How do I break out of those weird tropes but still write something with gnomes and shit? What does it look like when wizards control the means of production?
How do I break out of those weird tropes but still write something with gnomes and shit? What does it look like when wizards control the means of production?
Pretty sure there's a video game out there where gnomes are basically oligarchal fascists that run all the businesses. You can do a quest where you discover they have a literal "rape island" where they bread half monsters for slave labor or something. If you try to report it to the new papers and shit nothing happens because those companies are owned by gnomes.
Games called Arcanum https://youtu.be/QXAPdwOza9U
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Games called "Arcanum."
This might be Arcanum? Specifically this quest (spoilers obviously): https://arcanum.fandom.com/wiki/The_Ren%27ar_Siamese_Twins
I think it's supposed to be kind of like an X-Files quest, where there isn't really a proper conclusion.
From what I remember lorewise (haven't played Arcanum in a while), the gnomes were major actors in the world's industrial revolution, and as such a lot of them are now rich magnates, bankers and the like. The breeding here was of half-ogres, with the implication being that human women were being forcefully impregnated. Another detail is that many prominent gnomes have half-ogre bodyguards, and the quest is supposed to make you question if this is actually some kind of top-secret bodyguard breeding program, to ensure wealthy gnomes have appropriate protection. But it's never conclusively stated - the ending is kind of like Eyes Wide Shut in a way.
The whole "gnomes are rich and greedy" thing might be interpreted as doing some anti-semitic tropes, but I guess if you wanted to be favourable you might say that this perception of gnomes is in-universe racism. The game definitely does stuff with that - orcs for example are used in Tarant as factory workers, but live in a ghetto and are generally marginalized, which eventually leads to the great newspaper headline "Anarchist Laborers Take Over Factory.".
THAT'S IT! I couldn't remember the name but yes, that's the game
I played so much of this, forgot to post it in the recent !games@hexbear.net thread about turn based rpgs
Intrigued.
Games called “Arcanum.”
Oh played it, as kid, but didn't get that, cause I found it less cool than Planescape.