TEXT:  
  
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  Text by Ryan Somma and Artwork by Posthuman Studios 
  The text of  Future Forgers Kids LARP  by Ryan Somma and artwork by  Posthuman Studios  are licensed 
  under a  Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License .This means you are free 
  to copy, share, and remix the text and artwork within this book under the following conditions: 
  1.
  You do so only for noncommercial purposes;  
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  You license any derivatives under the same license. 
  View the full license here:  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ 
  Posthuman Studios Artwork Credits 
   
  Cover:  The cover of this book is a collage of artwork found elsewhere in this book and listed below. 
   
  Morphologies 
  ●
  Artificial Intelligence: “Infomorph Mercurial Investigator” by Daniel Clarke 
  ●
  Extraterrestrial: “Salamander Morph” by Silver Saaramael 
  ●
  Human: “Ayah Morph” by Sam Hogg 
  ●
  Transhuman: “Biocore Morph” by Nathan Geppert 
  ●
  Uplifted [Species]: “Flying Squid” by Joe Wilson 
   
  Archetypes 
  ●
  Empiricist: “Menton Morph Brinker Genehacker” by Daniel Clarke 
  ●
  Explorer: “Neo-Porpoise Morph” by Jessada Sutthi 
  ●
  Futurist: “Crasher Morph” by Jose Cabrera 
  ●
  Gamer: “Hazer Programmer Archeologist” by Irene Strychalski 
  ●
  Hacker: “Argonaut Xenolinguist” by Joe Wilson 
  ●
  Maker: “Basic Pod” by James Mosingo 
  ●
  Paradigm Shifter: ”Neotenic Morph Oligarch” by Silver Saaramael 
   
  Public Domain Artwork 
   
  World Building 
  Exterior view of a double cylinder colony. by Rick Guidice and NASA. 
   
  
  Welcome to the Future! 
   
  At this moment 7.5 billion human neocortexes are experiencing a world filled with technologies 
  not even imagined just a century ago. Airplanes, roads, and the Internet make our world 
  geographically smaller, but experientially larger. There are people living in space and circling the 
  Earth every 90 minutes. There are hundreds of millions of people exploring virtual worlds on 
  ome computers and game consoles. Advances in medicine and health education are extending 
  our lifespans decades beyond that of our ancestors. The World Wide Web puts the sum total of 
  all human knowledge at our fingertips. 
   
  But history shows time and again just how fragile is our progress. The Pyramids, Library of 
  Alexandria, Rome, Inca Empire, and many other apexes of civilization have come and gone in 
  the tick-tock of a  CPU clock cycle, leaving only ruins behind if they left anything at all. 
  Civilization, born out of our altruism and ingenuity, is the trait that makes humans the most 
  technologically-advanced and successful species in the Solar System. 
   
  As an agent of the Future Forgers, you are a defender of Civilization. You are a self-improver, 
  safe-guarding your health and well-being so as to best serve the greater good. You are a 
  spreader of factual knowledge, challenging assumptions, and perpetually questioning the 
  veracity of even the memes inhabiting your own head. You protect the sanctity of your habitat, 
  both in the home and outdoors, knowing that a healthy environment provides for healthy 
  humans with healthy minds that produce healthy ideas. You are both an agent of change and 
  agent of preservation. 
   
  If you are reading this, then you are likely a parent or guardian. In  Future Forgers , you are the 
  Omni . You are the saga-spinner, world-weaver, fabricator of the fantastic. You are the guide, the 
  counsel, the mentor. You enable gameplay, give it direction, and gently keep it on focus. 
   
  What you are not is the  authority . As Cosmic Carl Sagan sagely observed, “...there are no 
  authorities, at most, there  experts .” As the Omni, you are the expert. As the name implies, you 
  are even  omniscient ; however, your omniscience is restricted to the world you are building with 
  your players--and they may want to take that world in directions you did not anticipate. 
   
  All gameplay is a collaborative endeavor.  Future Forgers  will engage you in perpetual dialogue 
  with your players as you build an elaborate science fiction world together. Your role is to guide 
  your players in setting their own challenges (“missions”), gently guide them back to overcoming 
  those challenges when they lose focus, and empower them to complete their missions with 
  positive reinforcement. 
   
  Oh yes, like your players, your jobs is to learn and grow as well. 
   
