Oceania 2084
Austere Edition (2nd)Best For
Groups who want a politically explicit dystopian campaign about preserving private bonds under state surveillance. It suits tables comfortable sharing narrative authority with an adversarial Big Brother player, character turnover, and post-session debriefs.
Core Mechanic
Resistance characters' Acts normally succeed as narrated within a six-phase Day in Dystopia. When a Value is challenged, roll d6 against the linked Emotion: Good Values succeed on a roll above it and Bad Values on a roll below it.
The baseline loop is simple: players narrate Acts, then turn to a Value Test only when a belief is challenged. The depth comes from the emotional tracks and the Big Brother's concealed surveillance economy. Stress, Hope, Trust, Notes, and Suspicion repeatedly change the options or consequences on both sides. Those links reward a group that studies the procedures before beginning a campaign.
- Free to tryFull core rulesLegally free as an SRD, PDF, or official web rules
- Get it nowAvailable nowFree to download or read online
- –IndexNo back-of-book index or page-keyed reference tables
- ✓GM guidanceA chapter on how to run the game
- ✓Examples of playRules shown in action at the table
- ✓Quick referenceCheat sheet or summary tables
- ✓Cross-referencesRules point to each other by page
4 of 5 book tools found in the core book
Highlights
Acts normally resolve through narration rather than task rolls, keeping attention on what resistance costs instead of whether a character can perform it. Value Tests turn public loyalty and private belief into emotional pressure: success shifts a shadow emotion, and failure causes an outburst or Stress. Physical Notes written by dead characters grant 2 Hope when another dissident finds them; a Note carried into interrogation can be confiscated as evidence.
Considerations
The campaign assumes the regime eventually breaks or vaporizes its dissidents, so it does not support a conventional revolution or heroic victory arc. The Big Brother player tracks a concealed surveillance economy and interprets its Reaction tables, making that role more demanding than a neutral facilitator. The game requires a shared willingness to portray propaganda, betrayal, and emotional distress, even though it includes safety and debrief procedures.
Rules license CC BY-SA 4.0
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