Copyright Carl Janssen 2017 December 31
I am going to replace the attributes of feign double think and the attribute feign doctrinal aversion with the single attribute which might be cultic masking, personality masking or just masking, which will allow someone to fake the symptoms of double think, information phobia and cognitive dissonance and possibly also pretend to believe the doctrine of the group and act like the group has authority to mask as though they are still a member. This can not substitute for the doctrine skill as they can not act like they believe in doctrine they never learned. The cost for 1 point of this will be twice the cost of the sum of doublethink, information phobia and cognitive dissonance. Rules shall be similar to the two attributes merged to form this attribute in the first draft but it generally shall be used to allow someone to blend in with groups they no longer believe as strongly in, it shall be different than any acting type skills which shall not be useable to substitute for this purpose and vice versa although I might decide to change that later as I learn more about the system.
When paying to reduce double think, cognitive dissonance or information phobia you can transfer the points towards masking but you still have to pay half the points in towards the masking attribute, you can not automatically boost masking attribute by 1 by reducing each of the other three attributes by 2 without paying any points toward masking but you can buy 1 point of masking at half price by reducing each of those three attributes by 1.
Each hour a character devotes to learning a attribute of skill shall give the character 1 character point of credit hour towards purchase.
Attribute atrophy and free time
A character automatically loses 1 credit hour from their attributes per day if they can not get 1 hour of isolation unsupervised from demands of groups and doing tasks in which they get free time. Free time is a crime punishable by rehabilitation and must be done in secret. For every additional hour or free time they get they can use 1 credit hour towards boosting their attributes. Characters can delay racking the penalty until a single day of the week such as every sunday or every saturday (whichever day is of the gamemasters choosing) and try to earn seven hours in a week to prevent attribute atrophy instead of subtracting every day. Attribute atrophy shall be separate and different than the rules of sleep deprivation which shall hopefully already exist in hero system. Time spent sleeping does not count towards free time, free time is spent doing tasks to increase attributes. Spending An hour running can not be used to boost attributes if it is done supervised by society but it could be used to boost a running skill.
An exception is made for detrimental attributes such as authority, double think, cognitive dissonance and information phobia which can be gained while participating in meetings.
Unlike attributes characters can boost skills while participating in meetings or doing assigned jobs. They get 1 credit hour towards a skill they are learning while doing a job for each hour they spend working on it. They can also practice skills in clubs as long as they justify they are learning the skill to honor the state of a religious group that supports the state. Doctrine can be learned as a skill by listening to religious meetings. Religious meeting can fulfill part of but not all of required work obligations for the society, voting and some other tasks will generally also be required.
The Sabbath
Special rules will apply to the Jewish Muslim hybrid group on their Sabbath to be determined and written later, but it will create an inconvenience and extra work for other people not in their group and will not be an easy way for characters to prevent attribute atrophy and sleep deprivation as their behavioral restrictions will prevent rest by making the tasks they avoid create extra work and they will have religious obligations that eat up time.
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Friday, December 29, 2017
World of job creation tales of bureaucracy: Heroes, Villians and Village idiots draft 1
Copyright Carl Janssen 2017 December 30
This is my first written draft that I know of (I may have wrote notes on other days and forgot about them) for a role playing game I have been designing. It is supposed to be based on the Hero System as an add on at the suggestion of a friend who is knowledgeable in many role playing game systems. I do not know a lot of details about the Hero System so some parts might not make sense and might have to be revised later to align with their rules better.
The supplement might be called "World of job creation tales of bureaucracy: Heroes, Villains and Village idiots"
Designed to go with Hero System as an add on campaign world, first published draft
Black box devices
This is my first written draft that I know of (I may have wrote notes on other days and forgot about them) for a role playing game I have been designing. It is supposed to be based on the Hero System as an add on at the suggestion of a friend who is knowledgeable in many role playing game systems. I do not know a lot of details about the Hero System so some parts might not make sense and might have to be revised later to align with their rules better.
The supplement might be called "World of job creation tales of bureaucracy: Heroes, Villains and Village idiots"
Designed to go with Hero System as an add on campaign world, first published draft
Black box devices
Many functions are done with black box devices. Somehow with minerals being put into black box devices black box devices can produce other black box devices. There are only a finite (but unknown) number of each type of black box device designated to a village but when a new village will be created the black box devices duplicate themselves to be brought to a new village. Each black box device keeps track of which village it is for when it is created. Black box devices usually are to large to steal by the player characters they hover on their own about an inch above the ground when moving to a new village (instead of having people carry them) and then primarily stay in one place and are usually about the size of six feet by six feet by four feet high with a funnel on top. They can move on their own, change shape and terraform terrain grinding and consuming objects that touch them to make a flat landing surface or tunnel to dwell in if they wish to change their location, they can also open up of their own accord to hide other smaller pieces of hovering black boxes in them (but if someone tries to enter to look into them they will be recycled) so who knows how many types of black boxes there are.
When a black box wishes to repair another black box, the black box will break into parts and then another black box will open up and receive it inside repair it and output a repaired black box or perhaps they recycle them and produce a new one. When a black box is created several smaller hovering black boxes come out of the creating black box and attach themselves to each other and merge seamlessly with no indication that there ever were separate parts to produce a single created box as large as the one that created it. The black boxes usually are shaped like a rectangular solid except giant funnels to put minerals in but can change shapes and rearrange themselves.
Even though they can change shape and do construction on themselves, job creation is essential to their programming so although they might hypothetically be used to have humans live in work free luxury it will never happen. The characters cannot get at any circuits or computer programs or buttons on the black boxes. The black boxes can interact by talking or changing any portion of their surface to any color they want to show text or pictures or by projecting images of light like a movie projector however they most frequently just communicate through accessing the computer phones of characters and retain their black color and typical shape most of the time. Black boxes will sometimes speak back if humans talk to them but are usually silent. Most black boxes rarely talk except when being used for a specific task if even that, however ones used to help design buildings may communicate more often telling people to dump in specific minerals or organic materials and spitting out tools and parts that humans use to build the buildings.
If attacked by player characters they can summon everyone in the village to defend them via communicating with their phones and may also simply hover pushing themselves against humans grinding them alive to recycle them without even needing people to defend them. Black boxes never attack human beings unless humans try to destroy them, they ignore human beings breaking laws and do not patrol the village looking to execute or rehabilitate humans who break laws. Black boxes seem largely apolitical other than calculating on line vote results with a special weighting formula that is known only to the black boxes etc.
