#76: Unrealpolitik 3
I. Dear Reader,
As promised, this week I’m going to talk about putting radical societies in your game. Usual caveat, these are about my tastes - yours will differ and that is fine, none of us are bad people because of it. So that said, here’s another worldbuilding principle for you: “A society’s politics are defined by the politics of their neighbours”.
There’s a thing that happens in fantasy worlds sometimes where there’s a “good, peaceful” society right next to a “bad, warlike” society …and usually, it’s done badly. Usually, in that situation, to make things “realistic”, the peaceful society is doomed. It’s just a matter of time before their beautiful world is crushed.
And I get why that make sense but if you want to explore a non-doomed radical society, don’t put it next to the bad guys. Bad guys have a gravity of their own. They force you to engage with them and that changes things. Think about it: What does peace mean when you’re constantly threatened by war? Doesn’t sound nice to me!
This doesn’t mean you can’t have bad guys. You can if you want. But what it does mean is that you probably can’t have one single radical society and have it to be stable, functioning, thriving. You need an ecosystem. A radical society needs radical neighbours (that are different from them in important ways).
Basically, don’t invent one radical society. Or rather, don’t stop there. If you want anarchists in your game, put them there. And then invent their neighbours by creating “anarchists but different in this way”.
In both of them, the bakers own and run the bakery. In both of them, there’s a food council where co-ordination about food happens at a broader level. But in one place, the bakeries organize into a bakery syndicate that sends a representative to the food council. In the other place, they think the idea of a bakery syndicate is *cough* sub-optimal. Instead, the bakeries are a part of a neighbourhood syndicate which contains all the local businesses and the neighbourhood syndicate sends a representative to the food council. Replace “bakery” and “food council” with whatever you’re interested in.
This process creates a spectrum of societies. So you can have anarchists, socialists, and whatever else. But importantly, they’re not in isolation. They exist in relation to other societies. And it’s not conflict-free but it need not be conflict-riven either. You can be sure some people have opinions about how things are done over there!
Well, that’s my breathless dispatch for this week. In the next issue, I’ll give a concrete example of how this works based on my game, The Spider and the City.
Yours talking about bakers for some reason,
Thomas
PS: One caveat, some games make this hard. Like reader Meatcastle mentioned in the comments, D&D 5e being tied into a currency system can make exploring alternative economics complicated. You can, of course, homebrew it. In fact, a lot of people probably ignore currency already! But if you don’t, it’s something you’ll have to figure out!
PPS: This principle doesn’t mean you can’t have the bad guys next to the good guys. It means that if the region is stable, the difference between the bad guys and the good guys is probably how they differ on one important issue (and then the repercussions of that). You can have Athens and Sparta next to each other - but you really need that common cultural substrate to make it work.
II. Watch of the Week
Dave Thaumavore reviews Anyone Can Wear The Mask, a superhero storygame by Jeff Stormer, host of the Party of One Podcast.
Bonus: GeekGamers does a nice video flip-through of the new edition of Into the Wyrd and Wild, a setting toolkit for weird wilderness areas.
III. Links of the Week
Articles and Essays
The Split/Party newsletter has a incisive criticism of Kickstarter specifically and the general crowdfunding trend for TTRPGs in general.
As a designer making a game set underwater (post-apocalyptic divers salvaging tech from their sacred river), this roundtable by Technical Grimoire with other designers making games or adventures set underwater was a fun read.
I asked for more Year in Review posts last week and I got these:
After linking to ttrpg pundit Shannon Applecline’s review of 2021 last week and Dieku Games sent me a video interview with him so if you prefer that medium, check it out.
Lunar Shadow Designs (a self-described “tine publisher”) sent me their 2021 in review post. Thanks for sharing, Craig!
Reviews and Play Reports
Liber Ludorum reviews Never Going Home, a weird World War 2 game: “The horrific events of the Battle of the Somme have rent the Veil that protects our mundane reality from malicious outsiders called Others. And far from unifying against this greater threat, the Central and Allied powers instead both see this occult incursion as a powerful new weapon to use against one another in hopes of tipping the balance of power in a rapidly stagnating war.”
The UCLA Games Lab has a lovely written play report of Ech0, a small beautiful storygame about a lost mech.
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.
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HULL BREACH is a 200+ page hardcover anthology for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. Dozens of all new scenarios, bestiaries, GM toolkits and more from 20 independent authors.
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.
This newsletter is currently sponsored by the all-new, fan-supported Fate-SRD.com. Built to be fast, attractive, and accessible, check out the site for rules, downloads, actual plays, and community.
Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. I’m half-man, half-beast, half-journalist, half-game designer.
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