OOC Discussion

I'm listening to The Dark Tower again, currently at Wolves of the Calla (I read Wind Through the Keyhole last). Impressed (again) by how a story written in so many words can keep me being involved and tense and wanting to know what happens next while also enjoying where we are at the moment.

I'd forgotten quite how much the tone and structure and, hm, sense of coherence and reality changes between the books. This time around, again, my favourite is The Gunslinger (although maybe I change my mind). I love it for how weird and inconsistent and fever-dream-nightmare everything is. The way The Man in Black jumps and dives and almost swims in the air as he brings Nort back to life in Tull. The strange conversations with Brown. The meeting with The Man in Black.

And I enjoy the more coherent sense of a clear narrative in the later books.

I'm writing here about this, because while I run the game I'm trying to keep the mood and the theme and the sense of what you experience true to the books. But there's so much in them! So many different moods and themes and things to experience in them.

So far my focus has been on things like:

- an unhealthy-feeling interaction between science and magic and nature
- ritual - the way you are greeted and spoken to and what's expected of you by others in the world
- references and links to lots of parts of King's writing but also from other stories and narratives from all over the place
- a lingering sense of danger and fear
- a feeling that lots of stuff doesn't quite make sense but maybe it does...
- destiny and ka dragging people onward
- post-modern self-referential stories-within-stories

But I wanted to ask YOU - what are the things, themes, ideas that you think of with The Dark Tower?

Oh, and also:

- community, how groups of people behave together, their relationships - the people of mejis, tull, gilead bur particularly their party/ka-tet
- coincidences

That is a really concise summary encompassing what I think most people love about the novels. I was NEVER into 'western' novels or film until the Gunslinger (and even now I am selective about my likes within the genre). I really wouldn't consider myself a huge fan of Stephen King- before I started the Dark Tower series I had read a few ('The Eyes of the Dragon' with Flagg as the evil wizard was until then my favorite).

I think you are doing a really wonderful job of recreating the feel of the original writing (and I was inspired to use lyrics from Frank Black's debut solo album "Frank Black"- specifically the song 'I heard Ramona Sing') to invent a failed ka-tet for Henry. Admittedly I am much more of a Kim Deal fan- but I live in a college town in New England and Frank Black and The Catholics played here a lot when I was in my twenties (ah, the salad days).

Like you said- for me one of the best parts of the story is about how all of these people come together and make something greater than themselves. As bad-ass as Roland was, he needed his group. I LOVE the differences in each of our characters, and I enjoy the way they all kind of mesh together to make a really interesting story thus far.

Well played, all of you! And thanks for making such a fun game, @BeardHare. (I teach Art History and your Albrecht Dürer avatar makes me smile daily).

When I was a kid, I found my Mom’s copy of the Night Shift in the attic. "Jerusalem's Lot" and "The Boogeyman" terrified me in a way that made me want more. Granted, she probably shouldn’t have let an 11 year old read that book, but once the damage was done I moved onto King’s other works, starting with Salem’s Lot. For me, Stephen King’s best stuff is The Talisman/Blackhouse" and the Dark Tower series.

I think you are doing a great job capturing the feeling of the Dark Tower series and your analysis is great. The Wastelands is probably my favorite of the series. I first read that when I was in early highschool. Blaine/Little Blaine are two of my favorite characters. I’m also a sucker for crossovers and I loved that Father Callihan, formerly of Salem’s Lot, gets redemption arc at the end of the series.

So, I really really love that we are currently sort of/probably might be in Discordia with a potentially murderous AI.

Also, both you, @Beardhare, and @SenorDeebs are right about community, specifically letting in community and accepting the challenges within. Like @SenorDeebs points out, Roland needs his group to bring back his humanity. He needs his humanity to find the tower.

If I were to think back upon King’s work, I would say most of the horror, the real horror comes from the breakdown of community. Yes, there is a catalyst, but for the most part it is the personal reaction to the catalyst that is terrible. People blame other people. People create factions. People use the opportunity to further personal agendas. I feel that communities in his books tend to eat each other from the inside out and are generally already broken from the beginning of the book.

For example, the proprietor in Needful Things would have no fuel to light his fire if there wasn’t already all the small hurts stirring in Castle Rock’s collective consciousness.

