Themes for Crooked Wings
TODO:
-add/remove/edit elements on the document
-WEIGH elements on the document
-how can the protagonists and other characters push these elements?
-how can events and choices push these elements?
Frequency is roughly done as a percentage score but that's not very necessary
RELEVANT LINK 1: https://birdsonguniverse.com/books/crooked-wings/page/game-mechanics-daily-life
RELEVANT LINK 2: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qrwYWnhFNC5YsIbmXITyXvuLGa9kuVBDYEWlLXrttG0/edit
| STATEMENT | IMPORTANCE | FREQUENCY | DIRECTNESS | Q&T notes (to process) |
| ideals that stray from reality can no longer be meaningfully applied | Much More Important | 27 | Very Direct | |
| socioeconomic class is not divinely (or morally) fated | Much More Important | 13 | Direct | |
| mental health IS health | More Important | 20 | A Little Direct | |
| oligarchs attack laborers with 'despair, fear, division, and confusion', which unionists try to fight back with 'righteousness, hope, unity, and knowledge' | Important | 11 | Very Direct | |
| your worth transcends a paycheck | Important | 4 | A Little Subtle | |
| "free" unregulated markets allow actors with power to limit freedoms of others | Less Important | 12 | Subtle | |
| existing institutions create regulatory sub-institutions NOT to stop their depredations, but rather as a 'bandaid' (like Glass-Steagal || the New Deal) | Less Important | 11 | A Little Subtle | |
| passing down wealth without property taxes just creates an aristocracy (??) | Much Less Important | 2 | A Little Direct | |
| QUESTION | IMPORTANCE | FREQUENCY | DIRECTNESS | Q&T Notes (to process) |
| when can an individual throw up their hands and say 'this is not my problem'? | Much More Important | 13 | Very Direct | THIS. I think this is one of the strongest parts of your story: complicated calculation of "should I act". heroism vs. complicity. |
| the real enemy isn't some individual person as much as it is 'institutions and structures (regulatory bodies, elected offices, nonprofit organizations), without regular upkeep, becoming corrupted over time'? | More Important | 42 | A Little Subtle | |
| How does one want their society to react to 'disabled' people? | Important | 20 | Direct | |
| WHAT'S WITH PRIVATE PROPERTY, ANYWAY?! property as refuge property as 'I can kick you out' property as 'I get access to the resources here' |
Important | 8 | Direct | I have a podcast for you on this: It's the socialism series by Matt Breunig. Podcast is the Breunigs. In fact his writing might be the best guide to property arguments. (I'll give away the end: It's philosophically indefensible, if you're premises are "liberty" or "utility" or "just desserts"...We can talk more. |
| what is the difference between luxuries and goods? | Less Important | 5 | A Little Direct | It depends what you mean by luxuries and by goods. Anything bought and sold on the marketplace can be a commodity. Even a luxury good. It follows commodity logic. (https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/commodity.htm) Where non-luxury commodities differ from luxury is in how they are priced, and how they are viewed. |
| IN A CAPITALIST ENVIRONMENT: is the literal possession of money/capital INHERENTLY not-good? [does the money corrupt them?] | Less Important | 3 | Subtle | Yes. Bad. Accumulation of wealth bad...for an individual or cadre. For the public, accumulation is quite good. Can't have bridges without accumulation. |
| What is 'disability'? | Much Less Important | 6 | A Little Direct | I like this. I don't know how to answer. |
| 'usury' might be a useful financial technology, but... when do we 'kill Godzilla'? | Much Less Important | 2 | A Little Subtle | The interesting thing about usury, is it is NOT a positive technology. At a certain level of debt in the population, return on investment goes to zero anyway. That's why Jubilee. |
| Is property theft? | Much Less Important | 1 | Very Subtle | Yes. But whyyyyy? |
| THEME | IMPORTANCE | FREQUENCY | DIRECTNESS | Q&T notes (to process) |
| ABSURD/SLAPSTICK HUMOR | Much More Important | 30 | Very Direct | |
| Satirical humor | More Important | 14 | Direct | |
| moral complexity! [exploring how institutions influence and coerce individuals] | Important | 26 | Moderate? | |
| Hope! [WE CAN DO <SOMETHING> [and we want to fight to keep hope alive]] | Important | 20 | A Little Direct | |
| HEROISM [you just know that some things are right (slavery was bad)] | Less Important | 10 | Subtle? | |
...do 'themes' need to be ranked ordinally with each other?
