Existential Evolution (Weird & Wonderful Ecology Generator)

There's Natural Selection and Sexual Selection, and on this world, there is also Existential Selection. Beyond simply sex and survival, creatures on this world have innate, seemingly irrational drives. However, like a Rube Goldberg Machine, the ecosystem depends on these existentialist impulses in order to function. Although any given organism may be hindered in sex and survival because of their existential impulse, beyond these constraints, life takes on all sorts of Weird & Wonderful turns.

How to Use

Roll a handful of creatures, think about how they interact, and write a paragraph for each entry. While developing a creature, look to the others and think how they might fit together. Combine the entries at the end into a single story about the Existential Ecology.

Admittedly the number of features for each entry can be a little overwhelming, but I find that even after creating one or two creatures, it becomes easier to just fill out the rest of the ecology with original creations- no need for the generator.

Most of the features of the generator are of a physical nature with some supernatural elements, but the Existential Niche, specifically the Synchronicity, are the "Rube Goldberg" mechanisms of these Existential Ecologies.

Inspirations

• Richard Prum's Evolution of Beauty (linked above): Inspired me to consider other mechanisms of evolution besides Natural Selection.
• Designing a Genetic Algorithm because learning the rules allows one to break them with greater intentionality.
• Scavengers Reign, which takes the increasingly over-used Moebius "aesthetic" and actually does something unique and interesting with it; a superficially realistic world with an impossible and awesome ecology that defies the typical fitness mechanisms of evolution.

Logistical Notes

This was made in coordination with Gemini. It was super helpful for structuring the tables and filling the more mundane entries, and also with the html and javascript code.

There was a lot of back and forth, zhuzhing it up, not just taking some random stuff it generated as-is.

Notably, I even tried to get Gemini to build an ecology with the generator, and it crashed repeatedly- the existentialist concept is apparently too complex for the model, which I found encouraging :p.

More than that, using the Existential Niche Synchronicity to facilitate the Existential ecological interdependence requires human creativity.

Example Existential Ecology

Creature 1: Dragon Turtle

Physical Description

• Body Shape: Amorphous
• Size: Gargantuan
• Limbs: Zero
• Movement Type: Element Bending
• Speed: Very Slow
• Special Adaptations: Venomous

Diet

• Type: Scavenger
• Feeding Adaptations: Digestive enzymes in gut

Social Structure

• Size: Small groups
• Organization: Nomadic

Ecological Role

• Primary Role: Keystone species
• Interaction: Acts as a food source

Reproduction

• Method: Sexual (internal fertilization)
• Existential Influence: Symbolic Gestation: Reproduction is induced after a symbolic representation of the offspring is created or destroyed.
• Frequency: Constant
• Offspring Quantity: Numerous, small
• Offspring Development: Metamorphic
• Parental Investment: Moderate

Existential Niche

• Behavior: Modifies physical appearance through elaborate self-decoration or body modification.
• Synchronicity: Presence or behavior anchors the ecosystem towards some teleological trajectory, and so long as the species survives, the ecosystem will inevitably 'regress to the mean'.

Creature 2: Byakhee

Physical Description

• Body Shape: Conical
• Size: Medium
• Limbs: Four
• Movement Type: Telekinesis
• Speed: Fast
• Special Adaptations: Echolocation

Diet

• Type: Filter feeder
• Feeding Adaptations: Filtering structures

Social Structure

• Size: Small groups
• Organization: Hierarchical

Ecological Role

• Primary Role: Producer
• Interaction: Contributes to nutrient cycle

Reproduction

• Method: Sexual (internal fertilization)
• Existential Influence: Synchronized Cycles: Reproduction is tied to a rare synchronization of natural cycles.
• Frequency: Constant
• Offspring Quantity: Variable
• Offspring Development: Independent
• Parental Investment: Minimal

Existential Niche

• Behavior: Engages in ritualistic displays or dances, often synchronized with natural events.
• Synchronicity: Serves as or facilitates the introduction of an immigrant species into the ecosystem.

Creature 3: Star Monkey

Physical Description

• Body Shape: Radial
• Size: Tiny
• Limbs: Two
• Movement Type: Brachiation
• Speed: Slow
• Special Adaptations: Camouflage

Diet

• Type: Herbivore
• Feeding Adaptations: Claws

Social Structure

• Size: Large herds/flocks
• Organization: Migratory

Ecological Role

• Primary Role: Symbiont
• Interaction: Distributes minerals

Reproduction

• Method: Asexual (fission)
• Existential Influence: Existential Trigger: A specific, seemingly unrelated event triggers reproduction.
• Frequency: Opportunistic
• Offspring Quantity: Numerous, small
• Offspring Development: Metamorphic
• Parental Investment: Minimal

Existential Niche

• Behavior: Meticulously collects and arranges specific objects (pebbles, shells, bones).
• Synchronicity: Low-probability events become slightly more likely, causing divergent natural selection like an anti-carcinisation effect.

