094: neeerrrrrrrd
Hullo.
This week's obsessional record has been SOPHIE's Immaterial, which was in last week's tracks of the year, but would climb about ten places if I re-did the list this week. I swear, it's not just because it uses the same Immaterial Girl nod as we used in Phonogram 3.
Contents!
Back In Black
Sensitivity
Asks
Talky
Links
Byyyyeeee!!!
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One book this week, and its’ this one which is, in WicDiv terms, a banger. If you’re the sort to read the tags, I’d advise to read it before you venture near there. Hmm. I suspect that may be entirely extraneous at this stage. Assume the warning is there for every issue in this arc, as we career towards the conclusion.
Preview here. Buy from your shop or comixology.
Oh – you can read my writer notes for issue 40 here.
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After we mentioned Sally Couch has been helping us as a sensitivity consultant in the backmatter of DIE 2, the MNT reached out to interview her. She says things like…
“My role as a sensitivity consultant is to be that person to say, “hey, carrots and potatoes are really hard to slice… if your character is going to be cutting vegetables – they’re not like you, they would do this instead”. I give creators the idea of what it’s like to live disabled, and how I get around many daily tasks that are relevant to the storyline. For me, seeing disabled people in media was rare when I was growing up, and if they were there, it wasn’t ever anyone with limb loss. I had nothing to work on, no one to show me how I should be doing simple things like cutting vegetables or even watching my posture. This means that for every ‘able bodied’ person who wants to write about being disabled has even less of an edge, and would always have to assume. “
In terms of sensitivity consultant, my basic take is “When researching ancient Sparta in three, I went to speak to world experts to get it right. I’d have paid much more to speak to an actual Spartan. Sensitivity consultancy is just an extension of research.”
I killed a little time answering some asks on tumblr. I’ve actually got a few good questions I want to get to given a few spare minutes, but do feel free to ask your own. Here’s a couple of the meatier ones…
Q: What type of Phonomancer would specialize in mash-ups? Especially the glitchy experimental kind? What would their worldview be?
A: If you’re thinking about Phonomancers, think less about the actual form of music and more about the approach to the music and the effects they’d use it for.
When I was having a read of the Phonogram-inspired LARP my Jam the bit which made me smile in a “Oh, they get it” was the five vague tribes they divide their phonomancers into. Rather than doing genres, they arranged it into five approaches. In their case, melancholy, hype, chill, fanatical, or aggro. The emotional ones are a “I like music that makes me feel like XYZ” sort of thing. The one which made me most smile was Fanatical - as that’s the one which is based around a belief that this form of music is objectively the best. Some other designer would have made the Fanatical one the indie elitist class, the aggro class the punks and the hype one speedmetal or whatever… but that’s not really what Phonogram is about. The metalhead who thinks metal is the only music that matters is more in common with the poptismist who believes that anything outside the mainstream may as well be evil than the metalhead who is mainly into emotional dirges.
That’s turning it into a system, which isn’t needed for Phonogram, which is primarily literary. Like, if I were to cook up someone into messy mash-up stuff, I’d be thinking of someone who likes exploring and distorting context - which leans towards a certain prankster attitude, in terms of being interested in provoking responses (if playing to someone else) or just hearing the world remixed and the semiotics of these distant things rubbing against each other, so reworking the world (if playing for self, etc). You could even move into nastier terrain and using it as an elitist who likes to signal their taste on multiple levels - as in, they like all this stuff, and can recognise it, and also know where to find an obscure mash-up. This could be benign - viewing music as a puzzle game for yourself. Conversely, you could absolutely see someone doing this performatively when DJing, etc - though that’s more likely with a less glitchy mash-up.
(Of course, I’m also showing my own philosophy here, especially when DJing. If I were to write my list of DJ tips for most situations, it’d certainly include “Don’t play a mash-up unless it is superior to both the songs it mashes up. All that happens is people wish you were playing the other songs.”)
But you find your own answer, really. My standard line is all Phonomancers are a church of one.
Q: I love the idea of 8 orders of knights who use the D8 with barbarians being one of a subset. So I looked up the emotions you were talking about and now I can’t stop thinking about how the hell a knight of gasps is going to constantly stay surprised throughout a fight. Anyway, I can’t wait to play as a knight of constant anxiety!
