It's Not What They Think, Josh

If you didn’t know already I’ve been gearing up to unleash a fiction blog. Not just any fiction blog, but one tied to a work in progress role-playing game. There are several issues involved in creating this blog on many levels. The issue I am interested in discussing now has to do with going against expectation. I can't help but spoiler some things. Sorry. Let me start with the basic premise behind the role-playing game. The game is called "This Mental Eventide" and revolves around the emergence of a large number of psychics. A man named Joshua Gavin Rhoads is the author of the blog. He initially hints that he has a secret that he wants to tell everyone but has to build up to it. The secret is the haunting. From there he begins to detail the various happenings. Here's the catch--and the worst spoiler of all. Josh is not haunted. Rather he is being plagued by his own burgeoning psychic abilities.

One of the elements to this setting is that there are no ghosts or earthbound spirits. There are hauntings sure enough, but they are residual hauntings--those are the echoes or events repeating on a loop--or the work of psychics. All in all this makes for a protracted scenario in which nothing is what it seems. There is the possibility that an abrupt turn of face would be off-putting to some. The haunting has to fall within the extent of Josh's psychic abilities. Since he is the cause of all of the phenomena it has to have some meaning to him or otherwise be in character for him. The incidents must be something he subconsciously wants or they happen in reaction to what he feels toward different people and events. Some will be very obvious, but others may seem particularly inexplicable, or at least unfathomable at first blush.

At this stage only one power is evident. Josh must have telekinesis. It covers a myriad of ghostly phenomena that are poltergeist-like in nature. I have an inkling of one of his other powers, but I won't mention it. The development of the game is incomplete so I do not know how many psychic abilities he should manifest, when they will do so, and what if any progression there is between them. Likewise Josh is a bit of a blank canvas. I have certain traits squarely in mind and the rest is open. I do not even know what his profession is yet. One of the keys to a setting like this, and especially these kinds of scenarios involving adults, is that these people have real lives first before the emergence of the fantastical or the horrific. These unanswered questions play into the next topic I want to write about with regard to this project.

Mood: secretive.
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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.

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Just A Flesh Wound

The first game-changer that came to mind, and spawned this brief series of discussions, is one very much ingrained in fantasy settings. To a certain degree it has been built upon ruthlessly in video games so much that it is entirely a staple without which most of those games would not exist. The premise comes from the earliest of fantasy fiction, at least modern fantasy fiction--older fantasy tended more toward mythology to outright belief. It seems to have a certain home in D&D as well. Without this specific element in these fantasy settings the games would be very much changed. This game-changing factor is the ability to miraculously heal at accelerated rates. It can include regenerating limbs, psychic abilities to heal and perform surgery, and the staple fantasy resurrections.

Amazing accelerated healing may come about by different means. Psychic abilities to heal the body have been mentioned. There are healing spells and magical potions that restore health. There are salves, balms, tinctures, and other forms of arcane herbal and alchemical methods of healing not only bodily damage, but also removing disease and congenital defects. Changing genres there are advanced forms of science driven healing from chemicals and drugs, to nano-bot surgeons injected into the blood stream, to the melding of man and machine with cybernetics. What is important about these forms of healing is not the exotic nature, not the unnaturalness--that would be normal for the given settings--but the efficiency and speed at which they work.

Whatever the method, these forms of healing change the dynamics of the setting. Militaries with these capabilities are more aggressive and likely to go to war. Consider the turn around of injured soldiers. True bravery is less, but daring moves--manoeuvres and strategy--more common. Extreme actions are frequently taken because the risks are less. Safety and carefulness is less important. Permanent damage taken out of the equation alters the dynamics of fear as well. What happens when terrorists' victims can be raised from the dead? Or the terrorists themselves resurrected? Thought should be put into how people will try to counter superior healing and returning the dead to life. This kind of healing will also alter people's life spans, which changes the game in other ways.

Mood: calm.

Music: Deep Unknown by Stratovarius and Obsolete by Fear Factory.

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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.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #2-17: Mind Games

In a magical horror setting the spell casters need to deal with the same sorts of logistical details in covering their tracks and maintaining a facade of a normal life, as do the empowered in a psychic horror setting. They share more of the strategic considerations beyond that though. In some cases, with the use of certain spells, they share the same abilities of control over others. The first case in point is controlling the minds of others. The magic user’s control over others comes in different forms with different levels of malleability. They can put people into trances where the individual stands or is recumbent and does nothing, not even think. They can make the individual do their bidding. This greater control involves anything from puppeting the person to possessing them.

The first step to most of these forms of controls is snatching the person, or otherwise getting them into the caster’s possession, so that they can work their magic upon them. Once the abduction is achieved, by whatever means, then comes the actual spell or ritual. These spells are just like any other, with any and all of the same requirements. The result of the spell is that the target person falls under the thrall of the caster. A prime example is similar to the control of hypnotic suggestion from the psychics where instructions need to be given to the enthralled. Then a trigger is needed to set off the execution of those instructions, unless what the controlled is supposed to be doing is ongoing. This trigger does not necessarily need to be implanted in the enchanted individual’s mind.

Spell casters have at their disposal spells in the limited, but exceeding useful, category of scrying. Here as with the psychic’s ability to astrally project within the material world, the caster can watch anything they want, anywhere that is not specifically protected from scrying. Since the magic user is watching they can trigger the hypnotic suggestions remotely. This forms a great layer of protection between the caster, the suggestions, and those who might otherwise easily see the influence under which that person is enthralled. This protection comes with some costs attached to it. The caster may not be able to scry at the appropriate time, the amount of control is limited, and the up front planning is heavy. One obvious alternative is to turn to a form of total control such as possession.

