Working the NIGHT SHIFT: Biology is not Destiny, The Supernatural Lessons of Lost Girl

There is a good reason I have chosen October 25 as the date for this post. It marks the series finale of Lost Girl on this day in 2015. One might expect me to go with the premiere anniversary for something like this, but the finale feels more appropriate for what I want to talk about here. 

For one thing, by the time Lost Girl was over, we had a clear view of what Bo had put behind her and what she had achieved. 

Lost Girl (2010-2015)

Bo, Anna Silk’s character in Lost Girl, discovers she is a succubus and that there is a whole supernatural world she was never aware of. More to the point, she finds that this world has its own set of rules as to who you are to be, who you are to keep company with, and which side you have to pick. She is forced to choose.

Bo’s response to all of that is a resounding "No."

And that is the most valuable thing the show offered me.

The Fae that inhabit the world of Lost Girl are not a single species. The term does not denote a single type of creature. They may hail from different mythologies, have powers that are worlds apart, or act in entirely different fashions. The only commonality is their place in the larger supernatural ecology. That, and there are two camps: Light and Dark Fae.

Lost Girl ran for 5 seasons, mostly focusing on Bo and human Kenzi, and their ability to move between the Light and Dark worlds of the Fae to investigate crimes in both and in the human world. Along the way, she meets and falls in love with Dyson, a male werewolf and cop, and Lauren, a female human doctor. Bo's bisexuality is a mirror to her ability to move between Light and Dark worlds, and the Fae and human worlds.

Much like Charmed, we developed playtest characters based on Bo and Kenzi. Bo was a good test of the supernatural character type. Kenzi became our de facto human survivor.

Lost Girl and NIGHT SHIFT

I wanted NIGHT SHIFT to be a game where one could play a supernatural character without having to codify every conceivable creature as a distinct species. The Fae in Lost Girl provided an excellent model for that. Two such characters need not resemble one another or even share a mythological pedigree to be of the same broad category. That concept was instrumental in developing the basic Supernatural species for the game.

It is a freedom of design. Rather than making a separate species for every horror movie or urban legend monster, I could put in place a framework that lets the player and Game Master make of the character what they will.

Lost Girl also underlined a notion that has taken on greater significance for me: biology is not destiny.

You will find in some older fantasy games an assumption that an orc is evil by virtue of being an orc, or that a demon is evil because it is a demon; the rules would even put a number on it with alignment. Lost Girl does not see it that way. 

Bo is a succubus by birth. Fine. That says what she can do, not what kind of person she must be. She makes the choice.

As the series goes on, that becomes all the more relevant. Her actions affect those around her. Other characters begin to doubt things they have taken for granted for centuries. Boundaries in the Fae world are crossed. It turns out many of the so-called natural and inevitable rules were just choices made by someone else at some point.

Which is why the finale is a better anniversary for this piece than the premiere. At the outset, Bo is the one insisting on her right to choose. By the end, she has changed the world around her. Even the next generation is afforded the option of deciding for herself what she wants to be, or of flatly refusing the options on the table.

That is a potent concept for a role-playing game. A character’s powers or ancestry may well matter, but they do not have to dictate who he or she is. What is of interest is what is done with them.

Not just great for drama. A necessity for RPGs.

Succubi

Then there is the matter of succubi. Lost Girl has given me plenty of food for thought on the subject.

They are traditionally demons, and I still use them as such, but the show reminds us that this doesn't have to be the whole story. A succubus can also be fae or vampiric (as in the WitchCraft RPG).

I care less for the label than for what the creature actually is in the world it inhabits. Is it feeding on blood or sexual energy? Does it have to cause harm to get by? Or are we calling several unrelated beings by the same name because humans are not adept at telling the difference?

Much more useful than the simple equation of "succubus equals demon equals evil." 

A supernatural being may have instincts or needs that are frightening to a human. Those are fine problems for a story to have. But they do not settle the question of good or evil.

That is for the characters to decide for themselves.

But once you remove the idea that a character has to act or be a certain way, it opens up a world of potential for the characters, the game masters, and the game designers like me.

Lost Girl and Jackson

You can't always see the influences of Lost Girl in my Jackson psts, but it is there, and a good deal of it can be found when you start to dig.

Take Larina, for example. The link is quite direct. During some early playtests, I was looking for something in her past that would account for certain qualities: her temper, or how at ease she has always been with magic of the more dangerous sort. There are magical avenues she will take that would give another witch pause. It is not as though these things make her evil, yet they pointed to something there, I just had not quantified it yet. 

I concluded that a little succubus blood in her lineage would do the trick. Not enough to turn her into one, or define her, but enough to add a dimension to her family history and account for those traits. And maybe that red hair too. 

In that regard, Lost Girl gave me a new perspective. Bo is a succubus, true, but that says only so much about her powers and biology. Who she is, she makes for herself. I wanted the same for Larina. Her demonic side is no excuse for her actions; it does not mean her temper is written in the stars or that dangerous magic is luring her to ruin. She is a witch, a student, a daughter, a friend and, in time, a mother. That is the sort of world I want to build. 

Then there is the matter of the cast. Lost Girl made it obvious to me that a group of women protagonists can be done right in genre fiction. For years, the convention in gaming was to have a room full of men with a woman or two for measure. Lost Girl had none of that. Either hero or villain, lover or rival, the characters were very often female, and it worked. They did not have to stand in for "the woman" of the piece; they could be as foolish as they were brilliant, as cruel as they were compassionate. You will find the same in Emily Andras’ Wynonna Earp. You saw this in Charmed as well. 

Jackson is no different. Larina, Stephanie, Faye, Vera, Rowan, Candy, Denise, Ami, Valerie, Kiera, and the rest are not here to tick a box. Some are witches, some are mundane, some run toward trouble, and some would rather be elsewhere. They are simply the ones with the most compelling stories.

If there is a through line between the two works, I would say it is the opening words from Bo: "I will live the life I choose." That might as well be inscribed over the doors to Jackson Public High School.

Larina will not let her bloodline dictate who she is. Faye is not going to let the hags who reared her have the last word. And while Stephanie has the weight of money, social standing, and family expectations on her shoulders, she will decide for herself who she wants to be. Vera has similar issues with money and family obligation on top of religion and a father who doesn't want his daughter to be a witch. She still has choices to make. Even the more ordinary folk have to make their call.

There is plenty of inherited trouble in Jackson. Old bargains, family histories, the town’s own debts from past generations. But that is not destiny. The characters must choose. It is not easy to do, and there are consequences, which is precisely why the choice is so important.

You can have the power, the history, and the problems handed down to you. But in the end, you have to determine what to do with them. Lost Girl knew that, and I want Jackson to as well.

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