Inception - Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment
Dawkins aside, the idea of memetic viruses have been effectively used in movies like Inception, or in the second season of FX's television series Legion. In the tabletop rpg space, and the catalyst for this post, there's a great example of a viral-idea in Emmy Allen's Gardens of Ynn (DTRPG), where within the garden there lurks The Idea of Thorns, ever threatening to infect adventurers and make its way into our world.
I can't help but feel that I've somehow fallen victim to this idea of a mentally-transmitted disease, or shake the feeling that it's more than coincidence that I've run across this idea a number of times in the past week alone. Maybe that's just natural paranoia, but I always feel like it's more fun to attribute it to something far more sinister. This way, at least, we can find a way to gamify and inflict that horror on unsuspecting tabletop gamers.
1d10 Memetic Viruses
1. A tune that you whistle for up to a day after hearing it. If enough people are whistling it simultaneously, it stirs the Sleeping Demon of Yesterday from his slumber.
2. A joke that is so funny, anyone who hears it is overcome by an uncontrollable, raucous laughter that you cannot stop.
3. You suddenly jerk awake from a dream that you can't remember the details of, and every time you get close to recognizing the face with the red eyes from within the dream, you wake up again. Anyone you recognize while affected also becomes infected by the Sleepless Dream.
4. The story of a Legendary Folk Hero that saved your life once a long time ago. Everyone who has ever heard a story of the Legendary Folk Hero remembers a time when the hero saved them as well.
5. The Seed of Doubt starts the first time you second-guess yourself. The next time a remotely important decision comes up, you second and third guess yourself, and so on and so forth.
6. Whether heard aloud or read in writing, this Name of Power has a chance to invite an ancient Eldritch Turtle Horror into your mind. You stand no chance.
7. A friend of the cursed individual forgets them. Like a disease, the forgetfulness is spread from person to person, transferred by speaking to someone who has forgotten the cursed. When no-one remembers the cursed, they cease to exist. (Thanks for the wording on this one Jamesja12!)
8. A mathematic formula for computing specific lengths of time where every time you run a sequence of variables through it, you lose a memory.
9. This imaginary Maze started out as a thought exercise shared between wizard philosophers, but spiraled out of control as more and more individuals contributed to it and ultimately became trapped in it. Their collective consciousness solidified it as a real labyrinth hidden within the Astral Plane, and it gets harder to escape as more wizards get trapped in it.
10. A specific color and pattern design on an object that makes you forget you've bought it shortly after paying for it.
Illustration by Sebastian Eriksson
Bonus: 1d11 Memetic Encounters (Made by the amazing OSR Discord community. I love these and would be remiss if I didn't share them as well.)
1. A small piece of wall is colored in killer yellow--a specific yellow that short-circuits the brain causing death. It cannot currently be seen for all the bodies piled up on top of it. (Like that?)
2. A scholar infected with monetization. He will want to buy things, and pay with $#. People who have made these transactions will become infected, and can tell how much $# other infected people have at a glance. $# is immaterial and participants in this economy look crazed.
3. Antimemetic Monument. Several Kilometers tall, just outside a major settlement. No one realizes that it’s there. The writings and carvings on the huge sides could hold lost lore and knowledge, if only anyone could remember what’s been written down.
4. A book that awakens every cell in one's body to base sentience. Acts like a hive mind, with the original consciousness destroyed. Seeks to spread itself, a la The Watchtower
5. A phrase that causes the hearer to unknowingly take subtle actions that hasten the surfacing of the All-Consuming Worm
6. A complex system of figures of speech, routines and stories that makes infected people think being eaten by giant alien newts isn't a bad idea after all
7. A floor pattern that convinces those that look at it that stepping on it would cause unbearable pain.
8. A joke that will kill you if you don’t tell it to someone who hasn’t heard it before at least once a week
9. Whenever the history of the frog tribe is recalled, the stories come to life and listeners become to embody the characters and are transported to the past how the frog folk remember it. They are only able to return to the present when they have successfully played out a moralizing fable. Whatever the moral of the story is, it is now part of the frog tribe's cannon.
10. A name of power which when spoken (or written or otherwise transmitted from one person to another) has a chance of summoning an unstoppable being that seeks to murder the the listener, the speaker, and whoever told the speaker of the name.
11. A language that alters the speaker's perception of time from linnear to all-encompassing
2. A scholar infected with monetization. He will want to buy things, and pay with $#. People who have made these transactions will become infected, and can tell how much $# other infected people have at a glance. $# is immaterial and participants in this economy look crazed.
3. Antimemetic Monument. Several Kilometers tall, just outside a major settlement. No one realizes that it’s there. The writings and carvings on the huge sides could hold lost lore and knowledge, if only anyone could remember what’s been written down.
4. A book that awakens every cell in one's body to base sentience. Acts like a hive mind, with the original consciousness destroyed. Seeks to spread itself, a la The Watchtower
5. A phrase that causes the hearer to unknowingly take subtle actions that hasten the surfacing of the All-Consuming Worm
6. A complex system of figures of speech, routines and stories that makes infected people think being eaten by giant alien newts isn't a bad idea after all
7. A floor pattern that convinces those that look at it that stepping on it would cause unbearable pain.
8. A joke that will kill you if you don’t tell it to someone who hasn’t heard it before at least once a week
9. Whenever the history of the frog tribe is recalled, the stories come to life and listeners become to embody the characters and are transported to the past how the frog folk remember it. They are only able to return to the present when they have successfully played out a moralizing fable. Whatever the moral of the story is, it is now part of the frog tribe's cannon.
10. A name of power which when spoken (or written or otherwise transmitted from one person to another) has a chance of summoning an unstoppable being that seeks to murder the the listener, the speaker, and whoever told the speaker of the name.
11. A language that alters the speaker's perception of time from linnear to all-encompassing
(Shout out to ArkosDawn, Iam (iemcd), Definitely-Not-A-Bot, Micah (nuclear haruspex), Slothbear, Catalessi, Lexi, Ribby, Marianne, and bacontime for putting this amazing table together)
Nice stuff. The last item about language altering perception of time is actually the plot to the movie Arrival. If you've never seen it, it is a fantastic film directed by Denis Villeneuve.
ReplyDeleteI've been meaning to check that movie out. I keep conflating it with Annihilation though.
DeleteFound this through the Discord. Great ideas here. Would be interesting to create more and separate them out by vector-type. Some seem to spread person-to-person and others only from an object source or idea. Time-vector memetic viruses could be a thing too: the longer the idea is thought about, the further it spreads.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea! In the future I'd love to expand this list to a d100 (or breaking it up like you suggested and having a variety of d20 tables).
DeleteAwesome bloog you have here
ReplyDelete