Cats, lava and methane

Greg Pool (left) near the Kamoamoa black sand beach in 1992.

The perfect formula for a dice game, right?

After reading about the pocket dice game Blue Crabs from Shady Dice Games, I began thinking of a game that involved walking across an active lava flow field on the Big Island of Hawai’i.

It’s something I did as a volunteer field geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey when working as a researcher at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. And I had to do it again as a wildland fire fighter for the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.

But it is definitely not encouraged of tourists who reach the end of the Chain of Crater’s Road in the park or Highway 130 on the Puna side (map).

Early prototype of Pōpoki in Tabletop Simulator.

Pōpoki

So instead of a human, I’m going with a cat (pōpoki in Hawaiian) who is trying to leave the abandoned Royal Gardens subdivision in the early 1990’s to reach an animal shelter in Pahoa.

I’ll tap into my geology experience and introduce the element of methane, which is odorless and can be a huge issue when you are near an active flow.

And pōpoki will try to avoid the incandescence of “cooling” lava at 2,000 degrees F, much less an outbreak on the edge of a flow. As a fire fighter, we had to wear Nomex clothing; otherwise, the heat can be so overwhelming your cotton t-shirt would combust within 10-20 yards of exposure.

Finally, I’m a cat person, so I don’t want pōpoki to combust along the way. I’m going with points for making it over a distance versus losing whiskers along the way. My daughter suggested nine; pōpoki has had a rough time in Royal Gardens before their journey across the flow field.

Published Dec. 9, 2020.