to be good at writing fiction you must first stop looking at it as an escape from reality but a mechanism through which to process it
Thank you, tumblr user catmask, for summarizing why a huge chunk of popular speculative fiction published in the last few years fell incredibly flat for me
yeah, this is basically why my bf and I decided the best thing we could add to the well established cyberpunk TTRPG genre is cutting down the power fantasy a bit and make the gameplay loop about trying to pay rent, manage your mental state and social obligations, and trying to do it without getting burnt out. yknow, the usual way living under capitalism ruins your life rather than running out of hp
Also like, an effort-you-have-left-to-give meter that goes down and then a 2nd meter of it for forcing yourself to run on empty, rather than a stress stat that goes up and causes modifiers at certain thresholds like how most games do it