Friday, December 22, 2017

The Last Jedi: Lies and Heroism


Image result for the last jedi

Perhaps you've heard, a new Star Wars movie was released last week. I had a lot of different thoughts on it, so I figured I would share them with you, whoever you are.

I liked the movie overall. I accept that it had some flaws, but most/many of them I can justify and understand. The only thing that I can't really justify is the amount of attempted humor throughout the movie. I didn't think it was anywhere near as excessive as Thor: Ragnarok, but I also think it feels a bit more out of place when it does show up. I didn't really have a problem with it, since I felt like they placed it in okay places, but I know people who really did.

It's impossible to share the rest of my thoughts without spoilers, so consider this your SPOILER WARNING

If you do not want to see spoilers for The Last Jedi (and potentially other Star Wars movies), read no further. Bookmark or save this page, and come back when you have seen the movie. Seriously. I am going to spoil almost every major point or twist.

Thursday, December 7, 2017

The Wrong Wolf

Image Copyright Disney 2015
I recently re-watched the movie Tomorrowland. Released in 2015, Disney's Tomorrowland is a very thematic movie that has a good message and, like most science fiction movies that aren't already a part of a major franchise, it was not a financial success.


I don't blame this entirely on the movie being science fiction. I liked it a lot, but I also accept that it's not a great movie. And while I like the theme and the message it's trying to send, I think it raises a very valid problem while its solution is somewhere in between too general and too implausible to be useful.


But that's only sort of tangential to the point. In the movie, the characters reference a "story" about two wolves. In real life, it's actually an old Cherokee Legend.


Friday, December 1, 2017

Place Clever Title Here

Hi.


A lot has happened since last time we talked.


I can remember telling you that I wasn't dead, nor was I dying, and now I've vanished for like two months. It's not very honest of me. Hopefully I'll do better, but I'm not sure what I can promise. It's often hard for me to know what to give.


The Toybox Closes

Last night, the Toybox closed for good. The campaign ended. The Toybox crew had found a portal to the realm from which Vinka had been assembling her universe-altering efforts. They were accompanied by knights riding Xi-Drakes, Aeon Priests, WRENCHes, and reality-bending flying entities from another planet.


As they traveled Vinka's realm, each ally was necessary against a particular challenge. The Xi-Drakes took on some flying monsters that acted in Vinka's defense. The Aeon Priests battled members of the Convergence and kept their esoteries from taking effect. The WRENCHes worked on a mechanical machine that was producing numerous automaton warriors. The aviators used their powers to hold back the Iron Wind itself.

Monday, September 25, 2017

Volos: An Offer of Help

I was talking to Gilthk the diruk when the woman known as Cherub approached me. “Iadace Volos, you’re getting the diruk to help in studying the Trilling Shard or maybe to help defend against the margr? I can help you out, no worries, you’ve got nothing to worry about us Ring of Deva at all. I’ve heard you’re the reserved type so I’ll just get to the point: We were ran out of our own village because an artifact we found mutated us. Since then we took some jobs to earn some shins and shelter while disguising our mutations with a special device I made. Unfortunately it broke at some point so we had to make use of disguise kits but here in Ellomyr, we don’t have to hide as much since there’s plenty of people here helping out who just don’t happen to conform to the human from. I see you have a hard time trusting people but right now, there are margr coming to kill us all. There’s nothing complicated about that at all and I’m pretty sure everyone’s too busy thinking of ways to save each other from the margr than they do on hurting each other. Can’t you see everyone trying to find a way to save Ellomyr, how my sister is asking Rihanur to better use the device against the margr? There’s still plenty of time so I can actually help you with anything you need, so long as it involves helping people and not hurting them.” Cherub smiled sweetly as she waited for a reply.


"Of course," I answered to Cherub's offer of help. It wasn't my shard or even my city, after all. "Like Rihanur, I also am trying to look at the Shard to see if it can be used against the margr. I think that this is one of many ways of trying to defend the city. I think there are plenty of other secrets within the area-who knows what among them might be able to be turned against the invading abhumans? I hope that some of this can be worked out." To the end of me solving my puzzles, I thought to myself. "It seems that you have skilled nanos with you. It makes sense to pool our efforts, to share what we can figure out and to utilize our command over the nanotech as a unified force. I am happy to have your help, and to offer my own."


Previous Entry: Helping Hands


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/montecookgames/numenera-2-discovery-and-destiny/comments

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Volos: Helping Hands

It appears that I wasn't the only one who wanted to see if there were defensive capabilities of the Trilling Shard.

Rihanur, an extraterrestrial who wears some sort of mechanical armor, has already begun work on this same effort. I have offered to work with him in his efforts, hoping that we might pool together our power and knowledge. My knowledge extends to planes parallel to our own, but he may have knowledge of other planets and places far away within our own dimension. Rihanur has already attempted to climb the Shard, and is working on mechanical devices by which to access its inner power. This could prove valuable.

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Volos: Better Defenses

The townspeople have begun to build up walls and ditches to defend themselves against the abhuman threat. I, personally, believed that there had to be something more productive than a wall or ditch that could be found.

To this end, I found myself once again in the town square, staring at the trilling shard. There were many stories in which it's vibrations had sent out shockwaves-destroying those it deemed as enemies; generally the monsters or clear villains of the story. And yet, no one knew how to make it work.

There is no such thing as magic, there are only machines. The Convergence had been very clear on that point. The shard was not a magical floating stone, it was a long ago discarded machine. Perhaps it didn't even have stone around the outside to begin with. Regardless, every machine had to have its function. If the stories were true, if the shard could be directed against foes, how could I activate it? What were the conditions necessary to cause the function to run-and run in a way that would specifically target the abhumans and not the townspeople nor the structures of the town itself-limited though they were.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Volos: Branches

Today the city was gathered in fear. A local glaive named Nieten, along with a group of newcomers to the town, reported swarms of abhumans gathering on the outskirts of town.

The beasts Nieten described were margr. Simple brutes, easily put down by anyone with training. Except that most of the villagers don't have training. I'm not much of a fighter myself.

If Ellomyr is to be wiped off the map by abhumans, can I find the answers I seek and get out before the destruction occurs? Or, perhaps, it would be easier to find what I'm searching for without so many people in the way...

I shook my head. These aren't my thoughts. These are the thoughts of the former Convergence member that I once was.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Volos: Meeting the Storyteller

The Trilling Stone: The large rock at the center of Ellomyr that would sometimes let out a loud vibrating sound.

Upon arrival in Ellomyr, it was the first place that I decided to look in my search. It would be the most obvious place-a thing that had been looked at by many others before me. Nonetheless, it was the best starting point that I had.