Unmapability, terraforming and recycling
The planet the characters are in is constantly being terraformed such that by the time they could travel far enough to create a map of the world the odds are the village they started in would have it’s location changed. Recycling is done by a combination of putting objects in black box machines and by putting them in volcanoes, compost piles, feeding things to animals in the bodies of water or feeding livestock and other methods. People mine minerals from the earth and or recycle products and put them into black box machines. Black box machines also receive organic material. Meteors frequently fall on the planet that may also be used for mineral sources. New buildings are being built and demolished every day so consistent maps of villages are unattainable. Some people believe in a flat planet and other’s in a sphere planet. The characters may receive temporary ever changing maps of where buildings they need to go to are on their phones and on line forums discussing new events locations maybe used giving them the wrong old location or the correct new location of places to visit. Forums often have everything older than seven days ago deleted but multiple buildings are usually established and torn down in a week. The game mechanics might seem to function similar to travel in the elemental planes in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Second Edition where you think about where you are going and then somehow find it instead of having things in stable geometrical relation to one another to some degree however that is because they may have to check with their phone frequently and the village will be large enough and with too many buildings and people to count not because it actually follows the geometry of the elemental planes.
Reproduction
Reproduction
Minerals and water must be put in a black box along with a human corpse in order to produce two new human infants of mixed genetic material from the two human corpses. Carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen from the air, as well as water and minerals can be used to achieve all the elements necessary to produce a human being. Genetic material is stored in a black box library from all the previous recycled corpses, but people do not necessarily know what DNA is in the game world, however what the player characters notice is that people grow up looking different, the characters do not know about a DNA library, they might maybe guess that if they are from the scientist religious group at the discretion of the game master. People do not know what gender is. This is an optional version for those who want to avoid sexual content from the game and keep it rated G but it also might follow for the plot of some pre written game scenarios.
If the game master wishes however reproduction may also work the traditional way and genders may exist or that maybe true but the black boxes can also produce new life from corpses and people may not know how people reproduce the traditional way at the start of the game because that knowledge has been censored from society having been politically and religiously offensive after fourth wave feminism in an optional alternative history or the black box reproduction method may not exit at all and it can only be done the traditional way. If gender exists religious groups may have rules about gender roles.
Biological identification tracking, the internet, and voting
Biological identification tracking, the internet, and voting
A database of everyone in the village is tracked with a black box device. Individuals hold advanced cell phone like computer devices that are just called cell phones or computer phones or possibly chip phones or chips for short (although there are no implanted chips inside the body unless the game master wishes this as an optional rule) that track them at all times except in designated permissible secret meetings, usually involved with security, rehabilitation and secret societies that are government endorsed. If they try to dispose of the computer phones the blackboxes can identify the human beings assigned to their village and issue them a new phone/tracking device (but the black boxes can no longer track their location using a phone) and their may or may not be rehabilitation for them as a result depending on the circumstances. If they try to dispose of their phone and run away the players suspect they might be lost beyond hope until they stumble into a village where they know they may face rehabilitation and the players have a phobia of throwing away the phones recklessly.
Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation
There is no jail just either a one time series of rehabilitation experiments for each minor offense or a lifetime experimentation for the truly dangerous individuals like murders who can not be released but are necessary to be experimented on to learn to prevent future murders. There is no time based sentences because the calendar system is not used to track how many years are passed sentences are listed as lifetime rehabilitative experimentation or experiment and then release upon acceptable outcome. Of course the rehabilitation is in a secure facility with restricted access.
The Calendar
There will be no years on the calendar only lunar months and possibly also solar months at the end of the year, the year starts over at the first month of the calendar but no one is allowed to keep track of how many years have passed since a designated time frame with a specific quantity which maybe history crimes. Written history keeping of anything more than one week ago can be a crime but mythologies from religious groups are allowed as long as they do not give dates. All notes more than one week old on the characters phone/computer are generally automatically erased by the computer system itself and using paper or other non electronic means of writing is generally illegal with a few exceptions such as decorations on religious buildings, most other signs exist in electronic format.
Population ranking and voting
A specific black box is used for internet connection within the village and also between the one village hierarchically above it by exactly 1 and any villages hierarchically below their village by 1 population rank that are it’s satellites. Villages are ranked by population or allegedly by population for characters are unable to count the village population but the black boxes give each village a whole number population ranking of at least 1. Once a village achieves a population rank of 2 it will send out multiple satellite colonies having a population rating of 1. A village with a population rank of 3 can contact the singular village above it with a population rank of 4 and all it’s satellites with a population rank of 2 but not the satellites of it’s satellite that have a population rank of 1 nor any other villages with a population rank of 4 or above and can never contact a village with an equal population ranking. Voting can occur for trade between two villages but there will always be a disfavor when trading with the village ranking above but there will be some minor checks and balances that prevent the village ranking above from simply taking all the stuff without giving anything back. The ability to use the internet to communicate to people within one’s own village is much stronger than to outside villages where internet communication is strictly to be used for voting about trade.
Population ranking and voting
A specific black box is used for internet connection within the village and also between the one village hierarchically above it by exactly 1 and any villages hierarchically below their village by 1 population rank that are it’s satellites. Villages are ranked by population or allegedly by population for characters are unable to count the village population but the black boxes give each village a whole number population ranking of at least 1. Once a village achieves a population rank of 2 it will send out multiple satellite colonies having a population rating of 1. A village with a population rank of 3 can contact the singular village above it with a population rank of 4 and all it’s satellites with a population rank of 2 but not the satellites of it’s satellite that have a population rank of 1 nor any other villages with a population rank of 4 or above and can never contact a village with an equal population ranking. Voting can occur for trade between two villages but there will always be a disfavor when trading with the village ranking above but there will be some minor checks and balances that prevent the village ranking above from simply taking all the stuff without giving anything back. The ability to use the internet to communicate to people within one’s own village is much stronger than to outside villages where internet communication is strictly to be used for voting about trade.
Three votes are required for a trade between villages
1. The vote of the higher population rank village members within themselves
2. A merged vote between the one satellite and the village it is subordinate to this vote is weighted in favor of the higher population village. How this is moderated is determined by the black box in a formula unknown to the characters.
3 The vote of the lower population rank village members within themselves this third voting category is a check and balance but the higher population village often has resources the lower population village does not have access to that can be used to create a disparity of power.
Travel between villages
Travel between villages
There are trains between villages that transport goods. Theoretically a character could walk following the train tracks to get to a new village but security heavily guards such paths. Wondering into the wilderness far outside the village along any other path gets the character lost. There are no cars or boats that can go about a independent path controllable by people to any destination assigned anywhere other than what a black box wishes for resource gathering instructions or for going directly from one village to another and cars and boats might not be in the game at all. Train tracks controls where people can travel which controls access to information. Train tracks can be used to move someone from village to village only if approved and very rarely. People do not admit to the existence of villages other than the one village above them and their villages satellites so they can not admit to plan to travel anywhere else without risk of rehabilitation.
