Weird snacks?! And I thought America is the homeland of weird snacks... ;)
These were probably fresh fruits or vegs and, as a good American fellow, he thought they were "snacks", albeit strange one.
;-)
Bocklin
PS: Sorry for using bad clichés, Europeans probably don't eat much better. Had to tease a bit.
What's fruit? Can you fry it? I know you can fry vegetables.
Of course! Fried green tomatoes, dude!
Hi there, I´m from Mexico and all in all, the major players and the big names in fantasy are Tolkien/ Leiber / Vance / Moorcock / Lovecraft / and (of course) Roulling.
But we have others authors that make a diferent kind of fantasy, names like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Heraclio Zepeda or Borges are our own style of fantasy, thats way games like Ravenloft and all the White Wolf line are so popular here, because they talk in the same line as us, we have the dia de muertos, to talk whit your grandma you don not need to be a necromancer, you wait for october 12 and put some tequila in a glass, a pice of bread and a candle in her name, she will arrive and she will dine whit you. The fantasy its more real whit this authors, my eanglish its very poor hope the idea gets understood.
oh, sorry, I forget to say this, but we live soo near the United States that we play nearly as you play, maybe we dislike big dungeons and love a little bit more a dramatic story plenty of intrigue and betrayal than a big hack and slash; sadly Tolkien, Lovecraft and the other big ones are more familiar to the general gammer population than Garcia Marquez, Borges or Isabel Allende.... but this is a theme for another tread
Your English is great. You want poor, my Spanish is poor. I won't even try it here. I'm gonna look up those authors.
Thanks man, thanks, if you let me I suggest you the following books and authors:
- Santitos by Maria Escandon- The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
- The Aleph by J. L.Borges
- The raft of stone (I´m not shure about the name in eanglish) by Jose Saramago (look for any book of Mr Saramago its a great writer its not latin American he is from Portugal, but its great)
The first two books were made movies (the books are soo much better) but if you cant find the book, blockbuster can do the trick for you.
Ah yes, "magical realism" as we call it here. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" was a very interesting book, and I guess it's time to explore a bit more Latin American literature, now that I think of it. Thanks for the suggestions, Adolfo.
What an interesting thread...lets see what I can contribute.
I was born in the Middle East (Lebanon to be exact), but have lived in Canada most of my life, so i'm not sure how much of my views are north american, and how much are Lebanese.
First off i'd like to say that there are SOME who take great exception to what someone said earlier about Canadians being 90% american...but that's a hole other can of worms =)
Cultural differences pop up inevitably (for me anyways) due to the gap in age of the countries...I remember when we first arrived in Canada, my first year in school...they organized a road trip and drove us out an hour to see a building that was 150 years old...wow did I ever think that was strange...why you ask...well my grandfathers house in Lebanon is almost 300 years old...and we regularly picknick near Roman Ruins that are almost 4,000 years old...so you get my drift.
Oddly enough (or perhaps understandably...read on please) I didn't become a gamer till we got to Canada...and my interest in history/mythology all came through english language books...and only later did I go back and read up on Arabic sources (my Arabic is a bit rusty and believe me when I say Arabic literature is HARD to read even when you are fluent).
Unfortunately the hobby is almost non existent in the Arab world (much to my chagrin now living and working in the persian gulf state of Qatar). Perhaps it is the culture...but most Arab adults frown on "make believe" and as you are growing up your are encouraged more to get grounded in real life and not exercise your imagination as much. The idea of immersing onself in a fanatsy setting (even an Arabic one like Al Qadim) to play another character for a few hours is alien to most Arabs I would say (at least all the ones I know). I think i read somewhere that D&D books have been translated to so many other languages, i'd be interested to see if Arabic is one of them...though I doubt it, since finding them even in english in the Middle East is nigh impossible (we have to order them and have them shipped).
For example...it drives me a little batty to see the reaction of most Arabs to the LoTR movies...it borders on ambivalence, if not downright boredom...you ask them if they saw it and get the nod...but when you ask what they thought you get the "shrug"...very strange to me 9since I loved them).
Perhaps that is why Arab roleplayers are a rarity...although I count myself lucky that in Montreal (which has a huge Lebanese community)...my entire roleplaying group (all 4 of us lol) were Canadians of Arabic origins =)...while we played in English you cannot begin to imagine the fun we had especially since one of the guys english was really bad and we had to translate a lot of the words to Arabic...some do not translate well....lets just leave it at that lol.
Lastly...I think that standard D&D is definetly set in a European mideval (sp?) setting...which is fine...but for some strange reason a little boring to my group...that's why they always enjoyed alterate settings...Rokugan is our favorite by far.
Anyways...hope that helped in some small way to shed some light on what non U.S. Gamers think.
Keep up the great posts all, and be safe.
Not to forget the conventions ;-)
(http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/dorktower/archive.asp?nextform=viewcomic &id=1087)
I read once in Monte Cook's blog that he'd taken a trip to Ireland and was much impressed with the castles he saw, finding out much about how "real" castles looked (no ten-foot corridors, for one).
I was quite surprised that someone would fly from America just to see Carrickfergus Castle, since it's only fourteen miles away from my house. Kids to to it on school trips, it's just an old building with a gift shop. Then you realise that they don't have castles at all in America, and that's why American D&D players are impressed that they can see the real thing today.
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Reminds me of the Clint Eastwood westerns shot in Italy... they were so bizarre, but the absurdity of it all gives you a peek into another realm entirely.
It was an Italian production, but it was shot in southern Spain. Not even Sicily has that kind of aridness.
And Rush rocks!!!Oh yeah, another D&D playing Rush fan....there's quite a few of us here on these boards, I've noticed.
Rush does, indeed, rock.
Sign the petition to get them in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame! http://www.petitiononline.com/xanstar/petition.html
Right, just to follow up on the actual thread!
I am an American, born and raised, but my family is Spanish; Galician, actually.
Growing up I spent many summers with my relatives in the port city of A Coruna. Every visit, I made it a point to climb the ancient Roman lighthouse there, nearly 2000 years old and still in operation. That made an impression on me, the idea of walking the same steps Roman soldiers would climb to keep watch over the ships of their empire, ships weighed down with gold mined by conquered slaves...
It helped spark my interest in history and mythology which then carried over to my gaming. That was how I learned of the first mythical king of the area, (O)Bregon (Breoghus or Brigus), and Galicia's connection to the myths of Bile and the Milesians. Our family were good Catholics, but belief in fairies, witchcraft and gypsy curses were clearly part of the local landscape, and I took it all in. In our neighborhood there was even a village crone who I was advised was best avoided lest she give you her "evil eye."
Having lived in both a relatively young society like that of the US and an old one like Spain, I can tell you that although the preponderance of pop fantasy culture is American, or at least in English, the cultural roots, as others have pointed out, are Western or Pan-European. I'm glad that gamers are now branching out to explore other societies, but they can be hard to sustain if the GM doesn't have an interest in learning about that culture. The standard D&D campaign takes less work precisely because it is based on the common knowledge of being raised in a western country.
I too have noted that role-players as a rule are curious about other cultures, and I think this stems from the generally creative and inquisitive nature gaming encourages. Although Star Wars probably did more than anything else to kindle my interest in the fantastic, being raised on the stories of Roland and El Cid were also very formative. It's in the sense of history and place that Europeans might be at an advantage. Thankfully, this can be overcome with a little exposure to other cultures, especially travel.
Not even Sicily has that kind of aridness.
Aridity, rather. My eeenglish, it not so goood.;)