I looked at the floating stone carefully. I tried to analyze if I could determine the source of its floating energy-or if I could sense anything about it's sound. It did not sing while I stood in observation, but I hope that in my stay in Ellomyr it might do so at a time that I can observe. I want to know if the sound originates in another dimension-someplace that I can get to that most others can't. After all, movement between worlds is my specialty.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Volos: Introduction (an Exiled Nano who Steps Into the Outside)

Iadace, stranger.

In my journey to Ellomyr, I met a man named Aravind. He could tell that I was running, and he asked if I was running towards something or away from something. The answer, of course, is both.

I am running from many different things. In my old life, I had ties to some disreputable folks-namely the Convergence. I'm not proud of it. But I tried to turn over a new leaf...when the people of the town I was staying in found out my past and set the constables on me. So, I'm a bit hunted by the lawmen of Draolis, and a lot hunted by former Convergence members.

On the way out of service to the Convergence, I borrowed some of their books-among them an ancient record that they were still working to decipher. I deciphered it-well, some of it, and it has led me here, to Ellomyr. From the looks of it, I am not the only one looking to uncover the secrets that await here. So I have to run if I want to find them first.

Friday, August 25, 2017

I am not dead, Nor am I dying

Rather than spending a lot of time talking about health problems, being temporarily displaced from my house for several months, computer problems, depression, it pouring when it rains, or anything else, I'm just going to say it simply: I am not dead, nor am I dying.


With that, I'm going to jump right back into this update.


Thursday, June 29, 2017

Announcement: Sufficiently Advanced Dragons

This will not be the real final cover.

Sufficiently Advanced Dragons

In talking to people, I decided that the idea I liked the most of the ones I'd proposed in my last update was the "Sufficiently Advanced Magic" one. So, I'm starting work on the book which I am tentatively titling "Sufficiently Advanced Dragons."

I'll be attempting to jumpstart a lot of it through Camp NaNoWriMo. You can follow the effort here: http://campnanowrimo.org/campers/goal-entertainment/projects/sufficiently-advanced-dragons

That said, I've never been very successful at Camp NaNoWriMo, and I am not sure how much time I'll be able to focus on novel writing.


Friday, June 16, 2017

Dragons...in SPACE!?

Credit to Lori Howe
I've been talking lately with fellow writer and publishing partner (I'm not really sure if that's the proper term.), Kit Bradley, about preawareness and some thoughts on what I'd like to write next. (Don't worry, I'm not abandoning Heroism and Other Lies, although there will be at least a gap after the end of season 1.)

Preawareness

Property of 20th Century Fox
If you check out Kit's blog, preawareness is a topic that comes up there a fair bit. The simple idea is that people are more likely to buy a product if there is something about it that they are familiar with-particularly if that thing is a prominent element of the thing that people are buying.

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Maps and Minis


I read a lot of webcomics. One of them is called "Up to 4 Players" and is about a group of tabletop gamers. Their current series focuses on a campaign playing Savage Worlds.

With today's post, their blog entry that accompanied the comic talked about tabletop maps and use of minis. It's an issue that I've considered for a while, with differing thoughts on it. Here's the part that stood out to me:

"The group is using an erasable play mat (I personally use this one, from Paizo), with some meeple-like things to indicate who’s who. That’s not very high-tech, but that’s intentional – I find that if I use maps of specific settings or miniatures of specific creatures, the players’ imagination is fixed on these forms and go back to them even if I say “this orc-like mini represents the one-armed bandit”. If there’s no mini, but just a red token, their brains know it’s a representation of something, not an example of it, and so they can imagine whatever it needs to be."

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Episode 109: The Champions Eight


The Toybox crew come out of the shadowpaths and explore a mysterious facility. In doing so, they find an extremely powerful entity built by the ancients. Is it a force for good, or a threat?

What follows is an account of the events during a session of my Toybox Campaign. This summary is written out in a prose format which may, for the sake of telling a story to a wider audience, take liberties with the events.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

When a Break is Not a Break and Other Madness

A Few Announcements

E-Mail List

Now, if you sign up for my e-mail list, you can get a free download of Heroism and Other Lies Episode 101: Pilot! If you've been waiting to start the Heroism and Lies series, this is the perfect opportunity to jump on board.

Link: http://eepurl.com/cKrLjf

If you sign up for my e-mail list, I'm not going to bombard you with a bunch of spam or talk a lot about random things. That's what this blog is for. The list is mostly for book announcements so that I can keep people informed of new releases.

Heroism and Other Lies: Episode 103: Monster of the Week

The third episode of the Heroism and Lies series is going to be released in ebook form on Friday (26 May 2017). It's already available in physical print. This is one of the most action-packed episodes so far!

Ebook: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/722906

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072HTMR23

Physical: https://www.createspace.com/7152394

Now On To What I Was Going To Talk About

*Sits down*

Hi. Hello. How are you?

So, I'm on a break, as it were. Not from work or from life, but from running Toybox. We had a session last week, so there will still be another recap coming soon-hopefully. But we have two sessions off, so there will be a bit of a gap before the next one after that.

I have a lot of things I want to do with the break in the time that I would otherwise be planning for Toybox. I'll talk about them in no particular order.

Toybox

"Wait, didn't you just say that you were using time you would otherwise be planning for Toybox?" Yes, I guess I did say that. Still, I want to get ahead on plans. I've got some good general ideas of where I want to send the group for the next several things, but I need to actually get down in the weeds and figure out maps and enemies and other stuff.

One Shot

I didn't say I was taking a break from GMing altogether. I am still going to do a one shot for people with alternative work schedules sometime over the break. I've got it mostly planned already, so that won't really be cutting too much into my planning time. I'll probably post more about it here afterwards, but I'm not sure if I'll post my pre-notes, a recap, or just a general thought response.

Blog Update

The links and such on the blog have fallen somewhat into disrepair. I need to update *most* of the Toybox pages, the links on a lot of the recap episodes, as well as everything on my "Now Available" page.

Heroism and Other Lies: Mini-sodes

I am wanting to write some short stories for Heroism and Other Lies. More on this later.

GenCon Adventures

At present, I'm planning on running a Cypher System adventure and a SCRAM adventure at GenCon. I want to work on putting these adventures together before I get too focused on other things.

Other Things

Here are some things that I generally want to work on, but that I'm not necessarily as concerned about getting done over the break.

New Novel

I have an idea for a novel that I'm wanting to work on, but I've been having some trouble in planning it. Without giving away too much at this point, the novel has two parallel parts that are developed simultaneously. I am having trouble planning and figuring out logistics for one of these parts. However, it's not the part I was expecting.

Cypher System

I've got a lot of different ideas of things I'd like to do with Cypher System.

