A complex hierarchy of social identities, always shifting with the currents of context, structures every interaction and every relationship in the ancient Near East. One of the major design elements of TWE was finding a way to make this honor and shame culture, so prominent in the biblical world, felt in the mechanics of TWE. Simultaneously, I wanted to provide opportunities for the rigidity and oppressive potential of an honor and shame system to be undermined by creative players. Below, I will discuss three aspects of adapting these complex social realities from the biblical world for the social conflict mechanics of TWE.
1. The Weapon Analogy
In order to understand how these social elements work in TWE, it can be helpful to understand how weapons work in TWE. Social identities, called scripts, function exactly the same as weapons, but for social conflicts and persuasion. Weapons are categorized by size and by range. The sizes are light, full, and heavy, and the ranges are melee and ranged. All weapons of the same size deal the same amount of damage. There are other, small differences between the sizes. Light weapons can be drawn and used in the same action, and can be dual wielded. Medium weapons can be used in one hand or two. Heavy weapons cannot be used while mounted and have a small penalty applied to their use. Melee weapons gain bonuses when attacking, reflecting their ease of use, and they can be used with any of the contested ends, which are TWE's strategic options, things like disarming opponents, knocking people down, cornering opponents, etc. Ranged weapons do not gain a bonus to attack, but can strike from a distance, and targets of ranged attacks cannot counterattack their attackers. Ranged weapons can be used with a limited number of contested ends, since it makes little sense to grapple or knock someone around with an arrow or slung stone.
Scripts are categorized by role and by centrality. The roles are ethnicity, gender, and class, which act like light, full, and heavy weapons. Scripts are also either dominant or marginal, which act like ranged or melee weapons. Although all scripts can be used against anyone within earshot (and so range is not really a concern), the dominant scripts cannot be counter attacked, like ranged weapons, reflecting the impossibility of directly opposing their air of authority. The dominant scripts are also less flexible, and can only be used with some of the contested ends. The marginal scripts gain bonuses when attacking with them, like melee weapons, and have access to the full range of contested ends because of their increased nuance and subversiveness.
There are six basic scripts total, one for each role/centrality combination. The ethnic scripts are high familiar (dominant) and low familiar (marginal). The gender scripts are high masculine (dominant) and low masculine (marginal). The class scripts are high wealth (dominant) and low wealth (marginal). A character in TWE can only use a script at any given time that accurately reflects their identity, but depending on the context in which they are acting, which scripts they can use will change. For example, depending on the kind of characters they are speaking to or the geographic location of where they are speaking, a character's ethnic role will change. While in one's country of birth, a character might use the high familiar script, but while travelling abroad, the low familiar script would be more accurate. Rather than the gender script being masculine and feminine, as one might expect, the script is either high masculine or low masculine. The gender script a character uses is relative to the gender presentation of those around them. A male character with a more traditionally masculine profession or personality would use the high masculine script when speaking to characters with less masculine traits, even if they are of the male gender. Female characters will often use low masculine script when speaking to male characters, but even this might change in certain situations. When several female characters converse, one of them may claim a high masculine script by taking on conventionally masculine social roles or styles of speaking. The class script too is relative, depending on the comparative wealth and status of the characters in conversation.
For example, here is how a couple weapons and scripts might look next to one another...
Soshae Long Knife
Light Melee / Damage: 4 Lethal / Attack Bonus: +2
Low Familiar Script
Marginal Ethnic / Damage: 4 Shaming / Attack Bonus: +2
Atrian War Bow
Heavy Ranged (Far) / Damage: 8 Lethal / Attack Bonus: -1
High Wealth Script
Dominant Class / Damage: 8 Shaming / Attack Bonus: -1
Players will need to carefully consider which of the six scripts they are allowed to use in any given situation, and then which one script they want to use for any given social action. A social script does not dictate everything that a character might say, but something within a character's comments should reflect the social script they are currently wielding. A character who appeals to another on the basis of kinship might use the high familiar script, while a character who bribes another might use the high wealth script, and still another character uses a gendered insult might use the appropriate corresponding gender script. Social attacks work much the same as physical attacks do, with the script in question determining bonuses to attack, the possibility of a counter attack, the amount of damage dealt, and the strategic options available to the wielder. TWE's conflict system is the same for both martial and social conflicts, and so characters exchange social attacks in an attempt to manipulate and persuade one another. Short term changes can be caused with single rolls, while long term changes require a character's control points to be fully depleted by social attacks, at which point more lasting influence can be achieved. TWE's system encourages players to see the social identities as tools to accomplishing these changes, and to be ready and willing to embrace their fluidity as a means of gaining advantage over their social opponents.
2. The "Heavy" Class
I debated for a long time which social roles would constitute the light, full, and heavy weapon analogies. The social roles determine the amount of shaming damage dealt by social attacks. With weapons, the larger and more powerful the weapon, the more damage it deals. With social roles, the connection is a bit less obvious, and a decision needed to be made about which social role went where. For quite a while, the "heavy" weapon analog was gender. My rationale was that, biblically speaking, gender is a powerful dividing line between people, both culturally and religiously. There are also a number of places in the biblical text where gender is used as a weapon of shame and manipulation, whether it was stories of seduction (like Tamar's seduction of her father-in-law), or sexual violence (like Absolom's public rape of his father's harem), or subversive reversals of gender (like Jael's assassination of Sisera).
Ultimately I decided on social class being the "heavy" weapon analog. One motivation was faithfulness to a running biblical theme, and another motivation was game play. The first motivation was to pay respect to the biblical prophets' constant cries for social justice and their harsh criticisms of greed and wealth inequality. Since TWE's vaishineph are roughly equivalent to the biblical prophets, and since the vaishineph are otherwise on the side of the poor and the oppressed in the war torn land of Chaesharin, it made sense of social class to have a profound impact on the way characters socialize and attempt to persuade one another. The second reason, the game play reason, was simply that I imagined the vaishineph player characters to not have much in the way of traditional wealth, and so to often find themselves on the marginal side of social class. While it is entirely possible for a vaishineph to accumulate a degree of wealth, vaishineph characters are not really socially positioned to be truly rich. This means that, if vaishineph characters wish to use their class based script in social conflicts, more often than not, they will be siding with the poor as they do so.
3. The Power of Marginality and Diversity
Life in Chaesharin is highly stratified and segregated, much like the biblical world. People of different kinds, classes, and genders do not routinely interact with one another in most of the five great kingdoms. The vaishineph and the rebel cults they form are in stark contrast to this. Vaishineph are called from every place and every walk of life and resurrected to work alongside one another in tightly knit groups. Vaishineph can have lingering prejudices deeply ingrained in their bones, and overcoming these prejudices in order to build strategic and emotional chemistry with their allies can become a challenge all its own.
TWE's social conflict system and scripts actually encourage diversity of characters. The greater the diversity of identities represented among the players' group, the more social scripts the group collectively has access to at any given time, and therefore, the more social strategies the group can employ. A group of hyper rich and hyper masculine characters will actually find themselves at a great disadvantage in many social scenes, for example.
Hopefully, this short piece gives the reader some insight into the goals and motivations underlying TWE's social conflict system and the way that social identities are put to use in the game's setting and mechanics. In many RPGs, differences in social identity are simply role played, and while there is nothing wrong with that, I wanted to formalize a way for these important elements of life to come to the fore and be supported by the game's mechanics. Role playing can still happen on top of this, certainly, but part of creating a game's mechanics is lifting up an aspect of the world for the player's serious consideration, and I wanted to make sure that social identity was one of those things.
- ABH
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