Prologue (Welcome to New City)
New residents get introduced to New City and the “official story” of what’s going on and what they need to do. This will be the intro tutorial to gameplay for STF.
Teaching Points
New City was established after the events of The Great Cataclysm as one of the last refuges of humankind on planet Earth. The city contains many smaller scale versions of famous buildings and landmarks from the former world and a large wall system to control flooding and protect the area.
Topic:
- Social Science: The Republic of New City is an authoritarian, capitalist, semi-socialist government. Contrast and compare this system with others including liberal capitalist democracy.
- Social Science: NC is in the midst of a refugee crisis due to the influx of displaced persons coming from the Outlands. Look at human migrations and the issue they raise for migrants and those who receive them.
- Social Science: As an authoritarian state, NC does a fair amount of censorship and social control. The player will encounter this and think about the issues related to surveillance states, censorship and limitation of rights.
Proposed Gameplay
Idea.
- Scene.
Story Outline
Story outlines use [7] The Seven Questions and [7] The Shape of Stories frames for their structure.
Why | Theme / Plot Potential
As this introduces the authoritarian environment of New City, it will begin to explore the core theme of systems of social control, fueled by fear, and what people can do to find freedom and exercise their responsibility. In contrast to the Village, New City is a liberal version of authoritarian capitalism while the Village is a conservative commune.
Alpha | Imperative
The player will want to set up a life and a base for gameplay.
Beta | Situation & Setting
Setting:
New City in 2031 (? Timeline needs updated for new backstory: how long after current events would this need to be?).
Situation:
New City was set up as a refugee city from those who survived The Great Cataclysm. It has a government formed in reaction to the forces that caused the collapse of society. The government is a authoritarian capitalist:
New City Government (The Republic of New City)
Executive
Normsom Lin
Chairman (of the People’s Committee of New City)
Also Strategos of New City Security Directorate
Also State Premier
Select Council (of the People’s Committee)
Gen. Rudolf Chomsky
Genora Russell
Nicolette Orwell
Damien Sorgen
State
Departments
Education
Transporatation
Commerce
Finance
Health & Human Services
Food and Agricultre
Communication & Media
Housing & Buildings
Public Safety
People’s Committee
Sub-committees
(oversee Departments through Secretaries and the Security Directorate by Sub-committee)
Security Directorate
Police Sections
1: Regular Police
2: Special Investigations
3: State Crimes
4: Internal Affairs
6: [Top Secret]
9: [Top Secret]
Defense Force
DF Army
DF Navy
DF Airforce
What (Internal) | Characters
What (External) | Challenge
Who | Meetings
How | Events
Crux | Climax
Where | Character Review
To What Extent | Connections
Omega | Moral / Plot Realization
Meta
Research Ideas?
Small Items: Post in the comments section.
Large Items: Create a post and link to in the comments section.
Suggested Keywords:
government system China, government system Japan
New City Logo: based on a free VectorStock image — Phoenix logo eagle and bird logo template vector by buqancreative
New City Government: Team mtg 12/12/21 we decided that leftist elements of the United States, after the Great Cataclysm, set up New City. The government should be a authoritarian capitalist system similar to the system of government in China. However, since the Chinese system uses terms from the soviet system foreign to US players, we should adjust the language to use more American terms were possible.
Etcetra’s comment on why to choose a model based on the Chinese system was that he thought this style government would have the most potential to produce a dictatorial government that would feel oppressive to players.
This Crash Course Video was helpful:
Wikipedia has a helpful article on Elections in China that summaries that direct democracy is local and than layers of representatives select higher levels of government — or at least appear to.
For a brief overview of the branches of government and power structure see:
Names:
Gen. Rudolf Chomsky – see Noam Chomsky and Rudolf Rocker who influenced him.
Genora Russell – see Bertrand Russell.
Nicolette Orwell – see George Orwell.
Judi – her name and character is based on Joo Dee of Ba Sing Se from the Avatar: The Last Airbender series.
Moses Kieft – named for Robert Moses and William Kieft, two somewhat controversial figures in different era of development of New York City.
Responses