PDA

View Full Version : Propaganda in your settings



GybeMark
2014-05-30, 10:20 AM
I'm looking for inspiration/ideas for a campaign I'm helping out with.

Let's say you have two high-fantasy kingdoms at war. Each kingdom is obsessed with keeping its population angry at the other country. What kind of propaganda would work in this context?

some ideas I've come up with so far are officials/rumours going around saying

"the King of OtherLand is known to have made a pact with Some Evil Otherworldy Entity"
"Everyone knows that the recent earthquake that wrecked SomeTown happened because OtherLand has trade relations with Storm Giants, and Storm Giants cause earthquakes"
"slavers from OtherLand have been seen in the area, be on your guard"


What are some more examples of propaganda that could work in this setting? I can think of lots of "real world" examples, but I'm having trouble thinking of cool "fantasy setting" examples. I'm putting my best ones in this message.

If anybody has favourite propaganda techniques/examples that they've seen in your campaigns, please post!

Eisenheim
2014-05-30, 10:43 AM
It really depends on what you mean by high fantasy. Propaganda is largely a by-product of the modern age in two different ways. First, the more concentrated populations and the mass media of the modern age make the delivery of propaganda to large sections of the population feasible.
Second, the idea that the ordinary citizens of a nation ought to be invested in the politics of the country is an attitude that comes with the modern nation state. In a feudal society, which is generally what I think of when I think high fantasy, propaganda seems strange to me. Why would the nobles care if peasants and tradesmen hate another country, as long as every community is meeting its feudal obligations and sending troops. Medieval war is better thought of as a conflict between nobles in which peasants are used as a resource than a conflict between nations in the modern sense.

TL/DR tell us more about the nations to give us a sense of the appropriate propaganda tactics.

Worgwood
2014-05-30, 11:23 AM
Catchy slogans are nice and all, but in a high fantasy world you can also use extensive use of Silent Image (or equivalent)! You know, images of enemy soldiers transforming into demons and back again, sort of like those old holographic images they printed on cards? Or images of iconic landmarks burning while enemy soldiers look on? Or images of sinister-looking wizards wearing the enemy nation's sigil scrying on an orb which shows the image of the viewer?

RFTD-blog
2014-05-30, 12:16 PM
An important thing to keep in mind is the negative effect propaganda/red herrings can have from a technical standpoint. Your players are already going to make wild, unfounded conclusions without your help. Throwing them off with too many red herrings can make the world seem impossible to understand.

Not to say propaganda can't add life to a campaign—my current one is chock full of it. However, like Eisenheim explained, it's not really for the commoners. All the propaganda in my campaign involves one noble trashtalking another one. It's interesting because the ones who tend to release the most propaganda are also the ones who the PCs trust the least.

One good technique with propaganda is foreshadowing. They hear about shadow mastiffs in the bar, and two sessions later they run into them.

And finally, PUT THE TRUTH IN WRITING. I used to make this mistake sometime. If you're going to throw out lies, make sure you are fully aware what is a lie and what is not BEFORE you state it in the campaign. Making it up as you go with propaganda is going to fail, and if players discover you're just rolling with the flow when it comes to misinformation, they'll feel less immersed in the game.

Sorry I can't come up with specific examples at this time. It'd be helpful to have a little more context. Is this nobles targeting commoners? Nobles versus nobles? Commoners talking buffoonery at the bar?

One example I had was a false flag operation in my current campaign. 1 of the 5 dragons on the council (Silver) let some terrorists in an airship plot away to destroy the head cathedral, even though he knew. He took it as an opportunity to fake his own death (illusion magic) so that his lieutenant, the White dragon, could temporarily take over. So the head dragon, Silver, faked his own death with the opportunity of this airship thing, and the White dragon being so vitrolic used it as a chance for vengeance, declaring war on the perpetrators of the attack. The final twist was that the Silver dragon had his cohort tell the PCs he faked his own death, and wouldn't reappear until they completed his mission to uncover the doppelganger conspiracy. But then the Black dragon says he thinks the Red dragon faked the Silver's dragons fake death, and he's actually dead (a lie)! Complicated sounding? Good thing I had this in writing before I set it out. When the campaign is over the players will want to know the truth, and I can point it to them.

The best techniques in war will have the effect of "othering" their enemy combatants. I just found a decent article on it here from a quick google search:
http://therearenoothers.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/othering-101-what-is-othering/

GybeMark
2014-05-30, 03:58 PM
Thanks for the feedback, folks! I'll absolutely try to work in the "targeted at nobles" and "what do the commoners care" elements in. The suggestions made about spells like silent image are great! I love the "image in my mind" that the dragon faking his death paints... what's more D&D than that?