Unsorted notes:
-people second-guess themselves about their difficulties?
Q NOTE ABOUT CAPITALISM AS AN INSTITUTION: 'This question is CRUCIAL. Unfortunately, I don't believe it actually has much depth, as a question. What makes it interesting, to me, is that our society tends to view problems with Capitalism itself, as problems with institutions not working as they should.
My firm position is that institutional rot is never the deep problem within capitalism. The problem is that "rot" is built in. Take Wall Street circa 2008....Can we say that it was institutional rot, or that the institutions were functioning as they tend to function over time? So, I would say that all the things that LOOK like institutional rot are in fact features of the whole system. There is no parallel universe with an ethical wall street, or even one where there aren't giant devastating crashes. Capitalism is fueled by disaster. '
EXEMPLIFICATION SPREADSHEET
| CHARACTER(trait) OR INTERACTION OR EVENT OR STORY-FEATURE OR GAME MECHANIC OR DESIGN-FEATURE | THEME||QUESTION||STATEMENT TO EXEMPLIFY | HOW IT IS DONE | Q&T notes (to process) |
| Veezal's problems with ADHD | 'What is 'disability'?' | ||
| Kaiyara's problems with depression and burnout | 'What is 'disability'?' and 'mental health IS health' | ||
| Zelrik's problems with being exiled and physical malformations | 'What is 'disability'?' | ||
| Tawnette's problems with aphasia | 'What is 'disability'?' | ||
| Sedrin's wariness of how slow institutions are to change (which leads him to erroneously pessimistic conclusions) | 'ideals that stray from reality can no longer be meaningfully applied' AND 'moral complexity!' | ||
| Salamin's zeal and connection to the emotions of popular (which leads him to erroneously theory-driven conclusions) | 'ideals that stray from reality can no longer be meaningfully applied' AND 'moral complexity!' | ||
| Rrajak's promotion to a leadership role due to his excellence in engineering, in spite of his lack of interest (and incompetence) in management | 'Satirical humor' | ||
| Lornix's ??? | |||
| Pryden's absentminded |
'Satirical humor' |
||
| Kechi's extreme distrust of civic government power | 'moral complexity!' | ||
| Kechi's belief that inequality is not only inevitable, but also, NOT immoral | |||
| Ahamefula's interest in not losing his job so he can buy his disabled son a good life | 'when can an individual throw up their hands and say 'this is not my problem'?' AND 'moral complexity!' | ||
| Onyeka's buying in to a system that does not benefit her. | |||
| Khanda's disinterest in moral harm, compared to his own financial interests | |||
| Khanda's belief that concepts like 'justice' and 'compassion' are instilled in children because it is convenient for society as a whole (and useful for those who can take advantage of them), not because they have any inherent worth. | |||
| Zikora's complete disinterest in shame or guilt | |||
| Arudow's lack of interest in asking tough questions | |||
| Vritak's enormous, spherical body | 'ABSURD/SLAPSTICK HUMOR' | ||
| Gritak's lack of speaking in full sentences, instead screeching inarticulately in rage | 'ABSURD/SLAPSTICK HUMOR' | ||
| Tomil's ??? | |||
| Alondr's ??? | |||
| Jiwa's ??? | |||
| Huitzi's ??? | |||
| Zephyx's ??? | |||
| GAME MECHANIC: the players must manage the resources of 'hope' and 'knowledge' which the enemy attacks via 'fear' and 'confusion' | 'oligarchs attack laborers with 'despair, fear, division, and confusion', which unionists try to fight back with 'righteousness, hope, unity, and knowledge' | ||
| GAME MECHANIC: During the night cycle, different resources (such as 'attention from corporations', 'morale', 'sanity', 'exhaustion') can be exchanged for others | 'moral complexity!' | ||
| DESIGN-FEATURE: Chasing one 'ending' (either extreme anarchy or extreme change-within-the-existing-system) results in not achieving the explicit goal | 'moral complexity!' AND 'ideals that stray from reality can no longer be meaningfully applied' | ||