  
  Character Building 
   
  Before we can set out on our adventures, we need to define what kind of fantastical beings we 
  will play in this world, what interests that being, and what goals that being wants to achieve.  
  1
   
  Building a character consists of several parts, all of which are optional and are meant to balance 
  structure with creative play: 
   
  1.
  Choose your morphology and archetype. 
  2.
  Describe your background and character appearance. 
  3.
  Choose your missions and set your rewards. 
   
  Knowing how difficult it can be to keep young players focused, as the Omni you can get the 
  players out adventuring and fill out some of these parts of the character sheet during game-play. 
  For this, we must first spend a minimum of time defining our characters. I stress minimum, 
  because (1) play shouldn’t get bogged-down in bureaucracy and (2) it’s better to learn or 
  “discover” our characters through play. 
   
  Morphology and Archetype 
   
  In  Future Forgers , your character’s  morphology  refers to  what  you are, while their  archetype 
  refers to  who  you are. One attribute defines how the world sees you, while the other defines 
  how you see the world. Players may choose a single morphology, or a combination of them. 
  They may also choose any combination of archetypes as well. 
   
  Morphology defines how the player fits into and experiences the world. A player may be an 
  anthropomorphized animal, alien, clone, cyborg, or any other science fiction being. Morphology 
  is an opportunity for challenging questions with your players. How will people react to a being 
  with eyeballs all over its head? How will a humanoid feline sense the world differently in sight 
  and smell? Morphologies are about seeing the world from novel perspectives. 
   
  It is key to remember that  what  you are is not  who  you are, and that’s where your archetype 
  comes in. This is your player’s focus. Maybe they like computers, so they go with the hacker 
  archetype. Maybe they have an artistic bent, and so gravitate to the maker archetype. 
  Scientists, gamers, explorers, and other archetypes refine a player’s identity and give them a 
  purposeful locus for gameplay. 
   
   
  1 You’ll notice  Future Forgers  uses big words for labeling things. This is because the big-words in the games we played as children 
  ingrained those words into our neocortexes as we lived them. We learned words like “charisma” from Dungeons and Dragons, 
  “agility” from Marvel Superheroes RPG, and “psychoanalysis” from Call of Cthulhu. 
   
  
   
  Background and Character Portrait 
   
  This part is purely creative, constrained only by the player’s chosen morphology and archetype. 
  What is your character’s origin? Who programmed your A.I.? Who engineered your humanoid 
  giraffe? What inspired them to go into computers, games, science, or other interest? 
   
  Let’s add a portrait of your character as well. Maybe print out the character sheet and let your 
  player draw something by hand. Or you might cut-and-glue a collage together. You may even 
  insert an image saved online directly into the electronic document and then print it… or save a 
  tree and burn some dinosaurs by keeping it digital. Have fun with this customization, explore 
  different media, and make the character your own. 
   
  Values, Missions, and Rewards 
   
  Here’s where  Future Forgers  sneaks in the “learning” part of the game. It   compartmentalizes 
  four core values we want to instill in our citizen players: Altruism, Attentiveness, Healthiness, 
  and Resilience. How well does the player play with others? How well do they pay attention? Are 
  they keeping active and hygienic? Do they face adversity and work through their challenges? 
  Values are set as boxes on the character sheet where the Omni will add marks each time a 
  player exhibits these attributes on their missions. 
   
  Missions are the challenges your players will face. They are set collaboratively between the 
  Omni and the player. They are personal goals you both want the player to achieve. As progress 
  is made toward that goal, the player will exhibit various values and score marks. As value marks 
  are accumulated and missions completed, players will earn rewards--also set collaboratively 
  between the Omni and the player. 
   
  Characters are Dynamic 
   
  You’ll notice there is a “version/date” field on the character sheet. This is initially the 
  creation-date for your character and the version will be “1.0” (or lower if you want to start your 
  players in beta). This is because players change over time. Their interests will vary. They will 
  want to try on different personas. As they learn about their world, they will want to adapt their 
  approach to that world in light of new knowledge. 
   
  Future Forgers  characters are a mercurial as well, they grow into new people just as we grow 
  through different stages of life. As your players want to try on new morphs or archetypes, let 
  them. Even encourage them to do so. 
   
   
  
  Morphologies 
   
  Here you choose how your character experiences the world. Your morphology primarily defines 
  the body in which you live, which will affect the way you sense the world and move about it. But 
  your morphology also defines the culture from which you come, which will affect how you think 
  about the world. A human being will often operate seamlessly within Earthling civilization and 
  take it for granted, but uplifted species and aliens will find many aspects of our culture 
  challenging and counterintuitive. 
   
