Looking Back at 2009

It's February, but since this is the first entry of the year to this blog I would like to say, Happy New Year. I thought this year that I would begin all of my blogs with two particular articles. The first is a look back at 2009 and the highlights of the year. The second is a look forward at some of the things that I want to talk about in 2010. One of the perennial series of entries in these dark corners is the annual 13 Nights of Hallowe'en. In 2009 all of the movies were my favourites. Most recently I wrote a couple of role-playing game themed articles that are useful for creating characters for any media. Still in the RPG vein there were articles about game changing alterations to settings, such as travel times and instant communication, which can have massive impact on a number of fronts even outside of gaming.

At one point in the year there was a bit of a lengthy look at changing perspectives, and perspectives versus reality on several levels. That got into the realities that we surround ourselves in and they way that it affects, well, everything. Those perspective shifts work their way beyond our view of the world and they effect our interactions with everyone--a handy understanding for writing. Another topic that surfaced with a need to be covered by more than one entry was a look at where publishing is going and where the writer can take their work as new paradigms emerge. There I likened one of the possible experiences, with only text being a requirement, to extras and deleted scenes on a DVD. That plays into my favourite topic of taint, which comes up now and again and will continue to do so.

It’s hard to forget as well that at the beginning of 2009 there were the last couple parts of Anatomy of a Horror Setting #3 about mixing the horror and sci-fi genres. That of course was followed by all of Anatomy of a Horror Setting #4, which looked at combining horror and fantasy moving from the typical medieval European fantasy settings up to Industrial Era settings. The rest of the series of course was a part of 2008. The whole set of them are still on my list to be lengthened, re-edited, and turned into a book. It was both easy and hard to devote so many weeks to a small set of topics and examine all of the angles. It was easy in that I knew one week to the next what I writing about and hard to come up with some of those angles and try to keep some kind of order in the progression.

Mood: progressive.

Music: Music: This Day We Fight! by Megadeth and Hitchin' A Ride by Green Day.

Or get MP3s.

Buy these at Amazon.com Click Images to Buy CDs

Or get MP3s.

Anatomy of a Horror Setting #4-4: After All, A Small World

Perspective bears a relationship with scale in regards to the setting when considering the story’s location as the specific setting compared to the overall setting. To clarify, the places in which the story takes place are an important factor in horror beyond the world-building concerns of the setting. The creation of a fantasy horror story or setting can hinge on the change from the overview perspective to the immediate perspective of the characters involved. The key word to consider is immediate, immediacy. Horror can only benefit from a sense of immediacy, of urgency. Certainly it begins with and even capitalises on foreboding and a sense of impending doom, but without a follow through it plays itself out. This is where the line between setting and location comes in.

The following is an example of using the location to determine localised setting conditions. A village’s viceroy sends word to the capital that a monster is killing his people. The King dispatches some knights to deal with the menace, but it is winter and a snowstorm blocks the only pass that leads to the village/province. The local setting goes far enough to set up part of the plot in this example. The location portion of the setting involves details such as terrain, weather, and the types--or lack of--of characters available. The setting’s influence on characters, and those limitations are the bread and butter of the horror. Those pesky knights will be limited to the local garrison, which could be as few as three knights, locally trained, and of little experience. They are also likely to be the first to fall.

The example also demonstrates one factor that is new to the discussion--but not limited to the fantasy setting per se. It is the factor of time that is determined by the setting. The menace carries on from the first attack through the long couriering of the message to the capital, on through the extensive wait for the King’s knights. Isolation is a strong factor in a horror fantasy setting. To keep this so take instant magical communication off of the table. On the flip side consider prophetic dreams and the factors discussed for clairvoyance in the psychic horror setting. They need not be psychic powers, but can be the visions of priests and oracles, or the fodder of prophecies. The information gleaned from these visions can have timing that is faster or slower than the regular channels as needed.

Music: Mountain Song by Jane's Addiction and Limelight by Rush.

Or get MP3s.

Now at Amazon.COM NOT CA. Buy these at Amazon.com Click Images to Buy

Or get MP3s.

Anatomy of a Horror Setting #4-3: Scalar Planar Collisions

Scale is the means by which things are measured whether it is a mile, or a millimetre, or a setting or plot. The scale of story elements in a horror story tend toward the small with a few notable exceptions. One of those exceptions is the zombie apocalypse story. The apocalypse portion of the requirement does not rule out the small scale though. The focus always narrows down to the key characters and their involvement with the crisis, and the antagonists, the zombies. This focus shift is true for all stories. If the intention of coming up with the setting is not for a single story then the scale needs to be examined even more thoroughly. Though they come in different flavours a predominant number of role-playing games fit in the fantasy mould.

Whether the intention is a horror fantasy role-playing game or a storyline with that cross-genre mix scale is an important factor. Zombies are no strangers to fantasy settings, nor are mummies and animated skeletons. They are common on a small scale. Armies of them appear occasionally, covering the middle ground, but usually not as a global level threat. Given the day-to-day level of horror inherent in most fantasy settings, even to some extent in medieval life, zombies don’t rate very high. Where swordsmen wander ceaselessly crushing evil, zombies are not a real threat without an edge greater than being similarly armed to the swordsmen. Something more powerful is usually pulling the strings and presents a greater level of menace bringing the scale, the focus, down again.

