Your Darkest Self

Yeah, maybe it was just Neon Fox's examples that made me think Keys.

I was wondering if maybe you would want to give some kind of reward for indulging your darkest self longer rather than immediately trying to hit the reset button.  Or are you just going to try to make all the reset buttons painful enough that it won't be an issue?

fnord,

I want your Darkest Self to fuck shit up for you. I want it to be a losing proposition, that you can't help but love in a perverse way, because you're at the helm of your own self-destruction.

So, the only reward for being your Darkest Self should be that your inhibitions are probably swept away. You can just give in to the monster.

The only reward for escaping your Darkest Self should be that you've escaped it.

Also, though, some Skins get more powerful as their Darkest Self, in this trade-off-y way.

Cool.  I suppose if, as a player, you really fucking hate a playbook's darker self, you shouldn't have picked that playbook to begin with.  You've got to take one with a darker self that you can revel in a bit, right?

(oh, and you can call me brian, if you want.)

Joe - just as a matter of curiousity, how familiar are you with White Wolf stuff? 

Joe - just as a matter of curiousity, how familiar are you with White Wolf stuff? 

I've run Vampire: the Masquerade. I've started and abandoned a Vampire: the Masquerade hack that stole mechanics from Covenant.

I can pitch all the major product lines to you, including Mummy and Hunter.

That's more or less it.

If you are wondering if I know that I'm deep into White Wolf territory, yes. I know. If you have other thoughts: put 'em out there!

Quote from: skinnyghost on July 28, 2010, 12:32:18 AM

Joe - just as a matter of curiousity, how familiar are you with White Wolf stuff? 

I've run Vampire: the Masquerade. I've started and abandoned a Vampire: the Masquerade hack that stole mechanics from Covenant.

I can pitch all the major product lines to you, including Mummy and Hunter.

That's more or less it.

If you are wondering if I know that I'm deep into White Wolf territory, yes. I know. If you have other thoughts: put 'em out there!

I'm mostly just curious.  I think that amidst all the angsty crap there are some real gems in the White Wolf catalog, both oWoD and nWoD and you should steal, pillage and hijack whatever you like.  *grin*

I feel very strongly that the only way out of your Darkest Self must involve another person with whom you have a pre-existing relationship. You have to do something to someone specific, or someone has to do something specific to you. Isolation and running away might happen AFTER that triggered event, but it can't be the whole thing.

Werewolves (and possibly Vampires) escape their Darkest Self by harming a loved one; Ghosts escape their Darkest Self by somebody realizing they are there (and calling their name or somehow acknowledging their triggering event); Fae escape their Darkest Self by being forgiven by somebody they've wronged (something they themselves are incapable of doing); Mortals escape their Darkest Self by standing up to a Monster (going aggro, basically)...

Anyways, something like that. I just feel like the genre demands that it is your relationship with other people that ultimately lets you regain your grip on yourself. Not your personal willpower, not random circumstance -- other people.

I feel very strongly that the only way out of your Darkest Self must involve another person with whom you have a pre-existing relationship. You have to do something to someone specific, or someone has to do something specific to you. Isolation and running away might happen AFTER that triggered event, but it can't be the whole thing.

I think there's a lot of merit to this idea. I'm fighting with it in my head, at the moment, because it's a different direction than I was headed...

But I think that if I give it some time, and experiment with it, I'll come to accept that you're right.

So: give me some time!

So, I'm doing a lot of catching up here, and might be reacting to non-state-of-the-art skin design, but I had a thought about the Mortal's Darkest Self. I can see how the 'go along with the monster' feeds the genre, but reading through the principles about acceptance and what not, isn't this a golden opportunity to both highlight a 'dark side' of humanity as well as play up what it is the monsters fear from the mortals making everything so delightfully angsty?

What I mean is, maybe the mortal's darkest self should be some sort of raging intolerance for monsterdom. Like reporting their monster boyfriend to the church/cops/parents or refusing to see them because they want to be normal or something. I don't have many mechanical-ish ideas here, unfortunately.

Intolerance and judgement, sure, that's pretty dark. And also innately human, I think.

Intolerance and judgement, sure, that's pretty dark. And also innately human, I think.

Truth.
You and Jeff are right about the Mortal's Darkest Self.

Oh, btw, have I already mentioned the Mortal's Sex Move?

When you have sex with someone, trigger their Darkest Self.

This might just be my own insanity speaking, but... would it be cool for the mortal to get some kind of benefit out of having sex with a monster?  Maybe getting to mark experience?

Yep, you mentioned the mortal's sex move before, and it's hot hotness.

This might just be my own insanity speaking, but... would it be cool for the mortal to get some kind of benefit out of having sex with a monster?  Maybe getting to mark experience?

I think that they do get a benefit. It's just a totally fucked up and creepy one. Let's walk through it, and you can tell me whether this works for you or not:

Lilly is a Mortal. She's terrified of the hypnotic world she's been exploring, but she also has an agenda going in the back of her mind. She sleeps with Tobias, a Ghost. They drift off, and when she wakes back up, Tobias is gone. Cue emo mope scene.

Except, Tobias isn't gone. His player is like, "Tobias is in the room, wanting desperately to communicate with you. But he can't - he's his Darkest Self. He lifts the love letter he wrote you, off the desk, and sends it falling through the air, towards you."

And now Lilly's player has something awesome in her hands. A victim that needs her help. And sure, she could acknowledge Tobias, and console him, and talk him back into existence (which I think is the new way you resolve a ghost's DS).

But... what is the Mortal good at? What are they poised to take advantage of? Being a victim. Lilly's lover just became the most terrible version of himself possible.

Lilly's just escalated their relationship, went deeper into her victimhood, and gave Tobias a strong motivation to stick around - that only she will understand why he became this way.

All Lilly has to do is balance that line between feeling hurt and being helpful, and she can milk this situation with Tobias for all it's worth.