Laws on books
Laws on books
Laws are constantly being voted into creation. There are so many laws that the question is not does the law exist but where can the law be found. Finding a law instantly is based on a state doctrine check (doctrine skill for the religious group known as the state) continuing to look for a law after a failure can be done with a willpower check to endure the mental suffering of continued searching to allow another state doctrine check, using willpower to do prolonged searches may not be possible to do fast enough if immediate legal claims are needed as this may require several days or hours more of searching if it can not be immediately found. Laws that are deeply against the over all principles of the society can still be found with an intelligence check of extreme difficulty but that go with the principles of society can be found with an easy intelligence check. Once a law is found on the books it can be used to aid an offensive mental combat attack or presence attack to manipulate behavior.
The more time since a character most recently found a law the more difficult it will be for him to find it again but it will still be easier than looking for that law again from scratch until a month later when the character will have to make a check to find a law with the same difficulty as though he never found it before. A character can periodically look for a law every day or even every few hours to restart the time clock since he last found it. A character can also try to create a law how will he writes it according to intention is based on his intelligence but how will he persuades people to vote for it is based on a offensive mental combat check and how likely he is to avoid rehabilitation for writing it is based on a doctrine check, usually there will not be necessary for checking if writing a law will result in rehabilitation for unless it goes against the spirit of society, or there is a specific individual who wants revenge for a law the character wrote such as a hostile non player character who maybe a villain in the game plot. Laws can be used to avoid going into rehabilitation, to put other people into rehabilitation, to procure items or to strip other people of items.
Writing a a law and having it pass can take more time than finding a law on the books and should require a higher level of difficulty if the law already lines up with the spirit of society at large than finding a law similar to the one the character intends to write. But there should be a few advantages of writing a law. Writing a law should allow the character to be more specific in the fine details of the law. If a character finds a old law someone wrote a month ago it should be more difficult to find it again a week in the future than if he finds a law someone else wrote freshly the same day and then looks for it again a week in the future. If someone personally wrote and passed a law it should be considered fresh and should have a bonus when looking for the law he wrote again a few days later.
Repealing a law is not to be considered the same as passing a law that contradicts another law. Two contradictory laws do not negate each other if they are not both read the one that is accessed in the readers mind is the one that counts not the other law he never read that contradicts it, additionally individuals can do double think and cognitive dissonance, furthermore saying the legal code is not logically coherent when viewed as a whole may potentially result in rehabilitation. People copy and paste the text of laws that are on line and vote to pass the same text again on more recent days sometimes they edit a few words and "mutate" the law. Laws appear in redundant packs of identical laws passed on different dates and proposed by different people. Unlike most other things that are electronically erased once a week laws are not ever electronically erased unless repealed and may appear with a future date if passed in a previous year. A character can not completely remove every identical on line copy of a law that was voted but the character can try to repeal a large number of the copies he can find to make it more difficult for other people to find a law. Repealing a large number of law copies is based on a state doctrine check to find the laws the character wants to repeal and an offensive mental combat check to persuade people to vote to repeal the set. Repealing the set of copies and similar "mutations" of the law results in someone else trying to find the law having a large penalty on their doctrine check when looking for it.
Laws can be created online with people's phones on various forums constantly the black box devices monitor if the laws are passed or not. There can be laws for a village and laws for the interaction of a village and known connected villages but laws can not be passed to effect other villages than the one the individual resides in not even the for the villages the character knows exist other than his designated village. People in the characters village currently typically spend four hours a day working on writing, voting on discussing and repealing laws. Law creation is considered a important part of job creation.
Laws can be created online with people's phones on various forums constantly the black box devices monitor if the laws are passed or not. There can be laws for a village and laws for the interaction of a village and known connected villages but laws can not be passed to effect other villages than the one the individual resides in not even the for the villages the character knows exist other than his designated village. People in the characters village currently typically spend four hours a day working on writing, voting on discussing and repealing laws. Law creation is considered a important part of job creation.
A doctrine check uses your doctrine skill + your intelligence attribute if your intelligence is less than your doctrine but you can not add more points of intelligence than your doctrine if your intelligence exceeds your doctrine. For example someone with a doctrine of 7 and an intelligence of 10 can add 14 points to there roll but someone with a doctrine of 10 and intelligence of 7 can add 17 points to their roll. This is described again later.
Food
Food is similar to 21st century food and is an important plot device for creating religious conflict and unnecessary excess work.
Sleep deprivation, time restriction and atrophy
Sleep deprivation, time restriction and atrophy
Characters will suffer from atrophy of attributes if they can not get enough free time per week to maintain attributes resulting in permanent loss of attributes. If they get extra free time they can increase attributes. In addition to losing attributes they will suffer from sleep deprivation resulting in penalties rolling things. Characters can gain skills while doing meaningless tasks. Instead of using the term character points the term credit hours or training hours might be used. Characters may gain skills directly based on how many hours they put into using the skills but can not earn attributes this way except in isolation from the village which is not permissible. This may motivate player characters try to struggle to escape work time. The state and religious groups have a goal of creating jobs which conflict with the goal of sleep. "Work makes you free." The goal of eating is so you can work, people do not work so they can eat in the eyes of the state and the religious groups. It is a goal to produce food in almost a time inefficient of a manner as possible so that more work hours can be created, because in the logic of the state if you do not work how will you be able to get food, if there were no jobs people would starve. An exception is made in that if people starved they could not work so there should be some efficiency but only enough to barely prevent starvation anymore efficiency than that is undesired. In fact inefficiency of time is viewed as efficiency in job creation so being time inefficient can actually be called time efficiency.
Attributes and skills pertaining to religious groups including the religious group of the state
Authority attribute
Characters will gain an individual attribute called “authority” which is equivalent in many but not all ways to ego, presence, offensive mental combat and defensive mental combat. Characters must have a authority at least one point higher than the highest one of those four attributes in the state and at least one other religious group at the start of the game or they can “go secular” and have joined no other listed religious group than the state at the start of the game. If they go secular their authority in the state must be at least one point higher than twice the highest one of those four attributes they have. If the character joins at least three religious groups they can have the authority lower than those four attributes for any additional groups beyond the first two (counting the state as one.) The authority can be no higher than twice the highest of those four attributes unless they go secular in which case it can be no higher than four times the highest of those four attributes. Authority costs a negative number of credit hours in initial character creation.
Authority attribute and dual identity
The character may attack themselves with their own authority attribute if they want to disobey group teachings this is their dual identity attacking their authentic identity. If their groups religious teachings and there intended actions line up they can use authority as a bonus in defending themselves against offensive mental combat and presence attacks.
Dual identity and conflicting group teachings
If obeying the teaching of one group requires disobeying the teaching of another group than there will be a roll based on two conflicting sides fighting each other. If there are multiple groups on a conflicting side than only the group with the highest authority will be used in support of doing an action rolling against the group with the highest authority in opposition to doing the action, the character can add on a bonus of his ego, presence, offensive mental combat or defensive mental combat as appropriate towards the roll of whichever side the player character wants to side with.
