News: Check out the latest RPPR After Hours for an in-depth discussion on traps in fantasy RPGs!

Synopsis:Thad and I both recently played Control, a new video game about a secret government agency that tries to protect the world from supernatural forces while also trying to exploit that power for their own ends. Obviously, this is a riff on the SCP Foundation, but even that is part of a larger tradition of giant and usually evil (or at least corrupt) bureaucracies in horror games. Whether they are corporate or governmental, these bureaucracies wield as much power as an elder god and cannot be easily stopped or slain. We talk about how to subvert or change these tropes to make your next game or player character more interesting.

Thad is @ThaddeusStrange on Twitter and I am @rosspayton

Shout Outs

Ballad of Black Tom: a brilliant Lovecraftian horror novella
Astral Chain: a new beat em up from Platinum Games
The Hitcher: a horror film starring Rutger Hauer as a terrifying hitchhiker
Mob Psycho 100: A new anime series from the creator of One Punch Man
The Dead Don’t Die: A zombie film directed by Jim Jarmusch
The Wind: A Western horror film about life out on the Prairie

Songs: Selections from The Iron Triangle: Bureaucracy by The Great Wall

RPPR Episode 170: Inhuman Resources – Control and Bureaucracies in Games