Plot Hooks Based on Real Politics

Midnight_v · Post by **Midnight_v** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 1:20 pm

Ninja'd By the great fence builder.

Redshirt · Post by **Redshirt** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 2:23 pm

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 5:21 pm

Thank you, fbmf.

talozin · Post by **talozin** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 6:01 pm

On including real-world politics in your games:

1) I mentioned it above, but: try to use something old enough that no one will feel strong emotions about it. There's thousands of years of human history to pull from. Picking something current right now will only make it feel as dated as an MC Hammer video when you think back to the campaign ten years from now. And possibly embarrassing -- if there had been RPGs in 1938, someone probably would have thought that it sounded like a good idea to have a campaign where a fantasy version of Churchill comes off like a fool for opposing the fantasy Munich Agreement. Don't be that guy.

2) If you really have to do something modern, don't have a "good side" and a "bad side." Have sides with different flaws. If you don't think you can reasonably write up the plot such that players might take either side -- and be honest, not "well, if my players are psychotically evil douchebags, they might side with the Elven Liberation Front" -- you might want to pick something else to fictionalize

3) If you really have to make it a good guys/bad guys thing, caricature both sides as outrageously as possible. It's easy to be offended when an almost realistic portrayal of a position you sympathize with is cast as the bad guys. It's harder to be offended by a very obviously hilariously exaggerated version of that viewpoint. (It's not impossible -- hence points 1 and 2 -- but it's harder.)

4) If you really have to make it a good guys/bad guys thing where the bad guys are portrayed realistically, let your players know this in advance. "I'm planning to run an adventure where the bad guys are a fantasy version of the Countryside Alliance" is a lot more considerate than gotchaing your players with it.

I know we mostly play with people who are like us (whatever that may mean for any one individual here), and people have this expectation that people who are like them in one way are like them in other ways, too. But it only takes one guy whose cousin got shot at Newtown for your clever campaign based on the disaster that ensues after Kingtopia enacts mandatory composite bow registration, to turn into a massive shit sandwich.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 12:14 am

I want to model an archmage in one of the games I'm involved in after Cincinnatus. She was appointed dictator of a community of several thousand people when they ran into serious interplanar troubles. Now, after a short but decisive war effort, hostilities are over and her people seem to have found peace. This character plans to "retire" into adventuring, giving up her rank/emergency powers.

I'd like to put together a speech as part of the press release indicating a turnover in government. Can anyone recommend source material for me to loot?

darkmaster · Post by **darkmaster** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 12:16 am

What, you don't want to talk about the fall of democracy in Rome?

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 12:24 am

If a new and worse military dictator collapses the house of cards that is the new republic, that's an adventure hook. If a chain of increasingly-deranged emperors come to power through assassinations, that's more adventure hooks. Honestly, part of why I'm having my archmage go hands-off is to encourage Mister Cavern to have more things go wrong at home. Status quo is kinda dull right now.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 12:38 am

You might be able to find some good material from Augustus. He was no Cincinnatus, but he definitely pretended to be.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:05 am

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Washingto ... _Address#1

This would be pretty easymode to tweak, too, though there are certainly some differences in the particulars of the situation.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:40 am

Two decades ago the Elves, Humans, and Dwarves fought an apocalyptic war against the Orcs. They lost.

On the eve of the decisive battle, the greatest hero of the Alliance died in a skirmish against several orc raiders.

There is dispute about what happened. Surviving eyewitnesses give conflicting accounts and no one is sure what to believe, except that the elf hero had many wounds in his back and none in his front. Some accuse him of cowardice, running once the tide had turned against him, others say that he just got turned around be a heavy blow, some say the orcs were able to flank him. But the most popular theory, one that has been growing in popularity for twenty years, is that he was ambushed from behind by Drow polymorphed into surface elves. The children of Lolth pretended to be loyal followers of Corellon until the time was ripe for a betrayal.

The fact that drow have been discovered on the surface using magic and trickery to disguise themselves has only made this hypothesis even more popular.

In the wake of their defeat, the Orcs forced crushing tithes on the elves, who are barely able to feed themselves under the weight of the taxes they are forced to pay as punishment for fighting against the orcs.

There is, however, a new leader gaining power in Elfland. A former soldier who fought in the Great War against the orcs, he promized that he will restore the surface elves to their former glory, root out corruption and subversion, and defeat the orcs.

RadiantPhoenix · Post by **RadiantPhoenix** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:56 am

hyzmarca wrote:There is, however, a new leader gaining power in Elfland. A former soldier who fought in the Great War against the orcs, he promized that he will restore the surface elves to their former glory, root out corruption and subversion, and defeat the orcs.

Tell me more.

deaddmwalking · Post by **deaddmwalking** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:38 am

RadiantPhoenix wrote:
hyzmarca wrote:There is, however, a new leader gaining power in Elfland. A former soldier who fought in the Great War against the orcs, he promized that he will restore the surface elves to their former glory, root out corruption and subversion, and defeat the orcs.
Tell me more.

Hitler.. The 'drow' are Jews in this version.

RadiantPhoenix · Post by **RadiantPhoenix** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:55 am

deaddmwalking wrote:
RadiantPhoenix wrote:
hyzmarca wrote:There is, however, a new leader gaining power in Elfland. A former soldier who fought in the Great War against the orcs, he promized that he will restore the surface elves to their former glory, root out corruption and subversion, and defeat the orcs.
Tell me more.

Hitler.. The 'drow' are Jews in this version.

