A mythomaniac in a lie detector factory. This is, as I’ve mentioned a couple of times, a premise I came up with perhaps 20 years ago, or even further back. Initially, it was just that sentence – a mythomaniac in a lie detector factory. I knew it would take place in my dystopia world, which is a world loosely based on Terry Gilliam’s film Brazil.
Then I took action and developed a scenario idea. And since it’s a role-playing game, I had to add several characters – and being a mythomaniac isn’t exactly a character, rather a character trait. To flesh out the premise, I had to describe the lie detector factory a bit more. A cube-shaped monolith placed diagonally in the cityscape to symbolize the potential power their product could have. But this is how the scenario began.
This has happened…
In the coming days, a fair is approaching where the company’s product will be launched. Before this launch, the lie detector must not only function but also look good, be completely secure, and uncopyable. The company is behind schedule, and the finance department has just announced that we are leaking resources. The characters have been hastily and whimsically appointed by management to «sort out the mess before it gets out of hand». What this means is not easy to know, but a report must be delivered before the end of the day.
The characters are distributed to the players: the Technical Development Manager, whose responsibility is that everything works and that the machine doesn’t catch fire during the demo session. Then we have the Security Manager, who is constantly reminded by superiors of the constant threat posed by competitors and their alleged spies. The Marketing Manager, whose responsibility is that the machine looks appealing on the shelf and that the cost of chrome details is kept down without the product risking being perceived as too mundane and ordinary. Last but not least, we have the student intern who doesn’t quite understand how they ended up in this task force.
But here comes the twist that made the whole thing even more fun to play. Once the players have chosen their characters, the game master shuffles four cards with burdens for the players:
- Mythomaniac – you lie compulsively.
- Thief – you have stolen large sums from the company.
- Completely innocent – your conscience is light as a feather.
- Spy – you are there to steal the blueprints.
Only the individual players see what they are assigned – the game master does not know who gets which card.
I remember playtesting this once. It was fun. But I don’t remember what rules I used.
Is this something I should continue to develop?