ZEITGEIST Random ZEITGEIST idea, not even half-formed. Seeking opinions.

[RangerWickett]

I'm reading a book discussing how to go from understanding social injustices to actually enacting changes to achieve more social justice, and an idea sparked. An idea I'm pretty sure I can't actually do, but I'm momentarily enamored with it and want to share.

Idea:

A ZEITGEIST . . . I dunno, call it a project . . . a ZEITGEIST project where I make a list of a variety of things in the setting that are unjust, and I invite GMs to write-up one-page adventures wherein the PCs need to find a way to make things better. Then people run it, and they post here how their group did, and we decide what event becomes part of the canon of the setting.

But the overall thrust of the project is to take a sort of Roddenberry/Star Trek-esque approach of telling stories about fixing problems and making the world better, with radical optimism. (Radical, but not naive or simplistic.)

The challenge of course is to not make the challenge incidental. "Oh hey, there are warmongering Elfaivarans who think the best way to protect themselves from another Malice is to preemptively invade Crisillyir. We solved it by making an impassioned speech, and they changed their minds." Like, if you happen to have Patrick Stewart as one of your players, okay, I can maybe buy it (and someone should absolutely invite him to play D&D), but otherwise, that's not a very compelling story.

Ultimately, y'know, this is probably not feasible without me putting in a lot of work that probably wouldn't produce enough positive effect to be worth it as opposed to something else. (Also, I'm not sure Russ would let me do it, since he's got limited slots for EN Publishing books, and he owns the rights to the setting, so I'd need his okay.)

But does the idea tickle anyone else's fancy? Instead of everyone running the same AP, we all distribute the work of making small positive changes in a fictional world. Is it self-indulgent? A distraction from, like, going out and volunteering for a few hours to help an actual problem in our communities? Or would it be motivating?

 

[hirou]

First, is there anything in this idea which ties it to Lanjyr in particular? Or it's just unsated desire to develop this particular setting? Second, have you played the "Microscope"? I'm not sure it's the best fit for your particular idea, but it's a great example how it can be possible to run a decentralized RPG-like about history.

 

[arkwright]

It's a neat idea, I've done a fair bit of it myself. 'Here is a society, here are its problems, quest to resolve them.' The idea gets stronger the better your understanding of politics, of history, of how culture and economics and everything else IRL interacts to create the injustices and inefficiencies that we experience each day, and the ongoing organisational effort of good-hearted people throughout the millennia to help everyone in the present and the future.

It's not something many adventures grapple with, in order to avoid introducing politics and potentially dividing the table.

An advantage we have with TTRPGs is that, particularly at mid to high levels, the PCs are superhuman; not only superhumanly strong, but superhuman intelligent, wise and charismatic. Not to say that they can be philosopher-king-tyrants, more that it can be useful for justifying how so few can create such change in such a short span.

These adventures would definitely be all the stronger if they support multiple resolution paths, as I'm sure you can imagine. Perhaps the PCs try to enact economic integration, or form a cultural and military alliance with a neighbour, or remove a corrupt priestly class. Also stronger if you can include your social justice reading to provide GMs a few academic theories and principles about creating change, and how people in the world respond.

Lanjyr could be a neat setting for this. Both as a means to expand on opportunities in the previous AP, and because the pseudo-pre WWI setting is ripe for change. Because I think Lanjyr is a nice balance of offering realistic and deep complexity, while having simple national principles and features that players can easily engage with.

There'll need to be advice to avoid the players lapsing into OOC red-versus-green arguments. For noting sensitivities, for people who might find these political subjects quite distressing. And a few 'baby's first fascism/police state warning signs' to help parties avoid running something they'll regret in years to come (though, well, running this as an evil adventure has its own appeals.)

Would it motivate players to go out and do good in the real world? I'd like to think Star Trek did, I'd like to think this could as well.