Character Creation: Grand Guignol

The term "Grand Guignol" refers to a theater in Paris, so obviously this RPG is set in Par- London. Hm. More generally, it's a term for violent or gory media, ranging all the way back to stuff like Titus Andronicus to splatter films of the modern day. We just watched Evil Dead Rise last night, in fact, and I wonder if that would qualify (the other context in which the term gets uses is "Grand Dame Guignol," which as a genre is also sometimes called psycho-biddy, and while EDR doesn't really qualify because Alyssa Sutherland's character isn't an old woman, it's pretty close).

Now, does the term apply to this RPG? Well...I kinda think it doesn't? Rather, it certainly could, because you make a lot of the decisions about the particular backdrop of the game as a group (it's a Belonging Without Belonging game, so GMless). But the tonal advice of the game focuses a lot more on making it queer than making it gory. 

(None of this is saying the game is bad, mind, just musing on genre and expectations.)

Anyway.

The Game: Grand Guignol
The Publisher: Possum Creek Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

So, in Grand Guignol, we're playing through a series of "occasions", but mostly it's about making characters, putting them in this extra-dark London setting, and seeing what happens. It's similar in structure to other Belonging Without Belonging games I've played, like Dream Askew, though I did feel while reading it that I could have used an example of play (if I had a fuckin' nickel).

The way this would work at the table is that we'd design our London (picking elements on lists; there's a lot of that) and at some point design our own characters, starting with picking a Role. I'm not gonna both with London or with a setting element (Dream Askew does something like this, too, there's some aspect of the game world that a given player has ownership of), I'm just gonna grab a Role. Let's see now.

Ah, balls, are there no playsheets for this game? I don't wanna print three pages for this. Hang on, gotta go looking. Nope. They only ever sent out the PDF, though there are some references on the itch page to doing some accessibility stuff (which would presumably include the playsheets). That was three years ago. 

Well, I'd grumble about the generally hummingbird-like nature of game designers and their inability to follow through with the boring but necessary bits, but who'd listen? For my Role, I shall choose...the Gate. I'm just going to say this game doesn't have character sheets and put the info in the body of the post, howzaboutdat. 

The Gate is someone who sees dead people or is otherwise connected to the supernatural; they're meant to be haunted and afraid of their own potential. Starting off with names and pronouns, one of the options is "a name that sounds like a sigh." Another is "a Biblical name." I'll split the difference and name my gate "Hosea," which is both. I might give him a last name, but I want to do more of chargen first. I'll still with he/him pronouns for now, but if something suggests something else, I'll switch. Hosea is but clay at the moment.

Next, I'm meant to pick two was society sees me and two ways I see myself from a list. I think Hosea sees himself as "fragile" and "cursed," which sets up some expectations about my "gift," think. We'll society sees him as "forbidden" and "potent." 

Assemble your look! Again, a list of things. Doesn't say how many to take, but that's fine. I think Hosea has "depthless eyes," a "wistful smile," and "inherited clothes."

Next, we pick what first awakened my gift and what unleashed its true power. Well, I've already got a religious thing going, at least a little, so let's say my "gift" awakened when I blasphemed under God's own roof. Possible that Hosea's family was into a splinter sect of the Church (which might less kindly be called a "cult"). And hey, let's say he really awakened to his power when he called out to any god who'd free me from my parents (that's why the clothes are inherited). 

Choose ways in which the gift haunts you. Kinda like "strangers speaking in dark tongues," actually. Sometimes people walk up to Hosea and talk to him, and other people don't tend to notice them.

Two relationships from the community. Let's take "the faceless lover who visit me in the midnight darkness before sleep." Maybe that's the first of the "strangers" that came to see me. And then...hm. I don't know, really. I guess "the young homeless queer I feed when I'm able," just because that's not immediately tied into the Gift. 

I would ask questions of other players, but of course I ain't got none, so that's actually it! I think Hosea's parents didn't really have much to leave him, other than the flat and the clothes, and finding work has been hard for him. Maybe the Strangers can help.