Information phobia attribute
There will be a negative attribute resulting in a phobic response of listening to information critical of any group which the character has a authority score greater than zero in. When people present information critical of the group the players will receive a phobia attack. This is a general attribute for the character but there may also be specialized specific phobias for each group they are in which may function like hypnotic attacks when receiving information critical of the group.
Cognitive dissonance attribute
The character will have to roll when he realizes information is contradictory and may suffer physical injury or psychological pain. This is a general attribute and not group specific. There is no group specialization other than that they may suffer the same type of hypnotic attack that goes with the specialized phobia for a group when they spot a contradiction with the group but these specialized hypnotic attacks are not listed separately for cognitive dissonance and phobias. Characters may choose some symptoms in character creation and the more devastating the symptoms the more points they may receive. This is different than the phobia in that it reflects more the pain of the mental effort of resolving contradictions then the pain of contemplating the possibility that the group might be wrong and the imagined consequences of disbelieving the group teachings. Cognitive dissonance can occur in things not related to group teachings such as if a character made a mistake in calculations for building plans and gets a headache trying to resolve it for example.
Double think attribute
A successful double think check enables someone to not notice a contradiction a third party points out to them. This is a general attribute and is independent of the group. If someone is genuinely double thinking they will not suffer information phobia or cognitive dissonance when receiving information hostile to their religious groups teachings. Starting with a higher double think attribute gives characters extra points to purchase other skills.
Feign double think attribute
A successful feign double think check enables a character to pretend to not notice a contradiction. A feign double think check should only be done after a character makes a double think check, if he really notices a contradiction he can not fake failure to notice the contradiction because he really does not know it. Feign double think can not be used to protect from cognitive dissonance and information phobia. When characters buy off a reduction in double think attributes they can use the points in double think to transfer to feign double think at no additional cost. Feign double think costs twice as many points as double think, but when reducing double think by 1 point they can increase feign double think by 1 point at the same price it would cost to reduce double think by 1 point instead of at double cost. Characters can not substitute acting or some other skill to fake double thinking.
Feign doctrinal aversion
A successful feign doctrinal aversion attribute allows characters to replicate fake symptoms of easier cognitive dissonance or information phobia equivalent to whatever symptoms are listed as genuine symptoms on their character sheet. Each point of feign doctrinal aversion costs the sum of buying both a point of cognitive dissonance and a point of information phobia combined but when buying off a reduction in either cognitive dissonance or phobia attributes you can get a discount of equal value towards purchasing a point of feign doctrinal aversion. A feign doctrinal aversion check should only be done after the character did not roll that they generally experienced cognitive dissonance or information phobia symptoms with two exceptions. The first exception being if they want to try to have unusually nasty symptoms and they can combine fake symptoms with genuine symptoms however this may look suspiciously too strong in some cases the second exception is that those characters in the mind power group may choose to experience the physical consequences of cognitive dissonance even when they normally would not with a feign doctrinal aversion check, they can experience these as real symptoms if they want to and can be found to have them on a medical exam or experience them as fake symptoms but these might not pass a medical exam or at least not as easily.
Doctrine skill specialized for each religious groups
Finding and pointing out contradictions: A character can make a doctrine check for a group to find a contradiction in group teachings or to simply know what a group teaches about something. Doctrine is a specialized skill for each religious group. Doctrine skills checks can be added by intelligence but by no more than there doctrine skill. For example someone with a doctrine of 7 and an intelligence of 10 can add 14 points to there roll but someone with a doctrine of 10 and intelligence of 7 can add 17 points to their roll. Characters who have no doctrine skill can roll with a minus 6 penalty and are unable to use there intelligence when trying to guess group teachings or spot contradictions. Any contradiction in state laws or religious teachings can be found for any teaching or law but each group has an overall trend in teaching and the farther away from the overall trend the claim that is made is the more difficult it will be to point out and the higher the penalty to pull of such a claim on a roll.
Finding a contradiction or group law or teaching is not enough to persuade people in dialogue but must be followed by an offensive mental combat or presence check which one being more appropriate depending on the circumstance however offensive mental combat will be used more often than presence.
Characters can not start with a doctrine skill in groups they are not in but can pick up the skill later without joining groups based on how many hours they are exposed to listening to group material but they may also be attacked by hypnotic attacks from groups in doing so.
Group Language skill
Each of the groups except the state have a specialized language skill that can be purchased for communicating to people in their group during character creation, you can not use that language unless you are a member of that group. Characters automatically start with the state language and everyone in the village must automatically profess to be a member of the state the characters know of no other governments or states. Theoretically anarchists might not know the state language if they were ever found any anarchists who did not grow up in the state. The state language is effectively used as the common language of society.
List of religious groups that the character will have heard of at the start which exist in the characters village
1. The State
2. Jew/Muslim hybrid group
3. Christian based group
4. Polytheism based group
5. Atheism based group
6. The ladder
7. Mind Power
8. The scientists
9. The secret society
10. The anarchists
Characters must start as a member of group 1
Characters can only start in one of groups 2 through 5 but can also start in none of them, they can later join multiple groups with either a successful double think check or with a feign double think check but only with a feign double think check if they start to doubt the legitimacy of there group. They can also join the other groups with a very high difficulty doctrine check in their own group to try to reconcile it to the other group but will still need to do a feign double think check upon joining.
Characters can only start in one of groups 7 through 8 but can also start in none of them, they can later join multiple groups with either a successful double think check or with a feign double think check but only with a feign double think check if they start to doubt the legitimacy of there group. They can also join the other groups with a very high difficulty doctrine check in their own group to try to reconcile it to the other group but will still need to do a feign double think check upon joining.
Characters can not start out members of 9 and 10 although they can join the secret society later
Other villages may have other groups the characters may join or encounter later or other groups may later try to enter the village.
Mythologies of origin of the world
Groups 2 and 3 teach that in the beginning God created employees and assigned them employment and assigned them to manage employees. He gave these employees work and through the work all material things that have been made were made. Depending on the story there maybe many layers of managers including angels above humans in fact an infinite layer of managers between humans and God so that man may not connect with God directly but needs intermediaries. These intermediaries are important because by blessing humanity with intermediaries more jobs can be created. Group 4 may have a similar account but have many gods instead of one God.