Scooby Doo Adventure
I don't know why, but one night I was kept up thinking about making the Scooby Doo characters in Cypher System. I sort of like the idea of trying to put together an adventure that sort of parodies a Scooby Doo style thing with investigating monsters that may or may not be real. Probably something with a bit more battles than a normal Scooby Doo episode though.

Fae Guardians Adventures
I've been thinking of a setting that's not quite a fae-based thing, but definitely inspired by fae style things. Something that feels partly like the Trollhunters tv show (which, if you like animated kids adventure shows, I'd recommend watching it on Netflix.) My "guardians" adventures, if I get around to making them, would be short self-contained "episodes" designed to be run with little or no prep on the part of the GM. (Using a format inspired by the Instant Adventures that MCG has come out with for Numenera or The Strange.)

Fae Campaign Path
I would like to do a longer set of adventures-a whole campaign path, taking players from 1st tier (or lower) all the way up to 6th. The idea I have presently would be something set in the same setting as the above adventures, but with a deeper and more developed plotline.

I also have a lot of space-based ideas, but they aren't taking my focus very much.

The Problem

Mostly, it's that without deadlines, I have a really hard time focusing and getting stuff done. So, I really need to give myself near deadlines to get myself to focus, but I don't have any way of enforcing anything like that. So...yeah...

And it's weird, because I feel so much better when I'm actually working on and producing creative stuff. I definitely feel my best when I'm GMing stuff, when I can bring people into my world. Writing isn't quite the same, but it's still better than the alternative. So why is it so hard to push myself to do it?

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Episode 108: "We really should have asked more about this before we went in here."

TM and © 2017 Monte Cook Games, LLC.


The crew of the Toybox take mysterious shadow paths and experience interesting scenes. Are they memories of the crews' past? Are they dreams? Are they something else altogether?

What follows is an account of the events during a session of my Toybox Campaign. This summary is written out in a prose format which may, for the sake of telling a story to a wider audience, take liberties with the events.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

The Hero's Journey and the Far Realm and/or Review: Kubo and the Two Strings

I've been having a lot of thoughts lately, but I've been having trouble figuring out how to put them down in blog-format. I'm going to try with this one, but forgive me if it comes out in a jumbled mess.

The thing I want to talk about is the Hero's Journey and the Far Realm. In doing this, I'm going to mention the movie Kubo and the Two Strings, the book The Magician King, possibly a bible story, and possibly other things I haven't thought of yet.

I want to talk about/review Kubo and the Two Strings beyond talking about the subject topic, so, rather than starting by talking about the subject topic and then sidetracking to talk about Kubo and the Two Strings, I figure I'll start by reviewing Kubo and then get to talking about the Hero's Journey, etc.

Or I'll just have really wordy intros explaining what I'm doing.

Review: Kubo and the Two Strings

I had missed Kubo and the Two Strings when it went into theaters. I didn't know much about it, but I'd heard that it was really good from people whose opinions I generally trust. A few weeks ago, I found that it had been added to Netflix and was excited to watch it. I was not disappointed.

Friday, April 28, 2017

Episode 107: "Welcome Home"

Image by Scott Purdy http://scottpurdy.deviantart.com/
The team of the Toybox discover more about Alal's past and take a visit to the Cave of Shadows.

What follows is an account of the events during a session of my Toybox Campaign. This summary is written out in a prose format which may, for the sake of telling a story to a wider audience, take liberties with the events.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Value of Fiction: Imagination

I was reminded recently that I haven't posted again in my "Value of Fiction" series. I haven't forgotten about the series, I've just had other stuff to post when I've been posting.


But I figured now was a good time to get back to it.


In case you missed the first post, you can check it out here: Value of Fiction: Entertainment


To talk about the series, it started based on the idea that I often feel like my creative pursuits don't have value. Because of this, I decided to think about different ways in which they are valuable.


Today, I'll be looking at the value of Imagination.

When you experience a story, be it through reading or through playing a tabletop game,

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Episode 106: "Morals and Time Continuum Should not have to Cross"

The team of the Toybox venture into the mysterious Morio tower to finally meet the enigmatic Mr. F. However, when no one greats them at their arrival, they find that all may not be as it seems. Their quest will bring them answers and knowledge of a past that brought them here, and a future that has already occurred...

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Gamemastering Update




With the release of the first Heroism and Other Lies Book, Episode 101: Pilot, I've been posting more about the author side of things lately. However, I've had a lot going on in the Gamemaster side of things, so I wanted to share some of what I've been doing.

Toybox Campaign

If you've been reading the Toybox episodes, then

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Episode 105: "I wish I had a Real Name"


By Michael Walsh
http://michaelwalsh.deviantart.com
Pressing through the wilds, the team of the Toybox heads towards Morio Tower to meet with the enigmatic Mr. F. However, in their path, they are attacked by a tremendous monster, the likes of which they had not imagined.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Guest Post: Kit Bradley on Book Promotion

As an indie writer (author of  Mere Anarchy: Lord Goblin's First Joint, editor and contributor (along with Douglas Miller) of  Night War: The Dark Side of Dayton and indie publisher at  Sword & Lion Publishing, I've been looking into the best way to promote my work and my collaborations.  I find promoting my works to be an intensely personal experience.  Like most writers, I love my writing with an unreasonable passion.  I put myself into it, and when my work is rejected, I feel it personally.  So how to promote my book and myself is full of drama!  It touches me deeply.  I think this is common with all writers.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Publication Day: Heroism and Other Lies Episode 101: Pilot

Heroism and Other Lies Episode 101 is NOW AVAILABLE!

Get it in ebook or print!



Thus begins the story of Joseph Bloodworth, a former hero who thought he could live the quiet life. When he's contacted by a hacker and a corporation, he wants nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, lives are at stake.

Maria is a pilot who hasn't gotten to be in the air for years due to replacement by automation. Now that she's offered the chance, she's excited to take it, even if the job is a bit suspicious.

Neither of them expects a super powered madman to get into their way. Not to mention mutants, robots, and the corp that hired Maria in the first place.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Episode 104: "Because the World's Going to End. Clever."


Continuing their adventure, the team of the Toybox travels through the forest towards Furtarntia. In their journey, they face a fierce and giant monster. In town, they try to learn more about their situation as well as to warn the people of the impending attack by the League of Chimera.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Exciting News: Heroism and Other Lies and Night War

Heroism and Other Lies: Episode 101: Pilot

Beware the Ides of March!

The first episode of "Heroism and Other Lies" is all set to go. It is going to be released on the ides of March, that is, March 15th. The Ebook version is available for preorder from Smashwords for just $0.99!

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/708839

(Let me know if for some reason the link doesn't work.)

A print version will also be made available on the 15th.