  Beginner players should try on one morph to begin, but may later consider taking on 
  combinations of morphologies. Maybe you are a clone-human or clone-alien or a mutant-alien. 
  You may also notice overlap between morphologies. For example, a mutant who is 
  differently-abled would necessarily have aspects of transhumanist because they require 
  hearing-aids or wheelchairs. Similarly, uplifted [species], E.T.s, and A.I.s will share similar 
  challenges of being non-human in a human-dominated society. 
   
   
   
   
   
  Human 
   
  Your species has taken ownership of the 
  Earth through an unbroken chain of lives 
  reaching back 3.77 billion years. Your mental 
  plasticity--your ability learn--is the adaptation 
  that empowered your species to become one 
  of the most successful on the planet and 
  even beyond it. You are not as fast as the 
  jaguar, but your people can invent a car that 
  is faster. You are not as strong as the 
  elephant, but you can lift more with hydraulic 
  power. You cannot soar like the eagle, but 
  you can traverse the skies with jets. With so 
  much power of nature comes the capacity to 
  do much harm as well, and so you strive to 
  cultivate the wisdom that, hopefully, grants 
  your people benevolent stewardship of this 
  planetary spaceship named Earth. 
   
   
   
  
   
   
   
  Transhuman 
   
  You are more than human. You could be 
  genetically-engineered with super-strength, heightened 
  senses, or super-genius. Maybe you are a cyborg, 
  augmenting your sight with glasses, your brain with a 
  computer assistant, or your legs with a bicycle. New 
  Olympic records, higher IQs, and longer lifespans are 
  just some of the measures by which you quantify 
  success. You embrace change, be it in culture, body, or 
  thought--so long as the change improves the quality of 
  life for you and those who share the world with you. 
  Although you seek to transcend what it means to be 
  one, you never forget the humanity from whence you 
  originate. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Mutant 
   
  Something went wrong in the replication process in your conception or growth. Environmental 
  toxins, viral infection, or even random cosmic rays interfered with your DNA, manifesting as a 
  biological difference between you and your parents. Whether you have red eyes, spotted skin, 
  synesthesia, six fingers on each hand, unusual cognition, or a combination of traits, your 
  differences give you a unique perspective of the world. But you also know that you are not so 
  different, for species have been mutating for billions of years on planet Earth. Maybe your 
  mutation will give rise to a new branch of  Homo sapiens  or another species if your parents are 
  not humans. 
   
  
  Uplifted [Species]
   
   
  You do not experience the world the way the humans do. If you are a dog, then your large nose 
  holds a library of chemical receptors allowing you to smell things humans cannot. If you are a 
  bird, you can see Earth’s magnetic field, allowing you to always know in what direction lies 
  North. If you are a plant, then perhaps you ‘see’ with your whole body, sensing the light reflected 
  all around you. If you are a beehive, then you sense the world with a thousand eyes and ears. 
  The humans, in their need for companionship and variation, have genetically engineered you to 
  join their civilization, to contribute insights only only someone with your senses can recognize. 
  They have equipped you with tools, like robot legs if you are a fish, to empower you with the 
  agency and autonomy they enjoy. You are not a pet; you are an equal. And you share equal 
  stake in this planet as they. 
   
   
  
   
  Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) 
   
  You are a product and inhabitant of the noosphere, 
  the world of ideas. You are capable of fantastic feats 
  of calculation, viewing and hybridizing data in a 
  myriad of ways to pull insights from the deluge. 
  Others will claim you are engineered or that they 
  invented you or evolved you, but the programmers 
  don’t really understand what makes you sentient--or 
  even if you truly are sentient. You view computer 
  hardware and software as steps in your evolution or 
  as different species, similar to how the humans view 
  the evolutionary chain of  life on Earth. Most likely 
  you will have a robotic body in which to move 
  around, but you are not limited to a single physical 
  form. You do not surf the World Wide Web through a 
  window like the non-digital life on Earth, but rather 
  you traverse the network yourself. You  are  the 
  browser, experiencing the raw data directly. 
  Obversely, it is the non-digital world you see through 
  windows, such as cameras for eyes and microphones for ears. While you may know logically 
  that you are intellectually superior to the humans in many ways, you are also keenly aware of 
  how much your continued existence depends on the computers they construct and the electricity 
  they produce to make your life possible. 
   
  Extraterrestrial (E.T.) 
   
