Bugged: 1984 meets The Matrix

[mathx314]

First of all, this is my first post and I just wanted to say hello to everyone here.  I've lurked for a while and finally wanted to get in on some development of my own, and pick up some feedback while doing so.

The idea for this game has been bouncing around in my head ever since I re-read 1984.  Around the same time, I watched The Matrix again, and was inspired to mix the two.  My ideas eventually revolved around the scene in The Matrix where Neo is "bugged" by Agent Smith.

So my basic premise is this: The players each play regular people leaving in a highly-regimented City controlled by a man known simply as Him.  His policies are all carried out via an enigmatic police force known as the Bugs.  The Bugs are ordinary people implanted with small devices that take over whenever they are needed to fight crime.  Pretty much no one knows that they're a Bug, because they lose all senses when they are taken over and that time is then replaced with false memories.

The characters, however, are part of a very small number of people known as AntiBugs, which are essentially Bugs that know what they are, and rebel.  This leaves the players with three primary objectives: Find and cure Bugs using various devices; Destroy the Control Consoles around the City that help control the Bugs; Don't be permanently taken over or killed.  Characters also slowly recall memories from their time under direct government control (i.e. a character realizes that he killed his own parents six years ago).

I hope that makes sense.  Any questions or comments would be much appreciated.

[Noclue]

Do people know of the existence of bugs? This has important ramifications. If they do, but can't detect them, then crime must be pretty difficult to pull off. Kind of like Alfred Bester's the Demolished Man, where the cops are mind readers and know you are planning a crime before you do. If not, then the PCs are seen as a group of psychotics running around scaring people. At best the PCs need medical attention, at worst they need to be locked up.

How do the Characters locate bugs? If they can do it, why don't others do it too? Then you would know if you are a bug.

[Narf the Mouse]

Is there, in fact, a Him?

[joepub]

mathx314,

Have you heard of my own game, Perfect? (link in sig)

It's got 1984 and The Matrix listed as inspirations. It's a game about committing crimes in order to keep what matters to you alive, and to help a scared-shitless, totalitarian society re-surface as the human thing it once was.

There's an element of brainwash and the unknown in it throuhg what's called Conditionings. Every time you're caught, the Inspectors will try to brainwash you. The thing is, brainwashing isn't an exact science in this Victoriana-dystopia, so they basically just barrage you with a whole lot of rhetoric and hope something sticks. If the character gains a Conditioning, they don't know it (the player, obviously, does). The inspectors don't exactly know it either, but they assume and hope it's there.

In that way, memory works backwards between Perfect and Bugged, but Conditionings can also be removed. For the time they are there, though, they are unbreakable - the characters don't realize that they are acting in accordance with them. Their criminal lives become restricted in totally unbeknown ways.

Anyways, I'm already thinking a lot about your game, and will have some suggestions on how to construct elements of it soon, but just wanted to tell you a bit about my own.

Cheers.

[mathx314]

@Noclue: Yes, the people know of the Bugs.  However, nobody knows who is a Bug, not even if they themselves are one.  Of course, the AntiBugs know, but even they have a very difficult time finding Bugs.

@Narf: It doesn't matter, much like 1984's Big Brother.  So long as the people believe in Him, He is alive in their hearts.

@joepub: Your game certainly looks interesting, but I'm not entirely certain that I see the connections between our two settings.  Yes, both use totalitarian governments and memory control to help maintain order.  However, mine takes a much stronger intrigue/paranoia aspect because you have no idea who your enemies are, or even if you can trust your friends in the heat of battle.

So anyways, I too have been thinking more about the game (imagine that) and I feel like it should utilize a very basic and stripped down combat system - not Polaris in terms of the freedom and abstraction of the battle system, but certainly not D&D either (I'm getting pretty disenchanted with D&D these days, which is 99% of what I play).  Something like a simple 2d6 roll-under system with a few stats and weapons that are there for flavor and not mechanics sounds best to me.

So again I ask for any feedback and input from anyone interested in doing so.  Thanks!

[Noclue]

As for system, are you thinking of making your own mechanic or using one of the free generic RPG systems that are available? I would think Fate or PDQ might be adaptable to the setting (although I haven't really toyed with them much). I would suggest thta if you are just looking for task resolution,  there would be no need to reinvent the wheel at this point. If you are trying to play with unique concepts and model them in the mechanics then you may want to craft something of your own design.

