Gaming (supplement & Shadowrun)

[brushwolf]

I found and grabbed up a copy of Mutants Down Under in the used section of the FLGS, for only $1 (American), and read it all the way through. Frankly it's awesome and if I had players and a basic Palladium book I'd run it, because thanks to Tank Girl I know exactly what characters would do post-apocalypse Australia;

• drink indiscriminately
  
• screw indiscriminately
  
• expend John Woo like quantities of ammunition indiscriminately
  
• make foul noises, foul gestures, and foul smells
  
• drink indiscriminately
  
• oh and have adventures or some mickey like that

There's this seriously great guide to how to speak with an overdone ocker accent and the best part of the entire supplement is the suggestion that characters fond of shortening phrases might use "dirge up" for "take off in the dirigible."

Last Saturday's Shadowrun game was also awesome. The short form is that the ex-Ares corporate soldier got a note saying that someone knew who she was and what she did and to come to Seattle's glittering Dante's Inferno nightclub to take on a job. Once there, it turned out the job was from Ares, who were willing to conveniently forget about how our band of runners had previously obliterated an entire expensive squad of Ares corporate soldiers if we protected the son of a top level executive and who was now a ghoul. We acquired a batch of useful things, and started our stakeout.

The long form is that we got invited to Seattle's glittering Dante's Inferno nightclub and the troll was reluctant to go because he wouldn't fit in.

Elf: Oh, come on. It'll be awesome. We'll go hang out in Gluttony and get completely hammered on her [points to former corporate soldier] credstick.
Troll: I guess so, yeah...
Elf: You're over 21 right?
Troll: [snorts derisively] Yeah, 'course!
Elf: Oh good, I'm not.

While the corporate soldier talked to the Johnson, the elf used Sperethiel and Etiquette (Elf) to get the troll past the door guards as her bodyguard, complete with his collection of axes. The pair then holed up in Gluttony and drank (shots and whole brandy snifters, respectively) Glenfiddich on the former corporate soldier's credstick.

Troll: How the hell does a kid from that social class get HMHVV anyway, don't they teach kids about condoms these days?
Elf: Oh come on. I figure they met at Rocky. Half of everyone there looks like ghouls anyway. Then afterwards they went to Denny's, and they went in the bathroom, and they did the nasty. Did the dog. Did the basilisk.
Troll: The basilisk?
Elf: Yeah. You know when one person just lays there like a rock.
Troll: Oh. I thought that was just 'the inexperienced teenager.'

Elf: And anyway sixteen year olds do dumb shit. I mean when I was sixteen I summoned the Uktena into my bedroom and didn't know how to bind it. I was grounded for a month.
Former Corporate Soldier: You summoned the Uktena into your bedroom while you were living with your folks?
Elf: Where else was I gonna summon It?
Troll: 'I'm a Rat shaman and this is Jackass.'

Former Corporate Soldier: Okay, so what do I know about ghouls? [rolls dice]
GM: [checks book] [describes Krieger strain HMHVV effects] victim is pale, eyes are filmed over white, long filthy dark nails, elongated ears.
Elf: Okay I was wrong. That's like only about an eighth of the people who show up at Rocky.

GM: The house is a huge sprawling Mac-Mansion on the shores of Lake Washington. You notice that the windows on the top floor have been blacked out.
Elf: What an ugly guy, I hope he doesn't get a close-up.

Elf player: Well, maybe we can find a rotted flesh patch for the kid.
Troll player: Necrorettes stops the cravings!

Comments

[moonvoice]

Heh, I think these days Aussies would be more likely to say 'didj / didge up' instead of 'dirge up,' but that's because we like the 'idge' sound so much. (i.e. 'ridgy didge' to indicate that everything's all okay).

Gosh though, I'm glad I'm not 'ocker.' Ocker Australians are like American 'rednecks.' The stereotype is played up, as it is in Tank Girl. That being said, some of the linguistic things hold. Mostly I notice in nicknames. Glen becomes Glenno, Jarrad becomes Jazza, Brad becomes Parksy (after his last name) and so on.

[brushwolf]

That makes sense. "Didge up" is just as pleasing, and "ridgy didge" is pretty awesome.

