Violence, the RPG

November 28, 2008 12:39 PM

Violence, the RPG. In 1999, Greg Costikyan, designer of Toon, Paranoia, and the Star Wars RPG, released this satirical and profane take on violence in games anonymously. It's now available as a free download.

Here’s what I want to do. I want to go into a Quake® deathmatch. And I want to strip down to a loincloth, sit down on the floor with a begging bowl, and call after the lunatics with the plasma guns as they flee past me, saying, “It is all samsara, it is all illusion, my friend” — for truly it is, pixels on a screen.
“Reject the fleeting temptations here, what profiteth you another kill? There is another path.”
And I want him to turn, think twice—and then I will smile benevolently as he tosses a rocket my way, blows me to my reincarnation as my peaceful self—and he runs on, and kills and kills again, quad damage, armor, another clip, heal and heal and blammo to the floor—until finally he turns, lays down his gun, and sits by me, asking me to teach. And then one by one, the players shall gather by me, sitting, assuming the lotus position, touching the ground in the earth-witness gesture, letting their thoughts still, contemplating that strange Quake sky as it streams overhead, peaceful, in unity, transforming this one, small, cyberrealm of unending war and mayhem into harmony."

posted by empath (10 comments total)

The problem being, of course, that in Quake® one cannot lay down one's gun as it is fused to your avatar's hands.
posted by pyrex at 12:51 PM on November 28, 2008

Also, unlike with Samsara, we are not born chained to Quake. We are free from Quake. I hardly play Quake at all.
though when Quake Live opens I expect to spend some time with it.
posted by grobstein at 1:25 PM on November 28, 2008

This is fun. It's always surprised me that people get freaked out about Dogs In The Vineyard being a game about religious fundamentalists, but don't blink at a game like D&D that's about ethnic cleansing and corpse looting.
posted by EarBucket at 2:10 PM on November 28, 2008

+10 for cleaning the gamemaster’s shoes with your tongue.
Particularly if the other players get to watch.

Is this some kind of veiled gateway into the world of S&M or were they heavily influenced by the "V" TV series? Seriously though, the reroll bonuses are awesome.
posted by Lokisbane at 2:37 PM on November 28, 2008

Now—before you put this away, either “hurr hurr”ing like an asshole....
posted by ignignokt at 2:49 PM on November 28, 2008

Hogshead's New Style games were universally amazing. Puppetland was my favorite, but then I'd fall down before John Tynes like Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar before Alice Cooper.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:55 PM on November 28, 2008

This game is treason!
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 6:48 PM on November 28, 2008

Puppetland is awesome, yes. But I think I like the idea behind The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen even more.
posted by JHarris at 2:10 AM on November 29, 2008

let's not forget to give some love to Kill Puppies For Satan, tho he does not give it away.
posted by waraw at 1:38 PM on November 30, 2008

Violence was commissioned and published by Metafilter's own James Wallis, who is me. I loved every game in the New Style series, naturally, but my absolute favourite—the one I published even though I knew I was going to lose money on it—was De Profundis by Michal Oracz, which remains jaw-dropping in its vision, scope and execution, particularly given the fact it's only 32 pages long.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen was released in a new edition this year, a facsimile of the suppressed 1808 printing, by Magnum Opus Press, which is a division of my games consultancy Spaaace.
posted by Hogshead at 5:35 PM on December 7, 2008 [4 favorites]