In today’s post I will present you the crowdfunding of Universo de rol solarpunk and his author, Paula “Alien” (blog, mastodon, itch.io), whom with this campaign wants to obtain the neccessary resources to carry out the creation the physical edition of a set of science-fiction roleplaying games with solarpunk aesthetics.
Introduction: Who is Paula "Alien"?
But before talking about the crowdfunding and its contents and the inspiration of it I will allow Paula to present herself:
My name is Paula, I’m 29 years old, and sometimes I’m called Alien, a nickname I choosed in the beginning of my in Vallekas' social radio. I liked it at the beginning for all the things I was doing because it’s scifi and gender was’nt clear, so I avoided many discussions and stupid people patronizing in technology chats 👽 although yes, I like Alien film. Eventually it has become in a nickname I’m fond of because it’s used by my friends.
I study the bachelor’s degree of arts at the UOC and I’m complementng it with dressmaking and design in an academy. I’m a computer specialist (my first career was engineering) with an electronics specialization.
I like science fiction, and in these years I had been going from the cyberpunk aesthetics (hence the name terceranexus6) to hopepunk y Solarpunk. Now I write and paint about technology which could exist, if we develop it in another way. I take part in the program of Post Apocalipsis Nau, where we talk about, among other things, about digital sovereignity.
Besides all these, I’m a mum of a baby, and this has inspired some of my new stories.
Previously to this patronage Paula has created other works and taken part in projects you may find interesting:
- The self-published solarpunk book of tales Lo que pasó tras las Tormentas, inspired in an imaginary view of the Andalusia of the future.
- The Solarpunk tales contest in the Fediverse with the collaboration of Fanta at 56k (you may find the participant’s stories in Paula’s repository.
- Her collaboration in the podcast Post Apocalipsis Nau for more than 6 years (also available at iVoox and PODash).
- Nuestro barrio, a roleplaying game for students of last cycles of elementary education, designed to work concepts of sustainability and community. She has tested it in a local school and has presented it to an association of educating with games.
- Encounter, a point and click game about a female investigator who lives in a space station and helps a mysterious character appearing from nowhere to recover his memories, through care, empathy and affection.
- Some art experiments for the studies I publish with free licenses, including an esoteric programming language inspired by embroidery techniques or a garment/textile sculpture to talk about dangers of contamination. All of these is available at her repositories at sourcehut, itch.io and her Telegram channel, which originally was for illustrations only.
- Her favourite art collectives are 100r.co, with many solarpunk art samples and developers of UXN (a minimal operating system for their games and apps which works even in Gameboy) and Compudanzas (also in itch.io).
Solarpunk and other related movements
Because Paula’s crowdfunding is mainly related with solarpunk it’s also interesting to go deep into the topic, I will allow Paula to begin:
Solarpunk is a movement meant to incentivate fair technology. To achieve this, the digital end electronic development aren’t the heart of society, people and climatics are. If a technology has a negative impact in society this is left aside to search for a new alternative. Promotes the development without planned obsolescence (repairable, reusable, documented), and open, in community.
Although this is used in science fiction, it could be a realistic proposal or an inspiration for realistic ideas. In my case, I like to use my knowledge of electronics and computer science to think about these worlds.
There’s a manifest more or less important written by some people in this kind of communities, but it’s a concept still in development with some close concepts, like those of hopepunk (centered in a hopeful future), guerrillapunk associated with “Do It Yourself” (centered in realistic action and revolution for the future) or cottagepunk (where kitchen gardens and permaculture gardens have a central role) among others. In my case I mix this with Space Opera, a genre of spatial science fiction. I like to develop stories and raise questions in these fictional scenarios, but I try to come up with realistic or intimate emotions and situations, because I had read stories of Ursula K. Le Guin, Philip K. Dick or Stanislaw Lem, among others, and this is my secure space, the way I express myself.
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| Ursula K. Le Guin Photo by Marian Wood Kolisch August 1995 CC BY-SA 2.0 |
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| Philip K. Dick (1962) Photo by Arthur Knight From the back cover of the first edition of The Man in the High Castle by Putnam |
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| Stanisław Lem (1966) Courtesy of his secretary, Wojciech Zemek CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| William Gibson (2008) CC BY-SA 2.0 |
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| Bruce Sterling (2009) CC BY 2.0 |
Besides all that Paula has said I also could add that Solarpunk is one of many variations of movements devoted to study the impcat of technology in our lives, influenced by novels of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling as explains TV Tropes, and in the case of Solarpunk TV Tropes gives the indication of having the origin in this post written by visual artist Olivia Louise in the Tumblr Land of Masks of Jewels.