I would think about the ways that the existence of Bugs changes social behavior. It would not just be our world made dystopian. The fact that there are bugs out there and you don't know who they are is a major alteration and it needs to impact the society in deep and meaningful ways. What is marriage like in a world where your spouse may be a bug. What happens if a bug commits a crime without knowing he is a bug? How do people react to anti-bugs? How do conspiracies happen in a world where bugs are potentially everywhere? If He is going to bug me without my consent, why don't I rebel? Flood His phone lines, drive trucks full of fertilizer into his buildings, hack his computers with denial of service attacks, disable the post-office...etc.

You don't really need to know who's a bug to cause mayhem. Some people might view the loss of liberty to be more horrific than losing their lives. Some people might be willing to kill innocents to keep them from being mind controlled. What do you do with a world in which any symbol of authority is potentially a target?

Just some rambling thoughts about how bugging people might disrupt the fabric of society. I'm sure there are many more.

[joepub]

@joepub: Your game certainly looks interesting, but I'm not entirely certain that I see the connections between our two settings.  Yes, both use totalitarian governments and memory control to help maintain order.

Yes... that's the connection between the two. Totalitarian governments, memory control, neighbourly suspicion. Also the idea that the characters are rebels (and it sounds like criminals). I see quite a lot of similarity there, and it's exciting for me!

How do you envision scenes playing out? Is it a "party-based" game, or are we looking more at individual, focused scenes? Is it a task-resolution or conflict resolution game? do you imagine a lot of immersion and character dialogue, or more plot-focused, director stance stuff?

[mathx314]

@Noclue: I took a look at both PDQ and Fate.  PDQ certainly seems like an excellent engine for use, particularly because of how incredibly simple and versatile it is.  I'm not done reading Fate yet, because it's a long document.  I'll see what my impressions are when I'm done reading it.

You also raised some very interesting questions about society, many of which I confess I hadn't thought of.  It seems to me that the easiest way to cover these would be to place the setting hundreds of years after His government takes over, so that people don't realize that life could be any different.  Like in 1984, marriages and relationships are illegal unless they are done for reproduction and not love.  Conspiracies simply don't exist, because you can't tell who are and who are not Bugs.  Only the AntiBugs actually succeed at all, and that's because they're based in the basic premise that everyone there is a Bug, so they know that they can't trust anyone as much as they would like.  Single-person terrorist attacks would certainly happen, but none of them have the strength to bring down a full government, particularly if you had to bypass armies of guards to reach actually government buildings.  Lastly, Bugs that commit crimes are treated just like everyone else: they're killed.

@joepub: I'll explain how I envision scenes and mechanics and so on working in a second, but I'm curious as to how they work in your game, simply because I would imagine that some elements of it are quite similar (and others quite different).

First, I imagine that the game is primarily party-based.  This is due simply to the fact that I think it would work better (think of the first Matrix - parties of heroes fighting the Agents).  I also imagine the game having four different kinds of scenes: individual, planning, attacking, and story-related.  An individual scene covers a single person doing just one or two things.  Many of these would be embedded in other scenes, because many of them would be the memory scenes I briefly described in my original post.  For instance, the players attack the house of a man they suspect to be a mole, and during the process, one of them suffers a flashback, which they narrate for a minute or so.  Planning scenes would involve all of characters sitting around and trying to figure out the best plan of attack.  These should be kept to a minimum, because they simply wouldn't be very exciting.  Attacking scenes are when the plans are put into action.  Many of these plans would probably require clockwork precision to work, giving each party member a specific task.  For instance, the primary fighters distract the guards at a government safehouse while the rogue-type sneaks inside to kill the leader of that band of agents while the techie breaks in and tries to shut down the Central Console. 

Most of the game would be plot-related and exciting.  I don't know the difference between task resolution and conflict resolution, so I won't answer that question.  I also almost feel that the game should take on a bit of a "tragic heroes" feel, because honestly even a vast conspiracy of AntiBugs would probably not stand a chance against such a pervasive enemy.

So those are my developing thoughts.  If they don't make sense, sorry, just ask where you'd like clarification.  Thanks for the questions, hopefully you can throw more questions and ideas at me.