SATANIC MILLS

a horror game of alienated labor

a game by Mark Vallianatos > playtest draft Sep 2007

Satanic Mills

All is under the sway of inhuman power - K. Marx

An inhuman power hums in the shuttles and valves of a 19th century English factory town. An alien power that lies congealed in the cloth and steel manufactured there. A hostile power that twists bone, robs children of their youth, and turns neighbors against neighbors. It is more terrifying than any unholy spirit, slithering lifeform or doomsday device because this horror is real, grounded in social relations. It is alienation and it is generated anew each shift as men, women, and children toil at the machines. Satanic Mills is a game about the production of alienation and the destruction of human lives. It is based on Karl Marxs theory of alienation as expressed in his Economic and Philosophical manuscripts of 1844. Marx believed that workers in capitalist societies are separated from what should be meaningful in their lives and that what is stolen fuels their exploitation. He identied four linked kinds of alienation. People are alienated from their labor, since work is not done to fulll workers human needs and creativity but to meet the external agenda of the owner. Workers are also alienated from the products of their labor, which prot capitalists and emerge as commodities that the worker must buy. Workers are alienated from other people, with exchanges of money and commodities warping social relationships. People are nally alienated from their species being, since exploitative labor displaces meaningful productive activity subverting one of the main activities that makes us human. Alienation, forged in Satanic Mills, will inexorably damage the lives of the games characters, with you serving as both victim and executioner.

Something strange and hostile

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Workers of the world

Sample characters

By default, characters in Satanic Mills are workers in an industrial town sometime in the 19th century. Each player will make one character. Players pick their characters gender and age (between 8 and 50 in the default factory town setting) and choose a name. All players can collectively choose one industry that their characters are employed in. If players wish, they can specify their characters job. Players then write down four positive aspects of their characters person or their life, one for each type of alienation. These are conditions, talents, or possessions that characters are proud of and happy about. At least one positive aspect must connect to at least one other character. For example, two characters could be siblings, naming each other as their other people aspects. Or a character could have baking as their creative talent (with fresh eggs purchased from a character who keeps chickens as their products aspect).

Jim, Joshua, Judson and Mark sit down to play Satanic Mills. They decide to make a family of four who all work at the same textile mill. Jim creates the father, Charles Cooper, 35: Labor aspect: strong hands Products of labor: ne smoking pipe Other people: wife and I are still in love Species being: plays piano down at the pub Joshua designs the mother, Henrietta Cooper, 28: Labor aspect: deft ngers Products of labor: china hutch Other people: darling children Species being: suffragette pamphleteer

Judson creates the 8 year old daughter Drusilla: Labor aspect: optimistic Products of labor: china doll Other people: grandpa Species being: singing Mark designs Andrew, the 11 year old son: Labor aspect: cheery smile Products of labor: toy soldiers Other people: my friends Species being: invent games

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Positve aspects

> Labor aspect: a positive physical or mental trait, such as a good memory, pleasant smile, strong arms, etc. > Products aspect: a positive possession or nancial status such as a ne tea set, chickens kept for eggs, a yard with natural light, etc. > Other people aspect: a positive social relationship such as married going on ten years to Elizabeth, youngest son Harry (the apple of my eye), deacon at church, etc. > Species aspect: a creative talent or hobby such as singing, breeding pigeons, reading penny novels, etc.

sample locations

Factory town

After making characters, choose and note down several locations around town. This list of locations will give players ideas on where to set the games scenes. The factory is always a location. Each player chooses one additional location. Some possibilities include workers dwellings, the charity hospital, a capitalists mansion, a church, etc.

Players choose a busy street corner, a vacant lot, a tavern, and the railroad tracks as their sample locations.

Working hours

Players decide how long they want to play. The larger the alienation grid on character sheets is, the longer the game will take. If players prefer a short game, they should draw a square on the grid so that each side of the square is two steps away from the center point. For a game of medium length, players can limit the grid to three steps on each side. For a longer game, players can keep the grid as it is, set at four steps from center.

sample game length

The players decide they want a medium length game so they draw squares three steps away from the center point.

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Sample scene

Framing scenes

The game is played in scenes. Players take turns framing scenes that: (1) involve their character (and usually other characters); (2) are set in one of the games locations; (3) and place the characters in the scene at risk to suffer the consequences of at least one of the four types of alienation. Scenes should be framed (set up) so that characters positive aspects are at risk of being damaged, since these aspects are visible symbols of how alienation harms. The player framing the scene says who is present in the scene. Players always control their own characters. If there are other persons present in the scene (for example, a boss berating his employees) then the framing player asks a player who does not have their character in the scene to control the supporting cast. As a general rule, it works well to have all players but one control their own characters in a scene.

