[Misspent Youth] The Algorithm of Egalitarianism

[Robert Bohl]

This is a much-delayed AP from the June 1 JiffyCon run by Emily Care Boss in western MA. I got to run a playtest of Misspent Youth, my science fiction/youthful rebellion game. Playing the Youthful Offenders were Emily, John Stavropoulos (aka jenskot), and Epidiah Ravachol (aka Eppy, the writer of Dread. It was a hell of a lot of fun, for me and for them (if you can trust what they said)--they were all very kind and complimentary and had lots of good suggestions. I've said it before but I think the game is nearly done. I've started writing text for it.

First I'll talk about the world. The Authority was called The Protectorate:

Vice: Utopianism
Visage: Machine
Victim: History

Description: The security system gone mad in a desert planned community. The community was built as a model for a Utopian society which would then be franchised to others. It was very controlled and outside influences were highly regulated.

Conventions: People are Lojaked, cars drive themselves, there is planned diversity based on an Algorithm that determines what the precise proportions of the different genders and ethnicities should be. Genetic modification is a youth-culture trend with people showing off what they can do to one another. In the world there is a lot of genetic manipulation going on, especially by rich people to make their kids better, but sometimes the Algorithm determines that poor people are to be elevated.

This game is rated R for pretty much every reason you can imagine.

The kicker of the episode, authored by Emily, involved spying on the police captain (who Eppy named Captain Bohl, thankyouverymuch) on a date, and the decision to get his ID chip and use it to cause havoc.

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Characters:

Emily's character was Brendan, a 15 year old Abused, Cool underground body modification rave party organizer driven by Outrage. His Signature Item was his portable sound mixer and this was his Spotlight episode. His rich parents constantly experimented on him throughout his childhood to make him better and better, and he came to resent the constant modifications. His Relationship Trait for Rosa was "Is hardcore and out of control." I do not recall the Free version of his relationship trait for Roman, but by the end of the game it was Sold and was something like "Double Agent for the Man." His Friendship Question was to Rosa, and reads: "Why did she (gene) hack me when I asked her not to?" The answer: "Brendan had to give something back to Rosa, since he's taken so much from her."

Rosa (Elizabeth) played by John, a 17-year-old girl who was Fostered, seeks Thrills, and is Cool. Her Schtick is that she's a Genetic graffiti artist, and her Signature Item is her thieves' kit. She's a white girl who used to have a family, but for reasons unknown to her, The Protectorate erased her family when she was a child and assigned her the new identity of Rosa, and gave her to Roman's family to live with. She was given a history of poverty and struggle to go with her new life, but she never forgot who she had been. Her Relationship Trait for Brendan was: "Is better than me," and to Roman was, "Gets everything he doesn't deserve." Her Friendship Question for Roman was: "Why did you cover up for me?" and he said, "To take the credit." As played, Rosa was extremely vicious and mean-spirited at first, but it was all motivated out of her extreme self-doubt.

Eppy played Roman, a 16 year old Spoiled Bad kid motivated by Altruism. His schtick was Reluctant Leader and his Signature Item was, "I have a motorcycle!" His Relationship Trait for Brandon was "Subtle and quick to anger," and for Rosa, "Thinks my stuff is hers." His Friendship Question for Brendan was, "How did you deal with your family saying you should be more like me?" Brendan replied, "I hate you with a cold, steely hate for your determined future." Roman was a poor Latino kid who was chosen by The Protectorate to be elevated to a future of wealth and privilege. This sort of information isn't supposed to get out ahead but it did in this case, and all his life everyone in his family and his neighborhood has sacrificed everything for Roman, something he feels very guilty and responsible for and acts out as a bad kid as a result.

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Operation

As I said the Operation revolved around getting Captain Bohl's ID chip and doing crazy things with it. They were spying on the chief on a date and got caught by his security detail. The Captain decided to let the other kids go, but that his constant chiding of Roman wasn't having the necessary effect, so he was going to take the boy over to his place and show him a normal, civilized night and what behaving can get you in the world (shades of Bunny from Oz).

Eventually everyone was either hidden at or the guest of the Captain. Rosa created a retrovirus that would cause the Captain to reject his RFID chip and Cool was spent to determine that the result of rejecting one's chip was immediate incapacitating vomiting fits. Eppy spent Cool to say that the chip had to be in organic material for it to keep alive. Once they had the chip, the kids made their way to the Reclamation Plant where the town's food and water is processed and discovered that some of the meat was coming from the bodies of the dead and disappeared of the town. In fact the piece of veal they had in their possession was actually meat from Rosa's parents.

At any rate the kids succeeded in getting the retrovirus that rejects the chips into the water supply and causing the chips to be rejected all over town (and also a hell of a lot of vomiting). The stakes on that were pretty cool, because I decided that if I won, the retrovirus had been modified by The Protectorate to damage people's abilities to store long-term memory.

Definitely the coolest stuff of the game, though, was playing the distrust among the YOs. The rules don't allow Youthful Offenders to be in conflict with each other mechanically, so if they are fighting then the Authority calls a conflict and creates their distrust as one of its characters. The players are then fighting against the distrust mechanically, with the player of the side causing conflict in the first place laying traits down to fight his or her own distrust. It was a hell of a lot of fun.