Right, a quick message before I go to bed which isn’t really important for this test, but is for people interested in joining Lost Record afterwards. The Fate series is full of creepy, disturbing things that people may have ah issue with, from the more fantastical, like eldritch gods, giant monsters, zombies, etc. to the more realistic, such as child exploration/violence against children, torture, mass killings, cults, diseases, terrorism, and complicated questions, such as the nature of morality, whether you should work to save others at the cost of yourself, whether it’s more important to save the people you love, or the world at large, etc.
Fate/Lost Record will not be shying away from these concepts, and given my tendency to play towards horror to an extent in my action/adventure games, might even see more of it than many Fate properties do. I will be providing a consent sheet to players, to see if there any any specific topics to avoid or downplay because they may bring back traumatic memories or trigger anxiety or PTSD episodes, but in general, I won’t be shying away from things that players may find frightening or uncomfortable, not because I want players to feel those ways, but because I feel those emotions are important to the full experience of the story.
This is not to say I intend the story to go full Fate/Zero or From Software level dark, as to clarify, my stories strongly tend towards the idealistic side of idealism vs cynicism. I feel a story should run the gambit of human emotion, dread, heartbreak, and fear, but also hope, joy, laughter, and moments that make you want to throw your hands in the air and scream “Fuck Yes!”. Without either side of the emotional spectrum, the other runs the risk of becoming somehow both muted and all consuming, with players/readers becoming numb to the emotion the author intends to inflict. That is why I feel darkness and fear are important story tools, but in the end, the genre is still action/adventure, rather than horror.
I am not saying “if you don’t think you can handle this, leave”. For one, even if you don’t think you can handle this, this mechanics test should be largely free of these types of things, as it’s a mechanics test, not a proper story. And further, even if you don’t think you can handle these kinds of things, but you are interested in Fate/Lost Record, I still implore you to check it out, and not allow your fears from keeping you from an experience you may enjoy. This message was purely meant as something for people who are interested to consider.