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| Augustin Mouchot and his solar concentrator. Universal Exposition, Paris (1878) Public domain |
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| Frank Shuman (1907) CC BY-SA 3.0 The Electrical Experimenter, Volume 3 May 1915 – April 1916 Dominio público |
And from a historic viewpoint I also add that if the solar energy projects of Augustin Mouchot in the 19th century and Frank Shuman at the beginning of the 20th century, which I knew from the episode The World Set Free of the television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, would have had continuity nowadays perhaps we would live in a more ecologically fair and sustainable world.
About the crowdfunding
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| Crowdfunding Universo de rol Solarpunk: a floating astronaut in a weightless environment |
The crowdfunding at Verkami prepared by Paula has the following goals:
- Translation of Bubble Station
Bubble Station appeared as a consequence of the Global Game Jam, and after a few days of publishing the “raw” version made in a weekend, I expanded the project to add illustrations, layout and complete narrative details. After publishing a PDF edition and another one as a printable fanzine, I made a landscape hardcover special edition. The story revolves around an abandoned space station where appears a mysterious sphere showing visions to the visitors. The game invites the players to create a journal using a series of tools (an origami tarot, tables and dice) while exploring the event. This project is actually in English, and I want to have time to translate and sell it in my web and some shops that have agreed to collaborate. - Edition as an A5 vertical stapled fanzine of Aspirantes Espaciales
Aspirantes Espaciales is one of my last solo playing games (or to be played with friends), with a more comical style than the other stories. The game mechanics ask players to take a risk with their rolls and face small minigames if they want to achieve their objectives. It has a very free-form narrative, the goal is to write a journal and players choose what kind of crew they want to portrait: adventurous, quiet, punk… Any thing is valid to create a story. This game will be available as a PDF in Spanish, and I would like to release a stapled edition with a new quality and full colour to sell it in my web and shops that agreed. - Reflejos
I want to develop a new story, based in the videogame I wrote a couple of years ago, named Encounter. The game is starred by an alone investigator attending a SOS call, and with care, conversation and a bit of empathy a little story is developed. In Reflejos a nomad chasing radio signals through space with a little ship would have to unlock a mistery after knowing the life of Sam, a completely different woman from her, living in a space station with her baby. In this game I want to develop some details of the fictious universe where my stories take place, as well as roleplaying mechanics to guide the story through the emotions of the protagonist. - Viajes del futuro
This little project mixes roleplaying games and a quick tabletop game. The idea is to create a series of packs of cards with key elements (characters, objects and spaces) and the idea is to use them to develop a story. The concept is similar to Story Cubes or Aye, Dark Overlord, but with packs of cards.
All have hand-made illustrations by me with Creative Commons (CC) license.
I also use CC for the stories, in fact it’s a kind of CC license modified to include the explicit refusal to generative A.I. and using my work as training material of it. I work alone myself in the project (stories, narrative, layout, illustration, etc), but I have the support of communities, followers, and local shops, which have demonstrated the willingness to promote and back my ideas and I appreciate this a lot.
The calendar of the crowdfunding is the following:
- April 26th and 27th: Presentation of the crowdfunding campaign and roleplaying workshop at MeepleFactory.
- First Tuesday of June: Opening of the precampaign, with limited time packs for two days and other ones available indefinitely.
- August-September 2025: Ending of writing, illustration and layout of projects.
- October-November 2025: Printing and shipment of the projects of the campaign.
- January-February 2026: Projects available to buy at the itch.io shop.
Having said this, I would like to finish writing, illustrating and make the layout in four months, to print and send the reward packs in the following two months, After a break to enjoy some key dates with my daughter and the rest of the family, at the beginning of 2026 I want to have all the projects of the crowdfunding available at my itch.io. Also, I want to create a specific website of my roleplaying universe, but this is a secondary project.
The goal are € 3500, and the details of the crowdfunding will be available at the beginig of June, but there will be different types of packs according to the contribution, like illustrations, dice and download links.
I want to say that my stories are starred by feminine and non-binary characters, I wrote using neutral gender and I want to explore stories and various kind of mechanics. I take a special interest in compatible mechanics with solo jpurnaling, a kind of roleplaying games for a player only, with the goal of writing a personal journal based in fictious adventures. Other games can also be used with other people (like Aspirantes Espaciales).
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| Crowdfunding Universo de rol Solarpunk: space station |
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| Crowdfunding Universo de rol Solarpunk: astronaut and little girl |
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| Crowdfunding Universo de rol Solarpunk: motorcycle |
This entry it's also available in the following languages:
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