Men Like Gods: Brave New World Roleplay (The First of Many Literary Schemas)

​

"O wonder!
How many godly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't."
—William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act V, Scene I, ll. 203–206

Foreword
There isn't much to say here. I've wanted to create many a schema based on literary works of various authors for quite some time now - but haven't gotten around to it. Men Like Gods, I hope will act as a good standard as to how Literary-Universe Society RP should function as a whole. This will be based on Alduous Huxley's "Brave New World." Men Like Gods is a concept that I've had sitting on various different frameworks for the past 8 years, and am now finally finding the time and resources to modernize it and begin to develop it fully.
Gameplay
Men Like Gods differs from other RP servers in the way that it takes place in a very stable Utopian society where the population is permanently limited. In this society, people are bred into their roles - and understand their place in society. As opposed to Dystopian, war-torn RP, Men Like Gods features a by-the-book Utopian re-enactment of the greatness of the society itself - as well as all of it's faults.
The server may or may not be whitelist-heavy. I'm currently taking into consideration whether I want all classes of players to have individual whitelists for their caste, or not. Because this is based on a book, and not a videogame, the application process itself is going to be scrutinized heavily.
This is going to be recommended for people who are already experienced with the concepts and topics of Utopian society's, Eugenics, and the challenges of running a stable, worldwide political system. Players that are new to Serious RP probably will find themselves lost - This is not a server that will be focusing on conquest or overall campaign progression, as much as it focuses on the trials and tribulations of living in an society where this is all considered normal. The content of Brave New World's society in and of itself has the potential to create a very uncomfortable environment for people simply by reading the book, and potentially even more-so when RP'd out. We will be focusing on the progression of the individual specifically via the simulation of the society itself.


The setting of Men Like Gods takes place in London, 2540 AD (OOCly) and 632 AF (ICly). The world entirely is united, and kept stable, under The World State. The setting of London is very clean, very well-kept, highly efficient, and generally, safe. As a resident of London, you're involved in one of the five castes. Men Like Gods will include a number of established occupations for players that, are all necessary to be operated in order to keep society running in general. Different occupations will have to work in synchronicity in order to produce for their own little chunk of society, and all these little chunks come to form together the society that everyone lives within. If a wrench is thrown in the machine, society as a whole will suffer.



Critical thinking is heavily discouraged, within the lifestyle of a person under The World State. In the lower castes, humans are bred into this, by lack of intelligence. In the higher castes, it's considered a social taboo, achieved by conditioning. Individual action, being alone, remaining reserved and away from others is reprehensible. Leisure time is often spent in activities involving many of one another, requiring little to no thought. Recreational sex is often encouraged, as well as group sex, within the society of The World State. (To avoid the obvious, obnoxious flood of ERP, this will be kept under wraps by the development of /me's that can only be seen by people whom the crosshairs are sitting upon. [/meso]. In the event of RP'd group-sex, it'll be kept under wraps by /me's that are only visible if you are physically either touching the either character or within the closest possible range in source units [/meclo]. I'm also considering keeping this on an honor system for RPers and disabling the sexual /me commands from showing up over the admin console. Having to add someone on steam OOCly just to RP having sex with them, something that is a big part of BNW lore is just kinda... weird.) Leisure time is a large part of the society in itself - everyone is encouraged to take part in large, upscale events.
Everyone has a role - even the Epsilons. Character creation will be handled differently, here. Of course, in the early stages of the community, we will be taking people in via applications to be adults within their own castes, those that are well-versed in this sort of thing, and are willing to essentially act as role models, in a sense, OOCly, ICly, as well. However, we will be developing a specific role for players that essentially work in the nurseries - all players will start out as children. You will be able to pick, from the beginning any caste of human except for Alpha and Beta, which will require a (hopefully painless) application. The time you spend as a child will be used to acclimate you to society ICly, and the lore OOCly, but the entire thing will be one IC event. You'll be expected to RP accordingly within your caste, of course - lower castes having essentially no chance of ever aspiring for something greater. Even as a child. Use this IC period as a time to make a basis for your character - and interact with the other children. A childhood is not something to be wasted.
Caste - Epsilons
The Epsilons cannot read, nor can they write. They work the lowest possible positions, factories, foundries, grueling labor. Their skill at speaking the English language is greatly diminished - and are genetically mass-produced. They're usually considered semi-morons by society.
Caste - Deltas
The Deltas can read or write - but lack actual intelligence, as well as individuality, being mass-produced, genetic twins. They work menial jobs, but far less menial or grueling than the Epsilons. They have a grasp of the English language - but generally have nothing worthwhile or important to say, besides to one another.
Caste - Gammas
The Gammas can read and write, quite well. They are semi-skilled workers, in often low-risk positions. They typically work some of the more upscale jobs, but the upscale jobs that nobody really wants to take part in, such as food preparation.
Caste - Betas
The Betas are adequately intelligent - often living similar to the Alphas. Their positions require less thinking. Think of those that work an internship in an office, and this is essentially what the work experience of a Beta is.
Caste - Alphas
The intellectually superior group, with high amounts of intelligence, and are treated by society as the best and brightest. They run the factories, and society in general. They are further divided in DoublePlus, Plus, and Minus.
Further notes on Society
Emotional and single-partner relationships are considered abnormal. The thought of a person only partaking in intercourse with a single person is highly looked down upon - society feels, the more, the better. Promiscuity is highly favored within society.



