It's time to join the revolution.
Would anyone like to join me for a revolution? I'd like to find 3-5 others who would like to play Comrades with me.
What is Comrades?
"Comrades is a tabletop roleplaying game about life in the revolutionary underground. It takes place in a country—real or imaginary; historical, futuristic, or present day—on the verge of revolution. It is up to you and your players to push it over the brink. It is a game about sacrifice, bravery, and the beautiful madness of risking your life for your ideals. It is also a game of consequences, in which violence solves little and no death—even that of a villain—goes unmourned."
Your Manifesto: fight injustice, refuse compromise in doing so, and don't let the bastards get away with it.
You can check it out here. You're welcome to buy it (I encourage you to, it's a great game!) but you are not required to do so in order to participate. I will teach you how to play at our first session (and honestly the main thing is 'roleplay and if you need to roll dice the GM will tell you') and I will provide character sheets for you to fill in.
Much of the context of the game will be decided at our first session. We will decide together where and when the game takes place, what adversaries we will face, and what our revolution stands for.
How will this game work?
- GM: If anyone else wants to GM, you're welcome to! If not, I will. I have some experience GMing for D&D but not a ton. I ask for your patience and constructive yet gentle feedback.
- Location: We will be on a discord server so we can do voice channel sessions. (This is Writer's Sanctum approved, where D&D games take place. Writer's Sanctum rules still apply)
- Timing: In my ideal world we'd do it every other week, in the early afternoon EST on a weekday. I know most peoples' schedules don't allow this so we'll work as a group to determine a good time. My main boundary is that it can't be too late in the day (think a start time of 6pm or earlier, EST).
- NSFW content: We will not be rping sex in sessions. I don't think I'd be comfortable with it over voice channel and also that will be boring for the other players. Romance is allowed and brief kisses may be exchanged as long as it only takes a second to roleplay. Anything else, you can write on the tabletop forum on Writer’s Sanctum.
- Triggering content: A revolution is needed in this world - it will be dark. Expect fascism and violence and bigotry (in game only). That doesn't mean that I want anyone to be having a bad time, though. I will collect everyone's boundaries in advance and we will avoid whatever people prefer to avoid. If something ever comes up that wasn't on the list but you're still not enjoying, put 'X' in the chat and @ the gm. We will cut the scene and move to another, no questions asked.
- Materials: Have a discord. Have either two six sided dice handy or a virtual die roller (these are easy to find via a search engine).
- Characters / Politics: This is a game of 'radical' leftists organizing a revolution. Your character (and probably you, too, if it's going to be fun) need to stand for things like freedom and equity. This probably means standing against things like: bigotry of any kind, state violence (probably including that of police and prisons), colonialism, capitalism, etc.
- Roleplay focus: This game is meant to be centered on roleplay and that's what I prefer. If you prefer ttrpg styles focused on fighting, treasure seeking, or rules-centric, that is great but won't be a good fit for this rp.
- Commitment / Attendance: While for most written roleplays I would say 'please take your time, no rush, reply whenever', that is not the case here. We will have a consistent time that we meet and if you can't make it we will probably all have to cancel. Once we decide on a time and start our first session, you are committing to prioritizing this game during the scheduled time. Now, things happen: I myself have health concerns and cancelling may sometimes be necessary. Don't feel bad if that happens - we all need to take care of ourselves! But please only cancel if you really really have to. I've had groups essentially dissolve because someone or another cancelled every session and I really don't want that to happen here.
- Communication: Relatedly, if you have to miss a session please let the group or at least the GM know as far in advance as is possible. If you no-show twice in a row without communication we will assume you’re done with the rp, take over / make an exit for your character, and fill your spot with a new player. This will give you a couple of weeks to send a message letting us know if you’re still interested before we do so. Also, in general, please be an open and honest communicator! If something isn’t sitting right with the rp, let us know. If you need to stop playing, that’s okay just give us a heads up.
- Respect: This should be obvious but just because the roleplay will be dark doesn't mean we should be mean to each other out of character. This includes respecting peoples' boundaries on what they would like to avoid in the roleplay.
- Follow Writer's Sanctum and the Discord Server's rules: these are our hosts, please be courteous guests / members. If you get booted from them, you get booted from this game - I will support the staff's decisions. Please note that our roleplay will be focused on politics but it is to be avoided in the discord general chat. We can make a group chat or something if we want to talk politics out of character.
Yay, I'm so glad you made it this far - I'm excited to rp with you! If you are interested, please respond (or dm me if you prefer) with the following:
- Would you rather be the GM or a player?
- Are there any topics you would like to avoid in the roleplay? These could be things you want to avoid completely (ie if you don't want sexual assault mentioned in any way shape or form) or that you'd rather just be vague about it (ie if you're okay with violence but don't want the gore described in detail) - just tell me which is which.
- Is there a consistent time of week that you would be available that we could play this game during? (It's okay if the answer is 'no' we can try to schedule each session individually)
- Do you have any experience with ttrpgs in general or Comrades in particular? It’s fine if not, it’s just helpful to know what level of experience folks are coming from.
- Confirmation that you have read and agree to the requirements.
- At our first session we will be answering the following question. You're welcome to share your thoughts now or wait until our first session, but I wanted to put the questions here so you can start thinking them over:
- What kind of setting would you like to play in? Past, present, future? Real or imagined? Fantasy, sci-fi, realistic?
- What do you want to fight for and against? What kinds of adversaries / challenges / topics do you want to address? Examples to get you going include: cops, environmental harm, poverty, racism, extremists (could be on the left or right).
- What kind of vibes do you want in the rp? Run-and-gun? Shadows and secrecy?
- What is your revolution like? Do you have a leader? What's your ideology and purpose? What primary method are you using to obtain power?