Jim states that the scene takes place on the street corner where Henrietta is passing out her suffragette literature. Charles arrives to tell her that their daughter is sick at home and ask Henrietta to take Drusilla to the charity doctor. Jim and Joshua are the players in the scene controlling Charles and Henrietta respectively.

Playing alienation

The lead player also chooses one player to determine the consequences of the scene to play alienation, as it were. This ideally should be a player who is not controlling their own character in the scene but in scenes where all characters are involved any player other than the framing player can be chosen to decide how alienation impacts the character.

Jim taps Mark to decide the consequences.

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Sample scene

Act out scene

After roles are assigned, players role-play the scene for a brief period, until the player who framed the scene is satised that characters risk and potential alienation have been addressed.

Jim/Charles: Ive been looking everywhere for you. Drusillas fever has returned. She is burning up and making the most dreadful whimpers. Joshua/Henrietta: Have you given her a cold compress Charles: My shift starts soon so you need to hurry home to take the poor dear to Doctor Barnaby. Henrietta: But Charles, my own shift starts soon after. You know that there are whispers in the factory that I am an agitator. I cannot given them the smallest excuse to re me because I know they will put me out if I am a minute late. You are in better with the bosses. If you send Andrew to inform the foreman that you are at the clinic, I am certain that they will just dock your pay this time. Charles: Perhaps if you spent less time stirring up trouble with those broadsheets then you would have had time to attend to your daughter and neither of us would be in this spot. Henrietta: (raising voice) At least my efforts have a chance of reducing the power bosses like Mr. Guilford have over humble people like us! I smell the stink of gin on your breath again- what hope do your hours in the tavern offer to our family? Charles: (noticing passers by start to gather and listen to the argument) This one time, I will take her. But you must hurry home right after your shift. The girl needs her mother!

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Sample alienation

Assign & describe alienation

Then the player in charge of alienation describes the lasting consequences that character(s) suffer. This player must choose at least one character in the scene and say how the character becomes more alienated in one of the four types of alienation and how the relevant positive aspect is harmed. The player in charge of alienation may cause multiple characters in the scene to each become more alienated in one type of alienation if the player thinks that the outcome of the scene impacts more than one character. The player in charge of alienation for the scene should remember that there are multiple steps along each alienation track. The rst step towards alienation should not result in the complete loss of positive aspects. When describing the impacts of alienation, players should leave room for misery and alienation to build.

Mark gets to summarize the alienating impacts of the scene. He considers that two of Henriettas positive aspects were on the line in this scene: darling children since her daughter was sick and suffragette pamphleteer since her husband was berating here for passing out literature. Mark, however, decides that only Charles suffers lasting alienation from the argument. Mark says that by swallowing his pride, Charles begins to resent Henrietta, weakening his positive aspect wife and I are still in love.

> Alienation from labor (L) is tracked vertically above the center point. It produces mortication of the body and mind. > Alienation from the products of labor (P) is measured vertically below the center point. It produces powerlessness and poverty. > Alienation from other people (OP) is tracked horizontally to the right of center. It produces distrust, solitude and conict. > Alienation from species being (S) is measured horizontally to the left of center. It produces animality and in-authenticity

Consequences of alienation

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Pushing you to the edge

Sample of tracking alienation

The graph on the character sheet provides a visual track of how strongly character are affected by the four types of alienation. Alienation is measured by distance from the center (zero point) of the graph. The further a characters alienation points are from the center, the more that character is stretched from who they are as an authentic, creative, social human being. At the close of every scene, players whose character were alienated by the scene move the impacted type of alienation one further from the center.

Since his character was alienated, Jim draws a dot one space further towards the edge in the alienation from other people direction of the graph on Charles character sheet.

Geometry of destiny

Once a character hits the edge when one type of alienation is moved to the outer limits of the alienation grid (set at 2, 3, or 4 steps from center), their nal alienation is revealed. The shape formed by their alienation line(s) provides guidance on the characters downfall. Unlike during scenes, players narrate their own characters nal destiny. The game ends when all characters nal alienation have been described.

