So my first DnD campaign is on hiatus so another player has started their own for us to play in the meantime. My DM for this new campaign is explaining the world and itās a bitā¦ hmmm. I guess you could say Iām uncomfortable with a setting based on the Soviet Union by someone who doesnāt know anything about the USSR. He explains it as small states forced to be in absorbed into the empire, thereās one rich area and as you get farther away the poorer it gets, the worst area is described as Ukraine. I guess in that area you can be working the land and then some guy forces you to give him money. Our Soviet Union is very repressive and weāre at war with a democratic nation. Every child is given a magical stamp, if you go against the empire or do āthought crimesā you get changed markings. You can get good markings back via āsocial credit.ā I feel so uneasy and I feel bad. I donāt want to be a Debby downer or an ass.
He mentioned Marxism but it seems to be evil in this universe (āwith regards to Marxism make sure you donāt get the worst mark on your headā). Also heās encouraging us to play evil/neutral. I donāt know what to do. I want to make the best of it but damn, I literally play as a Marxist dog in the hiatus playthrough (the current DM is a fellow player on that campaign) so Iām surprised this is happening. Do you have advice on how to make the best of this? Maybe combat misinformation subtly in character? Iām freaking out!
Edit: the currency in this āstateā is not gold or typical money, itās food rations. So when I said if you live in a poorer region and a guy comes demanding money I mean some state official haggles you for taxes which is paid in rations. This haggling seems to only take place in the poorest āUkraineā areasā¦
I really wish I was joking. My background with these people is like this:
First campaign (on hiatus):
DM - IRL friend 1
IRL friend 2
IRL friend 3
DMās brother who Iāve never met (we play over discord)
Me
Campaign 2 (current):
DM - is the brother
IRL friend 2 from previous campaign
Friend 2ās boyfriend (I never met him)
Me
(IRL friends 1 and 3 couldnāt make it)
So with this new campaign I have one friend I know well and the DM is a fellow player in our paused campaign. In the hiatus campaign I play as an explicitly Marxist dog, and from our time playing together there were no issues at all. My IRL friends know Iām a communist and are not reactionary at all, they support me and are just great in general. The brother doesnāt know me as well but we havenāt had problems. The boyfriend and the brother seem very reactionary for this campaign while my friend just wants to play as a funny bard. So I fell into this by accident, so to speak. I was dumbfounded by what I was hearing, just the boyfriend and brother bouncing off propaganda. Funnily enough our characters are supposed to be bombarded by empire propaganda and yet it seems they fell for the western counterpart.
I think Iām just going to play a principled Marxist, be a Lenin figure, and take over the empire and turn it into the real Soviet Union and not the horrible caricature theyāre making it into. I donāt even know if this campaign will go on long enough for that to happen. I just hope our old DM feels better soon so I can play as my dog again.
Ah I see. Well, good luck lol.
From what I know of shitty DMs, they love to railroad campaigns. You can try to be a principled Marxist/Lenin figure but your DM will probably not let you get too far with that plan because heās motivated in showing USSR and Marxism in the worst light possible. I imagine one motivation for him DMing and choosing this setting was your Marxist dog PC in the hiatus campaign.
Itās why I advised just playing up the mustache-twirling evil villain angle. Steal from the farmers. Suppress revolutions. Kick puppies. There was a corruption problem in the latter half of the USSR. You can play as one of those guys who professes a nominal adherence to Marxism-Leninism but is an out an out capitalist just looking to make a quick buck. Maybe an enforcer or associate to a high level party official who steals stuff and puts it to the black market. Or something else along those lines.
But I donāt know if your DM will allow such portrayals either, because that would mean admitting the problems were, again, capitalism and not state socialism. Eh, just play up the ācorrupt bureaucratā angle. Chuds love to hate them.
While I do agree that they should largely just have fun with the shitty railroad dm and mess with them, I think them trying to be an ultra-capitalist character will be exactly what the DM wants. 90% of anti-com arguments are just describing capitalism and then saying it is socialism.