A setting where everyone lives and works for a single bureaucracy.

>>53980406
>adventures in USSR
no such luck

>>53980429
Pretty sure the adventurers would just be fantasy KGB

>>53980435
that was my initial though.

>>53980406
>What kind of adventures could be had in such a setting
People trying not to die of starvation?

>>53980406
>what if Imperial China was magic and never died

>>53980406

Party is part of the ministry that hints down "outsiders" or people outside the system. At first it seems typical enough but eventually players start to find out outsiders aren't all that bad/ something kiss not what it seems about the beauracracy. Maybe one of the evil pantheon gods snuck in a footnote that gives them something or corrupts the beauracracy in some way?

>>53980406
I think that I'd like this idea if it were the way one particular empire in a larger fantasy setting worked.

Fuck generic communist setting. The central bureaucracy is Head Office in a grand oligarchical corporate structure - a single business that achieved 100% monopoly over every aspect of the economy. They keep society on its toes by warning of the threats of The Communists who lurk in every dark corner.

Op: hey guys this is my setting any ideas for quests in it?

Everyone: fuck your communism change your setting REEEEEEEEEE

>>53980406
> What kind of adventures could be had in such a setting
Typical Shadowrun SINless shit.

>>53980579
Other than limiting possible antagonists for a campaign, I don't really see how not having other nations makes it any worse. How would having different empires change it?

You don't have to make a game out of that OP, you're living it.

>>53980406

Congratulations, you've just invented Best Korea.

Or paranoia, if you want it to be fun.

>>53981171
To my mind, it seems more fun to juxtapose such a society against those of other, more conventional nations around it. If the PCs are citizens of the great bureaucracy, then they may boggle at the idea that these other kingdoms and republics can function somehow without the huge, over-arching government they've known all their lives. If they PCs are citizens of the other countries, they be forced to contend with that very same government trying to regulate and dictate every aspect of their time within the borders of this peculiar state.

Seems very interesting actually. There should be a lot of indoctrination you make the players implement their upon characters but also slowly reveal to them that there is a much larger world out there and the kingdom/government or whatevs is just one place among others. It would make for a great base line for a larger story, let's say after the characters leave this kingdom once they find the truth and adventure elsewhere or decide to become actively involved against it. Idk.

If you don't make that organization the main focus of the story, you run the risk of lazily homogenisng the setting under 'oh yeah everyone cooperates dont think too hard'

>>53981567
Ok, fair point. The one thing I'm wondering though is can such an authoritarian setting be used as anything other than then ultimate antagonist?

I find the idea where the authoritarian regime isn't the actual bad guy much more interesting than the 'the guys we work for are actually evil, who could have seen that coming!!!" which I feel has been done a bit more often. My problem being I'm finding it somewhat difficult to get past that 'communism get out, REEEEEEE!' hurdle.

>>53980406
so like ancient egypt

aAn adventure where you work for the Esteemed Ministery of Internal affairs and hunt down repels and such "undesirables" would be neat

>>53981931
Like >>53981832 suggested, you need the actual bureaucracy to be an important part. 'Go kill bandits' is a bad idea since your setting does that the exact same as literally every other setting. So why bother?

I'm not sure what you had planned for ministries, but I think the easiest way to make a campaign interesting is to have conflict between them. Let's say your ministry of education has guys who go around destroying things that could 'lead the people astray'. But on the other end you have a ministry of historical recording who has teams going around trying to find and protect artifacts from ages past, even ones that could teach lessons that don't tow the party line. Now you have two factions with conflicting goals while still inside a single state. Through a party of players in there and let them pick their side, both choices are still 'pro-bureaucracy'.

>>53980406
Isn't that just the 40k setting?

>>53981931
It doesn't need to be an antagonist nation, but a little dour perhaps, belligerent, and slightly alien. Fantasy worlds are full of various exotic and astonishing nations, so this wouldn't be much different than that.

