#74: Unreal-politik
I. Dear Reader,
I’ve watched two separate Youtubers both make excellent videos on the subject of politics. But they both talk about roughly the same thing which is a bit strange to me. The first is Matt Colville and his series on politics (starting with this one but goes on for 5 more videos, I think) and the second is LegalKimchi’s video on power. I recommend both of them if you haven’t seen them yet - especially if you’ve ever thought “How do I make my game more like Game of Thrones?” or “How do I make this made-up villian more like real-life villain, Henry Kissinger?”. They are both about infusing games with a sense of ‘realpolitik’ - making sure the political figures in your games act like real power-obsessed politicians today would.**
But while I am interested in realpolitik, I’m also interested in unrealpolitik. Because by almost every definition, alternative (or, gasp, even utopian) politics is unrealistic. But what if our definitions are all wrong? I’ve been reading David Graeber and David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything which takes aim at nothing less than dismantling every grand narrative of ancient history. One of the many things the book says is that historical societies were probably way more political than we give them credit for. Probably more political than we are today. And by that I mean, they probably spent way more time talking or working towards building a society that they found acceptable.
But while there’s a lot of rebellion and revolt in gaming, glimpses of societies with functioning but alternative politics is rare. So I’m going to try and write about how to do that over the next few issues
Apologetically ending on the newsletter version of a cliff hanger,
Thomas
** Another great resource for this kind of thing is the Dictator’s Handbook which CGPGrey breaks down nicely.
Thanks to everyone who responded last week and told me about what they get out of the newsletter! Was extremely helpful, thank you!
II. Media of the Week
This is from 2018 but it’s a really excellent talk by Avery Alder that talks about the development of Dream Askew in the broader context of game design trends of the last 15 years.
Also, another recommendation: Yes Indie’d podcast has a nice interview with the folks behind furtive shambles and their new game, Ryne, which seems really interesting and has a free playkit. I’m thinking of running Ryne later this year!
III. Links of the Week
Grasping Nettles is a really interesting worldbuilding game that uses a rondel / wheel to create pacing and vary what kind of turns you take. The designer Adam Bell has created a free guide to design similar games.
A nice article about the Stars and Wishes feedback tool and how it can solve the queasy post-game GM feelings about whether your game is going well
Pod of Blunders reviews The Tabula Initiative, a small game of Jason Bourne-style action.
Archive.org has a whole archive of old issues of Dungeon Magazine
On the Gauntlet blog, a really useful article worth bookmarking: 7 starter situations that you can collaboratively build to kick off your campaigns. Some of them suggest campaign arcs but “Why is this room on fire?” can have as light a touch as you want.
If you haven’t read about the trouble with Kickstarter, this is a good place to start: “Whether or not the new platform comes to fruition, whether or not it uses less energy-intensive proof-of-stake software, whether or not people leave the platform, these are in the long run irrelevant. What the announcement should have revealed to anyone who felt strongly enough to leave the platform over it is that the TTRPG hobby has let Kickstarter become infrastructure.”
IV. Small Ads
All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.
Explore three communities from a future space faring humanity with Stellar Nettles. Jump start your session using open ended prompts compatible with the Grasping Nettles world building game.
Dice Jam is a small TTRPG game jam for newer and first-time creators which aims to promote cooperation and positivity through creativity. Join in on the jam and our discord!
Theology student Riley becomes trapped in The Royal Hotel, tormented by migraines, after “borrowing” a mysterious manuscript; The Catcott Collection is a one-on-one Call of Cthulhu scenario set in Bristol.
The Twilight War, an espionage themed supplement to the 80s alt history horror game, Party First is coming to Kickstarter February 2022.
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I'm really interested to see the rest of the series you are planning on politics! I have tried to feature a variety of political styles (that is to say the structure of the society and it's power structures are different than ours and different than vaguely medieval fantasy standards) in the worlds I've set my games and many rpg systems simply can't support them. Interested to see if you know of other games (or other ways) to incorporate these different political structures.