{"id":1016,"date":"2019-03-13T10:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T10:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/?p=1016"},"modified":"2021-11-16T00:39:06","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T05:39:06","slug":"five-or-so-questions-on-dangerous-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2019\/03\/five-or-so-questions-on-dangerous-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Five or So Questions on Dangerous Times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hey all! Today I’ve got five or so questions with Michael Bacon about the game Dangerous Times, which is currently on Kickstarter<\/a>! Hope that you like hearing about this game of journalism in the 1920s!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tell me about Dangerous Times. What excites you about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dangerous Times is a small role-playing game for two or\nmore players, published in zine form, with a focus on storytelling. It’s about\nreporters who risk their lives to expose corruption, crime and injustice, all\nin a version of 1920\u2019s New York that\u2019s just learned stage magic is real. So now\nmagic is everywhere: children play with fire and levitation in the streets,\nwall street moguls consult soothsayers before making investments, crooks turn\nhypnotism and escape-artistry to devious purposes… and of course those who\nseek power are messing with things best left alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the aspects I’m most excited about is the history\ninvolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York of the jazz age is a surprisingly modern time.\nBroadway is decorated with neon lights, cars fill the streets and the subway\nrumbles below. There\u2019s even a budding intercontinental network of wires and\nradio waves used to share photographs and news around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just the technology that makes the twenties\nmodern, though: so many familiar social issues are present and cultural shifts\nare happening, often in ways that resonate with the current time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d love it if players were able to engage with all this history, and find ways to incorporate it into their play. I’ve tried to encourage that in the design. So even though the problems they bump into involve the supernatural, I’ve attempted to make those plotlines echo historic reality. It turned out to be\u2026 not easy (I\u2019m still not sure I\u2019ve got it right), but at least surprisingly straight-forward. This makes sense, though, because this is the culture that produced so many of those genre-defining fantasy, horror and mystery stories; they couldn\u2019t help but bring reality into the fantastical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The 1920s were a complex time in New York! I know that many Black Americans and queer people were among those living in the city. What kind of research are you doing to ensure that you have appropriate representation of the history and the people of the era? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m glad you brought this up, because how people treated\neach other during this era has been a major focal point of my research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been lucky enough to lean on the work of historians\nwho’ve spent their entire careers studying aspects of this, exploring how\nspecific conceptions of race, gender, sexuality and nationality influenced and\nwere influenced by society at large. There\u2019s even a page at the end of the zine\ndedicated to resources and references, so that players interested in learning\nmore can know where to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going into this I\u2019d only known the broadest shapes of the\nera, and I was very excited to learn about ways society seemed to be expressing\ninterest in diversity\u2014 this romantic idea that New Yorkers at large were going\nout to speakeasies, immigrant neighborhoods, jazz clubs, queer dances, and\nencountering all sorts of other lifestyles and backgrounds\u2014 but when I started\ndoing the reading it turns out that these interactions served to reify existing\nhierarchies as much as they transgressed against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then the years rush ahead through the Great\nDepression, WWII, and McCarthyism, all of which exacerbate expressions of\nsocial backlash and undermine tentative steps made towards civil progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this is to say that the past is a different place,\nnot a kinder one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have, however, made a serious effort to research and represent all the people living in the city, not just the ones in most easy reach. What this directly translates to is mention and often discussion of things like the black press, targeted enforcement of new immigration laws, police raids on cross-racial or queer dances, and so forth throughout the zine\u2026 though it\u2019s difficult to fit all the nuance required within just 40 pages, especially when those pages also have to convey the core game mechanics and process of play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing that drove me to set the game in the 1920s was\nthis article talking about Harlem’s Hamilton Lodge Ball, where hundred of queer\nmen and women annually danced in joyful defiance of prevailing gender and\nsexual norms. These events became a sensation, with thousands from all over the\ncity showing up to observe and sometimes take part; notables in attendance\ninclude Nora Holt and Wallace Thurman, even the Vanderbilts and Astors. The\nnewspapers at the time treat this with a range between shock and fascination,\nbut I can’t help but smile when I picture it\u2014 twirling on the dance floor,\nfancy suits and gowns, and people from all over the city celebrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve tried to make the game as much about players\nencountering and protecting this positive parts of life in the city, as it is\nabout mystery, magic, and the dangers that are encroaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What kind of mechanics do you use in Dangerous Time for things like investigation, violence, and other things that might come up?