I wholeheartedly agree with SenorDeebs. Well played! This is very fun and I am very glad I am part of this game! (That's fun that you teach art history. I have an art history minor. Unfortunately, that's slowly fading away as I get older. I used to be able to tell all the early 20th century art movements apart! :) )

I love what you guys have said about the buildup and breakdown of community. For me, that's what King is all about. I started with the Dark Tower series and quickly became enamored with all things King. My favorite part of any King story is seeing a community built up, from neighborhoods like 'Salem's Lot and the Boulder Free Zone to intimate circles like Rose's friend group in Rose Madder. I haven't reached the Tower yet, but my favorite book so far is The Drawing of the Three because it's the first time in the series where this motley crew of outsiders is forced to become a small community to each other. Things start out really tense here, but soon they learn to depend upon each other.

I'm glad our characters bounce off of each other in positive and negative ways to create this atmosphere of learning to depend on each other. Thanks to all our talented players and GM who are making it happen!

Thank you all :) I really appreciate hearing from you about this!

My journey into King was first via Joyland - a ghost/coming of age story. I loved it, found it extremely well written. Then I tried From a Buick 8 - and enjoyed that too. But having grown up fascinated-but-terrified by horror books and films, I was keeping away from the 'officially-horror' books by King. So next up I tried (and loved) The Dark Tower. And was like. There's horror in this. Maybe I'm now able to enjoy it.

So I went to Salem's Lot (because of the overlap with Calahagn in The Dark Tower) and enjoyed it. Then The Stand. And then sadly reached "my brain is full and I can't concentrate on books anymore" :-/ AND a loved The Stand as a febrile writhing raw chaotic fairy-tale for our modern times...

Now i only "read" via audio books - and am very glad I have them for access to fiction (so I'm listening to, not reading, The Dark Tower this time #carTrips #dogWalking).

I love the chaotic fairy-tale nightmarishness of The Stand! I can see why people call that his magnum opus next to the Tower.

In other news, I'm currently away for the weekend so I may not be able to post right now. You guys have my character sheet, so you can leverage my abilities if I'm not there to do so myself. Thanks in advance for keeping Rose alive :) .

Ah, y'all, I feel so lucky that this group of King and Dark Tower fans found each other here on GP. Playing this with you is one of my big pleasures at the moment!

Wishing you a good trip!

Ah, y'all, I feel so lucky that this group of King and Dark Tower fans found each other here on GP. Playing this with you is one of my big pleasures at the moment!

Wishing you a good trip!

Joyland is great! Most of the "reading" I do now is also audiobooks. I work at home, so podcast and audio books are always on in the background.

Have a good weekend @DragonDweller62

So... as you're descending down into the sanatorium, I'm starting to think about whether we end the game after you get to end of this location OR whether we keep on going together towards The Tower.

How are you feeling about those two options?

If any of you want to keep going to The Tower I'd be happy to run that game with you, even just one of you - depending on how many stayed on, we might look to recruit some additional people for the next stages (although I'd be keen to only have people joining that we feel are going to be similarly collaborative and open and constructive and pleasant to play with as you all are).

My idea is you'd to need to move through at least two more locations along the Spoke, and then if you get through that second one, your next location would be around/in The Tower. But could also do it with you being a bit closer to The Tower i.e just one more location needed to be visited before The Tower if you took a direct route along the same Spoke.

Meta - here is the current map I have of your gameworld. Dots with a red circle around them are "fallen" (The Dark Tower Hack has rules for putting this map together) i.e. only bad dangerous stuff in that location.

I am definitely on board with playing this out as long as you're interested in running it. I'm not sure is Henry can make it? But i'll stick it out as long as you're game.

I'm back, thanks for the well wishes! Per my PM, I would love to stay on and try to get all the way to the Tower. I can also help with the map of the sanatorium if you want, BeardHare.

I am want to try for the tower for as long as you want to continue the game @Beardhare. Welcome back @DragonDweller62!

Running a game is difficult- I like the idea of easing the burden on the GM/DM when you can. I think if there are ways we can help you as a group we should do so!

Ahhh that's great to hear! We'll keep going, in that case!

And, yes, @DragonDweller62, would be great if you could put together a map. Would indeed appreciate that a lot.

I'd like to stick with it as well :)

Hello, all, my apologies for the posting delay. Recovering from surgery on the 16th. Warned my daily game about it since I felt it would be a one-off issue, but I didn't realize the recovery would knock me down for so long. Will try to post soon, thanks for understanding.

Thanks for the heads-up, @DragonDweller62. I've always been surprised by how long it's taken me to get back to feeling OK again after surgery. Body is busy healing the wounds, and takes a lot out of us. Sending all best wishes for a full quick recovery.

Would you like us to slow down or maybe take a pause for a few days?

Sry we were all down with the flu on my end. Will post more frequently and start asap!