Groups 2 and 3 teaches that there was a man named “Sam Tut Nan” who was very lazy but pretended to work hard. Sam Tut Nan created a secret place to rest and take it easy with his working effort instead of producing his assigned tasks. But 1/3 of those who saw Sam Tut Nan working constantly to build this site did not know he was disobeying orders and thought he was the highest worker of all working even hard than God himself. He started to reassign people to build this giant place of rest. Soon people could not get enough work done because in order to do their assigned work other people had to do their piece of the work because their work was to complete a step further on a specific piece of the work of another. There was a job shortage and Sam Tut Nan made a deal with God that people should only work 6 days out of 7 and rest on the seventh day because by resting on the seventh day they would leave more work for others to do in the job shortage so that everyone would have a job. Although Sam Tut Nan persuaded God to the 6 day work schedule God would have done it anyway to help those who lost work to retrieve it and it was no victory for Sam. God knew of Sam’s secret rest station he was building and cursed Sam sinking him into the depths of the ground along with those who followed him when they were done building and he said let us take two days off work a week and rest in the work station I built without God’s knowing.
Now group 3 is different than group 2 in that it teaches that God was a single corporate person composed of three people
The Chief Executive Officer
The Chief Operating Officer
And The Chief Financial Officer
The Chief Operating Officer came down from the great board room in heaven to this world and obeyed every order of the chief executive officer but he also obeyed every order of the state. People were lazy and they voted to execute the chief executive officer but ultimately he accepted obeying the state even if it met his death. Because he was obedient to the state and worked very hard all his life, although they killed him by the power of his hard labor and obedience to the state he came back to life even after being executed by crucifixion. But even in death he never rested he went down and was buried in the same place that same sunk down to the earth went to Sam himself tied him up in chains and forced him to do hard labor and make the volcanoes run. He then went in a volcano and came out of the molten earth showing that even death could not keep him captive. He appeared three days later and made everyone who doubted him do hard labor once again and restored the seven day work week. He then returned to the board room in heaven from whence he assigns hard labour and difficult work to people all over the world, restoring jobs for all who accept his free gift of employment. But when anarchists who want to avoid work die they will sink under the ground and meet Sam who is called Satan for short this is their final judgment for those who refuse to work on earth. On the other hand those who are faithful in obedience to the state and the Church will be resurrected and join the great supervisory board in heaven in which they will eternally do hard labor and assign work for others to do never sleeping or resting 24 hours a day unlike this life on earth where you are limited by sleep. They deny it was a mistake for the state to execute him, they say the execution was to show the importance of obeying the state always and that obedience to the state will be rewarded.
Group 2 disagrees
They say this chief operating officer never came and that he was not part of God but only a servant of God. The state would never make a mistake and it did not execute him but saved him from the anarchists who would kill him and lifted him up to the board room in heaven. He will one day come back and assign a seven day work week but until then we must rest on the seventh day to ensure everyone has enough work. While on earth he gave a long list of foods not to eat and holidays to follow restating the laws that board room told people earlier that they ignored and were punished with a 6 day work week for, resulting in all the problems of the world from lack of employment. He left the Rabbis/Imam as mediators to interpret the laws that were given and to be obeyed along with the state.
Group 5
Teaches that there is no God but this world was manufactured by men on behalf of other people’s orders from another world
Group 8
Some members of Group 8 teach work evolution
Teaches that lower animals came up with new types of work to keep them busy spiders build webs and animals borrow under the ground and birds build nests, each type of lower animal produced different types of work and eventually. Each type of animal bred higher animals and the higher animals produced more technical work until men were created and men created the world. This theory of evolution focuses little on DNA in fact the word DNA does not come up instead it focuses on the evolution of tasks from parents to offspring becoming progressively more advanced until the world was created.
Another teaching is there was a big explosion of a sun and then humans had to organize the pieces of the sun to form the earth and the earth will fall apart without constant hard work
A third theory is that people in another world build big devices that launch meteors and people collected the meteors to build the world
There are several other theories of origin among group 8 each being the only correct scientific teaching according to it’s believers who dispute vehemently against the other camps but all agree on the importance of work being more important than which theory is right.
Group 7
Believes your perception of the world is what you work to believe is there.
The starting characters know of no origin story for groups 1, 9 and 10
Optional as real history for the game world
The corporate trinity: The planet they are on was inhabited at the order of three individuals in one corporate person with the intention of job creation. The whole planet may have been manufactured or they may have colonized an existing planet but so many generations went by that people forgot this except in mythology. The corporate leaders changed the religions from earth in order to manipulate people and may have tried to convince people they were God himself or the gods sending messages to the people from above. After much time has passed each village has changed it’s religious teachings from what the corporation taught. The corporation was created with government subsidies to solve the unemployment problem, all employed individuals were sent into space with no choice about it. Farmers and hard working individuals who refused to use money and grew their own food but received no welfare were classified as unemployed as well as people who were receiving welfare money.
Attributes and skills pertaining to religious groups including the religious group of the state
Authority attribute
Characters will gain an individual attribute called “authority” which is equivalent in many but not all ways to ego, presence, offensive mental combat and defensive mental combat. Characters must have a authority at least one point higher than the highest one of those four attributes in the state and at least one other religious group at the start of the game or they can “go secular” and have joined no other listed religious group than the state at the start of the game. If they go secular their authority in the state must be at least one point higher than twice the highest one of those four attributes they have. If the character joins at least three religious groups they can have the authority lower than those four attributes for any additional groups beyond the first two (counting the state as one.) The authority can be no higher than twice the highest of those four attributes unless they go secular in which case it can be no higher than four times the highest of those four attributes. Authority costs a negative number of credit hours in initial character creation.
Authority attribute and dual identity
The character may attack themselves with their own authority attribute if they want to disobey group teachings this is their dual identity attacking their authentic identity. If their groups religious teachings and there intended actions line up they can use authority as a bonus in defending themselves against offensive mental combat and presence attacks.
Dual identity and conflicting group teachings
If obeying the teaching of one group requires disobeying the teaching of another group than there will be a roll based on two conflicting sides fighting each other. If there are multiple groups on a conflicting side than only the group with the highest authority will be used in support of doing an action rolling against the group with the highest authority in opposition to doing the action, the character can add on a bonus of his ego, presence, offensive mental combat or defensive mental combat as appropriate towards the roll of whichever side the player character wants to side with.
Information phobia attribute
There will be a negative attribute resulting in a phobic response of listening to information critical of any group which the character has a authority score greater than zero in. When people present information critical of the group the players will receive a phobia attack. This is a general attribute for the character but there may also be specialized specific phobias for each group they are in which may function like hypnotic attacks when receiving information critical of the group.
Cognitive dissonance attribute
The character will have to roll when he realizes information is contradictory and may suffer physical injury or psychological pain. This is a general attribute and not group specific. There is no group specialization other than that they may suffer the same type of hypnotic attack that goes with the specialized phobia for a group when they spot a contradiction with the group but these specialized hypnotic attacks are not listed separately for cognitive dissonance and phobias. Characters may choose some symptoms in character creation and the more devastating the symptoms the more points they may receive. This is different than the phobia in that it reflects more the pain of the mental effort of resolving contradictions then the pain of contemplating the possibility that the group might be wrong and the imagined consequences of disbelieving the group teachings. Cognitive dissonance can occur in things not related to group teachings such as if a character made a mistake in calculations for building plans and gets a headache trying to resolve it for example.
