From: | William Monroe Ashe <wma6617@****.TAMU.EDU> |
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Subject: | Re: Awakened Gumbo Anyone? Riposte |
Date: | Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:32:56 -0500 |
> I have some real problems with that guide to New Orleans; specifically with
> the way the French Quarter, Organized crime and Voodoo are handled. For one
> thing; the population of New Orleans is overwhelmingly Catholic, and fairly
> strongly so. This does not prevent the occult bookstores from opening, or
> prevent the sham voodoo rituals put on for the tourists, but the concept of
> a large group of "devil-working" voodoo practitioners taking over and
> controlling the French Quarter (which is incidentaly a site of cultural and
> tourist importance so great that the chances of the government allowing the
> setup proposed in the "guide" to occur is non-existant) is completely
> ridiculous.
I would like to disagree; Now we're talking about game terms here so I
admit I took quite a bit of artistic license. But the whole SR world has
taken a lot of artistic license.
so point number 1;
I've been to New Orleans many times over the years (There is a really
cool fencing tournament held there every spring, I don't fence really
well but, who really cares, but I digress). The catholic religion is
strong, but so is baptist (in all of its sub forms), and Church of
Christ (especially among the african american population).
Also the practice of a "sanitized" version of voodoo has a firm foothold
in the city, and has since the 60's.
So in game terms (IMHO)
I saw the awakening as taking hold rather quickly. In 2011 these kinds
of rituals would be just the thing to "accidentally" access the astral
plane. For a real FASA viewpoint check out T-UCAS in the Salem section
where they discuss the Wiccan's accidentally calling the Wild Hunt. So,
once the practioners found that there rituals would actually work, they
had power.
> In addition, the chances that a ban on firearms, magical or
> not, as laid out in the article being allowed by the general public in a
> state where the concealed carry permit and the firearm permit are one and
> the same is sorta silly.
2) Now this part was pure artistic license on my part. I thought it
would be neat to have a portion of a city where tech would get a little
squirrely (aka the "Bordertown" series). It worked well in my game, but
then I had the gamers chased by a bunch of cyberzombies, and the magical
boundary was to be their ace in the hole. As regards to the legal part
of it. Who's going to argue with a group of zealots that can throw
around that much magic?
> Another issue is the treatment of the "king" and
> "Queen" of voodoo. Marie Laveau was a very influential figure in the
> twenties and her daughter contiinued the tradition, but the whole story was
> mainly a shill for the stupid Yank tourists anyway. Voodoo has a
> matriarchical structure so the concept of a "King" is rather strange too.
3) Actually if you go back and read the historical accounts of the real
Marie Laveau, there WAS a Voodoo King before her. She had him killed.
As for the story being a tourist thingy, back in the 1800's the WHITE
people believed in her power more than the slaves did. If they didn't she
would have killed for "being an uppity nigger".
> And where did the huge Yakusa influence come from? ever since the mass
> italian emigration, in the teens I believe, the city's organized crime has
> been tightly controlled by the Mafia. There are more Jewish people in New
> Orleans then there are Asians; and that's ALL asians- the Yaks would be like
> 20 people and the tongs and triads the other 5.
4) Once again this is license. I needed several large organized crime
groups to be at war. Actually there is a small, but strong oriental
community in N.O., but they are mostly vietnamese.
> I guess there is noting really "wrong" from a gameplay standpoint with the
> data presented in the Shadowtourist article; it's just completely
> unrealistic.
I disagree, but hey what do I know?
-Bill