Social Commentary

[the Jester]

Does anyone else throw social commentary about current events into their games?

F'rexample, has anyone touched on the subject of terrorism in the last year? (I ran a storyline about a terrorist plot to blow up the "collaboratorist" parliament house that ran an island conquered by a much greater power, but that was about two years ago.)

Has anyone touched on AIDS or similar topics? Or racism? The child molestation scandals in the Catholic church?

I mean, gaming is a wonderful medium for social commentary as long as it's not heavy-handed... I'm thinking similar to the way such topics are handled in comics (X-Men titles, specifically; anyone remember the original Genosha storyline? It was a metaphor for apartheid. Or the Legacy Virus? Metaphor for AIDS.)

Just wondering...

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Salutations,

There was a time I would do this, but I have long since decided not to use my gaming as a soap box.

If an issue is important to me, then I will do something about in the real world.

Respectfully submitted
FD

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I echo Furn_Darkside's statements.

Besides, I'm fairly political. The rest of my group is not. We're supposed to be having fun. D&D is fun for everyone in the group. Politics is mostly just fun for me.

 

[Teflon Billy]

Child-Molesting priests from an ostensibly "Good" faith figured largely in our last campaign.

 

[Pielorinho]

After September 11, I noticed that the primary villains in my campaign were a group of cultists who followed an old Good God and were trying to return their degenerate society to a time of honor, tradition, and morality; they were willing to sacrifice the lives of lots of people in their effort.

I didn't do this on purpose -- it's just the way the campaign developed. But I think it was part of how I tried to understand world events.

The PCs, natch, slaughtered the cultists.

Daniel

 

[Sigma]

Okay, you asked for it...

Back in 8th grade, I'd just started gaming. Right around the time of the Gulf War, we were really into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles RPG. We had just graduated from basic D&D, so our games still looked a lot like dungeon crawls (enemies would hide in numbered buildings and had sacks of cash and such). Anyway, the PC's were recruited by a secret gov't agent to go to Iraq and kill Sadam Huissien. Somehow, a Palladium book detailing superpowers got thrown in the mix as well, so not only were the PC's mutant animals, they were mutant animals with superhero powers. They journeyed to Iraq, battled Captain Iraqui, a mutant scorpian (who, after being defeated, returned as a cybered up mutant scorpian), and acquired a flying tank. In the final confrontation with Saddam, it was revealed that he was working with a secret group of neo-nazis, and that the man himself had psionic powers. Don't really remember how it ended, but there was an incident with them blowing up a plane and nearly all dying from the fall (I allowed them to shoot their guns at the ground to slow their fall).

Ah. To be 12 again...

 

[Roland Delacroix]

I DM and I think my players play to have fun. First off, I don't preach to anyone. My opinions are mine, and while I have the RIGHT to yell whatever I want to anyone, i'm not that rude. Second, I think I would get better response on the streets of chi town instead of adressing 5 friends. Who, I think, would quickly quit my game anyway if I tried such a thing.

 

[the Jester]

I think some people may have misinterpeted exactly what I was referring to, at least stylistically.

For example, I'm not talking about social commentary in the way all the comics featuring the stories about 911 are social commentary, I'm talking about social commentary as part of a story, maybe even a driving force in the story, in the vein of, say, Babylon 5 and the whole ever-growing propaganda machine of Psicorp. Or Minority Report, which is chock full of (and driven by) a sort of social commentary.

I'm not talking about preaching, or direct parallels to real world events or situations. Most great works of art have social commentary in them; I've always felt that a campaign is a work of art.

I understand that some people can't throw social commentary in without beating you over the head with it, and that might even be appropriate under some circumstances. I have a friend who was taught to game by his dad, who dm'ed for him; when he was a kid his dad used dnd to demonstrate concepts like actions have consequences, crime doesn't pay, etc.

 

[Heap Thaumaturgist]

I had an NPC necromancer from a southern country where the people all had dark skin. The locals avoided him entirely, allowing him to carry out his plots to raise the undead and hire local monsters to assault a small cloistered church that was the secret hiding place of the most important relic of the faith. Everybody thought he was (the entirely mythical) Drow and most people wouldn't aknowledge his existance.

That's sort of like racial tension, right? Okay, I'm reaching for straws.

In fantasy campaigns I'd never dream of trying to include themes from the daily news. In a general sort of way, major themes that have altered our lives may show up ... war, poverty, things like that.

At most I'd say some of it would appear in my modern-setting games. It's appropriate there and doesn't break down verisimilitude.

--HT

 

[Pielorinho]

I think I misunderstood. While I don't deliberately put current events into my game, I recognize that they're one of the influences on my gaming -- as is movies I see, books I read, people I meet, and so on.

However, I DO deliberately put all sorts of social themes into my games. A city is in the midst of a move from a feudal society to a mercantile society. Halflings are monotheists who hold themselves apart from, and superior to, other people. Slavery is common, but a noble's slave may be more respected than a poor freeman. The mercantile city has much greater gender equity than the feudal countryside, but also has a much greater level of poverty. The orcs might be bloodthirsty in battle, but the humans sell orcish bodyparts at their apothecaries.

I like making the society difficult for the characters to judge: I like making some things better, and some things worse. I like moral ambiguities, and these are an important part of the world, from the individual villains on up to the entire society.

Daniel