thread: 2005-05-02 : Person vs. Protagonist
On 2005-05-03, Ghoul wrote:
I have often described the bronze age setting I've been working on lo these many years as having "deniable magic". That is, everyone in the game believes there is magic, but if observed from a sceptical PoV, it could all just be "trade secrets" and "faith-driven self-confidnence" and, in fact, there could be no gods and no magic.
I bounce back and forth between this and a "low but obvious magic" being the better choice, and have debated (mostly with myself) just what changes this decision makes. My inability to make it and stick to it is part of why the project flounders.
Part of this conflict has been my likely players, some of whom are big on the "clean" setting, but some want the broader elements of gods and magic to be real and vital or they aren't interested.
In some ways, I think it's all down to one of the things Joss noticed when creating Buffy the Vampire Slayer... Remember those early episodes where all the supernatural elements were very obvious metaphors for standard teen issues? Girl is ignored by everyone, actually becomes invisible. Evil influences on the internet actually are a demon living there. Girl sleeps with her boyfriend and he actually does become a different person. All these supernatural elements were used as levers to magnify existing drama, not to create new. But RPG players so used to having their drama magnified (or replaced with flash and noise, as it too often is) do seem to have a problem stepping back down to the "tamer" level.
It isn't that the situations aren't just as dramatic, perhaps even more dramatic... It's just that they aren't as immediately obviously dramatic.
And so, my internal debate continues (though this whole thread is serving as a nice boost for the "scale it back" argument).
