Classes and Clichés part 2

[zoatebix]

But first, we interrupt our regular programming to let you know that Greg Costikyan is both thinking in public and looking for fellow thinkers. The discussion has some gems, and led me to articles like this one on the Netflix Prize. Death to the games industry, long live the games.
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It was not until I discovered the Television Tropes and Idioms wiki that I started thinking seriously about how wonderful tropes, conventions, and clichés are for gaming. I must warn you though, if you get the least bit interested, tvtropes.org is a terrible time-sink.

So I've taken advantage of many specific conventions in the past, and Spirit of the Century expanded my repertoire immensely, but a few wasted evenings surfing tvtropes.org really changed my thinking. Tropes are shorthand - they pack a lot of information (and baggage) in a small package. This leaves a lot of room for people to dance around them and enjoy themselves.

Back in the Summer, when I was thinking about a 60s rock band RPG (working title: British Invasion!), some a few schema for group dynamics from TV Tropes were bouncing around in my head: the Four Temperament Ensemble, and the Five Man Band. I tried to do the Galenic medicine thing from the "Ensemble" trope, but it just wasn't jiving; I needed something more musical. It took me until now, but I've finally decided that "what instrument you play(ed)" would be a great core, identifying cliché for player characters in a role playing game. There's already a vast body of stereotypes to choose from.

When I tried out PDQ Sharp for the folks at the Strategist, TV Tropes was actually useful at the game table! I imagined the opposition according to the Five Bad Band, and took my pacing cues from Spirit of the Century's Pulp Plot Framework. The PCs only ever met the first two members of the rogues gallery, but here's the whole roster of villains from our French-Revolution-plus-colonizing-Mars* mash-up:

1. "The Brute" was a giant, genetically engineered super-woman --a mighty symbol of the Revolution's egalitarianism-- named Jeanette!


2. "The Dark Chick," or the member of the band that stands out for some reason, was One-Half Marat! Jacobin scientists managed to revive Marat, but not before irreparable brain damage had been done. Retrained as a monstrous agent of the revolution, One-Half Marat's flesh is made malleable in chemical bath treatments, making him a master of flesh-shaping! Seriously, He attacked a player character by reaching into his mouth and stretching out his jaws so they resembled those of a crocodile. Also, I'm tempted to sing, "Yakkity Yak! One-Half Marat!" every time I see the name.


3. "The Evil Genius" Dr... You know, I came up with a name, and I think I told it to buddha_davis, but I can't seem to remember it right now. He created Jeanette and One-Half Marat, the cybernetic Jacobin shock troops, and countless other monstrosities.


4. "The Dragon" is going to be a swordsman taught by Domenica Angelo or some other suitably awesome historical or fake fencing master.


5. Finally, "The Big Bad" is Louis Saint-Just, right hand man to Robespierre X (we've consistently pronounced it "ex" and not "ten" for some reason), who personally betrayed one of the player characters.

*Yes, this is the aforementioned " inspired suggestion" from Jeff H. All but the polar regions of Earth are uninhabitable, and the Assembly controls what's left of the Northern Hemisphere. The British Empire is based on the Moon, the United States control a lot mineral wealth in the asteroids, and we were never too clear on much else. The Holy Roman Empire, residing in South America and Antarctica(?), is not in their long decline; we decided to mix some Louis XIV/Three Musketeers-like conventions into our game and have a "Richelieu X" in the setting as well. The French imperial court is in exile near Olympus Mons, and the player characters are members of "The Olympian Guard." The fun of being ridiculously reactionary has not escaped some of the players.

It has come to my attention that using a software tool instead of marking up these entries by hand would be much, much faster. Next time, I'll see if I like Semagic any better (I ended up doing my markup by hand in that, too, before I un-installed it), or maybe I'll try LJ's "Rich text" editor. The excitement never stops!