I'd gotten the impression that pretty much every Australian can play up the stereotype when it's amusing to them. Like a lot of media, this kind of assumes the stereotype, but it lets players have characters who are all the less typical creatures, potoroos and goannas and stuff. I don't think I'll ever use this directly, but hope to lift some of it for use in a Gamma World game if I ever run Gamma World again.

And remember, I'm originally from an area full of rednecks. People are ridiculously proud of it there. I guess whatever makes ya happy.

[moonvoice]

I'd gotten the impression that pretty much every Australian can play up the stereotype when it's amusing to them.

That's definitely not true. I mean, my Oma was first-gen Australian, and didn't have a knowledge of what 'ocker' even was, and still spoke with a Dutch accent until she passed away this year - she'd never have been able to play up the stereotype, and there are a lot of first-gen Australians in a similar situation. There are also multi-gen Australians who simply aren't interested, even if tourists come over, they're not going to lay on a 'g'day' and so on just to 'impress' people from overseas.

I don't think everyone in their respective countries does, wants to, or even can play up to that stereotype; and they would still be legitimate, valid Australians.

Having heard the argument that 'if you can't speak Australian, you don't deserve to be here,' from some in the ocker community, I know how divisive and delegitimising using a stereotype to other folks can be.

As for me, I'm not interested in pandering to any stereotype that celebrates sex and drug and alcohol addiction, knowing the real damage it can cause families and communities. It's fun in a comic book, but it's less fun to live. I may speak in ockerisms (or strine, as it's known here, just as often), being third generation Australian, but I would never consider myself ocker, even if my entire family is - by our own standards and other people's - white trash. So, in that sense, it's probably not like being a US redneck at all (my mistake). Especially as part of what makes someone ocker, is the 'good-natured sexism' that comes along with the label/definition. *shrugs* I don't believe in glorifying that at all. Good-natured sexism is still sexism; good-natured sexism is still invasively touching a woman on the ass without her consent and then laughing at her when she doesn't understand how 'good-natured' that is. Stereotypes can be fun to play with, but it's good to keep the realities in mind as well, including the cultural associations with a certain stereotype.

I'd also add that the stereotypes associated with being ocker shift slightly from state to state and also from city to country town. And that, additionally, people speak with thicker Australian accents naturally in the Eastern states than they do in places like Western Australia.

Anyway, I'm in a minority with my perspective on the glorification of what it is to be ocker, because alocoholism is *so celebrated* here, it's considered cooler to be sexist/drunk all the time, than it is to decide to not be these things.

[brushwolf]

Wow. I had no idea that I was stepping on sore nerves - and I'm sorry to have done so.

With playing up the stereotypes, I consider myself to be from two groups which routinely do this because we usually think it's funny (that in itself is a weird mix of things), and one group which routinely does this because... well, whatever reasons southerners have regional pride. I think it's this mix of actual sincere thinking they're great with desperately striving for self-reassurance of some sort. Given just how much southerners being all happy about themselves overlaps with sexism, homophobia, racism, and overblown Christianity, I definitely empathize with you, here.

The alcohol, I have this bad feeling, is sort of a world wide thing. Americans certainly have a lot of it. "I am drinking BEER! Therefore I am having a great time! And can get away with nigh-anything! BEEEEEER!" Which wouldn't be so bad if everyone who ever got hammered was an actually happy drunk with a good grasp on boundaries. And I think I'm going to shut up about that before I start ranting about our attitudes on tobacco, coffee, and marijuana, none of which you necessarily asked to hear.

[moonvoice]

Oh man, *looks abashed*, I guess I did have a lot of sore nerves come up in this. I'm sorry. People should be able to celebrate the craziness of Tank Girl without my issues being strewn all over the place.

Ah well. It's a shame about the increasing 'yay alcohol' as well. It wasn't as bad in my generation, but it's getting a lot worse now. :/ I sometimes have to roll my eyes at the irony of policing/regulating something like ecstacy or LSD, when there's no attempt to really police/regulate alcohol in the same way. It's far more damaging, after all.

[brushwolf]

Which is my rant, really. Society sure seems to have this huge double standard about alcohol and everything else. Gets into some personal experiences.