The "setting" is more an experiment that another DM and I were considering running -- basically, the DM as too many players in his current game. He wants to divide them into two groups (let's say that one is based in East SomeLand, and the other in West SomeLand) with a different DM (he and I) running each group. The conceit was for the East SomeLanders to hear all this negative propaganda about West SomeLand, and vice-versa. One party (let's say the East) might destroy what they are told is a slaver's camp, and the party in the West (next session) would hear about how the Evil East destroyed a peaceful village. The whole thing is still in the "penciling it out" phase, and it probably won't end up working, but we figured it'd be fun to try, with the PCs eventually realizing that all they've been told by their superiors are lies. When we were coming up with examples of things the PCs might hear about the "other side", we were coming up with blanks.

Slipperychicken
2014-05-30, 05:54 PM
some ideas I've come up with so far are officials/rumours going around saying

"the King of OtherLand is known to have made a pact with Some Evil Otherworldy Entity"
"Everyone knows that the recent earthquake that wrecked SomeTown happened because OtherLand has trade relations with Storm Giants, and Storm Giants cause earthquakes"
"slavers from OtherLand have been seen in the area, be on your guard"


"We've always been at war with OtherLand"

MLMII
2014-05-30, 06:31 PM
You know, I'm not quite sure that I agree with the concept of "Who cares what the Serfs think." when it comes to propaganda aimed towards outsiders or even minority groups within the kingdom. After all, just look at the masterful ways that hatemongering has been used to keep the commoners directed at hating each other as opposed to the nobles themselves, especially when "unfortunent but necessary" sacrifices are levied against them.


However, I do agree that the propaganda amongst the nobles is going to be an entirely different and probably better thought out beast then the stuff that is aimed for commoner masses.

HighWater
2014-05-30, 07:46 PM
@Feudal Fantasy = not Nation State. I fully agree, except when it's a fantasy racial conflict. When it's Elves vs Orcs, people in fantasy settings suddenly become very all-or-nothing "nationalists", where propaganda is dissipated and eagerly received. When the conflict is less about who is king and more about who gets to live, propaganda for the commoner is very believable.


Ideas:
- Think on the methods of dissemmination. Big animated billboards and public announcements are one obvious thing, bards telling heroic/dreadful tales in taverns is another less obvious thing. Bards could be hired to write these stories, or could even be hired to travel from town to town, delivering their "true story".

- Misattribution: a bordervillage wiped out by monsters has been misattributed to roaming enemy soldiers.

- All kinds of things can pretend to be other things in most Fantasy settings, varying from shapeshifters, to illusionists, to false divinations or "staged moon-landings".

- Rumours of oppression and transgressions by the hostile government against it's own population are also nice. Bonus points for demonizing both the enemy government ánd it's population.

- Blights or failed harvests blamed on machinations of enemy wizards.

- Unusually long dry spell/wet spell/cold spell/heat wave, blamed on enemy machinations

- Steady reports of averted subterfuge by enemy spies. Public executions in which the culprits publicly profess their plans and guilt (forced out through magic manipulation of course). Make sure to include both strikes against the populace (poisoning wells) and against nobles (attempted murder on well-loved noble X). Throw in magic if it suits the situation...

Slipperychicken
2014-05-30, 10:14 PM
- Blights or failed harvests blamed on machinations of enemy wizards.

- Unusually long dry spell/wet spell/cold spell/heat wave, blamed on enemy machinations

Yeah, you could even just say the enemy is harboring the terrorists witches/necromancers who caused whatever problem is plaguing the common folk, even if they aren't obviously affiliated. Make some unreasonable public demand to turn the witch over within 72 hours, then invade when they refuse.

JusticeZero
2014-05-30, 11:15 PM
Do like some of the best propaganda does, too. Don't lie per se, but blow up a couple of minor issues into a huge thing. One Bluevian rogue soldier wandered into the tiny village of Miniton drunk and attacked a couple of people. Everyone is going to know about the Miniton Incident, and people will be crying out for revenge for Miniton. Everyone will know about how the Bluevian government organized a strike on the city of Miniton, and demand to know what their government will do. Meanwhile, in Bluevia, people are more concerned with all the Reddan immigrants who are being paid to build towns on the Bluevian side of the border, so they can take all their jobs and pervert the Bluevian way of life. All of these things are no doubt true to some extent, but on the grand scale of things, they're similar to holding a finger in the outher country's face yelling "I'm not touching you! I'm not touching you!" Some people will profit by the first swing, and they're going to try to keep it raw and irritated.

Tarqiup Inua
2014-05-31, 01:57 PM
Well, there are some very different goals you can achieve by spreading propaganda. The most obvious one - to make the commoners revolt or support the enemy in his campaign against you, would be also the one hardest to achieve.

