{"id":46850,"date":"2019-08-09T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T10:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=46850"},"modified":"2019-08-09T05:27:46","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T09:27:46","slug":"47-getting-shafted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=46850","title":{"rendered":"#47 Getting Shafted"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The illusion of trade:<\/p>\n

1) Anything the GM wants you to have will always be something you can afford, regardless of how broke you are or much it should cost.
\n2) The shopkeeper will never buy anything that you are required to own for the purposes of the plot.
\n3) The shopkeeper will never have anything for sale that the GM doesn\u2019t want you to have. But hey, if you feel the need to trade anyway, knock yourself out.<\/p><\/div>\n


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Shawn Says:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In retrospect the entire Stevegar scene really isn\u2019t all that funny, aside from the visual gag of Stevegar himself. Ah well.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re nearing the end here kids. If you have any topics you\u2019d like to see Shamus and I ramble on about in a future Bonus Commentary, ask away. The clock is ticking.<\/p>\n

There are 4 more regular CB comics left, and then the text ending, expanded with some all new commentary and maybe a sketch or three, and finally one all new Chainmail Bikini comic strip. Feel the excitement.<\/p>\n

Edit 2019: I’ve long since lost my notesIn the old days I wrote in raw text files, which are easily forgotten \/ misplaced in a computer migration. These days I use Google Docs for everything.<\/span>, but I’m pretty sure the Stevegar gag was supposed to go on for a lot longer. This was a new idea that I couldn’t have done in the context of DMotR. I can’t remember any specific jokes now, but I’m pretty sure this vignette was cut short because the audience got so riled up about this injustice against Chuck. <\/p>\n

People reacted VERY strongly to Stevegar. Once again I was caught off-guard by people having empathy for the characters and their plight. <\/p>\n

In Loony Toons, Bugs Bunny is usually the invincible god of mischief and Daffy Duck is the recipient of lots of abuse. In general, people don’t see Daffy’s injuries and get angry about the violence and his constant setbacks, because the story is constructed in such a way to make it feel like it’s his fault. He deserves this, and we enjoy seeing him get his comeuppance. Within the story, we see that he’s bringing it on himself and he could make it stop whenever he wanted by simply leaving Bugs alone.<\/p>\n

I thought of my characters as a bunch of Daffy Ducks. They’re all dysfunctional and they’re all presumably in this group of their own volition. They’re not chained to the table. They could go home whenever they wanted. For me, their dysfunctional game was just a given of the setting: They’re all here playing this terrible game for the wrong reasons and anything that happens to them is more or less their own fault for showing up. <\/p>\n

I figured I could hurl abuse at them for laughs and everyone would see their misfortune as self-inflicted and justified. This didn’t really work. I could have Chuck act like an irritating jackass in one scene, and then a bit later people would feel sorry for him when his character got hijacked. People kept having empathy when I wanted to enjoy the schadenfreude. <\/p>\n

But maybe I should have spent some time making the setting more explicit. I could hint that there are other tabletop groups out there, but these players have either been thrown out of those games, or they refuse to play those games because decent people won’t put up with their shenanigans. <\/p>\n