They Need Your Vote, Josh

If you're new to this blog, or just to this particular topic I am writing a blog called On Dark Rhoads™. It is the fictional account of Joshua Rhoads and the haunting of his house. It is more than that though. One aspect of the fictional world Joshua lives in is a fictional political party running the country. Another aspect to consider is Joshua is psychic and does not know it yet. Now, this is what I'm dealing with...

Another decision point has come up in the Joshua's journey. I essentially have to make the decision before the fork in the road appears. Some interesting links have been brought to my attention that afforded some new tweaks to the still forming setting. Some of them have come up in TechStop™ and others may make their way into there. They are not a part of the horror, but at the same time they do add to it and certainly many of them are not nice for people like Joshua. There is nothing to stop me from doing one thing in Joshua's stories and another in the game, but I would like to have that cohesion. So here is the decision to be made. There is the aforementioned political party with sinister intentions. Is it more compelling for Joshua to be aligned with them and learn of the dark side and reject it or to be opposed to them in the first place?

It may be something of a cliché to be party to the party and then learn the error of his ways. They can only be visibly sinister to a small degree or otherwise they would not have the power and influence that they do. At the same time I do not believe there is some dark core pulling the strings but that it is more a matter of an overall dark outlook. Furthermore I intend for them to be the way they are for the good of others. It's not an intentional malevolence and they are not aware of the amount of harm they are creating or the hatred they foster. It's not about any particularly bigotry either--except for political party opposition bigotry where one party despises the other so thoroughly and thoughtlessly--at least not initially until events of other natures start them down that path. It is not a matter then for Joshua to just be readily aware of their malevolence.

At the same time this party is hard line on a number of subjects, which draws a certain amount of ire from different factions, and a general disgruntlement from people who align themselves with the other parties. The drama is a little less starting on the side of right and removes added dimensions such as guilt over Joshua's former affiliations, and anger at first having indirectly been duped and then becoming victim to their burgeoning malice. There is nothing to stop Joshua's affiliation with the opposition party from having its own turmoil, including the party siding with the malevolent one on the topic of people like Joshua. Here what seemed right is no better, but has the option of it being possible to sway their opinion to a more moderate stance and embrace the approaching sea change for everyone's benefit.

Mood: harried.
Music: Trumpets Of Jericho by Bruce Dickinson and Death on Two Legs by Queen.

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13 Nights of Hallowe'en 2010: Night #8 Paranormal Activity

Tonight I have for you one of the big name recent horrors, Paranormal Activity. It got a lot of press and a lot of support--I for one have myname amongst the throng of people who petitioned to get this movie released. Some people love it, some people are indifferent, and of course there are the hardcore detractors. I for one thought it was great for what it intended. It wasn't a heavy effects movie, it certainly wasn't a gory movie, or one chockfull of spectres jumping out from every corner. It kept my attention all of the way through, which is a good testament for a movie with so few characters or sets. If you don't know what it is about here it is without spoilers--I hit a spoiler myself sadly, just a few weeks before getting to see it the first time. A couple decides that a ghost is haunting them and the man gets a video camera to catch the haunting on tape.

Pretty simple set up for a movie that received so much talk. Paranormal Activity was the first movie from writer-director Oren Peli. Despite being filmed in English it was still under consideration to be remade for North American audiences. That was apparently taken off of the table after the efforts of many horror fans to convince the studio not to do such an unjustified things. So, we have the movie as is, and the sequel is in theatres right now. Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat are the two stars of the movie playing characters with the same first names and no last names given. There is a psychic that Katie calls in to help, and one of her friends. That's it for cast. Everything takes place in or just outside of the house. It just goes to show that you do not need a lot to make a horror movie that works. It also doesn’t require a huge budget either. However, we knew that.

Mood: expectant.

Music: Halloween in Heaven by Type O Negative. MP3s

13 Nights of Hallowe'en 2010: Night #1 The Legend of Hell House

Hello and welcome to the first of the 13 Nights of Hallowe'en in 2010. Our first movie is The Legend of Hell House (1973). This is a hard one to pindown because there are other very similar movies, but this is the one based on the Richard Matheson novel of the same name and Matheson wrote the screenplay as well. A scientist--descriptions call him a physicist but essentially a parapsychologist--takes people to a supposedly haunted house to determine if there is life beyond death. A very popular plotline. So why this movie? Well for starters it's Matheson who brought us a lot of great novels and screenplays. Without spoiling anything this is a nicely atmospheric haunting movie. What I particularly like about it is the equipment Mr. Barrett uses in his investigation. The inclusion of Mrs. Barrett and what that adds is interesting as well.

