Political Ecology as Dungeon Ecology

Political ecology is a type of critical analysis interested in drawing attention to the political motivations of ecological policies (Robbins, 2010). This concept is similar to political economy, which seeks to observe the political motivations of economic policies. These are broad fields of critical discourse.

Certain political ecology case studies work excellently as inspiration for dungeon ecology. Human beings and our mixed motivations are endlessly interesting—porting these real-life examples over to the monstrous factions of a dungeon is a fun exercise and can yield very interesting results at the table.

Yeh et al. (2014) wrote a paper about Tibetan yak herders and the change in lifestyle they experience due to policies put in place by the Chinese communist government. In their traditional lifestyle, the yak herders had the power to react to snowstorms. Herders shared rangeland and therefore were able to transport their yaks from one area to another in anticipation of bad snowstorms. Chinese government policies subdivided land and forced families to keep their yaks only in certain areas. This meant that they were not able to move their herds into safer areas when snowstorms arrived. Furthermore, the government subsidized things like heated shelters and blankets for the herders to keep their yaks warm. But these subsidies were not followed up with additional support, meaning the heaters often broke and there weren't enough blankets. As climate change impacts have increased, the ability of yak herders to deal with the effects (i.e. snowstorms) has decreased—due to government policies.

At its core, this paper tells us that misaligned government control has prevented people from reacting to dangerous environmental effects.

This analysis of the political ecology of Tibetan yak herders can easily be ported over to the dungeon. Here are three ideas I came up with, each subsequent one taking another level of abstraction away from the original point:

1. A snowy mountain is home to a tribe of yak-herding stone giants. An enormous dragon has taken residence in the caves at the peak. Using the threat of violence, the dragon has taken control of a considerable area, including all the family clans of the stone giants. In order to keep them cowed in fear, the dragon orders each family to stay on one slope of the mountain. This means that the stone giants are unable to move their herds from slope to slope in order to avoid snowstorms. The dragon, of course, is safe in her cave, and cares not for the troubles of the giants. This is an excellent starting point for some adventurers who hear of legendary treasure in the dragon's hoard—they can ally with the giants, travel under cover of snowstorm, or be the heroes who save the day. 
2. There is an ancient tomb in the desert—preserved for a thousand years by the dry air. Shifting sandstorms have revealed a new entranceway, and nomadic scorpion folk have entered seeking shelter. They unwittingly broke an ancient seal, unleashing a curse upon their people that prevents them from warning each other of danger. The curse can only be broken by an artefact held in the skeletal hands of the ancient tomb dweller, who lays at rest in the deepest portion of the tomb. 
3. One deep level of a megadungeon has thick humid air and warm water dripping from the ceiling and walls. Thin corridors and low rooms are home to row upon row of steel cages, full of creatures of all kinds, each throwing themselves at the bars and shrieking for help. The lord of this level is a steam demon, belching warm wet air and imprisoning intelligent beings for fun. With movement restricted, the prisoners are at the mercy of the hot geysers which erupt from cracks in the walls. Once a prisoner has been boiled alive by enough geyser hits, the steam demon consumes their flesh. 

Other political ecology analyses can be ported into dungeon concepts. The deforestation of Mexico to fuel silver mines by colonial Spain. The change in Amazonian soil when indigenous agricultural practices are banned. Shoddy wetland construction in the United States incentivized by slapdash policies about replacing destroyed wetlands with new ones.

Any other ideas?


Sources

Robbins, Paul. Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction (second edition), 2010.

Yeh, Emily T., et al. Tibetan Pastoralists’ Vulnerability to Climate Change: A Political
Ecology Analysis of Snowstorm Coping Capacity.; Human Ecology, vol. 42, no. 1, 2014,
pp. 61-74.

Maze Knaves: my one-page hack of Ben Milton's Knave and Maze Rats

I love Ben Milton's games KNAVE and MAZE RATS. They're both available on DriveThurRPG and well worth the purchase. Ben Milton talks about both these games on his great blog Questing Beast.

I have run games with both systems, and I wanted to put together a hack that took my favourite parts from each of them—mainly the 2d6 rolls from Maze Rats and the Item Slots/Magic-as-Spell Items concepts from Knave. I was also going to be running a game for a group of brand new players who had never played an RPG, so I wanted to format the game onto one page with clear writing explaining the simple rules.

