Years ago, the dark lord forged his weapons. Nine they were, watches of exquisite workmanship. One for the Fords, one for the Rockafellers, one for the Kennedys, one for Capone and another one for Hughs. But that's five and of the other four history does not tell. And these weapons he gave to the great and the powerful but like all his gifts there was a catch. For in his magic kingdom, the lord made another watch and this he linked with cunning and esoteric sciences to the nine and through this link controlled them with lies and truths long hidden. And he raised up a castle and a park like a temple of science in the guise of a child's fairy kingdom and he brought them and their children into it and by the time they left he owned them. But his bitterness cankered within him and he was brought low and bound in a chamber of frozen slumber waiting. But the master watch was lost.

And the world turned and the slow cold thoughts of his heart that he wound within the watches ticked on. Years flowed by with smoke and smog and turmoil and war and the world teetered on the brink. Some say that Nixon took the master watch from Kenedy and took it to China. Others tell that Bill Gates or Steve Jobs had it. Some say the government has it locked away or that Regan used it and some of the lesser watches to overthrow the Soviet union. But now, new lights are rising in the magic kingdom. New sciences are spreading his vision across the silver screen. And soon the science needed to break the bands of death itself will be in the hands of his inner circle and the dark lord will rise again to rule the earth.

Still my own leaning was more towards absurdist techno pulp horror. The watches are mainly listening devices and subetheric transmitters that can decode most coded messages. Except Navaho of course. (huh, how is that spelled anyhow?)

And the dark lord is Walt Disney, not some fallen angel. Here, the enemy is a very clean cut and unified middle class movement who's aim is cultural homogenity and the purification of The United States of America from all "troubling and unwholesome thoughts and ideas" by any means necessary. The nine are the top business and entertainment executives. And the opposition are hippies and artists and writers with, perhaps, Phillip K Dick as Gandalf and Paul McCartney as Sauruman...I'm not quite sure...Who's sold out the very most?

I'd think the real conflict is puritan cultural homogenity verses diversity it's a very counter culture conflict. You'd want the heroes to go home and find their wife in a cute frock with an apron on and meatloaf on the table. That's true horror right? Willing servitude to the idea of normality.

So, I guess it winds up more narrative in some ways right until the agents in tuxedoes are rappelling out of helicopters in the middle of the nightly show at the castle with fireworks and frenzied crowds and a running gun battle in the happiest place on earth.

See, I can build that stuff into GURPS characters but there has to be some kind of willpower attrition going on. You know, it reminds me of, well "IT" in A Wrinkle In Time really. That ongoing throbbing rythm that rules a world in fear and horror.

I'm thinking a d6 system derived inverted dice pool where one failure is total failure. You generally need more downward mobility in a task system. So you roll 3d6 for an average task and if you roll a single one you fail.

Stats and Skills are in full dice amounts that are subtracted from the difficulty dice.

So an average difficulty would be 6d6 and an average stat would be 3d6.

The Force Points equivalent would be the selling out verses standing up factor. Selling out gives a bonus and standing up gives a penalty but when your Convictions are gone you become one more willess puppet who buys what they're told, where they're told.

Stats could be Strength, Personality, Insight, Knowledge, and Coordination. Strength Skills: Lifting, Striking, Running, Swimming. Personality Skills: Art, Conversation, Intimidation, Oration, Outrage. Insight Skills: Observation, Prediction, Reasoning, Resonating, Research. Knowledge Skills: Culture, History, Medicine, Science, Technology. Agility Skills: Climb, Dance, Defense, Drive, Shooting.

Combat's a basic wound level system with wound levels stacking to higher wound levels. Damage is a fixed Strength target number by weapon with unarmed attacks at Strength and at around 7d.

What Happened?

In a Roleplaying Game the dice rolls determine the course the story-line takes.  The players determine their character's actions and the referee sets the difficulty levels but everyone has to abide by the dice rolls and work with what they get.  That's the fun part of the game improvising a story that can have real unexpected twists and turns.

