[Touch of Noir] Plot and the Relationship Map

[Caesar_X]

[Ron Edwards]

Dammit, you got me all interested in the waitress too!

... But maybe that's a useful signal. Once having made the relationship map ... whom to drop into it? Where does the protagonist come in? Is he or she already there, or as in so much of the source fiction, is he or she the outsider who disrupts the delicate balance of already-unstable parts? Let's work with that latter point.

Given your map, I want to know what happens when the fictional equivalent of that very waitress contacts any single element in it.

So maybe it could be an actual game rule that once the map is made, you look around ... and find the person, plucked from the real world and fictionalized into the setting, who's going to be the catalyst.

I know it's weird and hippy and touchy-feely. But your post sure seems to lead straight to it.

Best, Ron

[Caesar_X]

quote author=Ron Edwards link=topic=21087.msg218519#msg218519 date=1156532461]
Dammit, you got me all interested in the waitress too!

... But maybe that's a useful signal. Once having made the relationship map ... whom to drop into it? Where does the protagonist come in? Is he or she already there, or as in so much of the source fiction, is he or she the outsider who disrupts the delicate balance of already-unstable parts? Let's work with that latter point.

Given your map, I want to know what happens when the fictional equivalent of that very waitress contacts any single element in it.

So maybe it could be an actual game rule that once the map is made, you look around ... and find the person, plucked from the real world and fictionalized into the setting, who's going to be the catalyst.

I know it's weird and hippy and touchy-feely. But your post sure seems to lead straight to it.

Best, Ron
[/quote

Dammit, you got me all interested in the waitress too!

... But maybe that's a useful signal. Once having made the relationship map ... whom to drop into it? Where does the protagonist come in? Is he or she already there, or as in so much of the source fiction, is he or she the outsider who disrupts the delicate balance of already-unstable parts? Let's work with that latter point.

Given your map, I want to know what happens when the fictional equivalent of that very waitress contacts any single element in it.

So maybe it could be an actual game rule that once the map is made, you look around ... and find the person, plucked from the real world and fictionalized into the setting, who's going to be the catalyst.

I know it's weird and hippy and touchy-feely. But your post sure seems to lead straight to it.

Best, Ron

[Ron Edwards]

Hi,

Here's a thought, which may be overly intellectual. If it's not helpful or doesn't resonate for you, then please ignore it, because I do not want to impose my sensibilities onto your game design. However, it might work for you, and if so, might be helpful to see in this form.

The term "noir" is vague and often refers to style (lighting, etc). I'd like to focus instead.on its most common content, which I think is tremendously subversive, especially in print rather than in film (the endings are changed for a reason).

If there is one common feature about the people you describe as wanting things or accumulating guilt, it is that they are not protagonists. They are, in fact, fucked-up, and the themes that roll out of the stories say, to me, over and over, "Don't be like this. Life was not supposed to be like this. Why are we living this way? Why is this shit 'normal'?" The characters do not ask these questions but rather are the bleeding victims of living without asking them.

The protagonist, as I see it in these stories, is the person who understands these questions himself, and is somewhat marginalized because of that, but has not used that insight as an excuse to be a crappy person and do rotten things. He or she is in-between, a character who cannot embrace the 'normal' life because it is fucked-up, but also holds onto morality - which cannot be articulated, but can only be seen or discovered through suffering and decisive action, especially choosing someone to support.

The private detective turned out to be a useful trope for this sort of protagonist, but as you say, it can be anyone. But the key is that this viewpoint or perspective is not found among anyone else in the story. They are fucked-up.

So I confess that playing any such characters as player-characters holds no appeal for me. They have no "protagonist juice" and are dangers to themselves and to others - pure neuroses with legs, whether rich or poor, young or old, male or female, law-abiding or criminal.

I'll be paying close attention to how you are going to address the issue of protagonism as a feature of player participation in the game.

Best, Ron