I like writing and writing byproducts
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Mysterium238
@Mysterium238

While I feel quite bad for future generations of players that will inevitably suckered into buying subscription services, endless reprints of books with tweaked rule sets, merchandise, and microtransactions on WotC's official tabletop RPG, I'm glad the hobby is relatively independent of what any company does, much more so than something like Magic the Gathering. Nothing WotC can do will ruin the game for anyone willing to pirate a PDF of the player's handbook and use a little imagination.

The article's claim that any dungeon master needs to buy the player's handbook, the monster manual, and the dungeon master's guide is completely ridiculous. You can find the stats to monsters online on a whole host of websites, and the DMG is basically just advice and little minigames. You're probably better off taking inspiration from it at best, and house-ruling things like chases. No wonder 5e is having a dungeon master shortage if DMs are expected to shell out so much cash, as well as host a game a lot of the time.




nys
@nys

But if we expect every novel, play, film, etc. to be a PSA for Good Behavior, we lose access to the part of art that is most connected to our humanity. That is to say: the part where we witness our flaws, our savage desires, our troubling predilections, our shame and longing, selfishness and hope. The parts where we are creatures in flux, caught between contradictions. The parts where, presented with what makes us uncomfortable, we encounter ourselves and each other newly in the discomfort.


NoelBWrites
@NoelBWrites

Part of wanting every story to be morally instructive is a complete rejection of ambiguity. Not only in the sense of a clear distinction between "Good" and "Evil" but also in the sense that there is no room for interpretation on the events of the story or the feelings of the characters. Or anything else.

In this style of mainstream, institutionalized art that the article refers to, everything must be over-explained. Characters have internal monologues explaining their very linear reasoning for each decision (sometimes with "getting a good grade in therapy" wording, for extra points). In speculative fiction, magic has a "system" and the history of the made-up galaxy is two steps removed from being a wikipedia article.

Cultural institutions don't like ambiguity in the art they prop up because it leaves room for interpretation. It leaves room for a morally incorrect interpretation, which would taint their image forever.

The same people that insist this or that story is "problematic" because the characters didn't spell out the moral lesson are the ones that recoil at open endings. And when they encounter one, they will attempt to "solve" it, explain what "really" happened in that gap left by the author.

And yet.

When I think about the stories and the art that stays with me for longer... it's the ones with ambiguity. It's the stories where a smile could have been a show of teeth and the author won't tell me which one. It's when something unexplained happens and the characters are left wondering because I'm left wondering with them. It's the open endings that I keep going back to, not as an attempt to solve them, but because I keep finding new ways to look at them.

Perfectly straightforward art does not leave much room to put yourself, your perspective, your anxieties and your desires in the story, see how they mix. Ambiguous stories are the ones that have entire scholarly traditions arguing over centuries about what they mean, what they could mean, what new things can come out of them by looking from a different angle.

Ambiguity invites the audience to participate actively. It rewards you for revisiting art and see how it changes based on how you changed. It moves you to share with others, what do they see, how do they approach this?

That's how art becomes immortal. Because it keeps being revisited. But it's only worth revisiting if each visit shows you something new.



trashbang
@trashbang

The thing about Kim Kitsuragi is that yes, he is a deadpan straight man to Harry's eccentricity, but it's very clear that he's not oblivious -- just gifted with an infinite capacity for forgiveness and unconditional support. Which is why it hurts so much to disappoint him.


nex3
@nex3

I think it's crucial, from a design and storytelling perspective, that Kim is specifically capable of being disappointed but also not guaranteed to be. He is legitimately judging your actions and choices, but he also shows up willing to give you the benefit of the doubt—he's heard of the 41st and he's heard of you, so he's inclined to believe that there's method to your madness. He's not a cartoon character who will always react with disparagement or unconditionally support your craziest rambles.

And because he's willing to judge Harry's actions by their intent and outcome rather than their method, he ends up effectively judging the player themself—who is only able to express their intent through Harry's deranged methodology. So when the achievement pops up and you learn that Kim truly trusts you, you as a player feel seen and validated in a way that video games seldom achieve.


NoelBWrites
@NoelBWrites

It's also important that he is written as a whole person, with his own idiosyncracies and interests and pet peeves. He's not a paragon of virtue and moral good to measure yourself against.

For example, he will not approve of your interest in pinball machines, disapprove of any attempt at playing with them or bringing them up. He will dislike you pushing him on this... Purely for personal reasons. He had a previous experience with them that he does not want to revisit, and he hates pinball as a result. But pinball is not morally wrong. You're not a bad person for liking it, obviously.

His politics are also his own and the game is clearly not holding them up as the "correct" politics to have. He will most likely disagree with you politically, but is willing to hear your perspective and maybe even come to respect it.

Unless you choose fascism, in which case he will absolutely not hear your shit because you will be rightly irredeemable in his eyes

Which is why doing a fascism playthrough is so painful and I've never finished it.