Propaganda works in more subtle ways most of the time.

You can achieve economic goals - if the kingdom in your neighbourhood makes better quality products (or even your business competitor, the scale makes little difference) you can spread rumours - somewhat harmless ones, such as "true patriot buys only from local producers" through the bit more questionable "did you hear? The mines in kingdom B started mining less ore so now the Bit coins (he he) they pay us with have less gold in them. Those buggers are trying to cheat us! The village fool said it so it has to be true!" to outright devious ones such as "they act friendly when you pay them at the markets but who would trust them! There were some strange deaths in city C and I am telling you - it is the grain they are selling. I bet it was poisoned!"

Then there are rumours you can spread about kings faults such as: "he is not the actual heir, who knows if there even is a legitimate heir - they say the mother queen had quite a reputation during old days, you know what I mean?" (or "was born on Haiti", I heard that works, too) or "the king is too old, he won't sire a son (/for he has been cursed by gods, righteous are those who raise against their unrepentant rulers!)"

There are rumour your king can spread about you... "Baron XYZ is secretly aiding the enemy" followed by official statement "I know you are innocent but if I am not to replace you, I need an extra guarantee in front of council of lords, we cannot allow someone to use it for revolt against you...the keep at the Dragontooth peninsula, say?"

Lets see... rumours that make your soldiers less likely to defect... "They don't bow to same gods as we do!", "I heard they sacrifice those they capture to their gods!", "they pillage/rape/steal/murder, no innocent is safe from them"

"I bet it was one of the gnomes who betrayed our defences back at the Muleford! Death to non-humans!" (Dispension of justice starts in an hour at your local gnome jewellers store, take your own bag - by the way - that's a very nice way to turn common folk against specific group in the kingdom important for its defences like mages) "that damn wizard didn't help us!" "That damn wizard was at the construction, today, I am not sure it's a good idea to leave building plans in hands of these strangers, they could be working for enemy"

There is propaganda to lower enemy morale... (think Vietnam) ...so many ways - I can't see the end to it.

Witcher series (books) by Andrzej Sapkowski have some very nice examples of wartime propaganda, spreading hatred against non-humans, I bet history has its many examples and if you check out some conspiracy theories and adjust them to the setting & make them bit more down to earth, that might work, too.

Beleriphon
2014-05-31, 03:05 PM
While everybody has good examples, most of them are what should be classed as gossip or rumours. They might be started as a way to sway a group in another group's favour, but they aren't necessarily propaganda. Proper propaganda requires it be organized, usually by a government, an is usually meant to reinforce a particular message meant for the general popultion. If you want a medival styled propaganda look no further than organized religion. The propaganda is delivered at the village parish and basically says: "Work hard for your lord so that he can prosper against the heathens, you don't want the heathens to win do you?" With the implication that not working hard means you support the heathen, which you certain don't want to be associated with.

As a hint the techniques for perpetuating propaganda don't change, only the delivery method changes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda

Wikipedia has a pretty extensive article about propaganda, and adapting its techniques for a fantasy setting shouldn't be hard. The key if you're aiming at fuedalism is convincing serfs/peasants that the sacrifices they make so their lord can fight on. The US had propaganda posters to encourage hard work, with the implication being taking time off of work would help the Axis. You just need to decide what group you want to target, and what message you want to convey. Then its just a matter of making sure the intended end result (target agrees with the message usually) is going to occur.

veti
2014-05-31, 07:42 PM
The "no-one cares what the serfs think" attitude is quite wrong. What the serfs think matters.

Example: in the 11th century, peasants on the east coast of England were terrified of the Vikings. This meant that they'd go to any lengths to hide any food and/or valuables, as well as taking to the woods themselves, when they saw square sails approaching the coast. A Viking invader in England would have to fight not only the defending army, but also every farmer and his dogs if they wanted anything to eat. This was (probably) a major factor in the defeat of Harald's army at Stamford Bridge.

If you're thinking of "propaganda" along the lines of 1914-1945-era posters and broadcasts and whatnot, you're missing the most effective forms of propaganda. That period, when mass communication was still a newish technology, was an aberration. Before then, and after, by far the most important propaganda was delivered through much less obvious and formal channels. It's the bard singing a song, the traveller telling stories in the inn, the refugees from a razed town.

As to the form of propaganda: if you want people to believe something, don't tell them it's true. Tell them it's not true. "No, I don't believe the enemy soldiers can have raped all the women in $Sometown before they put it to the torch. Well, they only had a couple of hours. Doesn't make sense." Or if you want to spread it through official channels: "The Earl has told the guards to let everyone know, there's absolutely no truth in the story that the enemy has employed storm giants to raise storms to destroy your crops." By denying the rumour, you make sure that everyone knows what it is - and the next time there's a storm, they'll remember it.

