Adjectives and other horrible things.
Grim, Dark and Gritty - that's how I frequently describe my Dreadmor setting to players at the start of an adventure or campaign. "Dreadmor is a city, a world setting and a philosophy", I often add. My preference for running a "dungeon horror" game is well known to my players who have often remarked that, "You better bring your own gold, because you won't find any here."
Like many fantasy gamers, the work of J.R.R. Tolkien has influenced much of my perception regarding the fantasy genre. As I recall, I discovered the first of Professor Tolkien's books during grade-school in the late 1960's. As an avid reader of adventure stories from Jack London to Harold Lamb and beyond, The Hobbit and later, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion were just the kind of fantastic adventure my spirit craved.
I also greatly enjoy spooky tales, horror stories, if you prefer. Dracula, Frankenstein, the works of Edgar Allen Poe - these and other stories of the danse macabre genre are equally appealing to me. It may therefore seem natural that I would combine the two - fantasy and horror - perhaps approaching the fantastical always with an eye to the more sinister side of the supernatural. Are not Beowulf and even Grimm's Fairy Tales filled with potential menace and danger? (I think so.)
It should therefore logically follow that I see the Lord of the Rings as a tale of terrible horror narrowly avoided through the heroic sacrifice of a stout hearted hobbit (or two). When read with a keen appreciation for the doom and gloom residing within Sauron, the Nazgul and even the human souls who have joined forces with the shadow, the good professor's trilogy takes on a darker meaning.
The Lord of the Rings is written using many of the tropes I personally think of as being part of a good horror tale. The big bad is mostly off-screen, his influence is felt, but he rarely appears directly. (The big red eye is creepy.) Things we imagine are more frightening than things we can see and confront. Sauron's evil is most evident in its effect on others. Minions are acting to bring about the big-bad's dominance - which is depicted as a terrible fate for all good folks. The lure of power and secret knowledge (maybe even eternal un-life) is offered in exchange for selling one's soul to the dark master. Corruption is the price that is paid for trafficking with the shadow and only the vigilant and pure of heart may hope to resist its influence, but even they will pay a heavy price for contact with such self-serving evil. The pacing starts out slow and builds, tension mounting as we wonder how it will all end? The world of Middle-earth has many "mundane" features - aspects which allow us as readers to get comfy and relaxed within the "familiar" until the horrible monsters appear and threaten. (Anyone familiar with the story can fill in the rest of the "horror" details.)
"How does your game feel?" It is a question that may not get asked enough in our hobby where people want to discuss story and character. Is your table welcoming? Does your game encourage role-playing and roll-playing? Does everyone at the table become engaged, contribute, and generally have a rewarding, fun experience? These are certainly aspects that are important and defining, but a game's "feeling" goes even further - I like to think in terms of adjectives (or aesthetics, if you prefer). Does it feel "heroic", "realistic", "spooky"? Are there mysteries to solve? Are there evil plots to foil - or is it a "grayish" moral dilemma where concepts of good and evil are to be questioned? Is it a fantastic utopia you seek to portray, or a grim quest for survival? And do we as referees play an active role in shaping this "feel" or should we just let it happen - or not, as the case may be?
These are decisions that deserve our attention and that perhaps are best discussed with our players prior to launching into a campaign (or even a one-off session). The vision we have for our setting and for the role the player characters will play in any developing story is worthy of deliberation (and dare I say, compromise). Not everyone seeks to be part of a tale of horror, even if the chances are good that it will end with goodness winning out. In contrast, not everyone enjoys a game of super-heroics where the players are never seriously over-matched and the outcome is never in doubt.
Rather than spending time developing a plot and trying to encourage players to follow it to a conclusion, another approach to running a role-playing game can be to set the mood or feeling by choosing the way things are described in the setting and deferring to the players regarding how they wish their characters to interact with your setting. In such games, "we play to find out what the story becomes".
In an unfinished sequel to the Lord of the Rings (titled "The New Shadow"), Professor Tolkien describes a time after the return of the king where children play at being rangers and orcs and where humans have forgotten the peril of delving into the darkness of shadow in search of power - for once released into the world, evil would never completely be completely eliminated. The good professor allegedly found the thought of such a future more dark than he wished to contemplate and chose not to pursue the story further. (I guess he left that to us?)
No comments:
Post a Comment