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How would you make demons really dark?
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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6464138" data-attributes="member: 177"><p>I think you need the strong suggestion that evil cannot be defeated, sure. But the suggestion and the reality are different things.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I disagree. Especially in the flat, digital way you state it. What you need for the thing to feel dark is for the memory of it to give you a creeping sensation over your flesh, *even if you won*. And that can be achieved. I will grant that it isn't easy.</p><p></p><p>I will put a personal anecdote as evidence. The game was Deadlands. It was a six-session story, a protracted telling of a group of people from "back east" who had come to the West, only to be hunted by a Wendigo. </p><p></p><p>The GM spent a *long* time developing the conflict. He included heavy suggestions that the PCs were being targeted by this cannibal-monster due to their own moral failings. We were all underpowered, had no knowledge of our pursuer to start with, and gained information only in dribs and drabs along the way. No character had understanding of the supernatural. There was mood lighting, and musical score to help set emotional context. </p><p></p><p>When the gloom, tension, and anxiety were built over so much time, the fact that we did eventually beat the thing did *not* dispel the darkness the characters had been through. It was a powerful roleplay experience.</p><p></p><p>Also, check out the X-Files episode, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_(The_X-Files)" target="_blank">"Home" (Season 4, Episode 2)</a>. It is the first episode of the series to earn a viewer discretion award for graphic content. The bad guys don't win (two of them do escape, so Mulder and Scully don't exactly win, either), but even if Mulder and Scully had brought down all the nasties, you'd still look back at it and go, "Ewww. They were... dark and disturbing." The very idea of them makes you want to take a shower to get clean, but you can't, 'cause in the shower you're naked and vulnerable. You'd not feel safe, even if they were all dead, just by the thought of them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 6464138, member: 177"] I think you need the strong suggestion that evil cannot be defeated, sure. But the suggestion and the reality are different things. I disagree. Especially in the flat, digital way you state it. What you need for the thing to feel dark is for the memory of it to give you a creeping sensation over your flesh, *even if you won*. And that can be achieved. I will grant that it isn't easy. I will put a personal anecdote as evidence. The game was Deadlands. It was a six-session story, a protracted telling of a group of people from "back east" who had come to the West, only to be hunted by a Wendigo. The GM spent a *long* time developing the conflict. He included heavy suggestions that the PCs were being targeted by this cannibal-monster due to their own moral failings. We were all underpowered, had no knowledge of our pursuer to start with, and gained information only in dribs and drabs along the way. No character had understanding of the supernatural. There was mood lighting, and musical score to help set emotional context. When the gloom, tension, and anxiety were built over so much time, the fact that we did eventually beat the thing did *not* dispel the darkness the characters had been through. It was a powerful roleplay experience. Also, check out the X-Files episode, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_(The_X-Files)]"Home" (Season 4, Episode 2)[/url]. It is the first episode of the series to earn a viewer discretion award for graphic content. The bad guys don't win (two of them do escape, so Mulder and Scully don't exactly win, either), but even if Mulder and Scully had brought down all the nasties, you'd still look back at it and go, "Ewww. They were... dark and disturbing." The very idea of them makes you want to take a shower to get clean, but you can't, 'cause in the shower you're naked and vulnerable. You'd not feel safe, even if they were all dead, just by the thought of them. [/QUOTE]
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How would you make demons really dark?
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