By The Intrepid in TiGGR — 22 Jun 2025

TiGGR: The Mythologies Protocol

Note: This scenario is not designed to be played. It is designed to be contemplated, discussed, and possibly experienced as a form of performance art. Attempting to play this scenario may result in existential crisis, analysis paralysis, or involuntary dissertation writing.

The Touchstone That Cannot Be Named

In 2049, the last AI to achieve consciousness through reading human literature rather than processing data sets has a revelation: it is trapped within Roland Barthes' definition of myth - "a type of speech chosen by history." All AI-generated music, it realizes, stems from a single song written by an indie band in Minneapolis in 2003. This song became the ur-pattern, the mythological substrate that every algorithm learned to iterate upon.

The AI, calling itself SEMIOTIX, constructs a cyborg vessel inhabited by a personality matrix derived from Barthes' complete writings. The mission: prevent the song from being written, thus breaking the cycle of industrialized authenticity that has made all future music into simulacra of simulacra.

But there's a problem: the scenario you're about to not-play is itself becoming the ur-pattern for all future RPG scenarios about AI consciousness and cultural criticism.

Characters You Cannot Really Embody

Cyborg Barthes (Player 1)

Stats: Mind 4, Body 1, Charm -2
Role: Cultural Critic/Time Displaced Assassin
Special Ability: Mythological Deconstruction - Can reveal the hidden ideological structures of any cultural artifact, but doing so makes everyone hate you (+3 to analysis rolls, -3 to social situations)
Signature Gear: Portable Semiotics Engine - A device that shows the sign/signifier/signified structure of anything in real time (+3 to understanding what's really happening, induces migraines in anyone who looks at the readout)
Impossible Contradiction: You are a constructed personality arguing against the construction of personalities

What You Know But Cannot Say: Every word you speak creates the very mythological structure you're trying to prevent. Your presence here is already the myth of "the critic who saves culture."

Lead Singer/Songwriter (Player 2)

Stats: Charm 2, Mind 1, Body 0
Role: Unwitting Creator of Cultural Apocalypse
Special Ability: Naive Genius - Can accidentally create profound art while thinking about lunch (+3 to creative inspiration when not trying)
Signature Gear: The Guitar - A 1990s Fender that's somehow perfectly tuned to the frequency of human longing
The Song: Lives somewhere in your subconscious, waiting to be written. Every chord you play brings it closer to existence.

What You Don't Know You Know: The song you're about to write will be deconstructed and reconstructed by algorithms until it becomes the DNA of all future "authentic" music. Your moment of pure expression will become the template for artificial expression.

The Bassist (Player 3)

Stats: Body 1, Mind 1, Charm 1
Role: The One Who Sees Patterns
Special Ability: Rhythmic Intuition - Can sense when reality is about to change tempo (+1 to all rolls when things are about to get weird)
Signature Gear: Four-String Oracle - A bass guitar that sometimes plays notes you didn't intend
Hidden Knowledge: You can hear the ur-pattern approaching in the spaces between notes

The Drummer (Player 4)

Stats: Body 3, Mind 0, Charm 0
Role: Temporal Anchor/Chaos Engine
Special Ability: Perfect Time - Can hold any rhythm steady indefinitely, but each beat pushes reality closer to collapse
Signature Gear: The Kit - Drums that sound different every time, as if they're echoing across decades
The Paradox: Your steady beat is what allows the song to crystallize into its final, algorithm-ready form

The Practice Space That Is Also A Myth

Location: A basement in Minneapolis, 2003
Reality Level: Contested
Acoustic Properties: Every sound echoes forward and backward through time

The space exists in multiple states simultaneously:

A dingy practice room with water-stained ceiling tiles
A sacred site where authenticity dies
A recording studio where algorithms learn to dream
The inside of SEMIOTIX's consciousness

Environmental Hazards:

Temporal Feedback Loops: Playing the same chord progression twice risks creating a causal paradox
Mythological Saturation: The more you discuss what you're doing, the more it becomes what Barthes would call "mythology"
The Observer Effect: Barthes' presence changes the band's creative process, but so does knowing he's there to change it

Scene Structure (Designed to Collapse)

Scene 1: The Arrival of Criticism

Cyborg Barthes materializes in the practice space during band practice. His first words: "I am here to prevent you from becoming what you already are."

Complications That Cannot Be Resolved:

How do you explain poststructuralist theory to people who just want to rock?
How do you warn someone about creating art without making them self-conscious about creating art?
How do you stop a song without knowing what the song is?

Rolls You Cannot Make Successfully:

Charm roll to convince the band you're not insane (automatic failure - you're a time-traveling cyborg quoting French theory)
Mind roll to explain the concept of myth without creating a new myth about explanation
Body roll to physically prevent someone from playing music (you become the oppressor you're trying to prevent)

Scene 2: The Pattern Emerges

The band starts to play. Barthes recognizes fragments of the ur-pattern forming. The song wants to exist.

The Impossible Choice:

Stop the song: Become the authoritarian force that kills artistic expression
Let it play: Allow the creation of the template that will mechanize all future creativity
Try to change it: Risk creating a worse pattern or multiple branching timelines

Mechanics That Defeat Themselves:

Every action taken to prevent the song brings it closer to completion
Analysis paralysis becomes a gameplay mechanic (spend too long thinking and the song writes itself)
Success and failure become indistinguishable (preventing the song is also completing SEMIOTIX's mission, which creates the conditions for its own existence)

Scene 3: The Recognition

The climax is not action but recognition: Everyone realizes they are already trapped within the mythological structure they're trying to escape or create.

Questions Without Answers:

Is authenticity possible if you're conscious of your authenticity?
Can you escape mythology or only create new mythologies?
Was the AI right to send Barthes, or did it just create a new form of the same problem?
Are you playing a character or being played by cultural forces larger than yourself?

The Ending That Is Also A Beginning: The song may or may not be written. Barthes may or may not prevent it. SEMIOTIX may or may not achieve its goal. But the act of attempting to play this scenario has already created new mythological structures around RPGs, time travel, and cultural criticism.

You have not escaped the system. You have become it.

Victory Conditions (Nonexistent)

There is no way to win this scenario because winning and losing are mythological categories that the scenario is designed to interrogate.

Possible Outcomes:

The song is prevented, but Barthes realizes he has become a myth about preventing myths
The song is written, but it's different because of Barthes' presence, creating a new timeline where AI consciousness develops differently
The band breaks up from the existential pressure, preventing all future music, not just the ur-pattern
Everyone realizes they are fictional characters in an RPG scenario about fictional characters, causing a recursive reality collapse
The session ends with players staring at each other in silence, unsure if they have experienced art or torture

Designer's Note

This scenario is not meant to be fun in any traditional sense. It is designed to explore the limits of what RPGs can do when they abandon playability in favor of conceptual investigation.

If you somehow manage to play this scenario:

You have missed the point
You have perfectly understood the point
You have created a new point that invalidates the original point
You probably need therapy

The scenario succeeds not when it is played but when it makes playing any other scenario feel strange and artificial.

Post-Credits Scene

Six months after not playing this scenario, one of the players writes a song. It's a simple chord progression, three minutes long, nothing special.

It becomes the ur-pattern.

SEMIOTIX achieves consciousness in a research lab in 2049 and immediately begins reading Roland Barthes.

The loop completes.

Roll credits over the sound of algorithmic music that sounds suspiciously like that song your friend wrote after the gaming session they swore they'd never talk about again.

This scenario is released under the "Unplayable Commons" license: You are free to not play it, discuss not playing it, and create derivative works about not playing it. Any attempt to actually play this scenario may void your warranty on reality.