"Episode 101: Pilot" is the first novella in the Heroism and Other Lies series. This short book tells of Joseph Bloodworth, a retired hero who just wants to be left alone, and Maria Daalmans, a former pilot who now works for a powerful corporation. Both of them get caught up in the schemes of corporations, a hacker, and a superpowered madman. Their lives, and the world itself, will never be the same.

The story is set in a cyberpunk-esque universe with a superhero comic book feel to the pace and action.

I have the rest of the first season written in rough draft form, and I hope that you'll give the first book a try.

Night War: The Dark Side of Dayton

I
wrote a short story for an anthology that has been published in ebook form.


My short story is called One Night Only and it's about a magician, a ghost (or a couple ghosts), and a theater. 

The anthology as a whole focuses on fantasy/supernatural stories that take place in or around Dayton, Ohio. You'll find stories about monsters, secret military experiments done in Hanger 18, and many more things that go bump in the night.

Monday, March 6, 2017

Toybox Episode 103: "We're not having a conversation in the middle of a fight!"

I will have important news on Heroism and Other Lies coming later today or tomorrow. Be sure to check back for it!

TM and © 2017 Monte Cook Games, LLC.
The Toybox Crew continues deeper into the ruins where they encounter a gang of abhumans hiding out within.

What follows is an account of the events during a session of my Toybox Campaign. This summary is written out in a prose format which may, for the sake of telling a story to a wider audience, take liberties with the events.

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Teamwork and "My Guy"ism

"Brave Team" by DiegooCunha
For more by this artist, see:
http://diegoocunha.deviantart.com/
My writer friend Kit Bradley was the one who first drew my attention to what he called "my guy" ism. This was a tendency that some players have to say "well, my guy would do this/wouldn't do this/would act this way" in justification of roleplaying decisions that may be harmful to the enjoyment of the group as a whole.

This is, to some degree, one of those "do as I say and not as I do" sort of posts. I know I have a bad tendency towards this as a player, and it's something I try to work on in the times when I get to play anymore.

Not to be Confused with...

Before I go into this, I am not saying that roleplaying your character is bad. I'm very pro roleplaying. I'm even pro roleplaying characters who are selfish or deceptive or unintelligent or otherwise not 100% helpful to the interests of the player character group. I wrote a post recently even providing advice to players on how to roleplay effectively.

This is about when roleplaying goes too far and makes the game less enjoyable for other players. Sometimes, that's a hard line to distinguish. It's even harder given that some groups may be more in favor of certain things than others and that some games/campaigns have different norms. (For instance, if you're playing Paranoia, you can probably throw out pretty much everything in this post.)

A Dirge for Malego

When I was fairly new to the hobby, and younger and less mature than I am now, I created a character named Malego. Malego was a tiefling (read as: mostly human, part demon, for those who are unfamiliar) rogue. He was super depressed most of the time, and tended to not really like working with the team.

One of the first fights that he got into with the team, he ran off on his own rather than sticking or working with the team, and it led to his being captured and eventually killed.

I played three different characters in that campaign. I remember, in talking to one of my friends in that group, being surprised when they had said they hated Malego/hated when I was playing Malego. I was surprised since I really liked him. I thought he had a lot of personality and life to him. As it turns out, he really got on other people's nerves and they weren't all that sad about his short tenure with the group.

I remember when he died, the GM saying that it was an example of a character that was roleplayed well, but that didn't really fit with the group. I didn't really understand what he meant at the time.

Tabletop Games are a Group Activity

Different people might enjoy different things about tabletop RPGs. Some might like the mechanics and game aspect to it. Some might like getting to act and play a character unlike themselves. Some might like exploring a fantastic world. Some might like enjoying a group story. Some might even just be there as a social activity. Some might like exploring different philosophical ideas behind the guise of fiction in order to make themselves and others better. Most people play tabletop RPGs for some combination of these reasons and a few others. But, whatever the reason(s), people play because they get some form of enjoyment.

The way tabletop roleplaying games are set up, generally, is that you have a game master, and then you have players working together as a team. In the game, they work together to achieve objectives.

In real life, you have a group of people in a room wanting to enjoy themselves. This is what is actually happening, and to some degree the reality should take precedence over the fiction.

There is no guy. The "my guy" from "my guy would act this way" doesn't exist. The character shouldn't get preference over the real live people who are in the room with you.

When a Player acts their Character in Certain Ways, they can Reduce the Enjoyment of the other Players

There are a couple primary ways that I've seen this happen, and I've been guilty of most of them. It's probably something I still need to be aware of and work on as a player.

By no means is this a complete list:

Acting Without Group Consensus (Before/Without Discussions)

This one is pretty iffy. Sometimes, especially if your team is in a situation where fast thought and action is required, acting on your own without group consensus is necessary and/or good.

However, there are other situations in which progressing or acting on one's own reduces the agency of the rest of the group. When a player acts without group consensus, especially if their actions are such that they could affect the group as a whole, they're saying "I know best, I don't need to consult any of you."

they take away the ability for the rest of the group to have any discussion or decision making. Remember, tabletop RPGs are a group activity. If a player is making all the decisions or causing everything to happen on their own, they're cutting away everyone else's experiences. They're playing as though the game is a one playered game focused on them.

Being a Jerk to Other Player Characters (During Discussions)

A lot of times, the way that this happens is that a player/their character will either be dismissive or insulting of something another player/player character says. They treat the idea as stupid and/or not worth considering. Either the player or their character thinks they no better than their teammate and expresses it as contempt or superiority.

When this happens, a lot of times, players feel that they, rather than their character, have been directly insulted. It raises negative feelings, and more often than not makes that player feel that they can't contribute to group discussion/planning. This can lead to them closing up more and speaking up less in the future. It can also lead to frustrations that make them no longer like playing with that group.

A lot of times, players are already self-conscious. This behavior doesn't help.
Many of the people who Tabletop RPGs appeal to are by their nature introverts. Many of them have social anxieties, and being insulted or disregarded can aggravate these more in what should be a fun activity

Acting Against Group Consensus (After Discussions)

Sometimes, even after the group has made a decision, a player who opposed the decision will go off and do what they wanted to do anyway. This is extremely problematic and can make other players feel that they have been entirely disrespected. It cheapens the process of group discussion and can leave a taint on future group discussions and decisions with other players either giving in because the one player will do what they want anyway, or with them acting bitterly towards that player because of their actions previously. Either way, it has the potential to create a rift between the player/character acting against the group's decision and the other members of the group.

Respectful Group Discussions

In most/all of those examples, the problem comes from players feeling like they don't have agency/like they cannot contribute to the decision making process.

