The Release of Eberron: Rising from the Last War is my first introduction to the world of Eberron. But it certainly has drawn me in, specifically with regards to the Pulp and Noir themes.
I was wondering if anyone had some stories to share about their own campaign, or experiences with Noir and or Pulp themes in their games. It doesn't have to be from Eberron, I am just looking for inspiration and examples of these themes and I'm curious to hear peoples stories.
The beautiful thing about roleplaying games or storytelling in general is that you can just borrow or steal themes or tropes and most people will never notice unless you are really overt in your homage. You can pretty blatently steal characters or scenes from noir and people will not notice. Maybe that's not what you want to hear, but I don't think you need a special contrivence.
You could use colourful similies? I mean, you're already narrating. Also, if you want to explicitly evoke feelings of noir films, then you can describe things like the lighting-- explain how the light only falls on a narrow bar across the character's eyes (often used on Star Trek TOS as well). It would be weird if you were describing reality, but it really works to give people the impression they are in a genre of movies or TV shows. Voices help, if you can do them. Noir, in general, are usually very structured, so don't be afraid to cut forward to the beginning of the next "act". Lastly, plot twists and foreshadowing: leave questions unanswered until the last moment of the end of the adventure -- or beyond.
Some material of interest:
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
The Release of Eberron: Rising from the Last War is my first introduction to the world of Eberron. But it certainly has drawn me in, specifically with regards to the Pulp and Noir themes.
I was wondering if anyone had some stories to share about their own campaign, or experiences with Noir and or Pulp themes in their games. It doesn't have to be from Eberron, I am just looking for inspiration and examples of these themes and I'm curious to hear peoples stories.
The beautiful thing about roleplaying games or storytelling in general is that you can just borrow or steal themes or tropes and most people will never notice unless you are really overt in your homage. You can pretty blatently steal characters or scenes from noir and people will not notice. Maybe that's not what you want to hear, but I don't think you need a special contrivence.
You could use colourful similies? I mean, you're already narrating. Also, if you want to explicitly evoke feelings of noir films, then you can describe things like the lighting-- explain how the light only falls on a narrow bar across the character's eyes (often used on Star Trek TOS as well). It would be weird if you were describing reality, but it really works to give people the impression they are in a genre of movies or TV shows. Voices help, if you can do them. Noir, in general, are usually very structured, so don't be afraid to cut forward to the beginning of the next "act". Lastly, plot twists and foreshadowing: leave questions unanswered until the last moment of the end of the adventure -- or beyond.
Some material of interest: