13 Nights of Halloween Preview 2009

It's that time of the year again. We're a day away from October already. I'm getting a jump on things early, so here is your preview of the 2009 edition of the 13 Nights of Halloween. Not only that, but you are seeing into the future! This is the October 6th entry for WraithStop™. As usual this list is presented if you need to buy a copy of one or more of the movies that will be presented this year. Only a couple of the entries have Blu-Ray editions available as of yet, and they have been included for your convenience. It's a little messy, but what the hay, information is better than looks, right?

So, I will leave you to it. Happy Hump Day and let's make this another Halloween extravaganza to remember. Oh, you don't know what I'm talking about? Well aren't you in for a treat. From October 19th to 31st there is one blog a night for a movie you can watch along with the rest of us. The blog talks about background information about the movie, its creators, its cast, and whatever else comes to mind. Yes, 13 nights, 13 movies, 13 blog entries.

There will be a regularly scheduled entry to this blog on October 7th and then nothing until the 19th's big kick off. Mark your calendar now--I know I will.

Music: Dead Souls by Nine Inch Nails and Rebirth from Poltergeist: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

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We're All Going to Die Terribly

One of the important parts of planning and running a role-playing game is the same as plotting a novel or writing a script. It is about managing threat levels. Doing this has a cascade effect that impacts pacing, tension, horror--if that is your angle--and mood. Take the ever-popular zombie apocalypse. The threat level is high any time that the characters are out in the world rather than sitting in their safety zones. Even in the safety of their sanctuaries all of the dangers of the old world loom around every corner. A pall hangs over everything because the walking dead dominate the mental landscape as much as the external one. This makes for constant inescapable tension. The dark mood is always an instant away only to be forgotten briefly.

This general look at the threat level of the setting is just that, only an overview. Scaling down to the level of specific encounters the danger presented to the protagonists can only reach a certain pitch. The protagonists must be able to survive--at least until the end, since they can only be killed once. There must be some way out of every situation. Something natural or organic and not forced or contrived. By the same token it should not be a cakewalk either. A balance must be struck. In a game luck can be a factor that brings disastrous results with even the most balance encounter. An author or scriptwriter can bend luck to their will on the other hand, again only in a way that seems genuine. Either way there needs to be room for adjustment.

A threat level system became a part of AD&D recently--in terms of the game's long history--to the joy of some and derision of others. It is a quick and easy way to say this many player characters of this level of power should fight these, these or those. It can be rigid and by the nature of its existence can drain away some of the tension, especially if the players know the Game Master is sticking by it. The player will likely even be familiar enough that they can tell an encounter is safely balanced. This tension draining phenomena can happen even with fiction, and especially scripts for television. Certain characters just aren't going to die. There will be an out to almost any situation that seems hopeless. Some things just are not going to change or come to an end.

Mood: open.

Music: Too Much, Too Soon by Green Day and It ('s A Monster) by Extreme.

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Surmounting Advantages

During the discussion of greatly enhanced healing in fantasy settings there came a question of what will some parties do to combat this advantage in their enemies. This is an important question not just in the circumstance of accelerated healing or of resurrection, but in general, both in gaming and in all fiction. For every advance or advantage there is a considered response to negate it. Those who do not have an advantage will want to copy the advantage for themselves, or barring that steal the other party's source for it. This push and pull, garner or steal, is another basis upon which to build conflict in stories. In gaming it is a consideration that the Game Master must make at every turn to keep the pace, the tension, and promote a surmountable challenge.

There are a few categories of elements that fit this mould. There is durability or immunity to harm, powers that cannot be defended against, normally inescapable circumstances, and overwhelming forces. These can be negated directly or indirectly. Direct negation requires stripping the individual(s) of the power or overwhelming it to the point it is not an issue. Disruption powers come into play or powers that are in opposition to the troubling one. Ice or water is used against fire, mind blocks prevent psychic attack or intrusion, and similar. Particular methods of killing cancel regeneration. Specific disposal of the body prevents it from rising from the dead. Then there are weaknesses built into characters such as deadly allergies to certain materials such as Superman and kryptonite.

Indirect negation can include circumventing the difficulty. Those invulnerable to damage may be suffocated or drowned. Those immune to fire may still be harmed by falling debris caused by a fire. The opponent may be the one that is immune to the character's abilities. All of these put a wrinkle in a game changing element or a power. They can only be used so often and put to smart use without negating the reason for having these capabilities in the setting, or unfairly treating the player of such a character by hobbling them unlike the other players. Tempering these changes to provide threat and tension is only desired in balance and when it enhances the storyline. It may even be better to turn the tables and have the protagonists seeking to deal such powerful foes.

Mood: tired.

Music: Welcome Home (Sanitarium) by Metallica and '39 by Queen.

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Can You Hear Me Now?

The cross-generation planning method of harnessing the game-changing power of immortality as noted last time requires good communication. The kind of communication that it requires is about the quality of the communication. It doesn't matter the quantity if it is concise and clear. It also makes no difference in regards to time if preservable writing is an available option in the setting. What does have some impact is the timing. A small impact in this case, but on its own communication times can be their own game changer. As with everything else communication time can be enhanced either by technological or fantastical means. Understanding just how it changes things can be something of a challenge. It is, right now, something still being figured out for real.

Most fantasy settings are set in a time where messages can be relayed by horse riding couriers. There can also be carrier pigeons--the Egyptians and Persians first used them 3,000 years ago. This was a huge improvement over people made to run messages far away carrying only a verbal message and making the use of multiple runners along a longer route. Since this is a fantasy setting, and not a strictly historical one, magic comes into play. It would start with magical carrier pigeons that could fly faster and longer. It would end with the scrying version of video conferencing at the other end of the spectrum. In between are tomes that writing appears in from another copy, telepathic style messages, oracles that know things from far away lands, and lesser deities as couriers.

Information is power when it is put to use. Using it in a timely manner is an important way to capitalise on it. It doesn't matter whether it is intelligence for battlefield planning, trading information, spy work, or organising research. Good speed for information flow negates the importance of distance. It makes the world a smaller place and that changes the dynamic of many things. It also should involve more direct communication, cutting out middlemen who can distort the message. This is because the fast communication form should also be as easy as it is fast, which does add some constraints in the fantasy settings. It is only fitting that the magical method of fast communication is not only fast in passing the messages back and forth, but also fast to initiate.

Mood: vertical.

Music: Communication Breakdown by Led Zeppelin and Legions by Stratovarius.

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Nothing But Time

The game changing nature of powerful healing at accelerated rates presented two factors upon which the differences were built. The first was the change in risk aversion factors. The second was the effect on the time scale. The shortened time makes for altered pacing. In the fantasy setting this is especially true because of the otherwise limited state of medicine and lack of pain medication. While quickening the plot pacing changes the game or the story one way, shifting things in the other direction has alternate effects. Longevity has its own way of changing the game in a setting. Long lives, immortality, and the changes caused by continued healing and durability are one possibility. The other is less fantastical but no less powerful and involves controlled cross-generation planning.

Many fantasy settings have long lived elves and other inhuman beings. They have immortal wizards both of the perpetual living and living dead kinds. The same is true of settings with vampires of enough intelligence to keep a lower profile and out live generation upon generation of mortals. It is not often enough that the immensity of possibilities this creates is touched upon. These beings can achieve singularly what others cannot. They can plan according to the long view of things, adapting as they go, patiently manipulating events in tiny increments over a vastly extended time. This affords them a lot of power. Beyond that it allows them to cultivate great experience and with it wisdom. This experience and wisdom is stronger for being first hand.

Magic, supernatural biology, or the science and futuristic equivalents of those, are not strictly necessary to take advantage of this game-changing element. Family groups, organisations, secret societies and sects, and some tightly focused societies can do so as well. For them it requires more discipline due to the larger number of members required. It also requires all parties being able to understand the plan not only to fulfill their parts of it, but also to the greater degree of being able to pass on the knowledge and impart the importance of the actions that go into it. If any later generation fails in understanding or implementation, even in gradual degrees from one generation to the next, then the plans and their benefits diminish, fail, or outright disappear.

Mood: fluid.

Music: The Edge Of Darkness by Iron Maiden and Ride Thru The Storm by Desperado/Dee Snider.

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