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Gaming Historical Zeitgeists


cyst13

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I primarily run historical games and one of the most interesting aspects of history for me is the transformation of zeitgeists, paradigms, world-views, or whatever you wish to call them. For example, I'm currently reading a book "The Soul Made Flesh" by Carl Zimmer, which is about an English physician in the mid seventeenth century who dissected human bodies in order to understand the function of the brain. The book posits that up until this time, human personality, intelligence, and even basic life processes were believed to be the doings of an immaterial and immortal soul. Willis, the physician under discussion, was among the first people to shift this idea toward the notion that thought is a physical process carried out by the 'flesh' of the brain.

 

Now, my question. What would be a good way of working an essentially intellectual issue like this into an RPG? I want to present the PCs with a story that involves them with one of these worldview changing ideas. (heliocentric astronomy, infectious disease theory, evolution, and relativity/quantum physics would be other examples of such ideas) I thought about having an investigation of some sort that would involve the PCs interacting with Willis and his colleagues at the Royal Society. I don't want to just have them ask questions like, "So, doctor, what are you working on these days?" in order to have the good doctor launch into an extended monologue on the nature of the brain. Rather, I would like the idea-shift itself to be central to the plot. There's the rub. The standard RPG plots don't accomodate this sort of idea very well.

 

Also, I would appreciate suggestions on how best to intsill in players the sense of the old paradigm. So many people today take it for granted that our brains do our thinking (myself included) that the players would may not understand why this seems so revolutionary to all the NPCs. How to school the players in the old zeitgeist (thought is an action of the immortal soul) without making them feel that they are back in school?

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Re: Gaming Historical Zeitgeists

 

Explain what you're trying to accomplish to your players without trying to sound like an expert. Also, giving them articles and guidelines to read will help. In any case, keep it short and sweet, or you'll bore your players.

 

That being said, it all depends on whether your players are able to get into the spirit of things. My Falkenstein campaign was in some ways a disaster because the players couldn't get into character, and I didn't explain the setting well enough. Granted, I know more about the subject now, but I also know the people I game with aren't interested in historical (or in one case, fantasy) settings.

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Re: Gaming Historical Zeitgeists

 

Ever read The Alienist, by Caleb Carr? It's set in turn of the century New York, and the zeitgeists include the emerging sciences of psychology and criminal profiling, as well as challenging society's belief that criminals are born and not made.

 

The engine that drives the story is the hunt for a serial killer. The proto-psychologist wants to study the killer's pathology; his friend the reporter is drawn in by his knowledge of the criminal underworld, etc...

 

My point is... that you have to have action and conflict. So one npc dictating these new discoveries to the players, not exciting. On the other hand, if the players are investigating the murders of doctors who are researching the brain, then said research becomes more relevant to the players, especially when it helps lead them to the killers. Maybe the doctors were killed by members of the clergy who didn't want these doctors to give the masses a reason to begin to doubt the existence of the soul.

 

Just my two cents.

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Re: Gaming Historical Zeitgeists

 

Don't preach.

 

Seriously. Especially given the inspiration for your campaign (not the subject matter, but the kind of inspiration, a philosophical idea), don't turn it into a 'bully pulpit' for the philosophical concept. Have the story, not the dialogue, present the idea, in the context of a conflict between the PCs and their opponents. And the conflict doesn't necessarily have to fall along the lines of the opposing forces in the philosophical debate.

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Re: Gaming Historical Zeitgeists

 

... I would like the idea-shift itself to be central to the plot. There's the rub. The standard RPG plots don't accomodate this sort of idea very well.

 

Also, I would appreciate suggestions on how best to intsill in players the sense of the old paradigm. ...

 

I'm not sure this can be done well without excellent players, but it's a cool idea. Here are a few ideas:

 

It might help to merge the paradigm shift with a conventional RPG plot. I think the Matrix is a decent example here. It plays on the old idea that the world could be an illusion perpetuated with some kind of sinister intent (a notion that goes back at least to Descartes, probably much further). If this idea is revealed as the truth in your world (as in the world of the Matrix), it becomes a paradigm shift. The Matrix uses this change as dressing for an action movie (which is a bit more exciting than reading Descartes or Berkely, for me at least, YMMV), but it is still essential to the story.

 

Also, making the paradigm shift contrary to expectations of the RPG genre would make the shift more real for the players. When aliens show up in a JLA/Avengers-style Champions game, no one is terribly surprised; but I once played in a swords-and-sorcery-flavored D&D game where aliens landed. The DM made the rest of the plot very conventional, so the arrival of a spaceship with little green men was a real surprise. I think introducing any modern scientific concepts into a pre-modern fantasy campaign can have that effect if the players are fully invested in the genre and the setting.

