russian formalists: narrative can be divided into fabula and syuzhet
me: fabulous and cishet, not the same thing, got it,
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russian formalists: narrative can be divided into fabula and syuzhet
me: fabulous and cishet, not the same thing, got it,

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A Sweet Deception (thoughts about 12.11)
*Mr. Burns hand wringing* Yes, excellent. Mostly... Ok, so no one drank milk in this episode but it kind of wasn’t needed, intentions weren’t exactly subtle. ...Also, I knew it! Mwahahaha! Those damned, shot hogging waffles! I know what you’re trying to tell me, waffles. I understand you. What’s that, waffles? @mittensmorgul already shed light on your grand conspiracy? Why, yes. I know, that’s what she does and she does it very well. In fact, I’m sure many others have too. However, I’d still like to break this scene down myself because it's interesting... well, part of it is. Part of it’s a tired tendency in tv that’s still common and makes me cringe.. *sigh* Ok, so after Dean wakes up next to a blatant Alice in Wonderland reference, he gets a guy to lend him his phone and asks Sam to meet him at a waffle house(House of deceptiooon!). There’s your exposition. Scene in the waffle house opens with a shot of sugared up waffle stack leaving the kitchen. Just based on this and our knowledge of waffles in the show, we can gather that this scene will involve deception. The waffles are placed as being part of Dean’s order, but he doesn’t touch them. The camera reminds us of the waffles again in the scene by lazily panning down and blurring out the foreground. Dean never touches these waffles. When the waitress from the night before approaches Dean, she slaps him when he doesn’t remember her. He then pays for the food and leaves the waffles on the counter untouched. The most he acknowledges them is offering them to Sam, who declines. Sam even thinks Dean is drunk, even though he’s not. Could count as another deception, but it’s less important here. Sounds to me like maybe this girl was the waffles, unfortunately. I’m not really a fan of likening her to food but it’s kind of what’s being written... again, not uncommon. And that point is brought into harsher light when they meet her again in the burger place later on. She starts telling them about the night before and how she was busy. Dean had drank a few tequilas and flirted with her, then according to her, they “Let off some steam” Dean doesn’t remember. I agree with Mittens when she said the waitress was testing him. Her story just doesn’t add up on its own. The only part of what she says is true is that he drank some, got on the bull and flirted some, agreeing to meet her later. Dean ordered a plate of sugary waffles, vaguely acknowledges them, but leaves them on the table without touching them and following through. Dean agreed to something sweet from the waitress, flirted with her, but left without touching her and following through.
Do you ever run elaborate self-made worlds wherein your PCs pull off some really phenomenal shit and ascend to infamy, godhood, or some combination thereof? If so, do you follow up with a future setting drastically altered by PCs of the previous campaign? Got any cool stories regarding this subject?
Why yes, yes I do!
For example, the current Shadowrun campaign I am holding is a direct reflection of the Shadowrun campaign we had previously completed. (season one, and season two, if you will)
At the end of Shadowrun: Season One, the players were running into the Tenochtitlan pyramid to prevent a long running conspiracy of using magic to resurrect an ancient Aztec god, which would destroy and recreate the world in an effort to cleanse impurities.
Thankfully, the runners were able to prevent this from happening.Â
As Shadowrun: Season Two came about, the players were in an environment directly reflective of the world they had created based on the consequences of their actions previously.
The corporation that was attempting to summon the Aztec god (Aztechnology) was subject to many criticisms, allowing the rest of the AAA Corps to take their share of the previous properties (almost for free), heavily unbalancing the corporate power of the Sixth World.Â
The corporation that was a direct benefactor of the PCs previously (Ares Macrotech) took advantage of this heavily, and created a campaign to promote “American Technology” over “Foreign” magic. This led to a persecution of the magically inclined, which the players must attempt to reverse!
I’m a firm believer of “No singular objective good” in most games, and especially in something like Shadowrun. For that reason, one corp or another, someone will always be trying to tip the world into their power. The PCs learned that lesson the hard way!
Consider a scenario wherein magical talent is hereditary, and a magocratic empire retains its control over all of its constituency by enforcing a eugenics program for over eight centuries that seeks to divide its people into a peasant class with no hereditary capacity for magic, and a nobility that serves the empire and is rewarded by positions of power and luxury. To further cement the control of the empire, religion is outlawed and technology is suppressed. How would you run this seting?
This is amazingly cool. I like this idea.Â
If I were to run this campaign setting, I would set the Empire as the (somewhat obvious) antagonist to the PCs. Then I would position the PCs as normal, run-of-the-mill citizens of the peasant class with a healthy amount of unrest.Â
Then I would either MacGuffin the PCs into finding some advanced technology, or allow them to accidentally meet someone who has found some advanced technology, and see what they do with that power.
Theoretically, in my dream situation, the PCs would rise against the tyrannical Empire with their technology and live out every 90s Mech-Fantasy I’ve ever had.Â
Realistically, they’d probably just blow themselves up.Â
I would run a harsher setting with great reward over a LONG period of time wherein the PCs would be working to undermine the Empire through technological methods, because eugenically cleansing the peasant class of magic is butts.
magic butts.
Alternatively, if I instead wanted to run this from the top downward, I would have the PCs as the noble class with power who seek to change the hierarchy for the good of the people, but I find the low-to-high route more interesting.Â
Might I ask for a moment of your time for which you explain to me the complexities and nuances of establishing a pantheon for an original setting? I'm trying to identify recurring traits among religions created solely for the sake of narrative.
I've only homebrewed a pantheon once, as I've only had to do so once. It was in a homebrewed D&D 3.5 game, if i remember correctly.
I started by writing a story about a group of people. A regular story about regular people in a regular town, assuming that the town has every profession necessary to have it run without outside influence. Â These people would be based on the "Seven Heavenly Virtues".Â
Then, I extrapolated the concepts. The farmer was a provider of food rather than a farmer. The soldier was the bastion of defense rather than a soldier. The lord was a benevolent overseer rather than a lord.
I let these normal people assume the major characteristics they embody: diligence, patience, kindness, humility. These people may or may not have actually existed in world lore, but that's irrelevant.
Advance history by some incredibly large amount of time, and assign each virtue to a different part of the world. The town expanded, and each of the original members claimed their own section of the world.
If I were to be direct, which I will for the sake of example, there would be seven kingdoms based around these seven concepts, each having their own god based on the original story.
It's boring to have that much objective good, and therefore each town based on Godly virtue would be tempered by its respective vice.
Perhaps the leaders in the Kingdom under diligence were lazy, and allowed their people to do all the work instead. The Kingdom based on temperance would be filled with lusty sections and alleys.
I like to assume that the virtues are always a basic guideline for how good humanity can be, and vices are the result when a divergent path is chosen instead. I like to assume the same for my personal pantheons in original settings.
Realistically, and this rings true in any game I run, I find the best villains are the ones who truly believe what they are doing is correct, and a "villain" is always someone who is attempting to do something outside of the set virtue.Â
I hope this rather rambling post was helpful!

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