STATE CINEMA

Greetings, loyal citizens!

As State media employees, you are well aware of His Majesty’s great fondness for Hollywood and Bollywood films. However, it is no secret that these films are often riddled with treasonous ideas, and as such it falls to you, his most favored actors, to provide State-sanctioned cinema offerings.

You have been given the great honor of fulfilling His Majesty’s decree to make a weekly action television series about the evil machinations of the vile foreign powers. The latter will be personified as fantastic super villains to be defeated by His Majesty himself (played by a body double) for the glory of the One True State.

Unfortunately, all of The One True State's scriptwriters are currently being reeducated, so you will have to improvise

Please design and build a costume for your villain before reporting to the old grain warehouse by the abandoned military base before dawn.

Remember: His Majesty is watching. Always.

Good luck!

Character Generation

THE ACTOR
First of all, come up with a name for your actor (first name and surname).  

Each actor starts with a HEALTH of three, a SANITY of six, and a FAMILY, the number of family members decided by the roll of a six-sided dice (D6). Be sure to name all of your actor’s family members as well as their relation to the actor.

THE VILLAIN
Choose an ORIGIN for the villain your actor will be portraying from the following:
•	Mutant
•	Robot
•	Alien
•	Monster
•	Capitalist 

Pick a NAME for the villain – the more elaborate the better, but be sure that it makes clear which thing the State finds objectionable they represent (for example The Simpering Capitalist, Treason Bot, The Most Traitorous Lord of Dishonorable Thoughts). 

SKILLS
Assign the one of following values to each of the skills below – 5, 4, 3, 2.

•	WIRE FLYING – You will have to roll this while doing certain special effects, like diving from His Majesty's great satellite onto a 747, over-the-top martial arts or if pushed off a building. If it goes on film and involves being suspended in the air, it takes a wire flying roll.

•	SCENERY CHEWING – Raging. Trashing a room. Monologuing. Make a scenery chewing roll when you actor speaks but doesn't converse, acts as if they were the only important person in the room or generally steals the spotlight.

•	DRAMATIC FLAIR – An emotional conversation, where the audience learns something about the villain or maybe comes to pity them a little. An artsy moment that shows the villain as a person, or, in the case of a Capitalist, almost a person. Make a dramatic flair roll when viewer heartstrings are being pulled.  

•	STAGE COMBAT – Resisted violence comes down to stage combat. A knife fight is stage combat. As is shooting a gun, or attacking with a fighter jet or ramming someone with a car. When your actor's acting involves overt violence against another, roll stage combat.

When the GM asks you to roll, roll a D6 and hope to get your skill number or below. If you roll above your skill number, explain how your actor messes up. If the GM is unsatisfied with your explanation for the failure, they will add to it. If you roll a one then your action films particularly well and you've acted pleasingly efficiently – take a TOKEN (see below).

If you roll over your actor's skill rating, it is still possible to succeed by embracing the mania of method acting – reduce your SANITY by one for each number over the target number you rolled to succeed (this is optional, of course, but sometimes advisable if you wish to avoid offending His Majesty).

EXAMPLE CHARACTER
•	Actor Name: Ann Everyman
•	Villain Name: The Wastrel
•	Villain Origin: Capitalist
•	Wire Flying: 3
•	Scenery Chewing: 2
•	Dramatic Flair: 5
•	Stage Combat: 4
•	Family: 3 – Jan (husband), Han (son), Fran (daughter)
•	Health: 3
•	Sanity: 6

How to Play

Each game session covers one or more episode recordings. Each recording is divided into three parts: The Preparation, The Recording and The Fallout.

Remember that the GM represents His (or Her) Majesty, and as such their word is law – be sure to keep them entertained!

You will need a timer and a number of six-sided dice (D6s) – one for the GM and each player is ideal – as well as pens, paper and some kind of container.   

The Preparation

Now is the brief period of time wherein the actors may introduce themselves and their villains. Of course, everyone is equal in the One True State, so the actor’s identity is of little importance. However, the super villains, their names, motivations and costumes should be described in great detail (illustrations of costumes not required but very much encouraged, regardless of the player’s artistic skill).

As previously mentioned, all of the One True State’s scriptwriters are being reeducated, and as such the actors will have to improvise. That said, the actors have been provided with a State-sanctioned Plot Box, from which a story seed is drawn during the Preparation stage.

It is the GM’s task to fill the Plot Box with potential story seeds, all of which must of course align with the ideals of the One True State.

Some example story seeds include:
•	His Majesty’s wife has been kidnapped!
•	The super villains conspire to ruin His Majesty’s birthday celebrations!
•	A foreign power has infiltrated the One True State!
•	The super villains attempt to convert the One True State’s youth to the evils of capitalism!
•	The One True State’s neighbor tries to assert its dominance (and fails, of course)

The GM should write between five and ten story seeds then put them into the receptacle that is being used to represent the Plot Box (this can be a hat, bowl, mug, pocket, etc.). A story seed should be withdrawn from the Plot Box and presented to the actors so that they might then base the content of the episode being filmed in the Recording stage on it.

