The Dark Crystal: Truth, Corruption and fun Ideas

Let me start by saying I’m not a very good critic. I try not to believe everything I think and enjoy the opportunity to confirm, refute or expand my thoughts with others. This is the first time I’m watching Netflix’s The Dark Crystal. Watching it I keep thinking “oh, that would be a great scenario.” Here’s some thoughts.

One of the stories follows Rian, who witnessed the tyrannical Skeksies drain the life essence of Mira. A rumor is spread that Rian murdered his friend Mira and that his mind has been infected. Most Gelfling refuse to “dreamfast” with Rian, a ritual that would allow others to experience the murder as he’d witnessed it. The Skeksis have spread the lie that dreamfasting will spread Rian’s infection. The other story lines in the series share the premise that truth threatens the power held by Skeksies.

Of course, I watch this as I’m running a variant of Parthenogenisis of Hungry Hollow (itself a variant of N1). The module posits a corruption that spreads to fulfill the terrible designs it serves. The corruption drives the infected to seek out living creatures and consume them so their regurgitation can be used to build a hive.

The friction between the two, as I mull over them, is interesting. Both use the premise of spreading an idea that will bring about radical change. In The Dark Crystal that idea is something that can be verified empirically, a truth that anyone can share. In Hungry Hollow the corruption is a hunger or craving the brings about suffering.

Maybe we need a few more games that play into this friction.

Other things I noticed are more mundane and practical. Challenges are generally (but not always) solved with cleverness. I want to make this required viewing at my table. :stuck_out_tongue: The story contains situations, puzzles, traps and ingenious contraptions that I’d love to steal. I’ll have to watch it again and take notes to be more specific.

Ultimately though, as someone who aspires to write an adventure or two, I enjoyed the series. It provides brain fodder to chew on and fun ideas to emulate.

1 Like

The Dark Crystal Age of Resistance is an amazing series, much better than the 80’s movie. From that movie I can see that they did a lot of worldbuilding and lore that was not translated into film. Which I relate to, as I’ve had homebrew campaigns where players didn’t get the lore I prepared and some things must have seem a bit random.

I like the idea of spreading misinformation. I also like having the evil guys be really evil, like moustache twirling bad, petty, sniveling cowards. With the anti-racism sentiment of “all sentient species should be treated similarly”, which I agree with, I find having the evil guys being cruel is a great way to show players you can kill them without moral quandaries.

1 Like