Behind the Screen #12
Autumn Gothic
Inside This Issue
RPG HQ Meetup III
Unveiling the ‘Goth’
RPG HQ Play Report II
Game Runners
RPG HQ Meetup III Deets
If you haven’t already made your RSVP for this weekend’s play session, there’s no time like the present! This week we will be hosted by the Plymouth Public Library. Check-in opens at 9:50AM, with gameplay beginning at 10:00AM. Play concludes at 2:00PM. This is the third session of our original adventure Nine Nights In the Woods, and there couldn’t be a better opportunity to jump in! RSVP here to secure your space at the table this Saturday!
Unveiling the ‘Goth’
Perhaps you’ve encountered this word relating to personal style, or a specific genre of horror media—Goth or Gothic. The roots of this long-lasting fashion and ideological movement are deep, and stretch back to 1764, the year an English Novelist named Horace Walpole published The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story.
This was the first time the term “Gothic” was used in direct connection to literature. At the time of publishing, the same term had a very negative meaning—it wasn’t meant to express anything romantic or praiseworthy, but rather that which was wild, backwards, and inferior. But why?
Largely it was because of the Enlightenment, a period of development after the Renaissance that elevated the classical concepts of reason, logic, and empiricism (scientific proof) over intuition, emotion, and tradition. In broad terms, the Enlightenment sought to return to widely idealized and reinterpreted values of the European Classical period.
After over two hundred years of European culture progressing this way, social pressure did what it always does, and a counter movement of that energy began moving the opposite direction. Today we might say that the counter-movement was all about “Feels and Vibes.” It would argue that there is in fact truth to be found outside of scientific proof, value in tradition, and validation for human emotion.
“Gothic” is a re-appropriated word in this context, no longer meant to describe mindless brutes. Instead, it now validated and elevated that which it was used to describe to something sublime (awe-inspiring and terrifying). To better understand how any of this has anything to do with a story about a castle, take a look at the synopsis below.
The Castle of Otranto: A Synopsis
The Setting and The Curse
The story is set in the ancient, gloomy Castle of Otranto, ruled by the cruel and ambitious Manfred, Prince of Otranto. He is obsessed with securing his bloodline to make legal his claim to the princedom, which he inherited after the original, rightful family was overthrown.
The tale opens on the wedding day of Manfred’s sickly, weak son, Conrad, and the beautiful, but unwilling, Isabella. This is a marriage of necessity for Manfred, meant to quickly produce heirs for his bloodline.
Sudden Catastrophe
The wedding is instantly shattered by a shocking, supernatural event: Conrad is crushed to death by a gigantic helmet that falls from the sky and lands in the castle courtyard. This inexplicable, terrifying incident introduces the element of the Supernatural into the otherwise rational world, immediately challenging Enlightenment sensibilities.
Manfred’s Descent into Tyranny
Driven by panic and his obsessive need for an heir, Manfred makes a decision that launches the central conflict and exemplifies the Gothic villain’s power: he declares his intention to divorce his current wife, Hippolita, and marry Isabella himself. This was wrong and unsavory on many levels! Isabella, horrified by his proposal, flees the castle.
The Haunted Pursuit
Manfred pursues Isabella into the subterranean passages and dungeons beneath the castle—representing hidden fears and the past’s hold on the present. During her escape, Isabella is aided by a mysterious peasant named Theodore, who resembles a figure in a portrait of the castle’s ancient, rightful lord, Alfonso the Good. Theodore is subsequently arrested by Manfred.
Revelation and Vengeance
As the story unfolds, more supernatural phenomena occur—a bleeding statue, gigantic ghostly feet, and the helmet moving on its own—all signaling a powerful curse related to the castle’s original usurpation.
The first of two key revelation is an ancient prophecy that states that, “the Castle and Lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it.” The giant helmet and the ghostly body parts signal that the true heir has returned and grown “too large” for the castle.
The second key revelation is Theodore’s Identity. He is revealed to be the true, long-lost heir, descended from Alfonso the Good.
The Tragic Climax
In the climactic scene, Manfred, mistaking his own daughter, Matilda, for the escaping Isabella in the darkness of the castle, fatally stabs her. This act of violence, a tragic result of his blind ambition and rage, destroys his own obsession.
Resolution
Manfred, finally realizing the fulfillment of the prophecy and the devastating consequences of his actions, confesses his usurpation. He and his loyal wife, Hippolita, decide to retire in religious exile as an act of penitence. Theodore, the true heir, inherits the castle and will marry the newly freed Isabella, though both are left heartbroken by the preceding horror.
The Gothic Legacy
The Castle of Otranto is the template for Gothic Horror. It is a story where a tyrannical villain’s unchecked passion leads to murderous chaos that can’t be defeated by human reason. It takes the irresistible, supernatural forces of an ancient, vengeful past to correct the original sin, and repair the damages done to the natural order.