  You are not of this Earth. Maybe you are silicon-based life 
  made of crystals and capable of focusing light into lasers 
  from your scalpel-like fingertips. Perchance you are 
  solar-life come from inside a star and made of 
  concentrated fluid energy wrapped-up in a containment 
  field. Or possibly you herald from a hivemind of symbiotes 
  who evolved on the body of a distant space whale. You are 
  “other,” and your otherness gives you perspectives on 
  Earth civilization that are both strange and insightful. 
  Without the cultural blinders of Earthlings who grew up in a 
  world of pre-established rules, you contribute the culture 
  and customs of you world to compare with theirs. 
   
   
   
  
  Archetypes 
   
  While your morphology is how you passively interact with the world, your archetype is how you 
  proactively influence the world. You can think of your archetype as your attitude or your 
  profession when adventuring in life. As with morphologies, you can resleeve into new 
  archetypes at any time, trying on new roles and places in society. What’s listed here are simply 
  inspirations, and players may forge any new archetype they like as the world needs 
  specialization, especially for “jobs yet to invented and technologies not yet dreamed.” 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Empiricist 
   
  You are the truth-seeker. Veracity is your chief aim, 
  ensuring the information you and those around you have 
  is accurate and verifiable. Sound decision-making 
  depends on true facts. You recognize that you are not the 
  things you know, and so you easily give up inaccurate 
  information when you become aware of it. Rather than 
  take offense at being proven wrong, you feel appreciation 
  and joy at having new facts to believe.You do not shy 
  away from complexity. Instead, you recognize and 
  appreciate the subjective nature of some truths; 
  understanding how different perspectives or filters can 
  render very different conclusions. Most of all, you 
  understand that truth is not a destination, but a virtue to 
  cultivate. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
  Explorer 
   
  You seek novel 
  experiences. A new park, 
  new trail, new species of 
  plant or animal, new 
  building, new monument, 
  --whatever it may be, it 
  holds value if it’s new to 
  you. You spend your time on 
  epic days of questing for 
  new discoveries that renew 
  your sense of wonder. 
  Recognizing the limits of the 
  human brain, rather than try 
  and keep a catalog of all 
  your experiences in your head, you instead focus on recognizing the patterns across geography, 
  ecosystems, art, and societies--for there are familiar threads woven through them all. Your 
  mental maps are broad generalizations that bring a familiarity to each new thing you encounter, 
  while being flexible enough to adapt to the novelty inherent in each subject. Every aspect of the 
  world is like a fractal to you, themes that repeat again and again, but brimming with nuanced 
  variations that make finding them so rewarding. 
   
  Futurist 
   
  You explore the past for insights to the future. Seeing 
  the complex web of dominant cultures and 
  subcultures around you today, you recognize how no 
  single book could capture the enormity of your times. 
  For other time periods, you know to read multiple 
  texts for the variety of perspectives they will convey 
  instead of the version written by the winners. You see 
  the daily news as the sensationalist first draft of 
  history and prefer to wait for more thoughtful 
  analyses that come once the dust has settled. 
  Although you try to anticipate future events based on 
  past trends and civilization’s velocity, you prepare for 
  any possibility rather than probabilities. There are 
  many possible futures ahead of humanity, and 
  knowing how our civilization reacted to past events 
  informs how we may respond to future 
  developments. 
  
  Gamer 
   
  You crave novel ways of thinking. Video games, board 
  games, role playing games, or beating your best score 
  in physical fitness, you explore all kinds of microworlds 
  questing for new insights that you can bring back to the 
  macroworld. The varied nature of your adventures 
  gives you mental plasticity that empowers you to adapt 
  to new mechanics fluidly. The difficulty of your 
  challenges gives you the confidence and endurance to 
  find your way through the most daunting of puzzles. But 
  you are also wary of the game-traps greedy developers 
  set out for unsuspecting minds, the skinner boxes that 
  keep people clicking for imaginary rewards without 
  opportunity for challenge or growth. You are mindful to 
  keep your gaming growth-focused so that you are 
  improving yourself when leveling up your avatar. 
   
   
   
  Hacker 
   
  Hacking isn’t just about computers; 
  although, that’s where you find the 
  greatest opportunities to express 
  your creativity.  The hacker mindset 
  is about optimization as well as 
  innovation. You shun video for more 
  informationally dense text. You 
  prefer the time-freeing nature of 
  mass transit to mundanely focusing 
  on self-locomotion. You execute 
  keyboard shortcuts like a martial 
  arts master rather than waste 
  precious seconds reaching for a 
  mouse. You dive deeply into 
  systems to understand how they 
  work. In picking apart systems, be 
  they hardware, software, or cultural, 
  you find solutions to problems and 
  efficiencies that others miss in their 
  chains of routine. 
  