Double think attribute
A successful double think check enables someone to not notice a contradiction a third party points out to them. This is a general attribute and is independent of the group. If someone is genuinely double thinking they will not suffer information phobia or cognitive dissonance when receiving information hostile to their religious groups teachings. Starting with a higher double think attribute gives characters extra points to purchase other skills.
Feign double think attribute
A successful feign double think check enables a character to pretend to not notice a contradiction. A feign double think check should only be done after a character makes a double think check, if he really notices a contradiction he can not fake failure to notice the contradiction because he really does not know it. Feign double think can not be used to protect from cognitive dissonance and information phobia. When characters buy off a reduction in double think attributes they can use the points in double think to transfer to feign double think at no additional cost. Feign double think costs twice as many points as double think, but when reducing double think by 1 point they can increase feign double think by 1 point at the same price it would cost to reduce double think by 1 point instead of at double cost. Characters can not substitute acting or some other skill to fake double thinking.
Feign doctrinal aversion
A successful feign doctrinal aversion attribute allows characters to replicate fake symptoms of easier cognitive dissonance or information phobia equivalent to whatever symptoms are listed as genuine symptoms on their character sheet. Each point of feign doctrinal aversion costs the sum of buying both a point of cognitive dissonance and a point of information phobia combined but when buying off a reduction in either cognitive dissonance or phobia attributes you can get a discount of equal value towards purchasing a point of feign doctrinal aversion. A feign doctrinal aversion check should only be done after the character did not roll that they generally experienced cognitive dissonance or information phobia symptoms with two exceptions. The first exception being if they want to try to have unusually nasty symptoms and they can combine fake symptoms with genuine symptoms however this may look suspiciously too strong in some cases the second exception is that those characters in the mind power group may choose to experience the physical consequences of cognitive dissonance even when they normally would not with a feign doctrinal aversion check, they can experience these as real symptoms if they want to and can be found to have them on a medical exam or experience them as fake symptoms but these might not pass a medical exam or at least not as easily.
Doctrine skill specialized for each religious groups
Finding and pointing out contradictions: A character can make a doctrine check for a group to find a contradiction in group teachings or to simply know what a group teaches about something. Doctrine is a specialized skill for each religious group. Doctrine skills checks can be added by intelligence but by no more than there doctrine skill. For example someone with a doctrine of 7 and an intelligence of 10 can add 14 points to there roll but someone with a doctrine of 10 and intelligence of 7 can add 17 points to their roll. Characters who have no doctrine skill can roll with a minus 6 penalty and are unable to use there intelligence when trying to guess group teachings or spot contradictions. Any contradiction in state laws or religious teachings can be found for any teaching or law but each group has an overall trend in teaching and the farther away from the overall trend the claim that is made is the more difficult it will be to point out and the higher the penalty to pull of such a claim on a roll.
Finding a contradiction or group law or teaching is not enough to persuade people in dialogue but must be followed by an offensive mental combat or presence check which one being more appropriate depending on the circumstance however offensive mental combat will be used more often than presence.
Characters can not start with a doctrine skill in groups they are not in but can pick up the skill later without joining groups based on how many hours they are exposed to listening to group material but they may also be attacked by hypnotic attacks from groups in doing so.
Group Language skill
Each of the groups except the state have a specialized language skill that can be purchased for communicating to people in their group during character creation, you can not use that language unless you are a member of that group. Characters automatically start with the state language and everyone in the village must automatically profess to be a member of the state the characters know of no other governments or states. Theoretically anarchists might not know the state language if they were ever found any anarchists who did not grow up in the state. The state language is effectively used as the common language of society.
List of religious groups that the character will have heard of at the start which exist in the characters village
1. The State
2. Jew/Muslim hybrid group
3. Christian based group
4. Polytheism based group
5. Atheism based group
6. The ladder
7. Mind Power
8. The scientists
9. The secret society
10. The anarchists
Characters must start as a member of group 1
Characters can only start in one of groups 2 through 5 but can also start in none of them, they can later join multiple groups with either a successful double think check or with a feign double think check but only with a feign double think check if they start to doubt the legitimacy of there group. They can also join the other groups with a very high difficulty doctrine check in their own group to try to reconcile it to the other group but will still need to do a feign double think check upon joining.
Characters can only start in one of groups 7 through 8 but can also start in none of them, they can later join multiple groups with either a successful double think check or with a feign double think check but only with a feign double think check if they start to doubt the legitimacy of there group. They can also join the other groups with a very high difficulty doctrine check in their own group to try to reconcile it to the other group but will still need to do a feign double think check upon joining.
Characters can not start out members of 9 and 10 although they can join the secret society later
Other villages may have other groups the characters may join or encounter later or other groups may later try to enter the village.
Mythologies of origin of the world
Groups 2 and 3 teach that in the beginning God created employees and assigned them employment and assigned them to manage employees. He gave these employees work and through the work all material things that have been made were made. Depending on the story there maybe many layers of managers including angels above humans in fact an infinite layer of managers between humans and God so that man may not connect with God directly but needs intermediaries. These intermediaries are important because by blessing humanity with intermediaries more jobs can be created. Group 4 may have a similar account but have many gods instead of one God.
Groups 2 and 3 teaches that there was a man named “Sam Tut Nan” who was very lazy but pretended to work hard. Sam Tut Nan created a secret place to rest and take it easy with his working effort instead of producing his assigned tasks. But 1/3 of those who saw Sam Tut Nan working constantly to build this site did not know he was disobeying orders and thought he was the highest worker of all working even hard than God himself. He started to reassign people to build this giant place of rest. Soon people could not get enough work done because in order to do their assigned work other people had to do their piece of the work because their work was to complete a step further on a specific piece of the work of another. There was a job shortage and Sam Tut Nan made a deal with God that people should only work 6 days out of 7 and rest on the seventh day because by resting on the seventh day they would leave more work for others to do in the job shortage so that everyone would have a job. Although Sam Tut Nan persuaded God to the 6 day work schedule God would have done it anyway to help those who lost work to retrieve it and it was no victory for Sam. God knew of Sam’s secret rest station he was building and cursed Sam sinking him into the depths of the ground along with those who followed him when they were done building and he said let us take two days off work a week and rest in the work station I built without God’s knowing.
