[BNW] What is BNW like? (longish)

[Mark Kilfoil <kilfoilm@nbnet.nb.ca>]

At 10:03 AM 05/03/2000, you wrote:
>well you make some good points against the need for exact figures, however
>it wasnt realy exact figures that I was asking for (although they would be a
>good answer) my point is that when I picked up, read and bought the BNW main
>book I was confused. what kind of world was this meant to be? in one sense
>it descirbed a facist state ruthlessly oppressing its citizens and hunting
>down rogue supers, but in other parts it described deltas holding down day
>jobs and running around saving peoples buts.

These aren't necessarily entirely at odds with each other, actually..   The 
main gist of BNW is that the "common man" or "reg" has willingly accepted a 
more dictatorial state in favour of one which is more protective.

The Delta threat is viewed by the average citizen as real enough -- 
especially in the beginning, when all this started (around when the DRA was 
introduced, back in '64).

I suspect that people just "got used to it"...  I mean, the day-to-day life 
isn't much different for the average person:  you get up in the morning, go 
to work, come home to your wife and 2.5 kids in the 'burbs, and so 
on.  Sure, there may be the occasional roadblock and check for id, but 
since you are a reg with nothing to hide, you (grumbingly) accept the 
delay;  gotta keep those "nasty Rebels" away from our kids, doncha know?

A few key things that would have changed:
  - voting.  Let's face it: lots of noise is made about voting and "true 
democracy" and "freedom of choice (in selecting government 
representatives)", but most(+) people don't vote;  they don't bother.  One 
vote is viewed as insignificant, and a significant number of people feel 
that way now.  Granted, I have a feeling that in smaller communities, 
people still vote for the local mayor.  Major cities are appointed by state 
officials, who are in turn appointed by federal officials.  After nearly 40 
years without democracy and things running (relatively) smoothly, people 
start to wonder what all this "democracy" fuss was about anyway.  Not all 
of them, but the vast majority of the populace are just sheep waiting for a 
benevolent shepherd to keep the wolves away -- exactly what Kennedy has 
been doing..

(+):  The "most" above is only an opinion, but I think that less than 50% 
of Americans vote.  Can't say much for other countries, tho' (including my 
own).

- your "papers".  Inter-state travel, and in some places inter-city and 
inner-city travel would require you to provide your "papers"...  But for 
most people, that's not a problem:  what "God-fearing, America-loving, 
Defiant-fearing, honest-to-God *American*" is going to be caught without 
their papers?  (Ok, so there are going to be pockets of resistance here and 
there, like the remnants of the Michigan Militia, for example;  these are 
probably special cases...  although interesting ones...)

- lack of freedom of the press.  No one wants to hear the truth if it 
causes a headache...  It is through the media that the government 
manipulates the masses, whether the media does so willingly, unwittingly, 
or grudgingly...  And that's the situation *today*, in *our* world...  In 
BNW, it is more pervasive and much more controlled -- allowed to be "free" 
on some issues, of course, in order to lessen the appearance of an 
overbearing government -- and very carefully monitored.  There are cases 
where "fringe elements" attempt to break through into the popular media -- 
www.deltatimes.com and CAFFEEN!, for example, but they are marginalized and 
ridiculed and generally ignored by the mainstream as "kooks" or "propaganda".

- the ability for the military to utterly take control, when 
"necessary".  Right now, it is unusual for the National Guard to be called 
out in the States to handle a matter, but when they do, they are a 
*military police force*, and don't act like a regular police force.  Other 
current examples include the UN "Peacekeeper" forces and American 
Occupation forces around the world, which act like a military law, and not 
like a regular cop-on-the-beat police force.  The military would generally 
be reserved for very big events, VIPs, Delta "issues", and out-and-out 
"situations".  They won't be as reserved as the real world, however, and 
Delta Prime even less so.  Primers don't grow on trees, but they are the 
primary police force for Delta incidents.  They are Special Forces, dealing 
with a lot of Special Problems.  And they have a *great* PR budget...

- the blatant, common and government-backed "racial" discrimination.  No, 
I'm not talking about blacks or whites or anything like that..  The "race" 
in question is the "Delta race".  They are held up, put down, set aside, 
excluded, imprisoned, have their "rights" violated, are discriminated 
against, unfairly accused of crimes, shot at, run out of town, and just 
plain "different"...

Heck, is it any real wonder why the Delta Academy and Delta Prime seem like 
really good ideas for many Deltas?  To some, that must be the home they 
never would have had "on the outside"....

  - massive explosions, huge fights, incredible destruction, incredible 
people, scary people, movies come to life...  Life has the potential to be 
a lot more "exciting" in BNW -- and a whole lot more scary and 
dangerous.  In a big city, there are more fights; in a small town, it would 
be a huge thing.  How cool would it be to look out your high-rise apartment 
and see a couple of people flying up the street -- at *eye* level?  How 
frightening when you realize they are headed *straight for your 
windows*?  How surreal would it be to have a pizza delivered to your 52nd 
floor *balcony*? ;)  ("UFO Pizza:  the best flying saucers in the city!" -- 
what a gimmick!)

>SOOO, I posted a few questions on the board, the first of which was 'how
>many deltas are there meant to be?' this I thought would solve my dillema, I
>expected answers like, on page 12 it talks about how few deltas there are,
>or ahh yes in this other source book it says that there are loads of deltas,
>and you see them on the streets all the time. Instead I got 'why do you need
>to know' and 'just make it up'

That was part of my motivation for posting that, actually: we had all 
gotten *way* too off-course in the discussion, and instead of collectively 
*thinking* and *musing* about it, a meta-discussion started.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for meta-discussion -- to a point.

But every once and a while its good to just toss out the meta-discussion 
crap and get down to brass tacks.. ;)

So, here's the challenge to everyone:  start scouring your books, those of 
you what's got the time, and start gathering all those tidbits of 
information.  Sure, we could wait for Matt to finish the next six books, 
but I'm impatient, Matt is slow (mostly not his fault, mostly movings 
fault, partially 'cause he seems to be working alone, partially 'cause it 
is AEG's nature to be sloooow), not to mention we are missing some really 
cool and useful discussions on this.

Who knows?  Matt is pretty good, but one man (or woman) can never really 
know or realize everything about a game world -- it takes pesky Guides and 
players to start delving into corners that the game designers never 
intended, never dreamed of, or haven't gotten to..

And we might even provide some useful insight that he can use, too...

>well I have just made it up I decided that I
>would run a dark skies type game, with a heavy poilce/dp presence and only a
>few definants struggling aginst the state a bit like occupied france for
>example. (notice that I have just described the numbers of deltas without
>using numbers) Now if I have guessed correctly I can expect further
>suplements to give me usefull background material and ideas for this style
>of play, but I have guessed wrong then further suplements will be useless,
>as they will describe a differnt world entirely

I think that they've given pretty good indications of what is going on, and 
I don't think you are too far off...  (Although the Defiants have more of a 
fighting chance than you seem to suggest, IMHO..)

The Dark Skies angle is an interesting take on things..  I'd love to hear 
more..

I doubt that future supplements will be useless, however, unless you decide 
to radically depart from what you've seen..  Even then, they can be a 
useful idea source..

I've never really seen a Guide/GM/DM/Storyteller/Evil Genius stick 100% to 
published material anyway..  There is a notable individualist and creative 
streak in most beasts of that species...

Well, this has gotten long..

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