 

You say your games are primarily historical: are they still fantasy? If your characters believe they can be raised from the dead with their memories and abilities intact, they're already accepting that they have souls that contain (or at least duplicate) the information in their minds/brains. Playing on this assumption could be interesting: e.g, a slain NPC with vital information could be reanimated in a new body, but might know nothing of his previous life; telepathic examination of the brain of his dead body could reveal the vital information. The key is getting the players to see this as anomalous at first (why does this guy's dead body have these powers?), until they realize it's true of everyone (his body isn't magical: we're all like this: is this fantasy or the real world?).

 

If your games are more realistic, I think it could be very difficult, especially if the players approach the setting with a modern perspective. If they think an NPC who speaks in tongues is an unfortunate victim of schizophrenia who would be properly diagnosed and treated in the modern world, you've got your work cut out for you. Making your players believe they're in a fantasy world without ever giving them direct evidence of any magic (e.g. they're told about monsters and wizards, but they never actually encounter them; they have items they believe to be magical, but they don't have any real evidence of their power) could establish the right frame of mind.

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Re: Gaming Historical Zeitgeists

 

Excellent post, Uncle Shecky, and my thoughts are similar. cyst13, your campaign philosophy sounds very cool. I can only think of a handful of people I've played with who could (or would) wrap their heads around such subtle concepts in a gaming context, though. More often I see PCs introducing modern concepts into archaic settings. You've set yourself an interesting challenge.

 

Off the top of my head, I'd say you might do well to feature a paradigm shift that starts with intuitive tenets and moves toward less intuitive ones. By intuitive I mean ideas that are easy for the players to buy into - either fairly "common sense" ideas (like "swamp vapors cause disease" or "only enlightened people should govern" or "only a sick mind would defile dead people for the sake of useless knowledge") or ideas that are well-ingrained in the gaming/fantasy genres (like "wild animals are the enemies of man" or "criminals are rightly slain"). These would be easy to establish as "truth" early on in the game. Demonstrate how the belief is useful in the setting. Make it seem like a sacrifice or a leap of faith to move away from that mindset.

 

The tough part is somehow inducing the players to understand that the new paradigm should not be embraced readily. Even though the players will (almost certainly) be aware that the new idea is more valid, they must have good reason not to simply dive in head-first and accept it. Of course we're mostly talking about social pressures. Some ideas might be:

 

- The PCs have a patron, DNPC, romantic interest or other important NPC with a strong opinion about the old paradigm. Legitimizing the new idea might ostracize them. Then design the plot such that the PCs have to portray themselves as believing the new idea, or associate with a proponent of it, or something else that would tick off the NPC. (This will invariably make that NPC look like an ignoramus, though.)

 

- The new idea is espoused by a despicable NPC, while the old worldview is maintained by the "good guys." The PCs will be hesitant to throw their lot in with the bad guy, even if he's got one or two good ideas. Captain Nemo is a great example of this. The "bad guy" might even be a swindler or con man who doesn't actually believe the new idea himself, but cribbed it from somewhere else and is using it to his own nefarious ends.

 

- Couch the old paradigm in trappings that appeal to modern sensibilities, while the new paradigm seems archaic, rustic, superstitious, absurd or otherwise unglamorous to a 21st century Westerner. For instance, modern Americans are fairly mistrusting of blind dogma and are more likely to sympathize with a rebel free-thinker. So if it suits the sensibilities of your players, set up a scenario (as a cliche example) during the time when the Catholic Church condemned witch-hunting as pagan ignorance. Portray the church as dogmatic and dictatorial, while a group of underground rebels - glamorous free-thinkers with modern appeal - secretly hunts witches. Now you've got a scenario in which it's more immediately appealing to modern gamers to join the witch-hunters, even though that's clearly the more ignorant stance. Other ideas might be enlightened scientists who believe the old way and brainwashed cultists who believe the new way; or a savvy, worldly old-thinker and a superstitious "old wife" as the new-thinker.

 

- If you have a fantasy element, design it in such a way that moving to the new worldview actually decreases the fantasy and/or decreases the PCs' power. This might be too powerful an incentive, though. :)

 

This is an interesting line of thinking. I'm going to revisit this when I start up my fantasy campaign again.

 

-AA

 

Edit: I forgot to second Uncle Shecky's idea that since you control reality in the campaign world, you can make the players unsure whether or not the old paradigm is actually wrong. If you drop them a clue or two that maybe the lunatic really is possessed by demons, they'll be less enthusiastic about embracing the theory of simple mental illness. Nor would this be unrealistic; it's not as if odd coincidences don't happen in real life.