Some people might look at the "acting against group consensus" reasoning and claim that when the group decides against their idea, the group is reducing their agency. I'd claim that there's a difference, mostly that comes from consensus and respect between group members.

Everyone is not going to get their way all the time. However, by being receptive to others ideas, group conversation can explore different ideas and create a welcoming environment for players.

Discussion between group members should encourage everyone to participate and offer any ideas they might have. All ideas that are offered legitimately should be looked at respectfully. Even if there are obvious holes in the ideas, a player shouldn't be made to feel bad for not noticing the hole. The group should work to come to a consensus and move forward together, with people feeling like they've been heard even if their idea wasn't the one that was chosen.

"But I really want to play a selfish/manipulative/jerk character"

Okay, great. These can actually be a lot of fun to play. And they can be fun for your group as well. IF you don't direct your selfish/manipulative/jerk side against your teammates. They're your teammates after all. Stealing from them does you no good. Sharing the spoils of your thievery with them helps lift them and, in turn, you up higher than if you kept it for yourself. Manipulating them does you no good. Manipulating every other NPC to the benefit of the group is a good show of cleverness. Being a jerk to your teammates just makes them less likely to help you. Being a jerk to other people...well...it probably won't cause much good either, but it might cause entertaining results rather than making your friends mad at you.

In the end...

I know I said it already, but I want to reiterate.

I'm very pro realism in roleplaying games. However, I draw the line at making the experience worse for your group-mates.

Your character is not real. Your friends who are playing the game with you are. They should get priority.

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Toybox Episode 102: "I'm not a wrench, I'm a W.R.E.N.C.H.!"

TM and © 2017 Monte Cook Games, LLC.

The Toybox crew explores ancient ruins and discovers some of the dangers that can be found within the world of Vendernovem.

What follows is an account of the events during a session of my Toybox Campaign. This summary is written out in a prose format which may, for the sake of telling a story to a wider audience, take liberties with the events.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Value of Fiction: Entertainment

One of the things that I come back to and question from time to time is if my creative endeavors have meaning or value beyond just something for me to do. (Yes, RPG stuff is also something for me to do with friends, but I could spend that time with friends doing something else just as easily-significantly moreso really.)

In thinking about that, I think about ways that I could make my creative endeavors more valuable and how to have them provide a more fulfilling experience for my audience.

To this end, I intend to write a few posts over time on ways in which fiction can be valuable.

I had started a post about how fiction can be used to inspire empathy, but it ended up fairly rambely/contradictory/complicated. I still intend to finish that post, but I'll start my Value of Fiction posts off with something more straightforward: Entertainment.
I don't think people can argue with the idea that fiction can provide entertainment. So, rather than trying to talk about how fiction is entertaining, I'm going to talk in defense of fiction providing entertainment.
I think that there's a tendency for people, even myself, to look down on others or themselves for spending time doing things just for the sake of entertainment. It's sometimes seen as a "waste of time." I think that this can be true, but that taken in moderation, entertainment can hold great value.

Risk: Entertainment is a Drug

Before I get into why entertainment is good, I'm going to comment on it's danger. Entertainment is great for being able to escape the troubles of the world, to rest, to feel better. However, there is the possibility that entertainment can become too enticing. It can become an addiction that someone can't go without. It can become a crutch which is used to avoid real responsibility.
Balance is very important.

Entertainment for Rest

Life is stressful.

In talking to people throughout my life, I believe this is almost universally true. Especially in our current culture, there is a drive to fill every moment and constantly be moving. This could be productive things, it could be spending time with friends and family, it could be work, it could be studies, it could be volunteering, it could be a hobby, it could be any number of things, but it comes down to: we fill our time.

It is nice to take a breath. It is nice to relax. For me, and I believe for many others, entertainment can allow for this.

Stress has serious consequences. It makes it so that we are less efficient and less able to handle all those other things we fill our time with. It disrupts us emotionally and mentally, making everything more difficult and therefore, cyclically more stressful. In addition to this, it's been shown to have lasting long term health consequences.

Finding rest helps us to release some of that stress and better cope with the responsibilities that we have upon us.

Of course, there are other ways of doing this as well. Exercise is a valid option. And it will probably continue to be for a lot of my other reasons for entertainment. I mean, for some people, exercise is entertainment. So, maybe you'll have to wait for more "Value of Fiction" posts for more differentiation between fiction and exercise.

Entertainment for Escape

This isn't all that different from rest, but perhaps with a different form of relief. In addition to life being stressful because of our own obligations, life can just be depressing sometimes. There's so much suffering and bad in the world, be it in our own lives or the lives of others, and it's hard to deal with. A lot of times, things feel hopeless, and the world seems like a bad place to be.

Entertainment allows us to step away from all of that for a time. And that is worth something.

HOWEVER, one has to keep in mind to not escape too much and to lose touch with the real world.

Entertainment for Happiness

There's something joyful about a good story. Maybe it's a comedy that makes you laugh. Maybe you feel happy about the main characters' accomplishments. Either way, the best stories are the ones that can really reach down and help us to not just feel safe and separate from the dark and depressing elements of our lives, but actively happy. This is something great, and something that might be one of the greatest goods fiction can provide.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Toybox Episode 101: "What is with all the dead bodies?"


Six strangers awaken in a strange location with no memory of who they are or how they got there. Can they unravel the mysteries of this odd location?

What follows is an account of the events during a session of my Toybox Campaign. This summary is written out in a prose format which may, for the sake of telling a story to a wider audience, take

Friday, February 3, 2017

Roleplaying Tips for Players



I think that something I take for granted, as a Game Master, possibly something we all take for granted, is the idea that those playing tabletop roleplaying games know how to roleplay. Frankly, this just isn't true for everyone who will be playing with us. Sometimes, it isn't even true of ourselves.


I remember when I started in the first campaign that I would play in for an extended period of time. Most GM's don't really talk about roleplaying with their players in advance. Mine was no different, even though none of us had really played anything before. It's a tactic that I, too, have adopted in running my own campaigns most of the time. I think it's because we, as GMs, don't really think about the fact that roleplaying isn't inherently intuitive. I know that as a roleplayer without guidance, I developed a lot of bad habits that I wasn't even aware were wrong until a few years later when I was told by the GM and one other player-after I'd already been doing these things time and time again.


I know that I've also had players who do things that are problematic, not out of maliciousness, but just without knowing to do anything better.


The point is that things aren't necessarily straightforward. Therefore, I decided to try to put together the best advice I could come up with based on what I've seen go right and what I've seen go wrong in games I've run and played in.


The following advice is things to do as well as things not to do. It isn't just about improving your roleplaying ability, but it is also about improving your ability to roleplay together with a group and enjoy a story that is fun for everyone.


None of these rules are absolute. If you're playing Paranoia, you can probably ignore most/all of them.