It's easy to see what other movies the Hell House storyline has influenced. I won't go into most of them for the sake of those seeing this for the first time. It's not a direct comparison since he is not the psychic so I can tell you that I see Roddy McDowall's Benjamin Fischer as an influence on Matthew Lillard's Dennis Rafkin in Thir13en Ghosts. At the same time it's hard to deny the influence of Hell House on Stephen King's Rose Red. The film is considered a British horror movie despite Matheson's script. Most of it happens within the house so that doesn't really tie its location either. What is more telling about this production is that technology I mentioned before. While its purpose and inner makings might be timeless the outer design certainly wasn't. It was purely by happenstance that this first movie of the festivities is the oldest. Enjoy!

Mood: excited.

Music: Welcome To My Nightmare by Alice Cooper. MP3s

The Horror Few See

Horror is all around us, yet much of it is not seen that way. This is not a new conceit, not even for me to speak of it per se. The example that prompted me to write about this topic today was the young girl from M. Night Shyamalan's Signs. If you have not seen the movie all of the way through you want to stop reading now. I am going to spoil the ending.

Everyone knows the immediately scary bits in Signs. There is the alien skulking around the farm, the one caught in Reddy's house, the video from Brazil, and of course when the aliens try to get into the house culminating in the attack by one of the aliens. The demise of this alien is set in motion long before it's arrival in the house, long before its likely arrival in proximity to Earth even. For whatever reason, miracle, born with a hypnotic suggestion from her mother, or psychic precognition ability of her own, Bo Hess set all of those glasses of water everywhere in the house. I've never seen mention of the pure creepiness of this methodical, instinctive--or we are left to assume it wasn't thought out--process. Think about it. For years this little girl has been finicky about her water. Things start getting weird at the farm and around the world, and she begins obsessively leaving the water in glasses everywhere.

Somewhere between the unblinking irrational quality of the obsession and the inevitability with which it was perpetrated and then exonerated lies the real horror to this situation. It's easy to sit back and consider that the whole scenario is, well, almost heart warming. For starters it saves Merrill and Morgan--though Morgan also has his own deal going--and it's just a part of the overall miracle. Bo is cute, though on the odd side of cute given her I saw a monster can I have a glass of water in the middle of the night attitude. Back to Morgan for a moment. His asthma is a saving grace finally, but it lacks all of the qualities that make Bo's hand in the events so outré, so unnatural. It's like comparing luck to brilliant forethought ten steps ahead of the crucial event.

Here's a final thought to ponder, would it be creepier yet to discover Bo knew the importance of having that water there at that time and hid it all those years behind an intricate web of what essentially are lies and misdirection?

Mood: thoughtful.

Music: Gonna Buy Me A Dog by The Monkees and Breathless by Quiet Riot.

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Super Psychic Power Ability Increase Time

Last we left off our discussion we came to one of those difficulties that are, well, particularly difficult. How do you balance between the desire to progress a character and the practicality of retaining some sense of reality? It is easy to simply suggest throwing out reality in this instance or work with something in a more abstract manner to reach the desired practicality. The abstract method at least deals with the issue. This is not to say that leaving the unreality be is unacceptable. Role-playing games are all about story elements and game elements together in the same experience. It is a layered experience where not everything need meet in the middle. That said how do you go about solving our issue of improving super powers and psychic abilities in a manner that deals with both short and long in-game timeframes?

Both psychic abilities and super powers can actually advance in the same mechanical manner as skills with the right story framework behind them. It is pretty much a de facto standard that psychic abilities are a function of the brain--the pituitary in this scenario may effectively be the gas tank, or not. For the purpose of producing psychic effects the brain is likened to a muscle. As blood flows into the sections of the brain responsible for psychic abilities other adjacent, or close by, sections serving a similar function, but so far unawakened power-wise, become activated over time. Thus like skills there is a chance every time the character uses their powers they might trigger a new psychic ability. Some kind of limit might be put on how soon the next chance might be, especially after having already gained a new power.

