Back with another Designer Diary, this time I want to talk about the development of the new Faction I've promised in the book. I meant to be brief, but this one got a little lengthy... 

As I started designing the Data Heist, it became pretty clear that someone was going to need to actually initiate it. That's RPG design 101, isn't it? You need someone to give the PCs a quest, or else why would they do it?

Because I always do things in a clear and logical order, I started instead with a target: a megacorp. Nobody likes Megacorps (well... actually nevermind). So, what would they have in the DreamScape?

Somewhere along the way to answering that question, I also thought about "the Disney Vault". A concept that creates artificial scarcity by intentionally putting some content out-of-print for a while. (There's probably a production reason that's their excuse, but I remember as a kid hearing people talk about how even second-hand Disney VHS tapes were hard to find and expensive).

(Also, if you don't know what a VHS is, ask a Millennial and watch them crumble to dust)

I've been listening to an audio drama podcast called The Strange Case of the Starship Iris. In it, the crew of the Rumor (the ship where most of the show takes place) are smugglers who specialize in contraband media. The show itself is quite good! It is also one of the most effective examples I've encountered of the "Podcast as a piece of in-universe media" that I've listened to.

If you're seeing where this is going, let me introduce my new faction: The Boilerplate Syndicate. I've been pitching them as "What if Napster was a spaceship that landed in your neighborhood a few times a year and handed out banned books, bootleg DVDs, and anarchist zines until the Government chased them away?"

Yep, it's the Scholastic Book Fair, but make it criminal.

That said, I also didn't want them to be just criminals. Banning media is generally a bad thing, but I couldn't quite picture Mobsters illegally printing copies of 1984. There's no real profit in it. So what if their motive wasn't profit, but faith?

I wanted to be really, really careful not to just reinvent a religion we already have. I've already written some games to work out my religious trauma, and Catholicism in Space is pretty well-trod ground (I've also never been Catholic).

I also think that human thought and the entire literary canon is pretty spectacular. The things we've done with words and images as a species is pretty awe-inspiring. Humanity has created books, films, speeches, poetry, plays, the "Chimera Ant" arc of Hunter x Hunter, paintings and sculpture.

What if that's what they believe in? What if the idea that human thought is potent and powerful and should be free is a core tenet of their faith? It's the future, it's science fiction. Why not?

It also occurred to me that this group probably wouldn't think of themselves as criminals. They're just exercising their faith, they're just trying to keep people educated and keep ideas free. They probably wouldn't call themselves a "syndicate". They'd probably have another name. One WordHippo.com search for "words related to books later" and I landed on the Latin phrase Vade Mecum, which is an old term for a how-to guide, which literally translates to "go with me".

They call themselves the Vade, but they're known to hostile governments as The Boilerplate Syndicate.

I'm genuinely excited about these guys. I think the concept has legs--so much so I've already started jotting ideas down for another module with them as the focus (perhaps for next OB month...?) But for now, they'll be a little mysterious.