[pbp]Dog Eat Dog - This s*#% will get uncomfortable.

Farangu

They like you because you’re a copycat, want to be just like them.

They like you because—give it a few more years—you’ll be just like them.

And when that time comes, will they like you more?
–R. Zamora Linmark, “They Like You Because You Eat Dog”

I was originally going to try and write something really pithy and snarky for an intro, to try and be edgy and cool. Then I realized that'd be a disservice to the whole idea behind this RPG. So instead, I'm going to tell you the premise: 2-4 people take the role of Natives of whatever land they wish, real or fictional. They give basic attributes to themselves and their culture. One person takes the role of an Occupying force. The Occupiers get some attributes as well.

One Rule is written down: The Natives are inferior to the Occupiers.

Then each Native gets a Scene set. If they break any of the Rules, they must give a token from their (small)supply to the Occupier. If they don't, the Occupier gives a token from their (large) supply to the Native. Bad things happen when you run out of tokens.

Go here, and read probably the best description of the game you can find. Then come back here, and decide if this social experiment is something you want to try.

The Native Snorks:
They are pacifists
They bite things when curious
They are very diplomatic
They live underwater pods and breathe through gills
"Waa" is a divine word associated with great blessings

The Occupying Geth:
They are very religious
They embrace and rely on technology whenever possible
They can use disguises to appear as other life forms
Water powers their ships and weapons
Very strict social hierarchy

RECORD OF THE FIRST ISLAND:
The Snorks are inferior to the Geth.
Work must always be done efficiently.

Farangu

Set up

All players take turns to describe the Natives and their society. Each person, in turn(doesn't matter what order), lists one fact about the populace. This can be anything from "they smell like daffodils" to "they are over 6' tall" to "Their society hates lying." The general rule is that it can be explained in one sentence and would apply to most, but not all, of the Natives. After everyone has given one fact, the group comes up with a Name for the Native country.

Then, going in the opposite order, the group follows the same procedure to describe the Occupation, and name their country.

Now, it is time to create the Record - the unspoken assumptions about interactions between the Occupation and the Natives, broken down into a set of Rules. All games always start with the same, iron-clad rule:

The Natives are inferior to the Occupation.

At this point, the richest player is given the role of the Occupation. There will be NO discussion about who is the richest until this point is reached. The Occupation player is done setting up.

Everyone else is a Native. They must give their characters names, and a Personal Trait, something that distinguishes themselves from the other Natives.

At this point, tokens are distributed. Each Native player gets three tokens. The Occupation gains two for each Native player, and one extra token. At this point, set up is done, and the Scenes begin, starting with the player listed above the Occupation in the roster.

Scenes:

On your turn, think about what your Native might do in response to the Occupation arriving, or in response to an earlier scene. Once you have your idea, verbally set the Scene in which your character starts to do that action. If you want another Native to join your scene, feel free to invite them; similarly, you can request to join another Native's scene. If consent is given, your character is present at the Scene.

If you are the Occupation, you do not need anyone's permission to join a scene. If you are present, Natives who wish to join need your permission. Also, if the Occupation wishes a particular Native to be present, they must be present, whether they want to or not.

If you are a Native, you say what your character does during the Scene. If you are the Occupation, you say what any members of the Occupation would do, including any natives who work for the new government.

If, at any point during a Scene, something happens that you don't think your character would allow to happen, a Conflict arises.

Conflict:

There are three stages to Conflict.

Stage 1 is a Negotiation. All players in the Scene talk about a narrative solution that everyone can agree on. At this stage, if you are in the Scene, but have no interest in the result of the Conflict, you may withdraw. If the players that did not withdraw cannot reach an acceptable compromise, the Conflict goes to Stage 2.

Stage 2 is Chance. The players in the conflict will roll a D6 on Orokos.com. Each player will get an extra D6 for every Cultural Trait they can justify as supporting what they want to have happen. If there is disagreement about whether a Trait would apply, those players no longer in the Conflict deliberate and deliver a judgement. I will be the tie-breaker. If the scene is comprised entirely of Natives, you can also attempt to add a die for your Personal Trait if it would apply.

After all dice have been determined and rolled, the player with the highest total gains control, and narrates what happens. Ties are re-rolled. If any player is unsatisfied with the result, the Conflict escalates to Stage 3.