The bardic version of this is to tell stories that are obviously fictionalised, but make sure they strike all the right resonances and chime with all the audience's prejudices. They'll remember the story, and remember that this is the type of thing that happens, even if this specific story didn't happen in exactly this way.

Better yet, ask for reassurance. A frightened traveller in the inn: "You're ready, aren't you? I mean, your guards are trained to take down dragons, right? They can't just fly down into your town square and breath poison gas through the streets like they did to $Someplace_distant? I don't want to see that again!" A few well-placed stories like that, and middle-class people will be fleeing the city even if the enemy army has no intention of coming anywhere near it.

Jay R
2014-06-01, 10:42 AM
It doesn't really matter. Anything works. [Nothing is too stupid to use for propaganda.

"We need more living room!"
"Mars wants our women!"
"They're <elves/dwarves/orcs/humans>!"
"They button their shirts on the <right/left>!"
"Somebody assassinated the Archduke of Serbia. He's not our archduke, and they didn't do it, but let's go to war!"
"They <put/don't put> beans in their chili!"
"They have a treasure on their mountain. Mount your horses! Draw your swords!"
"It's us or them!"
"They <have/don't have> stars on their bellies!"
"Under an interpretation of the Salic Law that the people who live under the Salic law don't accept, our king can claim to be the heir to their throne!"
"That valley belonged to our great-great-grandfathers (we think)!"
"They're barbarians. It's our duty to civilize them."
"They're richer than we are. That's unfair!"
"They're poorer than we are. We need to take over and teach them."
"They prefer Star Wars to Star Trek!"
"They prefer Picard to Kirk!
"They prefer Zachary Quinto over Leonard Nimoy!"
"Some author in their country wrote a book that says some bad things about us!"
"They're trying to stop us from colonizing this untouched wilderness they've lived on for centuries!"
"They <let/don't let> D&D characters die in their games!"
"They think Vaarsuvius is <male/female>!"
"What right to they have to keep all that gold from their mines?"
"They <want/don't want> to put barbed wire fences on the open range!"
"They <want/don't want> to build a railroad through our land!"
"They raise <sheep/cows>!"
"Their prince's hair is yellow!"
"Their king promised to marry my daughter!"
"They have an impenetrable forest blocking an important trade route. We need to conquer them and build a road through it!"
"They built an excellent road on an important trade route. If we don't conquer them, we'll have to pay the toll to use it!"
"They're hoarding their cultural achievements!"
"They're destroying our culture by exporting their cultural achievements!"

Really - there is nothing too stupid to use for this.

Slipperychicken
2014-06-01, 12:06 PM
Really - there is nothing too stupid to use for this.

Truly, nothing.


[From "The Butter Battle Book (http://english11poets.pbworks.com/w/page/19005446/The%20Butter%20Battle%20Book)"]

Then my grandfather said, “It’s high time that you knew of the terribly horrible thing that Zooks do. In every Zook house and in every Zook town every Zook eats his bread with the butter side down!”

tahu88810
2014-06-01, 12:46 PM
This is related, so I thought I'd share it. Albeit, with the small caveat that I am most certainly not trying to start a political debate or anything of the sort. It's about propaganda in tabletop settings, and why you ought to be very, very careful in how you describe it.

I predominantly play with others through chat programs. It's been a long while since I was able to play with people in person. Having said that, everything is, therefor, text-based. For the game in question, I had a few players on hand who have played with me before. They've learned that I rarely include unimportant details about my description of locations, and that, often, something innocuous can turn out to later be foreshadowing or otherwise simply important to the setting. I forget what system we were using, but the setting itself was meant to be a different world, with different location names, and so on. However, the locations were all based on real world places. The players did not know this part, they certainly didn't know where the location for the first session was based off of.
So things are going on, the session is rather fun, and so on. Eventually, for some reason or another, they encounter a recruitment ad for the nation's military. A man climbed to the top of a mountain, turned into a drake alongside his brother-in-arms, and then flew off into the sunset. Heartwarming. Inspirational. "Oh," someone comments, "The government here is evil."
And so it was that a game meant to parallel a World War III in a high fantasy setting turned into a game where the players attempted to overthrow the democratically elected president of high-fantasy-alternate-United-States.

Be careful how you describe the propaganda. It may not elicit the same reaction you're looking for.

MLMII
2014-06-01, 09:17 PM
I'd love to hear more about that game.



However you do point out a very real danger of using imagines designed to play on strong emotions, and there has been similar "misses" even in real life.