A similar scenario can play out when super powers are involved. Whether the character is a mutant or an experiment or gains their powers from some other method, the physics of gaining powers is the same--for a setting like this. Powers are caused by elements introduced within the body. These elements can range from chemical compounds to forms of radiation that leave residual traces in the body, to magical substances. They react to other body chemicals secreted during the use of super powers. Again like building bigger muscles new compounds are created that combine with some other chemical, hormone, or compound and result in new powers or further mutation. In either case, super or psychic power, the progression chance could be coupled with points, which are used to determine when a chance becomes available preventing too frequent progression on a dice fluke.

Mood: empowered.

Music: Music: Power Of The Sun by Bruce Dickinson and Main Attraction by Quiet Riot.

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The Risk to Remain Tight in a Bud

Previously on R.G. Male's Dark Corners... I set up some information for those uninitiated in the greatness of role-playing games, particularly the pen and paper kind that come with books and people track things and do everything more or less by hand or keyboard. Last week I discussed the unrealistic method of character advancement known as levels, whereupon reaching a new level of experience the character has an explosion of growth, as opposed to a more natural progression. This leaves us with the need to look at how to bring that sense of realism, or verisimilitude back to the mechanics of the game. Advancement of your playing character within the game is one of the best ways of gauging how well the game is going. It's like winning in a game where there isn't real winning or losing because, as a story shared among friends, the journey is more important than the destination.

Rather than levels where everything advances all at once some games measure progress incrementally. The Game Master takes note of when a skill is used, or the players track it themselves, and after so many successes--or in the best systems a measure of losses as well, since mistakes are important to the learning progress--the skill is advanced. This is a fair simulation of the real world. The same process is applied to powers that the character has whether that is super powers, psychic abilities, or magic. This is particularly useful to magic systems involving learned incantations and rituals. The other side of the coin in this incremental advancement is that the character is required to practice and study. This is especially true of picking up new skills, learning new spells or creating new magic. However it does have its issues with psychic abilities and super powers.

Depending on the setting, and the mood it looks to evoke, psychic abilities may not be something that is learned. The power is either there waiting to be unlocked or it is not there at all. Super powers tend to be dependent upon time for their advancement or exposure to new catalysts that cause new powers to develop. This is not to say that existing powers do not advance just as skills do, and characters should ultimately learn new tricks with use of existing powers even if they are not expressed in the mechanics. For the new powers and abilities a system must be in place that works in parallel with skill advancement or on a time scale. The problem with a time scale is that a game could run only hours at a time within the setting or stretch out for weeks in game. This leads to slow or fast power gain respectively. Tune in next time for some options to deal with this.

Mood: excited.

Music: Good Enough by Van Halen and Better by Guns N' Roses.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #4-6: Give Three Knocks

The Victorian era embraced the mystical even as rational thought, science, and industrialisation gripped Britain, the empire upon which, near the end of that time, the sun never set. This was especially apparent in the love affair with mediums and séances. Previous discussions have considered the impact of speaking with the dead on a horror setting, but the methods of communication were not covered. Séances with or without a proper spirit medium present have a unique flavour. There is a particular phenomena that is associated with séances and mediums that doesn’t see a lot of coverage elsewhere. That would be ectoplasm, oft exteriorised by mediums and the foundation upon which a ghost may build limbs or a body with which to exert itself on the physical world.

Among the options for the setting there is an allowance for different expressions of the physicality of ectoplasm. Historically speaking comparisons have been made to gauze, and less interestingly mucus. There is a suggestion that apparitions are indistinguishable from the living in non-contact situations, the realisation arrived at only with the dissipation of the ghost or similar impossibility for a living person. This distinction and the scientific definition of ectoplasm as the outer part of a cell’s cytoplasm supports the option of ectoplasm that is fleshier, like the gelatinous extrusion of fat and other material from cooking meat. This meatier ectoplasm will come out of the medium through the skin rather than being excreted through the mucus membranes and it will be more substantial.

