Sovereign Citizens and Dungeons & Dragons

[Rakked]

An introduction: I have only recently begun reading and posting on Quatloos, although I've been following sovereign citizen and other OPCA madness for years. I am a 2nd year American law student, a lover of classic science fiction and apologetics, and a longtime roleplaying game aficionado. I present this idea at the risk that no one else on this forum is a gamer.

Sovereign citizens and their ilk have, as we all know, worked a great deal of harm and mischief in the real world.

They have, however, solved one very serious problem with regard to roleplaying games set in modern times.

Specifically, if characters in a modern RPG acted like typical D&D party members, verisimilitude would demand that they instantly be set upon by the police and thrown into prison.

I think that there is a rich vein of gaming to be mined by positing a world like our own, but where it is actually possible to divorce your physical person from your legal person and free yourself from the law. It would allow the characters more or less free reign to act like... well, like players usually have their characters act.

It could be a game of uncovering and fighting against shadowy conspiracies, chasing cryptid monsters, battling the corrupt agents of the Illuminati... A madcap X-Files where the protagonists are gun-toting sovereign loons whose wild theories happen to be 100% correct. All of them, even especially the contradictory ones.

This would also have the possibly substantial benefit of letting an informed GM educate his players about sovereign schemes so they don't fall into any of them. I have a few folks I game with who have conspiracy-theorist mindsets and might be at risk.

I invite comment and/or derision.

[Hyrion]

There are already games/books/movies/tv shows that portray various human conspiracy theories. Whether or not someone who has already bought into the conspiracy theory can separate the difference between fantasy and reality is a rather good question.

Take X-Files as a good example. The tv series covers a number of common conspiracy theories - but do those that believe the government is working with aliens end up recognizing they don't actually have any proof to support the theory after watching the show?

You could always put together an equivalent scenario and guide the game next time you play - see how that plays out with your friends. Consider it a psychological social experiment.

[notorial dissent]

The only really consistent factor in the sovrunidjit community is their pathological inability to follow rules, any rules, including their own, so trying to organize them would be the equivalent of trying to herd cats.

Welcome to Quatloos by the way.

[JamesVincent]

There is a RPG called Recon that I've played before. It is based on your statistics as a human being, your personal skills, your strength, size, etc. We used it to run a few Red Dawn scenarios back in the day. It is set up as a military RPG but a good GM can convert it. Since it is a Palladium game it had a ton of support out there, addendums, manuals, etc. Not sure if it's still in print or not.

As far as gamers on here I know of at least 3 avid PC gamers and several who were D&D style gamers and every once in a while we've snuck references into a thread (Man! He must have rolled a 1 on that maneuver)

[Rakked]

There are already games/books/movies/tv shows that portray various human conspiracy theories. Whether or not someone who has already bought into the conspiracy theory can separate the difference between fantasy and reality is a rather good question.

True that. I realize I was ambiguous; the conspiracy-minded pals I mentioned haven't gone off the deep end, they're just the kind of guys to whom the ideas that, say, the Bilderberg Group exercises a sinister influence on U.S. elections, or the government might have suppressed a secret 13th Amendment sorta make sense, even if they don't necessarily believe them.

The only really consistent factor in the sovrunidjit community is their pathological inability to follow rules, any rules, including their own, so trying to organize them would be the equivalent of trying to herd cats.

Welcome to Quatloos by the way.

Thanks! And yeah, the idea of sovereign-themed gaming with actual sovereigns seems doomed to wallbanging failure Fortunately, I don't have any actual sovereigns in my gaming group

There is a RPG called Recon that I've played before. It is based on your statistics as a human being, your personal skills, your strength, size, etc. We used it to run a few Red Dawn scenarios back in the day. It is set up as a military RPG but a good GM can convert it. Since it is a Palladium game it had a ton of support out there, addendums, manuals, etc. Not sure if it's still in print or not.

Death before Palladium. I'd probably use Savage Worlds or a kitbashed story game

The main issue I see is getting my group revved up on and amused about sovereign kookiness enough to get them excited about the game. I think I can do it, though.

[Forsyth]

Charlie Stross's Laundry File books (Lovecraftian horrors faced down by under-resourced British civil servants in their typically effective manner) were made into a role-playing game "The Laundry", which probably wouldn't be a bad place to look for inspiration for the government side of things. Possibly even the other side, depending on how far you want to take the conspiracy theories...

[Rakked]

Charlie Stross's Laundry File books (Lovecraftian horrors faced down by under-resourced British civil servants in their typically effective manner) were made into a role-playing game "The Laundry", which probably wouldn't be a bad place to look for inspiration for the government side of things. Possibly even the other side, depending on how far you want to take the conspiracy theories...

That sounds magical. I've been meaning to read those books, I should get around to it.

I think I could draw a lot from Unknown Armies, too, if you're familiar with that. It's got a grubby, humans-exploiting-humans vibe, with an occult underground that knows stuff the general populace prefers to remain ignorant about. A lot like sovereigns seem to view the world, in fact.

[Judge Roy Bean]

I think you'd have a hard time finding any sovruns who could muster the intellectual honesty to take on a role-playing game. A lot of them know what they're promoting is nonsense but it gives them an arsenal of what they think are excuses for whatever has befallen them.

[AndyK]

What an interesting concept.

Unfortunately, you overlooked a key, mandatory concept within the game:

It must be able to support multiple, equally valid, conflicting realities all at once.

[The Observer]

This hasn't been the first time that role-playing and sovrun/TP mythology has been discussed here before. I believe that grixit had posted a topic in the distant past about trying to create a D&D style game much along the lines you have mentioned above.

But I just don't think it would catch on. Pretending to ride unicorns while slaying ogre magi is far more entertaining and interesting than pretending that you can get yourself out of jail by throwing your strawman under the bus.

[Rakked]

This hasn't been the first time that role-playing and sovrun/TP mythology has been discussed here before. I believe that grixit had posted a topic in the distant past about trying to create a D&D style game much along the lines you have mentioned above.

But I just don't think it would catch on. Pretending to ride unicorns while slaying ogre magi is far more entertaining and interesting than pretending that you can get yourself out of jail by throwing your strawman under the bus.

Interesting! A quick forum search did reveal some discussion of gaming, but I couldn't find the specific thread.

The thing is, this wouldn't be a game about sovereign shenanigans in court; it would be about hunting monsters and fighting the sinister agents of secret powers, with sovereignty being the excuse for the characters not being thrown into prison, and the "hook" for the more conspiracy-themed elements. I've shared my enthusiasm for this stuff with my players, but they're not as into it as I am, so I don't think a really heavily sovereign-themed game would work for them (or for me).

To get more specific on the idea for the game, the characters would be monster/cryptid hunters, who happen to be sovereign citizens, who are on a reality TV show.

You know the little side-interviews that they intercut into reality TV shows? My intention is to have the players conduct those on each other, which, given my group, I believe will result in comedy gold and a lot of delightful player interaction.

I suspect the monsters and conspiratorial agents will take a high toll on camerapersons, etc