My last post was provocatively titled “Fuck content, it’s how it’s presented that matters”. Good conversation occurred in the comments. But to summarise Rob Lang (of thefreerpgblog) pretty much hit the nail firmly on (or at least around) the head:

I _think_ you’re not complaining about your own “exposure” but instead feeling the pain for those people who create lovely content, which is ultimately ignored because of poor presentation. Perhaps you’re also reeling against those people who have gorgeous sites but the content is toilet.

I was surprised that there was disagreement on it, that the value of how something is “presented” (be it marketing or layout) is sometimes more important than the content itself. (Content is still important of course but…)

It’s interesting then to see this article popup in my twitter stream (via @daveconcannon): How I got a blank book to the top of the Amazon charts

He summarises how he did this in three points:

1. A great PR company, which reported stories about the item: The London PR Agency.
2. A YouTube Video – that showed me and the book too.
3. Some clear, professional images.

You could argue that “content” is the novelty of the idea or that this simply proves the exception rather than the rule. But I’m no so easily convinced. For a start the “blank book” idea isn’t new (there was one done in the 70s called “Everything Men Know About Women”) and the author, Shed Simove, says this:

I’ve launched novelty items before, and arguably some have been cleverer or funnier than this book, so why did this book become a global phenomenon?

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… at least according to Amazon.co.uk.

I get these regular “you liked this books, so you probably like this one” emails. And yes, I’ve bought a number of Alan Moore’s books from Amazon, like Watchmen. So I was quite surprised to see this!

Alan Moore wrote the New Testament in the Bible!

(The product in the email is real btw and is genuinely listed as being by Alan Moore, the author of Lost Girls. Quite a leap from that to this!)

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I love it when I receive books in the mail. I have an Amazon Wish list setup so that people who use TDO Mini Forms can show their appreciation and send me a book. So a book shaped parcel in the post doesn’t surprise me. I fill up with a sense of glee and excitement about what someone send me (the last time it was this excellent Dinosaur popup book). So when I found the parcel in the doorway as I got home, I wasn’t surprised.

It was only later, when I realised it wasn’t from Amazon, I got a bit perplexed. The package was from Leisure Games who sell roleplaying games. I had to take a moment, because I was quite proud of myself that I had not used my credit card in months and had cleared any debt left on it. For a moment I got a little worried, did someone go a little bit further than just my Amazon Wish List? I opened it and it was a copy of Noumenon, a game I was planning to get. A roleplaying game about some really weird, Philip K. Dick kind of stuff. For a brief moment it was quite disconcerting. But once I saw the receipt I realised that it was part of an order I had made last year, and were only now sending me a copy.

Certainly it was a fitting way to start Noumenon. I really like it. A strange game where players play Sarcophagi, humanoid-insects that were once human but no longer remember who they were. They wake up in the Silhouette Rouge, guided by the voice of Logos (the voice of the Universe). The Silhouette Rouge is a house with a fixed number of rooms. Some of the rooms are described by a short story, a little abstract and strange. Some are precise. I found myself swallowing this surreal metaphorical setting with joy. However it’s not a book I’d let my young daughter flick through: insects, blood, monsters and metaphors do not, a batgirl, make.

The system is elegant and, from my reading, appears delightful. I love when games keep in theme and break from the traditional approach. Instead of dice, you use dominoes, which have their own mythos about them. I love how they are used encourages the player group to work together.

It’s not specifically horror, a genre I like but am not enthused by. I can’t picture long-term stories and games based on horror themes. Great for short once-off, creepy stuff. Noumenon has horror, but it’s not specifically about horror except as a mechanism for change. I keep thinking of Don’t Rest Your Head, which is explicitly a horror game but one also set in a mad abstract world. Don’t Rest Your Head drives the players and their characters into madness. Noumenon allows the characters to explore and journey through the horrors like a dream that flows from nightmare to dream to eventual waking. A difference of taste.

My only problem really is I don’t think I could get my group to play it. They’d just look at me, with those, “you’re not serious are you?” faces. But then sometimes they surprise me. And surprises are good, like mysterious books in the post.

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