Literati - A game of big guns and rogue literary characters.

[Matt Machell]

How to explain this one? It's like blade runner, only the PCs get to hunt down rogue literary characters, brought into the real world by misuse of A Quantum Fiction Generator.

It's a near future setting, the Fictional War is over and the remnants of the rogue literary characters are being mopped up. The obvious ones got dealt with early on, it's the sneaky ones who can almost pass for human that are the problem. Why are they a problem? Well they don't belong in this reality for a start, and they're driven by narative not morality, which is a dangerous thing in the governments eyes. Or does the government just need a convenient scape goat? Are the Equal Rights for Fictionals campaigners correct?

PCs are members of the elite Fictional Agency, they're job is to hunt down Fictionals, who could be anybody, even their fellow officers. Paranoia, literary characters in strange surroundings, big guns, dubious employers, questionable morality, all given a darkly humourous spin (or that' the aim anyway).

Stats wise I'm going for: Literacy, Firepower and Wits, each with specialities and a narative drive if you're a fictional. Stats range 1-5, specialities give you +1 for that field. Rolls are pools of D10s, highest roll is your result. Set difficulties. You get extra dice for dice for doing "cool and amusing" things, given to you by other players.

Literacy is going to be a dual purpose stat, you have to make literacy rolls to recognise Fictionals, if you're a fictional you must fail literacy rolls to avoid acting in a way dictated by your narative drive.

Fictionals also get a bonus speciality appropriate the novel they're from, and they can only die once they have had a death scene.

I'll post more when I've nailed down the ideas a bit. Question is, would you guys want to play this game?


Matt

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Stats wise I'm going for: Literacy, Firepower and Wits, each with specialities and a narative drive if you're a fictional. Stats range 1-5, specialities give you +1 for that field. Rolls are pools of D10s, highest roll is your result. Set difficulties. You get extra dice for dice for doing "cool and amusing" things, given to you by other players.

Literacy is going to be a dual purpose stat, you have to make literacy rolls to recognise Fictionals, if you're a fictional you must fail literacy rolls to avoid acting in a way dictated by your narative drive.

Fictionals also get a bonus speciality appropriate the novel they're from, and they can only die once they have had a death scene.

I'll post more when I've nailed down the ideas a bit. Question is, would you guys want to play this game?

The failing a roll part doesn't make sense to me. Why not just make it so that passing a Literacy check enables you to spot a Fictional BECAUSE it's acting according to its narrative drive? And if the character is a Fictional and is spotted, it's not necessarily because the spotter is a hawkeye detective type, the player could just retro his character and say "Argh, I knew I shouldn't have introduced myself to that chick with 'Call me Ishmael!'" Or you could just have the person who made the roll just get a hunch that the dude in the hat is a Fictional...

(oh, and you should definitely classify characters as Fiction/Non-Fiction)

Sure, I'd play it. Sounds incredibly fun...kinda like those Warner Bros. cartoons where the characters chase one another through various storybooks.

[Ron Edwards]

I would totally play this game.

Best,
Ron

[Clinton R. Nixon]

I not only would play this, but I would give Heathcliff the shaft, and make it with Catherine, that sex-pot.

(And yes, you can now ridicule me for admitting that I absolutely adore anything written by the Bronte sisters.)

[Manu]

Great concept !! Will it be a universal scope thing, where you can also track down fictional vehicles, for instance? or burn down fictional places?

Anyway, I shall play it upon release !! :)

Manu

[Jared A. Sorensen]

I think a fic-vehicle would only be a hazard if a fic was driving it, no?

Hmmm...this reminds me of the Roger Rabbit game I wanted to do. Except this is almost cooler.

What I would do is put the emphasis on non-famous or even made-up (!) fic's (look, I'm spewing jargon!). So it becomes less of "haha...let's hunt Tom Sawyer this session!" and more serious. The whole question of what is real/not real? And the accountibility (in this world) that writers must feel for giving life to something which by all accounts shouldn't be allowed to live. Shades of Frankenstein, et al.

