[black dog] play report
J. Tuomas Harviainen:
Callan, that actually points out an interesting part of Black Dog's systems: What it does is point out the stimulus moments, but there is little obvious reflection. It's heavily implicated between scenes, of course, but the surface is here the thing. (Some other jeepform games, like my own A Bitter Aftertaste, do the opposite - it's basically just inner reflections.) That's why the inner monologs were so important, despite being quite rare. They fostered in the point that what we played were indeed the adult's reactions you describe above, and not just flitting from one stimulus to the next.
Callan S.:
Hi again, Tuomas,
Looking at the inner monologs, would you say it was just the characters monolog? Were the players reflecting on the overal situation of the character themselves and either coming to a conclusion, or atleast deciding they don't know what to make of it? I'm talking about drawing connections from the game sessions fictional events to real life, even if it's in a 'well, people are depressed in real life, but I still don't know what to make of it' way? Or were the players simply basking in the situation as a range of sensations, without drawing any connection drawn between it and real life?
For myself I would assume players would draw connections from the develped fiction to real life. But I'm begining to wonder if I'm just assuming something which is not always the case. I can, atleast vaguely, imagine it's possible for a goup of players to play out a depressed adults life, and simply absorbing it as a series of stimuli.
J. Tuomas Harviainen:
Given my players in this run, Callan, I am absolutely sure they worked on a balance where they'd draw both the inner monologs and the behavioral changes from scene to scene from both the story elements and their knowledge of real-life depression. And took the expressions with them when they left. What we discussed after play confirmed my impression of that.
My concern over the scenario reflects this point, actually: WIth a wrong crowd, the play could theoretically become just going-through-the-motions and give a false impression of what depression is like So Black Dog at the very least requires a GM who knows what he/she is doing with it.
J. Tuomas Harviainen:
[Spoiler warning]
To comment a bit further still: Black Dog is about playing glimpses of a journey towards a fixed end, with a glint of false hope mixed into it. And it works just because of that. One of the mechanics introduces the possibility for a turn to the better again, but under normal circumstances the GM removes it in secret. So it's a directed, direct trip, like many of the recent indie tabletops- The end is inevitable, and it's the journey that counts. Because of this, and the false glimmer of hope, the players reflect a lot on what happens during the journey, and take that with them when they go home afterwards. When that is the way it's played, it all feels very natural and realistic.
The scenario might, in theory, develop into the kind of "bad play" where the GM is just chuckling (after removing the hope-possibility) and soaking up the feelings of misery created by the rest, but that's just it: bad play with a bad game master. And it also of course has the same problem points as any larp-like thingy: if the players are passive, or unwilling to reflect on the themes at all, nothing really happens and nothing is gained.
Callan S.:
Thanks for posting what we talked about in PM! I'm not sure if anyone else will respond on it, but I think it was good to lodge it all the same! I don't want to push forward right now as I think we already got somewhere in PM discussion on this and I think that was good. We'll see if someone else has something to bring to the discussion. Again, thanks for posting it! :)
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page