So, there's this game called The Resistance by Indie Boards & Cards. It's based on Mafia, and is part of a family of games called The Dystopian Universe. (The other games in the family are Coup, a bluffing card game, and Gritters, a hand-building card game) I would like to convert The Resistance for play over the forum, (using PMs to communicate identities secretly) and then take it 1 step farther: make up characters, flesh out the setting, and roleplay through the game events.
The spies wouldn't just secretly vote to fail a mission, they would actually play out their sabotage. The game would be half-public, (the scenes where everyone is present) and half-private (the scenes during the night at the start, and during missions). The private parts of the game will then be used to narrate world events, such as news broadcasts, major events, law changes, etc., so players know the results of missions, but only the operatives know the details of how they got there.
Obviously, for it to work, someone would need to act as the deck of role cards and as a narrator to report mission results. Since it's my project, that'd be me. I have no vested interest in either side winning, I just want to see interesting stuff happen and see some people have fun. After the game ends, (between 3 to 5 missions played) I would then post the detailed mission transcripts for everyone to enjoy.
As for the setting, I was going to take inspiration from the full dystopian universe series of games. Here's what I know for certain:
* The whole world is ruled by a single autocratic government.
* G54 stands for Guatemala 1954, the original version of Coup G54 before it was rethemed into the dystopian universe. In this game, we're going to say it's a statement of time, meaning Generation 54, with each generation representing about 20 years. That sets the NWO up with ~1080 years of history to play with. Why are they stagnating? ARE they stagnating?
* This government rules through an Orwellian system of surveillance and state force.
* The world government is a loosely organized feudal court with no head. It is not explained in any of the games, but for some reason there is a permanent power void. Dukes and contessas scheme, make alliances, hire assassins, and otherwise fight amongst themselves to take absolute power- a state that is never quite achieved.
* Despite their technological and authoritarian power, the court is dismally ineffectual at governing the planet. There is always somewhere that is out of control and experiencing open rebellion. Because the whole world is one state, this means the state is always experiencing varying degrees of civil war.
* These revolutionary forces, however, seem to be a normal part of the political order. They are secretly funded by reformists; courtiers who seek political change, (change as in a crown on their head) and then infiltrated and disarmed by spies in the employ of loyalists, (courtiers who are loyal to the empty throne because they want it for themselves).
* In addition to the revolutionaries and court, organised crime syndicates, erroneously called "grifters" take advantage of the chaos and undergoverning to profit themselves- mostly by finding ways to skim the government coffers. Why are they called grifters?
* Aside from courtiers, business owners, and a few successful grifter bosses, the general populace lives in abject poverty, living meaningless lives at the service of the world-state. This tells us a few interesting things about this distant future:
1. Either the mass-automation of industry really did destroy the lower and middle classes, or for some reason near-slavery is seen as preferable. Perhaps they are technologically declining, and using people to replace machines as they fail? Maybe there's a boundary where automation requires a degree of AI that the machine counts as a person? Maybe everyone is a blend of synthetic and gengineered parts, born in a lab Brave New World style, so the idea of automation is nonsense to them?
2. It is not communist. This is clearly a capitalist hell. The government is openly a for-profit business. The poor only persist by reproduction, survival instinct, and desperation for employment.
Can there be aliens? They don't appear in any of the games, but then again, the games are set exclusively on Earth. The setting is referred to as a whole universe though. Having alien characters would bring new meaning to the ambassador-type courtiers. There is some precedent for this in the games- a few cards in G54 imply space travel and extraterrestrial settings. Perhaps "aliens" are just humans who are native to other colonized planets? I'm up for it if you are.
How about robots or androids? Well, the first robot citizen was named in real life last year. This game is set a millennium in our future. By that point, AI, robotics, and gengineering will likely far exceed what we can do today. It may even be possible that people of this distant future just don't (or maybe can't) distinguish between organic and synthetic people.
What does it look like? From the card and box art, this is not a typical dystopia. It appears as though most places are fairly developed and well maintained. Revolutionaries and grifters just tend to hang out in forgotten places to avoid detection. Imagine living in a shimmering city of silver, holograms, and flying cars. All around you, food, water, shelter, clothing, transportation, goods, services, entertainment, everything a person could want or need is available in abundance- to those who can pay... and you can't. In fact, almost nobody can afford anything beyond basic needs. Most of the population is destitute, working hard and dangerous jobs just to afford a few gallons of water. Only the wealthy and their families can afford to interact with these cities, and they are a distinct minority, possibly a fifth of the population at most.
