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Commie: The Party |
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By James Haughton (Note:- Text that is in italics is quoted from the original article). Step 1: The Theme Of The Game Is The Character You Play Ok. "Commie" Step 2: Call It "Something: The Something Else" Commie: The Party Step 3: Set It In A World Almost Like Our Own Crucial step this. Your NAMG will not be set in a fantasy or future-fantasy setting. It will be set on Earth, either in the present day, or in the near-future. Anything else would be a bourgeois fantasy designed to be the opiate of the masses and sap the revolutionary spirit of the working class. Except that it's not quite like our Earth. It's close enough that the players will have some familiarity with the setting, but different enough that they will still have to buy "guidebooks" you publish for each geographical area. E.g.: Das Kapital; What is To Be Done; The thoughts of Chairman Mao; The Zapatista Manifesto; etc. On the surface, it is our world, a characteristically bourgeois statement, only the decadent capitalists think of this world as something that they can "own" as "theirs" but below it, hidden from the normal people the proletariat have always had the truth hidden from them! (that's basically everyone who isn't one of the "something") is a parallel society. and only The Party's understanding of Revolutionary theory enables them to penetrate the false consciousness created by the oppressors! This society has its own rules, its own rulers and its own places. of course, discipline, adherence to the teachings of Marx and the orders of the Secretariat, and the creation of secure facilities for the revolutionary struggle are crucial. The members of that society (e.g. the "something") know the real truth of the world. The rest haven't got a fucking clue. For they have had their exploitation hidden from them by the self-serving economic theories of the Capitalists! Step 4: Have Some Overall "Purpose" The Revolution, Comrade! You can't make this too over the top. The players must believe that the characters they are playing are really, really important. The more ludicrous and preposterous the premise, the better. And if you can tie it into existing myth or religion, possibly in some kind of distorted manner, that's even better. The Party, and only the Party, is in the revolutionary vanguard of the force of history and the intellectual leaders of the oppressed masses! In the beginning, before property relations were established, all men lived in a state of primitive communism. The proletariat have been systematically deceived by the purveyors of religion into believing they fell from this state through "sin", but in fact it was stolen from them when their surplus labour was expropriated by the imperialist bourgeois and their priestly lackeys. Step 4a: Contradict The Purpose Later on, you should bring out other games that are set within the same universe, but whose purpose contradicts the purpose in the original game. (E.g. if the characters in one game are correct in their view of the whys of the universe, then characters in the other game must be wrong). Feminist: the Liberation The Party has colluded in the oppression of women by focussing solely on the forces and relationships of production and not of reproduction. Smash the Masculinist "People's" State! Step 5: Powerful Nemesis Linked in with the overall purpose, should be a people or race or entity who are striving against whatever the purpose is. The capitalist plutocrats and their running-dog mercenaries are merciless in their persecution of the Revolutionaries, but ultimately they cannot stand against the force of history! Step 6: Have Groups / Tribes / Clans / Sects / Guilds Etc. You should create a number of groupings within the setting, with each character belonging to a single group. The choice of group influences not only the character's role within the setting, but also the personality, abilities and objectives of the character. Stalinists: The Purgers Stalinists are the bureaucrats and ideological guardians of the Party. They can be recognised by their grey suits and ugly moustaches. Trotskyists: The Permanent Revolutionaries Trotskyists are the intellectual class warriors of the party, ever extending the boundaries of theory and creating new points of resistance to the Multinational Capitalist World Order. Because of their individuality, they are often enemies of the Stalinists Guaveras: The Hippies The role of the Guaveras is to act as the youth vanguard of the party by making the Party "look cool". They attract party members with charisma, dress sense, and good contacts for dope. Maoists: The Guerrillas The role of the Maoists is to be the fists and feet of the party and to spread the party's doctrine far and wide, particularly in non-urban areas. Pol Pot/Shining Path: The Psychopaths The role of this important wing of the revolutionary struggle is to kill anyone and anything, and claim it was in the service or the revolution (We may as well build in a character class for the munchkins since we'll get them no matter what: See White Wolf First Generation Law) Step 6a: The Dead Group There should always be a group who no longer exist, and are now shrouded in myth and legend. Dubcekists, Allendeists, Gorbachovites: the humanists This legendary group, or groups, apparently demanded something called "socialism with a human face" but were viciously destroyed by the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie (though it is rumoured that some of these groups actually consisted of counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie - but many things are said of the Humanists) Step 6b: The Evil Group There should always be a group (in our example a "lifestyle") who are actively working against the "purpose" described in step 4. (Preferably, they should be working for the enemies described in step 5). The counter-revolutionary "intelligence" forces of the fascist capitalist states should never be underestimated in their capacity for subversion and oppression of the Party. Eternal Vigilance! Step 7: Extra Powers The characters - who are after all members of the special race or people - should have more and better abilities than normal people. Basically you want munchkins to be able to just ignore all the "angst" and "purpose" and "moral conflict" built into the setting, and instead power-build combat-monsters. Bomb-throwing, Marxist theory, rousing the revolutionary spirits of the masses, liquidating the bourgouis... Step 8: No Advantages Or Disadvantages OK, not done Step 10: Use Archaic Terminology When you are writing your rules, the last thing you must do is call a spade a spade. The thesaurus is your friend. If you want to have an attribute which measures strength, do not call it strength. Instead, find an obscure word, not used in everyday conversation since the 17th century, and use that instead. The forces and relationships of production determine whether the Revolutionary is in the vanguard of scientific history as a member of a class for itself, or merely of itself; and this transition will only be achieved through an understanding of the fetishization of property relations under the neo-colonialist system... etc... Step 11: Don't Call The Party, The "Party" Never call the party, the "party". Think of a posh name to use instead. The People's Revolutionary Democratic Front. or "The Cell" or "The Cadre" Step 12: Catchy Phrases Come up with some catchy phrases to describe the game, something poetical, possibly from the Keats era. Workers of The World, Unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains! Step 13: LARP At some point release an LARP version The struggle must not be theoretical but must be carried to the Workers! using Paper Scissors Stone... umm... and proceed through an in-depth understanding of working-class culture and recreation! Step 14: The T-Shirts Don't forget to release T-shirts with obscure images from the main book, which by second edition will have the dodgy (but possibly grittier) graphics in it removed and the marketable ones inserted. The message of the party must be brought to the forefront of the attention of the proletariat through bypassing the means of information controlled by the plutocratic leeches! Step 15: The Second Edition And finally, the second edition. Make sure that the first edition includes enough mistakes and limitations that you are able to produce a second edition just a few years after the first. I will strive to uphold the resolutions of the second... third... fourth... twenty-sixth party congess... Text copyright � 2002 James Haughton |
