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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8793779" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't know what was going through my fingers with that typo!The first system I actually thought of when writing the OP was Cthulhu Dark, but the problem with that system is that the source of social ills will, at least to some extent, end up being supernatural/extra-human. I would have a similar worry about D&amp;D; another worry about D&amp;D is that resolution of social ills might tend to be supernatural (miracles performed by clerics, etc).The technical problems I'm thinking of are how to express the weight of social structures in framing and resolution and perhaps how to perform actions which take as their objects social relations.I'll give (what I hope is) an illustration of my thinking here:A few years ago I found Battleship Potemkin on sale at a local DVD shop and picked it up, I'd never watched it before. SPOILERS FOLLOW: At the climax of the film, the mutineers/revolutionaries sail their vessel straight towards a line of Russian warships. Watching this, I was anxious as to how they would survive this and/or defeat their opponents - but my anxiety revealed the weight of ideology on me! - as I hadn't anticipated the actual resolution, which is that, by power of their example and the flying of the red flag, the sailors on the Potemkin lead the sailors on the other vessels to join them in solidarity, cheering as the Potemkin sails between their lines.Many RPGs have mechanics for oratory, convincing a crowd, etc. But I'm not sure how one would give these the particular teeth or edge that would toggle them from either cynical or romantic, to social realism of some or other form.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8793779, member: 42582"] I don't know what was going through my fingers with that typo! The first system I actually thought of when writing the OP was Cthulhu Dark, but the problem with that system is that the source of social ills will, at least to some extent, end up being supernatural/extra-human. I would have a similar worry about D&D; another worry about D&D is that resolution of social ills might tend to be supernatural (miracles performed by clerics, etc). The technical problems I'm thinking of are [i]how to express the weight of social structures in framing and resolution[/i] and perhaps [i]how to perform actions which take as their objects social relations[/i]. I'll give (what I hope is) an illustration of my thinking here: A few years ago I found Battleship Potemkin on sale at a local DVD shop and picked it up, I'd never watched it before. SPOILERS FOLLOW: At the climax of the film, the mutineers/revolutionaries sail their vessel straight towards a line of Russian warships. Watching this, I was anxious as to how they would survive this and/or defeat their opponents - but my anxiety revealed the weight of ideology on me! - as I hadn't anticipated the actual resolution, which is that, by power of their example and the flying of the red flag, the sailors on the Potemkin lead the sailors on the other vessels to join them in solidarity, cheering as the Potemkin sails between their lines. Many RPGs have mechanics for oratory, convincing a crowd, etc. But I'm not sure how one would give these the particular teeth or edge that would toggle them from either cynical or romantic, to social realism of some or other form. [/QUOTE]

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