I love the idea of the Mind Flayers being pawns for a powerful Human emperor. He needn't even be a magic user, he could just be a person who has built up a power base. If he has loyal wizards, armed forces and monsters at his command, he could control everyone without needing to have any "powers" of his own.
It could be very interesting for the party to advance through, killing off his commanders etc., only to come face to face with him and find a weedy bloke controlling everything from behind the scenes (but probably protected by his bodyguards).
Similar to the Wizard of Oz, right? I'm not sure about that, I would like the BBEG to be a real menace in both personal and political power, but you do you.
I was thinking more along the lines of Kim Jong-Il: Wielding immense power, but mostly by means of the regime rather than their own prowess.
That was one of the scariest parts of 1984 in itself, that it was the regime, party and system which made the difference. It didn't really matter who Big Brother really was, or even if he existed, as it was the apparatus around him which kept it all going. There was no one person you could get to in order to end it.
I love the idea of the Mind Flayers being pawns for a powerful Human emperor. He needn't even be a magic user, he could just be a person who has built up a power base. If he has loyal wizards, armed forces and monsters at his command, he could control everyone without needing to have any "powers" of his own.
It could be very interesting for the party to advance through, killing off his commanders etc., only to come face to face with him and find a weedy bloke controlling everything from behind the scenes (but probably protected by his bodyguards).
Similar to the Wizard of Oz, right? I'm not sure about that, I would like the BBEG to be a real menace in both personal and political power, but you do you.
I was thinking more along the lines of Kim Jong-Il: Wielding immense power, but mostly by means of the regime rather than their own prowess.
That was one of the scariest parts of 1984 in itself, that it was the regime, party and system which made the difference. It didn't really matter who Big Brother really was, or even if he existed, as it was the apparatus around him which kept it all going. There was no one person you could get to in order to end it.
Somehow, having a vanilla human as the evil mastermind doesn't quite work for me, especially when you're dealing with races like elves... who would just view this as a troublesome upstart who will die before doing any real damage. Now, make that same guy somehow immortal, like a Litch, and now they are scary AF. Everyone, even capital D Dragons is going to take it seriously.
Strict control and prohibition of the use of magic is the first thing that comes to mind for a DnD 1984 setting. A totalitarian regime of that level that was just okay with people slinging spells would be super immersion breaking for me. I would want to go as far as said regime working on erasing the knowledge and history of magic itself. If you want Orwellian, then erasing the past feels pretty quintessential.
I also think Urth's point about the nature of Big Brother as the faceless name of a construct, and not a singular being, is what makes the whole thing so devastatingly terrifying. It's also kind of the whole point of the thing. It isn't about one big bad evil person. It's a system of total control and not having a clear root of power means no one is safe from each other.
Strict control and prohibition of the use of magic is the first thing that comes to mind for a DnD 1984 setting. A totalitarian regime of that level that was just okay with people slinging spells would be super immersion breaking for me. I would want to go as far as said regime working on erasing the knowledge and history of magic itself. If you want Orwellian, then erasing the past feels pretty quintessential.
I also think Urth's point about the nature of Big Brother as the faceless name of a construct, and not a singular being, is what makes the whole thing so devastatingly terrifying. It's also kind of the whole point of the thing. It isn't about one big bad evil person. It's a system of total control and not having a clear root of power means no one is safe from each other.
Thank you, that's better explained than I managed.
I agree with the ban on (or strict control of) magic, as well as the (attempted) erasure of knowledge of magic. Strict control over knowledge and history was a powerful part of the 1984 storyline.
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I was thinking more along the lines of Kim Jong-Il: Wielding immense power, but mostly by means of the regime rather than their own prowess.
That was one of the scariest parts of 1984 in itself, that it was the regime, party and system which made the difference. It didn't really matter who Big Brother really was, or even if he existed, as it was the apparatus around him which kept it all going. There was no one person you could get to in order to end it.
Somehow, having a vanilla human as the evil mastermind doesn't quite work for me, especially when you're dealing with races like elves... who would just view this as a troublesome upstart who will die before doing any real damage. Now, make that same guy somehow immortal, like a Litch, and now they are scary AF. Everyone, even capital D Dragons is going to take it seriously.
Strict control and prohibition of the use of magic is the first thing that comes to mind for a DnD 1984 setting. A totalitarian regime of that level that was just okay with people slinging spells would be super immersion breaking for me. I would want to go as far as said regime working on erasing the knowledge and history of magic itself. If you want Orwellian, then erasing the past feels pretty quintessential.
I also think Urth's point about the nature of Big Brother as the faceless name of a construct, and not a singular being, is what makes the whole thing so devastatingly terrifying. It's also kind of the whole point of the thing. It isn't about one big bad evil person. It's a system of total control and not having a clear root of power means no one is safe from each other.
Thank you, that's better explained than I managed.
I agree with the ban on (or strict control of) magic, as well as the (attempted) erasure of knowledge of magic. Strict control over knowledge and history was a powerful part of the 1984 storyline.