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FriendoftheDork
Hey, I wrote a IC Humanis Policlub flyer for use in my game. It was inspired by something similar by another member here, but since I couldn't find it anymore, I decided to write my own version.

I would be happy to get some feedback smile.gif

google doc link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VQbgfX4...dit?usp=sharing

Unformated text:

[ Spoiler ]


Oh, I forgot to mention: This is set in 2046 when HP was founded (again, strangely enough, it happened first in '24). So if you want to make sense for 70s timeline just change any reference to time, though the content could otherwise be similar.
Tecumseh
None of this is a criticism of your flyer, which is well-written and coherent. This is more of a description of how I approach Humanis.

When I GM, I play Humanis as a moderate policlub, leaving the explicit hatred and violence to other organizations like Alamos 20,000. I don't like it when Humanis is too openly racist, because that makes them too black and white and too easy to oppose. I like shades of grey, and for almost every organization - even Humanis - to have redeeming, or at least moderating, virtues. (Even insect spirits have mantid and spider spirits, after all.) I have Humanis take positions that sound reasonable and/or insidiously attractive. If I can get my players to stop and say, "wait, did I just agree with Humanis?" then I feel like I'm doing a good job of creating a fictional world that's just as confusing and conflicted as our real one.

The arguments of your flyer are well-articulated and perfectly directed toward blue-collar humans, but at the same time those people are Humanis' core constituency. Humanis doesn't really need a flyer to tell them what they already think and feel. Your flyer outlines the arguments that take place naturally in bars and at family dinner tables all across Auburn and Snohomish without having to put it in writing.

My Humanis propaganda is directed toward middle-class suburban moms, The Real Housewives of Renton. Not only are they demographically desirable, but they are respectable, and provide good political cover for when criminals start accusing you of the most outrageous lies. I make Humanis pro-human rather than anti-metahuman. When metahumans are discussed, it's mostly in affable terms of incompatible cultures, rather than genetic inferiority or race baiting. The general thrust is the separation of metas rather than the elimination of metas, all cloaked in the language of backhanded compliments. Things like:

- "Ork culture is so interesting and unique! They really need a society of their own in order to fully expresses themselves and reach their full potential."
- "Wouldn't dwarves and trolls would be happier and healthier in societies of their own that could be customized to their unique physiologies? That would allow them to capitalize on their distinctive physical gifts in an environment perfectly suited to their needs."
- "Elves are so pretty and charming! Their longevity, however, introduces complications that our legal system isn't fully capable of incorporating and representing equitably. It would be unfair to them if they were to live their lives under laws and customs that have been designed for human lifespans. They would really benefit from a society of their own that could be tailored to their unique gifts."

And so on. Arguments that stress the Otherness of metas in a way that makes it seem like they would be better off and happier on their own. "Society isn't flexible enough to accommodate such drastically different needs, so it is in every race's best interest to have their own!" That makes the argument more palatable than emphasizing the threats that metas pose, which in turn gives cover to people who think of themselves as fair and reasonable instead of as racists. That's how you generate empathy with your goals, if not your underlying cause, and that's how you win.
JanessaVR
QUOTE (Tecumseh @ Jun 1 2016, 03:03 PM) *
None of this is a criticism of your flyer, which is well-written and coherent. This is more of a description of how I approach Humanis.

When I GM, I play Humanis as a moderate policlub, leaving the explicit hatred and violence to other organizations like Alamos 20,000. I don't like it when Humanis is too openly racist, because that makes them too black and white and too easy to oppose. I like shades of grey, and for almost every organization - even Humanis - to have redeeming, or at least moderating, virtues. (Even insect spirits have mantid and spider spirits, after all.) I have Humanis take positions that sound reasonable and/or insidiously attractive. If I can get my players to stop and say, "wait, did I just agree with Humanis?" then I feel like I'm doing a good job of creating a fictional world that's just as confusing and conflicted as our real one.

