{"id":1749,"date":"2020-02-18T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/?p=1749"},"modified":"2021-11-16T00:38:36","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T05:38:36","slug":"quick-shot-on-the-last-place-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2020\/02\/quick-shot-on-the-last-place-on-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Shot on The Last Place on Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have a quick few questions with Eli Seitz on The Last Place on Earth, a Zine Quest 2 project on Kickstarter<\/a>! Check out the responses below.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is The Last Place on Earth, both as a product and as your vision? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Last Place on Earth is a tabletop role playing game inspired by the Heroic Age of Exploration and by Robert F Scott\u2019s fatal 1912 expedition to the South Pole. It\u2019s a game about the hardships of Antarctic exploration and the arrogance of men who believe that they can or must overcome nature. It\u2019s designed as a one or two shot experience with black and white zine of rules accompanied by archival photos and an illustrated map of the route to use a play aid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This sounds like an intensive research project! What kind of research have you been doing for the project, and how have you found that research to be useful in designing the game?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My research started with a much broader scope as I was\ninterested in a game about historical exploring. I was reading about mountain\nclimbing which had a lot of juicy material: harsh environments, bad equipment,\nimproper safety procedures, great scenery, but almost all that history engages\nin indigenous erasure. As a white designer, it is not my place to write that\ngame so I turned my attention to the South Pole, and Scott\u2019s Terra Nova\nexpedition drawn in by the photographs and journal entries. The journal\nentries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The journal entries are fascinating because they provide insight\ninto the thought processes of the expedition members during their ill-fated\nmarch. We can read about the dynamics within the group and later what they want\nto be remembered in the history books. Journaling is included as a mechanic in\nthe game as a form of monologuing, and as a stretch goal, I will be writing a\nsolo RPG variant that relies on journaling extensively. In the end, the\nemotional arc of the expedition became the focal point, and the technical\naspects of exploration were relegated to window dressing. The best gameplay comes\nfrom exploring the attitudes and relationships of these men at the end of the\nearth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like the way you say \u201cthe arrogance of men who believe they can or must overcome nature.\u201d Can you expand on this perspective and how it shapes your design and your approach to this project?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beneath the mechanics and setting, the Last Place on Earth is about colonialism and masculinity. These men traveled to a place with temperatures of -45 degrees Fahrenheit and winds regularly over 100 miles an hour so that they could claim the glory of reaching the center of an uninhabited continent. This toxic mindset is just so deeply ingrained in their identities. For example, they viewed skis as children’s toys and barely used them instead they walked almost all of the 900 miles to the pole. It\u2019s also apparent in their words. One of Scott\u2019s last journal entries reads, \u201cwe have been to the Pole and we shall die like gentlemen. I regret only for the women we leave behind.\u201d Or Lawrence Oates\u2019 last words were, “I am just going outside and may be some time,\u201d then he walked into a blizzard with no boots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the game, the characters are created to evoke the absurdity\nof these historical attitudes. During the game, the players explore how\ncharacters with this mentality deal with intense physical hardship, failure,\nand possibly even death. They form close bonds with fellow expedition members\nand see if they can weather the storm as their entire world is challenged. I\nhope that the critique offered by the game will lead players to think about\ntheir own beliefs on nationalism, masculinity, and the natural world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks so much Eli for the interview! I hope you all enjoyed it and that you’ll check out The Last Place on Earth on Kickstarter today<\/a>! Also, take a look at Eli’s other ZineQuest project about rules, pomegranates, and arguing, Fruit of Law<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a quick few questions with Eli Seitz on The Last Place on Earth, a Zine Quest 2 project on Kickstarter! Check out the responses below. — What is The Last Place on Earth, both as a product and as your vision? The Last Place on Earth is a tabletop role playing game inspired … Continue reading “Quick Shot on The Last Place on Earth”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1754,"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":[10,4,17,57,25,8,15,12,26,23,18],"class_list":["post-1749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","tag-game-design","tag-games","tag-gaming","tag-history","tag-interviews","tag-roleplaying-games","tag-rpg","tag-rpgs","tag-story-games","tag-tabletop-games","tag-tabletop-rpgs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Journaling.jpg?fit=1739%2C1098&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paHOcG-sd","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":133,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2017\/11\/boy-band-the-game\/","url_meta":{"origin":1749,"position":0},"title":"Boy Band: The Game","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"November 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi All! 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To\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":1435,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2019\/07\/friday-hi-day-youtube-post-live\/","url_meta":{"origin":1749,"position":1},"title":"Friday Hi-Day YouTube Post Live!","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"July 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Tfn7OHqQ_HQ","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/Tfn7OHqQ_HQ\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1862,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2020\/04\/script-change-now-has-discord-emojis\/","url_meta":{"origin":1749,"position":2},"title":"Script Change Now Has Discord Emojis!","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"April 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Check it out! https:\/\/briebeau.itch.io\/script-change","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"the script change buttons on a sheet.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Script-Change_121118_BSheldon_Page_6-791x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Script-Change_121118_BSheldon_Page_6-791x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Script-Change_121118_BSheldon_Page_6-791x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Script-Change_121118_BSheldon_Page_6-791x1024.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":156,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2017\/07\/six-tweet-rpg-place-of-purpose\/","url_meta":{"origin":1749,"position":3},"title":"Six Tweet RPG: Place of Purpose","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"July 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I gave writing a game in six tweets a shot yesterday. 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