So, when a player declares their character wants to do something, the referee sets a number of dice that must be rolled to represent the difficulty of the action and the player subtracts their character's skill or characteristic score to find the final number of dice that will be rolled.  If a single one is rolled the action fails.  Greater numbers of ones can be taken to indicate greater degrees of failure.  An action of average difficulty is rolled on seven dice.  An average skill or characteristic is three dice, with the broad human range of capabilty being represented by one to six with a three being low average and a four being high average.

The inverted dice pool's an interesting idea, if you're just counting the 1s as failures. If 6s cancel out 1s I'm not sure it'll work - unless I'm missing something the number of 6s and 1s rolled will be on average equal, regardless of dice pool (cf. White Wolf's original games botching issue at difficulty 10).

The other interesting thing is you could actually have stats going down as they got better if you wanted. Then lower difficulties and characters roll [stat+difficulty] to get their fail pool.

Setting sounds hilarious.

Forgive me if someone's already mentioned this but the recent kinda-horror-kinda comedy "Escape From Tomorrow" (beautifully photographed, BTW) is required watching for this.

It was filmed on location in Disneyworld without permission.

The point of the inverted dice pool is making more room for higher difficulty levels while allowing higher stats to be better.  Also, I want a pretty low whiff factor for this because it's intended to be heroic/pulpy in tone.

Incidental Risks

The sequence in which characters take their actions is determined by risk bidding with the highest risk taking the first action.  Risk is added to the difficulty of a character's actions.


Acting Up
A character can also take extra actions.  Each extra action attempted in a turn adds one to the difficulty of all the actions attempted.  Second actions happen after everyone involved in the incident has taken their first action.  Third actions happen after all second actions and so on.

Convictions

Spending a conviction point adds one to the character's skill or characteristic.  Any number of conviction points can be spent but when their conviction hits zero they become converted to the cause of uniformity and harmony.  Conviction points can be recovered later if the results are in line with the character's ideals or if they perform some penance or self sacrificing act to regain them.

Ideological Foundations

The ideals of individuals play an important mechanical role in these rules.  They determine whether Conviction points are regained and how.  Normally Conviction points return at the end of the game week on a given day.  For a Christian it would be Sunday and for a wage slave it's Friday at 5:00 PM.  Each ideolgy also provides a ritualistic requirement to atone for deeds that conflict with it.  To continue the prior example, the Christian goes to confession or perhaps makes a significant sacrifice of time or money to the church while the wage slave engages in retail therapy.

I may build these into full template characters eventually.

Anarchist
The law and government are the root of all evil and an anarchist is in a constant state of war with all branches of government.
Taboos: paying taxes or fines, voting for an incumbant
Atonement: vandalism of government property, harrassing elected officials or police
Recovery: saturday, the enemy's day off

Artist or Musician
Whether art reflects or shapes society it never pays very well unless you're willing to sell out and produce trend following pap for the masses.
Taboos: covering popular songs, self censorship, working a day job
Atonement: buying expensive new instruments and supplies, offending mothers everywhere, massive drug trips
Recovery: Monday is a great day to stop procrastinating

Christian, Jew, or Muslim
Cultural homogenity is a threat to cultural diversity.  The new ways are not the old ways.  It's doubtful whether satanism is a greater threat than advertising.
Taboos: Other religious practices, doubt and atheism, murder, lying, adultry, covetousness, theft
Atonement: confession, good works, cash donations
Recovery: Saturday for Jews and Muslims, Sunday for Christians

Criminal
Crime and more importantly fear of crime are a fundamental force of cultural homogenity.  But criminals, while useful to the overlords, are in themselves, by definition, free individuals.  Perhaps that is why prison systems are increasingly build around reforming them.
Taboos: rating, squealing, turning state's evidence, hangin' your pals out to dry
Atonement: getting out of town for a while, lying low, keeping your nose clean
Recovery: Saturday night special

