Last Unicorn Part 4 (Patreon)

A strange thing happens at the ending of an RPG story. To some degree the whole beginning and middle can serve as set dressing, or as a stage for improv, or as a platform to build gameplay or narrative structures. But an ending is different. At a certain point you have to decide what the story was about. Sure an ending can just be the place where you finally grow tired and put away your toys. But more often than not for an improvised story, the ending is the place where the story finds its narrative arc.

So often in fiction the predestination of the narrative arc can be intuited by any mindful viewer. We all know how stories work, and the marketing alone is enough to tell us what kind of experience to brace ourselves for. Comedies are built a certain way, spy thrillers a different way. If you're in the kind of indie darling that can allow itself a properly dark ending, the cinematography alone is probably hint enough to not be shocked by the melancholy ending you find yourself dropped into.

And I love the improv format, the complex RPG, silly serious dark light heavy sarcastic earnest superposition of the storytelling we do. I mean, let's be honest, light and floofy is the epicenter of our tone, but the fact is we can't arrange our tone around the narrative. The narrative writes itself around our best intentions, and all we can do is find a frame to fit the odd constructions we've devised and try to make them satisfying in retrospect. But in that sense the ending is a point of true suspense, it can no longer be a stage or a devise. It is the place where the narrative comes to rest its weary head. And I can only hope that we find a way to make it satisfying.

Next time: Cabin in the woods.

EDIT: So apparently the episode we posted is sounding glitchy for some people. Took it down and trying to figure out what's going on. Will have a new version back up soon.