The Situation In Silent Sound

[jburneko]

[Eric Heisserer]

First off, let me echo Jesse's enthusiasm: I am really excited about this game. In the span of creating our first characters I went from curious to committed.

To your question of whether or not the game could support a character who believes he/she is not guilty of the crime, I think it's a tough sell. I'm not saying it can't be worked properly, but I feel you're shifting tone. The characters we generated for the game last night are all motivated to come to Silent Sound by the emotions of fear and guilt. We are all afraid of what we might find there, but we're compelled to that place because there is now suddenly the clear chance that we might be lifted of the guilt that has haunted us in the years since our crimes. The horror of the town and its denizens in the shadow world are rooted not in physically what the monsters are (although they will be horrifying in the superficial level of 'monster') but what those monsters might force us to see-- scenarios presented as consequences of our crimes, at least one of which will exemplify our worst nightmares about what really happened.

With a character who believes they have not committed a crime, the player seems to be denouncing one of the first stats on the character sheet: "CRIME." But even so, this kind of character can't be pulled to Silent Sound with fear and guilt. If, for example, I play a man who pulled the plug on his wife's life support machine, and the crime Silent Sound judges me with is murder, I cannot be coaxed to Silent Sound with idea that I killed my wife. At that early point in the game/story, my character believes otherwise, and in order for Silent Sound to present its case to me I have to agree that I might be wrong. That just seems like a less dramatic starting point than the idea that my character has been haunted by images of his wife waking up in the morgue or horrible false memories of her waking the next day after I chose to keep her plugged in -- that sense of "If only I had done the other thing."

So yeah. Tone. If you start with characters who are haunted, and their fear drives them to Silent Sound, well... Sounds like you have an actual horror game on your hands, versus an action-oriented debate game.

In terms of the monster character stuff... That's a good question. My gut reaction is to keep the monster creation on the GM side for two reasons. One, it allows the GM some real fun during the character creation stage. And two it could be more fun for players to get anxious and worried about what their monster will be instead of knowing what they will see when they venture into the shadow world.

Along those lines, have you thought about collapsing one of your common NPC monsters into a kind of single Pyramid Head-esque villain? A monster who is the personification of the worst fears of each PC, perhaps? That way you have a kind of recurring character in every player character's story, and the players will feel more of a desire to help each other out when up against the monster because if it wins a conflict or something against one PC that means it's stronger against the others... Okay I'm just making up rules now, I know, but did I mention I'm excited to play? And I'm drawn to this idea of a "boss" kind of monster that embodies the worst possible version of what could have happened.

Without having played a single session, just going by the stats on that character sheet and our brainstorming session last night, the game sort of feels to me now like a war of realities. We are fighting to decide the truth and then face those consequences, whatever they may be. Silent Sound may be saying to CK's character: You were neglectful, and because of your neglect your son was abducted and abused for a week before he was murdered and left in a ditch. (Because, Jesus, that would totally break me down as a person.) CK's character will fight to reveal something like: I wasn't being neglectful, I was actively tricked. Or: My son did not obey my order to stay put and he fell off the railing into the river. Or something. It's still bleak but it presents a perspective that allows the father to absolve himself of the guilt and emerge from Silent Sound no longer broken or haunted.

Ah! That's it! That's why I don't like the "I'm not guilty" approach. Because then if my character wins at the end of the campaign, I haven't grown. There's been no arc, no absolution (one of your stats, ahem), no real change. The character is essentially the same leaving as he is going in. And I think it works when you KNOW the character will be changed at the end, and the game is about fighting for what that change will be.

[Christopher Kubasik]

Hi Jesse,

A question:

In your conception of the game, are Judgment and Absolution "objective" states?  Or will Judgment and Absolution thrown at a character be a lot like the Humanity definition in a game of Sorcerer, in that every once in a while there will be pause in the story (but not in play) as everyone at the table does a kind of mini-conference on morality to figure out if something is a matter of Judgment or Absolution.

I bring this up because I suspect that these thing simply cannot be objective, that the game at the table will engender discussion of what a crime is, what guilt is, and what Judgment or Absolution is for a particular character in particular circumstances of the moment. 

To this point I simply add this: Never underestimate the ability of committed players to put the screws to PCs at the table for dramatic purpose.  That is, my guy is sympathetic... and he's sympathetic because we all know the feeling of feeling guilty for something we failed to do.  My guy turned away from his son for five minutes as he raced into a 7-Eleven... he was in a rush.  It was only a minute.  He knew the neighborhood. He'd parked in that lot a gazillion times... and he came back to see his son gone and never saw him again.

