bizarre tabletop rpg nattering
I guess I must be feeling better, since my brain has resumed converting angst to inspiration. :)
In this case, it's an obscure bit of canon from the Torg RPG, which was about our Earth being invaded by raiders from other realities. Each of these other realities had ratings called "axioms" which rated its tech, magic, social, and spiritual potential on a scale from 1 to 30. (e.g., "our" Earth was something like 21/7/23/9?)
(con't)
bizarre tabletop rpg nattering
Well, there was a passing reference in one of the Torg newsletters to an area called "Zone Dubbed Dol," that had been created by a weird-science "reality bomb" from a pulp heroes reality. All four of its axioms were zero.
I couldn't find it in my archives, and they never really did anything further with it. But I've always wondered: what the hell would it be like there? No magic, no tech, no gods, no higher meaning... even basic social structures doomed to fail.
bizarre tabletop rpg nattering
ZDD wouldn't be very interesting if it just remained barren desert. And Torg's rules don't prevent things from high axioms existing-- just from working properly. If you take an assault rifle into Aysle, the medieval fantasy realm, it won't turn into a crossbow; you'll just have a shitty gun that constantly jams...
So there could even be a small city there-- of terrible, broken, alienated human shells, going through the motions.
bizarre tabletop rpg nattering
All this probably wouldn't be much fun to actually PLAY in for very long. I could see it having some appeal for a little while, though, in kind of a "Brazil" meets "Edward Gorey" meets "Lonely Death Of Got-No-Legs Boy" meets "Homestuck" kind of way.
Mostly, the metaphysics of a world where NOTHING AT ALL is suited for human comfort or empowerment intrigues me. What, especially, could "0 Social" and "0 Spirit" even MEAN in actual practice?!
bizarre tabletop rpg nattering
Yikes. According to page 141 of http://onyr.free.fr/Torg/Revised%20&%20Expanded%20with%20Errata.pdf, the effect of a Social Axiom of 0 is:
"No social interaction between beings is possible; beings that reproduce by fission or similar methods live lives of complete solitude in the presence of all other beings."
The freakin' NUCLEAR FAMILY only becomes possible at a 2. That's harsher than I remembered, and now I want to put a city there more than ever. :)