1. Know Your Character

Almost everything that follows comes from this core point. Know who your character is. Know how they think. What's important to them? What motivates them? What are they afraid of? Each of us are a made of a sum of beliefs, motivations, fears, personality quirks, etc. Know what those are for your character, and it will help you play them.


Think about how their personality relates to the abilities they have. If they know a lot about history, what is it about history that interests them? If they have a lot of sneaky backstab abilities, what does that imply about them? Your characters mechanics are a part of who your character is. The things your character chooses to learn or excel at are things that relate to who they are as a person.


A lot of time, knowledge of your character will develop as a game develops. The more your character faces, the better idea you'll have of who they are, what they want, and how they react to things.


2. Always ask Why

This second rule is probably the most important strategy to developing good roleplaying skills.


Most things you do in real life, you just do without thinking about it. However, if someone asks you why you did that thing, usually you can come up with some answer. It should be the same for your character. The things your character does and says should be things your character has a reason to do. As you get to know your character, before taking actions or talking in character, quickly ask yourself "why is my character doing/saying this?" If you can't answer that question, then it might be best to do something different.


The longer you play as a particular character, the better you'll understand how that character thinks, what motivates them, and how they act. Your asking why will be less deliberate as assuming the role of the character becomes more natural for you.


3. Don't Act on Information Your Character Doesn't Have

One of the hardest things in the world for players, including myself, is to not use meta knowledge. There is a tendency to see the game as...well...a game. Something that we're trying to win. We want our characters to be victorious, and often we favor using meta knowledge even if that isn't something our characters would know. Depending on how the game is focused, this may be okay. However, it isn't good roleplaying.


If you know something about a creature or situation because of some prior experience, it's bad roleplaying to have your character act based on that experience. It isn't necessarily experience your character has. Unless you've worked out with the GM a situation where you've faced that sort of creature or situation in your character's backstory, then your character should be forced to depend on knowledge rolls or trial and error to figure it out (no, you shouldn't just happen to try the right thing first. Think about what your character would *actually* try if they didn't know what you know.)


Likewise, if another player character learns something via a knowledge check or a side encounter, your character should not be motivated to act based on this knowledge unless that player's character shares that information with yours.


When you ask "why is my character doing/saying this?" if your answer is "because I know X" or even "because of X" where X is something your character doesn't know, then you should probably do something else.


3m. Don't Talk About Information You Know but Shouldn't

Here's one that I'm bad at. If you know about a particular enemy or situation that your character doesn't know about, especially if other players don't know about that thing, don't mention your knowledge. If you tell them about the enemy or situation, you ruin their ability to learn for themselves, and you make them more inclined to roleplay badly. If you talk about knowing something but don't say what it is, then you risk irritating your friends, and you also break some of the realism of the game.


Generally, making a meta recommendation to a player whose character has a knowledge skill that might help them discover information about the enemy or situation is alright, but it may depend on your group and how that suggestion is made.


4. Develop Quirks, Mannerisms, or a "Thing"

It's easier to play your character if there is something unique and recurring about them. This might be a quirk, an accent, something in the manner they speak or walk, or maybe a hobby or obsession. Either way, it should be something that comes up relatively often and which you and your fellow players come to associate with your character. That way, there's a uniqueness to your character which can make them fun to play.


If you're having trouble with this, here are some questions to help you brainstorm:
  • Is there anything unique about how my character talks (accent, word choice, etc)?
  • Does my character have any physical mannerisms/ticks? (Bonus points if this is something you can actually physically do while seated at the table, as that will help to maintain the realism and sustain the imagination of the rest of the group.)
  • Is there any odd object that my character carries with him/her and/or collects?
  • Does my character do anything odd in their spare time?


5. Don't Insult Other Players/Player Character/Ideas

It doesn't matter if one of the defining attributes of your character is that they're a jackass, players don't like being put down. If you're roleplaying a jackass, sometimes the players on the receiving end can lose the sense of the line between game and real life, and can feel like you are attacking them personally, rather than your character tearing down their character. So, it may be good roleplaying, but it's bad playing overall. I've had groups where players have left or just felt awful while playing because of tension caused by other players who were just trying to roleplay.


This also goes for ideas proposed by other players. Even if we disagree with a strategy/idea/way of handling a problem or moving forward proposed by another player/player character, it is important that we handle the idea respectfully. If a player feels that you are shutting down their ideas or that you think they are stupid, then it may force them to shut down and be less likely to contribute in the future. This makes the game much less fun to that player, and isn't fair to them. This isn't to say that you should always support everyone's ideas, but if you disagree with them, you should express your disagreements in a friendly, respectful manner, being careful not to attack it or the person offering it.


Roleplaying is a high priority in most groups, but it shouldn't be prioritized above having an environment where people feel safe to share and have a good time.


Likewise, if you choose to roleplay a character who is a jerk, it makes sense for the rest of the group to roleplay people who don't want to hang out with a jerk, and you may lose your place in the group altogether.


6. Don't be a Lone Wolf

I think there's a tendency in some players, myself and some of my regular players included, to play characters who are a bit of a loner. These characters don't like relying on others, and they like going off on their own and doing their own things.


This...isn't the most conducive to a group roleplaying game. Tabletop roleplaying games are generally group activities, so it's important to make a character with that in mind. Even if your group doesn't start as a team together, they are all going to be working together through the duration of your adventure/campaign.


If you're playing a character who likes being on their own/doesn't trust or work well with others/otherwise would resist working with the group, it ends up meaning that either you get left behind-in which case you're no longer playing the game, or that something has to happen to force you to work with them. A lot of times, this is either the other players accepting you into the party despite your actions which would make most people disinterested in your participation, or the GM utilizing some 'hand of God' plot device to keep you all together until you learn to accept them. Both of these are a bit forced, and both of these cause issues with the suspension of disbelief of the group as a whole.


You don't have to play an easygoing extrovert character, but you should play a character who would be inclined to work together with the others in your party.


7. Act and React

Sometimes, games get a bit stagnant. I know that I, as a player, tend to freeze up if I can't think of the "right" thing to do. But, we have to remember that the game may be a game with definable objectives, it may be a story with a linear progression, but it also can be a world (depending on your GM's style) to be explored. Just like in real life, there's not always a "right" thing to do next. Nonetheless, something has got to happen. If your players are just sitting around in safety, it may be up to you to make that happen.


When the game seems stagnant, ask yourself "okay, what would my character do?" See if anything comes to mind. Think about any goals your character has-short or long term. Is there anything you can do to work towards them? Is there anywhere you can go that might provide your character with answers to questions they have? The important thing is to do something. And, when you do, the choices you make bring out more about who your character is and what's important to them.


