# Character Creation Challenge 2024: Day 07 - MSGtm :: Mard Shanker, Freelance Sales Exec tags: #thoughts/CharacterCreationChallenge/2024 #game/rpg/msg > [!quote] [[Character Creation Challenge 2024]] > > ![[Character Creation Challenge Image.png]] In 2008, cyberpunk was getting tired. I don't just mean the genre, although that is true, too. **[[Cyberpunk (RPG)|Cyberpunk the RPG]]** had been around since 1988 and everybody was a fan. Everybody. Some people will tell you that they never liked the **Cyberpunk RPG**, some people will tell you they never heard of it… If they were around in the gaming industry or the gaming hobby in 2008, they had both played and loved **Cyberpunk**. (Hell, I had been playing the game since just after it came out, not long before I graduated from high school. The back room of a bookstore, not even a gaming store, with four of my buddies immediately after hitting the [Krystal](https://www.krystal.com/) for gut bombs right after our last class. French fries never tasted so good.) By the end of the first decade of the 2000s, it was showing its age. We had experienced the real cyberpunk Apocalypse in the 90s, and it was *awesome*. Companies weren't giant zaibatsus run by neo-feudal Japanese families. They were offices with vast arrays of cubicles, and *we all worked in them*. It always felt like the people up top had a backstabbing agenda against the people down below and we people down below definitely had a backstabbing agenda for everybody up above. Advertising was omnipresent – and spreading. Influencers, though not by that word, were on the make. The Internet truly was the final frontier, not just of the commercial experience but of the individual mode of expression. It was getting so done. But like cyberpunk as a genre in the global sense, the particular expression of cyberpunk within gaming settings was evolving rapidly. Just as importantly, tabletop RPG mechanic technology was evolving. The the sharp, clinging claws of what is now considered *"old-school design"* were breaking off in some areas. Mechanics-minimalism was really starting to be explored. Then came Howard David Ingham, "Wood" to his friends and on the cover of his books. He dropped a game which truly impressed. ![[MSGtm (cover).jpg]] **[[MSG™]]**. Yes, the trademark symbol is part of the name. As it says right on the second page of the book: ![[MSGtmtm silly.png]] They were absolutely correct. **MSG™** is a different take on the reality of what was the cyberpunk future. Absolutely, it was about corporations – just as importantly, it was about the people that work in them. Most importantly, you, as a PC – I mean a Representative – work in them. More accurately, you work for a Company which has a Brand. Is this starting to feel a little uncomfortable? *Good.* Because this is a comedy game that will make you laugh very uncomfortably having lived out the time since it was originally released and since it second edition came out in 2015. It's a future in which companies are everywhere, Brands are everything, cybernetics are everywhere (and everyone has a HeADspace™), and every job is a gig job except for management and that's just a slightly longer term gig. As traditional, let's let the book introduce itself: > [!quote] [[MSG™]] > > The way the game works is this: most of you take the part of a Rep, a sometime employee of a fictional Company. In each round of play, one of the players takes the part of the Company. The players taking the part of Reps have to work their way through any number of morally difficult situations. The Company tries to crush the Reps, or gets the Reps to crush other people. The Reps can let the Company do this, or they can find ways around it. > > The best way to learn how to play the game is to dive in and start playing. You don’t really need to prepare for the game in advance much. All you need are pieces of paper (preferably with official MSG™ Rep Records printed on them, but we’ll let that slide), and quality-produced name-brand writing implements. > > Every player in MSG™ starts with a pool of Resources from which they can draw in order to take Risks (don’t panic — we’ll explain all the terms and stuff as we go). You can just use a pencil and paper to keep track of Resources, but the best way to show the movement of Resources is by using some sort of counter. We recommend using the glass stones that you can get from larger stylish household stores. > > Only buy branded goods, remember, because branded goods are quality goods, and quality goods optimise your leisure time. Your Leisure is Important To Us. Yes, this is another one of those GMless games that I love so much so just suck it up. I believe it's safe to say that introductory chunk not only conveys the basic idea of what's going on but gives you a general sense of the tone. It doesn't take itself entirely seriously, except that it absolutely takes itself entirely seriously while never taking itself entirely seriously. The core mechanism is not based on dice. The core mechanism is based on risk. Every character has a pool of Resources and if you want to decide what happens next in the story, you risk some of those points. If you bid the most, you win the bid and take what the other person bid in its place. At the end of the game, the player with the most Resources wins. This is a game about rampant corporatism and influencer culture. Did you think it wouldn't ultimately be a cutthroat competition for pulling ahead under the hood? Come on. Like **[[Capes]]**, **MSG™** depends on an underlying mechanical layer of competition to drive good storytelling. Without the competition, you wouldn't have the personal motivation to consider screwing over your friend just for a few extra Resources. Without that motivation, can you really have the humor as commentary on modern life? No, you really can't. ## Chargen > A Representative (or Rep) is an imaginary person who works for the Brand, but isn’t employed by the Brand, because that’s not how the Brand does