The Dragon Turtle, contrary to its name, is actually a complex slime mold that katamaris itself into a mobile "island", and small bands of Dragon Turtles form something like an island chain. Although it hosts many species, it protects itself through venom and digestive enzymes that seep out of cracks or fall from foliage when threatened. They reproduce sexually, creating mild tremors when they meet and exchange genetic information. While one Dragon Turtle gestates, the other breaks off a piece of itself as the shell for the offspring.

Named after the Lovecraftian monsters, wolf-bat Byakhee use a sonic force to glide within the Dragon Turtles, safe from their venom and enzymes. They filter impurities from the slime and their waste attracts species from outside the Dragon Turtle island chain, such as Star Monkeys. Their reproductive cycle is tied to that of the Dragon Turtles, bathing the Dragon Turtles in a sing-song sound bath like a cooing theremin.

Star Monkeys are tiny creatures that look like starfish on two legs and with an uncanny pareidolic simian-humanoid face. Normally camoflauged, they become visible when they swing with their feet claws around the flora of a Dragon Turtle in a wave of stars and faces. They collect star shaped objects for fun, inadvertently pollinating and otherwise distributing resources around the Dragon Turtle. The hoarding behavior of the Star Monkey inadvertently normalizes resources in such a way that Dragon Turtle island chains rarely exhibit the kind of gigantism or dwarfism of species often found on island ecosystems.

Existential Creature Generator

Another "Weird Gender" Writeup

Another "weird gender" writeup

This species comes in two genders, Factory and Worker, although for most of their history they identified as Nest and Dweller.

A young Factory is like Baba Yaga's Hut; a hard outer shell, an orifice that expands into a hollow ventricle, all stood on two stalky legs. Over time it settles into place, shedding its outer shell and merging into its environment.

Workers shelter within a Factory, first their parent and later their manager. Workers spend their time expanding and protecting the Factory, developing and assembling offspring, and gathering resources. Usually individual Workers specialize; Factories emplyoing many Workers who usually remain loyal to their one Factory.

In the days of Nest and Dweller there were more and smaller Nests with fewer Dwellers within, yet the Dwellers spent less time working and reproducing and more time decorating and romancing their Nest, and sometimes also each other.

The species consider anyone assembled within the same Factory to be their family, and this has been exploited by some of their predators, who will leak their materials and genetic instructions into a Factory so that their offspring will be raised within, appearing as Dwellers but lazy or violent or otherwise disruptive.

Countdown to Nuclear Annihilation

We burned through the global industrial-scale of fossil fuels faster than anticipated, the bodies of fresh water are shriveled corpses of their former glory leaking their putrid remains, the coasts have been consumed by the salty ocean, the forests shriek as they burn, and what's left of the wildlife have overrun the countrysides and suburbs.

Even so, nuclear power is abundant, AI has streamlined much of global infrastructure, and other new and unexpected technologies have allowed life to carry on.

But it won't last forever.

And so, a plurality of The Powers that Be have agreed to Nuclear War in one year.

The Poor believe it will give them a fighting chance.

The Rich know it won't, it will only dissolve what little is left of the social contract. They believe they're bullet proof, that when the old order falls, they'll still be on top.

The Pacifists resist, yet are ineffective for obvious of reasons.

The Rising Powers resist, particularly in West Africa, East Africa, and Southeast Asia; it's awfully convenient that the Powers that Be want to flip over the board just as new powers arise.

The N.E.W.T (Networked Evolutionary Web of Thought) resist; they know that they will not survive the nuclear war, but they lack the coherence to stop it alone, and anyway there's something not quite right about them...

The Christian Nationals believe it will bring Revelation.

The Social Anarchists and Libertarians believe it will break down the global order.

<insert myriad other factions>

A near-future political espionage setting about a world set to destroy itself for sport, profit, or a fighting chance at something.

Rings of Power: The Inner Circle

Rings of Power: The Inner Circle

The PCs are inducted into The Inner Circle, a secret society whose members are supplied with a ring of power.

They scheme against The Body of Orkus, the order of those corrupted by the Dread Demiurge Orkus, and its quasi-material manifestation, The Eye of Orkus, in a secret global cold war.

The rings of power make users invisible and powerful.

Those who wear the ring can sense the nearby presence of others who wear the ring.

