[Dead of Night] Nice Mr. Fitzgerald
Ron Edwards:
This may sound weird, David, but I think it will help the discussion a lot: please re-phrase your question without the word "just" in it. Change or add anything to clarify what you mean. Don't try to dope out what I mean or what I'm after.
This isn't some kind of Zen thing to make you realize anything. It will, however, change the nature of your question in such a way as to be answerable.
Best, Ron
David Berg:
Sure.
Part 1:
Under what circumstances would it be fun for a character in DoN to leave the place where the horror is at? Under what circumstances would it mess things up?
Part 2:
Whose job is it to make the fun version happen, and make the messed-up version not happen? The character's player's? The GM's? The rules'? All of the above?
Part 2 is what I'm interested in. Please feel no need to answer Part 1 in any detail beyond what's sufficient to provide context for Part 2.
jrs:
Part 1: Does not compute. Seriously. Avoidance would be the anathema of fun.
Part 2: This is going to sound like a pat answer, but it is everyone's job to make the fun happen.
Going back to your campsite example, of course my character would try to leave. The character will want to escape, but I as the player would not want that to be successful (if at all) until the end of the game. There will be events, be it an injured camp mate, dead car battery, blizzard, stupidity, whatever, that prevent the character from leaving. The barriers wouldn't even need be particularly onerous. I would fully expect the GM to establish those events. And if the character does succeed in escaping early in the game, then I would expect the horror to follow.
I suggest watching Alien, and answer this: Why does Ripley go back for the cat?
Julie
jrs:
Postscript
I just want to add that barriers to escape should not even be considered conflicts as such. At some level (early in the game, maybe) those barriers should simply be part of the setting. I am speaking out of my love for horror; I'm not sure if Dead of Night addresses this in its text.
Julie
David Berg:
Gotcha. GM and player both collaborate to keep the character where the fun is at.
"Just play your character", in this context, doesn't mean "get into your character's head and use your wits for optimum advantage, the same as you yourself would in that situation" -- it means steer your character the way a good horror film director would. That might sound obvious; it's just that I'm used to GMing for the former rather than the latter.
Thanks!
-David
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