Burning with metaphysical fire, praying to heavy metal gods, melting walls with the intensity of your need, pulling off your head and hurling it at your foe setting off a mushroom cloud.
How far do you take the "anything is possible" mindset? Do you often use art to inform your story?
I strive for verisimilitude in most of my gaming. I really like horror, so I find that having a realistic and plausible setting throws the weird and horrific elements into higher relief.
ReplyDeleteSome of my games are highly influenced by art. I love old engravings and illustrations, and I've got folders and folders full of them. Sometimes I sort some out for a game (Into the Odd and Runequest, especially) and use random pictures in lieu of text-based random idea generators. I also photoshop a lot of the pictures to suit the campaign. I have a collection of monsters I made just messing about with different images which are collected in my ItO folder. I'll stat them out when my PCs finally meet them.
I use music / song titles and lyrics which can be great to come up with a starting point or entire plot, even an NPC or location.
ReplyDeleteA lot of times the music tone and mood sets my play tone and mood. Show tunes or theme music (not songs as much) are great for this and because it can change several times in one song so I use that to set the mood and tone of different scenes when I get ready to make a new scene. My iPod mini holds around 100 songs/music so I set it to random and hit play.
Virginian John an example of lyric inspired plot?
ReplyDeleteThe idea of a "psychedelic RPG" is pretty interesting. Solo would definitely work - but I think it's also possible in a group setting, with the right kind of players and mindset. A "dreamlands" like setting and lucid dreaming could be part of the game mechanics. Maybe a character only has a limited amount of control (based on mental stats maybe) - and if he can't maintain it, the dream / trip goes in unexpected directions. Interesting stuff to think about. Check out some Alex Grey art for some additional inspiration: alexgrey.com - Dissectional Art for Tool's Lateralus CD - Alex Grey
ReplyDeleteart figures heavily in my solo play for scenes, settings, maps, and characters.
ReplyDeletethe closest I get to psychedelia is the abandonment of a time structure outside a session tho.
I have two of Alex Greys art books. I have a lot of art books and folders and folders of art. I have a group on FB called Lost Carcosa where I share the weird stuff I find and others do the same.
ReplyDeleteWhen you are running solo, you can keep the colors vivid, the mood unbreakable.
I'm thinking you make a list of dream effects (bubbles, glowing, blurring, fractal/kaleidoscope, false interior...) And you can start normal or not.
Start with an actual dream you had.
I had a dream where I wondered if I was dreaming and pinched myself.
I felt it and determined I was not dreaming. I then entered a movie theatre and began hunting tigers.
People stared at a white flashing screen, mezmerized. I crept between rows of seats. I often sensed I was near one but they didn't materialize.
I could start there and roll for either a tiger (or random conflict) or a dream effect. A false interior could be a trap door under the popcorn maker that leads to the center of the earth (mastodons and ridable giant dragonflies) or maybe a fat man lifts his shirt to reveal cupboard doors on his.torso and they burst open and white birds fly out. And its night in him. Cool air drifts out.
But then if you want to turn up the weird, you get into a brutal fight with a sharpened goose or eat a magic jelly bean and everything gets trippy. You call on a higher power and it grants you a list of martial effects (like the giant hand from Foo Fighters Ever long) and a motorcycle or a teddy bear launcher and the teddybears are full of centipedes...
I'm wondering how to guide the action. Maybe make a pool of words. A hundred words 2d10 horizontal and vertical.
If I felt like that much work.
I often use cover art for inspiration: characters, places, situations.
ReplyDeleteAny favorite artists? I'm always looking for great art
ReplyDeleteChad Robb Frazetta, Hayes, Walpole, Giancola, Jeehyung, Kozalski, Whelan...
ReplyDeleteIf witing up a list of 100 words seems like too much work, you could just grab a book and point to words at random. The choice of book will colour the words you get, so if you want to stay with the surreal theme you could use a copy of André Breton's Poisson soluble (Soluble Fish).
ReplyDeleteChad Robb Led Zeppelin - "Stairway to Heaven." I had a running game using this song. It was a brat girl from a wealthy family that bought a Starship called "Feebird" and crew that was down on their luck and had lots of adventures. She learned she could not buy friendship, loyalty or her way out of every situation she came across. I might return to that one day.
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to to a horror or surreal adventure using the Eagles "Hotel California."
ReplyDeleteLike Twin Peaks but sunny.
ReplyDeleteFear and Loathing in Los Angeles
ReplyDeleteThere are even rules to play a games like that called Far Away Land. Quick start rules are free and you can test them :) http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/2832/Simian-Circle-Games/subcategory/5058_21184/Far-Away-Land-RPG
ReplyDeletedrivethrurpg.com - Far Away Land RPG: Quick Start Rules
Dirk Stanley is my friend. I own the Tome of Awesome and look forward to upcoming releases.
ReplyDeleteIllusions are an excellent approach when trying to install the Weird in an otherwise serious game. And yes, dreams. Exploring the limits of reality when one is a Magician and there are multiple world's can be an interesting exercise.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about a Mage the Ascension/Chtulhupunk type game.
ReplyDeleteCorporate wizards who travel astrally and hackers who travel the Cyberspace. Maybe they touch, coterminous planes of existence.
Somewhere near to Faerie and the Upper Umbra? I don't know CthuluPunk, so I can't speak on that...
ReplyDeleteI don't cling to canon.
ReplyDeleteCthulhupunk is a Gurps setting and its cyberpunk + Cthulhu. So kind of like Cthulhutech but more magicsome.