In “Your RPG setting of the week,” we will examine RPG settings that either have the possibility of being cool or the possibility of being the worst idea ever; clearly, it depends on your perspective. Some might be wild, fun scenarios, and others are merely playable fanfiction. Submissions are absolutely welcome, so send in your own RPG setting of the week!
Chuck Palahniuk is one of the most popular writers that hasn’t written anything of worth in a long time. Shockingly offensive, perverted, descriptive, and obsessive with details, the Chuck Palahniuk RPG would be a cacophony of messed up individuals with oddball, mundane jobs and mental deficiencies.
Set-up: Project Mayhem has gone global. They are spreading their message of anarchy and nihilism and it is up to the players to either side with Project Mayhem or battle against them . . . or to do both.
Character creation: Each player will create a character that has an obsession to make them interesting. After choosing their obsession, they must go and pain-stakingly research this subject or they are not allowed to play the game. Also, just because they researched their subject does not make them special. In fact, it just solidifies how much like dirt and crap they are. The GM should remind the players frequently that the game, like life, is ultimately meaningless and none of their decisions really matter because they are all going to die anyway.
After choosing a job/oddball fact, players can choose from one of the various character types:
-Religious zealot
- Former cult member
- Mental patient
- Escaped mental patient
- Sex addict
- Serial killer
- Recovering serial killer
- Killer in transition to serial killer
- Sex phone operator
- Former child star
- Drug addict
- Transvestite
- Figment of another player’s imagination
- Recovering sex addict mental patient who is employed as a sex phone operator
Gameplay: Don’t choose a system to play this in because a system of play limits the potential. You’ve played by the rules for too long. Don’t you want to trash the rules and be a man for once in your life?
In the end, it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. Players can do whatever they want and it will ultimately accomplish nothing. Roll dice, don’t roll dice, in the end, it’s the same result.
It’s sorta like Calvinball.
Like this idea? Hate it more than Heroes after season 1? Have any ideas for other RPG settings of the week? Then comment and tell me how you feel! If you decide to run the game, record it and I’ll put it up on the site!
Ahahaha. I love this. It could be marketed as having a world that completely warps to the player’s choice, but when you play it repeatedly, absolutely nothing changes.
ooooh. I like it!
Everything is an illusion!
I forgot to mention that the game begins at the end and flashes back to the beginning – a standard trope of all Palahniuk fiction.
Hmm, I think it needs some sort of rule that reflects Palahniuk’s misogyny. Maybe something like “player characters can’t be female” ?
I would love to discuss the possibility of his misogyny because I would argue that he’s not. If any thing, he portrays everyone as crazy and evil. Invisible Monsters featured a female lead (kinda) and Marla from Fight Club seemed like a bitch but that is only because of the perception of the narrator. The mother in Choke is a morally ambiguous character (maybe a little darker grey I suppose) but ultimately, she loves her son.
I’m not trying to start a fight, I legitimately want to discuss misogyny in Palahniuk’s books.
I love the idea of the game beginning at the end and flashing back — I can think of no better way to emphasize that the characters are worthless and their actions do not matter.
Well, I haven’t read any Palahniuk for at least five years and back then I only read Fight Club and Lullaby. The former underwhelmed me and the latter convinced me not to read him again. I’m also three beers and and gin and tonic tispy. So with all things considered, I’m probably not going to offer much quality literary criticism.
Palahniuk does exclusively write about “fucked-up shit,” but I’ve found that he at least grants his male characters a defining mythology. Their actions are driven by (or at least justified by) a belief in something greater than themselves (it could be a will to power, it could be an advanced bureaucracy that robs them of agency- whatever). My point is that his men are motivated by something other than their base desires. Well, actually, his men probably are driven mostly by their base desires- but at least he tries to articulate those desires in a compelling way. We’re supposed to examine and think about the forces that drive them, while his women are just meant to elicit the response “man, chicks are crazy.”
“I’m also three beers and and gin and tonic tispy” – which means that you are in the perfect state of mind for a literary discussion!
I never read Lullaby, but I’ve heard mixed things. You need to read Survivor and maybe Choke and then stop and don’t read any more because it’s not worth it. Perhaps listen to the short story “Guts” on audiobook while on a long trip (the only time I’ve ever felt like vomiting from an audiobook).
Ultimately, none of the above really defends Palahniuk from his misogyny, but Survivor is soooooo good.
I can see your point about male characters being given a pass, but I still maintain that Marla wasn’t necessarily evil, but rather, just portrayed in a negative light because the narrator of Fight Club was nuts.