The New Economy 1 (The Spiel)
"That's the head of Mark Pincus. Guy who made Farmville. Fought like a bastard he did. That over there is, um, the head of Mark Pincus. He keeps comin' back for some reason. That time he had goddamn LASERS."
-- The Commodore, Biggest Game Hunter
I am working on a game called THE NEW ECONOMY with my co-conspirator Mr. S. It started life as a hack for Chris McDowall's Electric Bastionland, and still exists in that form. It is a scifi game about a world where the capitalism of the present day is gone.
You don't have a job or a paycheck. The god-kings of capitalism have left you behind for a post-human eternity of ego boosts. The vestigial middle class huddles in gated communities fearing the day they'll become you.
Out here there's no wage slavery. No commutes. Also no electricity or clean water. There are still people who wanna get paid though. People who wanna have their revenge. People who want a better world at last.
What do you want?
Essentially the game is a libertarian world written by a leftist. Your characters are idealists, hucksters, odd job men and stick-up artists trying to get out from under a crippling debt. Your fondest dream might be to serve in post-human heaven, to relieve the fortified middle class of their fine wines and soft toilet paper, or to build a egalitarian utopia right where you are. First you gotta pay though. And to do that you gotta earn.
The rules we are working with are called The Indie Hack. They owe something to OSR games, and to Apocalypse World. It is a simple set of mechanics that focuses on limited resources. The players have a lot of creative input, while the player characters are scrabbling and fighting for every advantage and amenity.
Being a socialist and a gamer, I personally would love the scenario where we hijack a shuttle to Mars and readjust Melon Husk's cortical stack with a shotgun while his bio-sleeve wets itself, but the game is quite sandboxy, if you want it to be. You don't have to share my politics to play (but you should).
-- The Commodore, Biggest Game Hunter
I am working on a game called THE NEW ECONOMY with my co-conspirator Mr. S. It started life as a hack for Chris McDowall's Electric Bastionland, and still exists in that form. It is a scifi game about a world where the capitalism of the present day is gone.
You don't have a job or a paycheck. The god-kings of capitalism have left you behind for a post-human eternity of ego boosts. The vestigial middle class huddles in gated communities fearing the day they'll become you.
Out here there's no wage slavery. No commutes. Also no electricity or clean water. There are still people who wanna get paid though. People who wanna have their revenge. People who want a better world at last.
What do you want?
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| The Man is off our backs. The men still wanna break our fingers though. |
Essentially the game is a libertarian world written by a leftist. Your characters are idealists, hucksters, odd job men and stick-up artists trying to get out from under a crippling debt. Your fondest dream might be to serve in post-human heaven, to relieve the fortified middle class of their fine wines and soft toilet paper, or to build a egalitarian utopia right where you are. First you gotta pay though. And to do that you gotta earn.
The rules we are working with are called The Indie Hack. They owe something to OSR games, and to Apocalypse World. It is a simple set of mechanics that focuses on limited resources. The players have a lot of creative input, while the player characters are scrabbling and fighting for every advantage and amenity.
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| "All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away; all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life and his relations with his kind.” |
Being a socialist and a gamer, I personally would love the scenario where we hijack a shuttle to Mars and readjust Melon Husk's cortical stack with a shotgun while his bio-sleeve wets itself, but the game is quite sandboxy, if you want it to be. You don't have to share my politics to play (but you should).
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I'm looking forward to the finished game, Tore. I like the ItO version, but I also think a little indie treatment (and The Indie Hack is a pretty cool game) will fit perfectly.
ReplyDeleteThanks man!
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