And I fully expect Eric and Colin to completely drive the screws into his guilt with whatevertheheck Judgment turns out to be.  Because that will be entertaining. 

Which is why I ask if you're expecting these qualities to be objective. Because, in my view, like Sorcerer's Humanity, they need to be a bit slippery and demand all of us trying to come to grip with these issues.  And slamming characters with this stuff for DRAMATIC purpose is what allows us to explore these issues and grab at them -- though our grasp is often futile and the issues escape us time and time again as we wrestle with them.  So, sympathetic or not, I'm expecting Judgment to come flying at my PC.  Because that makes a better story, and that's how this group of players is wired.


As to this: "With these characters people *directly* related and involved in the original crime are still present and active in the situation."  I'm not sure I agree with that.

When I created the note, I assumed it came from the Shadow version of Silent Sound.  I have NO idea if the actual kidnapper (if there even was one) sent it.  I mean, I see the Shadow version of the town as being this netherrealm of emotional guilt that creates manifestations of moral and emotional forces within the PCs... and may or may not have any bearing on "reality" as a concrete thing.  I'm assuming that will come out in play.  But until then, I'm open.  But the point is, I have no expectation my PC will actually be able to "deal" with the disappearance of his son.  He THINKS he can... but in reality -- I have no idea.  We'll have to play to find out.

Given what you wrote below, I think my PC will get caught up looking for his son -- and during that he'll become involved with the NPCs you described.  Either he'll think that by engaging with their lives he'll get closer to his son, or he'll see them as distractions from his pursuit, but won't be able to help himself (if he sees a father who simply doesn't pay much attention to his own child, or example).


As far as being focused (or uber-focused) I say this not as a defensive move, but simply to be clear: each of those elements simply popped into my head as the most engaging things I could think of. There was no attempt to "unify" any of it.  It simply made sense.  And to step backward and somehow become less focused would have seemed an attempt to be "coy" or something.  (Not that you're suggesting that or suggested that last night.)

I'd offer only this: Don't confuse the focus I've created for my PCs situation as requiring some sort of execution of focus in play.  I'm seeing all of this stuff as very much like Kickers: Here's a thing that sets my character off on a path of action, tied to other elements on the characters sheet, that serves as a thematic issues that will be resolved one way or another through play... but I have NO expectation of how that should be resolved, what elements will be involved in that resolution, nor what sort of story or "plot" or key actions will be involved.

So, my guy can be in Silent Sound and seeing and getting engaged in reflections of his crime... but still be dealing with his crime (even if it's on the level of some sort of ethereal-moral-mystic landscape).   The advantage of the way I frontloaded my guy's answers to your questions is that he's engaged, he's moving forward, I'm not going to be wandering the city looking for some sort of vague reflection to affect his soul.  He'll take actions on purpose, meet and interact with people, and THAT STUFF will affect his soul.

I suspect it will work just fine.

But we'll find out.

I will say this, however.  I think your game is going to surprise you.  I don't think your expecting that.  I think you have an idea how it's "supposed" to work.  I think you will be wrong.  I also think it will be very good.

CK

[jburneko]

So what I'm seeing here is that the game's premise is crystal clear and everyone gets it and I need to just calm the fuck down and play the game.  Which is usually the case with *any* game I play, let alone one I've written myself.

Regarding Judgment and Absolution.  They're basically what happens when you take Sorcerer's Humanity ideas and smash it together with Sorcerer's bonus dice rules.  When you succeed at conflicts in the normal world you earn Judgment.  When you succeed at conflicts in the shadow world you earn Absolution.  You then *spend* Judgment to give bonus dice to affect the outcome of a conflicts involving the *other* players either by giving the die to the player or to the GM.  You spend Absolution to generate bonus dice for you and your own conflicts only.

My thematic reasoning is thus.  By engaging in the lives of the "residents" of Silent Sound, you're dealing with the problems of others no matter how reflective of your own problems they may be.  Therefore, you earn the right to judge others.  By engaging the horrors of the shadow world you're basically confronting your own demons and thus earn the right to absolve yourself.

That's the idea anyway.

We've only gone through character creation and I only have the first few wave of notes for situation creation and the game is already surprising me in pleasant ways.  I suspect there will be more to come.

Jesse