[The Secret Lives of Serial Killers] Ronnies feedback
Ron Edwards:
The Secret Lives of Serial Killers by Willow Palecek wins a Ronny. My notes actually put it this way: "All right, you win the Ronny, you depraved [expletive]." And they don't say "expletive."
... and now what? I'm dumbstruck. I disapprove of it from the git-go, I can't imagine actually playing it, and yet I know it'd work. I'm reminded of the classic line:
Quote
Then he got an idea!
An awful idea!
THE GRINCH
GOT A WONDERFUL, AWFUL IDEA!
Can you just imagine what a published version would look like? It'd be "Sunshine Boulevard" in all its glory, done up with nicey-nice lemon-yellow hip packaging as if published by Emily Care Boss if Emily Care Boss were a beaming Mormon who never wrote Under My Skin. And perhaps with some kind of removable pamphlet accompanying it explaining the real rules.
I will try to express myself better with reference to the film Benny & Joon, itself merely one particularly clear version of the common film plot that if someone is a little bit kooky, alienated, perhaps downright irrational, that this means they have a big loveable heart with all sorts of love to give which happens not, at the moment, to be fully appreciated. Closely related to the also-common idea that mental illness is really some kind of personal window into a more wonderful world, which the rest of us are privileged to glimpse through the lens of this daffy, occasionally irritating, but ultimately transcendent person (Depp again, Don Juan DeMarco). One can find another version of it in Twilight, as satirized exceptionally successfully in the Buffy vs. Edward: Twilight Showdown video. Geez, I could go on - the more off-kilter the person, the more wonderful they are, or will be once romance has found them at last, and their terrible, terrible loneliness is eased, and the childlike goodness of their big, big heart can finally be unleashed. Like in Shine. The more I try to describe it, the more film titles just crop up as I go.
So what do I want to express about that? Easy: bull fucking shit. Mental illness is not whimsical joy. It is not "wise" underneath all the irritating parts, which, in addition, are not themselves cute. What's that you say, you met a fellow who lives almost as a shut-in, whose sense of humor seems enchantingly off, who says inappropriate things and then covers it with a certain opaque, clueless charm? Has hobbies that are a bit too compulsive? Stutters and becomes sullen at the mention of his mother? How charming! How wonderfully insightful he must be, if only he could trust someone enough to express it! How he must yearn for the touch of someone who truly cares! What love must be beating and throbbing away in his big, big heart, to be unfettered by you! How grateful he will be when you teach him to bathe regularly and to use shampoo when he does it!
Except it's not his big, big heart which matters, it's yours, after he's dissected it from your chest while you're still alive and put it into a jar of alcohol, then put the jar in with all the others in his cupboard. This game is about that. And to cap it, you do exactly the same thing psychologically to one of the players in raw social terms even as this is done to his or her character in graphic gore-porn terms.
You nailed it, Willow. Fucking nailed it. You took the Big Model and made it your bitch, for the ultimate inside-out Narrativist gut-punch.
I have one whole criticism. it needs some mechanics which would fit perfectly in one of those "I ripped off My Life With Master like all the rest of you for my hawt new story game" threads at Story Games, to be incorporated into Sunshine Boulevard to make the cover story perfect. Just enough to be actually pretty fun.
Oh, and an addition to the Secret Lives part of the rules text: After "apologize," add "and if necessary, run like hell."
Best, Ron
jburneko:
Oh fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck!
So, when I read this I had the same thought as Ron. "Man, this would work." Hell, I even thought of a couple of people who I thought could probably handle the "joke" if I sprung it on them.
BUT!
What I totally failed to do was make the connection to this
Quote
Closely related to the also-common idea that mental illness is really some kind of personal window into a more wonderful world, which the rest of us are privileged to glimpse through the lens of this daffy, occasionally irritating, but ultimately transcendent person (Depp again, Don Juan DeMarco).
Which is is like one of my favorite movie genres. K-PAX, Neverwas, to a lesser extent-Franklyn. I seek these movies out. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them. Hell, the LAST design competition I entered I wrote http://www.grahamwalmsley.net/littlegamechef/games/BreadMoldMightBeMedicine.pdf SPECIFICALLY to do this kind of story.
I'm even more disturbed now.
Jesse
stefoid:
sweet jesus
stefoid:
P.S. can I ask that anyone who actually plays this game do a 'you tube Sunshine Boulevard reaction video'? this has internet meme written all over it.
Willow:
Quote
Can you just imagine what a published version would look like? It'd be "Sunshine Boulevard" in all its glory, done up with nicey-nice lemon-yellow hip packaging as if published by Emily Care Boss if Emily Care Boss were a beaming Mormon who never wrote Under My Skin. And perhaps with some kind of removable pamphlet accompanying it explaining the real rules.
Oh yes, Ron, oh yes.
Of course this means you're going to be responsible for coming up with a fake blurb about how wonderful Sunshine Boulevard is.
Yeah, SB needs to be actually playable as written for the cover story to work. Love the fake dice mechanics that don't really do anything idea.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page