4chan: The Trolling

Needed an image.

4C:TT is an RPG setting under development by /tg/. It is in dire need of mechanics. It also needs a purpose... What will we be doing in it?

Plot

They all knew of the 4chan. Most believed it to be a place of perversion and idiocy, where child porn and stupid image macros wandered free. A few saw it as a place of creativity, sociopathic humor, and innovation. Only a few Fags knew the truth.

You are one of these Fags. Through the glory of the Internet, through the chaos of the Hivemind that is 4chan, you have attained Enlightenment. Your foes are many. Some ignorant, some fearful of the new entity that is growing from the endless ranks of the Anonymous. Your allies are 999, because Anonymous - the Ascendant Anonymous, the true masters of 4chan - are legion in the most literal sense. Of course, most of them are dicks...but then, so are you, so it all balances out.

Each Fag has their own power source, their own special area of expertise and influence in the Hivemind.

The Endless Anonymous are the ranks of newly-enlightened Fags that have yet to develop their tendencies, or whom shun them to embrace their arcane, inherent anonymity. For most it is a temporary identity, as the Endless often fall prey to the evils that stalk the Fags, descending to mundane Anonymous quickly.

Drawfags hold the power of creation in their hand. From images they craft ideas, and from ideas they can alter reality. Their creativity is at once their greatest strength and most damning weakness; it waxes and wanes unpredictably, and one can never be sure how a Drawfag's project will proceed. Creative slumps, hissy fits and fanbase drama can all cripple a Drawfag's ability at the worst possible moment.

Oldfags are well-steeped in the lore of the 4chan, and can delve into almost limitless pools of collective knowledge. You have to get up about 15 years ago to put one over on an Oldfag. While wise and cunning, the greatest weakness of the Oldfag is his lack of any other inherent abilities. All too often, an Oldfag finds himself in a situation where he knows the solution, but lacks the power to handle it.

Trolls harness the endless power of RAGE. Both the ability to instill it in others, and the ability to RAGE themselves. Wherever a Troll goes, he leaves a path of endless destruction. Their inherent aggression and fury has saved many a Troll, but the flipside of this is the common trait of belligerence and choice of gut feeling over logic. Trolls can bring immense leverage to a battle, but it doesn't help much if they're not slinging it at the right target.

Mods have attained a certain amount of power in the 4chan, and enjoy a certain immutable, incorruptible nature. It's hard to mess with a Mod...especially once they bring out the eldritch might of the Banhammer. The Mod's greatest weakness is his hubris. Coupled with the rules he must adhere to, this leaves a Mod's powers prone to being taken away at the most inconvenient moment possible - and once you lose the position to a stupid mistake or temper flare, it's damn hard to get back on track. (*Cough Cough Paladins Cough Cough)

Pirates exist only to hoard the glories of the information age. They can swap out their accumulated information for power, in arcane bargains with the 4chan itself - specifically with the subentity known as /r/. While the Pirates can find almost any piece of data imaginable, they rarely possess the skill to use it well. A cracked copy of an FBI-issue keylogger won't do any good if you can't figure out how to emulate the proprietary OS needed to run it and then configure the program to work the way you want it to.

Newfags can emulate just about any of the lesser abilities of their comrades, but without much of the success...and the fact that they're idiotic and universally hated complicates things a bit.

Each of the seven major power groups is based around one of the sub-entities of 4chan, the Boards. Each board (even /ck/) has their own cabal of regular followers, but the Seven are the current heads of the Fags.

The Seven are:

/b/ - The Random. The rulers of the 4chan, ruled by the Net God Moot, The Random has few rules. Those that exist are mostly arbitrary, and unspoken, and changing constantly. It takes a special kind of madness to gain any kind of power in The Random, but those that do become unto gods. Their powers are unpredictable and chaotic, just as likely to blow up in their faces as to succeed. Then again, most of them like it this way.

/tg/ - The Sons of the Pattern are seekers of the Great Laws that will enable them to lawyer all of reality. Also into grimdark. Their powers are based on manipulating the outcomes of rolls with funny little dice. Oh, and to force fate and chance to conform to their whims. That's gotta count for something.

