The Monitors, a combat-free RPG about conflict and domination
From the Game's Introduction:
On the post-occupation Earth, peace reigns. Well, more accurately, war is gone. Humanity still bickers as usual, but any violence - any - is forbidden. The otherworld visitors ensured that.
They visited Earth just once, and only stayed 24 hours. In that time (while artillery splashed uselessly against them and nuclear weapons somehow failed to go off), they stated that Earth might one day be admitted to the Galactic Federation and, until that time, we would be Monitored.
They are gone, but their invisible Monitors remain. No one has yet figured out how they work, but the process is simple. Think whatever you want, but as soon as you move to potentially injure another person, *pop*. You and the target are suddenly unconscious for 30 seconds. Try again, same result.
Try to hit someone with a car, and *pop*, you wake with the car stopped and both of you laying still. 30 seconds is lost.
It is simply impossible to do violence against another. The invisible Monitors are infallible. They stop accidents, they stop intentional acts. They can tell the difference between roleplay and real. They stop anyone from becoming a victim of violence, pure and simple. Assault, rape, murder, all disappear. Whether the target is awake or asleep, conscious or drugged, informed or not, they never fail in their judgement.
Oddly enough, this meant boxing still survives as a sport.
Faced with no more threat of violence, there's... not much change. There are still economic realities. Someone has to man the factories, someone has to own them. People still need laws for social order, even if cops are reduced to ticket-writing.
And people still crave power. This is your world, one where influence and reputation are the coin of the land. Sure, cash is nice, but with the leveling of the field by the Monitors, there are massive upheavals. Cops can't arrest people - if they resist, both Cop and target go under. Theft is a problem, for if it doesn't involve violence, well, what stops it? Protests are safer with no fear of arrests or thugs. Change is easier.
But corporations whose products kill people, a lot of people start losing 30 seconds at a time. The Monitors take a big picture. If you approved a product and it kills someone, well, you get 30 seconds out of the loop. Each person in the decision chain gets it for each person that dies. Frankly, some tobacco executives aren't expected to be conscious ever again. And the remaining CEOs and middle managers, they're now looking at the human cost of products again.
This is a world where no means no, where you can't stop anyone from doing what they want. It's also a world where, on a whim, you can steal 30 seconds from someone. It's a world where money still exists, but decisions always come back to you. Yeah, the tricky could pay someone to steal 30 seconds from someone else, but it'll happen to them too.
In a world running under an twisted golden rule, how will you get to the top?