I have been doing this for twelve years now. Writing against RPG-a-Day. Against. Again and again. Every day, every August, since 2015. Most often on my own, sometimes collaboratively with others here on d6ideas or across different (German) blogs.
2015: ArtifactaDay
2016: Loot-a-Day
2017: Rival-a-Day
2018: Ad-Blog
2019: RPG+Ally+a+Day
2020: Not One Step Back
2021: Veteran-a-Day
2022: The Thousand Titles of the Cat Emperor
2023: Sommerverdichtung (German only)
2024: CampaignConceptaDay
2025: A-Piece-of-History-Every-Day / Calculating World(s)history
And now? The German next door neighbours at Kritischer Fehlschlag have issued the rallying cry “Crime Scene” (German).
But here? After twelve years of doing this dirty work? There is but one possible answer:
The Dirty Dozen.
Interpreted via the lense of the so called Dirty Dozen of persistent organic pollutants such as DDT and dioxins (although an earlier thought was the likewise so called Dirty Dozen of biological weapons and this might still colour some of the entries).
One-hundred-and-fourty-four poisons and pollutants (in the widest, freest sense). Twelve each for twelve systems. Thirty-one days. Twelve years. Against RPG-a-Day. Again.
Blue Planet is perhaps(?) the easiest system to address the topic of environmental damage and pollutants. Ecology is foundational to Blue Planet. One of its core topics is the risk of human actors destroying a second planetary ecosystem after nearly finishing off the first. Thus, this is really just an exercise in rattling off some examples, in putting some names and “faces” on the map to add extra descriptive detail.
- Bioplastic accumulation in pseudofungi – while bioplastic on the one hand is heraled as a fully degradable class of materials and on the other hand some of its strains prove highly susceptible to Poseidon pseudofungal forms (Fast Fungus), evidence is slowly mounting for an unforseen interaction with pseudofungi incapable of fully degrading Earth bioplastics and thus bioaccumulation of indigestible substructures within the pseudofungi – with as of yet unknown longterm effects on the pseudofungus and any links further up the foodchain
- Binary propellant residue – by design, the two components of the binary propellants in most weapons are often not used up in equal measure, this leads to the situation that, when completely unloading a weapon is required, a variable amount of liquid propellant component will be wasted – if this happens in the field, or if best practices are not followed, the propellant will thus be introduced into the enviornment
- Medical cryo fluids – the hibernation pods used in travelling between the Sol and Lambda Serpentis systems are another potential source of substances alien and potentially harmful to the local environment, although the amounts introduced are generally low due to most reanimation procedures taking place in orbit
- Long John templates – xenosilicates themselves are obviously not pollutants on Poseideon, but gene modification templates created from them can theoretically be vastly damaging, however, their commerical value alone makes their safe and secure handling a priority for all concerned parties
- Immunosuppressants – things are a bit different with the drugs used to suppress patients’ immune systems as part of lower grade biomodification treatments, especially as the sites most likely to use them are often also ones with an increased probability of noncompliance with good disposal practices
- Antibiotics – the situation is similar with antibiotics and has this already resulted in the first signs of and considerable concern over the rise of resistant strains of local pathogens
- Antifungals – the same goes for drugs intended to fight pathogenic pseudofungi
- Heavy metals – while well understood, the accelerating industrialization of Poseidon nevertheless makes these and similar dangers to the environment a very real concern
- Battery cells – local industrial production might threaten pollution risks at a large scale, the ubiquituous use of high capacity battery storage pose individually much smaller but also much more widespread and thus harder to control risks
- Plastic fibers – not just the already discussed possibility of interactions between Earth bioplastics and Poseidon pseudofungi represent a possible source of environmental pollution, but so do too the specifically designed pseudofungus-resistant bioplastics as they may turn up as microfibers and particles, although currently it is still expected they will prove fully degradable (although at what rate – due to their very resistance – remains to be seen)
- Highly radioactive materials – especially the GEO nuclear devices come with all their all too well known risks
- Highly potent oxygen binders – under the nickname “oxygen destroyer” NIS but also other Incorporate states have considered the development of substances to purposefully transform large underwater areas into oxygen-free dead zones