“Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.” — Robert Green Ingersoll

Welcome to Hope Jam!

TL;DR: This is a jam about celebrating hope, community, sustainability, and human kindness. The first step to radical change is dreaming of it, and in this jam, your task is to do just that. Create an analog TTRPG game, supplement, hack, subclass, asset, module, etc. that looks towards a hopeful future, and together, we can bundle those dreams and turn them into funds for Honor The Earth. Join our Discord Server!

The Theme

The theme of this game jam is "hopeful futures." As we face changing climates, both ecological and geopolitical, it's no shock that so many of our narratives end in apocalypse. Global colonial capitalism has grown so impenetrable that now our art reflects a feeling of perpetual helplessness. It's heart-wrenching to feel unable to curb our nations' carbon footprints, affinities for nuclear weaponry, and the deconstruction of diverse communities. And we feel that all the time.

But this jam is not about helplessness. It's about hope.

Hopepunk, solarpunk, and similar genres are a reflection of a collective rebellion against the notion that people are inherently bad. It rejects the idea that the only happy ending for this planet is one in which we've been removed from the story, and instead, it believes in our ability to stop the trolley. Furthermore:

• It insists that we look towards our futures through a hopeful lens. 
• It demands that we lead with our hearts and put apathetic individualism to a rightful death. 
• It believes that we already have the tools we need to choose radical kindness over self-destructive legislation. 

And it's right. The only way to stop the trolley is to stop the trolley.

So, really, this game jam is asking you to love yourself, the Earth, and its inhabitants hard enough to believe some combination of the three can coexist in harmony until the stars burn out. It's about social sustainability just as much as it is about ecological sustainability. If the question is "Will everything really be okay?" then, despite what you've been led to believe, your answer for this game jam should be "Yes, and here's how!"

"Does this fit the theme?"

Blanket statement: Probably.

I don't think it's up to me or anyone else to decide what the "correct" world is for you to imagine, or even how it should translate to tabletop games. All it has to be is hopeful in some way! This prompt is vague because hope is also vague. Follow where it takes you and make something that gives you hope.

Here is an incomplete list of hopes to help guide you in your hoping:

• Sustainability: A green Earth with green energy. Technology that grows and restores rather than extracts and destroys.
• Community: Living simple lives together. Keeping an eye out for your fellow humans. Loving wildly. Baking pies.
• Diversity: A future that makes space for everybody. Queer love. Disabled rights. Multiculturalism. Social justice. 
• Equity: Proper distribution of resources. Mutual aid. Assistive technologies. Annihilation of wealth culture.
• Rewilding: Conservation efforts. Reforesting. Letting the Earth reclaim itself. Clean air and water. 
• Radical Kindness: Rejecting Individualism. Pushing back against the system. Fighting oppressive infrastructure.

The Bundle

When submitting, you have the option to opt in to having your paid submission included in the upcoming Hope Jam Bundle. 50% of the proceeds from this bundle will go towards Honor The Earth, and the rest will be split evenly between the developers. If you would like to increase your contribution to 100%, send me an email at [email protected] or message _natenate on Discord!

Rules

• Your submission must be analog in some way. If you can print it and bring it with you into a sunny field, we'd love to see it. This includes tabletop games, assets, pamphlets, hacks, modules, etc.
• Submit as many things as you'd like! There is no hard limit to how many projects you can submit, and you can absolutely collaborate as long as everyone involved in a submission is properly credited.
• Your submission must be created during this jam. You can use existing assets or tools, but the submission itself must be original and made during the jam period. If you have something unfinished, or would like to further expand on something preexisting, feel free to do so (just make sure you have permission if it isn't yours)!
• No AI. Your final submission must be free of any AI-generated material, or it will be removed after a warning. Whether it be text, images, etc., human art only, please!
• No bigots or fascists. You guys are the problem. Be spectators for this one.
• Your submission must be accessible to everyone during the jam. However, I still recommend you put a price on the work you're putting into this. To make sure everyone in the jam can see your work, you can either share a download link in the TTRPG Collective Server or add sufficient community copies.
• If you opt in to have your submission be part of the bundle, you'll receive an email with a link to approve the terms of the bundle. To be included, you must approve the bundle. The bundle cannot go live until everyone has approved.
• Have fun, make friends, and do good.

Resources & Inspiration

Here are some sources to help get your gears turning. If you find more

• One Atom of Justice, One Molecule of Mercy, and the Empire of Unsheathed Knives: An essay on hopepunk by the author who coined the term, Alexandra Rowland
• Hopepunk and Solarpunk: On Climate Narratives That Go Beyond the Apocalypse: Discussion on how hopeful narratives can inspire us to create better futures
• Eat today, feed tomorrow: An amazing Chobani ad that is ironically one of the best visual references for Solarpunk out there.
• SolarPunk Cities: Our Last Hope?: Video essay on Solarpunk vs Cyberpunk
• Hopepunk, explained: the storytelling trend that weaponizes optimism: A great touchstone for stories about fighting the system and never losing hope
• TTRPG Collective Discord Server: Shameless self-plug! We're a diverse community of TTRPG hobbyists and professionals dedicated to building a supportive and inclusive collaborative community for all within the TTRPG space. We'd love to have you roll with us
• And most importantly, a playlist: