A while back I shared an idea for a future campaign I might try to write, focused on the work of Agreement Agencies. I think of the solarpunk adventure story plots as being divided into a few broad categories that provide both motivation and means to do adventure-ish stuff. The most straightforward one I think is Investigations, and a lot of our previous modules (including a Demonstration of Power and Buried Treasure) fall into this. Another is the Agreement Agencies - a type of organization in Fully Automated which focus on resolving conflicts and helping get things done in a way that works out okay for all parties. Per a draft of the game manual:
If a practice or enterprise impacts others (such as a large, noisy concert), or is so large that it represents a temporary opportunity cost for other people (such as commissioning a rocketship or major infrastructure) then agreement agencies provide assistance in mediating negotiations among stakeholders. These Agencies often loan members to other agencies to provide technical expertise to all sides or help de-escalate or settle disagreements. Members often specialize in ecological framing, estimation, surveying, contract wording, body language or simply history. These provide a kind of legal service, except that because legal tools to dominate or force conditions on people or groups are rare, these entities rely almost entirely on effective deal making.
I think these are cool because characters acting in this role (or supporting someone who does) basically have an active license to meddle in situations they don’t have a personal stake in, or to otherwise show up and work to resolve strangers’ problems, in a way that feels like the stuff of TTRPG adventures.
So here’s another Agreement Agencies idea, a bit smaller in scope than my last one:
A film troupe/studio/co-op wants to shoot a historically-accurate 2020s (or 2030s) picture, complete with gas automobiles, wide, paved autoroads, interstates etc. The directors’ vision calls for an emphasis on practical effects. The only problem is that 100 years in the solarpunk future, much of these bits of urban blight have been actively reclaimed, repurposed, or removed. Pedestrianized streets, parks, and tramways shape the urban landscape and a studio doesn’t have the same wealth-based power they did in the old world. Simply paying a lot of money to change a landscape to suit their film and leaving a mess behind isn’t an acceptable practice anymore. They need help finding or making suitable locations, sourcing pristine corporate-made antiques for set dressing and resolving some conflicts that have built up around some of the locations where the locals don’t want to see their neighborhoods changed for a movie. I think there’s also a good chance to look at ways blockbuster filmmaking might change when externalities, ecological harms, and waste are primary concerns.
I don’t have a lot of specifics drafted yet - I imagine the GM would provide a sidequest-style list of blocked scenes, missing items (perhaps they need to borrow antique petrol cars from collectors), etc for the players to work out, as well as one or two or big pre-existing conflicts to mediate. (Maybe the film group wants to pay to temporarily pave over the permeable, pedestrianized streets around an important historical building/set piece and some locals hate the idea). Andrew also suggested setting up some conflicts within the crew, perhaps they’re accidentally mirroring some of the conflicts in the story.
Perhaps to add some resources/negotiating power behind the film crew, it could be that they’re making a dramatized retelling of something from the revolutionary past which lead into the present day eutopia. If the film’s planned release lines up with a big anniversary/celebration of these heroic acts and has a lot of popular support, that might add some emphasis to the why it feels important that this be done a certain way.
One of the things I really like about this idea is that it makes contrasts between our present and the future an active part of the plot. The GM has plenty of opportunities to talk about how things have changed because those improvements are actively blocking the film crew’s goals. If we set things in the near future, it can also give the players a little personal distance and an opportunity to indulge an extra layer of (perhaps dystopian) worldbuilding of their own, in addition to collaborating on the present.