1KM1KT Free RPG Community

my reason is I've been looking up Communism. I have an idea to try and write a Communist Cyber-punk game. the idea of it sounds unique to say the least. Bu I confess to needing more research.

The system of Government in any country evolves from the systems they had before. So it's entirely possible that in some of our favourite genres the author could describe a perfectly reasonable system of government, which might sound un-realistic to it's readers.

For example in the UK we have a constitutionsal monarchy, on paper.

Our queen has no political power. She is more of an ambassider or figure head. The house of commons is Democraticaly elected and runs all affairs of state. They theoretically work on behalf of the queen. However the Prime minister writes all her speaches. The queen could be dismissed from her position by the House of commons at any time.

Thats not going to happen anytime soon, she's loved too much.

Back to my point, It's near impossible to write this into a game setting. It's too complicated, uninteresting and simply wouldn't be believable.

So I would tend to stay away from really indepth Political descriptions and mechanics, lean to a more "It's an Ecclesiastical system of government in Alderia."

One common trap for world-builders is to use such a list as Kumakami's, and build one of everything. That is, there will be a single commonwealth, a confederacy, a communist state, etc. I believe this to be a false hook for a nation. It doesn't offer depth to that land, but rather makes it into a caricature.

Governments do not operate in a vacuum. They deal with one another. As a result of this, forms of government start to appear more as cousins than unrelated neighbours. At any point in history, only a handful of types of government are in use. As examples, right now democratic governments are all the rage. The constitutional monarchy in the UK and tri-pillared US model aren't really all that different. Both involve large groups of democratically elected representatives divided into separate pools deciding the fate of their respective nations. The differences between a president and a prime minister are more academic than germane to a roleplaying setting.

Looking back into previous centuries, we see vast and powerful empires. Even further back and the view becomes one of myriad small kingdoms. At a far earlier level, nearly all one finds is citystates ruled by a tyrant.

My call-to-action for designers is this: read over Kumakami's list, find a handful of different forms, and think about how the various countries interact with one another rather than the small differences. Research them further, if desired. Then, when you are more comfortable with different forms of rule, you can branch out your worlds' options.

It is the interaction of governments that matters, I believe, that really adds life and zest to a world. A few extra notes:
-many of us set our games or stories in worlds that are alien enough to provide peculiar or currently impossible governments, like the Culture (or the Borg hive-mind, theoretically)
-Another thing to consider is size when looking at government. Both Stalinist Russia and Cuba under Fidel Castro were, by many lights, totalitarian regimes. But their differing powers and geographic status made them extremely different countries, despite sharing (more or less) a governmental system. Extra-cultural issues enter into the "feel" of a government as well: Stalinist versus Maoist totalitarian communism, for instance.

(Oh, and do you mean a Marxist/Communist cyberpunk game or a Soviet cyberpunk game?)

corporations don't exist in a soviet style communism, because the state controls the whole market. Will be a very interesting take.

Megacorps in a cyberpunk setting are typically totalitarian regimes. They have near monopolistic control when compared with their syndocratic peers from the perspective of street-rat pc's. From the perspective of pretty much everyone else in the world, they have complete domination of multiple markets.

An employee of such a megacorp--at least in many such settings--lives in a corporate dorm, eats all meals at the company cafeteria, and is paid only in corporate scrip. This is a similar setup to mining towns of a century ago, or some European colonies of even earlier. An even better example might be the ultra-powerful merchant companies of the Sixteenth and succeeding centuries. These companies wielded authoritarian power in such extreme ways that it would make even Stalin cry.

A handful of extraterritorial megacorps acting as totalitarian pseudo-soviet/Stalinist governments dividing up the globe may make for an interesting post-governmental cyberpunk setting.

this sounds super cool, i want to see it. I love cyberpunk

the whole thing would end up with an underground market of exchange of the "equal" share accounting info....aka I trade you 3 fruit rations for a shoe ration. I was going to have the game styles rated by how deep into these markets (and the corporate BS)the characters dive.

white Market: only the "redistribution" of shares for normally gained things. Basically the characters don't hate the system, just its accountants.

Grey market: spending shares on things not made illegal By the Corp, but not freely given. most self defense items and medical drugs. Most character at this level think the system is wrong but fear doing to much.

Black market: ANything goes....and DOWN WITH THE CORRUPTED SYSTEM!!!!!