Now group 3 is different than group 2 in that it teaches that God was a single corporate person composed of three people
The Chief Executive Officer
The Chief Operating Officer
And The Chief Financial Officer
The Chief Operating Officer came down from the great board room in heaven to this world and obeyed every order of the chief executive officer but he also obeyed every order of the state. People were lazy and they voted to execute the chief executive officer but ultimately he accepted obeying the state even if it met his death. Because he was obedient to the state and worked very hard all his life, although they killed him by the power of his hard labor and obedience to the state he came back to life even after being executed by crucifixion. But even in death he never rested he went down and was buried in the same place that same sunk down to the earth went to Sam himself tied him up in chains and forced him to do hard labor and make the volcanoes run. He then went in a volcano and came out of the molten earth showing that even death could not keep him captive. He appeared three days later and made everyone who doubted him do hard labor once again and restored the seven day work week. He then returned to the board room in heaven from whence he assigns hard labour and difficult work to people all over the world, restoring jobs for all who accept his free gift of employment. But when anarchists who want to avoid work die they will sink under the ground and meet Sam who is called Satan for short this is their final judgment for those who refuse to work on earth. On the other hand those who are faithful in obedience to the state and the Church will be resurrected and join the great supervisory board in heaven in which they will eternally do hard labor and assign work for others to do never sleeping or resting 24 hours a day unlike this life on earth where you are limited by sleep. They deny it was a mistake for the state to execute him, they say the execution was to show the importance of obeying the state always and that obedience to the state will be rewarded.
Group 2 disagrees
They say this chief operating officer never came and that he was not part of God but only a servant of God. The state would never make a mistake and it did not execute him but saved him from the anarchists who would kill him and lifted him up to the board room in heaven. He will one day come back and assign a seven day work week but until then we must rest on the seventh day to ensure everyone has enough work. While on earth he gave a long list of foods not to eat and holidays to follow restating the laws that board room told people earlier that they ignored and were punished with a 6 day work week for, resulting in all the problems of the world from lack of employment. He left the Rabbis/Imam as mediators to interpret the laws that were given and to be obeyed along with the state.
Group 5
Teaches that there is no God but this world was manufactured by men on behalf of other people’s orders from another world
Group 8
Some members of Group 8 teach work evolution
Teaches that lower animals came up with new types of work to keep them busy spiders build webs and animals borrow under the ground and birds build nests, each type of lower animal produced different types of work and eventually. Each type of animal bred higher animals and the higher animals produced more technical work until men were created and men created the world. This theory of evolution focuses little on DNA in fact the word DNA does not come up instead it focuses on the evolution of tasks from parents to offspring becoming progressively more advanced until the world was created.
Another teaching is there was a big explosion of a sun and then humans had to organize the pieces of the sun to form the earth and the earth will fall apart without constant hard work
A third theory is that people in another world build big devices that launch meteors and people collected the meteors to build the world
There are several other theories of origin among group 8 each being the only correct scientific teaching according to it’s believers who dispute vehemently against the other camps but all agree on the importance of work being more important than which theory is right.
Group 7
Believes your perception of the world is what you work to believe is there.
The starting characters know of no origin story for groups 1, 9 and 10
Optional as real history for the game world
The corporate trinity: The planet they are on was inhabited at the order of three individuals in one corporate person with the intention of job creation. The whole planet may have been manufactured or they may have colonized an existing planet but so many generations went by that people forgot this except in mythology. The corporate leaders changed the religions from earth in order to manipulate people and may have tried to convince people they were God himself or the gods sending messages to the people from above. After much time has passed each village has changed it’s religious teachings from what the corporation taught. The corporation was created with government subsidies to solve the unemployment problem, all employed individuals were sent into space with no choice about it. Farmers and hard working individuals who refused to use money and grew their own food but received no welfare were classified as unemployed as well as people who were receiving welfare money.
I prefer however to have the history be unknowable and undiscoverable purged long ago
Special Powers with groups
The following attributes relate to group teachings but are independent of groups
Double think
Feign Double Think
Information Phobia
Cognitive Dissonance
Feign Doctrinal Aversion
The following attribute occurs upon joining a specific group
Authority for each group which substitutes for Ego, Presence, Offensive and Defensive Mental Combat for the characters dual identity which may fight or assist their genuine identity
The following attributes have specialized symptoms that go with them assigned for each group specific for that group separate from the general attribute
Information Phobia
Cognitive Dissonance
The following specialized skills occur with specific groups
Separate Language skill for each specific group
Separate doctrine Skill for each specific group
Mind Power – They can get special powers similar to what can be done through self-hypnosis and meditation but have a weakness that they will be given special false beliefs about being able to use the powers in ways they do not really work. They will be the only group members that can get certain special powers from the Hero System rules. They are often discriminated against using certain equipment and accessing certain science training by the scientists but with difficulty they can find their way around it. People in other groups may get certain hypnotic abilities but not to the extent that members of this group can. People in other groups can only mainly use hypnosis as a recruitment or more accurately as a retention tool to implant phobias of leaving the group and for similar purposes, but people in mind power will have biofeedback abilities enabling them to do special mental and physical feats and demonstrations of willpower similar to monks, yogis and memory champions. Chsrecters who start in this group must imagine at lesst three super powers they do not really have as genuine abilities this can also include imagining a power they really have can be applied in a situation where it can not. They can later buy off learning a power does not work but need to false!y believe in having at least one power they do not to maintain membership. Characters who join after character creation need to learn at least one false imaginary power upon joining.
The Scientists – They are resistant to hypnosis from mind power or in relation to anything that looks supernatural including claims of witchcraft or demonic attacks from theistic groups used as secret hypnosis attacks etc. but can be hypnotized if they are suggestible into believing something fits their science theory (by people from mind power or not in mind power.) Of course if witchcraft was based on something real or a demon really existed they could be more susceptible perhaps if that is chosen to be incorporated in the game world, they only get resistance to things claimed to be as such that are not legitimate. Charecters from the science group will also find difficulty benefitting from hypnotic powers used on them by third party individuals to assist them They are the only group that can start with a wide variety of science skills which maybe useful charecters not from this group maybe restricted on certain skills. They are given easier access to train in learning science skills and using certain equipment than people not in the group. Some times when a individuak from the scientist group learns a new science skill he maybe required or given the option to learn a myth or over generalization of a theory that should be more narrow in its application that sounds scientific but is really false the player can be creative in making up these false beliefs. He can later spend time to buy off unlearning some but not all false beliefs but needs to start with at least three false beliefs if creating a character from this group. Characters must have at least one false scientific sounding belief to maintain membership in the scientist group, if characters join this group after character creation they must pick up at least one false belief from the group.
