turbines were invented in
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the 1880s. The materials didn't change. It was only with the arrival of plastic
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composite blades in the 1980s that wind power as become a source of toxic waste
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production that ends up in landfills.
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New production technology and design enable it to be possible to build larder
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wind turbines almost entirely out of wood again, not just the blades, but also
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the rest of the structure. This has solved the issue of waste and making the
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manufacturing of wind turbines largely independent of fossil fuel and mining.
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### The Meshnet
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When the rebellion start to pickup steam, the empire setup the new iron
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firewall to keep their political enemies from being able to recruit in lands
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they controlled. While not perfect it does stop most libertians from accessing
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the internet, whoever Libertatia has it's own internet. Built from
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interconnecting nodes which prevents disruptions to the whole system.
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The meshnet is capable of connecting to the wider web but it is usually not at
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a comfertible speed.
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Meshsites work via peer-to-peer without having to host them on a server, but
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are signed by users with a unique key, ensuring that only the owner can modify
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their meshsite.
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### Software
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Because intelectual property has been abolished, all software is free and open
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source. This means anyone with programming skills can improve and redistribute
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their changes. Older software especially games are able to be played on modern
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systems with little issue. The software itself is lighter as it doesnt have to
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include trackers and other malware, and focuses on the user getting their task
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done instead of addicting them to their device.
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### Travel
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#### Air
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Air travel is a lot slower than decades prior but those who travel get more
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from the journey by taking solar powered dirigibles. The flight time is
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significantly longer but the energy usage per trip is also significantly
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reduced.
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#### Ground
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Electric vehicles are common but there are still a few combustion engines
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kicking around in some places. Many people ride bikes or velomobiles, a kind of
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mix between a bicycle and a car that may or may not have electric assistance.
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#### Sea
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## Life in the Communes
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"True progress lies in the direction of decentralization, both territorial and
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functional, in the development of the spirit of local and personal initiative,
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and of free federation from the simple to the compound, in lieu of the present
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hierarchy from the centre to the periphery." -Peter Kropotkin
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### The right to live
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The confederation guarantees right to live and all of that that
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entails such as: food, clothing, healthcare, shelter, education,
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transportation, and communication.
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Some of these things are provided by the commune itself while others such as
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healthcare are provided by the confederation. This way smaller communes wont
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suffer, because they cannot provide for themselves.
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### Work
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Because people no longer have to work for the profits of others, labor has been
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reduced back down to 15 hours a week like our ancestors had. The efficiency
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improvements and technology made over the years allow this to be enough to not
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sacrifice the western standard of living.
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Communes will usually vary on their exact economic policy but all agree that
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workers should democratically decide on how to spend their labor and as such
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work places operate as worker owned co-operatives. These cooperatives organize
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across their industry into syndicates help scientifically decide on how much of
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anything should be produced instead of just seeing what will sell. Additionally
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only the jobs deemed socially useful are taken up, jobs that that only ever
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generated revenue like repo agent, telemarketer, administrative assistant, etc
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no longer exist in this society.
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### Community Councils
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Each community there is a council made up of community members on a rotation
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basis. Anyone who wishes to take part may do so without any form of election,
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councils are made of up many members at a time to prevent accidental
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hierarchies usually around 100-150 members.
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These councils allow the community to bring up issues that are effecting the
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commune, allow for their discussion, a plan of action and delegates to be
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decided on to carry out the plan.
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### Democratic Confederalism
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Each commune is able to send 2 delegates to represent the commune within their
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local region. These delegates allow the same kind of council structure to be
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built at the provincial level. From there things go up to continental level,
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etc.
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This means that communities are not on their own and can further pool
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resources.
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### Ecology and Food
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Most people eat things that are grown within 20 miles of them. Many foods are
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grown in the former eye sores called lawns, fruit and nut trees line the
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streets, and local food forests provide hundreds of different edible native
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plants.
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### Transportation
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Transportation can largely be divided into two categories: local and long
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distance.
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**Local:** largely consists of human powered vehicles with electric assist
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available for difficult terrain and disability. Utility vehicles are just about
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the only reason local roads still exist and haven't been dug up to be replaced
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with gardens and bike paths.
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**Long distance:** The confederation builds and maintains railways between
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|
communes. The old way of highways interconnecting areas is slowly fading as
|
|
they've only serviced personal cars. These ways of travel might be slower but
|
|
so is life.
|
|
|
|
Air travel has seen the return of lighter than air dirigibles. They are much
|
|
slower than jet engines planes but also require much less environmentally
|
|
damaging resources.
|
|
|
|
Naval travel has seen the return of sailing ships. Newer materials and design
|
|
techniques have increased the efficiency over the old pre 20th century
|
|
sailboats of the past.
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|
|
|
### Justice and Defense
|
|
Eventually conflict and harm occurs, domestic disputes are handled by a local
|
|
Crisis Workers, a kind of negotiator or crisis responded. They don't come armed
|
|
and are trained to deescalate situations. Crisis workers often serve as
|
|
moderators for Restorative Justice meetings.
|
|
|
|
Restorative Justice seeks to heal social wounds instead of punishing people for
|
|
antisocial acts. Both the offending and offend parties, possibly their
|
|
families sit down with a moderator and work out what must be done to make up
|
|
for the offense. The offender is giving the opportunity to take responsibility
|
|
for their actions so they can change their behavior in the future, the vicitim
|
|
is given the chance to get answers which help cope.
|
|
|
|
Civil Defense have taken the place of police, but unlike state thugs, Civil
|
|
Defense is not responsible for catching runaway slaves, protecting private
|
|
property, suppressing worker rebellions, or generating revenue for the state.
|
|
Instead they stay in their barracks or other station unless called upon. They
|
|
are only called in when someones life is in danger.
|
|
|
|
Prisons are abolished and replace with rehabilitation centers to help offenders
|
|
not commit antisocial acts again. This usually comes after restorative justice
|
|
meetings has failed and the council decides to send them to get help. Communes
|
|
commonly ban the death penalty.
|
|
|
|
## Campaigns <a name="campaigns"></a>
|
|
"The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the
|
|
rules. It's people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages. As
|
|
a precaution to ever committing major acts of evil it is our solemn duty never
|
|
to do what we're told, this is the only way we can be sure." -- Banksy
|
|
|
|
### Green and Black ops
|
|
There are many state and capitalist projects that threaten the local and
|
|
regional environment and affinity groups are composed of individuals with the
|
|
skills to stop them.
|
|
|
|
This is the most action packed of the 3 example campaigns and PCs will likely
|
|
have some amount of combat skills.
|
|
|
|
### Automous living Campaign
|
|
The characters living in a permanent autonomus zone, there is no local state to
|
|
worry about but there are still things that need to be done. Affinity groups
|
|
are delegated jobs as members of the community but things don't always go
|
|
according to plan and sometimes they get quiet strange.
|
|
|
|
### Prefiguration
|
|
|
|
|
|
Your *affinity group* works to improve your community. Sometimes you need more
|
|
help and this requires rallying others who might want a favor before they are
|
|
willing to help.
|
|
|