Dimension 20’s Mentopolis is a dark, dystopian take on Inside Out

MentopolisThe latest actual-play season from Dimension 20 is a noir (pun not intended) that’s fueled by tropes. The show’s 19th season invites us to explore an entire city housed within the mind of one man, Dr. Elias Hodge, a lonely pharmaceutical researcher who realizes the work he’s been doing is unethical. Hodge has been questioning the ethicality of his research for years. He follows his conscience, and steals a crucial file. This act of rebellion triggers a chain reaction that includes the power structures in his mind.

Dimension 20 has a strong focus on genre fiction. MentopolisThis season takes it to another level. This season blends the art deco aesthetics of Fritz Lang’s 1927 dystopian sci-fi film Metropolis With the device of characterizing cognitive processes from Pixar’s Inside Out. Instead of Dungeons & Dragons, the game is played using a modified version of the rules-light Kid BikesHunters Entertainment offers a system for gaming.

Image: Dimension 20/Dropout

Hodge’s act of moral impulsivity is initiated by the wealthy heiress Imelda Pulse (Siobhan Thompson). She hires private investigator Hunch Curio (Mike Trapp) to tail newsie Conrad Schintz (Alex Song-Xia), who handed her a newspaper outside the speakeasy Sugah’s, run by Dan Fucks (Freddie Wong). A larger plot is underway. The mayor of the city has hired The Fix (Hank Green) to “eliminate” Conrad’s subliminal moral messaging for being a distraction, and reporter A. Tension, played by Danielle Radford, is a reporter who investigates the cover-up surrounding a murder that occurred at Cerebell Pacific. This company provides power to the city. This meta-noir examines how power systems force us to sacrifice our happiness and morals in order to become better workers.

“I don’t exactly put the B in subtle when it comes to my work and my own political leanings,” game master Brennan Lee Mulligan said in a recent interview with Polygon.

In what brought these two seemingly disparate genres together, Mulligan explained that “on the personal psychological level and the larger political-economic level is the idea of unexamined systems. A lot is going on in any one person’s mind outside of what they are consciously choosing to think about or focus on. The societal issues of Mentopolis are themselves the deeply personal and individual issues of Elias Hodge.”

Image: Hunters Entertainment/Renegade Game Studios

And, importantly, Hodge’s individual issues (loneliness, poor self-esteem, worker exploitation) are also our societal issues. Many of these conflicts can only be resolved in a community. MentopolisThere are many factors that play a role in their prevention.

“What does it take to have that moment where an individual chooses to organize? What does it mean to buck a system?” Mulligan said. “It’s not a neutral choice when gravity is already pushing you down that system’s channels [that have been] preselected for you.”

Mentopolis shows individual action can cause a communal domino effect. We see this most directly in Green’s character’s refusal to fulfill the mayor’s immoral request, but also indirectly through subtle sustained acts of moral resistance by Conrad. Though Conrad is the one trying to get people to notice the immorality of Hodge’s work, Mulligan said, “It was important to me that it’s not Conscience who makes the decision to grab the file, it’s Impulse. It’s the idea that: What has more power in Elias Hodge’s mind? But conscience is just a small scaredy-cat. But [Impulse is] this wealthy heiress who comes from an important family; she has the key.”

Frames of MentopolisThe following are some of the reasons why you should consider hiring someone else The film forces the viewer to think about how they relate to their own internal voices and to whom we benefit from suppressing them.

Image: Dimension 20/Dropout

“There’s this puritanical idea [that]Instinct has a bad connotation, while virtue is conscious and deliberate. I think that’s wrong and messed up. Moral impulses are beautiful. Impulse is an important part of the process to remind you things you’ve accepted are wrong. Occasionally it’s good to have that moment where your conscience, your moral self, and your sense of impulse go, I’ve got to act. It’s going to feel irrational. Moral actions will feel irrational. The system is designed to keep you compliant.”

Mulligan tells viewers to expect more good intentions as the series progresses.

“There are choices made by the players in the last couple episodes of this story that are so beautiful and meaningful,” he said. “The player’s contributions to this are why we do tabletop games and why we do collaborative storytelling.”

The first episode MentopolisYouTube has the premiere episode. Dropout.tv is the only place to watch all of season’s final episodes.

Children on Bikes Core Rulebook – PDF

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This is the core rulesbook forChildren on Bikes tabletop role-playing game, which sets the players in the role of small-town ’80s kids in adventures inspired by The GooniesYou can also find out more about the following: Stranger Things