/co/ - The Keepers of Legend are intrigued by the myths of old, seeking the signs of the ones that will lead the world to a new golden age. Also fond of arguing about what's canon. They are visionaries and scholars who hold great reserves of knowledge and have an uncanny eye for detail. However, they tend to have a rather skewed idea of what is worth remembering.

/v/ - The Victors seek challenges, nothing else. Whatever is hard, whatever is eye-blisteringly impossible, that is what they must conquer. Prone to infighting over the slightest difference. Wherever there is pain and adversity, they are the first to seek to conquer it. Their fatal flaw, though, is their underestimation of that which is too "easy" for them and those who endeavor to solve problems in the "wrong" way. The Victors always cross the fence at the highest point, regardless of whether or not there's a big honking hole in it.

/a/ - The Artisans are much like the Keepers of Legend, but their studies are far more mundane. They seek the glory of the everyday, the perfection of existence, and the bliss of the random panty flash. Their strength is their reliability and all-round fields of expertise, though they quickly end up bashing their heads against the wall when more urgent effort is needed.

/d/ - The Deviants cluster around anything perverse, disgusting, or bizarre. New experiences, new conquests, new orifices. The freakshow needs its freaks, and on The 4chan, this is no short supply. They master the myriad variations of the body and soul, and are devilishly unpredictable chameleons. On the other hand, though, they're often capricious and dramatic, and their tetchy, theatrical attitudes seldom help them.

/r/ - The Power Brokers. /r/ can give a man anything. Sometimes it comes free, when Anonymous provides. Sometimes it is not. More often than not, The Power Brokers - or /r/ itself - require a hefty tribute for anything of value. The Power Brokers both emulate the activity of /r/ itself, and seek to exploit it. The Power Brokers skillfully manipulate data and information, but with the power to yank people around comes the temptation to abuse it. They tend to have an inflated image of themselves, and often see themselves as a great deal more savvy than they actually are.

You can GO to more than one board, and just about everyone does, but your ultimate allegiance belongs to only one.

Threads - Fags can create Threads and draw power from them. This is a Troll's favored method of drawing strength from The 4chan.

As a Thread - a collection of thought - grows, it increases in power. To Sage a Thread is to attack the Thread directly, to batter it down, to limit the power it can attain. It is possible, and probable as a Fag increases in power, to Sage a thread into Oblivion.

Memes - A Meme is a Fag's basic way of altering the world around him. The older the Meme, the more powerful it is. The dumber and more diluted the Meme, the weaker it is.

Ideas

• The characters' thread allegiance determines their appearance. This is usually subtle - for instance, a Son of the Pattern may become a bit more heavyset and hairy. Then again, it can be overt to the point of ridiculousness - especially in the case of Deviants.

Draft Rules

• 4C:TT is a d6 success-based system. Each base stat and skill are represented by a number of dice. When a task is attempted, all dice from the involved stat and skill are rolled at once. Results of 5-6 are successes; the more successes you roll, the better. A basic task will only require one success, while a harder task will require more. If you roll one less success than is needed, you fail. If you roll two or more successes less than needed, you Epic Fail.

• A character's basic stats are Bulk, Grace, Wits, Brains, Chutzpah, and Zing. Players divide 17 dice between the 6 stats. Each stat must have at least 1 die in it, and no more than 6.

• Bulk is a character's size, brawn, and health. It is possible for a character to be slim with high Bulk, but it's damned rare.

• Grace is a character's speed, agility, and manual dexterity. It has nothing to do with social grace and charisma.

• Wits is a character's ability to deal with rapidly changing situations, or to seem smart. This is not, by far, the same thing as Intelligence. It's often better.

• Brains is actual intelligence. Despite mountains of anecdotal evidence to the contrary, Wits and Brains are not mutually exclusive.

• Chutzpah is willpower, testicular fortitude, and grit. Characters with high Chutzpah often make good leader-types, and are usually pretty jaded. Oldfags almost always have high Chutzpah.

• Zing is the indefinable qualities of charisma. Zing, blam, zoom, zapowza. However you say it, it spells mazuma in the bank.

• Skills are freeform, and must be approved by the GM. These could include anything from "Bullshitting" and "Wacom Drawfaggery" to "Toaster Repair" and "Face Punching". A character starts with 32 dice to distribute into skills. As with stats, a skill maxes out at 6 dice.