>>53981997
came here to say this. quite literally a 40K feral world

>>53982002
Building on that, you could even have it be a non-human nation, with whom such a bureaucracy feels more natural. Perhaps it's a conclave of warforged or golems.

>>53981997
The imperium is more feudal in its structure though, isn't it? Planets kind of just do what they want, as long as they pay their tithe and make sure nothing heretical goes on. OP's setting would fit in perfectly fine as a single planet in dark heresy, but that can be said for most settings, since 40k is so big, pretty much anything can happen and still fit in.

>>53981958
is.... it? I get more a china vibe personally.

>>53982026
my setting had one city state that was run by what basically boiled down to demons whom authoritarianism was natural. And 'cus they were demons they didn't seek to conquer humans, them being a lesser race and all.
My PCs decided to burn it down for the luls

>>53982076
the state basically owned everything in ancient egypt like down to the sandals you wore

>>53982110
A literally hellish bureaucracy. That works pretty nicely, actually. You would think a city of devils would have been fireproof.

>>53982144
It was fun for as long as it lasted to have a fish-out-of-the-water campaing. It was especially fun have my PCs try to work in the system of the city as they had to report and document their murder hoboing for the bureaycrats

>>53981995
that could be neat, one problem though, as you'd think a state like OP suggested would have systems in place to make sure the ministries don't actually fight, or if they do it would be a legal battle, not an actual one.

>>53980406
>What kind of adventures could be had in such a setting.
Inter-ministry conflicts would make for good stories. With the miners and the masons at eachother's throats the entire city is starting to see its stoneworks crumble.

The oldest library in the city was slated to get an emergency repair but now it may fall apart unless someone can cause the two factions to reconcile.

>>53982209
A Ministery of Disputes on Matters Internal of Both Legal and Physical - or in short- MoDoMIoBLaP

>>53980406
Criminal party smuggling food to the starving peasants.

>>53980643
Fuck generic megacorp setting. The central bureaucracy is Head Council in a grand centrally planned structure - a single governing body that achieved 100% monopoly over every aspect of the economy. They keep society on its toes by warning of the threats of The Capitalists who lurk in every dark corner.

In practice, it would work the same.

>>53982076
Or ancient Sumeria. Everything and everyone was property of the king. Government assigned work force for different tasks, mainly making bricks and canals, and were paid in grain from communal stores.

>>53982305
it's good to be a god

>>53982286
>it would work the same

That's the whole point. Hence the essentially-communist not-government creating a Red Scare being DEEP COMMENTARY.

>>53980406
Just have America running around making their life a pain

>>53982209
Well it IS a bureaucracy. Perhaps the legal solution is too slow, so the ministries find it more efficient to just force the other ministry to concede. Whether that be through threats, diplomacy or a few agents going 'missing'. All kept completely secret and hush-hush of course.

>>53982523
But if dead agents started showing up, or just disappearing, wouldn't that lead to further inquiry?

File: dc-opposition-art_grande.png (51KB, 600x600px) Image search: [Google]

51KB, 600x600px

>>53982248
Or something like this?

Do this

Space travel is impossible
The king own the entire earth.
The king lend some huge amount of land to some people X as a way to pay shit.
Those guys lend part of their land to people Y, to pay for shit
Those people Y lend part of their land.....to guys Z
So you work for yourself (with the land you have) to get stuff to sell and etc.. and also work for the guy that lended this land for you,to pay him the fact he is lending you the land.
This guy do the same , and owner of his land do the same and this goes on

and this goes on.

>>53984578
So, Feudalism?

You basically described it

>>53980526
>Every fantasy game is in a feudal medieval society
>Has issues with communist game

Either you're not playing fantasy (in which case why the fuck are you in this thread), or you're mommy's very special boy

>>53980406
The guys are criminals not because of their not being a part of the system but because they found out the Gods never existed and were only used as an excuse to keep the bureaucratic machine going without constantly having to put down peasant revolts.

>>53980406
>tavern
How would that even work in this setting? Do people just go to the tavern to get their weekly ration of alcohol? You mention banks as well so is money still used?