LGJ PermaCoin

Below the notes from 2 different games, the 7th and the 14th of december. We had already recounted the game of the 7th and you can refer to that account for a short introduction to the series of games that we are performing with this scenario and the motivations.

Scenario

• 2 continents:
  • 2 different bioregions (natural features, soil erosion level, CC effects),
  • 2 different economies (national tresuries, initial converion rate of 1:3, chemical agriculture from big corporate in one continent)
• Players inherit as a start big/small land with established production
• Land value floats according to level of regeneration
• Planetary boundaries: level of air pollution is HIGH, 50 is death (Climate Change: now passing 390 ppmv CO2 in the atmosphere)
  

Rule of victory

To win this game you have to keep your part of the world from collapsing, contributing to the decreasing of the grey indicator. No one has to “die”. Is therefore a collaborative game.

14 december LGJ PermaCoin round 4-5

Players: Paula (DLT, fashion, Berlin), Gaia (Trieste), Cristina (liguria), Gijs (india)
Observer: Raffa
Language used: english
master: Fredd

GAME NOTES

• (Antonio) – Orange/yellow – 60h Farm is played as a NPC (nonplayer character (NPC): A character controlled by the Master)
• NPCs (Eco-chain) (Gregory) – Blue – Blockchain
• Cristina – (Forest Gardener) (Grace) – Green – Veggie garden
• Paula – Red – Farm
• Gaia (Chemical Farm) (Will) – Purple – Chemical farm
• Gijs – Immigrant – Little shop in the north

Round 1

• Gaia (Chemical Farm) – she wants a plastic farm: collect plastic in the wasteland and create objects for the south. she asks for money to the green fund to collect plastic. approved she got (3 whites) 12 greens.
• Paula – supporting with basic research with the plastic farm/regeneration. 4 greens. shape the institute with greens
• Cristina (Forest Gardener) – not a good time she sells a land and get 3w, paula buys it. cristina asks for help to handle her forest: paula offers to make energy with the river, gaia offers labs for bio-pharma (chemical but trendy)-> cri chooses Gaia
• Fredd (eco-chain) – creates more greens
• Raffa (Biergarten) – donate 2 whites green fund

Round 2

LGJ event 16 Investments are available, make your pitch. Plastic farm eats 1w 1g makes 4w

• immigrant – set up a methan plant
• chem farm –

after play NOTES:

• there has been a spreading of the Green coin even if not always clear what it is used for and how, it managed to save first the chemical farmer and then the sociocracy in the north. The most relevant thing is that the coin backed up by the local administration worked seamlessly to generate flow of values in the local economy and saw a wide adoption by the players.
• The master decides to fork the game and keep the end situation of the first game with mostly new players. Taxes are low (dice throw favourable to the players)

So the game first round is to take over the situation left at the end of the first match.

• In the North administration we see a interesting political development. The red player, Paula, that played a regeneration popular movement with the occupation of chemically farmed land, the ecovillage close to the wasteland, the industrially farmed land that is approaching a go green policy but has no cash and the arrival of the fist wave of migration from the south.
• Gaia takes over the big extension of property that was cultivated as a chemically based farm (violet); As we saw at the end of game one, this farm, that occupy a vast part of the east side of the north bioregion suffers of a lack of liquidity that blocks any possible activity but the political one. The political climate was set when the red player occupied part of the land and the previous management decided to go along with this occupation. To get cash enough to make some money chemFarm pushes a plan to the administration, to start up a farm that converts plastic to new materials and build that on the land. She has a good argument within the council and gets a go from the other players, with some doubts from Paula. The master allows the chemFarm to get access on this plan to the green coin adding some white to the found. With the green coin that the chemFarm can farm the land and pay taxes, replenishing her wallets. There is a bit of perplexity on if this manouver is in the spirit of the regeneration found.
• A new player is introduced as “migrant from south to north”. The role is taken over by Gijs. His “result throw” is excellent so the master allows him to come in the game with 2d6 of white, no property and 1d6 of gray. Could be a first wave emigration. To be a worker he has been modeled as such: he generates 1G, needs 1W to work and has a yeald of 1d4-2 Whites. This is because a migrant worker, even if is legal, lives in a state of economic fragility that “burns” the value he can carry with him. He is able to buy a little shop in the north ans settle. The player tries to find is niche as a go between for the investments in the south bioregion, either via “cousins” or profiting from the conversion rate from the coin value in the north or in the south. To be sure not to miss any opportunity he as well sets up a methane farm, that has to be modeled better by the master, but has the effect to store some CO2 somehow and allows him to get on the green coin.
• The farm in the south in the mean time is in difficulty. Cristina has no cash. She is forced to sell one third of her land. For the same price that she would get from the market in the souther region she decides to sell to a buyer from the north. Is interesting to unpack her reasoning. The buyer from the north imports a white to the south, that becomes 3W and buy the land making it a export asset. She manages to farm using green coin (her practice being regenerative she can access to the found) but still decides to follow the alluring proposals of the chemical farmers and let her establish a “research center” close to her forest.
• The Red player (Paula) once she settle her “restorative Research Institute” has an attempt to occupy more land from the Chemincal Farmer conglomerate but she fails and loses the support of the administration and part of her popularity and base. The support of the activists evaporated in a throw of dices! So she seems to think about how to check the ethical use of the green money, that nevertheless pumps in all the players on the base of immediate advantage: a coin put in the found is 4 coins in the green!
• The Blockchain fintech (NPG played by the master) pumps green coin hashes in the system and does not to much else in the two vorticous round were the adoption of the coin happens.

At the end of the two hours we saw this situation developing along those lines:

• the chem farm (Gaia) pushed by loss of liquidity goes in the direction of green tech using (maybe misusing) the green coin for the purpoise but with the agreement of the local government. She was propelled as well from a favourable LGJ Event card that sayed “push your investment ideas, LGJ foundings ahead”
• the red movement (Paula) goes in the direction of “putting under scrutiny the activities of the capital” by controlling the science through her research center
• the ecovillage/regeneration private enterprise (Cristina) is functioning and tries to map resources on a smaller scale using her own forces
• some activities to reconvert the gray seem to work but is not the primary focus of the players to do so
• the migration is an important factor of communication between the two bioregions and guides the investments when it can count on resources. We call the migrant player “the mafia” even if is not doing anything criminal, just because is favouring connections
• No one yet used some of the natural carachteristics of the bioregion when the green cash fell in, the river south and the mountains north. The two players that are using permaculture strategies and were first movers are actually less prone to embark on the government/bank backed up green currency and use it to invest and seem to lose momentum.

Anyway what happened at the end might be DEATH:

• The global GRAY grows from this activity and if we count the grays at the end on the table they are more than 50 so technically, even if the ecomomy is prospering there is the doubt that the game is over and everyone will die quietly. To a economic transition that does not focus on regeneration the first effect is a global growth of waste. A spiralling inevitable downworth path? Is it reversible still? but we have material for reflection…

Events in near future IN THE GAME:

• round 6 a LGJ card has to be taken again
• round 5 the regeneration of lands in chem farmed north is over and land can be considered as such

Tables/Images

Table with values per round of coins possession that shows the money adoption in round 4/5

Functioning of the Green Coin Scheme

Is shown with the notes that summarises the “contracts” and with the round 5 values inclusive the “global CO2 level”

Round 5 picture