I often plan campaigns pretty thoroughly, but I’m in the middle of planning another quick-draw game. I’m really enjoying the idea of an evening’s game being something casual to prepare–even when it’s a whole new system, or a whole new world. My game is neither, though it’s not out of a source book either. There are several interesting elements that you might appreciate–that might be handy to steal for your own game.
Setting: Dystopian 80s
I’m cribbing my setting from some books by Crawford Kilian that stuck with me. One of the interesting elements, particularly for me, was how foreign America felt by the end of the 20th century in his world. When I was older and looked back, I realized that a lot of it came about because he was projecting forward from the 1970s–which I was too young to experience as an adult. So the images of gas lines and rationing, and stories of stagflation that feel like mere words to me were the basis of his extrapolation. Once I got my head around that (which, if you can enjoy steampunk’s extrapolations of tech and Victorian mores isn’t that hard to do), I appreciated the setting more. Seeing how the 80s turned out does make the book seem dated… so I decided to pile misfortune on the 80s until it “bent” into a similar shape.
- December 27, 1979: Tajbeg Presidential Palace in Afganistan overthrown; Soviets commit 100,000 troops to securing Kabul and Afghan cities.
- March, 1980: Anderson ekes out narrow victories in Massachusetts and Vermont, setting the stage for his 3rd party success.
- September 1980: Regan’s covert dealings with Iran revealed by FBI whistle blower; Carter’s mishandling of the affair damages perceptions of his competence.
- September 1980: Iraq invades Iran; with widespread and increasing chemical weapon use as the invasion bogs down.
- January 1981: John B. Anderson sworn in as the 40th president. Initiates Soviet grain embargo, proposes 50 cent fuel tax, but congress balks. Gridlock sets in.
- March 1981: The first “flik-readers” are introduced in Japan. Some people are able to “flik” dozens of pages per minute with perfect recall. Later improvements increase the “learning rate” and shrink the equipment.
- August 1981: Organização dos Estados Americanos (OAS) agrees to relocate its headquarters to Caracas, Venezuela after extensive bugging and wiretapping of diplomats comes to light. Thirty two states sign a compact promising tighter cooperation throughout Latin America and establish a multinational peacekeeping force independent of the US.
- June 1982: King Fahd succeeds King Khalid to Saudi throne.
- December 1982: Mujahideen liberate Charikar; Chechen rebels seize a school in Beslan. 334 hostages are killed, including 180 children.
- January 1983: Soviets decapitate Saudi Arabia in lightning strike, including tactical nuclear strikes and EMP disruption that keeps their F15s grounded. Spetsnaz capture Riyadh, execute two hundred members of Saudi Royal Family in four days. Brezhnev vows to annihilate anti-Soviet terrorists.
- February 1983: Al Ghawar oil fields continue to burn out of control. Fire fighters sickening from smoke and radioactive fallout exposure.
- March 1983: Famine strikes Ethiopia; energy crisis inhibits fertilizer production, threatening famine throughout Africa, and South Asia.
- March 1983: Soviet forces withdraw from Saudi Arabia under fierce international pressure, leaving behind devastation.
- June 1983: Petrol hits £4/liter in London; black market Petrol circulates at up to 180 rems.
- August 1983: Saudi civil war intensifies; the Eastern Province secedes, open warfare in the streets of the triplet cities.
- September 1983: Riots engulf Atlanta; national guard called out throughout the deep south. The riots were initially sparked by reports that gasoline in black neighborhood stations averaged triple the radioactive load of gas stations in white neighborhoods.
Acknowledging my Prejudices
I like changing the President for alternate histories; it helps clearly break assumptions and expected reactions. If I’d kept Carter or Reagan, there would be a greater track record to align the American actions and reactions. When a new President does something stupid, it’s because he did something stupid (often for plot reasons). I don’t have to defend my actions, or feel that I’m misrepresenting Carter or Reagan, because I don’t understand how they’d really act…
My inspiration’s dystopian future was marked by energy shortages, population pressures, isolation and high handedness of “the elite”. Many natural forces were pushing in that direction in the 1970s; I tweaked history in my timeline above to provide additional actions amplifying the fall into dystopia. Some events were borrowed from the future; for example, the Beslan massacre is from 2004. I took the opportunity to tie it to the Afghan war; adding Saudi funding gave me a “logical” reason to devastate the world’s fuel supplies.
