Thursday 14 February 2013

Love Potion Number Nine From Outer Space

Valentine’s Day gets a Google Doodle, combined with the birthday of George Ferris, inventor of the Ferris Wheel, for some comically inappropriate connections. Like that Warner Brothers cartoon where Bugs and Elmer would fight or fall in love depending on which hats landed on their heads.

Falling in love at random caused by a paranormal outside force is one of those older-than-dirt plots, a variation of The One Where Everybody Acts Out Of Character that you see in Greek myth, Shakespeare plays, many long-running genre series and at least two brands of deodorant adverts, one of which ran with it to the point of destroying civilisation.

Ever done it in a game? It’s easily played for laughs, and that would probably be the best way to contain it in a single adventure and not have big emotional fallout following it. A serious version where the effects aren’t brushed under the carpet next week would have to be approached with more care.

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