I've covered some things before here: https://whatwouldconando.blogspot.com/2018/05/troikan-bumble-logic.html
I'll re-cover those points at random in all likeliness.
We should be critically examining our presumptions regarding story. They are all artificial and in no way an essential part of storytelling. Therefore we can remove them, ignore them, or otherwise do as we please without worry.
Heroes & villains are false. This does not means we should move to "grey", that's just pulping them together in feigned maturity. It's very easy to find examples of cultures that have wildly different ideas of what is good or bad. Remove all assumptions about morality except that people will have it. The absence of a moral code is impossible, it's just a rejection of a specific code and a resulting tangled interaction with it.
All people you meet in Troika believe in something being right and something being wrong. This might not be good or evil. They all have their priorities and they are not judeo-christian. Their life is wild and dangerous, they do not have the privilege of being non-committal with their world view
Conflict is not essential. It can be replaced as a central mover. Filling the gaps isn't easy but it's possible and should be attempted. Consider a world where there are desires that do not cross others. To accomplish something doesn't require anything external. Puzzles exploded outwards. The desire to go places and a need to figure out how. Conflict can be viewed as moments where the breaks slam down and we have two wills meet where only one can continue on. Instead consider compromises. In Troika conflict is dangerous and arbitrary. Occasionally one sided and always unfair. Compromise will keep you alive.
Core loops are for products, not art. Heroes journeys are for propaganda and bedtime stories. The philosophy of hylics.
Arcs are only to be applied by historians to past events and are always abusing our need for patterns. Philosophy of psychics.
The world was created by the demiurge, there is no meaning no arc no hero no journey, just an up and a down. Stories can just start and more importantly just end. A search for meaning in media is childish. Meaning isn't a universal thing, a treasure to be found. Meaning can exist in only one person, the one who made it, or, like Holloywood films, only exist in the audience.
The only universal is that there is a way towards gnosis and we all believe we are moving in that direction and that others have chosen a divergent path. The demiurge created the pattern and the pattern is bleeding to death. Walking the pattern will take you in circles where you'll be held up above the most base. If you break the pattern you'll be considered a savior and clung to in desperation. Ignore the pattern, leave them to follow their feet, and build something buoyant.
Showing posts with label theory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theory. Show all posts
Theory July 2nd: Spiders
I want a game to tell me my parameters. I don't want to push against them, I don't wanna make D&D into something it isn't 'cos that's just sticking a plaster on it and saying it's all good. If what a game is is "gross" "stupid" or worst of all "boring" then that's what it is and I don't want people to get better at hiding how dull they are or else we might arrive at a time where Hasbro tricks me into thinking they're good people and trying to make good art.
Don't fix things, break them and abandon them for better things. Make better things. Let boring and awful things and people be boring and awful. The only thing worse than a massive spider on your wall is a spider that was on your wall until just a minute ago.
The centre from which things are made will be only that which needs to take shape at that point.
Don't fix things, break them and abandon them for better things. Make better things. Let boring and awful things and people be boring and awful. The only thing worse than a massive spider on your wall is a spider that was on your wall until just a minute ago.
The centre from which things are made will be only that which needs to take shape at that point.
Theory July 1st: It's Ok It's Ok
I'm not good at following instructions so I'm just going to write in the state that I am on learning what I should be writing about today. So there.
I design with absolute insincerity. It is not me speaking from my soul or anything like that, it is me creating a space that will force the viewer to enter it in the shape I want without them knowing. This is possible because RPG writing and reading is naive and trusting and I exploit that.
Mindreading is fake but it works. If I tell you mindreading is fake and then do it anyway it creates a different feeling.
When I read a book on psuedoscientific theory or weird anthropology I always take it in good faith and believe them utterly while I'm there. Then I take that belief with me after and hold on to it like a keyring from the giftshop on the way out. I will believe what is most pleasant or interesting to believe.
Gene Wolfe lies to his readers all the time. Good books can lie.
Writing anything is magic. It's a spell. Literally a spell. You write magic words to create an effect. The greater the effect the more powerful the spell you need. If I want to topple the western world I'd have to be a pretty potent magus.
Voice is not natural. If every book sounds the same then what's the point.
If an RPG is just rules on how to play a game then it's only a fraction of a complete game. If an RPG book doesn't make me feel the game with every bit of my body then it's weak magic. I should be able to read a book and then be so overwhelmed with power that I must expel it immediately by making something.
Good writing always makes you over filled with magic that needs emptying.
If you want someone to do something you don't say "do this thing" you make them want to do it themselves without asking. You've created a play cycle, or a mindset.
"It's ok. It's ok." Sometimes you have to break a spell. Say "you do not need this" over and varied. Say "you may do this" and some people will be released from a decades old curse. Often they need stronger magic. It's whacking the radio.
RPG design should also consider the spaces between the games. How will the game exist outside of the play environment. Unlike a novel it is reliant on a social space. If your solution to creating that space is "marketing" then you are weak. Marketing is a vector to deliver your game's power. It's a magic wand, a fetish. If you are weak then you will die when you run out of money.
Ok I'm done for today.
I design with absolute insincerity. It is not me speaking from my soul or anything like that, it is me creating a space that will force the viewer to enter it in the shape I want without them knowing. This is possible because RPG writing and reading is naive and trusting and I exploit that.
Mindreading is fake but it works. If I tell you mindreading is fake and then do it anyway it creates a different feeling.
When I read a book on psuedoscientific theory or weird anthropology I always take it in good faith and believe them utterly while I'm there. Then I take that belief with me after and hold on to it like a keyring from the giftshop on the way out. I will believe what is most pleasant or interesting to believe.
Gene Wolfe lies to his readers all the time. Good books can lie.
Writing anything is magic. It's a spell. Literally a spell. You write magic words to create an effect. The greater the effect the more powerful the spell you need. If I want to topple the western world I'd have to be a pretty potent magus.
Voice is not natural. If every book sounds the same then what's the point.
If an RPG is just rules on how to play a game then it's only a fraction of a complete game. If an RPG book doesn't make me feel the game with every bit of my body then it's weak magic. I should be able to read a book and then be so overwhelmed with power that I must expel it immediately by making something.
Good writing always makes you over filled with magic that needs emptying.
If you want someone to do something you don't say "do this thing" you make them want to do it themselves without asking. You've created a play cycle, or a mindset.
"It's ok. It's ok." Sometimes you have to break a spell. Say "you do not need this" over and varied. Say "you may do this" and some people will be released from a decades old curse. Often they need stronger magic. It's whacking the radio.
RPG design should also consider the spaces between the games. How will the game exist outside of the play environment. Unlike a novel it is reliant on a social space. If your solution to creating that space is "marketing" then you are weak. Marketing is a vector to deliver your game's power. It's a magic wand, a fetish. If you are weak then you will die when you run out of money.
Ok I'm done for today.
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