Technocracy HERO

[Metaphysician]

Seems to me that the basic idea behind the Technocracy could make for a decent sci-fi campaign, particularly if you cleaned the TU up some so its more squickier elements.

Any thoughts??

[sinanju]

Could be. In my "World of Darkness" campaigns (vampires, werewolves, extra mages and hold the angst), the Technocracy never took center stage. All the mages were "orphans" (i.e., self-taught with no connection to any sort of real magical tradition), and their only knowledge of the Technocracy came from an NPC mage who looked and sounded suspiciously like Trinity from THE MATRIX. She sounded like a paranoid lunatic, but they couldn't be sure she wasn't right.

My only real suggestion is that the Technocracy should be played straight. They're good guys, at least in their own eyes. Yes, they're ruthless. Yes, they want absolute control of the world--but it's in a good cause. For uncounted millennia the supernatural has ruled the world; humans have been pawns, slaves, food, to various creatures from vampires to werewolves to gods, and magic has been a powerful, chaotic force throughout history.

With the establishment of the Technocracy and their attempt to formalize and regularize the workings of the world, they have a chance--at last--to slam the door shut on the last of the monsters...and bolt it forever. If this means imprisoning, mind-controlling or murdering all the vampires, werewolves, mages and other reality deviants along the way, well, omelettes and eggs.

[Metaphysician]

I don't know, thats the thing: If I were yanking them out of their home setting to be used as the Good Guys, I'd want to cut down on the ruthless genocide aspect. Sending in the MiBs to raid a gathering of Nephandic cultists: good. Sending in the MiBs to raid a church where the priest is doing healings: bad.

[Trencher]

Note to self: buy Technocracy book.

[Mutant for Hire]

To me, the World of Darkness had so many good ideas which it had a rather shallow and sometimes immature implementation to them. The Technocracy was one of them. Mankind was besiged by monsters, in the thrall of powerful sorcerors, and so they restructred reality to create science and technology which would be available to everyone. They drove back the monsters and they've been trying to make the world a safe and ordered place. In their own eyes, they're the heroes.

Sadly, like most WW implementations, the implementation fell way short of the concept. Alas. WW books tend to be excellent source material for campaigns using better systems, but on their own they tend to fall short.

[Curufea]

This is one of the problems when roleplaying companies employ different writers for the same setting, and those writers aren't communicating with each other.

[Kristopher]

White Wolf, as a whole, seems to have a very postmodern, even antimodern set of beliefs that influences most of their work.

[James Gillen]

Alas. WW books tend to be excellent source material for campaigns using better systems,

That's why there's HERO.

jg

[Katherine]

I agree strongly with Metaphyscian. The Technocracy wouldn't be hard to present as the Heroes of their own setting. In Mage they kind of illustrate the cliche that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions anyway. You should see some of the debates and flamewars over the Union being the Good Guys on Mage forums.

I think you'd have to drop the New World Order faction, tone down some of the icker aspects of Progenitors and..the faction that deals with cyborgs and cybertechnology ( I forget their name).

[NuSoardGraphite]

I think you'd have to drop the New World Order faction, tone down some of the icker aspects of Progenitors and..the faction that deals with cyborgs and cybertechnology ( I forget their name).

Interation X.

Collectively, the Technocracy makes for a great enemy organization. Individually, the Technocrats should be good and noble individuals, for the most part. Of course there will be evil and sadistic individuals amongst their ranks...as there are amongst the file and ranks of every large organization (there are no exceptions there) but by and large, like the majority of individuals in the world are "inherently good" so to the individual technocrats should be good people as well. I present them this way when I run W.O.D.

In the next campaign I plan to run, I'm going to have the Technocracy coming out on the top. They've technically won the Ascension War against the Traditions (Tradition mages have mostly fled to distant Horizon realms...the weaker mages all hiding on earth) and they've turned their sites on the next big threat...the Vampires. PC Vampires are now going to have to deal with Interation X cyborgs and MiB's chasing them down at every turn.

While this is going on, no one realises that The Wyrm is making its move. The Werewolves are nearly extinct from the constant battles against their ancient foe. And on top of this, The Child of Darkness has been born in the earth...he is the Avatar of The Wyrm...the chosen one to lead the Armies of Darkness to victory over the Forces of Light (etc, etc).

The Matrix movies play a somewhat large role in the plot of the game. Basically, the Wachowski brothers were Masters of Time who recieved a vision of the future and received a vision of what needed to be done to avoid the earths destruction. They warned the Council of Nine, but were ignored. Thus, they made The Matrix films as a warning to any Mage who bothered to pay attention and hope that some of them would get their message and prepare for the End Times.

The Machines = The Weaver/Technocracy
The Rebels/Zion = Tradition Mages and orphans
The Exiles/Rouge programs = Other Supernaturals like Vamps and Werewolves and Changelings etc. who are of questionable allegience (note, in The Matrix Reloaded, The Merovingian's bodygaurds were all Vampire and Werewolf programs. This was explained in the videogame Enter the Matrix. nifty eh)
Agent Smith = The Wyrm

Basically, the Wachowski brothers believed that in order for humanity to survive the coming apocalypse, that the Traditions and the Technocracy must cooperate and combine their strength. Gathering as many alllies from the other Supernatural elements as they could. Otherwise, The Wyrm would eventually assimilate, then ultimately consume every being on the earth until there was nothing left...just like Agent Smith did in Revolution.

I know I'm smoking crack, but it was some pretty good crack I think...

[tkdguy]

I always thought The Matrix could pass for a great Mage campaign, with the Neo and gang being Virtual Adepts and Agent Smith and his goons being Iteration X.

[AmadanNaBriona]

To jump over from another thread I was reading....
watching Equilibrium gives a good example of how one could run the Technocracy as "good" guys, and still be the main story villans. Essentially, its just a matter of taking the "the good of the many" ideal and expanding on the logical evils inherent in any absolute system.

[Kristopher]

I'm working on a character at the moment, who might contain some interesting crossover potential for concept and mechanics ideas that would apply to a Technocracy HERO or cyber-future campaign.


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