thread: 2009-12-08 : Your 3 Insights
On 2009-12-14, Joel wrote:
Spectre of the Beast:
1. Subject Matter: To some degree "the subject matter" is a set of art pieces from last year's Game Chef competition by David Bove and Donna K. Fitch. On that level what I'm saying is "huh, these images resonate with me regarding the grim elements of human history, like how dramatically nightmarish it is, seen in a certain light."
Digging deeper: All the broad and polemical myths that people tell about "the sweep of human history," while perhaps simplistic, have value precisely AS myths: formulaic tales that we tell to cope with complex realities.
2. Roleplaying as a Practice: I wanted to encode a vast amount of descriptive weight (up to the whole sweep of the development of civilization across the ages) into a simple and elegant set of rules procedures, while giving players more than just "flip a coin, now make things up." I provide a scaffolding for hanging Color, rather than a whole set of dials and gauges, but a scaffolding with some thematic weight.
3. Human Nature: All the great pinnacles of human history are built on the bones of the conquered and the blood of slaves. It's not easy to buck that trend; the world will keep stabbing at you and you may need to stab back to attain your ambitions. And even if you get what you want, you still may not have the effect you were hoping for.