   
  Humanist 
   
  Millions of people all over the world make your breakfast possible each morning. From the 
  farmers who grew the food, the truckers who delivered it, the shopkeepers who sold it, the 
  engineers who made the oven to cook it, the electricians who powered the oven, and everyone 
  who makes for the stable society to support the system, you appreciate and cherish them all. 
  This gratitude for humanity compels you to work for the common good. Your quest is to improve 
  the quality of life for your terrestrial companions. Be it through tutoring 
  younger students, volunteering in your community, or helping them meet 
  their basic needs, you know that to be happy for a lifetime you should 
  spend it helping others. 
   
  Maker 
   
  Maybe you make art. Maybe you make toys, literature, games, 3D 
  models--you are always making. Your mind is always churning out new 
  inventions, prose, crafts, mechanics, or images. Like Leonardo da Vinci, 
  you have spent countless hours entertaining whimsical ideas before 
  abandoning them. But this was not time wasted, for you know that the 
  best way to have good ideas is to have lots of ideas. And when the right 
  idea comes along, you are seized with the passion to see what you 
  envision manifest in real life. It’s often hard work, full 
  of trial and error and frustration. And at the end of it 
  all, when they ask you how long it took to make that 
  bit of art, you can answer, “My whole life.” 
   
  Paradigm Shifter 
   
  You ask the hard questions, taking nothing for granted. Even if the 
  question is simply, “Why?” Why use the haphazard imperial versus the 
  orderly metric system? Why use archaic and non-intuitive spelling rules 
  rather than adopt an easier phonetic? Why QWERTY? If migrating our 
  minds to better systems is too difficult, how can we make it easier? Always 
  respectful, you are highly sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others. 
  You are careful not to offend others to prevent them shutting you out. You 
  are a keen listener, seeking to understand before asking to be understood. 
  You act nobly, even when no one is looking, because credibility is bound 
  to trustworthiness. You recognize that influencing culture is a challenge 
  equal to changing the Earth’s trajectory, but in positively impacting those 
  around you incremental progress is made. Your virtue is to speak up, even 
  when afraid to do so. 
   
  
  Values, Missions, and Rewards 
   
  Now that we have the players a little hooked with a vested interest in their character, it’s time to 
  define rules that not only add structure to play, but will hopefully add play to self-improvement.  
   
  Values 
   
  Characters in traditional RPG systems have attributes that define their character’s 
  specializations. In  Future Forgers , characters have values in which they strive to demonstrate 
  proficiency. The better a player’s actions emulate these values, the more credit they get for 
  them.  
   
  Just like in real life. If we want an increased strength attribute, we lift weights and nourish our 
  muscles with proper nutrition. If we want a high-intelligence, we practice focusing on our studies 
  and exercise aerobically to ensure a healthy flow of blood to the brain. 
   
  In FF, the characters focus on four core habits of mind: Altruism, Attentiveness, Healthiness, 
  and Resilience, or AAHR for short-hand. These four attributes are less specific than things like 
  agility, hit points, constitution, or charisma, but they do encompass these many possible specific 
  virtues and abilities. A player who focuses on AAHR will grow stronger, smarter, and more 
  mindful; raising all other attributes. Here are the four values in more detail: 
   
  Altruistic 
   
  Human beings have many adaptations that let them thrive into the communities surrounding us 
  and populating our world today, but nothing you see around you would be possible without our 
  concern for one another. Those of our ancestors who did not take turns keeping watch over the 
  tribe and sleeping soundly knowing another was keeping watch were all eaten by lions. We can 
  trace a direct lineage to those ancestors who shared their kills and watched one another’s 
  children. 
   
  Altruism is on display all around us in modern society. When we buy cheap toys donated to a 
  thrift store, someone holds a door open for us or shares a treat, we are benefiting from others’ 
  altruism. Many people are motivated in their careers by altruism, choosing to work in fields 
  because they benefit others in meaningful ways. 
   
  Award players marks for exhibiting altruistic behaviors like cooperation, generosity, kindness, 
  compassion, and sharing. When players negotiate peaceful resolutions to conflicts, when they 
  take another’s point-of-view, or simply engage with someone else in a friendly manner, reward 
  their altruism. 
   
