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RPGs / Re: Eclipse Phase
« on: January 21, 2016, 12:33:32 PM »Okay, I'm in the super early brainstorming stages of a new campaign and am looking for input/ideas to build into it. I'm wanting to plot out story arc/conflict revolving around the idea of the "big bad" being a meme evolving through the hypercorps/Planetary Consortium. Inspiration has come from a couple major sources, Akaja from the Know Evil campaign, CGP Grey's "Thought Germ" video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc), and seeing how people spread misinformation in internet echo chambers. As of right now, I know that I'm treading a really tough position of how to actually discover/fight a meme or something so nebulous, but I think that is also part of what makes it so terrifying.
Some of the structure/ideas I'm thinking:
- As with Akaja, no one "starts" the thing intentionally, it more or less arises from a series of events
- PCs would uncover the danger as they are undergoing other missions at which point their focus shifts to the meme fulltime
- The danger of fighting it head on (e.g. If someone is arguing something that is completely false and idiotic, you don't typically set up a debate with the most prominent figure on the opposing side for the risk of actually legitimizing what your are fighting, but more sinister than stupid)
- I'm thinking the x-threat piece comes in as it might be something of a singularity-seeking meme or essentially trying to turn all of transhumanity collectively into a TITAN-esque collective
- Before PCs uncover the "meme-ness" of it, they take down something only to see it pop up several other places (a la Hydra), leading to them delving into its true nature.
- Being a meme/thought-germ, it infects different hypercorps in different ways, perhaps leading to mini x-threats throughout the campaign. This could lead to the struggle of balancing fighting the symptoms vs. the disease.
So those are some of the initial thoughts. The overall concept is probably less than an hour old and I haven't slept on it yet (the time that things typically coalesce better for me), but I was eager to get input and thoughts from others. Any ideas, especially on how to "beat" the meme or major flaws to avoid would be greatly appreciated.
If the meme virus operates like a religion that means that it is susceptible to weird mutations. New "revelations", differences in interpretation, differences in ritual and schisms are fertile ground to generate multiple competing memes that could all drive singularity-seeking behavior. This also allows EP do what it does best (outside horror) which is model gonzo scifi tropes. With multiple sects running around you can easily have a People's Republic of Judea and the Judean People's Republic in space with strange or subtle differences between each one.