Membership When the genre is too depressing

[Uaithne 543]

I have a Hunger Games site that is currently on hiatus as I get stuff pulled together IRL. As I'm trying to do a few updates in this time, I've also been thinking about the plot. Panem is such a depressing place by nature, but I'm realizing that I don't want to have to roleplay depressing stuff all the time. Like I can have happy plots with my character's family, but the overwhelming shadow of the family member's death is a bit heavy. It's Victor-centered and takes place in the Capitol.

 

What do you guys do or recommend in these sorts of situations? My site is AU and I dont mind breaking canon a bit as long as it's not unrealistic. One thing I don't want to do is make some "happy place" section outside of our current playable area (ie: the Capitol) where characters would be spread out too thinly.

 

I'd love to hear your ideas and suggestions, or how you have handled similar situations in the past.

[Garmr 106]

I'm not sure about "happy" per say but given that you've set it in the Capitol and with the Victors provides you a rich backdrop for political intrigue and clandestine adventure (ie: spies). Think about in the second book where a previous Victor tells Katness the only currency he trades in is secrets.

 

That can shoot in a lot of directions if you think about how much effort the Capitol has to make in order to keep the populous of Panem pacified. You probably could draw from the experiences of the most famous spies the Mata Hari (sp?) and give it a Hunger Games twist.

 

Hope that helps

 

G

[Quell 249]

Fair Warning: I know little to nothing about hunger games. 

 

1) Make a plot concept that slowly lightens the plot over the course of time. So like... the rebellion starts to win? Things get better, but not instantly. There is hope on the horizon 

2) There is some kind of VR stuff that they can do for happy stuff.

3) There is some kind of (temporary?) memory editing aspects

[Morrigan 1,826]

Well the issue with hunger games is that the overshadowing plot is a obedience through suppression dystopia plot. So, while the characters can be happy and live good lives there is that always edging doom and despair over the good people of Panem. 

 

Hope We is one of the biggest things. That is what Katniss provides in the books (even though it was partly through manipulation). She made the hungry disenfranchised feel like maybe the darkness is leaving. 

 

Even at at the end of the books it was impossible to tell if the death of the leaders was enough. Who is to say that the hunger games didn’t continue after that? Or just changed in how they were run. 

 

Its not like their death made the government into Robin Hood and gave all the families in the poor districts food and money. You can use the hunger games mechanic and world for a “new world” after Katniss. Possibly not a better world either. You can make the hunger games still mandatory but change how selection works. Volunteers only, for example. Force the players to CHOOSE to rise the ranks, to go to the capital. Give older victors a reason to resent newer ones that had a choice. Make the games more vicious. Something that victors are less likely, so the prize of winning is that much more extreme. 

 

I mean there here is a lot. But if you want to see it less depressing you must give characters hope. 

[xexes 108]

My worry for you would actually be that you aren't worried about members, nor that members have told you that they don't like it, but rather, that the problem is that it's not what you, personally, are looking for right now. Give that one a few moments of thought and see what you come up with. 

 

I think that will help you a lot to make that distinction. If it's your members, ask some of your most active members privately. 

 

[Uaithne 543]

Of course it's something that I am thinking about myself. If I am to run a site, I need to be happy running it, you know? I can't maintain a site day in and day out that is super depressing, and I doubt that most of my members would be inclined to play on a site that is super depressing. I'm not certain why that is worrisome.

 

Also, thank you for replies. I'm open for more thoughts if anyone has any while I ponder the ones I have.

[Jones 177]

Probably not helpful for the actual plot, but in my opinion the key is to focus on the characters you actually want to write. I've done most of my writing on sites with darker themes. My main place to play right now is based on a dark fantasy series. Most of my characters have suffered to some extent (some to the extreme), and I write them into some truly horrific, mentally and physically challenging, straight up morbid scenarios. 

 

Maybe I'm just twisted. But I find it cathartic rather than depressing. I like tossing them into pain and watching them overcome, or give in and come out as something new. 

 

Instead of measuring my site/characters/stories by the overarching depressive world they take place in, I measure the quality of emotion I get from the writing. Sure their world is a terrible place, but that makes all the moments in between the struggle sweeter. It's nice that Nancy in the nice house is having a nice life with her nice husband and nice children. That's great. But I'm much more invested in emotionally repressed Isidore with his drug addiction, struggling to fit into the cultural ideals of his homeland so that he doesn't have to face life in a place where other people will surely never trust and or understand him. Throw in an arranged marriage and a war bride to keep happy, a hard on for his religiously fanatical cousin (that happens to rule the country he lives in) and suddenly a super short thread showing him open up emotionally for even a second is a big deal. To him, but also to me. The fact that it was proceeded and will be followed by more difficulties, only gives the moment more impact. I get more out of that short, sweet scene because it's a glimmer of something beautiful despite all the ugly. That's why I choose to write in this setting. My friend called roleplay 'emotional masturbation' once and the phrase is super fitting.

