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Plotting With Chaos: More Horror With Arkham Horror

Last week, I experimented with using Arkham Horror as a chaos engine to help outline a horror story, just to see what kind of crazy results we could come up with. Those of you who’ve read that post might remember that our (perhaps ill-advised) story of Anna and Inspector Yi had actually managed to flesh itself out pretty well just in the setup of the game. While this was super fun, I didn’t actually get to address the thesis of the experiment, which was about using the game itself to plot a story, rather than just using the chaos of game setup as a free brainstorming session. And so, this week, we’re diving back into Tabletop Simulator to see where this story is going to take us. Continue reading Plotting With Chaos: More Horror With Arkham Horror

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Plotting With Chaos: Let’s Outline a Horror Story Using Arkham Horror

After a recent back and forth with Rebecca Tucker (@researchib) on Twitter, I’ve been looking into the idea of using solo RPG as a writing aid. As quickly became apparent, the rabbit hole goes super deep, with lots of really cool-looking systems and system-agnostic methods of running a game without a GM. I told myself I wasn’t going to spend too much time on this, since I’ve got tons of other stuff to work on at the moment, but the idea kept nagging at me so I decided to try a bit of an experiment to see what comes out of using solo gameplay for story-writing purposes. Continue reading Plotting With Chaos: Let’s Outline a Horror Story Using Arkham Horror

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Review: Moon-Sitting by Emma Mort Harding

 

The Moon fell into the Ocean and the Waves wept.

Infinity was once home to a thriving civilisation. That is, before the Moon arrived. The enormous, spherical structure brought with it death and destruction, wiping out most of the population with a series of earthquakes and tsunamis.

Since then the Moon has sat silently on the southern edge of Infinity’s mass continent.

Lucky Marsh is one of three moon-sitters charged with monitoring the Moon, acting as a living alarm system for Infinity’s last city. They must watch, but never touch: that’s the golden rule of moon-sitting. However, for the ever-curious Lucky, that rule has become increasingly difficult to abide.

Her nightmares compel her to do more. Her feet betray her while she sleeps.

I picked this book up on a whim because A) it was short, and B) my heart needed a break after the second Fear University book. Being a novella with a length of only 100 pages, Moon-Sitting is easy enough to read through in one sitting (or two sittings, if you’re a terribly slow reader like I am). Despite the length, however, it’s got a surprising amount of depth to it, an interesting main character, and a super interesting world to boot. Continue reading Review: Moon-Sitting by Emma Mort Harding

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The Railroad Tracks: A True Ghost Story

Halloween is nearly upon us. As the moon waxes to full and the skeletons dance their forbidden, frightening dance, spooky stories are again making the rounds–classic stories, new stories, and even some true stories of ghostly encounters. It’s easy to scoff dismissively, and I’ll forgive you if you do. After all, ghosts aren’t real! But did you know that according to a YouGov poll from last year, 45% of Americans believe ghosts do, in fact, exist? Further, according to Pew, 18% of Americans have actually seen a ghost.

Those numbers seem shockingly high, which isn’t too surprising considering the derision that experiencers of the paranormal tend to face when they share their stories. So, in an effort to help #NormalizeTheWeird, I’m going to share my own experience with you, since the season invites all tales of the spooky, no matter how absurd.

Continue reading The Railroad Tracks: A True Ghost Story