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Author Topic: "Misery Tourism", Did we have a god Definitgion of it?  (Read 1343 times)

Koltar

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"Misery Tourism", Did we have a god Definitgion of it?
« on: May 01, 2021, 02:44:32 AM »
Hello Friends,

 Around 4 or 5 years ago I remember the concept of 'Misery Tourism' being used on these forums to describe some games and RPGs that were pretty messed up in concept and design.

Did anyone come up with a good or relly good definitgion of the term?
On my Facebook I mentioned the concept or description but I think I need a better description of the idea and why its Bad.

Thanks in advance....

- Ed C.
The return of 'You can't take the Sky From me!'
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This is what a really cool FANTASY RPG should be like :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-WnjVUBDbs

Still here, still alive, at least Seven years now...

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Re: "Misery Tourism", Did we have a god Definitgion of it?
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2021, 08:29:59 PM »
I usually hear that as like rich white kids going down to impoverished sections of developing countries for ineffective charity work and shit.

I guess if your really into your characters making a difference in the world then you might call a misery tourism game as like a setting/campaign where people are bad people doing bad things to other people and everything is horrible and that's fine.
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Spinachcat

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Re: "Misery Tourism", Did we have a god Definitgion of it?
« Reply #2 on: May 03, 2021, 04:38:52 PM »
My parents inadvertently took a "misery tourism" bus trip about 20 years ago. They were on a tour of Michigan and were offered a day bus tour of Old Detroit with a retired architect who would lecture about all the historic buildings and development of the city. Our family is from the Bronx so Mom & Dad expected some urban decay, but sat in stunned silence when they got their tour of Mogadishu post-Black Hawk Down while the tour guide nonchalantly discussed mass murders, mass rapes, and the litany of taxpayer funded boondoogles of the past half century.

All the Chinese tourists on the bus had a GRAND time. Mom said the couple next too them took so many pictures, the wife was reloading one camera while the husband fired away with the other.

As for the RPG term, probably most famous was when White Wolf did a supplement where you could play ghosts from the Holocaust. Recently, the Cucks of Chaosium put out a supplement where you investigate Cthulhu while prancing around in the degeneracy of the Weimar Republic.

And while these are real world elements being put into a fantasy, I do question how different that is from the drugged out ghettos of cyberpunk, or that cool OSR setting Yoon Suin which describes itself as "shrouded in ancient mysteries, opium smoke, great luxury and opulent cruelty."
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/144820/YoonSuin

To me, playing adventurers in a dark fantasy semi-Indonesia sounds like fun, but I can easily see that (and many other settings) being decried as misery tourism.

But we're in clown world now. Words don't have solid meanings anymore.

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Re: "Misery Tourism", Did we have a god Definitgion of it?
« Reply #3 on: May 03, 2021, 06:20:01 PM »
As for the RPG term, probably most famous was when White Wolf did a supplement where you could play ghosts from the Holocaust. Recently, the Cucks of Chaosium put out a supplement where you investigate Cthulhu while prancing around in the degeneracy of the Weimar Republic.

Wow, how'd they manage to make the Weimar Republic so degenerate in that book anyhow
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Crawford Tillinghast

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Re: "Misery Tourism", Did we have a god Definitgion of it?
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2021, 04:56:06 AM »
...Recently, the Cucks of Chaosium put out a supplement where you investigate Cthulhu while prancing around in the degeneracy of the Weimar Republic.

Wow, how'd they manage to make the Weimar Republic so degenerate in that book anyhow

Honestly, I like Berlin, The Wicked City.  It's an interesting sourcebook for the Between the Wars era.

When we think of Berlin, we think of the Nazi years when everyone manned the battleworks to defend Der Fatherland; or the Cold War era where the city was one half besieged bastion and one half dreary grey depression.  During Weimar times it was apparently a markedly different place.  Wicked City is a bit skewed toward a nihilistic New Orleans, where anything -anything- can be provided if you look hard enough, but it does bring the particular era to life.

If you really want a misery guidebook, take a look at Harlem Unbound.  It is a great sourcebook for 20's era Harlem: If you can get past where about once a page the author throws another suitcase onto the White Guilt Trip Express.  ::)

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Re: "Misery Tourism", Did we have a god Definitgion of it?
« Reply #5 on: May 04, 2021, 05:14:11 PM »
...Recently, the Cucks of Chaosium put out a supplement where you investigate Cthulhu while prancing around in the degeneracy of the Weimar Republic.

Wow, how'd they manage to make the Weimar Republic so degenerate in that book anyhow

Honestly, I like Berlin, The Wicked City.  It's an interesting sourcebook for the Between the Wars era.

When we think of Berlin, we think of the Nazi years when everyone manned the battleworks to defend Der Fatherland; or the Cold War era where the city was one half besieged bastion and one half dreary grey depression.  During Weimar times it was apparently a markedly different place.  Wicked City is a bit skewed toward a nihilistic New Orleans, where anything -anything- can be provided if you look hard enough, but it does bring the particular era to life.

If you really want a misery guidebook, take a look at Harlem Unbound.  It is a great sourcebook for 20's era Harlem: If you can get past where about once a page the author throws another suitcase onto the White Guilt Trip Express.  ::)

Sounds like a pretty good setting tbh, just wanna know what makes it uniquely degenerate to play in compared to, uh, any other popular location for 1920s CoC games. Is it the queer stuff? Is that it?

Harlem also sounds cool, can definitely get past the white guilt trip express because I am an adult somehow
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Opaopajr

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Re: "Misery Tourism", Did we have a god Definitgion of it?
« Reply #6 on: May 05, 2021, 05:57:25 AM »
"Welfare Queens," an rpg/storygame hybrid. Premise: You live in a futuristic post-scarcity utopia filled with the anomie of 1st-world problems, so you join others in the popular VR MMORPG of 20th/21st Century people living on The Welfare.

Downloaded a free copy when it was available on... DriveThruRPG? I forget. Wanted to give it a whirl one day but never did.  :'(
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jhkim

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Re: "Misery Tourism", Did we have a god Definitgion of it?
« Reply #7 on: May 05, 2021, 01:15:29 PM »
"Welfare Queens," an rpg/storygame hybrid. Premise: You live in a futuristic post-scarcity utopia filled with the anomie of 1st-world problems, so you join others in the popular VR MMORPG of 20th/21st Century people living on The Welfare.

Downloaded a free copy when it was available on... DriveThruRPG? I forget. Wanted to give it a whirl one day but never did.  :'(

That seems to me like it is a deliberate parody. It's published by "Misery Tourism Games" and is available at miserytourism.com, in a collection with seven other games -

http://www.miserytourism.com/miseryindex/

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Re: "Misery Tourism", Did we have a god Definitgion of it?
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2021, 01:52:38 PM »
Oh hey rules for Schadenfreude, the game I play every day, nice
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