This ruleset alone is not enough to run a game of Maze Knaves. I used a separate list of pre-generated character backgrounds tailored to my setting (far-future post-apocalyptic science-fantasy Mars) with Ability Scores of +2/+1/+0 and a handful of pieces of starting equipment. I also used a separate price sheet of extra gear for my PCs to purchase, a separate spell list (basically just the levelless spells from Knave), and a quick dungeon of my own devising. I also think that these rules might not quite make sense unless somebody is there to explain things and answer questions—but that's the price you pay for one page!

Here is the PDF hosted on my google drive.

EDIT (to provide a source which provided much of my inspiration):

Dungeons and Possums has collected a great number of Knave resources, including multiple hacks which inspired me to do my own. 

https://dungeonsandpossums.com/2020/04/some-great-knave-rpg-resources/

Three Dungeon Lions

1. TOMB GUARDIAN LIONS — Two red sandstone lion statues flank the entrance of an ancient tomb. When the sarcophagus inside is disturbed, an ancient hologram of Emperor Ekaf Enam crackles to life—a tall muscled man, barefoot, wearing a loose toga, a tall copper crown atop his head. He commands the statues alive and they spring towards you. 
2. GRASS LION — A green lion lies sleeping in an open doorway. The blades of grass that make up its mane blow gently back and forth in time with its snores. Beyond its hulking mass you can see the treasure you have been seeking. 
3. TEMPLE LION — High in the mountains there is a stone temple with low walls. In the antechamber there is an ancient mountain lion, packed in snow and salt in an alcove before the gate. It has been preserved, waiting for somebody to attempt to open the temple doors. 

d6 Strange Plants Documented in the Botanical Textbook You Found in this Wizard's Greenhouse

You've sneaked into this Wizard's Greenhouse while he's taking his post-tea nap in the main manor. Cracked green glass refracts strange sunlight onto the yellow vellum paper of the botanical textbook on the workbench. You heft the tome up and flip through the pages. What strange plants are documented here? Could you find samples in this greenhouse? You better hurry before the Wizard awakens.

1. Asp Ash — A whorly tree, whose wood can be crafted into thin spears that morph into venomous snakes upon being thrown. 
2. Western Hemlock Vine — A thin evergreen vine with draping soft needles, which, if eaten, provide the illusion of death, but in actuality merely draws the consumer into a near-death coma that lasts 3d12 hours, during which they do not need to eat food. 
3. Flaxumvaccsum — A rare cross-breed between flax wheat and cranberry that produces a thick linseed-esque oil which is rubbed on furniture only during winter holidays. 
4. Orcid — The beautiful black flowers cultivated by Orcish botanists that bloom only under a red moon and are a symbol of peace amongst warring nations
5. Pepper Pea — These greasy green pods excrete bulbous wrinkled peas upon being squeezed, which, if eaten, taste pleasantly spicy and grant strange spicy breath to the consumer for about an hour; anyone who breathes in this oral aroma at very close distance will begin to cry red tears.  
6. Moonbeam Mint —A delicate leafy herb that when chewed and held in the mouth, grants invisibility to all held and worn objects, rendering its chewer nude until spat out or swallowed.

d4 Ancient Robots That You Found in the Bowels of the Machine Dungeon

1. A tall automaton shaped like a man is made of pink glass. Inside the glass there are hundreds of black bugs, buzzing around in the hollow spaces. The glass figure stands inert before a golden statue of a fly, its eyes made from hundreds of dazzling rubies. If you move to touch or take the statue, the automaton gently stops you, and attempts to communicate through deep buzzing vibrations of the insects within itself. 
2. A squat black robot with thin legs and four upper arms is stacking stones in the dark. Two small pinpricks of red light glow where probably its face lies. It ignores you for the most part, even if you disturb its stones. After watching for a minute or two, you can see that it is creating a pyramid, which is almost complete...
3. Two large brass wheels connected by a square axle rolls by. The axle has a tongue-like protrusion which it uses to lick things, seemingly scanning them for information. As you approach it spins around, and licks your hand if proffered. 
4. You hear a noise on the ceiling—a robot is crawling above you. It looks like two steel crickets sandwiching a white wax cylinder, one cricket upside down crawling on the ceiling with its legs, and the other cricket hanging below, ready to land safely if disturbed. Intricate engravings have been made in the soft wax in between the two metal portions of its body.