Along side ectoplasm’s highly visual physical manifestation of the spirit world there are the psychokinetic displays associated with séances. The simplest is the request that the spirit summoned show its presence by rapping or knocking on the table around which the participants are seated or some other object in the room. The sound can also simply manifest in the air. The spirit can answer yes and no questions by knocking using one knock for yes and two for no. More complex questions can be asked using a Ouija or Spirit Board. Less helpful to the séance but more exciting are the poltergeist-like outbursts, and being fiction there can be straight up voices and even pyrokinetic displays. It is also common that called spirits may not be truthful, the one asked to appear, or a devil instead.

Mood: C.H.U.D.-tastic.
Music: When Two Worlds Collide by Iron Maiden and Love At First Bite by Wolf.

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13 Nights of Hallowe'en: Night #12 Stir of Echoes

Can you smell that? That is the smell of Bacon-y goodness.
The movie is “Stir of Echoes”, a horror with Kevin Bacon. This movie is zero degrees of separation from Bacon, and greatness. Could you expect otherwise with Bacon in a movie based on the 1958 novel by Richard Matheson? Fear not this, the movie does not disappoint. “Stir of Echoes” even takes a solid left-hand--the sinister hand--turn shy of halfway through making for a fresh experience for fans of the novel. “Stir of Echoes” echoes Matheson’s novel, well maintaining the spirit and staying on point, all while changing things up. This balancing act comes from the movie’s writer/director David Koepp. Koepp is also responsible for the Stephen King movie “Secret Window”, and wrote the screenplay for Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man”.

One last note about Koepp, this year’s movies list has included a staggering number of films from writer/directors. “Stir of Echoes” also boasts Jennifer Morrison from “Urban Legends: Final Cut” and TV’s “House” in a scant few memorable scenes. Then there is Kathryn Erbe from TV’s "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" who in an acting sense stands up to Bacon’s performance more than admirably. I would like to make a note about the DVD. The Amazon link should be to the same edition that I bought. If not I don’t know what to say. The DVD that I have has the creepiest menus that I have ever seen. The menu for the special features in particular causes the hair on the back of your neck to rise. Some people wish their movie was this creepy. I give my kudos on the entire movie experience.

Mood: anxious.
Music: Halloween by Helloween off of Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1.

Anatomy of a Horror Setting #19: Dead Men Tell All

The old saw that dead men tell no tales takes on a sense of irony in a world with ghosts, mediums, and necromancers. For people that can communicate with those beyond the grave there is almost nothing that cannot be learned. The only catch is in finding a source of information, and convincing it to help. The type of information needed from the dead can be anything from book-style knowledge to more know-how knowledge depending upon at least three factors. The first question the author needs to ask is how much the setting and mood is going to allow. The second is about the scope, especially in the sense of how far back can information be gained, how old are the oldest ghosts? The third is a little more mechanical, how can the information be passed on to the living?

From the standpoint of being just another source of information spirits and those no longer amongst the living can negatively impact the horrific mood. Unlike other sources though they can also keep or strengthen the mood in other ways. For starters the knowledge can come at a price. It can even be a high price. There are a number of examples. A spirit may need to be found in a place that is guarded or otherwise patrolled. The timing of the visit can be an added difficulty. Ghostly manifestations can be harrowing and escalate up to violent even without interference from a psychic. A medium may have to turn over some control of their body to an otherworldly entity even just to have it speak. Such an endeavour has its own inherent dangers.

Finding the keeper of a required bit of information can run the gamut from tracking down a name and asking around in the spiritual or astral realm, to finding a resting place, to dealing with forces best not meddled with. That is if there is someone or something left to know it. How long can a spirit hang around? How long does a ghostly echo last for? Some things may be lost to antiquity no matter how powerful the seeker. That is unless the dictated setting allows otherwise. That begs a few questions. How do the non-living sustain themselves? Do they change and grow, becoming more powerful, frightening, and dangerous? Is there a point where they no longer truck with mortals or just give up on the living and refuse to speak to them?