 

There's also the notion that the PCs are "unreliable observers" -- you tell them straight out that they see a monster looming in the dark forest, but later, in the daylight, they see that it's actually a dead tree. Or while they're performing an illegal autopsy on a murder victim, they see the corpse looking directly at them just before lightning strikes the roof. It's the character's imagination, but the players will be unsure whether you meant it that way or not.

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Re: Gaming Historical Zeitgeists

 

Austen,

 

You are a very devious GM. I respect that. I really like two of your suggestions. Having a charismatic NPC represent the incorrect paradigm and using the players' personality preferences against them. I think I'm going to work both of these aspects into my campaign. Thanks for the tips.

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Re: Gaming Historical Zeitgeists

 

This is a bit of a tangent but only a bit, I think it has relevance. If not, please forgive...

 

Anyway, this thread made me think of something. The Justice Squad, the PC group I GM for, has undergone subtle but important changes in their views, verging on worldviews, though that is going a bit far (as I said, not wholly relevant). But I think in many ways they are responding to some of how I'm using this campaign as the potential turning point, for better or worse, in human/mutant relations.

 

Basically, at the beginning of the campaign, they were drawn together as a fairly typical vigilante superhero group with plausibly deniable (i.e., secret and limited) government backing. What makes this group atypical is their growing power level (deliberate) and that they are rapidly growing into very poweful heroes from relatively seemingly humble origins (as heroes go) .What they've faced since then has been the government, in a fragmented way, trying to control supers, with tactics ranging from benevelont to malevelont, strongly pro-integration mutants, strongly separatist mutants, and a sea of humanity that is conflicted on its opinion. As their power levels first grew they did continue to do the right things, on the surface, but the two more leadership-oriented PCs (Troll and Laughton) took them in a more dark direction, particularly behind the scenes. It got worse as one character, one of the two leadership ones, the Troll, embraced the Necronomicon and found the science behind it, and became increasingly without regard to the moral implications of his on-the-surface-all-good (especially to him) acts. Another character, Spectrum, ran into issues with occult possessoin while struggling with a seeming increasing "chaotic good verging on chaotic neutral" (to be extremely simplisitc) attitude and became an alcoholic.

 

but as things came to a head, both of these PCs faced their inner demons. The Troll found the book was insidiously infecting those he loved and becoming uncontrollable,despite what he thought was his ability to control it all. He had to fight that book and the Lovecraftian being behind it (of the same name), in the process destroying and rebuilding himself, physically. The Justice Squad pulled together of course and helped, probably saving him from being stuck with the thing he was fighting forever in this nexus region (inhabited by Nyarlathotep among other nasties, and a gateway among dimensions). The experience of how his abuse of his power could have ruined his loved ones and ultimately the entire world (if not our universe) sunk in. He regained a new respect for handling his power and went totally "clean and sober", becoming a new figure (as his old Troll identity had been altered anyway) as Nexus, Master of Dimensions, a real good guy, and even turning himself in eventually for a murder he had committed (a revenge killing of a thug who killed his mother on Kingpin's (via many intermediares) orders). Meanwhile the entire team began to question their modus operandi, or, if they already had, became more active in keeping things more responsible. Laughton, the other leadership-oriented character, has remained a shadowy figure who deals in half-truths, conspiracies, and plausible denaibility (that's who he is) but he is forced to participate in this sea change. And here's an important thing - Laughton has long been the one among the Justcie Squad (well not counting the 4-year old lifeform Sammy who naively trusts many people) sticking up for Magneto to some degree, and trying to get Magneto to moderate his actions. he has served as a continual sort of leverage point among the mutant struggle for identity. Meanwhile Nexus, having suffered directly a near-fatal attack from Magneto, has little room for negotiation or sympathy with the radical. The team fights over what role they should play regularly and moreso now.

 

Just recently they found out that a long-trusted (though not well-liked) NPC, Jonas Hell, had been betraying them. Long story as to how and why, but it was of course a bad istuation for all. As they confronted him and it, they struggled with how to handle it. In the past they may well have put his brain back into a dog, turned him into the feds (they now have power to do that and in this situation they could have), or other options. Instead they chose to simply walk away from it after an emotional discussion.

