tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post5803306434017231979..comments2024-03-28T17:59:09.906+08:00Comments on Monsters and Manuals: On Violence: The Irishman, In Bruges, You Were Never Really HereUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-67928075254610290992019-12-21T07:22:33.268+08:002019-12-21T07:22:33.268+08:00Yes, I agree with all of that.Yes, I agree with all of that.noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-16240283909988272422019-12-21T07:22:00.582+08:002019-12-21T07:22:00.582+08:00These are interesting questions. I think unquestio...These are interesting questions. I think unquestionably life back then was more violent and cruel. But at the same time ordinary people probably would be scared of the PCs - it's a good point.noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-29248149913596826982019-12-12T22:48:01.994+08:002019-12-12T22:48:01.994+08:00Everybody knows In Bruges is a date film. Birds lo...Everybody knows In Bruges is a date film. Birds love it.p1r8z0rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02232264043854801391noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-4267252178473454652019-12-12T14:21:52.514+08:002019-12-12T14:21:52.514+08:00Eh, historically soldiers were bad news for peasan...Eh, historically soldiers were bad news for peasants regardless of whether they were doing violence in the vicinity, just due to their constant need for rations and tendency to requisition them. I could see fearing PCs on the same grounds as quite rational.<br /><br />Reaction to violence probably depends a lot on time and place; your average Saga-era Icelandic farmer's reaction seems more likely to have been "Poor bastard. You're going to pay the weregild, right?" (for human foes) than trauma, after the initial panic wears off. I think we forget sometimes how bloody life was back when; your average farmer had seen children die and had likely butchered livestock. Might also have been subject to compulsory military service, as with the fyrd in England or the leidang in Scandinavia. May well have enjoyed cockfighting (introduced to Greece in 600BC, spread through Rome, first banned in Britain in the 1835), horse-fights (mentioned in Egil's Saga iirc), and other bloodsport (though I readily accept that the vicarious reaction to bloodsport is very different from the panic reaction to interhuman violence). I think 20th/21st century expectations about human reactions to a lot of things probably don't generalize backwards very well.jedavishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08586249502818922886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-25019637835561550932019-12-11T21:18:16.051+08:002019-12-11T21:18:16.051+08:00Both thrills and terror come, I reckon, from a rea...Both thrills and terror come, I reckon, from a real chance of PC death from *any* outbreak of violence. That's why I prefer games like RuneQuest, Into the Odd and The Fantasy Trip, in which death is always a possibility. Even when I was a fairly small child, the notion of 'high-level characters' who are at no risk from a pack of goblins always rubbed me the wrong way. (Goblins kill Boromir after all, and Isildur, and Thorin, and Balin, etc., etc.)<br /><br />And, if any combat encounter poses deadly risks, players become somewhat risk-averse - and therefore more likely to try other, more interesting things. It's much more fun when characters try to keep the trolls talking until dawn rather than merely smiting them - and it's more interesting when the PCs try to play off different factions against each other so that they don't have to do the fighting themselves.<br /><br />That's not to say that fights can't be fun, of course: but unless there's a real risk of death, most of the dramatic tension ebbs away. <br /><br />Another benefit of this approach is that players become risk-averse because they want to keep hold of their characters' skills and stuff. So, as they advance, they move from being desperadoes to prudent explorers. That seems to me to be preferable to moving from risk-taking desperadoes to superheroes.<br /><br />JChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17964744140140515737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-71955426432748802702019-12-11T17:29:29.587+08:002019-12-11T17:29:29.587+08:00It's reasonable to assume that the PC adventur...It's reasonable to assume that the PC adventurers are somewhat inured to violence, but I've always tried to more accurately model NPCs reactions to that violence. Your average farmer isn't going be whistling a happy tune 5 mins after a unexpected and vicious goblin attack - they'll be traumatised, probably even scared of the victorious PCs?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15138028203485822495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-41030578627376034322019-12-11T12:20:35.455+08:002019-12-11T12:20:35.455+08:00I find it hard to imagine D&D without violence...I find it hard to imagine D&D without violence. When it gets preachy, it's more about who you can be violent to in what circumstances, than about violence itself. Ghasthousehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07401924351959645260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-90070296714395987362019-12-11T05:28:25.385+08:002019-12-11T05:28:25.385+08:00Who are you calling old!!?!!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!?Who are you calling old!!?!!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!?noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-2078278858131751402019-12-11T04:54:13.346+08:002019-12-11T04:54:13.346+08:00Me too and I've hated this since a young age. ...Me too and I've hated this since a young age. It's not like they COULDN'T make the dialog louder, or the explosions a bit quieter. I have to ride the damned faders anytime I watch TV in my own living room. HDAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-58239964538574830632019-12-11T03:59:40.285+08:002019-12-11T03:59:40.285+08:00"YWNRH was pretentious nonsense, like a borin..."YWNRH was pretentious nonsense, like a boring music video, made worse because it poked at my very biggest pet hate in films - mumbly dialogue too low in the mix so you have to turn up the volume absurdly loud to hear it."<br /><br />Haha, you are a grumpy old man.<br /><br />(Yes, I had the same objection, and have the same general pet peeve.)Picadorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01244353406711565712noreply@blogger.com