Custom Skill List
An excellent sidebar on page 96 of the Fate Core book encouraged me to reinforce the setting with a custom skill list. I’m interested in seeing how the updated list works in play and sets expectations. I do think that the new skill names alone will reinforce the feeling of the setting–what do you think?
Academ* (Lore): Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Political Science, Anthropology, English Literature, Surgeon, Engineer, Law [*: Requires a specialty]
Access (“Company” Resources): Cool gear, clearance, office politics, managerial rapport, paperwork
Athletics (Athletics): Run, dodge, spin, leap, climb.
Close Combat (Fight): Sword or knife use, throwing a punch, aikido flipping a mugger, snap kicks
Cram (-): Flik reading, deep skill imprinting, your brain as “RAM”
Deceive (Deceive): Lying, misdirecting people, maintain a disguise
Drive/Pilot (Drive): Weaving through traffic, flying a helicopter, leaping off ramps, landing a 747
Empathy (Empathy): Notice mood changes, spot deception, read emotional states, treat mental stress
Espionage (Investigate): Search a room or book, analyze a crime scene, examine records, eavesdrop
Mechanics (Crafts): Working with machinery, electronics, circuit design, VCR or rice rocket repair
Network (Contacts): Who you know, who they know, check up on people socially, rumor control
Physique (Physique): Strength, endurance, busting down doors, tipping a police car
Resources (Resources): Cash, investments, stock market portfolio, real estate
Sense (Notice): Spotting concealed weapons, danger sense, keen hearing
Shoot (Shoot): Gun handling, sniper shots, quick draw, clear jams
Social Engineer (Provoke+Rapport): Manipulate, enrage, charm, convince, threaten, inspire– alter other people’s moods
Stealth (Stealth): Leave no trace, move unseen and unheard
Tradecraft (Burglary): Pick locks, break encryption, hack security systems, spoof cameras
Will (Will): Solve puzzles, decipher code, resist interrogation, playing chess
While The Cat’s Away
While many gamers are off enjoying Gen Con, I’m looking forward to a fun weekend of gaming at home. What are your weekend plans?
I’m just starting out on the game design stuff myself – and here’s the obligatory plug for anyone interested in steampunk robots: https://riseoftheautomata.wordpress.com/ – and since it is an alternate time line too, I was wondering which order you worked things out? Did you have an idea about the world you wanted, then created a time line to make it real, or did you pick an event you wanted to change and then just extrapolated forward?
I was fitting events in to create the end world state I’d already determined. (In this specific case, I picked events to get to the source novel’s backdrop of energy shortages, population pressures, isolation and elite high handedness.)
So I picked real world events pointing in that direction that I wanted to emphasize (such as the Iran/Iraq war and its effect on world fuel supplies), then amplified them with new events (the Soviet strike on Saudi Arabia, kicking off the Saudi civil war).
I love the 80’s as a “modern” setting. You’ve got lots of technology for adventures, without the 2010 stuff that ruins them.
Computers: Every business has a computer, but it’s just used to store information. If you break into the office you can try to locate a file and download onto a floppy disk, which gives a greater sense of urgency than just sticking in a 256GB USB drive and copying the entire file system to play with later at your leisure.
Information: Lots of information sources are available, but take some effort. Computers store lots of specialized information, if you can gain access. Libraries have (literally) tons of books, but it’s going to take hours or even days of research to find something specific. You can have encyclopedias at home, but the information in them will be limited. Having all of these sources to look through is so much better for an adventure than just spending a few minutes on Google or Wikipedia. Sure you can make some information hidden in more modern campaigns, but it gets to be a bit contrived after a while.