Damn. Gotta love that.

Who's idea was this again? Quick, someone attribute it to me so I can start working on it. ;) Matt, man. Kidding...but I'd love to work on this idea with you.

[joe_llama]

Go for it!

Really, it's a great idea. I see it a bit darker than Roger Rabbit. Well, not really 'dark' but not 'wacky-cartoonish' style. More like Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo but not that neurotic.

Am I getting this right or did I miss completely?

Keep up the good work :)

With respect,

Joe Llama

[GMSkarka]

Read the following book:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670030643/qid=1013889871/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_67_1/102-6919739-4806517

It's called The Eyre Affair.  It just was published, but I had the chance to read a proof copy of it a couple of months ago.  

It's not as dark or Blade Runner-ish as you've proposed, but the fictional element is there.

Gareth-Michael Skarka
Adamant Entertainment

[Joe Murphy (Broin)]

Oh, bravo. =)

There's an amusing novel called http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/newmanbyrne/thigsample.html">ThigMOO which was the first piece of fiction that sprang to mind. In the future, some academics get together to make a virtual historical theme park. What better way for students to understand 1890s London than conversation with a facsimile of a streetwalker? Everything goes wrong, naturally, and the entities get out.

Their emerging political systems (inspired by a 1970s British socialist character) and religious beliefs are superbly funny.

Hmm... are Fictionals available as PCs?

Joe.

[Matt Machell]

GMS - I've read The Eyre Affair, definitely an influence, but as you say not quite as dark as I'm thinking of.

Jared - Yeah, the accountability issue is one that can definitely be focused on (I was going to have Sci-Fi writers as especially hated due to coming up with Fics who normal weapons couldn't harm). Use of fictional technology was going to be another thing that the agency investigated. Rather than fic of the week, I was going to use that more as a framework. I was hoping to go for some sort of relationship map thing, links to people the characters cared about who could turn out to be fictionals. Make 'em question what is real and what isn't.

Joe - Yeah, fictionals can be PCs, or anybody, the flower seller on the corner, your bank manager, the president........... They may not even know.


Matt

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Some stuff I wrote up...

Literati: anti-Fictional task force composed of specially-trained law enforcement officers. The standard-issue weapon for all Literati is the "Deprotagonizer" (aka the Depo), a high-powered pistol that can scramble a Fic's development, transforming it from a three-dimensional character to a two-dimensional caricature (Fictionals who have been injured in this way are said to have been "tooned"). Toons are very easy to spot and suffer from a condition where they gradually lose coherence before fading away altogether. One shot, even a glancing blow from a Depro gun is enough to destroy a tooned Fic. Deprotagonizers can seriously harm human beings but fatalities are rare.

The Literati are also given a badge that serves as both a 2-way communicator and a location plotter that constantly transmits the officer's location and vital signs (jokingly referred to a the "plot device"). The Plot Device also allows the Literati to cross-check Fictional activity with entries in the Card Catalog, a massive database of fictional characters, as well as escaped Fictionals, Slammers, Scrawlers and other associated individuals.

Fictionals: aka Fics. Characters from print media who have become self-aware and (through unknown means) have managed to escape the printed page and enter reality. Human beings are called "Non-Fictionals" or "NF's" for short. Un-registered Fictionals may be shot/captured on first contact. Registered Fictionals (of which there are only a few dozen) are allowed to live, so long as they obey strict regulations concerning their activities.

There are two major factions with the Fictionals: Protagonists and Antagonists. Both desire freedom and equal rights. The difference is that the former group is peaceful and open while the latter are terrorists and criminals.

Writers: exceptionally dangerous men and women who create Fictionals through illegal writing. Possession of a typewriter is a criminal offense. Writers who use typewriters are called Slammers (another word for a typewriting machine). Writers who use pens or pencils are called Scrawlers. There are Writers who purposely create hyper-violent Fictionals in order to wreak havoc on the system.