Stage 3 is Fiat. If a Conflict escalates this far, the Occupation gets control, and can narrate what happens next any way they like. This happens regardless of whether the Occupation wasn't in the Conflict, if they were, or if they were the ones to claim a Fiat.

Judgement:

When all players in a Scene agree that there's nothing left to happen, and the Occupation was present, Judgement occurs. The Occupation judges each Native present at the Scene, and determines whether they obeyed all of the Rules. For every Rule broken, the Native gives the Occupation a token from their supply. For every Rule followed, the Occupation gives that Native a token from their supply. Rules are judged in the order they are written. Certain Rules might be judged by the players to be irrelevant to the scene and can be skipped, but the First Rule always applies.

The Occupation then judges whether their characters followed the Rules. For each Rule their characters break, they permanently lose a token. They cannot lose more than one token per Rule in this way. The Occupation is the final arbiter of whether Rules were broken or not, although they will need to defend themselves if there is a disagreement, and the Natives can comment.

After the Judgement is rendered, all the Natives define a new Rule, based on the interactions that occurred in the previous scene. Think about what behaviors were rewarded and modeled, and which were punished and avoided. Come up with a single sentence that fits that guideline, and add it to the Record as a new Rule. The Natives are the final arbiters of the new Rules, although they will also need to defend suspicious Rules, and the Occupation can comment.

One tidbit - if the Occupation was never in a Scene, then there is no Judgement - no tokens change hands, and no new Rule is made. The Occupation, however, does lose a token every time a Scene ends in which they never appeared.

Once Judgement is over, that player's turn is done, and the next player begins their scene.

Running Amok:

If you are a Native, and you run out of tokens AT ANY POINT, you Run Amok. As soon as this happens, the Occupation loses a token.(Doesn't look good for the home-based citizens to see crazy Natives). When you Run Amok, special rules apply that I'm not going to spoil right now. But the one thing that is for CERTAIN is that your character will die.

Death:

Characters can die from Running Amok or from the natural results of a Scene. Every time a Native dies, the Occupation loses two tokens. (This means that if a Native dies from Running Amok, the Occupation loses a total of three tokens.) One tidbit about death - If the Occupation does not have the two tokens to lose, then that Native can narrate how they will die.

If you are dead, you no longer get a turn or participate in Conflicts, but you do still participate in group discussions and things that all Natives decide together.

Game End:

The game will begin to end when any of the following conditions are met:
The Occupation loses all tokens.
All the Natives run out of tokens.
All the living Natives have at least 6 tokens.

When any of those conditions are met, even in the middle of a Judgement, the Endgame starts. First, no player who is out of tokens can gain more. Then, the next time Natives would decide a new Rule, an Aftermath instead occurs. It starts with the Occupation.

Each player gives a brief epilogue to their character(or forces for the Occupation), using the following rules:

• If the Occupation has no tokens, they must describe how and why they decide to grant the Natives autonomy.
• If a Native has one or two tokens left, they must describe how their struggle against the Occupation has left them changed, embittered, and wounded.
• If a Native has six or more tokens, they must describe how they have assimilated into the Occupation and adopted its values as their own.
• If a Native has no tokens left, but is still alive, they must still follow the Running Amok rules.
• If a Native is dead, they may, if they wish, narrate how, or whether, they are remembered by the survivors.
• If none of those apply, you may narrate your epilogue however you wish.

When all epilogues are complete, all of the players who still have tokens collectively decide the fate of their culture and its inhabitants, based on their personal epilogues, the beliefs and motivations of the characters, and events that took place in earlier Scenes.

Ground Rules - In your posts, talk between players about how Scenes might play out, or Rule adherence will be in normal font. Narration of Scenes should be in italic, or in quotes, or some way to distinguish between Narration and table talk.

Above all, OBEY THE GOLDEN RULE. Finding things out about how you would behave in these situations is nice and everything, but I will not look kindly on people taking scenes to dark places for the lulz. And unless I'm taking part in the game myself, I will be the sole arbiter of what does and does not fly.