The arguments of your flyer are well-articulated and perfectly directed toward blue-collar humans, but at the same time those people are Humanis' core constituency. Humanis doesn't really need a flyer to tell them what they already think and feel. Your flyer outlines the arguments that take place naturally in bars and at family dinner tables all across Auburn and Snohomish without having to put it in writing.

My Humanis propaganda is directed toward middle-class suburban moms, The Real Housewives of Renton. Not only are they demographically desirable, but they are respectable, and provide good political cover for when criminals start accusing you of the most outrageous lies. I make Humanis pro-human rather than anti-metahuman. When metahumans are discussed, it's mostly in affable terms of incompatible cultures, rather than genetic inferiority or race baiting. The general thrust is the separation of metas rather than the elimination of metas, all cloaked in the language of backhanded compliments. Things like:

- "Ork culture is so interesting and unique! They really need a society of their own in order to fully expresses themselves and reach their full potential."
- "Wouldn't dwarves and trolls would be happier and healthier in societies of their own that could be customized to their unique physiologies? That would allow them to capitalize on their distinctive physical gifts in an environment perfectly suited to their needs."
- "Elves are so pretty and charming! Their longevity, however, introduces complications that our legal system isn't fully capable of incorporating and representing equitably. It would be unfair to them if they were to live their lives under laws and customs that have been designed for human lifespans. They would really benefit from a society of their own that could be tailored to their unique gifts."

And so on. Arguments that stress the Otherness of metas in a way that makes it seem like they would be better off and happier on their own. "Society isn't flexible enough to accommodate such drastically different needs, so it is in every race's best interest to have their own!" That makes the argument more palatable than emphasizing the threats that metas pose, which in turn gives cover to people who think of themselves as fair and reasonable instead of as racists. That's how you generate empathy with your goals, if not your underlying cause, and that's how you win.

Very well stated. This is just the right approach for presenting Humanis.
FriendoftheDork
QUOTE (Tecumseh @ Jun 2 2016, 12:03 AM) *
None of this is a criticism of your flyer, which is well-written and coherent. This is more of a description of how I approach Humanis.

When I GM, I play Humanis as a moderate policlub, leaving the explicit hatred and violence to other organizations like Alamos 20,000. I don't like it when Humanis is too openly racist, because that makes them too black and white and too easy to oppose. I like shades of grey, and for almost every organization - even Humanis - to have redeeming, or at least moderating, virtues. (Even insect spirits have mantid and spider spirits, after all.) I have Humanis take positions that sound reasonable and/or insidiously attractive. If I can get my players to stop and say, "wait, did I just agree with Humanis?" then I feel like I'm doing a good job of creating a fictional world that's just as confusing and conflicted as our real one.

The arguments of your flyer are well-articulated and perfectly directed toward blue-collar humans, but at the same time those people are Humanis' core constituency. Humanis doesn't really need a flyer to tell them what they already think and feel. Your flyer outlines the arguments that take place naturally in bars and at family dinner tables all across Auburn and Snohomish without having to put it in writing.

My Humanis propaganda is directed toward middle-class suburban moms, The Real Housewives of Renton. Not only are they demographically desirable, but they are respectable, and provide good political cover for when criminals start accusing you of the most outrageous lies. I make Humanis pro-human rather than anti-metahuman. When metahumans are discussed, it's mostly in affable terms of incompatible cultures, rather than genetic inferiority or race baiting. The general thrust is the separation of metas rather than the elimination of metas, all cloaked in the language of backhanded compliments. Things like:

- "Ork culture is so interesting and unique! They really need a society of their own in order to fully expresses themselves and reach their full potential."
- "Wouldn't dwarves and trolls would be happier and healthier in societies of their own that could be customized to their unique physiologies? That would allow them to capitalize on their distinctive physical gifts in an environment perfectly suited to their needs."
- "Elves are so pretty and charming! Their longevity, however, introduces complications that our legal system isn't fully capable of incorporating and representing equitably. It would be unfair to them if they were to live their lives under laws and customs that have been designed for human lifespans. They would really benefit from a society of their own that could be tailored to their unique gifts."

