Communism (& Socialism) in RPGs

[Piratecat]

And those notes were specious, because any definitions that broad are virtually meaningless, though comforting to some due to reasons that would violate the TOS to describe. The OP is clearly discussing contemporary ideological positions, not simply whether people shared stuff sometimes and how.

Making an attack on someone's position while claiming that you can't because of board rules is pretty clever, but still inappropriate.

Stay far away from real-world political stuff, folks.

 

[Storm Raven]

Belief in a deity is not incompatible with communism. Just look at the Housemartins!

Or pretty much any of the 19th century utopian socialists. Pretty much they all assumed a necessary component of a socialist utopia was the universal belief in some sort of divine being, usually a Christian version. Marx was a wild outlier among contemporary socialists of his day with respect to his views on religion.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Not that atheism is in any way required for communism....

In settings like the FR, where deities come on down to their favored servants' house for breakfast in bed, atheism is kind of hard to pull off. Sort of like Terry Pratchett's "Not only do the gods believe in you, they throw bricks through your window." In settings like Eberron, it's a bit easier to pull off, especially since you don't HAVE to worship a deity to be a cleric and cast spells.

However, in any setting, you can have them use "opiate of the masses" as their issue, and with that fantasy communists can work easily, you can have them be rabid anti-theists due to deific corruption:

"Yes, Pelor exists, we can all see that. But what does he really do for you? The sun goes along whether or not he personifies it. He accepts your sacrifices and tithes for doing what he should be doing anyway! And if you don't sacrifice to him, he hides and refuses to work, or even retaliates? That's a protection racket!!!"

Brad

 

[Kahuna Burger]

In settings like the FR, where deities come on down to their favored servants' house for breakfast in bed, atheism is kind of hard to pull off. Sort of like Terry Pratchett's "Not only do the gods believe in you, they throw bricks through your window." In settings like Eberron, it's a bit easier to pull off, especially since you don't HAVE to worship a deity to be a cleric and cast spells.

However, in any setting, you can have them use "opiate of the masses" as their issue, and with that fantasy communists can work easily, you can have them be rabid anti-theists due to deific corruption:

"Yes, Pelor exists, we can all see that. But what does he really do for you? The sun goes along whether or not he personifies it. He accepts your sacrifices and tithes for doing what he should be doing anyway! And if you don't sacrifice to him, he hides and refuses to work, or even retaliates? That's a protection racket!!!"

Brad

There's also the issue of how a non godly person could tell the difference between a god and "just" a very powerful being. Is a 15th level illusionist a god? How could anyone low level even tell? I mean, we KNOW hgh level illusionists exist. Atheism is easier in a fantasy world since you get another alternate explaination other than hallucination. And since godless clerics are part of the rules unless a setting or campaign forbids it, there is nothing that the favor of the gods gives you that can't be gained by other means.

 

[eyebeams]

Making an attack on someone's position while claiming that you can't because of board rules is pretty clever, but still inappropriate.

Stay far away from real-world political stuff, folks.

This is a thread about applying real world political stuff in RPGs. Please define the limits of the discussion.

 

[eyebeams]

I'm so glad you are here to tell us that pre-Marx versions of socialism are "virtually meaningless". Bellamy's socialism, for example, would not necessarily include workers controlling the means of production. Perhaps you need to go and look at some stuff that wasn't written by Marx, Engels, Lenin, or Mao. They didn't invent the idea, nor did they write the best stuff in the field.

Stop conflating communism and socialism, plzkthx. Also, read Bellamy again, perferably from the source instead of skimming Wikipedia. Bellamy's socialism is based on replacing capitalist institutions with central planning, but that planning is not necessarily ensconced in a ruling class (Looking Backward is pretty vague about political institutions). I do, incidentally, know the typical rhetorical ruse that comes with invoking Bellamy, too. Should I invoke Godwin's Law now, or wait until you've built up some steam?

 

[Kwalish Kid]

This thread is not supposed to be about the merits or flaws of particular political systems, though it may be about the challenges in implementing these political systems in a RPG setting.

For the purposes of discussion, we can talk about implementing any communist of socialist society in a RPG setting.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

It would be more pre-modern, probably more religious than lay communalism, pre-socialism.

 

[AnonymousOne]

I know the possibility for it may exist in some RPGs but it has virtually no place in D&D in anything beyond a passing cult in Eberron.

Reason: DnD = Medieval fantasy setting. Which is incompatible with the philosophical underpinnings of socialism. Don't like it? Go play GURPS.

*shurgs* I have a socialist country in my homebrew campaign. But then again our campaign is pretty damn far from Cannon DnD.

 

[S'mon]

China Miéville's Bas-Lag novels have very strong socialist themes running through them, and were adopted as a D&D setting in a Dragon Magazine article a year or two ago.

China Mieville is giving a seminar on "A Marxist theory of International Law" to my University Law faculty (of which I am one) next Wednesday! Woot!