Hi and welcome back to Narrative Control. This week’s episode was inspired by this blog post by Karen Twelves http://twelves.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/dead-of-winter-2010/. It’s kind of the analog to Episode 36 – Dare to be Stupid. That episode assumes we’re all shooting for a heroic end, what if you’re shooting for tragedy?
Length: 42:08
Hosts: Sean Nittner and Karen Twelves
Show Notes:
[00:24] Intro to the show. Something wasn’t quite right after Dead of Winter/
[00:50] Reading from the post: http://twelves.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/dead-of-winter-2010//
[01:23] Hello from Karen. Her blog and soon to be appearance on 2d6 Feet in a Random Direction/
[02:05] How this is going to sound like Episode 36 – Dare to Be Stupid. And how it’s different.
[03:11] Playing one-off (one shot?) games. No investment in them surviving the game.
[03:36] I didn’t get all my character can do if I didn’t destroy them by the end.
[04:30] But…but…it may not be the game everyone is playing. Is this what everyone wants?
[06:21] Emo porn is its own reward.
[07:19] Bringing your own experience of loss or suffering to the game.
[07:57] The other side of the spectrum of playing power fantasy games.
[08:28] Characters are real when they have suffered.
[09:17] If you know things are going to go badly, it’s a different mode of play.
[09:37] But what about my agency?
[10:27] The game needs enough elasticity to continue play even after horrible things happen.
[10:59] Example: A character died in the first scene of Dread.
[12:11] There are great games for exploring power fantasies as well.
[13:37] How to do it? Make it fun to pursue doom for you and the others.
[14:14] Add to your failures. Complicate them.
[14:55] Collaborate with the other players to find the best “worst” idea possible.
[16:11] Spend all those Fate chips. Make sure you can’t refuse a compel. Another way to collaborate.
[19:01] Looking at the Dread tower, it’s a perpetual sword over your head. Pull those blocks!
[19:51] Working to sabotage your own efforts. In Fiasco, keep trying to put the gun in your mouth.
[20:36] In Cthulhu when the professor finds the alien texts, OF COURSE you will try to translate it!
[21:15] In a one off game, you don’t have time to make a conservative or stoic character interesting. Put on the ring.
[22:48] A bit of proof. Three examples of game that Karen was in where emo porn was awesome.
[21:11] Carl’s Smallville Game – Breakfast League: Angsty teenagers with powers.
[27:59] Ryan Macklin’s Dresden Game – Emissary of the Dragon making all the wrong moves.
[31:07] Sean’s Apocalypse World Game – Heart of Darkness. A healer who had to decide who lives and who dies.
[40:47] Wrap up. What it’s all about.
Direct Download: NC_Episode_061.mp3
