Hi, welcome back to Narrative Control. This episode starts with a response to an interview with Kenneth Hite and continues with Fattig and I describing games and stories that scare us, and our attraction to them.
Hosts: Sean Nittner and Eric Fattig
Length: 48:38
Show Notes
[00:27] Intro to the show. Our response to Canon Puncture #57, an interview with Kenneth Hite.
[01:19] A clip from the Canon Puncture show. “What is it about Cthulhu that is so grabby to gamers?”
[02:14] Ever get the feeling that nothing you do matters? Why we’re drawn to this subject.
[03:04] Do things that are meaningful and exciting to you and your life will have meaning… or it won’t.
[04:13] Referencing the Canon Puncture show. Horror techniques in the latter half of the episode. http://www.canonpuncture.com/?p=57
[04:48] Why do we come to horror in the first place?
[05:36] We tell ourselves stories to marginalize our own fears and separate them.
[08:00] A common sense of insignificance.
[09:11] An apathy we experience knowing we’ll never stop the universe from falling apart.
[10:28] Horror lets us try to punch inevitability in the face.
[11:26] Agent Smith from the Matrix: The symbol of inevitability.
[14:08] The “One Ring”: A symbol of corruption.
[17:38] To fight the evil, you need to pick up the sword: The man apart.
[19:21] The protagonists of RPGs a usually outside of the society they protect.
[20:16] Showing PCs in relationships they can’t maintain because they are different: Gaming Gold.
[20:34] L5R Example: Samurai who cannot maintain families.
[24:32] Dresden Files example: Balancing mundane and supernatural worlds.
[29:08] A powerful and moving evil must stand for something. The evil exist as a theme of the setting.
[34:59] The bad guy is a good thing. Getting all the evil in one place so it can be punched in the face.
[37:24] Example of the bad guy having a lot of meaning: Buffy, the hyena episode: The Pack
[39:21] “It is not enough to succeed, others must fail” – Gore Vidal
[42:27] The bad guy you know is right. ala Watchmen
Direct download: NC_Episode_048.mp3
Thanks Rich, it was a good show. We've got a couple other old Canon Puncture episodes in the "good stuff to talk about" wiki that I'm sure we'll get to some day.
We should get together sometime on Skype, yack some and maybe make of show of that as well.
Sean
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