I didn't need the explanation. That's why I used the smiley.

erik · Post by **erik** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 3:05 am

You are being watched.
A human wizard has come to your party wishing to gain safe passage and asylum to the elven kingdom. A former member of the ministry of scrying, he is being hunted by the Mageocratic Republic of Thera. For hundreds of years they have been selling magic items: crystal balls, scrolls to be scribed into spellbooks and they're all made with backdoors. The Wizards are spying on everyone!

Workers of the world, unite!
A new orc warleader, Ramboz, has risen among his peoples and has begun to unite all the orcish clans under one banner. The Kingdom is bracing for a raiding scourge as comes every 10-20 years from the orc-held mountains, but rumors of a different threat are being whispered of these days. Orc spies are infiltrating peasant villages and spreading propaganda and inciting villagers to band together in union to demand improved standards of living. Manifestos are turning up all over the kingdom. Will he bring prosperity to the lower classes or is this just a ploy to weaken the kingdom before an attack as the King has declared?

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 5:04 pm

Koreans are Dwarves and Japanese are Drow

nockermensch · Post by **nockermensch** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 5:47 pm

OgreBattle wrote:Koreans are Dwarves

I keep thinking that Koreans are Kappa (the Touhou version). Because it seems the way they always had a way with awesome tech.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 6:09 pm

RadiantPhoenix wrote:
deaddmwalking wrote:
RadiantPhoenix wrote: Tell me more.

Hitler.. The 'drow' are Jews in this version.

I didn't need the explanation. That's why I used the smiley.

You know, a lot of people have commented that most epic fantasy stories read a lot like Nazi propaganda. To the point that Norman Spinrad even made a book about it (though epic Sci-fi in that case) based on the premise that Hitler moved to America and made a living writing serialized genre stories.

I've just been wondering how close one can make the parallels before your players take a step back, look at your campaign critically, and ask "are we Nazis?"

nockermensch · Post by **nockermensch** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 6:29 pm

hyzmarca wrote:You know, a lot of people have commented that most epic fantasy stories read a lot like Nazi propaganda. To the point that Norman Spinrad even made a book about it (though epic Sci-fi in that case) based on the premise that Hitler moved to America and made a living writing serialized genre stories.

I've just been wondering how close one can make the parallels before your players take a step back, look at your campaign critically, and ask "are we Nazis?"

In LotR, Tolkien posits that:
1) The past is glorious, while the future looks bleak or diminished.
2) Some races are better than you, and have the right to rule because that.
3) Some races are degenerate or plainly evil and should be expelled from the civilised lands.

Creepy as fuck, when you think about it.

EDIT: Trimmed the quotes.

pragma · Post by **pragma** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 6:34 pm

Though this is way too hot a campaign for me to handle, D&D provides a really natural lens to inspect religious extremism because religious extremists get superpowers.

I'd been kicking around the idea of a terrorist cleric dropping empowered flame strikes on civilian targets where the twist is that he's a cleric of the good guys (probably Kord because his descriptor text about the virtues of proving yourself in battle is terrifying).

Instead I used the character idea in a historical mashup game that asked "what would have happened if the Louisiana Purchase happened during the Cold War?" I envisioned factions racing for land with the PCs putting our fires in order to fend off the big war. Unfortunately, the campaign foundered and turned into a tour of Planescape hunting MacGuffins, but I still like the premise. The mashup obfuscates things for the PCs and gives the GM tools to ratchet tension up to 11, so I'm currently looking for other historical events to mix.

Laertes · Post by **Laertes** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 7:09 pm

I have worked, over the years, for no less than three real-life megacorps (Air France, Royal Mail and my current employer) and as a result my Shadowrun missions often get peppered with real-life corporate politics that I'd seen.

My Ars Magica games have gotten hit with real life politics from the 13th century. But that hardly counts because it's an actual historical game.

DEBO · Post by **DEBO** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 12:18 pm

hyzmarca wrote: I've just been wondering how close one can make the parallels before your players take a step back, look at your campaign critically, and ask "are we Nazis?"

My experience with Warhammer 40K players would suggest really, really close.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 1:30 pm

Yeah, you'd be amazed at what you can do before people ask "Are we the baddies?"

AndreiChekov · Post by **AndreiChekov** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 5:32 pm

I may be considered odd here, but I'm totally okay with playing a game where everyone is a nazi, and the whole thing is completely racist, because it isn't real life. And it actually doesn't matter if someone is a racist in how they think, because it is what you do that really matters. So, if you are playing a game, you can do all sorts of horrible things, and you haven't actually done them. So, no one is actually, physically hurt.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 6:02 pm

DEBO wrote:
hyzmarca wrote: I've just been wondering how close one can make the parallels before your players take a step back, look at your campaign critically, and ask "are we Nazis?"
My experience with Warhammer 40K players would suggest really, really close.

As far as I can tell, there is literally no amount of Nazi allusion you can't use and still have some of the 40k fanbase insist that they are being the good guys. Like, it's actually disturbing to me how you can make completely over-the-top Nazi parody pieces and have people in the 40k fanbase take it completely straight and clap like seals begging for another fish.

It's totally unreal how fucked up the moral compasses of some of that fanbase are.

-Username17

deaddmwalking · Post by **deaddmwalking** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 7:21 pm

This isn't a defense of any group or ideology, but no matter how reprehensible their beliefs, very few are EVIL in every way. The Nazis had anti - smoking laws and probably animal rights legislation. When a terrible group does any good, our monkey brains have trouble.

In the 40k universe, no matter how bad the things the Imperium does, there is the argument that they're defending humanity from things that are much worse. It's hard to argue that preservation of our species is wholly evil...

I think that most people recognize that all the factions in 40k are bad guys in one way or another, and since most people want to be 'the good guy' they'll work harder to justify why they're 'not that bad'.