Chaosium Steps Up, Offers Reward For Players Who Donate To Help Fight Australia's Fires

A threat looms on the horizon, steadily consuming all in its path. Those in power are either too corrupt or too feeble to put up a defense against the mounting force, and so it falls to the heroes of the land to muster their arms, and march into the teeth of the oncoming storm to stop it before it crashes upon the heads of the commoners all around them. Their cause is just... but will they be able to stop it in time?

Or is it already too late?

While this might sound like the opening to most standard games, in this case we're referring to a very real threat that puts all of us at risk; climate change. It's making our weather more extreme, and coupled with leadership's unwillingness to take measures to stop it in many countries, it's causing serious disasters. The one that's in the news right now is the massive brush fires across Australia, which at time of writing have wiped out hundreds of millions of animals, and destroyed untold acres of wild habitats.

And the fire rages on.

Chaosium's Call To Arms

While there have been efforts to raise money to help combat these fires (including an Instagram model who raised more than $300,000 by selling nudes), there's no such thing as too many heroes when it comes to fighting a continent-wide menace. One of the latest to throw their hats into the ring is Chaosium, putting out a call-to-arms for all the players out there who are fans of their Golantha setting for Runequest.

You know, this bad boy.

For roughly the next week, at time of writing, the Golantha Bestiary is on Drive Thru RPG for Pay What You Want... but there's a catch to it. Rather than sending money to Chaosium thru Drive Thru RPG, they instead want you to take whatever you would have paid for the book and donate it to one of the list of relief organizations listed on the page.

Chaosium put more details about this on their own blog, as well, if you want to see the original post on the subject.

Every Adventurer Helps

It doesn't matter if you've only got a couple dollars to put into the effort... if that were true of every Runequest fan out there, it would make a big damn difference once the tallies were all taken. Time is of the essence on this issue, and those who are teeth-first in the fires need all the support they can get in their time of need.

But there's more to do, once the fires are out.

While helping stop the immediate harm of the fires is important, it's also important to remember what caused them, and to help put a stop to the true threat. For those who want to do more (or for those who came upon this after Chaosium's offer has passed), there are other options available to you as well.

If you want to put your time and digital muscle into reforestation efforts that will make real progress toward fighting climate change, check out the following:

- Ecosia: This search engine uses 80 percent of the profits it generates to planting trees and reforestation efforts. It takes roughly 40 searches to plant one tree, and the site gives you a handy tracker so you can chart your progress.

- Apps Planting Trees: This is a relatively fresh company, but they take the profits gained from the ads on their apps, and they put them toward planting new trees. The counter on the home page gives you some idea of the impact you're having, too.

- Forest App: This app is meant to keep you focused on your tasks, forcing you to put your phone down. While it's a useful thing for maintaining your attention and staying present in the moment, when you spend the coins in the app to plant fresh trees, they reach out to actual organizations to turn those digital trees into physical reality.

While donating to charities like One Tree Planted or Eden Reforestation Projects is also helpful, the advantage of changing your digital habits with the above sites is that you can monetize your everyday activities. This makes it something that all of us can use to make a difference, no matter what our spare income happens to be.

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That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully you enjoyed, and if you've used run these kinds of games before, leave us a comment to let us know what worked for you!

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Unified Weapons Master: Is Australia Bringing Back Gladiatorial Fights?

One of the reasons that UFC and similar organizations have seen such popularity is that everyone wants to see different fighting styles and combat philosophies go head-to-head in a cage match. Of the more than 300 styles of martial arts in the world though nearly 100 of them are either entirely weapons-based or have a heavy degree of weapons use in them. While knight fighting leagues have showcased some of the European fighting styles there hasn't been a single arena yet where any martial art can step in the ring with any other.

Australia is trying though, and if it succeeds we might have modern day gladiators!

We Might Have What?

Australia is attempting to put together something called Unified Weapons Master, and the UWM will be a place for all martial arts to step up and show their stuff. Whether it's kendo masters or spear fighters, escrima or fencing, anyone of any style could step up and show off.

How does the UWM expect to keep fighters alive though? Mostly by using the Lorica.

Pictured: Lorica

The word, which comes from Latin, has been used to describe the next-generation body armor that UWM gladiators would don before they set foot on the sands of the 21st century arena. This armor, according to this source, is made of a slew of impact-resistant, penetration resistant materials including carbon fiber, elastomeric foam, and a dozen different polycarbonates. In addition to the protection this armor offers though the Lorica is also jam-packed with sensors that will measure the strength and lethality of blows, which will figure into how matches are scored.

When Can I See This?

Well, no one's exactly sure yet. While the Lorica is impressive, and there's been a lot of buzz over the UWM as an idea it isn't quite ready to be put on Netflix yet. If you want more information though you should check out the UWM's homepage and take a look at some of their promo videos. Sort of like this one.

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