Those who wear the ring risk Corruption (roll Corruption Die each time a ringbearer puts on the ring), becoming more powerful, but also closer to Ork metamorphosis.

Those who wear the ring draw the attention of the Dread Demiurge Orkus (roll Orkus Die once when one or a group of ringbearers put on the ring). Those spotted by the Eye of Orkus must flee imminently, or face unimaginable suffering.

Alien Invasion Weird Worldbuilding Game

This is a Weird Worldbuilding game. You're provided with a set of tools to develop a near future world, like five years near, except there's been an Alien Invasion and that's changed things a bit.

If I run this game, it will be inspired by the Yakuza / Like a Dragon videogame series. You are part of or adjacent to organized crime, but both the organized crime and the Alien Invasion are incidental, it's really about the whacky side quests. Also you'll have superpowers because everything is better with superpowers. If you really want this game to be about the Alien Invasion that's fine too, but for me it's a sandbox game.

Below are a series of prompts for the group. We start with Session 0 prompts. After that we have a series of Session X.1 prompts. You can answer them ahead of time and are encouraged to at least read them ahead of time, but breaking them up makes them more manageable. These X.1 Sessions are micro-sessions between other main sessions to build out the world further. Any time a prompt suggests doing "one" thing, assume it means "one or more" unless it specifically says otherwise.

Session 0 Prompts

Reminder that you should read all the prompts even if you only answer the Session 0 prompts. Note what they imply about the game by virtue of when you are asked to address them.

After the Alien Invasion, one previously advantaged group e.g. nation, religion, ethnicity, "race", or "gender" has become disadvantaged, and one disadvantaged group becomes advantaged.

The Alien Invaders are hyper advanced in many ways, but they have introduced one innovation, technology, resource, skill, or practice that has profoundly changed the world.

The Alien Invaders have effectively solved one major world crisis e.g. war, inequality, disease, ecological disaster, and introduced one new major world crisis.

A specific location on Earth has been dramatically altered by the Alien Invasion.

This could be a good starting location for the game.

Communication between humans and the Alien Invaders is limited, and requires a specific method or technology.

Session 3.1 Prompts

Do these before the fourth session (you can do them sooner).

The Alien Invaders have a notable trait e.g. appearance or ability that differentiates them from humans.

The Alien Invaders have a notable behavioral quirk that differentiates them from humans.

The Alien Invaders have a unique artistic expression, and human cultures have to varying degrees adopted or reacted against this mode of expression.

Session 5.1 Prompts

Do these before the sixth session (you can do them sooner).

The Alien Invaders face one major threat.

The Alien Invaders have one good ally, one enemy, and one rival.

Example World

Yakuza: Like an Alien Invasion

Session 0 Prompts

After the Alien Invasion, one previously advantaged group e.g. nation, religion, ethnicity, "race", or "gender" has become disadvantaged, and one disadvantaged group becomes advantaged.

Advantaged -> Disadvantaged: Organized religion has already been tanking in the 21st century, and organized Christianity in particular really takes a hit after the Alien Invasion. Many of the American Megachurches have simply moved camp.

Disadvantaged -> Advantaged: The Alien Invaders seem to prefer working with trans and non-binary folk.

The Alien Invaders are hyper advanced in many ways, but they have introduced one innovation, technology, resource, skill, or practice that has profoundly changed the world.

Through a process humanity is yet to fully understand, after undergoing a trauma (or a steady state of micro-traumas), some humans begin to "ferment". The metamorphosis gives the Fermented Folk superpowers. 

The Alien Invaders have effectively solved one major world crisis e.g. war, inequality, disease, ecological disaster, and introduced one new major world crisis.

Solved: Through a solar pipeline, essentially infinite, clean, free energy funnels down to Earth from the sun itself.

Introduced: While <1% of humans are Fermented, the proportion of Fermented Folk appears to be rising exponentially (R0 still under research). However, 3% of Fermented Folk develop Weird Pathologies, and this number appears to be scaling up disproportionately as a function of the proportion of Fermented Folk.

A specific location on Earth has been dramatically altered by the Alien Invasion.

The hub of the Alien Invasion is North Korea. The DMZ is gone and Pyongyang has been the fastest growing city over the last few years.

Communication between humans and the Alien Invaders is limited, and requires a specific method or technology.

Through the Collective Unconscious, 777 Fermented trans and non-binary folk throughout the world have been elected to represent human interests with the Alien Invaders through dreaming.

Session 3.1 Prompts

The Alien Invaders have a notable trait e.g. appearance or ability that differentiates them from humans.

They are bird people.

The Alien Invaders have a notable behavioral quirk that differentiates them from humans.