| STORY-FEATURE: The public understands the flourishing of Blight Elementals as an unfortunate consequence of Violet Fulgurite production. However, the truth of the matter is that a nonzero amount of industrialists and politicians find this 'unfortunate thing' as an actual boon. | '"free" unregulated markets allow actors with power to limit freedoms of others' | is idea may have been jettisoned. I'm not sure. If not, I think it could be a good vector for exploring your themes. This touches on the institutional rot question. This is also a great historical reference. Many of the things that people have seen as unintended by capitalism are, in fact, intended...or at least the worst things are ignored. Homelessness, alcoholism, war environmental disaster.... | |
| STORY-FEATURE: The players watch as the labor movement's attempts to create institutional reform are corrupted||sabotaged already from the start | |||
| STORY BEAT: Intro cinematic [Week 1-M?] | |||
| STORY BEAT: Soft gameplay tutorial (day cycle): Veezal & Co learn their job 'on the go' from Rrajak, Lornix, and Pryden [Week 1] | |||
| STORY BEAT: Soft gameplay tutorial (night cycle): Veezal & Co learn to allocate their nighttime activities [Week 2] | |||
| STORY BEAT: Veezal, Kaiyara, Zelrik, and Tawnette's reacting to the plight of the blue-collar workers by saying 'if we don't help them, who will?' [Week 7] | 'when can an individual throw up their hands and say 'this is not my problem'?' | ||
| STORY BEAT: Veezal & Co are introduced to Sedrin by Salamin [Week 8] | |||
| Failure Ending 1: (the labor union lacks both institutional and popular support. Sedrin and Salamin lament how the newly formed labor union is yet another creation of the existing system, a bandaid that only exists so that further exploitation can happen. [Week N] | |||
| Good Ending 1: (institutional support for the labor union is high enough, but popular support is not high enough): the protagonists and their allies rejoice! However, Sedrin and Salamin are aware that their victory is an exceedingly temporary one. The good guys are determined to defend the labor union from the attacks that are to come. [Week N] | |||
| Good Ending 2: (popular support for the labor union is high enough, but institutional support is not high enough): the protagonists and their allies rejoice! While the labor union they have formed appears weak on paper, momentum is in their favor. The good guys are determined to continue their fight! [Week N] | |||
| Good Ending(?) 3: (both institutional and popular support for labor union are high enough) the protagonists and their allies rejoice! But, they are so successful that <some antagonist> Opens The Door and now there's a giant hell-fortress in the middle of New Yirooburg. [Week N] | |||
| STORY BEAT (Good Ending 3(?) achieved): Defeat the giant hell-fortress in the middle of New Yirooburg! Everyone throws a party. Hooray! [Week N+1] | |||
| STORY BEAT | |||
(repeats of any item in the spreadsheet are okay)
| CONCEPT (darling) | THEME||QUESTION||STATEMENT TO EXEMPLIFY |
| Scene where Zikora is playing with his dolls, and Arudow asks him if this is really what he wants to do | goofy humor |
ways to match concepts to ELEMENTS (count)
MECHANICS for NIGHT PHASE
PHASE 1: pick 1 of 4
-Selfcare
-Take A Nap
-Read A Book
-Socialize
-Target Location
-Target Person [NPCs]
-OVERTIME
-get money
-Activism
-Identify problem!
-Write a speech!
-Organize a rally!
-Boots on the ground!
-Fight demons out of license(?)
-WE RIOT!!
-building 1-on-1 relationships
-building a media/communication network
-building large group relationships (creating spaces)
-research
From Labor Notes: https://labornotes.org/secrets
-Take a Nap
-Socialize at (Location)
-Socialize with (target person)
Link to general theme page