 

If you need some specific way to lighten things, I say give the setting a few non-canon holidays when things get too intense. Give them a reason to enjoy some festivities and to interact (at public celebrations) with people they normally would not.

[Quell 249]

4 hours ago, Uaithne said:

I doubt that most of my members would be inclined to play on a site that is super depressing

 

You know your members best, certainly! And if they are expressing distress, that is certainly something to fix!

 

But I will say there are people (like me) who like #sad #unforgiving storylines and plots. I find upsetting fun. I find hopeless interesting. It is what draws me to dystopias. I don't want the dystopia to be fixed, personally. I want to explore every painful aspect. I want to see what people act like when there is no silver lining except the ones you pretend are there. 

 

I think @xexes is saying, if the site is full of people like me, pulling away the depressing, dystopian, and dysfunctional aspects is going to cause a rift that might be hard to overcome.

[Kit the Human 758]

No matter how bleak the world is, no matter how powerless we become, people are people. People will always find something that uplifts them, even a little*. When faced with the bleakest of the bleakest, people just aren't so simple that they all react with either anger or grief, all of the time.

 

I don't think that you need to tinker with your setting to create a space where happiness can be. The people you are writing will create it, because that's what humans do**. In your shoes, I would just encourage myself to dream up things people might do to bring some sparkle and meaning into their lives.

 

To directly address the death of a loved one thing - I turn to my favourite writing resource. How to Fight Write - Grief. The writer is drawing from their experience after their father passed on - but their take home message to me seems to be: "It’s not all sadness and pain, misery and angst."

 

....I hope that's helpful!

 

* Victor Frankl anyone?

** Not to suggest that that's easy.

[Sage 289]

Going off what @Kit the Human has said, people will always find ways/reasons to celebrate. I recently watched "The Guernsey LIterary and Potato Peel Society" and it was about people coming together during the bleak German occupation under the guise of a book club. In those meetings, we see them laughing and having fun. People will find ways to celebrate together even if they have nothing. It's human nature!

 

But don't forget that, even in regimes where the outlook for the average person is bleak, there are still government-sanctioned holidays and celebrations. A totalitarian government like that still needs to give its people something to look forward to or work toward. That's what the Hunger Games are - they fill that need for hope (poorly, but hey). But in a Hunger Games world, that doesn't need to be the only  thing that fills that need. There could be smaller festivals or regional traditions that people look forward to. And while you'd probably keep that authoritarian presence prevalent throughout, characters will also let themselves relax and have some fun. You can't be on guard all the time. 

[xexes 108]

Have you ever seen the TV series with Mike Rowe called Dirty Jobs? It's about people who do some of the grossest, most awful, or most horrifying jobs out there - from skyscraper window cleaners to pig caretakers. Watch a few episodes and realize that the people who do these jobs love them and are proud of what they do. Watch some emergency room TV dramas and realize that the staff deal with depressing, awful stuff all day long but are still happy because they got a chance to help someone - even if by the time they pop into the ER, it may be too late.

 

This world that we live in today isn't fair and it isn't nice.  But we get to live. Every day is a new day and every horrible thing that happened in my personal life was a part of the journey to the happy place where I am at now.

 

Listen, sometimes we have roleplay ideas, but we have to figure out what is best for us. If this idea is a good one, but it's just not what's best for you right now, that's okay. : ) If it is, watch some episodes of Dirty Jobs!

[Jaxx 317]

Honestly your site is going to be inherently depressing, either in parts or as a whole. I mean, you fight for your life and murder other children for entertainment, then get stuck as a celebrity for doing so... that's gonna mess up any Victor or tribute character that you have on the board. And it'd strike me as really strange if the effects of the Games on those people weren't mentioned in some form in most threads. So yeah, sometimes there will be things mentioned that get your players/characters down. You're not gonna be able to stop that. 

 

I'd agree with the former suggestion of some sort of party or celebration plot. Something that wouldn't be a public party, though, more like a personal one that's Victors only. Maybe some sort of lighthearted AU event or board? Or really, any AU at all would be more lighthearted than canon. I'm not good with words today for some reason but I think you get my meaning.

 

And I'd disagree that you have to wait for your members to be uncomfortable with the setting/plot/whatever to do something about it. You're running the show, and where any one member can leave without much impact on the board, you have much more influence. So honestly? Do any plot or event or thing that lightens things up for you! If the person at the top isn't happy, it will filter down and affect the members too. But if you think that your members are partial towards the depressing aspects of the site, make it optional to participate in whatever you end up doing.