Today what we call ‘Goth’ is in fact short for “Trad Goth”, and like its namesake, that style and ethos, along with all of its offshoots, are a counter-culture response to more rigid, conservative social orders that displace human expression in favor of conformity and obedience. It chiefly took off in the 1980’s in the Global West, and is a rejection of forced optimism, and corporate materialism, favoring individual expression and the truth of personal reality over the superficial. At least in theory!
RPG HQ Play Report II
RPG HQ Play Report: The Dawn of Discord
Day 2 began with the anxiety of absence. Our heroes—Nellifara (Nelly), the local guide, and Eyomei Himejime, the Sightless Monk—awoke to find that their stalwart companion, Gronk the Cleric, had vanished into the oppressive fog without a trace. Worse still, the woods around their impromptu camp had shuffled: the immediate fifty-foot radius around the damaged Wytch Elm remained as they left it, but beyond that, the forest floor and tree lines offered no familiar path. The fragile stability gained from recovering the male twin, Aethery, had dissolved into a new uncertainty.
The Blending of Wills
It was at this fraught moment that the camp was descended upon by four strangers, each arriving with their own mission, their own secrets, and zero shared language. From the fog-shrouded tree line stepped: Djawn the Hunter, who spoke only a foreign tongue(French) and a monastic language known to Eyomei; Jeff Loomer, a local hunter known to Nellifara; Drelil Sweeny, a desperate fungal forager and spell-caster suffering from the pangs of Ley Cap withdrawal; and an Unnamed Stranger, an elegant court operator whose eyes locked onto Prince Allenby’s recovered son.
Nellifara and Eyomei, alerted to the world’s growing wrongness, were interrupted by the direct approach of Jeff Loomer. Simultaneously, the Unnamed Stranger stealthily bee-lined for the boy, Aethery, while Drelil, compelled by his addiction, darted into the clearing toward a phantom colony of Ley Caps. Chaos was inevitable.
The Shmoz of Misunderstanding
The confusion swiftly escalated into outright violence. As Nellifara struggled to recognize the well-meaning but abrupt Jeff, a false step from Drelil ignited the fracas. Arrows were loosed, but the gravest misfortune fell upon the patient Djawn, who had been quietly observing. Caught by a stray fishing line and dragged from his hiding spot, the unfortunate hunter was pulled directly through the air and into the embers of the campfire. The group’s introduction was a sudden, bloody mess of misaligned intentions.
As the smoke settled, and through the diplomatic intervention of Nellifara, sanity was restored, and intentions were reluctantly established: Djawn and Jeff were hunting for different missing local children; the Unnamed Stranger had been searching the vicinity of the Capital; and Drelil was merely lost, seeking his fungal cure. Yet, a new tension replaced the violence—the Unnamed Stranger refused to allow Aethery out of his immediate physical control, turning control of the recovered traumatized child into a new and awful focal point.
The Void and the Cycle Most Vicious
The group turned their attention to the previous night’s puzzle, extracting meaning from the words Aethery had pointed to: Inside | Hot | Soul | Heart | Tree | Eats | It. The consensus was a warning, guiding them toward a hot spring near a tree where the missing female twin might be imprisoned.
Seeking a path forward, Eyomei, Nellifara, and Drelil bravely ventured into the severed trunk of the Wytch Elm. The trio was immediately enveloped in a vast, cold void where light traveled only ten feet and the disembodied sound of rushing water echoed endlessly. Separated by the dark, they were set upon by a malevolent, unseen force they could not strike back against. While stumbling about, Jeff recovered an ornate spear that seemed to radiate eldritch energies. Despite the addition of the weapon, they fled, barely managing to locate a rune-carved archway that returned them to the camp.
That return was disastrous. Zodu, the Kobold Shaman, had returned with fresh reinforcements, demanding the party immediately leave the Deepwood. In this final, desperate moment, Drelil, still reeling from the Void and his accelerating withdrawal, saw the recovered twin. Without a word of explanation, he lunged for the boy in the Stranger’s arms. The resulting shock broke the tense standoff, and with the Kobolds surging forward, the divided party made a single, desperate, and unified choice: they plunged into the unknown abyss of the Wytch Elm.
Join us Saturday, October 11th at 10 AM to see if this newly forged, fragile union can survive the limitless darkness of the Wytch Elm’s Void!
Caveat Lector: Please note that the details of this play report are recalled from memory and may differ from the recollection of other players. Players are encouraged to write in with any corrections or elaborations!
Did you miss our last meetup?
RSVP for one of our upcoming dates!
Saturday October 11th (Plymouth Library)
15700 36th Ave N, Plymouth, MN
Saturday October 25th (Wayzata Library)
620 Rice St E, Wayzata, MN
Saturday November 8th (Wayzata Library)
620 Rice St E, Wayzata, MN
Saturday November 22nd (Plymouth Library)
15700 36th Ave N, Plymouth, MN
Game Runners Needed!
If you are willing to assist with running a session of any system for peers in the coming weeks, please email the editor at editorbehindthescreen@gmail.com with “Game On” in the subject line.