thread: 2007-10-11 : Blood Meridian
On 2007-10-17, Adam Thornton wrote:
I'm not sure.
I mean, if my gaming group played Blood Meridian: the RPG I know the post-game discussion would be something like:
(minor spoilers for the novel here...skip the rest of the post if you don't want 'em)
"Dude, and the time we went into that Mexican town? And killed everyone, and then scalped them, and sold their scalps as Indian scalps? That was cool."
"Yeah, but not as cool as the time we pushed all those mules carrying all that quicksilver off the cliff to see 'em splatter like red and silver water balloons."
"Oh yeah. That was cool. That rocked."
That's the thrill of vicarious psychopathy right there. Maybe other people have thoughtful gaming groups. I have scary vicious little toothy monsters who are the sorts who carry fine steel mesh into the dungeon with them so they can puree their enemies and then sieve their carcasses looking for the treasure they might have swallowed.
I guess the problem is that I don't know how to get my players to engage enough with their characters that they are willing to really seriously consider the question of "how far will you escalate this?" rather than just turn it all the way up to eleven all the damn time, but with a safe emotional distance between themselves and their characters.
The only time this has really worked well at all is when we played "Bacchanalia" and I have not been able to figure out why it worked or how to repeat it.
KPfS worked well for the gross-out factor and the lack of limits imposed (or, uh, discovered), but I'm left wondering how much of that was possible because my players didn't really have a lot invested in their characters.
Maybe fun is a stick we beat each other with, but, hey, I still have to make the six hours we spend playing RPGs on Saturday something that I and my my players would rather be doing that day than going to a movie, or playing Quiddler or Puerto Rico, or drinking and watching the Food Network.
Adam
