Modern TTRPGs and Politics
Everything is Political.
Doubly so if you're writing an RPG set in modern times. We mean, if you're going to look at the international stage as part of the setting, how can you not get politics involved?
Case in point.
You're writing a superhero game. It's set in 2024. Superheroes are showing up now. And you want to address how this reshapes the world, how it impacts nations, how it changes the balance of power, how governments have to shift to adapt to this new reality.
There's two major wars going on. You've got the Paris Olympics.
And you've got this huge influx of people with supernatural powers.
How do you not talk about the elephants in the room?
"And this is how the nations of North America and the EU are affected."
"How about Russia and Ukraine?"
".... so, Africa..."
Of course, you could lay out a 2024 where nothing of import is happening, and the super beings that show up have little or no impact on national events (looking at DC and Marvel here). But, no, that's not the angle we're looking for. We're looking at the idea that yes, this is our Earth that suddenly has this, with our global events going on, and how these people would drastically change how the world functions moving forward.
Are there tragedies going on right now? Damn straight.
And we feel, as part of the setting, we should address those, show they are tragedies, and how the presence of super beings would make things dramatically worse, because it escalates those tragedies. Yeah, there's heroes who want to do the right thing.
And they're only going to add to the devastation. Yes, some good will be done, but there will always be a cost, because this isn't a four-colour version of super heroes. This is 'what the hell would people do if these guys suddenly showed up?'
In the rules, we mention that regions of high conflict seem to get more super beings than regions which are relatively peaceful, almost as if the need for them can be somehow sensed.
But, that's our opinion.
What's yours? Modern setting, introduce the fantastic to it -- do you think modern events should also be addressed?
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