Game Moves

This poem was made using the solo RPG: Cemetery of Swords, by Efarrisgames. I decided to devote myself to three stanzas for every pull, as I thought this would give me enough time to establish the circumstances of the pull and detail the character’s reactions. What follows are the pulls and die rolls that created the poem:

Pull Die Roll
Heart 2
Club 5
Spade 5
Heart 5
Heart 5
Diamond 2
Heart 1
Heart 2
Spade 4
Spade 3
Club 1
Club 6
Diamond 4
Club 6
Joker (End) 3

Final Thoughts

I had some trouble with this one at first: the game says specifically: “…the term poem is used very broadly here. It need not rhyme or follow any traditional rules. Whatever feels poetic and lyrical to you is enough to constitute a poem.”

My first effort was therefore fairly lax, depending on merely flowery language and short lines/paragraphs. It didn’t feel right. This being an epic poem, it felt more like I was writing a sub-par half-prose first-person story, not a poem. When I wrote The Poems of Madam Albithurst, I leaned quite heavily on purple prose and flowery surreal imagery. It worked for me, I think, because I was occupying the mental space of a poem, all metaphor and song. For some reason, that didn’t happen in my first attempt.

My second attempt worked much better, mostly because, I think, I decided to use a poetic meter.

My decision to stick with three stanzas per pull was not a bad one, as sometimes it fit perfectly. Other times, however, I found myself feeling limited. Other stanzas felt padded. I don’t know if this was a result of some stanzas doubling up their suit draws (and rolls, sometimes) or not, but it’s possible I swung from not-structured-enough to too-structured.

At the same time, the system is long. Again, similar to how I felt with Monster Hunter, I ran out of steam pretty quickly. Add into this the fact that my drawing resulted in quite a few parallel draws and rolls, and the play felt very repetitive. If there was a greater number of prompt sets, or even six options for each instead of three, that might have gone a long way to reducing my fatigue.

But, the fatigue didn’t hit until more than halfway through the poem, so it’s not badly balanced. And, as with all these kinds of projects, randomness factors in quite a bit. I’d certainly feel differently if the dice and cards had fallen/been shuffled differently.

I think this may be one of the biggest weaknesses — no, that’s unfair. Limitations? Difficulties? Quirks? Whatever the proper word to use, journaling and story-building games like this run afoul of what I briefly touched on before; that these games are trying to build a story while the randomness of dice/cards is fundamentally opposed to cohesive narrative structure. Several times in playing these games I’ve felt a story building, a structure forming, only for a single die roll or card to completely upend the narrative flow.

Perhaps this could be an opportunity to develop my chops at final-act twists, but I grew up in the Shaymalan era, when surprise endings were de rigueur. I’m kinda done with twist endings, I’d rather focus on a single cohesive theme and plot.

Maybe then, my challenge is getting sold on what a story “is about” too early. Maybe I need to forget the forest and focus on the trees a bit more. With my next game, I’ll try to give it a shot and see how that works out for me.