thread: 2013-08-16 : Diagram Retrospective -plus- Ask a Frequent Question
On 2013-08-26, Vincent wrote:
Josh W: Great question. Here's what I said about it at the time:
2010-11-08 : What I learned from my horror binge
The idea of the function of horror applies best to horror in play, not in design, so in a lot of ways it's out of my hands. I can't say, like, "the horror in Apocalypse World is an instrument of clarity," because it depends upon you in play. I'm sure that a lot of the time the horror in Apocalypse World is straight-up thrills, or sick glee, or moral disgust, or whatever.
We did have a beautiful moment of horror as an instrument of clarity in the Apocalypse World game Meg ran. A particular horror confronted my hardholder with the falsity of all his assumptions and working principles, revealing to him that the world was not what he understood it to be, that his role in the world was not what he understood it to be, and that if he was to continue to exist he would have to change himself. He was able to do it (by becoming a touchstone).
Oh! Here's an interesting critter. The function of horror in Murderous Ghosts isn't any of these, because the object of Murderous Ghosts isn't a story. I'd have to conduct a whole new binge to try to figure out the functions of horror in non-stories.
