Anomologies
Note: this was written about a year ago. It might be played as a sort of standalone storygame, but it is intended as a tool for roleplaying the process of fringe academia within other games. I’m posting it here primarily for posterity.
Roll a d66 to enter your Field of Study.
11: Zoology
12: Anthropology
13: Geography
14: Geometry
15: Chemistry
16: Literature
21: Linguistics
22: Theology
23: Political science
24: Geology
25: Paleontology
26: Archaeology
31: Ufology
32: Computer science
33: Music theory
34: Botany
35: Economics
36: Astrophysics
41: Cryptozoology
42: Film studies
43: Game theory
44: Culinary theory
45: Art history
46: Color theory
51: Memetics
52: Neuroscience
53: Poetry
54: Horology
55: Folklore studies
56: History
61: Marine biology
62: Ecology
63: Cybernetics
64: Alchemy
65: Philosophy (pick a specific school)
66: Parasitology
Roll 1d4-1 for your Expertise Rating (EV). Your EV corresponds to how much you believe that you know about your Field of Study.
You are a professor of your Field. You know nothing.
You are a graduate student. You have managed to draw a scant few conclusions from your studies.
You are an undergraduate student. You have many confident ideas about the relevance of your chosen field to the world at large.
You are a complete amateur. You know everything there is to know.
Mark your EV.
You are writing your magnum opus. It will change everything in your Field. When you consider its implications, you shiver with hope/fear.
Roll a d20 to determine the basis of your Thesis.
A foundational axiom of your Field is false- the exact opposite is true.
Your Field is actually another pursuit in disguise. Roll for another Field and posit that this is your Field’s true nature.
An ancient civilization solved your Field long ago- we only have to unlock their wisdom.
Your Field is fully reducible to a social construct. If this was already common knowledge, the opposite is true.
Your Field is fully explainable by astrological properties.
Your Field is itself God, or at the very least a god.
The largest current problem faced by your Field is unsolvable- it is essentially dead in the water.
The central questions posed by your Field are not in actuality intellectual- they can only be resolved through physical violence.
Your Field is actually the totality of thought- all questions can be answered with it.
Your Field is the only path to complete spiritual ecstasy.
Your Field is only truly accessible through the use of hallucinogens.
Your Field is only truly accessible through the overindulgence of alcohol.
The perfection of your Field will bring about the apocalypse.
The perfection of your Field is the only way to avert the apocalypse.
There is an animate, hostile entity hiding in your Field. How much of a threat it poses is unclear.
Careful application of your Field can control human behavior.
There is an alternate physical plane accessible only through your Field.
Your Field is a byproduct of mass psychosis.
Your Field is a form of hypnotism. What is doing the hypnotizing is unclear.
??? (You are as yet unsure what the content of your Thesis will be. However, you are certain it will be significant all the same.)
Once you know the basis, use it to write a Thesis Statement at the top of a blank page.
“It has become clear that geography as we know it is, in fact, a potent form of hypnosis.”
Whenever you learn something new about the world that you believe applies, you may append your Thesis with a Declarative statement.
While gazing through a telescope, you behold the shape of something darklit and distended, squirming through the black channels between stars. Declarative: “The presence of alien entities in our solar system has made itself evident.”
When an answer presents itself, collate anything you can find on anyone’s Thesis document or in any external texts to make a Proposition in service of your Thesis. If you cite an outside author, present the specific text.
“As evidenced by finding 4 and corroborated by Hanserd (3), not only do extraterrestrials inhabit our solar system, but they play an active, manipulative role in the functioning of global capitalism. Therefore, it can be reasonably assumed that these entities are responsible for the mass hypnosis of the human race through the trojan horse known as “geography,” in order to oil the wheels of their economic machines.”
When you make a Proposition, present it to the table for Peer Review. All present will come to a consensus in good faith as to whether or not your new Proposition follows from the evidence cited.
During Peer Review, Hanserd disputes your claim. He points out that there is as of yet no conclusive link between the agenda of the extraterrestrials and geographical hypnotism.
After discussion, call a vote. If a majority of the table approves it, the Proposition is substantiated and insinuates itself into consensus reality. Through the steely will of your knowledge (?), you have made it so.
If it does not pass, the Proposition is marked unsubstantiated and has no effect. It may be re-proposed if more evidence is collected. If there is a tie, the author with the longest substantiated Thesis document decides the outcome.
The flickering candle of understanding leads you deeper and deeper into the dark. For every 3rd Proposition you successfully get approved, raise your EV by 1. Rejection can be a splash of cold water. Every 2nd time one of your Propositions is declared unsubstantiated, lower your EV by 1. There is no upper nor lower bound on EV.
When you first Interrogate something enigmatic, roll a d10. If the result is lower than your EV, your brain lights up like Christmas, and you yank the thing forcefully into your Field. You may make a Declarative describing it in the terms of your specialty.
You puzzle over the strange mutations for weeks. X-rays of fractaled spines and limbs curled into Fibonaccis taunt you from the crevices of your documents. At last, it hits you! You’ve had the answer with you all along. Shivering in the cold light of the eureka, you return to your Thesis and pen the words, “Living in proximity to geographical anomalies (landmarks) can induce extreme skeletal mutations.”
If the result is greater than your EV, your quarry slips away from you. When you write your Declarative, you may only describe it in its own terms, adding no additional insight.
“Geometric mutation of the skeleton has been observed in the population of Corden, Ohio. This leads to intense pain, impaired mobility, and occasionally death.”
Interrogation rolls are made by one author at a time, starting with the author who observed the phenomenon first. If multiple authors observe the phenomenon simultaneously, the author with the lowest EV rolls first.
When an author first successfully interpolates a phenomenon into their Field, its nature in consensus reality is set. All other authors must cite that player’s Thesis in order to use it in a Proposition.
When play fizzles out, take up your Thesis and carry it with you. It necessarily has no end- though you may stop writing it, it can never be completed.
Take too all you’ve learned, and all you’ve come to question. Take your doubts and your anxious unknowns. Take your methods and your influences. Take them, whether you want to or not. Never be rid of them, no matter how you try.
Leave behind all you’ve sacrificed, along with the person you were. Never recapture either.