Mood: harried.
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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #20: Things Never Human

There are more things between Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. That is unless you're one of the ones to dream of such things. Or such a thing comes visiting. Once ghosts come up in the setting, especially the more spiritual kind, then another door is opened. The door is a question. What else is out there? Are there demons or devils? Are there things that are neither, or less definable and outside of more religious views? The choice can be to use none, one type of thing, or several things that aren't and never were human in addition to the more human parapsychological beings. Using more than one type immediately spawns a host of questions and decisions about the interaction between the potentially disparate groups.

The author of a setting has to define the inhuman supernatural forces first before getting to the connections and the tangled skein of relationships between entities. Biblical forces of evil are the easiest to make use of since so much information has been written already. Of course literature and Hollywood have their stamps all over the subject as well. There are different tacks to take in dealing with them as story elements. Do such infernal beings act independently or are they forced to work through proxies, including possessed victims? Within possession there are two apparent lines of thought that come to mind. Sometimes there is only one force involved in the possession. In others by default there has to be more than one entity involved in a possession.

The roles played by entities--sometimes identified as their own group--and beings from beyond the realm of human understanding can be the same as spirits, or the same as the psychics. They also can represent yet another layer, or complication to the setting. This new wrinkle has the potential to really make the setting diverge in a different direction, one that the setting's creator may wish to ignore. Some of these creatures may possess magic. Magic is differentiated from psychic ability past a certain level by being able to do just about anything. With the right kind of setting focus magic might also be something available to anyone. It can be an equaliser against the power of psychics. The addition of magic certainly changes the game and maybe in unwanted ways.

Mood: tired.
Music: If That's What You Want by Twisted Sister and Climb by No Doubt.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #11: Psychics and Social Engineering

There are two types of what is called social engineering that are similar but not as much as some would apparently like. One is considered real social engineering; the other is a pale comparison, supposedly. The "real one", defined by political science, involves the influencing of popular behaviour, like using propaganda. The other is just a fact of life where security scams are involved. It appears more that the security version is just a smaller scale, where only an individual need be influenced. The one sticking point of just considering them at different scales is that the security driven social engineers are about stealing information, whereas the political science version is about making change. They give different results, but at the same time they share similar methodologies.

Either kind of social engineering is certainly an avenue for a psychic to explore for their gain, whether that gain is for evil, selfish, or good reasons. A psychic might trigger spikes of change in behaviour and opinion on a scale that is temporary, or more long lasting, differentiated only by the level of subtlety and effort put into finding and affecting the right people. A psychic who wants to make people more accepting of him as a psychic might use hypnotic suggestion or empathic transmission to force an individual to treat the psychic as if he were normal. If there were people who were involved in a law making effort to afford certain rights to psychics he might manipulate the critics of that effort to change their attitude and support the effort.

The security style of social engineering is exemplified on the Internet. Phishing in particular stands out. A message that appears to be from a bank for instance says if the account isn't updated it will be closed. A provided link leads to a fake website requiring the account number and the password. The psychic phisher need only come into contact with someone. All they need to do is scam the subject into thinking about the desired information then they take it from the surface thoughts of the person. Also a psychic might enhance a regular scam further than a normal conman. Consider the trick where someone claims the person is entitled to an inheritance but must pay a transferral fee. The psychic can be assured the bait will be taken, and that the people not feel cheated later, either.

Mood: relieved.
Music: Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen and Burn by Apocalyptica.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #10: Paranoia and the Fugitive Mind

Am I paranoid enough with all of these psychics around? If this were a Tweet then this would be the entire message. Or is that just an easy lie? Is it known that such a brief yet illuminating single line is powerful enough to sum up everything that needs to be said on this topic? Or is this an attempt to make believe that it could be enough. Yet, on the other hand, this could be the start of a conspiracy because some people know that other people know this could be untrue, but those other people know what the first group knows so that could make it true. A knows that B knows that A knows what B knows so B pretends not to know what A knows to force A to not know that B knows. Of course this all assumes that B isn't too paranoid, because, of course, some paranoia is good.

Paranoia is chaotic and confusing enough when the paranoid person can only guess that the people out to get them know about certain things. When psychics who can read minds, see emotions, and bring to bear other similar abilities are a reality then just about anyone who wants to know your business can know it. The key to being paranoid--when it is not due to a psychological defect--is knowing something worth someone else's time and trouble to finding out. What that something is, that the person knows, can be many things. It can be a newly discovered fact. It can be that the person witnessed a crime. It can be an association between multiple ideas or multiple people. In all cases though, that knowledge is something someone else either wants, or needs suppressed.

The right psychic can suppress knowledge literally. The ability to remove memories is powerful in some contexts. The existence of such a power also adds another type of paranoia, the kind where something has been done to the "subject" already. Certain memories could have been taken already. This leads to the paranoid idea of having been implanting with things. What those things are range from tracking devices, to biological weapons, to thoughts. Psychic surgery would allow the implantation of objects without scarring, anaesthetics, or excessive time. The memory of the implantation being removed in addition to an incubation time makes for a greater spread of a bio-agent. The implantation of a thought can be false knowledge, a hypnotic suggestion, or a persistent voice.

Mood: cleansed.
Music: Witch-Hunt by Stratovarius and The Rift by Vince Neil.

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