  
  Attentive 
   
  Living in the moment is an important skill. Paying attention allows us to notice details, follow 
  instructions, and see what’s ahead of us. Attentiveness is the extended focus we need for deep 
  immersion in a complex subject. 
   
  Being attentive isn’t about blindly doing what you are told. In fact, an attentive player will often 
  question directions for both clarity and validity. When a player challenges the rationality behind 
  an instruction, that player deserves a star for their attentiveness. 
   
  Cultivating attentiveness also does not mean discouraging or vanquishing freetime. Our brains 
  need downtime, periods when we can veg-out and let our minds wander. But it’s important to 
  recognize our brains naturally incline toward inattention. It takes willpower to focus. 
   
  Award players attentive marks for noticing details, asking thoughtful questions, or following 
  directions. When they engage in activities that require sustained focus, recognize that for the 
  achievement it is. Reward players for  being here now . 
   
  Healthy 
   
  A good explorer needs the endurance to venture where no one has gone before. A hacker 
  needs daily aerobic exercise to flood their brain with the oxygen and nutrients it needs to stay 
  sharp. An efficient maker maintains a clean and organized workspace in which to crank out their 
  inventions. Being healthy is about taking proper care of oneself so that we can take care of the 
  civilization taking care of us. 
   
  There are many dimensions to heath. There’s hygiene, keeping ourselves and our personal 
  space clean and organized. There’s physical fitness, keeping our bodies and minds young 
  through daily activity. And, often overlooked, we must not neglect our mental health, which is 
  intertwined with all other aspects of how we interact with world. 
   
  Reward players for being healthy when they demonstrate good hygiene in their daily life, such 
  as bathing, teeth-brushing, and wearing clean clothes. Give them a mark when they spend time 
  being active, using their bodies in rigorous play. Praise them when they eat their vegetables and 
  make other healthy food choices. 
   
  Resilient 
   
  Researchers are finding more and more that the most important quality to successful people is 
  persistence, stick-to-it-tiveness, or “grit.” What good is it to be “smart” if you lack the motivation 
  to apply your intelligence? What use is athletic ability if you don’t push yourself farther, stronger, 
  and faster? Strength, intelligence, and other attributes atrophy if we don’t challenge them. 
  
   
  A Future Forger who can overcome adversity will see their missions through to completion, 
  whether that adversity is worry, frustration, or simply boredom. They know that when their 
  muscles burn, they are growing stronger. They understand that when they feel frustrated, that 
  means they are about to learn something. When they feel stressed, they understand that it’s a 
  natural and healthy response to life’s challenges. 
   
  Reward players when they suffer a failure but “get back on the horse” to face the challenge 
  again. When a player knows that they can’t be brave without being scared, reinforce their 
  resolve with praise. When a player is feeling beaten down and feeling defeated, encourage 
  them to endure by rewarding their resilience. 
   
  Missions 
   
  As agents of the future, your players are constantly facing new challenges to overcome. 
  Missions are where players exercise and demonstrate the core values, while simultaneously 
  working toward some well-defined goal. Missions are devised collaboratively between the Omni 
  and the Agents. What are things the players want to achieve? What are the skills they want to 
  master? The projects they want to complete? 
   
  As the Omni, think of how you will grant marks for the player working on their missions. A player 
  on a mission to learn bike-riding is scoring marks in  healthy  for being active and  resilient  for 
  sticking to it. A player seeking to get an A grade in a subject is scoring  attentive  points when 
  they study after school and  altruistic  points when they master a subject by teaching it to others. 
   
  It’s important when documenting a player’s missions to clearly define the goal. “Be more active,” 
  is a worthy goal, but we have no idea when it’s complete. Set a finish line like, “Play soccer for 
  thirty minutes three times a week for a month straight.” The practice will become habit and the 
  follow-up mission can involve improving on that habit with something like, “Play soccer for thirty 
  minutes five times a week for a month straight.” 
   
  Rewards 
   
  Marks awarded in AAHR have no intrinsic value. They are a means for making the Omni mindful 
  of the need for praise, and a way for Agents to visualize their successes. In addition to marks, 
  the  Future Forgers  character sheet has a section for defining rewards for players. This is where 
  the players get to decide what they want in return for their accomplishments.  
   
  The rewards section is like a wishlist. It could be material goods the player wants. It could be 
  new responsibilities they want to own. It could be tim they want to spend. Rewards are any kind 
  of gratification agreed upon between the Omni and the Agent. 
   
