Imagine, if you will, a drumroll. An ironic, self-deprecating drumroll because, well, it’s me we’re talking about here — but at the end of the drumroll there’s a cymbal crash and a curtain goes up, revealing the game I’m working on for National Game Design Month: Mindstrike.
I wrote a first draft of this game almost 20 years ago, as a thesis project for college. It’s been gathering dust in the back of my mind since then, but as I wrote last week, this seems like a good time to pull it out and give it an overhaul
The Concept
Mindstrike is a tabletop roleplaying game about psychics in the near future fighting for survival in a world that wants to control or destroy them.
The World
Telepaths, telekinetics, “brain-bursters” — psychics are real, and everyone knows it. After the incident at Blake University left over 600 dead, there could be no denying that psychics exist, and they’re dangerous.
The government has stepped in to help control this new threat to homeland security, and offers “assistance,” in the form of drugs, therapy, and more drugs, to those afflicted with this new psychic disease. Those who reject this assistance are labeled “terrorists” and “enemy combatants.” Unless they want to end up indefinitely detained in secret CIA holding cells, these psychics have no choice but go underground.
The Characters
The heroes of Mindstrike are psychic guerrillas, sneaking through the high-tech jungle of 21st century America as they wage a shadow war on the forces that seek to control them.
Some are passionate revolutionaries, ready to sacrifice everything for the cause. Others are mercenaries, more calculating and concerned with their next paycheck than any sort of rebellion. Still others use their powers to help advance science, protect others, or try to subtly gather power through their own counter-conspiracies.
The psychics of Mindstrike have left their normal lives behind. They’re hunted by both the state and their own kind, rejected by society, and forced to make terrible decisions in order to survive. In hopes of getting ahead, many use their powers to undertake dangerous, illegal operations — either to aid in the struggle against their oppressors, or just to keep food on the table.
The Players
In Mindstrike, the players take on the roles of these psychics, and must use their gifts not only to survive, but to fight for freedom in a world where freedom has been traded away for the illusion of security.