A: You kind of hit upon how it basically works - like, the Knights end up having a personal relationship with their emotion, and that axis. Still - if you want to think about it wider, you should look at what it’s riffing on. This is the wheel, stolen off the Wikipedia page…
All the coloured areas are a single emotion in the system. So “Surprise” is also “Amazement” and “Distraction.” The most powerful emotions are the ones towards the centre.
So certainly surprise is in there, but amazement is too. So the “FUCKING HELL! DID YOU SEE THAT DRAGON!” would push the emotion. In other words, it could work great for an adventurer - they’d peak hard when they first see a new thing, and then likely decreases during a fight, unless something goes wrong (getting surprised, etc). Other emotions end up having different arcs - some emotions tend to be very easy to get low intensity of emotion and hard to get a high one, which ties into which abilities can be activated.
(To choose an alternate one, Rage is an easy one to talk about - if you’re not angry at the start of a fight, you certainly will be when that fucking thing hits you.)
I want to do more with the knights if I ever do a fuller campaign edition - there’s some Knights which I feel would work as a less pure-combat character. I have some ideas as a Detective as a Curiosity Knight sort of role, for example. But that’s down the line.
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I’ve been in the media a little over the holidays. I didn’t mention it last time, as last time was far too long. And I’m also lazy.
Firstly, I was on Front Row again, with Dave Gibbons and Gavia Baker-Whitelaw talking about Stan Lee on what would have been his 96th Birthday.
Secondly, Gita Jackson interviewed me over at Kotaku about DIE. One fun thing of DIE is going back to the old games-critic stomping grounds. I also like that Gita says it’s “Thrillingly Bleak” which is a pull quote if I’ve ever seen one.
Thirdly, Diane Sousa interviewed me for a con, which never used it, so she lobbed it online. See me wave my hands in the comfort of my own office.
Some links!
24 Panels has been going great. Here’s Alan Moore being interviewed about it. Makes a great (checks calendar) Valentines Day gift? Go buy.
Paul Cornell writing about Bowie’s influence at him around Christmas was striking, in terms of creative people take inspiration from creative people in completely different fields, and then bring it to their own work. This is something I’d advise a creative to cultivate. Frankly, a lot of my career has been based upon entering a room with expertise from another room which is not common in the room I’ve just entered.
This piece on Waypoint by Austin Walker Learning To Break A Perpetually Tied Game, which is about chess, turn-based-strategy-games and political change was great.
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This week has been mainly wrestling with DIE 6, then giving up and moving over to work on Star Wars 55, and then jumping back on DIE 6, only to find that DIE 6 had grown weak while I was away, so I’m now crushing DIE 6. Die DIE 6. Die!
(The “Go away and let your subconscious chew over a problem and return with it gnawed upon” is a useful writing tactic. In writing, sometimes “avoid the problem and hope it goes away” is 100% the correct thing to do. Er… don’t take this as an excuse to procrastinate. I know you. You don’t need an excuse.)
It’s ended up at a place I’m really happy with – the angle altered, and becomes something profoundly appropriate, and an element of gaming which DIE hasn’t really touched upon this point.
As soon as I’ve finished this, I’ll be signing DIE 3 off so the Printer can press the big button called Print. Rest of the week will be more DIE 3, the DIE 4 backmatter, and a lettering draft for WicDiv 42. Jamie sent me the pencils last night, and it got me entirely in the gut. There’s some composition I hadn’t considered, and Jamie has gone there, and incredible.
Also, we’re back in DIE RPG playtesting, which means I better do my prep for the next session. It’s… an interesting one. It’s the good stage of playtesting where the feedback I’m getting is small, but also meaningful.
The other main trend this week was DIE 2 coming out, which has been a little humbling. It was only when the issue came out, and how hard it hit a certain strand ofpeople, that I realised the other reason why I was worried about it. I was aware it was a wider issue, but the real thing is that the first issue was about selling the characters, the mood and the concept. The second issue shows the actual ideas. Many people could have had a “Go to fantasy world” story. Issue 2 is a huge download of how Stephanie and I have been thinking about this. Approval of the first issue is based on approval of execution of concept. Approval of the second is based around approval of our actual ideas. Are you actually going to go along with us? Oh, it seems you are.
In short, I feel blessed. Which is handy, as I could do with a hit bonus.
I can just hear Jamie going neeerrrrrrrd at this point.
Byyyyeeee!!!
Kieron Gillen
London
16.1.2018