Break the Law 95

[DeWitt]

So here is my design guide from which everything flows. I find it helpful to go over it when I'm stuck for ideas. It also helps communicate the world to players as well. It's living, so if you have links or ideas then your contributions would be appreciated.

The title of this thread comes from a Triple 6 Mafia song. I originally had it posted but a few members found it offensive. So, I’ll expound on the music instead.

We also had a group here, in Australia, that would mix Arthurian legend with hip hop culture. Trains became dragons. Excalibur became a marker. There was also a Norwegian group who used castles, epic battles, wizards, and Norse myth in their songs. Lyrics Here

At the time I was getting into fantasy via a teacher at school.

As I got older, dark topics became more grown up. Triple 6 Mafia were earth shattering. They stretched what was possible with prosody. Lord Infamous would fit x2/x3 as many syllables into DJ Paul’s triple beats. This aloud for experimentation with the beats which give Memphis rap it’s unique choppy time signatures. For example, early songs have choruses that are duple in metre, then switch when the verses are performed.  If you contrast with New York’s “boom bap” sound, which relies on strict 2/3 boom BAP/BOOM BOOM bap pattern, you'll see what I mean.

I like to experiment. That’s why I run od&d. It’s experimental. It’s before the codification of what d&d is. When I think of dungeoneers as an outlaw group, I mean they are outside society. They form groups because they are vagabonds with nothing else. Then they rise, to the dismay of the power-holders. This is the arc of rap as a genre to me. Hence it’s inclusion in my Appendix N, it’s spirit.

While the Mafia talk about drugs, being the best, vengeance on their enemies, pagan gods, voodoo imagery etc. My Dungeoneers loot tombs and ruins, run the antiques, rare book, and magical item trades, and they deal heavily with money lenders (exchanging ancient coins for imperial currency). Triple Six have a song called Tear da Club Up 97 and Dungeoneers often love to get into far fights or even set fire to entire inns.

I don’t discourage what the players choose to do but often times thugs is what they are. This happened way before I used music as mood pieces in my games. Players have free-reign but I do like the Town Mob rule where a mob of angry townsfolk set upon them. I try to hint at the cost of such behaviour and hope they become heroes of the peasantry. Such is the risk of old school refereeing though.

[DeWitt]

The Skeleton.

motifs
Ethereal pastoral - (lush, grinning trees, sprawling magenta meadows, massive cloud formations drifting through misty skies, sentient rivers)

Warm architecture - (ancient clayworks, quaint seaside towns, windows bathed in a warm glow)

Water and Sky, intertwined. Flight and floating. An imagery that leaves the pull of gravity behind. Suspended by magic.

Colours- Aqua, Magenta, Teal, Purple, Grey, White.

themes
Pacifism - violence is usually misguided and destructive, and characters are encouraged peacemakers.

Outawry - characters come in the form of outsiders. Renegade clans, robin hoods, hermits, exiles etc.

Spirituality - no clerics or organised temples. People live with the mythical world but do not necessarily worship it.

[DeWitt]

Appendix N

words -- city desert blog, john cowper powys, ursula le guin, don quixote,

tvfilm -- the descent, flying swords of dragon gate, the navigator: a medieval odyssey, princess mononoke,

music -- memphis rap, jandek, murder ballards,

historical personae - banu sasan, the yakuza, travelling cultures, russian thief in law, alessandro cagliostro, joan of arc, kasper hauser, changelings, thuggees, wuxia code/gong wu,

[DeWitt]

This post, updated as I go, is expounding on the movies of my Appendix N. It was brought to my attention that just a list might not convey much.

The Navigator brings a lot of elements that interest me into a visual whole. It's rhythmic in the economy of images. Alternating between narrative and impressionistic sequences. The plot revolves around a group of Cumbrian villagers, and their attempt to tunnel to the farthest side of the earth in order to raise a cross at The Cathedral in God’s City. The most interesting character is a peasant boy who suffers from prophetic fits . It is one of these visions that inform the villagers of the journey they must take to avoid the plague. The tunnel, under the ever auspicious moon, takes them through time to the modern world.

I like the fears the villagers face. Being outside their village for the first time. The panic of eminent death. The fine line between good/evil, heaven/hell. It helps to guide me how everyday people from a certain period would act.

The drama around simple events also appeals to me. In one scene they are tasked to cross a road. In another they have to row a horse across a harbour. How mundane things in our world become symbols of a deeper belief. A submarine takes on a leviathan significance. A car becomes a terrible demon.
Such a story could easily take place in my campaign and I would use the same ideas. If magic is sufficiently advanced technology in campaigns like Tekumel, then why not the mythic in mine?

The fever dream, the decent into strangeness, the belief in hope, and that salvation can be delivery by those with the courage to undertake such journeys. These are all brilliant elements for PC motivation, especially in sandbox play where motivation can be difficult for some players.

If nothing else, the sequences in the tunnels and a torch falling through limbo make great material for imagining crawling through a dungeon.

A Field in England has incredible pastoral cinematography. We move from field to field without notice. The still shots framing the conflict as we go deeper down the rabbit hole. The plot is straightforward. A magician conjurers three men to help him find treasure in a field, in England, during the civil war. The real fun begins when the characters cross the threshold of a fairy ring.

Nothing is said explicitly and there are a variety of answers that are all supported by the film. I like to attempt this kind of thing in my sessions. I don’t want to provide answers to everything, I still want the players to wonder at the forces surrounding them. Besides, they’d probably have a cooler explanation than I could write for them.

I like the existential themes explored by the movie. It shows how fantasy can be as rich as any genre and that not everything need be about brute force. The most central question I’d like any player in my campaign to take away is what is a treasure worth?

The magician character turns himself into an immoral bastard in search for riches. All his skill and knowledge poured into this one pursuit. He kills, enslaves, tortures, and cons. All the nasty anti-humanist actions are represented.

The other big influence is the magic. There is no flash-bang here. It is spiritual force aided by the mysterious force found in nature. This kind of magic is hard to mechanise but if Vance provided the look and feel of traditional d&d magic then this movie is the urtext of my campaign’s magic. The magical battle sequence can be quite intense and uncomfortable to watch. But it feels right.

The pastorals. The black sun. The awesome and terrible violence. The music. These are what make the movie for me.

The thing that links them together and contains the spirit which I like is the mysticism and warm humanism. In each movie the characters are led by forces they barely understand, forces that lead them to ruin, but through surrendering to these forces they gain a self and help those around them. To me, that is the arc of a PC. To be defined and to help those around them by facing off with forces beyond compare.