things. But I digress. > > So. Like I was saying. Everyone who plays MSG™ gets to take on the role of a Rep, and your Rep isn’t only representing himself, or the Company. He’s representing you. Now your Rep can be anyone you like — anyone employable, anyway. Your Rep can be just like your, or completely different. Ethnicity, nationality, sex, age, anything you want. > > You all get to roleplay your Rep from the start. Playing the character is part of creating the character, in fact. Everyone takes turns to do this. Decide who goes first (if you can’t decide, the person who earned the most last year wins, because the richer you are, the more chances you get). > > You’re first? Great. It's very difficult to create a character for **MSG™** in isolation. You need to be sitting down with other players, walking through the process, and playing it out. Otherwise there's not quite get that sensation of ridiculous superficiality and deliberately hipster playing on image over substance. If somebody at the table happens to be a nose-pierced blue haired wannabe Instagram influencer, the likes of which you simply can't seem to get away from these days in the RPG hobby, all the better. Smile and give them your most piercing HR-mandated empty headed stare. They've earned it. I get to breakout one of my favorite tools at this point – screenwriting! ### Hi ``` fountain INT. The Company Conference Room, 12th Floor - Afternoon Everyone's sitting around the big table in the conference room. It's everyone's first day. There's so much corporate bland in the room that the sunlight flops onto the floor, disgruntled before it makes it to the door. MARD Hey there, everyone! I'm Mard Shanker, pleased to see you all here today. EVERYONE (monotone) Hi, Mard. MARD I'm 24, a Scorpio, and I go by they/them, so don't screw it up. I'm from Seattle, but who isn't these days, right? You can tell I probably need to go to the gym a little more -- General murmurs of disagreement and sharp looks shot back and forth. MARD -- but I don't think who we are on the outside really matters as long as we're all part of the same company, am I right? I've got a full sleeve on my left arm of ... What is that? Oh, yeah, the Chinese sign for "Compliance"! Zoom in on the tattoo briefly. It is, in fact, the Chinese pictograph for "Compliance," shockingly. MARD I'm still building out my closet with brandwear but I _love_ pink jumpers with fuzzy shirts! EVERYONE (monotone) Hi, Mard. CUT TO: EXT. The Character Sheet ``` I fucking hate her already. She's perfect. ### Status, Expertises Who really is our character as a person? What are they want? What are their dreams? *We don't care.* It's not important. The only important thing is what your job is. What's on your CV. Are you a *Freelancer* or an *Asset*? *Freelancers* really are gig workers. They work for themselves, first and foremost. As the book says, "the Company's you're only actual client and you don't get holidays or sick pay, but hey. Benefits are for losers." Freelancers specialize *Marketing*. If you're playing a Freelancer, you can *cheat outrageously* and *get away with murder*. *Assets* have a little bit more in the way of job security, mainly because the Company has jacked you up with constantly updated software, cutting-edge wireless headwear, and more plug-ins than you know what to do with. The Company owns about 45% of what used to be your brain. That's okay, they very rarely get repossessed. Assets usually specialize in *IT Solutions*, and if you're an Asset you can *edit your memory* and *change the facts to suit you*. Yes, the things in italics are your Statuses and your Perks. Yes, "get away with murder" literally is a Perk for Freelancers. Yes, Assets can "change the facts to suit them". Once we've got our Status figured out we have to pick a couple of Expertises. Maybe you learned it, maybe you've got the software for it. Either way, there are other things to know. This is one of those things where we just get to pick a couple – and the more creative and interpretation the better. All of the things on the list are definitely business NewSpeak for at least one other thing. ``` fountain FADE TO: INT. The Company Conference Room - CONT MARD I'm _so_ glad to be here with all of you today! So hugely glad! I'm a Freelancer so I'll be helping you all get the word out about how cool this all is, right? I'll be just down the hall in Marketing, sharing that cube with April, but I'm sure that's just a temporary oversight. Ha ha! I'm with Executive Management, _of course_, but I dabble in Sales and Business Development! I'm _so_ glad to be here! EVERYONE (even more monotone) Hi, Mard. CUT TO: ``` Seriously, I fucking hate her. This is how you know you have found a particularly good character if it evokes absolute revulsion. Oh, about those Expertises: > *Executive Management* > > You organise. You re-organise. You make decisions. You are really, really important. More importantly, you are really, really good at making people think you are really, really important. > > *Sales and Business Development* > > They tell you that you’d sell your own mother given the chance, but it’s not true. She wouldn’t get a good enough price. Mard is a grade-A bullshit artist who would never sell ice to Eskimos because there's no repeatability for that business. She could, she just won't. Even if they asked nicely. ### Relationships It wouldn't be on modern game design if we didn't do a little relationship mapping. And by that – I mean almost literally that. We have three things to define: - *iLove:* One person you care about deeply; - *iHate:* Two people you hate even more deeply; - *My Secret Tragedy:* Something really bad that happened to you in the past. This is not actually a secret. Everyone knows about it. Do you see why I love this game so much? Do you see why it has become ever more disturbingly relevant over the years? Let's go back to the script. ``` fountain > FADE IN: INT. The Company Roundtable - CONT Everyone has that completely