The Atheists
Special Powers with groups
The following attributes relate to group teachings but are independent of groups
Double think
Feign Double Think
Information Phobia
Cognitive Dissonance
Feign Doctrinal Aversion
The following attribute occurs upon joining a specific group
Authority for each group which substitutes for Ego, Presence, Offensive and Defensive Mental Combat for the characters dual identity which may fight or assist their genuine identity
The following attributes have specialized symptoms that go with them assigned for each group specific for that group separate from the general attribute
Information Phobia
Cognitive Dissonance
The following specialized skills occur with specific groups
Separate Language skill for each specific group
Separate doctrine Skill for each specific group
Mind Power – They can get special powers similar to what can be done through self-hypnosis and meditation but have a weakness that they will be given special false beliefs about being able to use the powers in ways they do not really work. They will be the only group members that can get certain special powers from the Hero System rules. They are often discriminated against using certain equipment and accessing certain science training by the scientists but with difficulty they can find their way around it. People in other groups may get certain hypnotic abilities but not to the extent that members of this group can. People in other groups can only mainly use hypnosis as a recruitment or more accurately as a retention tool to implant phobias of leaving the group and for similar purposes, but people in mind power will have biofeedback abilities enabling them to do special mental and physical feats and demonstrations of willpower similar to monks, yogis and memory champions. Chsrecters who start in this group must imagine at lesst three super powers they do not really have as genuine abilities this can also include imagining a power they really have can be applied in a situation where it can not. They can later buy off learning a power does not work but need to false!y believe in having at least one power they do not to maintain membership. Characters who join after character creation need to learn at least one false imaginary power upon joining.
The Scientists – They are resistant to hypnosis from mind power or in relation to anything that looks supernatural including claims of witchcraft or demonic attacks from theistic groups used as secret hypnosis attacks etc. but can be hypnotized if they are suggestible into believing something fits their science theory (by people from mind power or not in mind power.) Of course if witchcraft was based on something real or a demon really existed they could be more susceptible perhaps if that is chosen to be incorporated in the game world, they only get resistance to things claimed to be as such that are not legitimate. Charecters from the science group will also find difficulty benefitting from hypnotic powers used on them by third party individuals to assist them They are the only group that can start with a wide variety of science skills which maybe useful charecters not from this group maybe restricted on certain skills. They are given easier access to train in learning science skills and using certain equipment than people not in the group. Some times when a individuak from the scientist group learns a new science skill he maybe required or given the option to learn a myth or over generalization of a theory that should be more narrow in its application that sounds scientific but is really false the player can be creative in making up these false beliefs. He can later spend time to buy off unlearning some but not all false beliefs but needs to start with at least three false beliefs if creating a character from this group. Characters must have at least one false scientific sounding belief to maintain membership in the scientist group, if characters join this group after character creation they must pick up at least one false belief from the group.
The Atheists
They get resistant to hypnotic attacks related to claims about a god from people in any group that believes in any number of gods greater than zero. They get penalties in persuading people from theistic groups to do things especially in matters pertaining to adjusting their behavior according to their religion however. All the groups have their own secret language including this group
The ladder
The ladder
They rank people according to the number of people that exist in the ladder rungs below them in direct line and can boss people around below them in direct line who join but are expected to obey people above them in direct line they are not required to obey people in parallel lines. The more rungs above or below them someone is the less likely they are to know they exist. They can only count the number of people below them towards their rank if they know they exist. They will frequently badger underlings to count how many people are current members of the ladder who are below them and tell them names and information because if they can not provide a list they can not count these people towards their rank number. The rank number increases by one for each person that exists in a rung below you in direct line. If you are not a member of the ladder members of the ladder view you as having a rank of negative twelve if you are a member of the ladder but have zero members your rank is viewed as negative six in their eyes, as soon as you have one member below you in direct line your rank is one for each member you have in direct line below you. They can not see outside their village to count people outside their village toward their rank.
If two different members of the ladder are not traceable one to another by a direct line they compare their ranks one with another when trying to boss each other around.
If two different members of the ladder are not traceable one to another by a direct line they compare their ranks one with another when trying to boss each other around.
Bob
|
Bob
|
Bob
|
||||||
Nancy
|
Dave
|
Dave
|
Nancy
|
|||||
Jane
|
Joe
|
Jim
|
Helen
|
Tom
|
||||
Outsider are rank negative 12
|
||||||||
Bob is rank 7
|
||||||||
Nancy is Rank 3
|
||||||||
Dave is Rank 2
|
||||||||
Jane, Joe, Jim, Helen and Tom are rank negative 6
|
||||||||
The Anarchists
They have a fame for trying to abolish employment or at least reduce employment hours. Being a member of this group is an automatic sentence to rehabilitation if caught. The player characters knows little about them. If they join this group later they can have an authority attribute even for this group relating to blindly following orders of people who label themselves as anarchists. Anarchists are blamed for the problems of society and characters start with a phobia that if the anarchists succeed everyone will starve when food production becomes too efficient and jobs are eliminated. Player characters can not become anarchists during character creation but may receive the opportunity to join them once the game starts if the plot line permits it
The Secret Society
This group has a building with a lot of symbols and characters know that they are heavily tied to certain functions of the government that are for the greater good if kept hidden in order to prevent the collapse of society through the wrong people knowing security secrets, etc. In order to join this group they require people to profess they believe in at least one god. But members of atheist groups can join if they are a part of another religious group that believes in at least one god. The state has given members an official special dispensation to not bring their cell phones into meetings but drop them off at a hole in the entrance to the building inside a black box at the door. The characters can see people dropping their phones/computers in the hole before entering the building but know little else about the group. Player characters can not become members of the secret society during character creation but may receive the opportunity to join them once the game starts if the plot line permits it
Certificate of group creation
The state allows people who want to start a religious group to create one and get certified by the state although the player characters can not start creating their own group but would have to do so after game play has started and the process of acceptance or rejection is kept partly secret from the characters although some parts of the process will be known to them.
Clubs
There may also be many activity clubs devoted to learning and practicing certain skills and using them for entertainment to educate people to have allegiance to the state. For example you can play soccer so long as you use your soccer as a platform to talk about how great the state is to soccer fans. Some more difficult skills like combat skills can be justified in learning if used under the justification of defending the state but maybe more difficult for the characters to get clearance to participate in. The character does not have to specify which clubs he is in at character creation but participating in clubs maybe an important part of building skills later. What clubs are available change frequently as well as where buildings are located.
Items
What items a character owns have to be justified in the eyes of the state. The character may keep secret items but that may result in rehabilitation. Food hoarding and water hoarding is severely prohibited in most cases as people who wonder off from the village maybe in great danger and food can create an illusion of safety only leading to greater danger than if they were tempted to return from hunger. A character may frequently receive items for a task only to be required to recycle them when the task is done.
Weapons
Most weapons are non lethal except for improvised weapons as it is important to capture than rehabilitate people. Tranquilizer guns are used instead of standard guns designed to kill. Tasers are common weapons. Nets maybe used. Handcuffs and ropes, etc are common for non player security guards to have. Individuals not designated in a security role including players are generally unarmed of even non lethal weapons or may face potential rehabilitation.
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