Content Warning

This month I am creating a game for NaGaDeMon 2016. You can follow along from the beginning.

I have been feeling dark since the election results, and the subsequent consequences.

Perhaps that's why I've had some heavy thoughts about the climactic choice in the graveyard game, and the context in which the choice is made.

The protagonist feels trapped. They are doing something awful, something they don't want to do, only because they believe they are the only one who can do it and if they don't: not only will it not get done, but there will be terrible consequences. Not only that, they have realized that their strategy of digging up corpses will ultimately fail, and the only way to move forward is to kill a living person for their blood.

In this context, the PC is confronted by the Investigator, who wants to stop the PC. The PC has an impossible choice. They could complete the ritual by killing the investigator, who was been dogging their every step and caused the corpse strategy to fail. Or they could complete the ritual by killing themselves, a surprise realization in the moment that suicide would end both the ritual and all the horror and guilt they have to experience. Or finally, they could decide to give up, that the ritual is too much to deal with and that it is better to turn themselves in and allow the consequences.

I hope that I will be able to write well enough to give that moment the appropriate weight and care. I also think it would be unethical to blindside players with this, so I need to build up to it and perhaps also include a content warning on the front page. Possibly I will ultimately decide that I can't do this justice and will try a different choice.