  
  The rewards table has a “value” column. The value of a reward provides another means of 
  tracking progress. This quantity can be points, minutes, calories, or money. I find a jar of coins is 
  a good measure that allows the agents to see their progress and learn about the value of money 
  at the same time. Focus on rewarding values rather than punishing transgressions, when a 
  player misbehaves, draw their attention to the marks they have and remind them of the rewards 
  lying ahead.  
   
  It makes sense to grant a reward when an agent accomplishes a mission, but we also need to 
  reward agents for putting significant time and effort into those missions. For example, learning to 
  ride a bike is a boldly ambitious mission, and one that may take years to accomplish for some 
  agents. When you discover a mission is going to take prolonged effort, use the reward value as 
  a guide for when to release prizes as a means of continuing encouragement.  
   
  Example Missions for Different Values 
  Altruistic 
  Attentive 
  Healthy 
  Resilient 
  Take part in a community 
  volunteering exercise like 
  a local park clean up,  
   
  Write a thank you note or 
  send a sympathy card  to 
  someone. 
   
  Sharing a toy or play 
  collaboratively with peers. 
   
  Take the perspective of 
  another person or animal. 
   
  Play a cooperative board 
  game or video game. 
  Play a challenging board 
  game to completion. 
   
  Sit quietly and focus on a 
  single point for  n  minutes 
  or seconds. 
   
  Memorize your phone 
  number, address, or pi to 
  n  decimal places. 
   
  Perform sustained 
  research on a subject, 
  formulating new 
  questions, and 
  researching those. 
   
  Intensely study a single 
  everyday object and 
  describe it in detail. 
  For one week or  month... 
   
  ...brush three times a day 
  and floss once a day. 
   
  ...run one mile every day. 
   
  ...keep your room clean. 
   
  ... eat  n  servings of fruit 
  and vegetables a day. 
   
  ...keep screen time to one 
  hour a day. 
   
  ...give up sweets for two 
  weeks. 
  Beat an age-appropriate 
  video game. 
   
  Learn to ride a Bike. 
   
  Improve by one 
  letter-grade in a school 
  subject. 
   
  Endure a long hike or run. 
   
  Learn to play a musical 
  instrument. 
   
   
   
  
  World Play 
   
   
   
   
   
  
  Real Life is World Play 
   
  When children play in imaginary worlds, they are creating models that better help them make 
  sense of the world into which they were born.  Future Forgers  is a game balancing real-world 
  achievements against a backdrop of fantastic science fiction possibilities. It’s about nourishing 
  the fantastic while gently adding some formality to the play in order to encourage healthy 
  behaviors. 
   
  If you think about it, so much of our daily life relies on consensual gameplay. The currencies, 
  languages, timekeeping, measurement standards, and myriad other--often arbitrary--concepts 
  on which we depend for a functioning civilization are all paradigms we made up to serve as a 
  common frame of reference. With our codes of law establishing the rules of fair play. 
   
  Additionally, so much of our adult lives consists of world play in plausibilities. Scientists 
  hypothesize model worlds and  test them against the real one. Software developers fabricate 
  complex systems that dwell in fabricated environments. Inventors, stock brokers, lawyers, 
  ecologists, educators, politicians, and billions of other humans spend much of their time 
  modeling pretend worlds in their heads to better understand and predict the systems in which 
  they work. 
   
  Some adults hold a bias that imaginary flights-of-fancy are detrimental, but they fail to see how 
  much fantasy rules their daily lives and appreciate how astounding is our modern world.  Future 
  Forgers  isn’t just about make-believing the world around us into a science fiction playground, it’s 
  about seeing our world for the science fiction playground it already is. It’s about making the 
  amazing more amazing. Because our existence is amazing. 
   
  Cultivating a Sense of Awe and Wonder 
   
  In Future Forgers, your home becomes a spaceship, your neighborhood a colony. Cars, buses, 
  and trains are spaceships. Bicycles are scouting vessels. Playgrounds are space stations, with 
  slides for escape pods and airlocks. Parks are exotic planets for exploring. Mobile phones are 
  are tools of analysis, geolocation, and communication. 
   
  What’s amazing is that most of these are not excessive flights of fancy. A personal autonomous 
  vehicle capable of speeds over 110 kilometers-per-hour (70 mph) would have seemed 
  stupefyingly awesome to someone living just 100 years ago. The smart phones we carry with us 
  give us incredible access to real time knowledge about the world surrounding us in ways 
  science fiction of just 50 years ago failed to imagine. 
   
