Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-26335047-20150422093732/@comment-26335047-20150426173938

So...it got taken down because you didn't like the style? You're right. That does seem an odd complaint. In fact, if I'm being perfectly frank it seems rather unfair. Firstly, this is a style that has been used by many great horror writers: H.P. Lovecraft, E.F. Benson, M.R. James, F. Marion Crawford, to name a few. Secondly, if the writing style isn't your cup of tea, that seems an awful lot like an "I didn't like the story" type complaint, which you guys go to great pains to disclaim as a reason for deletions. I understand deleting a story because it doesn't tell you enough, but there are plenty of stories on this site that at least one person wouldn't find particularly scary, and yet are competently written.

The vagueness, however, is a fair cop. Question: Do you think it would be served better if I told it from Matthew's point of view? That way you could see what the game actually does to someone firsthand. I wanted to avoid this because a) Cliche, and b) I was going for a sort of "Music of Erich Zann" type story. If you don't think that'd work, though, here's what the game does, and maybe you can suggest how to make this clearer:

So the game is called "Empathy" because it forces you to empathize more and more with what the winning hand does to your playing pieces. So you gradually feel more and more like you're being raped and/or murdered when someone else wins, especially if you're losing by a lot and/or are using the trauma track. Also, and this is more implied than explicit even within the story, but because the game was stopped before it could end, Matthew literally carried out the contents of his last hand, which is what happens when your piece ends up at the very end of the board. You start literally acting the game out.