The World State is exactly what it sounds like - a single, unified political system in charge of the entire planet. They are comprised of Ten world controllers, and are considered the benevolent, best option for society as a whole. They are a dictatorship - for what society considers good. All ten of the world controllers will be player-run positions, none of which are allowed to be staff.

Miscellaneous notes:
This post will be updated as more things, changes need to come to mind. All important roles will be kept out of staff hands. Society as a whole will be kept out of staff hands. Staff will be available to assist, and to clear up any confusion about lore, as long as it's OOC. Events are to be presented to staff by players, whether it be for their caste, characters, society as a whole, or for the decisions that The World State makes. Soma will be a consumable item.
The content for Men Like Gods will be custom - I don't plan to have us using anything that could potentially out-of-lore. While it may not all be made from scratch, the content itself will be hand-picked. The map will have to be made custom. We're focusing on not bogging down the community with content that runs terrible on machines - from a development aspect, we are focusing on the perfect balance of good looks, and good performance.
Material wealth will be a focus, as per the society demands, in Men Like Gods. We plan to have a good balance between OOC, scripted-in features, and IC, player-driven features. Preferably, various functions that are necessary to RP should be able to be automated given that they are not handled by players.
Those that wish to go against the ideas and thoughts of society are going to have to come up with a very well-developed storyline for those characters, and will be encouraged to keep a journal.
The feature of a thought diary is something I had been thinking about for quite a while, but by command, allows a character to "Think." These thoughts are only able to be seen by themselves, but are logged down in a player-accessible journal, which is built into the script, itself. This basically functions as an ICly made, but OOCly viewed notepad for players to develop a personal journal for the forums, to allow others to get involved with how they are, as a character.
A mental state will be allowed to be set by players that generally conveys their "seemingly" outwards expression, and tone, without cluttering up the physical description.
"Titles" are a feature that basically allow for immediate, one-off descriptions, two of which will be available at 50-60 characters, on separate lines. Physical descriptions will be reserved for an examine menu. This will be put in in order to allow players to be given an actual chance to observe another character, to immerse them in the ideas and thoughts of society, in and of itself.

That's all for now. Let me know of any ideas you may have for this.

jones​

 

everyone has a role, even the epsilons

This sounds like a good idea, good luck, will play.

 

Somewhat finished the post.

 

I like the idea of this, it has potential. I wish you luck.

 

The idea on paper itself is sound-- but I don't really see any incentive on this roleplay. What, looking at me, (your consumer) a player, will interest me (the roleplay) enough to want to stay on the server?

 

You can just use /mec which is built into the framework for a /me with less radius, its exact radius is a third of the IC talking radius. No need to overthink a whole new /me command. This is looks really well put together, can't wait to see where this goes. <3

 

Does it need an incentive? This is made for those who are politically minded, and in seeing what it takes to realistically keep the Huxley concept of a Utopian society running. It's not focused around conquest of any type - the conquest has happened - it's made to simulate life as a person within this - there will be benefits and consequences to every action you take on, you would be keen to try and push yourself to your limits within your caste to benefit society as a whole - there'll be gameplay elements that will take into consideration what happens when society doesn't function correctly, which can potentially have disastrous effects. But you're not going to find people picking up a weapon and physically rebelling as if it were HL2 - if that were to happen, it would be a complete and utter tragedy, and rock the foundation of The World State as it's known.