The Recording

When play actually starts, the GM will set a timer for between 22 to 27 minutes (add 21 to a D6 roll).

One player begins by explaining what their character is doing. Any time an actor does something that in the GM's opinion would require a roll, they must make one. Other actors may enter the scene at will. If an event strikes the GM as particularly nonsensical then they can declare that the director has called cut, express their complaint and set the story back to an earlier moment right before the objectionable thing happened.

When the timer goes off, the body double of His Majesty arrives on set. He will sometimes be drunk, or high or in an otherwise awkward situation, but as one with the face of His Majesty he is close to godliness and his indiscretions are forgivable.

The GM will set the timer for 3 to 8 minutes (30 minutes minus however long the episode has already played out) and then play “His Majesty”, who must look heroic and win the day. His Majesty’s body double has a skill of 3 in each category and, due to this and his less-than-perfect state, may not do particularly well at this task. However, it is the responsibility of the other actors to help make sure he succeeds.

After the Recording is complete, players are encouraged to work together to quickly try and come up with an appropriate name for episode they have just filmed.  

The Fallout

If a villain's machinations are not defeated by the episode's end when the timer goes off for the second time, it will probably be taken as a mockery of His Majesty.

If this is the case, Corrective Officers will arrive in the night to administer Corrective Training through Physical Motivation – permanently reduce the actor responsible for the undefeated villain’s Health by one before the beginning of the next episode.

Exceptional acting earns a bonus – each TOKEN awarded for rolling a one represents enough pay to get food for one person. If an actor doesn't have enough food for himself and each member of his family, he loses a Health point permanently. Additionally, all unfed family members die. Each player loses all of their tokens before the next recording session.

If an actor is reduced to zero Health, they do not show up to work the next day and are never seen again.  

A character gains SANITY equal to their FAMILY after each episode, up to six points in total. Dead family members cannot restore Sanity.

If a character is reduced to zero Sanity at any time, they lose a permanent point from their maximum Sanity total (and must also act accordingly).

If an actor's family member is accused of treason by any player at any point they will – assuming the GM is in agreement – be transferred to State custody and moved to a remote location for questioning with the assurance that the innocent have nothing to fear. They will never be seen again. However, actors should be wary of making too many treason accusations – this may be a sign that they themself are treasonous, and if so the GM should respond accordingly.

Running State Cinema

As a game largely based on the improvisation of fantastical events, State Cinema can be rather chaotic – but fun – to run.

GMING
Players will likely end up speaking over each other. In general, listen to the players who have actors already on scene, who are doing things that require die rolls, who haven't made a roll recently or who are proposing things that will cause complications with “His Majesty” when he shows up on scene.

While it’s up to the players to put on a good show for His Majesty, don’t be afraid to intervene occasionally if you think it would add to game (especially if a notable lull occurs and it seems like things might need a little kick-start to get going again).

Examples of potential interventions include:
•	A power cut
•	Costume sabotage
•	Special last-minute requests from His Majesty concerning the content of the episode (e.g. you may not use the word X, Y must be mentioned at least once)
•	A visit from the real His Majesty (although this should only be pulled out VERY infrequently)

However, mostly players should be left to their own devices and allowed to sweat a little – it is after all their responsibility to entertain His Majesty.

SETTING
What and where the One True State really is isn’t important.

What is important is His Majesty and the State.

However, players may draw from real-life countries when creating their actors’ super villains – a giant robotic Uncle Sam made out of cardboard boxes, for example, is pretty much a given sooner or later.

THE ACTORS
At the end of the day, it’s all up to the actors – they must be entertaining while not offending the values of the One True State as well as making sure both them and their families survive.

More often than not, the actors’ characters should have to act self-destructively in order to avoid having outstanding plot points by the end of the episode, and the resulting episodes will likely end up quite campy and more than a little absurd.

There is, of course, a darkness to the game – the actors are acting for their and their family’s lives. However, the tone is more one of black humor that genuine horror.

HIS MAJESTY’S DOUBLE
His Majesty's double is not a great actor, and not at risk like the others, so this will affect how he behaves. Play him at a thoughtful pace.

Depending on his current state/mood/level of inebriation, His Majesty’s double may not be especially cooperative and might not play well with others. Sometimes His Majesty’s double might even go so far as to object to the absurd ways in which the actors try and engineer things so that “His Majesty” wins, stating that it seems too improbable (without being treasonous, of course).

“BUT HOW DO I WIN?”
State Cinema isn’t so much about winning as surviving.

If the players manage to stay alive and sane as well as feed and protect their families after the session or even episode is over, they have succeeded.