April round: Themes
Baxil:
Unrelated: Another thing that occurred to me, looking back through the list, is that there seems to be a lot of cruelty toward PCs in this round of games.
I was going to say it was significant, but then I remembered SLOSK from February, which is kind of the gold standard there. So more likely that we just have a good batch of games - strong narrative relies on adversity.
- Bax
Baxil:
In hindsight, I'm surprised I didn't see this earlier: these are all relationship games.
There are a few that are thematically about (a) relationship(s), some that are about using relationships to get what you want, a bunch that have explicit relationship mechanics/statistics, and a few that pit desires against relationships. (Most games fit in multiple categories here.) But none that are agnostic on the issue.
David Berg:
The terms Lust + Chains spoke very strongly to me. In real life, I occasionally feel the urge to ditch the chains of my connections and responsibilities, forgo the lust for companionship and property, and go chill in a cave somewhere. It's normally a pretty idle thought, and only gets dramatic enough to be interesting when my obligations get really taxing. So, I instantly thought that designing that dynamic would be a worthy and coherent challenge.
But yuck, I wouldn't want to play that. It'd either be a soul-crushing experience, or a half-assed, ironically distant experience for the sake of not being soul-crushing.
That'll also keep me from playing a lot of this round's other entries. That's not a criticism of them; just my own taste.
The solution I eventually found was to put the protagonists' taxing obligations in a context that provides the players some enthusiasm and exuberance, to counter the trapped desperation. Basically, it's more fun to crash and burn if you can do it with flair. Hence, supervillains.
I admit a strong possibility, though, that the soul-crush-o-meter may remain a bit high for my tastes. Lust + Chains, man. I should probably check out Shackled Self for some balance. Maybe Within My Clutches could build the attachments, and Shackled Self could break 'em. Might make for a good two-shot.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page