And so on. Arguments that stress the Otherness of metas in a way that makes it seem like they would be better off and happier on their own. "Society isn't flexible enough to accommodate such drastically different needs, so it is in every race's best interest to have their own!" That makes the argument more palatable than emphasizing the threats that metas pose, which in turn gives cover to people who think of themselves as fair and reasonable instead of as racists. That's how you generate empathy with your goals, if not your underlying cause, and that's how you win.


To be honest, I was actually trying to make it more appealing to the masses and less overt racist. The idea of the flyer should be separation, which I might make clearer by saying it directly. On the other hand, I'm not so sure it's not the huddled masses of humanity thats not the target after all - just look at the rhetoric being used today against immigration in Europe as well as America. It's not "we think Muslims/foreigners/ are en enlightened and interesting culture that
wold be best served somewhere else". It is actually fear-mongering, or belief that our own society's culture is in danger, or that certain groups are over-represented in terrorism, crime etc. Sorry for bringing in RL stuff, I dont want a discussion on that here, but the point is that this kind of discrimination and xenophobia exists today, not just 50 years ago.

My image of Humanis comes from various SR books that actually paints them more of a Redneck KKK style "lynch em" attitude, and it is strongly implied (and outright stated) that Alamo20k is supported by the group. Besides, racism in SR was far more common in the early days before meta-humanity was accepted by the majority, so it's not unlikely that 2075 Humanis is a much different beast than 2046 Humanis.

Also, it's not unlikely it appeals differently to different group - I can picture a Brackhaven type at a fundraiser using the same rhetoric you used, and the privileged complacent high society might indeed look at seperation for their own good rather than for the sake of humanity. But Humanis Policlub is primarily by humans, for humans. They are fighting for human rights, not for the rights of elves and dwarves to make their own nations, even if such is acceptable. Genocide is not the stated goal of course, separation is, but fear is still a high motivator, and the organization is described of both being supported by blue collars of low-education "white trash" equivalent, as well as the rich and powerful.

In any case, this kind of pamphlet was targeted at the blue collars at a time before they have really become huge. Upper middle class (if such a thing exists in SR) would probably have a very different sort of speech or political texts.

In fact, if you would like to write something yourself that fits that demographic or time, that would be great.
Tecumseh
I don't disagree with anything you said. If the flyer is targeted toward blue-collar humans in an early setting then I would say it's great.

I don't want to string together a series of book references, but my general impression is that Humanis was more explicitly racist in the early years and has slowly matured into a less-inflammatory, more politically-savvy organization as the years have gone on and it becomes apparent that the knifeears are here to stay. I don't think 2075 Humanis would publish such a flyer, both because the target demographic is semi-literate (relying on their commlinks and AROs as they do) and also because it would be politically unwise to be so visibly connected to language that might not be acceptable to a significant percentage of potential donors and voters.

Again, my approach is mostly to make Humanis a more complex organization rather than a one-dimensional villain that is too easy to for players to oppose without hesitation.
FriendoftheDork
QUOTE (Tecumseh @ Jun 2 2016, 02:26 AM) *
I don't disagree with anything you said. If the flyer is targeted toward blue-collar humans in an early setting then I would say it's great.

I don't want to string together a series of book references, but my general impression is that Humanis was more explicitly racist in the early years and has slowly matured into a less-inflammatory, more politically-savvy organization as the years have gone on and it becomes apparent that the knifeears are here to stay. I don't think 2075 Humanis would publish such a flyer, both because the target demographic is semi-literate (relying on their commlinks and AROs as they do) and also because it would be politically unwise to be so visibly connected to language that might not be acceptable to a significant percentage of potential donors and voters.

Again, my approach is mostly to make Humanis a more complex organization rather than a one-dimensional villain that is too easy to for players to oppose without hesitation.


Alright, I'll see how the players take it. I assume they will react with disgust, but there is a small chance one of the humans will go for it and become completely convinced IC for the heck of it wink.gif Since half the group is Elves, it's not gonna fly for long though.
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