In the book, people are accustomed to these lifestyles - and for the most part have no qualms of it. It's a rare chance that people begin to think against social norms, and those people are considered incredibly taboo - or complete weirdos, creeps, that sort of thing. In a society where everyone, by default, spends time with everyone else, the separatists are quite shunned, looked down upon, and generally made fun of. The argument that the way society runs in BNW being incorrect is an opinion that is extremely unpopular.

All in all, this sort of RP is meant to push the player to their absolute limits, to have them question if they truly live in the perfect world, or a world of incorrect standards for perfection. It's meant to be extremely thought-provoking, challenging, and very politically-centered, in a hyper-realistic way. When decisions are made by the fully player-run society, whether it be constant lack of personnel from one caste to do their jobs, or whether the higher caste-members are making poor decisions on behalf of society, those decisions will have an immediate effect on society itself.

The society is by no means a static society - it's living, it thrives on participation, and can fall apart. There's a potential that all of society could fall apart if not taken care of, and delve into poverty, moral ambiguity, and the potential of the objectivity of their perfect world slowly falling apart.

 

See all of this would be really cool if your audience is guaranteed to be the type that would be interested in all this, and be mature enough to actually roleplay this sort of scenario properly. I'm not saying it's a horrible idea, because it would be something awesome if it works. My fear is that it won't work in practice because of the gmod population. Also the (what seems like sizable amount of) encouraged ERP -might- turn off some roleplayers, and others might only want to ERP and not participate in other activities. People like conflict too, and the way I read it, it doesn't seem like there'll be a whole lot of it (I COULD BE INCREDIBLY WRONG THOUGH). The fact that it seems like this roleplay relies on a decent population and constant interaction seems like a pretty major weakness especially if these other points will maim your population.

I hope I'm not sounding all pessimistic and everything, I'm just trying to bring these possible problems to your attention so you can be ready for them or prevent them from happening.

 

where are the community songster apps
CA = World Controller and secretaries I suppose

 

Tbh, this is why I want to keep it contained with the re-worked /me.

There'll be conflict on a social sense - if it spins up into physical conflict, it'll pretty much always be a very very big deal. Not in the sense that people are going to start being executed for it, but in the sense that it can really change up a character's story. And that goes for people who fall victim to or it, or just even see it. The book includes reservations made for savages - basically people who live by old-world terms, but far more beastly. There's plenty of conflict in there. And to a degree, people are able to move up out of savage reservations and into normalized society, but are going to have an incredibly hard time adjusting to it, most likely. Say if there were internal caste violence in lower castes, it most likely wouldn't be a big deal whatsoever. Inter-caste violence between lower castes would probably be somewhat heard of. Inter-caste violence from lower to higher caste would be a tragedy. Internal caste violence within the upper-tier society would be an absolute travesty, and disturbing for most people. All in all, yes, there is a potential for conflict, but it manifests itself in a way that is far different than the norm.

I plan to be able to compartmentalize things if one chunk is lacking - but yes, for the most part, this does rely on heavy amounts of interaction, this isn't an autonomous society by any means(gameplay wise), but of course there's going to be the ability to at least set a few things on autopilot within reason by experienced people designated as GM's, if necessary.

Essentially, except they're going to be far more than figureheads. I plan to make every occupation able to be made. It'll make for some decently interesting RP. I think it'll be fun to see what people come up with.

 

/mec is basically a whisper /me, if you want to make your own thing, a group chat could work. Invite people to your group, then you can do /meg for group /me /g for chat and its basically group PMs.

 

This actually looks really, REALLY good. My only problem with it is that all I see in my mind is the Deltas and Epsilon players banding together and just causing a major murder and rape spree on all the other castes and basically overthrowing the server. Other than that I'd really like to give this server a try when it opens.

 

oh my ford, this looks amazing

should do space odyssey rp next

 

I don't see how this can be interesting. From what I've read you RP a moron who has a crap job and lots of sex

 

Maybe it's because you need to read a book or two.

 

This is a partially started project that's been on the backburner for a few months, actually.

 

Love the book. Would probably enjoy the roleplay. Actually looking forward to this and hope you go through with it.

 

Yeah, I guess I'd need to read the book to fully understand it. After reading the sentence "The time you spend as a child will be used to acclimate you to society ICly, and the lore OOCly" I thought it's meant to be for both people who know the book and new people.

 

It's basically like living our actual lives, except in a video game! And we actually get laid :^)

 

One does not simply defy human nature, Conflict will happen, That why there will never be peace.

This sounds just like a erp haven, Nothing else.