Eco Justice Warrior
The corporations are killing mother earth but you can still save her.  Global warming must be stopped, the polution of the ocean must be stopped, logging and fishing must be stopped.
Taboos: fossil fuel heating and transportation, littering, genetically modified foods
Atonement: attending protests, planting trees, tying self to construction equipment
Recovery: Friday or rather Frey's day

Hedonist
We're here for a good time, not a long time, so have a good time the sun can't shine everyday.  Addicted to sex and drugs, the pleasure seeker is free from influence through lack of concern or consciousness.  Still they are a rather effective boogey man in the hands of the overlords.
Taboos: work, responsibility, family
Atonement: serious bender, infidelity, drug overdose
Recovery: the day after

Hooligan
The world's a tough place full of tough guys just looking for a fight.  That's all there is to it.  Guys on top and guys on the bottom and no better or faster way to put the other guy on the bottom than a sharp left hook to the face.
Taboos: backing down, polite deference, showing respect to anyone or anything
Atonement: hitting people for no reason, hitting smaller and weaker people, causing serious bodily harm to opponents that are already down
Recovery: Monday night football

Social Justice Warrior

Wage Slave
Living from pay cheque to paycheque on the bare edges of survival is a harsh and stressful existence.  For this reason, the working poor are often free individuals undominated by the overlords.
Taboos: working overtime, fucking the boss, taking a management position
Atonement: retail therapy, hitting the bar, stealing office supplies
Recovery: thank God it's Friday

Yahoo
According to Gulliver's Travels a "Yahoo" is a person who couldn't behave in a civilized fashion if they were naked.  They are in fact animals under their attire.  Yahoos believe all kinds of wild conspiracies and urban legends and love to embrace new ones and tell other people in knowing tones about what is really going on.  They may be fools but they are nearly invulnerable to maniputation and harmonious thought patterns.

Taboos: reason, logic, deeply considering the evidence, keeping it to themselves
Atonement: writing a book or building a website to support a crackpot theory
Recovery: thursday, that's really Thor's day because this is secretly a pagan nation and using the days of the week supports a satanic agenda.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;699813The inverted dice pool's an interesting idea, if you're just counting the 1s as failures. If 6s cancel out 1s I'm not sure it'll work - unless I'm missing something the number of 6s and 1s rolled will be on average equal, regardless of dice pool (cf. White Wolf's original games botching issue at difficulty 10).

The other interesting thing is you could actually have stats going down as they got better if you wanted. Then lower difficulties and characters roll [stat+difficulty] to get their fail pool.

Setting sounds hilarious.

You're right of course, the ones and sixes cancel out too much.  Oh well, I'll scrap the sixes for the moment.

But on with the show...

While mere physical conflict certainly plays a role in These Rules (easy to find and replace when I come up with a name I like) there are weightier matters to consider.  Massive protests and riots, infoterrorism, whispering campaigns, boycotts, and letter bomb writing campaigns to name a but a few.  Because the objectives of the player characters are not mere wealth or power.  They seek significant social change.  Many of these activities are accomplished by large groups following a leader.  Of course being a leader is dangerous but at times martyrdom can be the most effective thing one accomplishes in a long life of strife.

Group activities are governed by the leader's actions.  The success roll for the action itself is made using the median skill or characteristic.  That is to say the skill or characteristic level that is most common within the group.  A successful Leadership roll brings out the best in the group and the group action is resolved with a one die bonus to the appropriate median skill or chararacteristic, while, if the Leadership test fails the group action is resolved with a one die penalty to the median skill or characteristic.  The difficulty of the Leadership roll is six plus one for every time the number of participants is increased by a factor of ten.  So, for instance, directing a group of seven would indicate a difficulty of six dice but directing a group of a seven million would indicate a difficulty of thirteen dice.  In the case of groups of leaders, the top leader rolls to determine how well their subordinates do, who in turn roll for the overall activity.  Of course, larger groups pretty much automatically contain more traitors, agents, and slackers so dangerous and illegal activities are best attempted with smaller groups.