Another option is replacing the harbingers of the apocalypse with something more frightening. Defying demonic invasions from the outer planes are the fodder of prophecies to be fulfilled in many a fantasy. Certainly a horror fantasy could reverse things. The prophecy predicts the invasion, or better yet and somewhat its own horror to the protagonist(s) the prophecy fails to be fulfilled. Hell on Earth has a certain appeal for a storyline, or a state of the setting, a backdrop upon which to paint the rest of the story. This is about setting, not plot. This level is the foundation and some of the story structure. Like a house, with only a basement and some outer wall joists any number of frames is possible. Where the construction goes from here quickly becomes a matter of perspective.

Music: Metal Health by Quiet Riot and Funeral Mute by Stever.

Or get MP3s.

Now at Amazon.COM NOT CA. Buy these at Amazon.com Click Images to Buy

Or get MP3s.

Anatomy of a Horror Setting #4-1: Dark Phantasy

There is one more enormous genre that hasn’t been corrupted by horror in this series, fantasy. The broadest category of fantasy generally refers to medieval high-magic settings. There are magical creatures of every stripe, races that interact and conflict with humans, and magic that is a powerful force wielded to far-reaching affect on the world and everything in it. Most of the stories take place in medieval Europe though often details like how feudal life worked, peasants lived, and their ability to do things within the hierarchical caste system sometimes falls to the wayside. To a large extent taking the time period forward to modern eras--anything 1900s or later--has already been covered. There are some settings in the industrial age but that will come later.

It is a common belief that it is nearly impossible to bring about real horror in the traditional fantasy setting, much like it is claimed to be in the super-hero genre seen in comics. The main point of contention is that which makes it fantasy in the first place, the in your face, capable of anything, game-changing, world-defining magic. Deities have influence and power in these settings if only through their priests and followers. There are rarely infernal beings without celestial counterparts. Then there are the heroic aspects aside from the magic. Knights and Paladins wander the lands performing monster-slaying deeds and facing off against impossible odds like battling fire breathing, arcane infused, dragons. These brave souls often face and defeat the masters of magic as well.

The answer as usual to tackling this problem is all about the setting. It starts with asking the right questions and choosing the answers that will aid the horror at all levels. Working within the constraints of the genre as it stands on its own is only one of two options. Changes can be made to the fantasy genre assumptions since the type of fantasy discussed thus far is the largest chunk, not the only chunk. Magic in a horror fantasy requires a different approach if not an alteration in power level. Scale is another important factor to consider and can make great differences in the quantity and quality of horror in the setting. Perspective is going to be another factor that is important in imparting horror to the settings and plots. These are the starting points upon which to proceed.

Music: Objects in the Rear View Mirror by Meatloaf and Watching Over Me by Iced Earth.

Or get MP3s.

Now at Amazon.COM NOT CA. Buy these at Amazon.com Click Images to Buy

Or get MP3s.

Objects May Appear Further Than They Are

For a while now I have been looking for a way to visualise things for gaming purposes. For example, if your character is sitting out three thousand feet from a cave and a figure comes out of the cave how "big" does that figure appear to be? Likewise, how big of a target is a robot coming in from a mile out? You can do it in the inverse too. Your character is stranded on an island. They want to make an S.O.S. on the beach out of rocks and branches. How big do you have to make the letters to be seen by a search plane?

To solve this dilemma, since I have great difficulty visualising distances and heights and such, I got together with a friend and we developed a formula to determine how "big" something is at varying distances. To make it useful we did the calculations to determine what font size would be the equivalent of the perspective height for an object. The results are available at www.rmtp.ca/images/fontsizes.htm as well as a several examples. Below the examples is a JavaScript that calculates the font for you. Also, I have added an internal frame that takes the calculation and displays an example of how tall the object will appear.

The work to make the calculator took me some time and definitely a good bit of brain wracking. First I found a place with an example script that calculated house payments based on factors the user supplied. It was important that anyone could come in and plant numbers into a form and then the calculator function would do its thing. The math is of course easy as pie. However, when you don't really know how to pass variables in and out of functions there is a bit of a learning curve to modifying an existing script. I did, as can be seen, sort it out. The form even disallows for either of the fields to be zero.

The work to make the visual example took about the same mount of time, which is not very good. It ran into two snags. First the zero checking will not work. Second, if you clicked the button to display the text at the calculated font size the web page would change. While you got your example you couldn't see what the font size was, which is useful if you want to take that number and use it in another program. Also, being a new page you had nothing to compare it to, such as the examples I have higher on the page. The answer was of course to use a frame. I don't mind the IFRAMEs so it was a good solution. There you have it.

Mood: conflicted.
Music: April Ethereal by Opeth and Always by Bon Jovi.

Buy these at Amazon.ca Click Images to Buy