dead eyed stare of people who are actually checking their internal optical displays for social media updates. Without blinking. MARD I really miss my dog, Egg Fu Yung. He's been upgraded with talkware, you know, the latest greatest. He's so cute. But Aileen Corpo, my boss, I think she really hates me! Which is so wrong! I'll bet she's got some kind of deal going on with April, too. Skeevy. Yikes. LEX reads off the script, voice numbed. LEX I'll bet something really terrible happened to you. He makes a brief stab at looking interested. Failure. MARD It did! My cousins, Elizabeth and Marikesh, got caught making out and told _everybody_ that I made them do it, so everybody thinks I'm some kind of big perv now or something! Can you believe it? CUT TO: ``` ### USP Everybody's got a Unique Selling Point, something really unique about them. Something that stands out from the crowd. It could be serious. It could be frivolous. It can be anything. "One" of the examples in the book: ![[MSGtm cojoined.png]] ``` fountain > FADE IN: MARD You really ought to know: My vagina talks to me. Like, in words. I think it's, like, an implant or something. Mostly it's company jingles. CUT TO: ``` Look, it had to be done. ### Resources Eventually they were going to come up. There are two: - *Compassion:* A measure of much you actually care about people. It doesn't keep you from doing bad things but it at least suggests that you might feel bad about it at some point. - *Self:* How much confidence you have, how much inner strength. This is probably going to get worn down. We've got 11 points to split between them, which is pretty easy. *Compassion:* 3 *Self:* 8 Say what you want to about Mard, and I will, but her sense of self-esteem is vast. Probably too vast, but here we are. ### The Brand This would usually be something we did with everyone at the table, but since I'm the only one at the table, it'll probably go a lot faster. The Brand is more than just the Company. It's more than just a conglomerate. It is the image the Company puts forward. It's the logo. It's the tattoos that people get. It's the image that wakes them up in the middle of the night. It's the jingle they can't stop humming. It's the catchphrase on all their commercials. #### WHAT IS ITS NAME? *Philos!* Goddamnit, its name is Philos! Get off me! #### WHAT ARE ITS VALUES? What's it all about? We know what the Company is about; it's about making a profit. But what is "it about?" What does the marketing say it's about? What does it want you to think about when you think about it? > Like you know how Apple has some of the most draconian contracts and how it treats its sweatshop workers as bad as anyone else, but is still the only tech brand an antiglobalisation protester would even think of using? It’s like that. Normally, everybody at the table would pick one thing and then talk about how they all interact. I'm going to pick three things because I'm the only person at this table. There's a list here in the book but you're in no way limited to it. *Philos: Insight and Wonder. Globally.* - Success - Family - Simplicity The logo of Philos are a stylized pair of hands coming together to shake while simultaneously making two thumbs up. Unfortunately for the Brand, it looks like two people thumb wrestling. The people who designed that logo have been sacked. The people who sacked those people have been sacked. It's been a while. Marketing for Philos always revolves around the imagery of the nuclear family with an almost atom-punk 50s aesthetic. Lines and patterns are always very simple. Textures are flat or gradient stippled in a very straightforward way. They sponsor at least four children's shows and make sure that the company jingle is at the end of every one along with their logo. #### Company Resources Yes, *thank* you for turning it down. The Company has one pool of Resources equal to all of the players' Resource points added together. They go in the middle of the table. Not applicable here, but good to know. ![[MSGtm harder not smarter.png]] ## Character Sheet ![[Mard Shanker, Freelance Sales Exec.jpg]] If a good character supposed to make you feel things – this is a good character. I hate everything about her and I want to see her suffer. Which, considering the game, is probably downright positive. ## Exunt Cyberpunk, the genre, is grounded on a firm foundation of taking itself seriously and you taking it seriously even when – especially when – it goes completely balls deep into excess. When Johnny Mnemonic gives his rant about just wanting goddamn room service in all of its beautiful, degenerate glory, in a real sense despite the accidental self-parody that *is* cyberpunk. It is a creature of its time. It's a genre where the scene-setters imagined the corporate future would be vastly cooler than it actually is.  **MSG™** imagines that the corporate future and everything around it is vastly cooler than it actually is without actually being cooler. In that sense the lack of realism is far more realistic. This is one of my favorite games ever written, in case you couldn't tell. The interstitial fiction, the suggested missions in the back, the discussion of what the game is actually supposed to mean – it's all great stuff. I would rank it up with **[[Capes]]** when it comes to absolutely underrated, unseen games which are the pinnacle of game design in their relative corners. Very few games are up to that measure. **[[Ironsworn - Starforged|Starforged]]** is probably one of a handful more. It's rarefied praise. If you like cyberpunk or you like sci-fi or you like to parody current society – go pick it up. It'll be worth your while. ### Later ... > [!note] Editor's Note - 2024-01-07 01:29 > > You know, I'm kind of disappointed that my [Fountain](https://fountain.io/) add-on for [[obsidian.md|Obsidian]] didn't actually render the script content properly. I would've thought that since it's effectively just an HTML transformation that Publish would have no problem. > > Insert sadness here.