y'all I'm so tired of relentless negativity
like I don't actually have any kind of a smart followup to that, I'm just incredibly tired of it
@hystericempress I tried. I really tried.
@zebratron2084 You ain't the kind of person I'm complaining about, sis. <3
@hystericempress Yeah, I at least have the decency to careen wildly through cycles of pessimism and optimism on a daily basis. :D
(Granted, the chest cold AIN'T HELPIN', and I know you been there just recently... *sanitized hugs* Also, if it makes you feel any better, I've been in a RIGHT FOUL mood the last couple days... and today I finally decided, fuck it, I'm channeling as much as I can into creative stuff. How would you feel about me hitting you up for some RPG design/GMing advice...?)
@zebratron2084 Absolutely, fire away! I've got about an hour and thirty until go-time on campaign for today, so I'm in the right headspace for it.
RPG notions
@hystericempress Hi, sis! So here's the deal... I have had this really cliched furry cyberpunk campaign that's been banging around since high school, where all the PCs are captive "uplifted" wildlife and domestic animals in a secret corporate lab, and they escape and are inflicted upon a cliched Akira-esque society and blah blah blah, and it was all kinda adolescent and stupid.
Well, this year I've been on a MAJOR binge of intelligent body horror and "daylight horror" films—Cronenberg, Carpenter, Jordan Peele, Ari Aster, Panos Cosmatos... And I've been thinking of revisiting this shitty RPG world with some new ideas, basically making it more occult, more surreal, and just all around more sophisticated.
My notion of "evil corporate" scientists is evolving into something more like a corporatized "human potential" cult with some gnostic influences, and now they're not so much evil-per-se as DEMONSTRABLY BATSHIT. And the fact they're batshit hasn't stopped them from really discovering some truly scary, unethical genetic potentialities. Real hivemind/The Thing kind of shit. And now instead of just inflicting their studies on these animals, the captors are PARTICIPATING in these experiments...
RPG notions
@zebratron2084 Oh, interesting! I like the idea; 'path of enlightenment cult' is a good pitch for a more interesting 'big corporate' villain; I can definitely see this being exciting with a pyramid-scheme style structure, where the average investor doesn't know what's REALLY going on with their 'life improvement clinics'. Until, of course, they prove they're sufficiently loyal/wealthy...
re: RPG notions
@hystericempress Huh, I was originally thinking of having it be a very small cell of like 20-30 whacked-out scientists, but... actually, there's a lot to be said for giving it a big ol' real-world front, with followers who kinda-but-not-exactly know what's going on. It'll not only give the PCs some allies/enemies when they escape the lab, but it'll give me some good opportunities to do some social commentary about fanaticism... Maybe kinda play up the ironic contrast between the desperate low-level "I JUST WANNA CURE MY KID'S HARMLESS NEUROTYPICAL DISORDER, WAAAH" rank-and-file suckers, and the ABSOLUTELY BATSHIT STUFF the PCs know their donations are going to... such as, um, the utterly unholy creation of the PCs... :>
re: RPG notions
@hystericempress And I forgot to put this in DMs. Hi, everybody! :D
re: RPG notions
@zebratron2084 Yeah, I think one of the important things for offering PCs a stake in the world in games like this is having them enter an EXTANT social structure. It gives them something to grab onto and identify with that unites them, and also provides a ready-made source of internal tension between individual goals and organizational goals. Having them co-opt a well-meaning but misinformed supporter front for the Big Bad makes them feel not just important, but -clever.-
re: RPG notions
@hystericempress See, this is just the kind of stuff I was looking for. Knew I came to the right place. <3
re: RPG notions
@zebratron2084 Like, one thing I've found that helps a lot with wrangling a group of unruly dorks like PCs is to know when to steer, and know when to roll with whatever goofy idea they just came up with and act like you planned it all along. that's a lot easier if you have a group structure in-universe that the players can participate in and spin ideas off of, since the nature of what you built informs their choices; you give them a ball of yarn, and watch what they knit with it.
re: RPG notions
@hystericempress (pause to snarf down some much-needed pho bo vien...)