Jims character Charles has hit the limit of the alienation grid along the other people axis. He also has two steps of alienation in the labor aspect. Jim consults the list of characters destinies and sees that a triangle between people and labor means indicates that a character is harmed by labor strife (or the repression of worker activism). Jim thinks a moment, then tells the other players how Charles, partially to impress his wife, joins an inner circle of a labor union planning a work slowdown at his factory. When a traitor tips off the owners, Charles and the other leaders are rounded up, beaten, and jailed. When Henrietta fails to visit him, Charles (unaware that he is being kept in isolation) gives up on both his job and his marriage, a broken man.

Sample nal narration

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Destiny for multiple types of alienaion

Destiny for one type of alienation

> If the shape is a line or slender triangle pointing up (with labor as the most signicant form of alienation) then your character is physically injured and/ or psychologically damaged by dangerous, repetitive labor. > If the shape is a line or slender triangle pointing right (with the strongest alienation being from other people), then your character is overcome by loneliness, hate, or misunderstanding. > If the shape is a line or slender triangle pointing down (towards products of labor), then your character suffers abject poverty, homelessness, and/or hoarding or obsession with certain commodities. > If the shape is a line or slender triangle pointing left (towards species nature) then your character gives in to thoughtless, animalistic urges (intoxication, gorging, sexual degradation).

> If the shape is a vertical line or chevron reaching towards both labor and products, then your character is harmed by work and the products of industry, such as being poisoned by defective medicine to treat a workplace injury. > If the shape is a horizontal line or chevron linking people and species, then your character suffers social damage by becoming a pariah, isolating themselves, or otherwise losing all meaningful social contacts. > If the shape is a wedge in the upper right of the graph, between labor and people, the character is embroiled in and harmed by labor related strife. > If the wedge is in the upper left between labor and species then the character suffers from a loss of creativity, the extinguishing of joy and freedom. > If a wedge is in the lower right between people and products then the character is harmed by social inequality and accompanying resentment. > If a wedge is in the lower left between products and species then consequences range from toadish submission to superiors to snarling rebellion. > Finally, if the shape is a triangle with three nearly equal sides or an almost-square, then you can weave in elements of three or four types of alienation.

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Dedication

Inspirations & credits

Satanic Mills draws, crudely and selectively, from Karl Marxs Economic and Philisophical Manuscripts of 1844 and Bertell Ollmans Alienation: Marxs Conception of Man in Capitalist Society, 1975. The game was written for a compact rpg challenge on the theme of technological horror run on the Forge website in mid 2006. Rules at http://www. indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=20302.0 Results at http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index. php?topic=21776.0 Thanks to Tony for initiating the challenge and Ken for organizing the voting. Thanks to Joshua BishopRoby, Judson Lester, and Jim Pinto, who play-tested the game and helped come up with a number of improvements. For example, in my rst draft of Satanic Mills, only the character of the framing player could be alienated by a scene. Our play test game showed that it was more fun to have multiple characters at risk. The game was inuenced by Ben Lehmans rpg Polaris, which I played two days before writing Satanic Mills. Thanks for the doom. The photograph used on the covers is A little spinner in the Mollahan Mills, Newberry, S.C., taken in 1908 by Lewis W. Hine. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Finally, this game is dedicated to the memory of Stephanie Routman, a friend of my wife. Stephanie died in March 2007. In 2003, she directed Sarah Daniels play Gut Girls at Cal State Fullerton. The production, about female workers in Victorian-era slaughterhouses, has stuck in my mind ever since, and inuenced Satanic Mills.

Seeking feedbcak

If you try this game, Id welcome feedback and will acknowledge playtsters. Email me at markvalli@gmail.com. Thanks in advance.

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Player name > Character name > Age > Gender > Industry > Position > Locations in town > factory > > > > >
> Alienation from labor (L) produces mortication of the body and mind. > Alienation from the products of labor (P) produces powerlessness and poverty. > Alienation from other people (OP) produces distrust, solitude and conict. > Alienation from species being (S) produces animality and in-authenticity.

Positive Aspects Labor > Products > People > Species >

Alienation graph labor

Effects of alienation

species being

other people

products

Satanic Mills character sheet >

print or copy one for each player

The alienation of the worker from his product does not only mean that his labor becomes an object, an external entity, but also that it exists outside him, independently, as something alien, that it turns into a power on its own confronting him, that the life which he has given to his product stands against him as something strange and hostile > K. Marx