I've always had a soft spot in my heart for cartoonishly evil supervillains. There's just something kind of funny and camp about a bad guy that does evil just for the sake of doing evil. So today, we're gonna talk about the biggest bastard out of all the dastardly megacorps in the world, Pentex, the ultimate tendril of the Wyrm's power on earth.
Pentex can be portrayed in several ways. First in foremost, the thing to remember about them is that most people haven't heard of them. No one should know about Pentex. They're the secret power behind every Macdonalds and Burger King and Harvey Norman and every other major brand in the world. Portraying them seriously, I would actually recommend against using the thousands of subsidiaries they canonically have, because no one in a Werewolf game, or any other for that matter, are going to buy stuff from 'Magadon Inc.' or 'Black Dog' or bloody 'Endron' of all things without being suspicious. When portrayed seriously, and as an antagonist to the group, Pentex should be subtle. They don't advertise their new addition of Black Spiral Blend coffee on billboards with the tagline 'Corruptilicious'. Pentex products are spiritually unhealthy, and they should be insidious. Every product you buy could carry the taint of the Wyrm, and ultimately contribute to your final transformation as a formor.
Now, another thing to remember about Pentex is that they do not operate like a regular company. Real companies, and even fictional evil ones like Tricell, or Umbrella, or Weyland Yutani, are at least motivated by profits, and while they are total idiots in the application, they don't intentionally try to provoke hideous zombie/alien massacres, because they gain nothing out of it. Pentex is more like a Captain Planet supervillain. They'll purposely initiate oil spills and nuclear leaks and other unpleasant environmental disasters, essentially to teach those uppity natives a lesson in humility. The difference to remember, between Pentex and those Captain Planet supervillains is that Pentex actually benefits whenever the environment suffers. Burned rainforests, nuclear spills and biohazards attract banes, which further support the company, and spreads the power of the Wyrm through the earth. Pentex directly benefits from destroying the planet, and therefore, makes decisions that other companies might think of as irrational. Unlike Umbrella, Pentex would trigger the city-wide zombie apocalypse because it can then feast on all the souls lost to the plague, before curing it with one of their subsidiaries. And remember, because they're such a super secret multinational cabal, no one knows they exist, and therefore, cannot be blamed for it.
Pentex represents an element of subtlety, something that is woefully lacking in Werewolf: The Apocalypse. They show that the Wyrm isn't just something that bursts forth from the face of Black Spiral Dancers in the form of barbed, flesh dissolving tendrils. The Wyrm is something that can insinuate itself slowly into human society, and become something irreplaceable. Removing Pentex from the World of Darkness would be the equivalent of suddenly bankrupting Microsoft, Macdonalds, Apple, Starbucks, and dozens of other multinationals overnight. Thousands would lose their jobs and society would be ruined. That's the true power of Pentex. Garou can slaughter through a thousand of their offices at once, but, like a tumor growing on someone's brain, it can't be excised without the entire system coming crashing down.
Here are some neat examples of fiction to inspire Pentex based games.
Resident Evil (games): Avoid the movies, as they are shit. However, the Umbrella corporation, and later Tricell, are exactly the sort of company that Pentex is, hiding behind a friendly public image in order to work its nefarious schemes. Plus a lot of zombies and mutations provide awesome examples of Formori. Basically replace the T-Virus/G-Virus/T-Veronica/Plaga/Uroboros etc. with Banes.
Dilbert: While it is a comedy, imagine that Dilbert works in a division of Pentex. Imagine what it's like living in the Dilbert universe, and consistently having one's soul and free will crushed. When you think about it, Dilbert is the universe in which Pentex has already won.
Alien Series: Aliens, while set in the future, is a really good example of what Pentex would one day like to be. Weyland-Yutani is pervasive, and produces everything from space-ships to bioweapons. They're a subtle but omnipresent force within the movies and comics, and always the shadowy mastermind moving the pawns. It's also a good example of Pentex employees, and shows that not all of them are cackling supervillains. Some of them are just average Joes in a terrible situation.
- Kephn
No comments:
Post a Comment