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is actually the area that\u2019s seeing the most change, as I continue to playtest and refine what I\u2019ve developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The setting and the mechanics are meant to reinforce\neach-other, but I\u2019ve also tried to keep them out of the way of the real point,\nwhich is telling stories. So there\u2019s some simple outcome randomization using\nsix-sided die, but there\u2019s also a mechanic in place that lets players spend\nthis resource\u2014 credibility\u2014 to ignore the dice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So for example this lets me keep reporters very squishy,\nonly distinguishing between \u201chealthy\u201d, \u201cinjured\u201d, and \u201cdead\u201d, because the\ntransition between these states is almost always intentional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea is that reporters sometimes exaggerate how\ndramatic a situation is for the sake of selling more papers, so when you spend\ncredibility to succeed at something it actually means somebody, somewhere in\nthis article that your building, was lying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And of course credibility is important when figuring out\nthe outcome of an adventure, because you might survive the big encounter only\nto find nobody believes what you\u2019re printing, and then the world gets worse\ninstead of better. Maybe dying for your ideals was the smarter choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s the investigation, which is where I\u2019ve been\ndoing a lot of iteration lately. I\u2019ve been toying with different ways to have\nplayers encounter and build stories, but one piece I think I\u2019ve finally got\ndown is the start of everything\u2014 the staff meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest version has the editor (the player who runs\nthe game) stating a fact about the world and then questioning the other players\nabout it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you open the meeting with \u201cRats and pigeons have been\ndying\u201d, \u201cStrange sounds drift through the air\u201d, \u201cDiscarded bits of clothing\nkeep turning up\u201d and then start asking questions. Why are the rats dying? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where are they finding the clothing? When are the sounds\nbeing heard? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who told you about this? What does this other group say\nabout it? Make it weirder! Do they contradict each-other?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These become the rumors players investigate, and with a little bit of work by the editor they get incorporated into and reshape the various archetypal plots written in the zine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What are the kinds of experiences and actions players can have in Dangerous Times? What do they do, and what do they feel?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mechanically and thematically, Dangerous Times is a game\nabout determining truth, and working out how a bunch of truths all fit together\ninto a narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Players start the game by generating rumors and leads,\nthen tell stories about how their reporters follow up on those leads. Dice\nrolling is used to give guidance during this process, letting players know when\na scene should provide answers or raise more questions. They also make\ndecisions about who pursues what leads, when to use magic or break laws during\nthe investigation, when to split up and investigate more leads, or to focus on\none lead together, reducing danger and increasing the chance it’ll pan out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the while players are accruing trouble, which\neventually comes calling, and they’ll use their dice, skills, and other\nresources to get out of it\u2014 or they go out in a blaze of glory, getting one\nlast epic moment before they fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally publication starts, and players have to take all\nthese facts and rumors and fit them together into articles, coming up with\nwitty headlines for bonus points. The paper’s credibility, circulation, and\ndebts come together to influence decisions about what gets printed, and then\nthe impacts of the publication on the world and the newspaper’s future are\ndiscussed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideally players start out with interest and confusion,\nand as the story progresses they get that slow, awesome sense of the facts\ncoming together. They feel pressure brewing as trouble builds up, and they make\ndecisions about which risks are worth taking. When the trouble finally happens,\nthey feel excitement and danger, but also in control\u2014 players are the ultimate\narbiter over their character’s fate, and they’ll have to weigh when sacrifices\nare worthwhile. During publication they get to look back on the adventure,\nrecapping all those feelings mixed together with hope, satisfaction, or regret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, in a game called Dangerous Times, I have to wonder, how do you plan to encourage safe and respectful play at the table?