 

The point is, the tensions and evolution of this team seem to align with the mutant/human struggle as well as (just as importantly) the crisis in society of what role metahumans should play. I have set up a number of situations to demonstrate the world around them - the J. Jonah Jameson of the world now in prison, perhaps permanently, as the Feds suppress the truth, the use of mutants as slaves by some bigoted elite, the horrible misjudgement and wrecklessness and anti-humanity that put Magneto in ;league briefly with al-Qaeda, the opportunity to infiltrate the dark life-manipulating ABC Corp (which is the organization that may have bred or discovered Sammy and held him for experiments in his infancy) with info and assistance from Magneto, etc..

 

Would more info on this be of interest? The campaign issues and world info are under http://www.asterick.com/realschluss/x-champions/ and I can have the players comment in this thread as to how they see the worldview stuff as some of them are on the boards already (Chromatic, Lamrok, Lemming). It isn't the same as what you're talking about though, it's more superficial than zeitgiest, it's really just culture. But if you're interested do advise. If you are not, I would TOTALLY understand, no need to feel like you have to say "uh, sure, yeah, uh, I'm interested." ;)

 

by the way I like the term "essence" myself, a friend and I in school and since have posited but obviously not published some ideas on "essences" in Western Civilization, tha thwich underlies cultuer and society but is subordinate to a larger civilization, it is the mindset of the grater eras. I don't want to get in more as this thread will definitely verge way off-topic then as many of our ideas are debatable enough, even if (I think) not particularly controversial as such.

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Re: Gaming Historical Zeitgeists

 

I launched a supers game that kinda approached this also. How did I do this?

 

I wanted to explore the turning point in criminology when Vidocq first came to unify crime tracking methods, like the invention of Fingerprinting, keeping criminal records, and using the techniques of crime to actually go undercover and combat the criminals. And then i wanted to overlay this on top of the time when criminal investigations were put to their utmost test, which would be the hunt for Jack the Ripper.

 

The basic way I approached it was first recruiting them into the Vidocq society, an organization using criminal techniques in todays day and age to go beyond the law to support justice. Each of the players had their own troubled past whcih was exploited to get them into the group.

 

Next came the principle players, the latest generation of the Aberlines, who still had not lived down his grandfathers failure to bring in the ripper. It was his passion to study it, and he believed he knew who the ripper was. So they work for someone who calls himself Vidocq carrying on that tradition, who is good friends with the latest in the line of Aberlines, the ultimate investigator close associates with the name that matrkes the ultimate failure.

 

Enter the time machine.

 

After a drastic shift in their environment, they knew soemthing was wrong. I referred to things in the room that were not there before, like the big Swastika over the mantle, or the person they thought was an enemy suddenly sitting next to them at dinner. I played it straight faced for abotu half an hour till it finally sunk in. Searchign the mansion they find a time portal still open, and Aberline had just gone in. I actually printed out pictures and news clippings, along with a timeline of the ripper events and left the folder in the middle of the table, and they grabbed it before going in.

 

So what I did, I allowed them to keep modern knowledge while exploring a historical event of great importance. The reality of it dawned on them a bit later that they were not actually here to stop the Ripper, but to stop the younger Aberline from catching and exposing him... that was the event that turned the future they knew horribly wrong.

 

So now they had to use modern crime sleuthing techniques, but with archaic tools available to Scotland Yard. they had to find out details on the Ripper killings (that most of them did not actually know) and then pick the point where Aberline woudl mostly likely intervene... and stop him. And along the way they find out that their Vidocq is actually the REAL Vidocq, who has used the time machine to basically exist in multiple times and become soemwhat ageless. They were ebing played by him for his own nefarious ends... once a criminal I suppose....

 

Now this whole game could have fallen apart because I am a true crime buff, and did not want to shove it down their throats. I also feared if it was too obscure or too complex they would miss it and just get frustrated. Luckily I was able to drop hints within the contecxt of the historical events, and explain the older techniques of crime info gathering because I was well versed in it. So definately be well prepared to run a game like this. Know every little detail, and things will run much smoother.

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Re: Gaming Historical Zeitgeists

 

Shelly,

 

Extremely so, yes. I have a friend that I usually game with who's also into the historical games and is a political science major to boot. I've been intending for a while to run a late-period Victorian campaign that would deal with the Scramble for Africa. If you have any more info on what you're doing with Regency Hero, please let me know. You can email me direct at Cyst13@hotmail.com.

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Re: Gaming Historical Zeitgeists

 

Regency HERO ("RH") is a MS in progress that should be finished by December....the rudiments of what a RH game are like can be viewed at my 1793 website (for a GURPS version -- http://mactyre.net/shelley/1793 ) or at the RH site -- http://mactyre.net/archives/regency/ -- though the actual book covers RPing from 1775-1820, not just the Regency.

 

-Shelley

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