Print Media: only print media (handwritten or typewritten manuscripts) seem to generate Fictionals with any regularity. Thankfully, even this method only produces the occassional Fic. In the past, Fics sprang from the pages of well-known, well-read books and they were relatively easy to spot and capture. Now that writing has gone underground, Fics are rarer but much less identifiable.

[Jason L Blair]

My ass was kicked so hard by this idea, all I see are cheeks.

Please, someone tell me this will be at the Sprawl (my nifty-name for the indie-smackdown that shall be delivered to the goers of GenCon!).

Please? PLEASE?!

[Matt Machell]

Literati: anti-Fictional task force composed of specially-trained law enforcement officers. The standard-issue weapon for all Literati is the "Deprotagonizer" (aka the Depo), a high-powered pistol that can scramble a Fic's development, transforming it from a three-dimensional character to a two-dimensional caricature (Fictionals who have been injured in this way are said to have been "tooned"). Toons are very easy to spot and suffer from a condition where they gradually lose coherence before fading away altogether. One shot, even a glancing blow from a Depro gun is enough to destroy a tooned Fic. Deprotagonizers can seriously harm human beings but fatalities are rare

Nice Ideas Jared. The 2d/3d thing is lovely, though possibly a little more toon than I was originally thinking. Though the fade away thing fits in nicely with an idea I had about Fics bleeding prose, or dissembling into component letters.

Licenced fics were actually something I'd already considered, after all if you had a fictional detective, who better to hunt his own kind?

Other things I've been thinking of, in no particular order:

A series of posters, used as illustations, with slogans like "Remember, anybody could be a fictional!"  and "Wanted fo crimes against humanity: Martin Chuzzlewit. Reward $100,000"

Fictional weapons/vehicles have narative drive too, which normal people get affected by, so a Non-Fic could find a fictional gun, pick it up and find themself compelled to carry out it's narative purpose, say kill people in positions of authority. Makes things more varied for the PCs.

Some sort of McCarthy like House Commitee for Fictional activities.


More soon.


Matt

[GB Steve]

Stats wise I'm going for: Literacy, Firepower and Wits, each with specialities and a narative drive if you're a fictional. Stats range 1-5, specialities give you +1 for that field. Rolls are pools of D10s, highest roll is your result. Set difficulties. You get extra dice for dice for doing "cool and amusing" things, given to you by other players.

Literacy is going to be a dual purpose stat, you have to make literacy rolls to recognise Fictionals, if you're a fictional you must fail literacy rolls to avoid acting in a way dictated by your narative drive.

Fictionals also get a bonus speciality appropriate the novel they're from, and they can only die once they have had a death scene.

I'd play this game.

I'd guess one way of playing would be to have something along the lines of fictionals being able to influence their surroundings and characters, not necessarily consciously either.

Say you are on the trail of The Scalet Pimpernel, you realise you are getting close as you notice a marked increase in the number of people wearing 18th Century garb and sporting beauty spots, the streets are cobbled and a whiff of garlic hangs in the air. Then you start to develop a French accent, noticeable only to others - you're becoming a revolutionary!

To stop the fictional you need to be able to shake of this other reality they've brought with them so that you don't get stuck in the French Revolutionary Archetype.

Alternatively only the people around the fictional change tending towards other characters in the story.

As such Fictional/Real could be a sliding scale depending on whether you can influence your surroundings and how much freedom you have to act outside of the fictional envelope.

One model of consciousness has it that the "I" is the dominant thread in an internal narrative meaning that we are all fictional anyway. The more fictional a character the less control they have over the "I".

Cheers,
GB Steve

[Zak Arntson]

Just have to jump on the bandwagon and applaud this idea. I would so play this. I'd be more prone to playing a fictional, and revelling in fighting between actions caused by self vs. narrative.

Have you read Alan Moore's comic: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? It takes place in a Victorian England where ALL literary characters of the time are real. More good inspiration for something like this.