The World Is Broken
There are no jobs. There are no opportunities. Government regulation has ensured that there is food and shelter for the billions of people who can’t make a living, but stipends are low and there are work requirements. Citizens spend hours sitting and watching machines that don’t need repairs or maintenance, just in case something breaks, then return to their tiny homes to eat pre-packaged food and watch community vids on the heavily monitored and regulated internet. Expansive AI networks regulate everything from when you wake up and sleep to the temperature of your showers, carefully designed for the best public good.
Necessities are provided, but the line for necessities is narrow – simple food, simple shelter, simple entertainment. Internet is slow, quality art is not free. There are Luxury credits, but those are rare. Education is a joke, because there are no jobs to be had, and everyone knows that those jobs will be filled by Society members interested in work. A handful of people work directly for the Society, filling unnecessary roles as domestic staff or assistants to show off the prestige of their masters, and elevate their loved ones to a higher standard of luxury. The rest simply live.
The World Is Changing
With time on their hands, people don’t stagnate. They create. They dream. There are rats in the walls of the Society – criminals, smugglers, and above all, artists. Security guards sitting pointless ten-hour shifts jot down poetry or sketch the assembly lines. Kids on the street play soccer and invent entirely new sports, or explore abandoned malls and parks. Wherever you look, there is expression. There is energy. There is hope.
The Society loves celebrity, and it loves performance. A skilled and lucky troupe can win vast quantities of social credit and amass wealthy fans, enough to actually earn shares in the vast automation that runs the world. Assemble a few shares, and you can buy your way into Society. You can be one of the glittering elite, you and the people that you love. And once you’re in – once you have a voice, and the power to influence the network – you can make your own life. Retire to luxury. Change the system. It’s all possible.
But it won’t be easy.
The World Is Yours
It takes more than temporary popularity to actually break through to the Society. Most groups earn some luxuries and then fade away. Some manage to acquire a share or two, enough to improve their standard of living for the rest of their lives. Only a tiny handful actually earn enough for their income to start self-sustaining and bring them into the ranks of the elite.
With so much at stake, it’s no wonder that the line between professional artists and criminal gangs has blurred. Showrunners sabotage each other, hacking fansites and manipulating performances. Gossip is leaked, fake news created, storylines are constructed to draw in the Society’s attention outside the art. False rivalries and real ones spur interest, and heated arguments or even physical fights happen. Serious injury is rare – that kind of attention doesn’t interest most of the Society, and won’t get you far. But all manner of pranks, slander, and outright cruelty are encouraged.
If you want to make it big, you’re going to have to fight for every step you take. You’ll make enemies. You’ll make fans. You’ll make art.
Go run a show.
The Gig Economy is a new RPG from Misha Handman, about running performance-based heists in a near-future corporate autocracy. You can find it at my Patreon in individual pieces, or sign up for the whole PDF!
