As the title says, when you play TTRPGs, how often do you use socialist themes?
Personally, I was able to run a long-form Blades in the Dark campaign where the players were involved in a proto-communist uprising. It was a good setting/system to explore these ideas. I'm curious if other folks have tried, and if they've had success.
Of course, there are games about explicit socialist ( Comrades , Beat the Boss ) and anti-fascist ( SIGMATA, MoonPunk ) struggle, as well as plenty of indie games with clear progressive streaks.
Kinda. In Morrowind I played a Khajiit monk that went around killing slavers and freeing slaves
Depends on the game and the setting. I usually try, but in fantasy/medieval settings that generates mostly anti-monarchy/aristocracy choices and sentiments that are mostly just come off as liberal.
Also, several DMs made my character a long lost relative of monarchy and heir. Then I just went enlightened despot, because the material conditions and social consciousness were not ready...yeah, that's the reason...
Edit: did pull off a Digger-like collective in one DnD game.
when i'm discussing rpg settings online, i'm actually using dialectic materialism to great success. i leave out all the jargon, but i outline class relations and power dynamics in these fictional societies along marxist lines. it's a great low-key way to expose gamers to leftist ways of understanding the world.
as far as my characters go, i also avoid jargon or other aspects that would be ahistoric, but they tend to be subversive in ways that fit the setting. like, when i'm playing a witch, she'll criticize the wizard guilds because they're patriarchal, gatekeepy and bourgeoise institutions. she doesn't put it in these terms, but it's clear what she means. it's lots of fun and being able to try out different feminine roles was also a great way to experiment with my gender when i was questioning. the online group i'm playing with is also very LGBT inclusive and feminist, so our campaigns have fairly strong lesbian vibes.
Had a lot of fun playing a protocommunist kobold once (great way to run a high int character when you're normal int yourself in an early industrial revolution setting is to have them simply invent Marxism). Also modded cities skylines to put a massive concrete statue of my fursona up
Oh hey, I also run Blades in the Dark for my group.
Blades and its base setting is great with this, Doskvol pretty much has class conflict and imperialism built into setting to the point it's hard not to use it in some form. In the current iteration of my game I'm laying it on a bit thick playing in a homebrewed Tycherosi city with among other things demonic overlords living it up big in times of food shortages and imperial meddling.
yeah my brother played a cleric of solidarity as a trade unionist and im making a homebrew campaign with heavy political themes rn