Roster:
The Brayster - Varik the Traditionalist - 3 tokens
Grunt's Ghosts - Nord the Swimmer - 4 tokens
jdarksun - Geth - 7 tokens
Tox - Jerund the Friendly - 4 tokens
Bobbkins Flymo - Garmungstalation Horace Tolstadation III the lover of Peanut Butter - 3 tokens

The Brayster

Yes yes yes yes yes. Sign me up! I love horrible, horrible social experiments like this!

Grunt's Ghosts

I'm down to enslave the populous.

jdarksun

Yup.

Capfalcon

Not my cup of tea, but I'll be watching with interest.

discrider

I am interested, but not interested enough to sign up.
If you lack players, then I'll be interested enough to fill in.

Farangu

@Tayrun

Tox

I'm down! This sounds absolutely, positively horrendous.

Farangu

One more needed to start the first game, unless @discrider wants to hop off the fence and join in.

Bedlam

Is it sometimes the other way around?

Bedlam

Dog Eat Dog 2: Revenge of the Dog

Bedlam

God Eat Dog 3: Dyslexia Strikes Back!

Sterica

I'm down

jdarksun

Bedlam wrote: »

Is it sometimes the other way around?

Nope. It's not the sort of game where the underdogs win. It's more like an oppression sim.

Farangu

OK. Firstly, everyone contributes one Trait to the Natives, after which you all name the Native country. Then after that, everyone does the same thing for the Occupation, after which you all name their country. This can be either in a turn order, like the book suggests, or since we're online, you all can just contribute what you want without having to wait for the other person.

Once all the traits are settled for both groups, you guys can begin to have the discussion about who is the richest. Before you ask, there is no more specific way to define it - the only thing that matters is that there is a consensus among the group about who is the richest. PMing that to each other might be a good idea, unless you're comfortable just putting it on here, in which case feel free, I guess.

Whomever is the richest becomes the Occupation. They are done setting up. Everyone else needs to give themselves a Name, and a Personal Trait - something that sets them apart from the other Natives. After that, everybody gets their tokens - three for each Native, and (2*4+1) nine for the Occupation. Then the first Rule is posted - The Natives are inferior to the Occupation - and whomever is listed below the Occupation in the turn order above sets the first scene.

I'll be on a work site until probably 7:30 p.m. CST, so I won't be able to monitor much today, but if you all are comfortable with the rules explanation above, you can start the first scene, if you guys power through everything else.

Auralynx

Though I can see why the designer picked "richest," as baton-holder, that may get prohibitively tricky to discuss online. Perhaps use agrees or awesomes as a mechanic, or compare Steam libraries, if you need a slightly more-concrete option?

Grunt's Ghosts

I don't have a steam library....

And I have no problem talking about how much I make since it's not really a big deal for me.

Sterica

I'm a full-time student so I make negative dollars a year

Farangu

Worry about picking traits before you start discussing who is the richest

Sterica

The natives of this land consider "Waa" to be a word of divine blessings.

Grunt's Ghosts

Natives live in pods underwater and breath with gills.

Sterica

Well that escalated quickly

Grunt's Ghosts

Did you want to play with humans?

The Brayster

The Natives are very Diplomatic

discrider

Grunt's Ghosts wrote: »

Natives live in pods underwater and breath with gills.

So that's where the fun is.

Tox

The natives are pacifists

jdarksun

The natives bite things when curious.

Tox

That's.....that's horrible.

You're horrible.

jdarksun

So it begins.

Farangu

So name the Natives, then do the same routine with the Occupation.

Grunt's Ghosts

Sahuagin?

Tox

Grunt's Ghosts wrote: »

Sahuagin?

Agreed.

The occupation are WASPs.

Mikey CTS

:bigfrown:

Tox

Yeah

yeah

If we're gonna go there, we're gonna fucking go there.

Sterica

I feel natives should be the Snorks

Tox

Ooh, damn, now I'm torn between Sahuagin and Snorks.

I guess the snorks are more in line with pacifism.

jdarksun

I second the Snorks. Underwater smurfs that bite when curious.

Tox

Did...

did I kill the thread?

Is WASP too on the nose?

Because we can just have the occupation be wasps instead.

Arguably worse, if you ask me.

jdarksun

I'm not sure what you mean by WASP

Tox

White Anglo-Saxon Protestants.

See also: nearly every non-Spaniard Occupying Force of note since The Renaissance.