So my first DnD campaign is on hiatus so another player has started their own for us to play in the meantime. My DM for this new campaign is explaining the world and it’s a bit… hmmm. I guess you could say I’m uncomfortable with a setting based on the Soviet Union by someone who doesn’t know anything about the USSR. He explains it as small states forced to be in absorbed into the empire, there’s one rich area and as you get farther away the poorer it gets, the worst area is described as Ukraine. I guess in that area you can be working the land and then some guy forces you to give him money. Our Soviet Union is very repressive and we’re at war with a democratic nation. Every child is given a magical stamp, if you go against the empire or do “thought crimes” you get changed markings. You can get good markings back via “social credit.” I feel so uneasy and I feel bad. I don’t want to be a Debby downer or an ass.
He mentioned Marxism but it seems to be evil in this universe (“with regards to Marxism make sure you don’t get the worst mark on your head”). Also he’s encouraging us to play evil/neutral. I don’t know what to do. I want to make the best of it but damn, I literally play as a Marxist dog in the hiatus playthrough (the current DM is a fellow player on that campaign) so I’m surprised this is happening. Do you have advice on how to make the best of this? Maybe combat misinformation subtly in character? I’m freaking out!
Edit: the currency in this “state” is not gold or typical money, it’s food rations. So when I said if you live in a poorer region and a guy comes demanding money I mean some state official haggles you for taxes which is paid in rations. This haggling seems to only take place in the poorest “Ukraine” areas…
I don’t know how real this is. I hope it is because this is fucking hilarious. How’d you even get involved with these chuds? Why’re you still involved with them after learning of their views on not just the USSR but even Marxism? Social credits in 2024…wow.
If you’re playing evil characters in this campaign, that means you are all supporting the “dictatorship” right? So I’d say go ahead. Fully support it and lean in. Fuck democracy and the “free west.”
Crush those peasants and proles with ideas of freedoms lol. Take their money and relish being the bad guy in a campaign. Evil campaigns are always fun.
I really wish I was joking. My background with these people is like this:
First campaign (on hiatus):
DM - IRL friend 1
IRL friend 2
IRL friend 3
DM’s brother who I’ve never met (we play over discord)
Me
Campaign 2 (current):
DM - is the brother
IRL friend 2 from previous campaign
Friend 2’s boyfriend (I never met him)
Me
(IRL friends 1 and 3 couldn’t make it)
So with this new campaign I have one friend I know well and the DM is a fellow player in our paused campaign. In the hiatus campaign I play as an explicitly Marxist dog, and from our time playing together there were no issues at all. My IRL friends know I’m a communist and are not reactionary at all, they support me and are just great in general. The brother doesn’t know me as well but we haven’t had problems. The boyfriend and the brother seem very reactionary for this campaign while my friend just wants to play as a funny bard. So I fell into this by accident, so to speak. I was dumbfounded by what I was hearing, just the boyfriend and brother bouncing off propaganda. Funnily enough our characters are supposed to be bombarded by empire propaganda and yet it seems they fell for the western counterpart.
I think I’m just going to play a principled Marxist, be a Lenin figure, and take over the empire and turn it into the real Soviet Union and not the horrible caricature they’re making it into. I don’t even know if this campaign will go on long enough for that to happen. I just hope our old DM feels better soon so I can play as my dog again.
Ah I see. Well, good luck lol.
From what I know of shitty DMs, they love to railroad campaigns. You can try to be a principled Marxist/Lenin figure but your DM will probably not let you get too far with that plan because he's motivated in showing USSR and Marxism in the worst light possible. I imagine one motivation for him DMing and choosing this setting was your Marxist dog PC in the hiatus campaign.
It's why I advised just playing up the mustache-twirling evil villain angle. Steal from the farmers. Suppress revolutions. Kick puppies. There was a corruption problem in the latter half of the USSR. You can play as one of those guys who professes a nominal adherence to Marxism-Leninism but is an out an out capitalist just looking to make a quick buck. Maybe an enforcer or associate to a high level party official who steals stuff and puts it to the black market. Or something else along those lines.
But I don't know if your DM will allow such portrayals either, because that would mean admitting the problems were, again, capitalism and not state socialism. Eh, just play up the "corrupt bureaucrat" angle. Chuds love to hate them.
While I do agree that they should largely just have fun with the shitty railroad dm and mess with them, I think them trying to be an ultra-capitalist character will be exactly what the DM wants. 90% of anti-com arguments are just describing capitalism and then saying it is socialism.