This one is a last-minute switch. I might find some use for my "Planet X" post at a future date. But today I want to talk about the X-Files. You can't talk about Conspiracy Theories and ignore the X-Files.
This also gives me a chance to go back to the very beginning of my A to Z journey. Not April 1st, but April 2011.
Here is what I said about the X-Files then (with edits to update).
In the 90s everything was conspiracy theories, don't trust the government and the Truth was Out There.
On TV we had the X-Files.
There was a paranoia in the 90s. Today it has boiled over into disgust about our government (believe I know, I live in Illinois, we have one ex-Governor in prison and another headed there two Ex-Governors that are also Ex-Cons. But back then it was a general low hum of paranoia, suspicion, and doubt. It started with Iran-Contra and moved on to movies like "JFK". It was the climate that allowed the X-Files to grow.
It began on a start-up network called Fox, long before they became synonymous for killing shows, good or bad, too early or shitty news. X-Files was their hit, their main show outside of the Simpsons really, and they kept it on for 9 years and then again for 2 more in 2016 and 2018.
Let's be honest here, the X-Files did more for genre TV than anything else. It was a cultural phenomenon and most television shows that we enjoyed in the 2000s and on are a result of this little show by Chris Carter. People go on and on about Whedon, but Carter and the X-files has been nominated for more Emmys and the show had won more collective awards. Even in its "worst" season X-files still had 3 times the views of Buffy. Plus there is not an episode of Supernatural that doesn't in some way or another recall the X-files. The Winchesters are Mulder and Scully for the 2000s.I came to the show late. I was working on my thesis at the time and I rarely watched TV. Once I graduated I became a fast convert. It became my Friday night ritual (I was watching them with my then-girlfriend, so that is ok). It was also one of the shows I did not invest in any fandom merchandise. I have an X-files soundtrack CD and Mulder and Scully action figures, but I got them as gifts. But I really got into the show all the same. One of the first desktop "themes" I had for my brand spanking new copy of Windows 95 was an X-files one.
I loved the season-long and multi-season-long story arcs, I loved the characters, and I didn't even care when my then girlfriend (and now wife) would go on about how hot Mulder or Skinner were. That was fine with me. I got to see Scully, and she was hot and super smart.
The Godfather of the X-files is "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" and Darrin McGavin even made some guest spots on the show. X-Files, while the "mythos arc" is lauded, sometimes worked the best on the "monster of the week" episodes. Sure the aliens were great and those were the ones I got excited about, but the ones I recall the best, Flukeman, "Theef", the freaky weird family, the hallucinogenic fungus, the chupacabra. Like Kolchak, X-files did it's best job when it dealt with "small stories"; episodes that dealt with a local myth, legend, or monster and came at it with Mulder the one ready to believe anything, and Scully looking for the reasoned explanation. I also liked the "spin-offs" of Millennium and the Lone Gunmen.
One day I am going to go back to the world of the X-Files. Back when Clinton was still president, freaky half-worm/half-man things lived in chemical toilets, cigarette-smoking men and well-manicured men sat in dark rooms with darker purposes, aliens kidnapped little girls and the Truth Was Out There.
For NIGHT SHIFT
The trouble with X-Files is it was doomed from the start. You can't keep the characters or the audience in the dark all the time and have a good show, and the more secrets you reveal the less the characters have to uncover. They kept it up though for a good long run.
The same is true for any conspiracy game. Conspiracy X, by Eden Studios, is a great example. You can totally run an "X-Files" game with it, but how often can you keep the players in the dark when they are looking for secrets? The same is true for the RPG The Unexplained (which was my "U" for 2012).
This is something Game Masters need to keep in mind when running any sort of Conspiracy based RPG.
For NIGHT SHIFT in particular I tried to capture all of this, via the lens of Kolchak: The Night Stalker in my "Weirdly World News" Night World. But here I only scratched the surface and if this month has shown me anything there is so much more to talk about.
The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).
