Topic: [My Life With Bigotry] first look!
Started by: dysjunct
Started on: 4/7/2005
Board: Indie Game Design
On 4/7/2005 at 1:16am, dysjunct wrote:
[My Life With Bigotry] first look!
My Life With Bigotry
(inspired by the gay-marriage threads in the Birthday forum)
Introduction
Like MLWM, this game is about the tragic things people do to each other in pursuit of their own happiness and values. Unlike MLWM, My Life With Bigotry deals with the stigma of being homosexual in middle America.
The setting of MLWB is a medium-sized town of about 20- to 30,000 people in late 20th-century America. This town is located in a largely rural, conservative part of the country, but within the past two generations has grown rapidly and is experiencing a lot of change and conflict between people who resent the change and people who welcome it. The town has many things to attract people: a growing economy, low housing prices, a low crime rate, a college or university, etc. It is also getting large enough to develop a gay community. The nearest large city is at least a few hours' drive away.
Changes
The largest change to the structure of the game is the removal of the Master. Instead of a physical Master, the principal villian is prejudice itself -- a thought pattern or a meme. This meme expresses itself through the actions of certain townspeople, known to others as Reactionaries.
Fear is no longer applicable. Instead, "Bigotry" measures the prevalence of the opinions and influence of the reactionary faction in the town.
"Tolerance" replaces Reason. This measures the town's tendencies to adopt a "live and let live" approach.
Self-Loathing stays the same. It measures the extent to which the character considers himself a disgusting pervert, incapable of controlling his evil, sinful desires. The higher this is, the more the character will become bitter and act out, sabotaging possible Connections.
Weariness is unchanged. It measures the extent to which the PC is tired of being discriminated against.
"Acceptance" replaces "Love". This is mostly a semantic change, since the goal of the PC is not love per se, but rather acceptance of who he is, and possible friendliness.
"More Than Human" and "Less Than Human" are removed. Instead, PCs have two Goals. A Goal is always mundane, and should provide a reason for the PCs to go out into the community. E.g.: "Shop for a new car." "Find someone fun to date." "Have a nice dinner party every Friday night." "Graduate from junior college." If a day passes in which a PC does NOT act pursue at least one of his goals (if possible), his player is temporarily penalized by the loss of 1d4 in all rolls until the PC starts pursuing his goals again.
PCs start off with two Connections, as in MLWM.
Everything Else
The rest of MLWM should map pretty easily to MLWB.
Endgame is triggered whenever ACCEPTANCE is greater than (BIGOTRY plus WEARINESS). At this point a showdown between the PC and the Reactionaries is inevitable.
Epilogue Constraints
1. WEARINESS greater than (TOLERANCE plus SELF-LOATHING): the character gives up and moves to a major metropolitan area.
2. (SELF-LOATHING plus WEARINESS) greater than (ACCEPTANCE plus TOLERANCE): the character is murdered while putting up only token resistance.
3. SELF-LOATHING greater than (WEARINESS plus TOLERANCE): the character commits suicide.
4. (ACCEPTANCE plus TOLERANCE) greater than (SELF-LOATHING plus WEARINESS): the character integrates himself fully into the society of the city.
5. ACCEPTANCE equals zero: the character becomes a Reactionary, concealing or denying his true feelings. Additionally, if SELF-LOATHING is greater than WEARINESS: the character becomes a leader of an "ex-gay" ministry, helping others out of bondage. (No, not that kind of bondage! Stop that.)
6. (SELF-LOATHING plus WEARINESS) equals (ACCEPTANCE plus TOLERANCE): the character moves to a similar city, to start the cycle of rejection over.
On 4/10/2005 at 4:50pm, Bob the Fighter wrote:
RE: [My Life With Bigotry] first look!
wow, um, this might finally get me to learn the MLWM rules, just so i can share this little nugget with my friends at the Gay/Straight Alliance... i think.
On 4/11/2005 at 12:15am, Asrogoth wrote:
RE: [My Life With Bigotry] first look!
This could be fun.
But you shouldn't only stop with bigotry against homosexuals.
There are lots of other types of bigotry we could pursue.
Especially, racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholocism, anti-Christianism... you name it... we could package it and sell it.
Or not.
On 4/11/2005 at 2:26pm, Bill Masek wrote:
RE: [My Life With Bigotry] first look!
Asrogoth wrote: But you shouldn't only stop with bigotry against homosexuals.
There are lots of other types of bigotry we could pursue.
dysjunct,
I agree with Asrogoth. One of the reasons MLWM is so much fun is the players ability to design their own torment (as portrayed by the master). There is no reason you couldn't do the same thing with MLWB. At the beginning of the game have the players create the bigotry in the community. You could ask questions like:
1. Who do the reactionaries hate?
2. What group of people compose the reactionaries?
3. Why do the reactionaries claim to hate the people they do?
4. What are the reactionaries actually afraid of?
Like MLWM you could give a set of lists with possible answers to the above questions. This list is just a start but I think it could add a lot to the game.
So far this game looks like it could be a lot of fun.
Best,
Bill
On 4/11/2005 at 5:10pm, Frank T wrote:
RE: [My Life With Bigotry] first look!
Nice idea. Yet I wonder about the specifics. What, for example, would be the synonym of a Master's command? A villany? Violence? Being captured? Horror revealed?
- Frank
On 4/12/2005 at 4:17am, dysjunct wrote:
RE: [My Life With Bigotry] first look!
Frank T wrote: Nice idea. Yet I wonder about the specifics. What, for example, would be the synonym of a Master's command? A villany? Violence? Being captured? Horror revealed?
Yeah, there's not a lot of easy parallels there. That's why I put in the requirement for having goals that make you interact with the community. In the absence of a Master-type character, the only relationships you have are with the "townsfolk" of your city, so they need to really take center stage. I doubt this is really enough to replace the central conflict of MLWM that drives the tension so well.
I think that instead of exact parallels, it would be better to try and find events that roughly match up in a (small-n) narrative sense. Here's what comes to mind at the moment; feel free to come up with something better:
"Being Captured" is essentially a significant setback in a minion's ongoing relationship with the town as a whole -- in MLWB, this might be losing your job over being outed, waking up in the middle of the night to find a flaming cross in your lawn, having a swastika spraypainted on your car, etc. A large, overblown gesture, as opposed to a confrontation with one person or a small group.
"The Horror Revealed" is pretty straight-forward, I think. MLWM states its function pretty clearly: (p. 37) "It is as if the horrific psychological forces within the minion have overcome their containment and bled out into the environment." In MLWB, this would serve the same purpose, with the same restrictions. It would have to undergo a name change of course.
"The Master's Command" in MLWM is a tool for making the PCs do wrong things, typically -- to go against their nature or their desire for love. In MLWB this would correspond to the reactionaries trying to interfere with one of your goals through threat (or actual) ostracism or violence. I.e., to go against your nature by abandoning something important to you. Do you knuckle under to the threat (and suffer the penalty) or do you resist?
Villany and Violence, you got me there. Ideas?
On 4/13/2005 at 9:54pm, Mike Holmes wrote:
RE: [My Life With Bigotry] first look!
Villany and Violence, you got me there. Ideas?I'm thinking villainy and violence. Else you're going to have to change Self-loathing and weariness to match whatever you come up with. In any case, I think that they work.
Character A, Gay, is ordered by the reactionaries to find other gays and berate them. Villainy. Character A is ordered to find other gays and bash them. Violence.
Mike