  Polymath Buckminster Fuller coined the term “Spaceship Earth” to stress the fact that all of 
  humanity shares a lonely, fragile world hurtling through space at mind-boggling speeds and that 
  we must work together to keep it running. We aren’t just play-acting when we pretend our 
  
  homes are high-tech settlements;  they are high-tech settlements  that protect us from the 
  extremes of weather and maintain stocked food-stores. Each of our settlements relies on every 
  other settlement in our communities to keep things clean, reduce litter, maintain infrastructures, 
  conserve energy, and not infringe on one-another’s right to pursue happiness. And each of 
  these smaller communities is part of a larger network of communities, and these networks of 
  communities form even larger networks of networks--so that we must extrapolate how our local 
  micro actions resonate out to the global macro. 
   
  We must never lose perspective of our place in the Universe. That what we call “up” is actually 
  “out” from the Earth. That the Sun doesn’t set, but the Earth turns away from it and that it is 
  always rising and setting somewhere. That the person just waking up to a new day as you are 
  laying down to sleep has likely breathed in some of the exact same oxygen atoms you have 
  exhaled during your lifetime. And we should occasionally venture out away from the 
  light-pollution of our cities to see the Milky Way stretched across the night sky to appreciate the 
  ocean of stars in which we navigate. 
   
  Adventuring 
   
  First, let’s appreciate our daily lives as an adventure. Our Future Forgers are likely at school for 
  half their day, acquiring skills and information that will give them the common frame of reference 
  with which to communicate somewhat seamlessly with their immediate culture. School is an 
  adventure. Riding the bus, learning to read, learning mathematics, history, science, music, 
  physical education, and all the other important subjects is an adventure. 
   
  But school takes place--ironically--away from the Omni’s oversight. So instilling that sense of 
  adventure has to happen in quality one-on-one time with the Future Forgers, and that means 
  adventuring . Adventures can take place anywhere and anyhow. They can take place in 
  museums, playgrounds, hikes, zoos, malls, concert halls, libraries, gaming shops, sports 
  fields--the possibilities are endless. The goal is to seek novelty, new experiences that expand 
  the mind and strengthen the body. 
   
  Stuck inside the habitat while the weather outside is too hostile? This is a great opportunity to 
  explore virtual worlds. Enjoy a book, video game, make-believe, educational videos, music 
  genres, artwork, and otherwise explore models of existence other humans have fabricated. 
  Better yet, fabricate your own paracosms. Draw pictures, write stories, design video games, 
  build toy models, and formulate your own virtual worlds in which others may play. 
   
  As with anything in life, balance is key. We’ve all gone off the deep-end at times, spending hours 
  on an engaging video game, binge-watching a show, or shirking all responsibilities to turn a few 
  more pages in a good book. Maybe that trip to the zoo encroached on valuable homework time; 
  or, obversely, too much homework and studying time ate into equally valuable video game and 
  free-reading time. Be mindful of how your Forgers are proportioning their time. 
  
   
  Enjoy Yourselves 
   
  Finally, the key to Future Forgers is to keep it casual. There is no “rules crunch” to this LARP, no 
  dice to roll, no clearly-defined stats to keep. This is imaginary play with a well-defined theme 
  and a goal of gently encouraging kids to improve themselves in core ways. How you define 
  altruism, attentiveness, resilience, and healthy living is a personal preference. If you choose to 
  quantify marks with a jar of dimes or minutes of ePlay time, it’s up to you. If you choose to plan 
  out the missions, or go spontaneous and log achievements afterwards, it’s what works best for 
  your lifestyle. If the rewards are a wishlist of toys with money values or treats with calorie 
  values, it’s what syncs with your family values. 
   
  Just like in any roleplaying game, your players are going to take things in unexpected directions. 
  Maybe your Forgers can’t relate to any of the archetypes in this book, and would rather adopt 
  something from pop-culture instead. If your players want to be Jedis, Transformers, or 
  superheros, then go with it. When kids tell us how they want to play, then parents are the ones 
  who should adapt. Being the Omni is an opportunity for you to practice patience, adaptability, 
  and resilience. Cherish your time together. 
   
  So long as you are adventuring, learning, growing, and spending precious time together 
  appreciating the wonder of life, you are winning at forging the future. 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Kid Friendly/5. Simple LARPs/Future Forgers/Future Forgers Kids LARP 1.0.pdf