Then there are the mechanical concerns of such beings from beyond imparting their knowledge. Some ghosts may be able to speak to anyone. Some may not be able to speak but can intimate things by repeating a scene over and over or by psychic means such as empathic transmission. Others yet may be able to speak through a medium, or control such a psychic like a puppet due to the link they create. Those with that ability may be able to pass on more than words. They could complete tasks to which the host is unaccustomed. Even more than moving up to training they could enhance the host, or otherwise act symbiotically. Then there are those things that can take control of anyone they wish unchecked by anything but an exorcism.

Mood: verbose.
Music: Stay With Me Tonight by Quiet Riot and Borley Rectory by Llewellyn.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #18: Not Alone

Another factor in the creation of a psychic setting lies beyond the confrontations of psychic versus normal person and psychic versus psychic. It's almost cheating to neglect this facet. Without it, a key psychic ability if not a whole type of psychic character is forfeit. What is it? In two words, spirit world. The power? In one word, Mediumship. There is less to be considered with respect to the ability of the Medium than there is to be defined for a setting's spirit world. It starts with even asking if there is a spirit world, and more importantly are spirits allowed to roam about and interact with the non-psychic living. There need not be spirits to have ghosts and hauntings. There need only be phenomena with a scientific basis even if they are thus far not understood phenomena.

As far as hauntings and ghosts go the reasoning behind them can be anything from echoes of the past, to lingering personalised energies, to spirits, to entities that are not human derived. Moving past the assumption that the cause of a haunting is intelligent there are a few questions to be asked. Does the ghost recall everything that it knew in life, or the life of the person it is emulating? Even if it is an emulation it may not be for a nefarious purpose per se. It could be the only way in which the being or entity can interact with the physical world. The emulation of a previous--or even currently living--person could be unintentional or forced upon it. This is not to say that the purpose of impersonating some other being cannot be intentional and malicious.

The next question is does the ghost know a lot of other things? It need not be psychic to know enough to seem to actually be psychic in different fashions. This is of course dependent on a few factors, notably speed of movement. Another factor is the ghostly community, if such a thing exists. Also, while a spirit isn't limited by the time constraints of the living such as jobs and relationships it may be limited by energy constraints. That so, it may still have lots of time to investigate what it needs to know to impart to others. It may aid a loved one, a stranger--especially helping to solve its murder--or a medium or other psychic. Then there is the consideration of ghosts with abilities similar to that of psychics. Only some ghosts may have such insights or it could be all of them.

Mood: creepy.
Music: Tier by Rammstein and I Got A Line On You by Kim Mitchell.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #17: Like an Open Book

People put on airs, hide behind facades and are a mix of layers that have varying amounts of transparency, even when "viewed" from the inside. What happens when all of the obfuscation is ripped away? What happens when a complete stranger knows more about a person than the person knows about themselves? There's a quintessential quote that says roughly if we knew what everyone around us was thinking would we go crazy or would we be driven to kill each other. Sort of sounds like go crazy or go crazy. Of course such a simplification doesn't indicate when this obviously involuntary sharing of thoughts occurs and seems to be predicated on this situation's sudden appearance. Even then it's hard to justify the results suggested.

There is fertile horror fodder here to be sure though. Looking back to the previous two articles about breaking the horror with too great a body of evidence and too much information there is something of an inverse situation that is possible without harming the mood and theme of the "story" being told. This inversion does though hinge on its own kind of limitation despite that it is breaking out of the mould of the previous limitations. Not just any character can be allowed the wealth of details. This free reign of facts is best left to a singular antagonist in the setting, a sole villain. Horror beyond the obvious frightening images and the moods of unease, gloom, and darkness is about being overwhelmed, outpaced, desperate, and being on the losing side of the odds.

Enter the villain that knows more about the hero than what the hero will ever know about the villain. The element of surprise is the best weapon in any encounter, but is even more pivotal for turning the tide of an uneven encounter. Beyond knowing the hero's past, what kind of person they are, whom they associate with, and other details of the present, what happens when the villain knows the hero's future, what they will do, when they will do it, and even a hint of the result? This must have a limit too, but it can be pretty open ended. The future is always fluid and no sense of it could ever be infallible. Subtlety is an absolute requirement here, but such a scenario could be plenty horrific. It's another possible important if limited proposition in a psychic versus psychic tale.

Mood: level.
Music: The Reckoning by Iced Earth and Archetype by Fear Factory.

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