I.
“In an instant his world turned upside-down, quite literally. He was picked up between the Minotaur’s horns and tossed high into the air. When he landed on the hard cold stone, he felt the animal’s huge hooves come down on his chest. Every last breath seemed to be knocked out of him and he struggled to stay alive in the darkness.”
-T̲h̲e̲s̲e̲u̲s̲ ̲a̲n̲d̲ ̲t̲h̲e̲ ̲M̲i̲n̲o̲t̲a̲u̲r̲
We all have something going on in life, things to appreciate, things to keep close, things to not let go of and toss aside into the hurricane of disaster and ruin which bellows about in the society domineered by what should be seen as right and real versus what really is real. A tidal, and quite colossal, effort to really cling toward those things and never let them go without any thoughts or regrets or anything. You won’t let them go. You can’t let them go. They’re all you’ve got. These are interesting notes which coincide with the thoughts of one Remmie Delgado(1).
And what better way than to think about the chaos of our world. We’ve always got something that we just don’t want to let go of one day but, what we don’t realize quite yet, is that we’ve already let go of this thing. This thought. Ideas or emotions which were once ever so prevalent lost to the tides of eternity without a paddle or vest, looking for a way to return to the same vessel which produced the spawn of thought, a record and testament to a past which was gone before we even knew it had occurred.
A life which we’ve lost only enlightened for a moment… if only for a moment.
We approach a group of many who went on to look at something new, a sight which had yet to be explored by anyone yet, a capability of fate and time which not even the great minds and explorers could ever deem to be their own footsteps. Even the great explorer Holloway couldn’t even see such a sight, yet he was so vividly descriptive in his efforts to climb the tallest mountains. “Never met a mountain I couldn’t climb.(2)”
Yet, when I laid my eyes on the movie known as re:The Navidson Record I could really recognize that intensity of turmoil, the melancholy which painted a portrait of pain and misery. As the wise professor Gregory Wright spoke, “The emotions between this team of explorers (he called them explorers) flared to a point of such insanity that we really get a feeling for the team as a whole. They are not truly a sight of individual but more toward the human condition, showing us who we are.(3)”
Yet this raised questions in the community: What is the Navidson Record? Why did these people decide to reply to it? And, more strangely, what happened to them?(4)
5 - Welcome to a game inspired by the book, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. The game’s focus will primarily be horror, but you will also find that this will play with the structure of a game and ask the question: what really makes a storium game a storium game?
I strongly encourage you all to have some grasp of the book, even though I am still working through the maze myself, as there will be references galore to the events there. The game will also play similar structures to the way that Danielewski did with his novel.
For those of you who are going to play and know some things, a few ground rules:
- The Navidson Record, as far as your character is aware, does not exist and shouldn’t be mentioned unless brought up in the story.
- You are here to investigate a house on Ash Tree Lane, where nothing strange has ever been reported until this year, the year 2015.
- The book, House of Leaves, does not exist in this universe but, rather, seems to just be something people talk about in passing, like it is a ghost people wish existed.
Now that some house cleaning is done, here are a few things to look for during character creation… things I require:
- Your character is hired after a media frenzy, where a family of five has found a strange door in their house. You may be a journalist, a police officer, whatever it is, you’re a hired group made to explore whatever is beyond that door.
- Your character must have a phobia which they cope with, and you can either include this in the bio or in the commentary.
- Please include any items you bring with your character into the house, either in comments or bio, so I know what you will have with you inside this place.
- PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE feel free to make connections between your characters. I want to hear who knows who and what they do together. You don’t need these connections, but it would be rather delightful to know you all got together at some point in life.
If it feels I left something out, I will amend this document along with the appendices. Otherwise, I look forward to playing with you all.
1 - Remmie Delgado’s Out in the Open Without Hope (Phoenix: Big House 2016) pp. 122-128
2 - A documentary which captured both Holloway and Wax, climbing through a range of mountains in New Mexico. Couldn’t find the source for the video though, was just told this was the source after some curiosity. - Ed
3 - Gregory Wright’s A Human Condition: Portrayal of the Self in re: The Navidson Record (Seattle: Englightening Material 2016) p. 7
4 - A question posed by New York Magazine’s Holiday Weathers in her article Join Us(5) (2017)
Hosted and narrated by:
Jacob Burke (sininchaos)
Started 10/01/15.
Scenes played: 1
License: Community License
