Nausicaa meets Mad Max RPG Eco Mofos!! does climate post-apocalypse with a heavy dose of hope

Let’s face it: the world is fracked. The powers that be - Silicon Valley trillionaires, a frozen and brittle political system and every ardent defender of late-stage capitalism sealed that deal. But that’s no reason to give in to some dismal nihilism! Such is the message and tone of upcoming tabletop RPG Eco Mofos!! Its crowdfunding campaign promises extremely specific vibes that won’t leave you jaded.

Eco Mofos!! is the creation of Copy/Paste Co-op mombers Daniel Locke and David Blandy, which they describe as a “mid-future ecopunk ruin-delving survival game” built to run on Into the Odd, Cairn and all of its OSR ilk. That means there’s tons of delving into decrepit, abandoned holes, no character levels and plenty of weird, gnarled junk with esoteric and - if you’re unlucky - massively powerful potential.

The worldbuild centres on life after the complete collapse of modern society to a climate-based apocalypse. Those without the money to flee into space or underground in massive bunkers still cling to life on a blasted, irradiated surface. Instead of immediately killing each other off or resorting to weird cannibalism and gasoline hoarding, these remnants instead rolled up their sleeves and set about building a future out of the rubble.

“Eco Mofos!! came out of wanting to bring together several of my passions- simple rulesets, procedural play, and climate justice and awareness,” Blandy said in a press release. “I gave it a big dumb name to go with its big dumb attitude. The game’s a snarling but hopeful vision of the future, not shying away from the fact that work has to be done and changes have to be made.”

The game’s “weirdhope, not Grimdark” tone is coupled with OSR’s rules-lite approach to adventuring. Character creation is simple but evocative, and these ecopunks accrue adaptations, substances or machines that change their body in wild and unpredictable ways. They’ll likely gain burdens along the way, especially when tensions run high, and all that mental and emotional load will take up valuable space until the characters can remove or incorporate it through specific requirements.

Inside the Eco Mofos!! 150-page core book will be tons of tables that the players and facilitator can use during the game to instantaneously create big swaths of the world and fill it with interesting details. This includes a reputedly massive d666 table that delivers “random bits and bobs” salvaged from the refuse of the world that was.

Other members of the team bringing this decidedly caring and optimistic take of post-apocalypse to life include copy editor and module writer Iko, solo rules designer Brandon Yu and module writers Sam Leigh and Logan Dean.

The Kickstarter campaign for Eco Mofos!! runs through July 27th and is offering both a digital and physical version of the core rulebook - the latter has options for different bindings. The designers expect delivery to backers will begin around May 2024. A demo version of the game, sans art and layout, is available on Blandy’s Itch.io page.