“I hate when people force politics into stories and media. I wish they’d do more stuff like [insert IP with well-known and/or obvious political themes and references].”
The Fallout series in a nutshell. There are a terrifying number of Libertarians and fascists that love the series, despite its overt anticapitalist themes and messages.
Warhammer too. I don’t have any proof, but my subjective experience leads me to believe that the vast majority of players/enjoyers of the franchise are right wingers, which is funny considering that a good amount of lore exists exclusively to make fun of them.
The same people who enjoyed Metal Gear Solid because it’s a cool game about shooting the bad guys, I guess.
Heck, I once watched Starship Troopers with a friend, only to spend the following five hours arguing, because he insisted that the film (which is a very on-the-nose parody of fascism and militarism) actually makes fun of anti-fascists. I don’t know how you can misunderstand something so badly.
They’re willing to ignore the criticism of facism in exchange for a chance to roleplay being a space nazi.
If we truly took everything to heart for its original message, every American is suppose to be insulted by Yankee Doodle.
They just miss the days they were too young to realize what it all meant.
They miss the days when it was easier to ignore what it meant
As adults, probably. As kids they likely just saw cool heroes saving the day but didn’t know enough of the world they live in to apply that to it. Some might even have agreed with those heroes until they were taught they were not supposed to.
Or they like stories with politics they agree with.
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Ugh, I can’t believe they made the cyberpunk games all political, I just want cool robot arms and neon lights!
“I liked rage against the machine before they got all political”
Fallout fans not picking up on the overt anticapitalist messaging be like
But also, wouldn’t you like to buy some of our paid mods?
It’s EOTW now and everyone is blatantly and intentionally ignorant of exactly that.
IA! Fthagn! Let’s ditch the lesser of two evils!
What does Wheel of Time have to do with fallout?
Depends what Cthulhu has to do with that. I stopped WoT@ the 3rd novel.
EOTW is Eye of the World, the first Wheel of Time book
It’s also the End of the World. First takes reference and the novel is a fairly recent publish. Much more recent than Cthulhu.
At this point I get more annoyed when the group doesn’t want to engage with the politics that are already there.
Like an old group ran a story about how some people wanted to put the dead king’s baby son in the throne instead of his adult daughter because he’s a boy. No one in the group even blinked. Just swallowed it whole. I’m just like this is completely fiction we don’t have to do monarchy and we certainly don’t have to do literal patriarchy.
No one really seemed to want to engage with that part of the story.
I miss my old group. They helped stop a counter revolution from restoring a despotic king to power. And had a shitty mayor get removed from office via a recall election.
We write what we know
My newest character is a burnt out office worker, with a dad that doesn’t believe in him, and, I realized after writing him, also super queer coded. I’m sure it’s nothing though
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I love me some satire, so most of my games are critical of society in some way. You’d be amazed how much mileage you can get out of putting your party through a mundane experience.
Our fantasies are influenced by our reality. If you hold up a mirror to society and see something you don’t like, that’s not the mirror’s fault.
I need some examples
Are they things like the party gets a ticket for unlicensed use of a wagon, then have to spend 3 sessions navigating the bureaucracy of the Department of Horse Driven Vehicles?
You can absolutely do stuff like that. Maybe your party were awarded noble titles by the king for service to the crown. Then one day, when they’re hanging out at their new keep, a messenger comes by with a court summons because they haven’t been paying their taxes. Now they have to investigate the tax law, figure out what they owe, why they didn’t know about it, and what they have to do now. And now you can go into a Robin Hood arc, where the players discover that this kingdom’s tax system is super messed up, and preys on the poor and uneducated, and you have the added complexity of, your players are lords now, will they want to rock the boat in this kingdom that likes them? They’re adventurers, so they can probably afford to just pay the ridiculous taxes, but that would mean leaving every other victim to their fate
If you do that, please make your players pay if they want to use spreadsheet software, which outsources the calculations to a band of mathematically inclined gnomes
The Modron Mafia lobby to keep the tax system confusing
Yeah, you get it.
For session one with a group that hadn’t played together before, the party was getting together at a sort of Adventurers for Hire placement agency. They all had to take a number and then they would have an interview with HR. Basically, a one-on-one introduction with each player, asking a bit about their background, special skills, etc. It was a good ice breaker, and a familiar enough situation that really got the roleplaying going.
The wizard showed up far too early and got ticket 1, The rogue showed up around the expected time and got ticket 3, and the barbarian was very late and got ticket 43. After the wizard has their interview, they call for number 2, who is a rando halfling NPC. The rogue decides to lie his way through to cut in line and says he has ticket number 2.
The halfling was miffed, but like, whatever, halflings are used to being looked down on (pun intended) and figures he’ll just explain and take the next interview. Well, the barbarian saw this exchange, and bullies the halfling into giving up their ticket. The barbarian takes the next interview, and by then all the vacancies were filled and the halfling was left out in the cold.
That halfling became a recurring character, someone who the party kept accidentally stepping on. Like, one time the party was at a fancy restaurant, and someone was given the wrong food, so they made a mild complaint. Well, the halfling made the food and was on his last warning, so the owner fires him on the spot. Poor guy, the party never did take the trouble to learn his name.
There’s a quest like that in the recent Rogue Trader crpg, in which you help a party member obtain a permit from the Administratum.
If you’re talking about anything that matters, even if it seems like it’s just personal experiences like love or exploring the world, it’s political to somebody.
