4chan: The Trolling

Needed an image.

4C:TT is an RPG setting under development by /tg/. It is in dire need of mechanics.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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/.

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.

/tg/ - The Sons of the Pattern are seekers of the Great Laws that will enable them to lawyer all of reality. Also into grimdark.

/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.

/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.

/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.

/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.

/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.

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. Rolls of 1 are a "botch", and remove one success rolled. If you don't roll enough successes on your task, you fail. If you have no successes, and at least 1 botch showing, 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.