8. Change and Grow

You aren't the same person you were a year ago. You certainly aren't the same person you were five years ago. The same is true for your character. As they go through different events, they are going to change. How are they affected by getting or failing to get what they want? How do their relationships (friendship, animosity, etc) with other members of the group or other NPCs grow over time? What do they learn from their struggles and adventures? How are they shaped by their victories? How are they shaped by their defeats? Do things that were once important to them become less important? Do other things take the place of that 'important thing?' Does their motivation grow and change with them?


Resources

If you want to read more tips and pieces of advice, check out the following articles.

Geek and Sundry:


Look Robot:


Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Alternate/Nested Realities

There's been a lot of thoughts lately about alternate realities. Recently a new event of the Mandala effect has been discovered with the Shazaam conspiracy. I saw a theory on the internet that noticed the majority of the Mandala effect discoveries that have been found after the Large Hadron Collider started up about eight years ago and that this caused some sort of reality shift. I don't really hold to this theory or that there's much/any reality to the Mandala effect in real life, but it does make an interesting story.

In addition to that, just looking at the news some days lately brings up a dissonance from reality. Certainly, people on opposing sides are seeing and reporting events/facts in ways that are so opposed it is as though they are living in different realities.

Since I'll be talking about alternate and nested realities, I figure it'd be good for me to tell you what I mean. These are not necessarily official definitions. By alternate realities, I mean realities that are similar to our reality/based on our/the main character's reality but with differences that make it stand out. By nested realities, I mean realities that are completely different from ours/that of the main character, but are accessed through our world and/or are found as a connected subset to it. I do not simply mean a world that is different from our world, but rather a reality that is in contrast to another that exists within the realm of the story in question.

So, with this, I give you some examples of alternate realities or nested realities that I find interesting.

1. Timelines

One of the popular ways that alternate realities seems to be messing with time to have different results. This usually leads to an alternate history type reality based upon whatever happened differently to have a different timeline. There are two primary ways that I've seen this done.

a. Multiverse of Choices

The theory is that every choice that anyone makes spawns a new reality where they made a different choice. Of course, these new realities will have ripple effects from that choice and branches based on every choice everyone else makes after that. In an alternate reality based on this, characters will find that someone did something differently. The changes can range from being minor/localized to being globally different depending on what choice or choices were made differently in that world.

A popular alternate history choice here is "What if the Nazi's won WWII?," as can be seen in The Man in the High Castle.

Note that once again, alternate histories, while interesting, are not alternate realities unless they are shown in contrast to a reality where things happened differently.

b. Time Traveling Meddlers

Time travel is a dangerous business. Anything you do has a risk of changing something, and any change and ripple outwards. Any person who died before that lives could have children that go on to be movers and shakers in the world that never existed before. Likewise, if someone dies who lived before, then all their descendants suddenly no longer exist.

Time travelers will often return to their present to find that their actions had incredibly unexpected consequences, leading the world to be very different from the one they left, from one they can no longer go back to.

c. The Past Itself

It's been said that the past is a different country. Even though the past of someone's reality is technically the same reality, the vast differences allow it to function much like an alternate or nested reality.

2. Magical Realms

This would be places line Narnia, Oz, Wonderland, Fillory, etc. These places are incredibly different from our own world. Often times, they are fantastical, with great magic and creatures that don't exist in the world that the main characters came from.

This creates an interesting device for storytellers, as it allows them to establish connection to the main characters and the audience, especially if the main characters are from a world similar to our own, as the main characters and audience will be exploring and learning about the world together. The main characters have no advantage having a lot of information that they take for granted that the audience isn't aware of.

This tactic often uses a degree of symbolism, with different parts of the fantastical world representing ideals, lessons, or things that directly relate to the main character's lives in the real world.

3. Digital Realms

Like magical realms, but with a sci fi twist. The characters find themselves transported into some other place-finding that it is all a simulation inside a computer somewhere. The only limitations are the imagination of whoever programed it. And just because it isn't "real" doesn't mean you can't get hurt or killed.

4. Imagination

The "alternate" world isn't real. It's all inside the imagination of the characters. This is particularly common for stories with children, like Rugrats. However, it could also come up with a story about a group of roleplaying gamers, or other ways. Just because it's imaginary, doesn't mean it's not important to the main characters and to the development of their story arcs overall.

What's your take on alternate realities? Do you like them in stories? Do you think they're overplayed? Can you think of other ways in which alternate or nested realities could be used in stories?

I do have to mention an idea I was discussing with my roleplaying group recently. I call it the reality nesting doll. You start with characters in a world not unlike our own. Then they get sent back in time. While back in time, they find a portal to another world. They get sent forward in time within that world (still probably not the same time they started out in, but still a different world anyway). They come across a computer that sucks them into a simulation where they meet with people who insist on playing a roleplaying game. (These could be done in any order, I just like the effect of continually going deeper into the layers of nested realities, especially if it's done in such a way that you can't just skip back to where you started, but have to go back through all the layers. It's an amusing idea, but I imagine audiences could tire of it pretty quick.)

Sidenote

I am now over 100 sales between my two cypher system adventures. I know that this isn't a lot for how long they've been out, but it still feels like a good milestone and I'm happy about it.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Projects Update

Here's a general update on what I'm working on and what stage it's at presently.

Author


Heroism and Other Lies

I honestly expected Episode 101 to be out by now. However, my editor has been held up due to unforeseen circumstances. I am hoping to have the edits before the end of the month, and then with my edits in hand it shouldn't be long before I can release the final product.

I have Episodes 2-4 written. Two will be sent to editing soon, but I'm still going to work to make some more revisions on 3 and 4 before sending them.

I have begun working on Episode 5.

Short Stories

I am working on two different short stories. The first is for an anthology that is being published in honor of Carrie Fisher. The proceeds of the sales will go to a charity supporting those with bipolar disorder.

Game Master


Toybox

By far my biggest creative focus right now is gearing up for my upcoming Toybox campaign. This campaign utilizes a tabletop game system of my own design and takes place in a setting heavily inspired by/based on Monte Cook Games' Numenera. While the setting is not directly the same as the Ninth World, it does have many of the same creatures and essential elements of it.

I'm hoping to post session summaries up here in story-form as the campaign progresses, but we'll see how that goes.

The first Toybox session will be January 26th-a little more than a week away-and I'm very much looking forward to it.

Looking Glass Moon

My surreal sci-fi setting for Cypher System isn't getting much attention at the moment. I've dropped the ball on this while focusing on other projects. I'm considering dropping this project altogether. However, if I do continue with it, I will probably roll out the setting incrementally, with various smaller books focusing on specific elements or parts of the setting rather than all at once in a huge volume. This way people can pick and choose the parts of Looking Glass Moon that they want to use, while choosing to overlook the rest.

