I am something of an odd fit for the hobby in the sense that I know very little about geek culture outside of gaming.

I am something of an odd fit for the hobby in the sense that I know very little about geek culture outside of gaming.

I am something of an odd fit for the hobby in the sense that I know very little about geek culture outside of gaming. When I play an RPG, I can’t weave-in references to comic books, Star Wars, and anime like my friends do, because it involves a cultural vocabulary I simply don’t possess.

But that’s not to say art doesn’t have an impact on my RP. Particularly when I watch films, I pay attention for things I can use in my role playing. I thought it might be fun to start sharing some of those notes.

I’m going to start with The White Ribbon. At the outset, I should tell you I’m not giving any spoiler warnings. In order to say what I want to say, I have to ‘spoil’ certain aspects of the plot.

The White Ribbon

The White Ribbon is a German-language film that came out in 2009. It’s about a Protestant village in pre-WWI Germany that has its orderly, oppressive foundation shaken by a series of violent events that become increasingly ritualistic in nature. The director, Michael Haneke, has said it is a movie about “the roots of evil.”

I saw the film when it was first released, and recently got a chance to watch it again. Here are some of my takeaways for role playing:

This is a Monsterhearts story

The children in this movie are monsters. Not literal monsters, but they are meant to be scary like monsters. They creep around in the shadows and whisper to each other. They engage in acts of cruelty. They are violent. But they are also children, and despite what you suspect (or know) about their behavior, you empathize with them, because they are victims of terrible circumstance, and because they are fundamentally incapable of controlling their impulses. It’s some real Monsterhearts-ass shit.

But as in Monsterhearts, the real monsters in the story are the authority figures in the children’s lives. Three in particular (the Pastor, the Doctor, and the Baron), are so monstrous, and exercise a level of control over the children so complete, it makes a certain degree of sense the children would respond with outbursts of violence. The scary thing is when the children become more ritualistic in their behavior, mirroring the way the adult authority figures use oppressive ritual to maintain their hold on the village.

For a great example of a subtle, but intensely evil authority figure, see the film’s Pastor character. This is particularly so if you’re going for a moralistic villain.

The Mix of Tones

I love how the film manages tone. It has a constant, low drumbeat of dread that runs throughout the movie, but the scene-to-scene tone is very spiky.

Here’s what I mean: we know there is something terrible going on behind the scenes. The movie makes near-constant reference to it, without every really coming out and saying what ‘it’ is. It creates a sense of permanent dread; dread without relief (something the movie has actually been criticized for, but which I love). And yet, there are scenes which are light-hearted, and even romantic. The film is very beautiful, and it has a charming love story at its heart.

But there are also scenes that are downright horrific, which spike way above the drumbeat of dread when it comes to darkness, and are a huge tonal shift from the more romantic scenes.

I love this mix of tones for an RPG that has horror as its focus (particularly if you have a few sessions to really let it breathe). I was definitely trying to accomplish this in my last series of Monsterhearts, which vacillated between instances of shocking, bloody body horror, and moments of pure comedy and camp. My underlying ‘drumbeat of dread’ was the campaign’s recurring villain, who was clearly working on something in the background (which I managed through my fronts and clocks), but who didn’t reveal it until the final moments of the final session.

Languid Pacing

The White Ribbon is often criticized for being too slowly paced, but I think the pacing is both beautiful and necessary. It’s an ensemble film. The narrator is ostensibly the main character, but this movie is really the story of a dozen different people. The movie resists the temptation to keep things tidy by only dealing with one narrative perspective, and instead lets each of the key characters breathe a little bit.

There is a huge lesson here for RPGs. My least favorite sessions of the last few years have involved stories with lots of characters in a one-shot. Some games have this baked into the rules, and those games are fucking awful. Other times, we’ve done it to ourselves. We take a small, tight, claustrophobic story and we introduce a bunch of NPCs, or we start moving the characters around too much.

I think there is a tendency in gaming to be intimidated by a languid, dreamy pace. I don’t know what that is about (except to say I am just as vulnerable to it). Maybe it feels self-indulgent to have a slow, introspective scene? Maybe we feel a constant pressure to have everyone at the table involved at all times? Who knows? For my part, I’m going to try to be better about giving a scene (and a story) a chance to breathe a little bit.

18 thoughts on “I am something of an odd fit for the hobby in the sense that I know very little about geek culture outside of gaming.”

  1. Fascinating post! I’ll have to put that film on my list. Have you ever seen The Wages of Fear? It takes a little time to get started but it has that unrelenting dread quality to it as well.

  2. Fascinating post! I’ll have to put that film on my list. Have you ever seen The Wages of Fear? It takes a little time to get started but it has that unrelenting dread quality to it as well.

  3. In never thought about how this could be a Monsterhearts thing. But sure it can be read that way. I would have to watch it again, which is not a feel good experience.

    Great film though.

  4. In never thought about how this could be a Monsterhearts thing. But sure it can be read that way. I would have to watch it again, which is not a feel good experience.

    Great film though.

  5. Slow, introspective scenes would be great in story games, but everyone needs to be on the same page as to the tone you are trying to achieve at the table. One player quick with a joke will break the mood.

    Haneke is a master of tone. Another film of his that would also provide good RP inspiration is Time of the Wolf. It’s a post-apocalypse slow-burn story full of dread and tension. I can’t tell you what system would work for it, though now I want to find one.

  6. Slow, introspective scenes would be great in story games, but everyone needs to be on the same page as to the tone you are trying to achieve at the table. One player quick with a joke will break the mood.

    Haneke is a master of tone. Another film of his that would also provide good RP inspiration is Time of the Wolf. It’s a post-apocalypse slow-burn story full of dread and tension. I can’t tell you what system would work for it, though now I want to find one.

  7. Logan Howard I have not seen The Wages of Fear, but it looks really interesting!

    Philipp Neitzel Certainly you couldn’t replicate The White Ribbon’s story with MH rules-as-written, but as I watched it, my mind kept returning to the MH text. I found a lot of thematic similarities.

    And, no, The White Ribbon is definitely not the feel-good hit of the summer, haha.

    Patrick O’Leary I agree the tone conversation (and other expectations-setting rituals) is vital in gaming. Also, I LOVE Time of the Wolf.

  8. Logan Howard I have not seen The Wages of Fear, but it looks really interesting!

    Philipp Neitzel Certainly you couldn’t replicate The White Ribbon’s story with MH rules-as-written, but as I watched it, my mind kept returning to the MH text. I found a lot of thematic similarities.

    And, no, The White Ribbon is definitely not the feel-good hit of the summer, haha.

    Patrick O’Leary I agree the tone conversation (and other expectations-setting rituals) is vital in gaming. Also, I LOVE Time of the Wolf.

  11. something that always seems to be an issue with pacing is “real world time available”.  Remember our game of Annalise we took to a 3rd session and still felt like we could ring out more?

  12. something that always seems to be an issue with pacing is “real world time available”.  Remember our game of Annalise we took to a 3rd session and still felt like we could ring out more?

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