Genre Appropriateness: It's not what you do, it's how you do it.

This blog comes from something Michael Pucci, game developer and founder of Dystopia Rising, had said. To paraphrase, he commented on the act of players watching movies and taking in media to get into the mood before a game. He mentioned that the popular movie of choice was "Zombieland", a comedy/action movie about the Zombie Apocalypse coming in and survivors with their own agendas.

It's nice, it's got Zombies, Tallahasee is definitely a Merican if there ever was one, but it doesn't nail down the Genre. What the story is at it's core.

A few years back I taught a class at New York Jedi about Psychology and Storytelling of Star Wars. I open it up with one simple question: What genre is Star Wars?

It's a fairly simple question, right? Wrong. I got Sci Fi, Space Opera, Adventure, Mythic Epic (someone was trying to appeal to the teacher). In the end, Star Wars is a Fantasy-Adventure story. Yes it has Aliens and Spaceships, but that could just as easily be Races and Ships in a more medieval setting. Star Wars took elements from several genres, Western (Tattooine), Jidai-geki (The Jedi), WWII films (the trench run and the Empire in general) and a bunch of other sources and mixed them in a bowl. At it's heart, it's a Fantasy-Adventure tale.

Why Fantasy instead of Sci Fi? Because the Force is explained in great length (some times too much length, Episode I) and the technology is never glanced at. Planet Killers? Sure. Swords made of expanding beams of laser that can somehow stop? Done. No questions asked. The Force is gone to at great lengths by Yoda, Obi-Wan, Vader and the Emperor. It's their magic system, and that makes it a Fantasy.

So what is Dystopia Rising at it's core? It's a Survival Horror game. Here you are, at the end of it all, with low resources, the clothes on your back, and an entire world that wishes to rip your face off and eat it/wear it/wipe it's ass with it. Zombies are just the more obvious attraction, cockroaches in the grand scheme that just seem to multiply and swarm.. You've also got Raiders, Nazi's, Pikies, G-Men, Stephen King's managerie of Oh My Fucking Christ You Sick Bastard,  and anything else coming out of the minds of the sick puppies running the show.

Hi Guys.

So is a game that has Zombies in it a Zombie game? Up to you. Me, Zombies may be a common occurrence, but the themes of the game are survival and community. One of my favorite novels is the Newsflesh trilogy, written by Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire). Beautiful political thriller about the media, it just happens to be during the Zombie Apocalypse, except the Apocalypse happened and people just moved on with their lives a lot more paranoid and very armed. I love the series and would love to play DR to the effect of the series, but it doesn't mesh because the themes in it do not jive fully with Survival Horror.

So to counter that, people suggested a few other sources. Spaghetti Westerns (The Original Django comes to mind, look it up); Deadwood, with it's backwater encampment feel and ensemble cast of bastards, fuck ups, and the odd decent person is actually perfect for reference; Book of Eli, a Post Apocalyptic movie starring Denzel Washington nails most of the aesthetic of being in a "after the end times" scenario. Hunting cats, trading, scavenging, moral ambiguity and a sense of nihilism vs. higher purpose; the Original Evil dead, cabin in the woods with unspeakable nightmares just waiting.. There are dozens of other sources, but I think at it's heart you have to focus on the elements of Survival in nightmarish times.

This whole talk got me to thinking about my game: Mage The Awakening. What were 'It's Themes? It's genre? The story of Mage is, at it's core, a story about the corrupting nature of Power and the corruptibility of the Soul. You have access to the powers of magic, can sense, nudge, shift, control and hack the very fabric of Reality. How does this affect you? What happens when you fuck up? Last chronicle, the game had taken a very strange "Superfriends" vibe. These were people who joined together to do battle against evil...except they had arbitrarily declared himself "Good". That was boring, because what is the point of playing in the world of Darkness when everyone is playing the hero?

So, I reminded them of the problems of the soul. And corrupted ta number of them to the power of the Abyss. This chronicle, I'm building a setting where the enemies have taken over the City and the players need each other and the NPC factions to stamp them out. Power is not just who can use the biggest spell, it's how they're used. I drew a lot of inspiration for the Seers of the Throne, the mega conspiracy that attempts to rule mundane and magical societies, from the Syndicate, the conspiracy in the X-Files. These are men that may never be seen or heard from the players, but their agents and influence are always felt.

I also, personally, find the nature of the soul a fascinating and key topic for the venue, especially when most of the threats to Mages are often ones that seek to eat/corrupt/control their souls. I tend to find the esoteric discussions of Ghost in the Shell (both movie and the Stand Alone Complex Series) as well as the Matrix Series (minus Keanu 'I know kung fu' Reeves) as good examples of this. Mage deals with the concepts of Reality, Perception. There are no hard truths except the ones we make, how do we deal with that when it is shown that we can be wrong about how we see the world? These sources are actually listed in the core book of the game as being inspiration.

So what am I saying with all of this? Be mindful of the genre in which you are playing, discern and parse through it. Does this mean that those wanting to use Zombieland to psyche up for DR? Or Chinese Wuxia for Mage? Hell no, you add to the palette and sandbox of the game. However, always be aware of what the game is at it's core. This runs the risk of lockout or hijacking a game.

But more on that in another post.

Later

If you liked this article, disagree with it, or just wish to throw your love and devotion (or even your hatemail) comment down below. If you have a topic, or would like me to follow up, shoot me a comment here as well. - Craig