Making Something Of Yourself
Characters are created by distributing twenty-five points between the skills and characteristics, with characteristics costing two points and skills lower than their associated characteristic costing one point.  Characteristics cannot be increased beyond six and skills cannot be increased beyond their governing Characteristic.

The player and gamemaster must then determine appropriate Taboos, Rituals, and Recovery terms for the character in question using the sample templates as guide lines.

So, I think it's time to talk about the forces of the opposition.

At the top of course are the holders of the nine.  Powerful global executives and world class celebrities who each have one of the nine watches.  Generally these are people who started lower on the totem pole and have used the power of the watches to make room at the top as it were.  I'm not going to go as far as naming names.  The nine should be shadowy figures after all but one of the powers of the watches is that the use of their names on telephones and the internet is sorted for threats which makes it very hard to scheme against them.

Of course, the internet is bound.  Between intellectual property laws, anti bullying laws, and precrisis intervention software, the internet in all it's forms belongs to the nine and serves them.  No longer is the internet the liberator, now it's the enemy.  The net now tells you what to think and how to vote and how to tie your shoelaces.  Underground newspapers and comics run off on aging presses and photocopiers are now the only voices of dissent.

On the home front every neighbourhood has a security council and it's members are ever eager to help with the kids or the cleaning.  Security councils report direct to the thought police.

The thought police are especially loyal officers who have received extra training in psychology and public relations.  Originally they started out as new, experimental units in existing departments but over time it became obvious that a more national network was evolving and so the National Psychiatric Intervention Association became a force unto itself in the evolution of law enforcement.  If they can stop a crime before it happens and rehabilitate the perpetrator society on the whole benefits.

The Happy Housewife movement is sweeping America and Europe.  Women are returning to the kitchen and leaving the breadwinning to the men.  With extra time on their hands they can bear and raise as many children as they want and still bake cookies for the Neighbourhood Security Council bake sale.  Don't think these women are weak or soft, they've liberated themselves for work so they can have time for themselves and their children and the milkman and their husband.

Speaking of Milkmen, new health regulations have pulled milk and bread out of the grocery stores and put it back in the independent local bakery and on the truck where they belong.  Door to door milk delivery is a government funded program that has cut infertility rates in half.

With the new baby boom and free delivery at all participating hospitals America is closing the doors to immigration.  America need no longer steal away doctors and professionals from less fortunate countries.  The new Life Pannels assure that medical resources aren't wasted and that all Americans get what is coming to them.

The Youth Corps is a blossoming movement that encourages childred to help society in helpful ways like reporting their parents thought crimes and encouraging other children to conform through good natured teasing and rough housing.  The Youth Corps wear bright yellow uniforms and caps with smiley face badges for good deeds done in the service of America.

Well back to mechanics for a moment

With the difficulty of sociological actions being set at six dice plus one die per factor of ten it's pretty easy to work out the difficulty of effecting changes on society which is where our real conflict takes place.  Protests and advertising campaigns and working subversive ideas into tightly censored TV shows towards a goal of social change.

So, effecting a change that influences a million people has a difficulty of twelve.  In practice these things have to be accomplished by building up smaller outcomes to larger outcomes.  But even if the players manage to influence a hundred million people in a single act, that will draw the kind of attention that will get them killed.

Of course the scope of the change one can expect from a single action is limited.  You can't just throw the master watch into Space Mountain on live TV and expect it to change the world overnight.  Deeply seated attitudes must be challenged, complacency must be undermined and fear replaced with anger.

The entire population of the world is in the billions.  That puts things up to twenty dice.  The population of North America is in the hundreds of millions, so nineteen dice.  This is the "Base Conformity Index Value" that can be used to track the impact of the characters on the long campaign for discontent.  To alter it by a single point should be the work of an entire scenario.  Else the game becomes to easy.

I was thinking about calling this "Worst Case Scenario", but I think "Best Case Scenario" might be better though I wonder if people's irony detectors would burn out.