| From: | CaBil <CaBil@***.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Predator vs. Prey commentary |
| Date: | Sat, 28 Feb 1998 23:44:01 EST |
wrote the third adventure (Baser Instincts) that's causing some of the
consternation over P/P. Figure that I could shed some light on it, and what I
was thinking of at the time.
Spoiler Space because someone else started it
Erik Jameson: Sorry, but I never even heard of your web page. When I first
heard about the project from Mike, it was mentioned that several of the
adventures were already set in the wilderness. I figured my proposal would
have a better chance of being accepted if I placed my adventure in urban
environment, as sort of an alternative to the wilderness environments. (For
the record, I did send in another proposal with a wilderness location, but it
got booted. I was covering all my bases.) From there, I needed a rationale,
something made the critters something more than just ammo bait, something that
gave them purpose. I thought a corporation behind it would be too obvious,
and some magical group would be hard pressed to come up with a good reason to
randomly cause destruction. Plus, I wanted the animals to be the focus here,
not some other group. Having some spirit being responsible, that is at best
glimpsed at, would make the animals the focus, the danger. I could tie it in
with some old stuff in the Seattle book (the success of the FLZG at breeding
animals). Plus, the alien nature and logic of a spirit would help allow me to
keep the secret of what the spirit is really up to without leaving the players
hanging. Not enough for the players to know what is really going on, but
enought to feel that they accomplished something. Plus to encourage a mild
sense of unease, of what else is this thing doing out there. I admit, The
Tutor article in Threats opened my eyes of the possible use of astral entities
for these sort of situations. I added the 'captain's chair' descripation of
the Astral power in the final draft, after I read Jon Szeto's descripation of
rigger controls
And when all is said and done, I really like horror. I know I didn't
accomplish that, but I wanted to do is shake up some preconceptions, make
players uneasy in their understanding of animals and their place in the world.
An astral entity, weird acting animals, the sewer sequence, I like to think
that the adventure can unsettle some players that are willing to buy into it.
Of course, I am the writer, so that's a fallacy I know I operate under.
And yes, I know what the spirit is/wants. I hope to tell a little more
about it one of these days. For now 'It will hunt again'
Tom Price: Nope, it isn't a Horror. But if that works in your campaign,
please use it as one.
Okay, this is just random commentary, feel free to ignore. Umm, you see,
I never thought of Horrors are, well horrorific. They want to deal out pain.
Okay. But horror, for me at least, is the unknown and the unknownable. The
fringe of awareness, the edge of woods, the closed door, the mystery so heavy
that it crushes the breath from you. The astral entity is more like that. It
doesn't want to cause pain, or gets it jollies from hurting people. It's more
alien than that, it has a set goals, in which in pursuit of them it will do
apparently contradictionary actions. It may cause a crash of jetliner, help a
corporation pollute a location by killing off a local speices, stop crosstown
traffic in a small town by blocking the intersection with a sleeping Piasma,
kill wageslave working in a small electronics factory in the CAS by forcing
her stomach bacteria to multiple so rapidly that it fills her lungs in
seconds, and alter the path of Behemoth by five meters, all on the same day.
Why? Unknown. And it is that not knowing, wondering what this all means,
that I think is unsettling. There is a reason why it's here, but when I
wrote it, it wasn't thinking of an escaped Horror, or even anything to do the
spike point, and that stuff.
But it being a Horror from the spike point work fine, I left the whole issue
untouched so people could go in any direction, and have fun with it, so go
with it.
Brett Borger: I agree, the adventure I wrote is linear. But my first draft
was over 7K over my target. And that was after I cut out three additional
scenes, more suspects other than Disball, and a subplot with the Johnson.
Mike, for some reason I couldn't understand, was reluctant to let me have 128
pages for the adventure. So I had to cut something, and keep the general flow
the adventure/story going, so out went all the scenes that explored side
passages of the adventure. In other words...
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. It's all my fault...
But on the other hand, I'm still interested in feedback on the adventure. I'm
the writer, I'm here to be abused, and I joined the list specifically to see
what people liked/hated/loathed about the adventure. I'm willing to listen,
especially to the bad stuff, so that next time (if there is a next time, of
course) I can hopefully do a better job.
Anyway, thanks for your time, and please continue with the discussion/feedback
Respectfully,
Bill Aguiar