That's all I've got figured thus-far.
The spies wouldn't just secretly vote to fail a mission, they would actually play out their sabotage. The game would be half-public, (the scenes where everyone is present) and half-private (the scenes during the night at the start, and during missions). The private parts of the game will then be used to narrate world events, such as news broadcasts, major events, law changes, etc., so players know the results of missions, but only the operatives know the details of how they got there.
Obviously, for it to work, someone would need to act as the deck of role cards and as a narrator to report mission results. Since it's my project, that'd be me. I have no vested interest in either side winning, I just want to see interesting stuff happen and see some people have fun. After the game ends, (between 3 to 5 missions played) I would then post the detailed mission transcripts for everyone to enjoy.
As for the setting, I was going to take inspiration from the full dystopian universe series of games. Here's what I know for certain:
* The whole world is ruled by a single autocratic government.
* G54 stands for Guatemala 1954, the original version of Coup G54 before it was rethemed into the dystopian universe. In this game, we're going to say it's a statement of time, meaning Generation 54, with each generation representing about 20 years. That sets the NWO up with ~1080 years of history to play with. Why are they stagnating? ARE they stagnating?
* This government rules through an Orwellian system of surveillance and state force.
* The world government is a loosely organized feudal court with no head. It is not explained in any of the games, but for some reason there is a permanent power void. Dukes and contessas scheme, make alliances, hire assassins, and otherwise fight amongst themselves to take absolute power- a state that is never quite achieved.
* Despite their technological and authoritarian power, the court is dismally ineffectual at governing the planet. There is always somewhere that is out of control and experiencing open rebellion. Because the whole world is one state, this means the state is always experiencing varying degrees of civil war.
* These revolutionary forces, however, seem to be a normal part of the political order. They are secretly funded by reformists; courtiers who seek political change, (change as in a crown on their head) and then infiltrated and disarmed by spies in the employ of loyalists, (courtiers who are loyal to the empty throne because they want it for themselves).
* In addition to the revolutionaries and court, organised crime syndicates, erroneously called "grifters" take advantage of the chaos and undergoverning to profit themselves- mostly by finding ways to skim the government coffers. Why are they called grifters?
* Aside from courtiers, business owners, and a few successful grifter bosses, the general populace lives in abject poverty, living meaningless lives at the service of the world-state. This tells us a few interesting things about this distant future:
1. Either the mass-automation of industry really did destroy the lower and middle classes, or for some reason near-slavery is seen as preferable. Perhaps they are technologically declining, and using people to replace machines as they fail? Maybe there's a boundary where automation requires a degree of AI that the machine counts as a person? Maybe everyone is a blend of synthetic and gengineered parts, born in a lab Brave New World style, so the idea of automation is nonsense to them?
2. It is not communist. This is clearly a capitalist hell. The government is openly a for-profit business. The poor only persist by reproduction, survival instinct, and desperation for employment.
Can there be aliens? They don't appear in any of the games, but then again, the games are set exclusively on Earth. The setting is referred to as a whole universe though. Having alien characters would bring new meaning to the ambassador-type courtiers. There is some precedent for this in the games- a few cards in G54 imply space travel and extraterrestrial settings. Perhaps "aliens" are just humans who are native to other colonized planets? I'm up for it if you are.
How about robots or androids? Well, the first robot citizen was named in real life last year. This game is set a millennium in our future. By that point, AI, robotics, and gengineering will likely far exceed what we can do today. It may even be possible that people of this distant future just don't (or maybe can't) distinguish between organic and synthetic people.
What does it look like? From the card and box art, this is not a typical dystopia. It appears as though most places are fairly developed and well maintained. Revolutionaries and grifters just tend to hang out in forgotten places to avoid detection. Imagine living in a shimmering city of silver, holograms, and flying cars. All around you, food, water, shelter, clothing, transportation, goods, services, entertainment, everything a person could want or need is available in abundance- to those who can pay... and you can't. In fact, almost nobody can afford anything beyond basic needs. Most of the population is destitute, working hard and dangerous jobs just to afford a few gallons of water. Only the wealthy and their families can afford to interact with these cities, and they are a distinct minority, possibly a fifth of the population at most.
That's all I've got figured thus-far.
