Other Points of View

    In recent weeks, I have been doing a lot of looking into tropes and the misuse of them by the larger creative community. One of the things I have always felt I have been good at in writing is finding logical explanations for things beyond the reason of "just because."  I love characters with realistic motivations and reactions to situations. Hell, anyone that has ever discussed storytelling with me at any length know that my favorite stories are those in which the protagonist is a normal person thrust into extraordinary circumstances. It's fascinating for me to imagine myself in the character's place, debating what they did versus what I would do.

    That said, I found that on occasion I have used negative stereotypes to portray women and minorities in an unflattering light. I think this this stems from a few things, some of which were beyond my control until very recently.

    The first of these is, unfortunately for me in this regard, I am a male, white American. Just by nature, I gravitate towards characters that resemble me, and Lord knows the mass media caters to this. It isn't that I care less for characters outside this demographic, it's just when I write, I fall back on what I know. How many other people out the have heard the axiom, "Write what you know"? Even if you aren't an author, I'm sure this kind of advice makes quite of bit of sense, and starting out it is a very helpful tool. But part of getting better is learning when you don't need the training wheels anymore.

    As a fan of fantasy and science fiction, the overwhelming majority of material I encounter is both male and Caucasian centric. Take a moment to think of the main characters of all of the shows in this genre. I did. I was surprised when I couldn't think of a single person of color and only a handful of women. All this had been doing had been reinforcing my natural proclivities of using white men as heroes.

    The last one was something I had some awareness, but didn't realize that I knew so little about. I'm talking about the misogynist treatment of women in tropes. Don't get me wrong, as a man, I love a damsel in distress. Of course it's empowering to save the girl. And it has its place in fiction. Just not always in mine,

    So I'm just going to keep being me, keep trying to think outside the box, and keep an open mind. This was more of a random musing post, and less of a topic thing.

Classic Horror

     As I slowly pull together a new gaming group (or resurrect an old one, in a way), the ideas for the new campaign have started to drift in. I like to try new things when it comes to storytelling, and this seemed like another good opportunity to do so.
    
    I've been playing a lot of The Secret World lately, and I've really been enjoying the locales and setting as a whole. I love the feeling of pervasive dread it inspires. It's as if, even though you are clearly the hero, it doesn't care that you might lose. The forces arrayed against you leave little doubt that you are a small fish in a very large and disturbing ocean. As I entered the Transylvania zone, I was reminded of the old Ravenloft campaign setting from AD&D. In a time when vampires sparkle and werewolves are just tens with anger problems, it was nice to be reminded just how terrifying these beasts were in their original incarnations.

     This got me thinking for other sources of inspiration along these fronts. I knew I was hooked on the concept of Gothic horror; but where did I go from there? First thing first, I dug up my copy of Heroes of Horror, a 3.5 sourcebook for exactly these things. It's a wonderful tool for setting a tone and coming up with ways to challenge your players while maintaining suspense. I've actually used it in my regular campaigns it's so chock full of player killin' goodness.

    I'm not sure how I'm going to run it mechanically speaking. Pathfinder/3.5 has an absolute wealth of options and material specifically designed for this, but it is an pain to run. I'm toying around with the idea of 4E, but that doesn't sit right either. It's too combat oriented for a good suspense, intrigue-driven story. My prior gaming group tried several times in this regard, and it never really seemed to stick. So where does that leave me?

    Dunno. I think I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and run it in 3.5.

    Sigh. I hate the encounter system so much. Adjusting monsters for different encounters can be tricky, particularly with the rules for combat being moderately complicated. That said though, the level of customization is staggering for characters, and I think that's the reason players keep coming back to it as a system. Even more so than any other edition of Dungeons & Dragons, 3.5 is just where so many hearts reside.

    I just hate making those encounters. Maybe Pathfinder has a more streamlined way of doing things. We'll see.