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Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism/Tabletop Games: Difference between revisions

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Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism/Tabletop Games (view source)

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{{trope}}
* ''[[Battle TechBattleTech]]'' sourcebooks are usually very cynical, whereas the novels and games are a bit more idealistic. Sourcebooks talk about the huge technological disparity between worlds, where a peasant may have to slave away for years in order to buy something like a ''microwave oven'', while a poor man on the capitals could walk into a store and buy a 10 petabyte hard drive and video player. The series started out much more cynical, during the 300 year long "Succession Wars". After the Wars ended, it became a bit more idealistic. And then slammed right back into the cynical end during the Jihad, when WMD use and total war became commonplace again.
* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' sits [[We Have Reserves|way]], [[World Half Empty|way]], [[Black and Grey Morality|way]], ''[[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|way]]'', '''[[The World Is Always Doomed|way]]''', '''''[[Cosmic Horror Story|way]]''''' on the cynical side. Its cynicism almost (but not quite) stretches our [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]], considering it is a setting that features [[Chainsaw Good|chainsaw swords]], [[Humongous Mecha|300-meter tall walking battle cathedrals]], [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|vehicles that go faster because they are painted red]], [[Amazon Brigade|battle nuns with flamethrowers in powered armor]], and [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|aliens with guns that shoot ninja stars and cannons that rip holes straight to hell]].
** Then again this is only the impression we get from the outside looking in, where we know just how alarmingly terrible the vast majority of the galaxy is. From the inside various factions it is a different story. In no particular order:
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** It might be worthwhile to remember that, per the rules, in previous editions characters motivating their slaughter with 'I'm Good, they are Evil!' are committing [[Fantastic Racism]] (a non-good thing) unless it is warranted, IE, unless the races they are killing are [[Always Chaotic Evil|Always Evil]]. It is at this point that the DM notes that the plurality of 'evil' races in the monster manual are, in fact, not ''Always'' Evil, and that [[Knight Templar|killing innocents is an evil act...]]
* ''[[Warhammer]]'', at least in the RPG incarnation, is a gleeful [[Deconstruction]] of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' tropes, tending towards the cynical end without at any point taking itself seriously.
* ''[[The World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|The World of Darkness]]'' series, both [[Old World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|Old]] and [[New World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|New]], sits heavily on the cynical side. Given that its premise is that it is the real world but [[Darker and Edgier]] that's not really surprising. One of the uniting themes of all of the WoD games is the grinding down of idealism into a nub of cynical apathy. Practically every idealist that the books talk about either ends up broken and empty or destroyed by their beliefs. While a lot of characters still claim a certain sense of commitment to a cause or ideological faction, the focus on violence as a means to solve problems as well as any number of forms of mind control and reality distortion means that they are going to become pragmatic if they want to keep showing up.
* It is safe enough to say for the sake of the [[Forever War|Endless Warfare]], all Tabletops have to be naturally cynical in nature to perpertuate eternal conflict.
* ''Rym'' leans hard to the cynical side, what with multiple apocalypses, genocidal alien necromancers, and an empire pretty much devoted to enslaving and exploiting everyone else. And in the middle of all this is a tropical island chain of [[Purity Sue]] otter-people. [[Author Appeal]] comes to mind.
* ''[[World Tree RPG]]'' manages to avoid either end, with [[Fantastic Racism]] and a [[Schizo-Tech]] level of civilization that's constantly in danger of monster attack and [[Eldritch Abomination]] invasion, yet is portrayed as fairly pleasant for the main races most of the time.
* Pathfinder's default setting of Golarion leans towards cynicism in the current timeline -- one of the gods died a century ago (after he was about to make his big [[Hope Spot|second coming]]), prophecy no longer properly works, the remnants of one powerful empire is now openly ruled by devils while another is on the verge of collapse. Most of the explicitly 'good' nations are either isolationist or too focused on containing/combatting a specific threat to make the world better. However, from a meta perspective, this cynicism serves a purpose: once, when someone on the Paizo message boards commented on how many of the more powerful nations are evil, one of the developers said something to the extent of "Gee, one would almost think the world might need some [[Player Characters|heroes]] to come save it."
* ''[[KULT (Tabletop Game)|KULTKult]]'' is another example of a very cynical setting.
* ''[[Exalted]]'' is an interesting case in that its position on this scale has shifted considerably within one edition. Early 2nd edition was hugely cynical; later 2nd edition is significantly less so (although the exact degree [[Depending Onon the Writer|depends heavily on the writer]], and [[Your Mileage May Vary|frequently on the reader]]). This has caused the mother of all [[Broken Base|Broken Bases]], as many feel that the more recent stuff has drifted too far from the original cynicism, while others maintain that the cynical stuff had too much risk of [[Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy]]. [[Flame War|Results have been predictable, and very messy]].
 
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