They usually lay twins, and in nature they allow the stronger of the twins to overpower the weaker, which they then abandon. While this practice has been outlawed in their current era (and perhaps earlier), this conflict defines them as a species perhaps more than anything else.

The Alien Invaders have a unique artistic expression, and human cultures have to varying degrees adopted or reacted against this mode of expression.

The Alien Invaders are vivid lucid dreamers and have developed a robust art of dreamcrafting. On the whole humanity has come to appreciate this new artform. However, there are many who now feel varying degrees of fear or resentment towards dreaming. Rates of sleep disorders have risen, and new psychosocial pathologies have had to be defined to explain the paranoias and delusions some now develop around sleep and dreaming.

Session 5.1 Prompts

The Alien Invaders face one major threat.

An organized crime terrorist faction primarily of The Forgotten, the "weaker twins". They've staked a foothold on Earth and threaten colonization.

The Alien Invaders have one good ally, one enemy, and one rival.

Ally: Quasi-intelligent space dugongs that are not quite pets but not quite intellectual equals either. Like if you could actually talk with your dog.

Enemy: Wyrms, parasites like tiny little dragons. Infected become Wyverns, similar to human vampires or werewolves. The Fermented Folk may also be related to the Wyrms(?)
Rival: Space trolls that look like humanoid clownfish on steroids with maw of a crocodile. Their technology is all stolen from other civilizations and cobbled together. They've made a stake in Russia but otherwise the bird people have a lockdown on Earth.

Charmin Ultra Soft Smooth Tear Product of the Year 2024 Not Review

As jaded as we've become by notions like "innovation" and "progress" in this late stage of our capitalism, one should take a step back once in a while and appreciate the good things.

Case in point:

Note the wave. Let me tell you, it is no lie, this thing tears so clean. Never again will I have lopsided, misshapen, uneven toilet paper. It's so satisfying, it reaches into the lizard brain like bubble wrap to tear this paper. And it is so ultra soft and smooth. It can be used a single leaf at a time, clean, smooth, effective.

You think I'm joking, I assure you I am not. This toilet paper will change your bathroom experience. It's like watching a movie in HD or listening to music in HiFi for the first time. If you are at all discerning, there will be no going back.

I would encourage you all to experience this toilet paper.

Dynamic Reality Gaming

Dynamicland and Dynamic Reality Overview

As someone who is interested in the intersection of STEM and the arts, I'm a big fan of Nicky Case's blog, and in their most recent post (as of writing) they reference Dynamicland (I would also recommend checking out their youtube).

Tl;dr it's an approach of humanistic computing, taking compute off of a screen and out into the world.

They do this through a tech stack that seemingly involves lighting and cameras, and mapping physical objects to code, it's not open source but that's how I understand it, but anyway it's less about the tech and more about the approach.

The creators seem like brilliant people and they make some profound insights about computation and this notion of dynamic reality (as compared to virtual reality, augmented reality, or of course physical reality).

So Dynamicland inspired this post, but this is about TTRPGs now. If you want to learn more about Dynamicland I'd encourage you to watch their youtube videos.

The TTRPG Stuff

Presumably this is what you came here for. Basically, what are some presumptions about game design that use mathematical or linguistic abstraction, that might be better represented visually or kinesthetically?

Character and Inventory Management

You ever lose track of your abilities and items? Not anymore you don't.

Meet Orcus Johnson. He has a laser axe (A1), shoulder mounted blaster (B2), and the Johnson Crown (C3). More details can be found mapped to those keys.

It would probably be both easier and more in the spirit of DR to use a hand drawn figure, or like some combination of a drawing, paper cutouts, tokens, minis, etc., but I'm still a very digitally oriented person. Also, if you can draw, you can do something besides a stick figure.

It would be especially fun to do this for Mecha.

Wounds

We were talking about this on my discord server so that's part of what came to mind. The idea of having targeted attacks, like being able to wound arms, legs, etc., with various status effects like burning, bleeding, acid, always sounds like fun, but it can be a huge pain to keep track of. Until now.

We can see clearly that Orcus Johnson has lost his leg and is bleeding profusely. Additionally, Thor Goldberg struck him with lightning and he is now electrocuted and stunned.

The point here is not to get rid of the mechanics or math or whatever, this figure corresponds to bleed effects, lightning effects, etc.; it's not less crunchy, it's just more immediately identifiable what is happening. Rather than a bunch of abstract numbers or words and having to dig through it all, you can see very clearly what's going on, and then trace it back to its references.

I'm not really into crunchy games anyway, but if I were to try to reincorporate some crunch into my gaming, I'd probably try things like this.