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way tabletop gamers have thought critically on player\nsafety, developing tools and methods to encourage everyone has a good time, is\none of the things I like best about this hobby. Coming from video games, where\nthe discussion really isn’t there yet, it’s like a breath of fresh air. So of\ncourse I’m happy to reference things like Lines & Veils and the X-card, so\nplayers new to the hobby or unfamiliar with these concepts can play with a\nsafety net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to the design itself, well. Dangerous Times opens with\na staff meeting, and there’s a note in the zine about using starting that off\nwith a quick conversation about the things players do and don’t want to see.\nIt’s my hope that this becomes a natural place to establish boundaries, proffer\nideas, and flavor the tone of upcoming play. If someone mentions they find\nbaseball boring but love ghost stories, the group can keep that in mind as they\nstart building rumors and playing the game. With luck this normalizes the times\nwhen people need to draw boundaries, whether that’s to avoid deep-seated trauma\nor just because they’ve had a shitty day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing the other part of your question, one of the\nthings I’ve been very careful with the plotlines inside the booklet is to keep\nthem (hopefully, respectfully) adjacent to reality\u2014 players encounter history\nand fix fantasy. So there’s no rushing in and suddenly solving real-world\ninjustices that persist into the present, at least in the booklet as written. I\nthink it’s fine if players want to play that way, but it’s not the game I\nwanted to write. Instead I’ve provided supernatural and imaginary plots, noted\nparallels to real history, and tasked editors with “making the real\nunreal”\u2014 drawing inspiration from the real world, but making it into\nsomething everyone can feel comfortable playing with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d be happy if the experience of playing can be informative and challenging, but first and foremost it has to be enjoyable. It’s my hope that the game can support both hard-hitting encounters with history as well as light-hearted escapism. Groups can and should play at their own comfort levels\u2014 the twenties were a terrible, dangerous time, but also one that could have promised a better future. If nothing else, playing in that space should be fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks so much to Michael for the interview! I hope you all enjoyed it and that you’ll check out Dangerous Times on Kickstarter today<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey all! Today I’ve got five or so questions with Michael Bacon about the game Dangerous Times, which is currently on Kickstarter! Hope that you like hearing about this game of journalism in the 1920s! — Tell me about Dangerous Times. What excites you about it? Dangerous Times is a small role-playing game for two … Continue reading “Five or So Questions on Dangerous Times”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[390],"tags":[20,10,4,17,57,25,178,8,15,12,41,18],"class_list":["post-1016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","tag-five-or-so","tag-game-design","tag-games","tag-gaming","tag-history","tag-interviews","tag-news","tag-roleplaying-games","tag-rpg","tag-rpgs","tag-storytelling","tag-tabletop-rpgs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Kickstarter-Project-2X.png?fit=2048%2C1152&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paHOcG-go","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1352,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2019\/06\/five-or-so-questions-on-dust-wardens\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":0},"title":"Five or So Questions on Dust Wardens","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"June 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi all! 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What got you into gaming? I think it was the old Milton Bradley copy of Hero Quest. Hero Quest is an old\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":80,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2018\/06\/five-or-so-questions-on-champions-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":2},"title":"Five or So Questions on Champions Now","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"June 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi all!I did an interview with Ron Edwards on his Kickstarter project, Champions Now! Ron prepared our audio recordings and edited everything into a video, so you get to hear the interview on the following video. I hope you enjoy it and that you'll check out Champions Now on Kickstarter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":193,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2017\/03\/five-or-so-questions-with-slade-stolar-on-dust-fog-and-glowing-embers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":3},"title":"Five or So Questions with Slade Stolar on Dust, Fog, and Glowing Embers","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"March 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Today Slade Stolar is back for an interview about this new project, Dust, Fog, and Glowing Embers! It's currently on Kickstarter and Slade and I nearly crossed emails contacting each other about it! It sounds like a fantastic adventure, and I'm excited to share Slade's responses with you.--Tell me a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-A49-O6tFOEM\/WNsV_sPHhNI\/AAAAAAABF8M\/9UXvtJ_OIAsfKWlOOUMsXXqfWdb5owMRACLcB\/s400\/ifiremypistol_0.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":434,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2014\/01\/five-or-so-questions-with-martin-ralya-on-new-game-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":4},"title":"Five or So Questions with Martin Ralya on New Game Day","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"January 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I interviewed Martin Ralya from Gnome Stew about New Game Day, upcoming on February 2, 2014, as well as Gnome Stew and Engine Publishing. 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