Communication: this is a big one! Phones are available, but are tied to specific locations. If you need to contact a friend while out in the city, you have to locate a payphone (that works!). Especially good when you are trying to avoid pursuers, since you will be exposed in a public place. And there’s always a chance the person you’re trying to contact will be out of the house, or the line will be busy. Plus, you get to have fun with answering machines. All of these are much better than always having instant access to anyone via cell phone, and even being able to text to send complex messages silently. Some methods of remote communication are available, but are limited – Cellphones are in limited use, bulky, and probably tied to a car or something. Pagers can allow communication, but it is very limited and you have no way of knowing whether a message was received. All of this is good stuff for when a party gets separated – especially if they weren’t planning on it beforehand!
Evidence: all kinds of photo/video equipment is available – but you have to find and use them discreetly, you can’t just use your cellphone and email video to anyone you want. Plus you get to play with stealing photos, finding negatives, burning incriminating videos, stealing floppy disks – much different than when there are dozens of copies of everything, and even if you trash every computer in the room you have no idea whether someone is carrying around a USB drive on their keychain – or for that matter, maybe the files are on Carbonite or something.
There are so many other advantages that it is hard to list them all, but these are the big ones I can think of at the moment. It’s great to have a world where players know what’s what so that they can think of things on their own instead of the GM having to describe every last detail. But taking away iPhones and the internet are huge game changers – and I think very good ones game-wise.
Excellent points and a good reminder. Yeah, the no supercomputer/phone in your pocket does open up more challenges for PCs.
There should be a hacker with a Commodore 64, pirating video games but including subliminal commands. 🙂
And giant car phones with massive antennas on the roof as a sign of power.
Punk Rocker Patti Smith could take over a NYC radio station and call for an uprising. That did happen in our world, but in your world the punks might have acted. Or other forces might have acted using Patti as cover.
Boy this *is* easy. Good choice.
Sounds like a great campaign!
Thanks! I know those car phone antennas will be making an appearance. I’d never heard the Patti Smith thing before– the world is deeper and weirder than I knew!
It sounds a lot better than what I’ve been working on all week. If I wouldn’t have a near mutiny on my hands, I’d just have you run this for our group instead! 😀
Thanks! Your email last night suggested that you’ve picked a different path, but I could run the same scenario for our group, if you think everyone would enjoy it.
It didn’t run according to plan: a fun evening, but a mess in play. http://scottrpg.com/scottscorner/?p=2150
Do you think the problem may have been over preparing the background for a one-shot game?
For a one-shot, it seems like it would be easier to play to eighties tropes when creating the characters and initial expectations. Create a “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” vibe going in and then gradually introduce the jarring differences with our real world, casually: “President Anderson really needs to do something about this oil shortage!”
It seems like if you want to create a dystopian game, you have to create a dystopian vibe. Fully explaining the setting and history allows the players to adapt.
On the other hand, tossing them right into conflict in a world setting that they think they understand and then gradually come to realize is very different might have better results.
PS for Nojo: as a hacker-adjacent nerd of the 80’s, I can say that the hackers were using TRS 80’s and Apple II+’s (especially ones fitted with the Apple-Cat modem and LOD’s amazing Phantom Access programs). The Commodore 64 was a bit later and less “sophisticated”.
Do you think the problem may have been over preparing the background for a one-shot game?
Yes, absolutely. I suspect the biggest problem was the lack of sufficient background development because I spent too much time on world building. World building can be very distracting fun.
If I’d been less in love with the setting in my head, your creeping differences would have been a great way to deploy the setting and engage them from the start.
With the benefit of hindsight, I’d either cut the prepared differences out almost altogether, or introduce them one by one explicitly, making them real in the story by showing them on screen. Or I’d leap forward to an action packed scene, and as they recover from the crazy, introduce the differences via answers to their prompts. “What do you mean I only have enough gas to get to the station, not the hospital? Why does it matter that today is a Tuesday for buying gas? My character has $50 bucks!”