Thanks for this -- I think it’s great! Really compact and elegant, with a sort of gentle humour underlying it. I love how much world you manage to build in so few pages.
I feel like it’s the kind of game that easily accommodates episodic, one-adventure-to-the-next style play, while also developing longer arcs, recurring characters, sites, and communities, etc. If I were GMing it I think I’d want to introduce some political intrigue back at HQ, and maybe put the players in some dilemmas where they need to bend or break the rules.
Feedback and suggestions, fwiw:
Sentence isn’t finished > “5 A plague has broken out among the buffalo. Separate the “
“Roll d4 for a Threat” > should be d6
Consider “Your job is to help and protect those who are rebuilding the New World.”
Or consider something like “Your job is to help and protect those who are restoring the Great Plains shortgrass prairie” > I like the utopian vibes of new world, but it also potentially centres a European settler colonist perspective, right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World
Consider specifying (at least once) green hydrogen (blue hydrogen is a fossil fuel, and there are greenwashers out there who are being tactically vague about this) …
Very nitpicky but there are a few full stops missing.
I felt like you could cram a few more possibilities into the “Twist” table? E.g.
1 Extreme weather! Prairie fire, tornado, blizzard …
2 Airship trouble! Engine, gas leak, navigation …
3 Wildlife event! Buffalo stampede, bird strike …
4 Ambush! Rollers, zealots, HDF, poachers …
5 Distress call! Windjack, Sodbuilder, Tourist …
6 Call from HQ! A new policy or assignment …
I wondered if there was a place you could squeeze in one or two rationales for the restoration, especially the fact that biodiverse prairie makes an excellent carbon sink (which is still not very widely known, I think -- people tend to think it has to be all about planting trees)? But I can’t see an obvious place to put it. You could do it implicitly, e.g.
Science: Soil Carbon Probe, Portable Lab, Radiation Suit, Hazmat Suit
Or make it roll 1d8 for a Mission:
7 Someone’s gone missing. Lead the search.
8 Escort a Carbon Fraud Investigator to a site test.
Or maybe:
“As Prairie Recovery Agents of the US Department of the Interior, you have the following duties:
• Protect biodiversity and prevent wildfire carbon emissions.
• Investigate potential threats to habitats and ecosystems.
• Assist the scientists and engineers rebuilding the Great Plains.
• Provide emergency aid to any travelers in the Great Plains.
Basically, you are park rangers with zeppelins.”
Thank you for sharing!!