I tried to have a thread about reading a book now and then and an asshole recommended Ayn Rand's steaming pile of excrement known as "Atlas shrugged", a particularly horrible novel about a bunch if rich people deciding to collapse civilization because all that democracy, freedom and government stuff cramped their style so they could become what amounted to feudal aristocrats reigning supreme over vast herds of peasants . in suppose a world like " the hunger games" would be their final goal.
The book is treated as holy scripture by psychopaths, sociopaths, the far right in America and other groups suffering a severe humanity deficiency.
Then it occurred to me that as horrible as atlas shrugged was, if you take the plot and reverse it you might get a decent RPG setting out of it. The plutocratic would be oligarchs become the villains and the players are the people opposing them and keeping them from their goal of world dominion. If you ran a campaign based on a reversed polarity version of atlas shrugged it might work.
I know of another book that is truly horrible as written but if you invert the plot could make a decent RPG setting. It's called "the turner diaries" and is about a " racial holy war" where neonazis, who refer to Hitler as "the great one" rise up and overthrow america, exterminate all nonwhites and whites who disagree with them and create a neonazi empire in america. OK, horrible as written but if you reverse the plot the players are stopping these scum from achieving their dream world.
Judge Dredd is another game featuring a horrible theme, high tech fascism, but could be interesting if you reversed things and make the players rebels fighting the judge system.
FFG already did a polarity inversion in their old WH40K line by releasing "black crusade" where the players played chaos heretics dedicated to tearing down the imperium and bring the dark gods to power over mankind.
So try to think of a plotline from anywhere, movie, TV, books, comics, that you might not run as is but if you reversed the polarity of the plotron flow could possibly make a good setting. I'm hoping for a few interesting results.
Straight D&D. Instead of playing hobbits and palidans riding into the wilderness to collect Orc ears, the players are Orcs and goblins fighting off raiding bands of Player characters.
This could be obnoxiously selfrightious and post colonial. Or it could just be fun.
Quote from: Schwartzwald;1003210Then it occurred to me that as horrible as atlas shrugged was, if you take the plot and reverse it you might get a decent RPG setting out of it. The plutocratic would be oligarchs become the villains and the players are the people opposing them and keeping them from their goal of world dominion.
Kindasorta sounds like the first Bioshock game... traipsing through the nightmarish remains of 'Gault's Gulch.'
I'm not sure I'd want to play as Chaos in 40K but a Star Wars-ish human rebellion on some backwater planet could be interesting... centered on one system rather than trying to overthrow the whole mess... but maybe starting a bigger movement.
Harry Potter - play the Muggles fighting against Wizard tyranny. Including the 'benevolent' tyranny of Harry & co.
His Dark Materials - play Magisterium soldiers in service to a benevolent but aging Demiurge, battling to save the multiverse from the forces of Lucifer and her child-sacrificing Sorcerers. Basically WH40K with more compassion and humanity.
I am closing the thread. No more politics in the main forum. Last time I am going to tell this to you guys. Schwartzwald, I am specifically telling you, do not continue raising these kinds of issues in the main forum.