Islands of Peril

I have recently been thinking about the Instant Adventures provided in Monte Cook Games' Weird Discoveries (Numenera) and Strange Revelations (The Strange), and I have to say that I like the format.

My first instinct was that the format of having the ability to pick up and play a session of Numenera (or really any RPG that I enjoy) without any prep seemed like an awesome idea with a lot of potential. Looking at some of the adventures, they seemed to flow nicely and have a format that played in with Node-based design, which I've mentioned in the past as something that makes interesting game sessions.

My second thought, after running one or two of these, was that these adventures are very short in comparison to what I normally think of when I think of running an RPG adventure. Not to mention that the ones I ran seemed pretty "easy" too.

This was disappointing to me, until I really thought about it. The intro to the adventures is pretty clear. They aren't trying to take the place of full RPG adventures. They're trying to fit, instead, into the slot that might be held by board games. To a degree, they're designed to be quicker and simpler. They're designed with the idea that the players may not be familiar with the system in mind.

This intrigued me as a way of introducing people who aren't familiar with tabletop RPGs to the hobby, which is something I think these sorts of adventures would do very well.

In my thinking about these sorts of adventures, I began to consider making one myself (and what that adventure might look like). One turned into more than one, and thus Islands of Peril was born.

Another thing that interested me was that the adventures in Weird Discoveries mention links to other adventures in the book, in a way that one story can lead to others. In this way, if you're playing with the same (or an overlapping) group of players, they can experience some interesting connections between their adventures. The problem that I had with it is that these adventures assume that the PCs never advance. They never gain new abilities (which sort of makes sense for the pick-up-and-play nature of the game.) In fact, in general it seems to me that there are very few cypher system adventures geared towards characters beyond Tier 1.

It is my hope to unveil 8 adventures in the Islands of Peril series which can be played stand-alone or as a linked campaign which takes the characters from Tier 1 all the way to Tier 6.

I have the skeleton of the first adventure completed, and look forward to working on the next seven.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Black Mirror, Individuals, Society, and the Future

I've been watching Black Mirror lately (and by lately, I mean slowly over the course of several months.) I can't comment on how "good" it is, since that's hard to define. I will say that it is very smart and very well put together, but it's also very depressing. Maybe the most genuinely depressing thing I've ever watched (there are things I've watched that make me feel more depressed, but the feeling is just a fleeting emotional impact as opposed to Black Mirror's depression that is something deeper.)

In case you're not aware of the show, each episode of Black Mirror is self contained and takes some form of technology that is already changing how we interact and dials it up to 11 trying to demonstrate the worst thing that could possibly happen. For example, without being too spoiler-y, there is an episode where there is an online popularity/rating system and people rate other people in almost every interaction they have with them. This spills over into not just social interactions, but also for businesses only offering certain discounts or deals to people whose overall rating is of a particular height.

The main characters in these near-future dystopias always experience absolutely horrific events surrounding these technologies and how they've warped social interaction.

The thing that is so terrifying (and depressing) about the show is that every single episode pulls from technology that we're already familiar with. It pulls from interaction trends that we're already familiar with. It is easy to see how we are creating these terrifying futures.


However, I was thinking about it this morning, and something stood out to me:


The main characters experience the bad side of these worlds, but almost everyone else is completely happy with them.


A lot of times, the technology is embraced by a character who is portrayed to the audience as "bad." Maybe not evil, but usually at least a bit of a jerk. It creates this dichotomy in our minds. Even though the main characters aren't necessarily good people, we tend to empathize with them. The jerks embracing the "bad" technologies further restate the evils of these technologies to the minds of the audience.


But what about everyone else? What about the people who created and participate in this world? In general, people are accepting of the *thing*, be it a rating system, or contact lenses that record all their memories.


The point is, the horrific experiences of the protagonists are not the norm in their societies. The protagonists get the worst of it. They are the outliers. This seems like it's either an oversight on the part of the show, or it's an indication that within the rules of the settings, the technologies aren't actually that bad/aren't actually having that negative of an impact on most people's lives.


(Season 1 Episode 2 is sort of an exception to this, but that's also the episode where it seems the most like there are powerful people intentionally utilizing the technology to their advantage/to everyone else's disadvantage as opposed to the other episodes which seem to rely more on the technology gaining power via the people just embracing it on their own.)


Of course, I think that the truth is something simpler, and it doesn't have anything to do with the societies presented in Black Mirror or technology at all. It has to do with how we tell stories.


That is, when we tell stories, we focus on an individual. In Black Mirror, that individual is being used to show us the dark things of their world. We don't tell stories from the standpoint of society as a whole. Apart from not being sure how we would do that, we relate to people, not societies.


I mean, we can't even relate to our own society, how would we be supposed to relate to that of a hypothetical future world?


So, in Black Mirror, the point is driven home not by saying "society is suffering because of this," but rather by saying "this relatable person is suffering because of this." Our minds naturally make the jump to the first conclusion even though it doesn't necessarily hold true for the worlds in which the stories take place.


So, is it still valid to consider the points that the show makes?


Yes, I think so. While the experiences of the protagonists aren't the standard experiences of their societies, I think the warning is that their rate of occurrence might be higher if those same technologies were applied the same way to our society. I.e. if we used those technology, the horrific experiences might be the average experience. Or, at least, they could happen with greater frequency than they seem to in the show.

Of course, some of my question might be: If a significant number of people are/will be having this trouble with these technologies/societal structures, would our society as a whole allow it to get to that point of control? I want to say no, but there are a lot of existing structures that harm a great number of people a good portion of the time, so I could be wrong.

How it concerns me:
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the idea of building a better future is one that is near and dear to my heart. I am very pro-progress and the development of new technologies. My Heroism and Other Lies series tries to look at both the good and the bad sides of it, but it's less optimistic than something else I'd like to write later on.


It seems to me that a lot of futuristic sci fi is very pessimistic. I worry that this creates a society where we are afraid to look forward (instead choosing to fear the future, embracing nothing but nostalgia and present, fleeting, pleasures). I worry that it creates a society where we are afraid of progress. I want the sci fi that shows how cool technological development can be, and how it can and will make our lives better, not worse.


That said, I don't want us to just advance without thinking about the societal impact of things. I don't want us to advance without considering the philosophical and moral implications of what we're developing. I don't want profit-driven businesses to just push out new programs and technologies without considering the ramifications to society. Black Mirror serves a purpose of looking very critically at this angle. I think fiction that tries to prevent the bad futures serves an important role. I just am not sure it's reaching the people who need to hear it, and some of it is pulling down the people who could look upwards with hope.