RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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I asked this in another thread but it moved in a ... different direction.
I like Galt.
Ya gotta love any place where your Chelaxian character may be the good guy (or the less bad one).
I see it as a place where powerful undead from noble families attempt to reclaim their castles from highly organized mobs with pitchforks and manifestos.
I imagine a party infiltrating a city gone just a little cuckoo to rescue the overly idealistic and recently imprisoned son of a noble from Taldor.
I picture the worst bloodshed of revolutionary uprisings being hidden and buried and bubbling up in demon/haunt infested manors.
I can hear an unrepentant aristocrat yelling "People of Isarn, they are killing the prisoners here!"
How do you imagine Galt?
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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Stolen from another thread:
I was thinking more along the lines of France before the French Revolution, but after Louis XIV. That probably shaped some of my notion of how "modern" I thought it was.If I was to DM a campaign in Galt.
- I would have the Revolutionary Council outlaw medium to heavy armour (unless you are a member of the councils militia)as a symbol of the decadent aristocracy. Anybody caught wearing it would be sharing a kiss with Madame Guillotine.
- Make Hand Crossbows simple weapons
- 1/2 the price of alchemical ammunitionDraw inspiration from
- The Scarlet pimpernel.(Baroness Emma Orczy)
- Dick Turpin
- Ned Kelly
- Alexander DumasThen for the BIG BAD I would have a little corporal with lots of ambition.
Galt would make the perfect place swashbuckling campaign setting.
Three Musketeers (and its sequels) ... Countess d'Winter ... Oliver Cromwell and the execution of royalty ... a touch of Jack the Ripper ...
So many things possible to do. And how's this for the question of the hour -- what happens to all those souls trapped within each Long Knife? Are they slowly going insane from the imprisonment? Combining into something monstrous? Breaking down into parts of their former selves? What would happen when a band of adventurers destroys the local Long Knife? <eg> "Wolf in the Fold" anyone? ::rubbing hands and cackling gleefully::
Yeah. I think madness would be a really important motif in Galt. Individual's mental insanity would mirror the corporate insanity. And it was only with the enlightenment that you get the definitions of madness, their social enforcement, and the institutions attached to them, so this would fit the chaotic (failed) attempt to establish the revolutionary state with its tyrannical bureaus. I'm thinking of all of Goya's paintings and sketches of insane people.
Oooh, oooh, "Galt, the Musical" :) Sweeny Todd-esque with real blood and killings! Better be good, or the understudies will stage a coup ::laughing::
If you go down the musical path, Les Mis will show up any minute now!
The book would be OK with me though.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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Yeah. I think madness would be a really important motif in Galt. Individual's mental insanity would mirror the corporate insanity. And it was only with the enlightenment that you get the definitions of madness, their social enforcement, and the institutions attached to them, so this would fit the chaotic (failed) attempt to establish the revolutionary state with its tyrannical bureaus. I'm thinking of all of Goya's paintings and sketches of insane people.
How many ways to be a deviant in a magical world. Does the current leadership find your bloodline suspect? Are you licensed to cast divination spells? Have you properly registered all information gleaned through scrying? Elves go in that line over there until Kyonin turns back those refugees. Dwarves must learn to share.
In a world in which the state does actually read your thoughts, paranoia would know no limits.
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For the morally ambigiuous groups:
-Locating, stealing, and smuggling out used Long Knives and selling them to Cheliax/Ustalav nobles/Necromancers/etc who want to "own" someone else's soul.
For RP groups:
-Make a theater group that, on the surface, mocks the old ways and praises the revolution, but actually spreads words of hope and salvation. Find and protect the innocents/good activists, etc.
-Create an "underground caravan" using the theater group
For action groups:
-gather information about times and locations for the next beheadings, then ambush the execution (in public) and save the victims.
-Repeat
-Gain reputation and fight against increasing odds
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Most of my ideas for using Galt involve going in and winding up really wanting to get the hell out. It's a terrible place to visit and I certainly wouldn't want to die there.
The suggested seed about destroying a final blade holding the soul of a loved one had a lot of appeal to me. I can see a lot of people wanting to go in just to destroy those things just on principle. Of course many of them would likely wind up as yet more victims to Galt's favorite spectacle.
I guess that's another vote for using madness and chaos as the overall theme for a Galt adventure or campaign.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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For action groups:
-gather information about times and locations for the next beheadings, then ambush the execution (in public) and save the victims.
-Repeat
-Gain reputation and fight against increasing odds
Ooooh! I want a rapier. Can I have a rapier? And tights? And a mask? And a rope to swing in on?
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzeeeeeeeee?
It's a setting in which the "rogue noble" (fallen, Robin Hood, and restorationist types) and "corrupt politician" (of both the idealistic and pragmatic bents, think "Goya's Ghosts") would abound as characters.
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Ooooh! I want a rapier. Can I have a rapier? And tights? And a mask? And a rope to swing in on?
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzeeeeeeeee?
Actually, that is rather reminiscient of Blackjack, isn't it :)
You gotta admit, it's a fun opportunity to RP that style of swash and buckle. Bard, Sorcerer, Fighter, Rogue, Paladin, Monk even. Most classes work well with the "Disguised and Ready to Rescue" theme.
Just make sure you take the barbarian aside and have a few quiet words....or tell him to come 5 minutes later...through the closest wooden wall. Perfect distraction for the getaway.
We definetly need a random government table. Roll once per week. Or roll a d10 to show how many days this one will last.
Would be fun to see what the party would do if some of them are cast as villains by this week's rulers - and glorified by next week's.
It's a setting in which the "rogue noble" (fallen, Robin Hood, and restorationist types) and "corrupt politician" (of both the idealistic and pragmatic bents, think "Goya's Ghosts") would abound as characters.
I think that the religious conflict would be very interesting.
You have the Church of Calistra revealing in the passion and revenge. Driving the chaos feeding the turmoil.
The followers of Cayden are torn between fighting for freedom and standing against the abusers of power.
The church of Erastil desperately opposing the Calistrians, trying to protect families and communities from the worst deprivations of the revolution.
The church of Shelyn - chaos and war inspires the arts but also destroys beauty, and crushes love. Although far more subtle than the followers of Erastil they would oppose the Calistrians.
The Norgorberians of course will be reaping the benefits as Galt is all that the Grey Master could wish for.
The church of Iomedae is discredited, it has failed the people of Galt. I would have its churches cast down by angry mobs, and its priests hounded out of town (in the best case scenarios).
The with the failure of Iomedae those interested in law and order would turn to people who aren't so goody goody about establishing law and order.... Now I wonder who that would be?
I think that the religious conflict would be very interesting.
The Norgorberians of course will be reaping the benefits as Galt is all that the Grey Master could wish for.
The with the failure of Iomedae those interested in law and order would turn to people who aren't so goody goody about establishing law and order.... Now I wonder who that would be?
I've been trying to pimp Eric Hinkle's ghoulish ideas on the Gray Gardeners out. I loved the whole thread, but Eric's last two posts are particularly germane to Galt and religious conflict. (It immediately hooked up in my mind with documentaries I've seen on the Paris catacombs.) In case you don't have the Campaign Setting.
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I only live about a half-hour's drive from Galt. It's just down Hwy #8. It was renamed Cambridge a few decades ago when it merged with 2 other towns. :)
There is, of course, the opportunity for a group of player characters to be involved in one of the many factions jockeying for position and influence. They could be extremists, moderates, antiestablishmentarians, bakers (oh, you shall fear the bakers!) or whatever strikes thier fancy or the DM's story requirements.
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I like Galt too. I see the players as being wrongly, or rightly depending on their views, being accused by the current Government as being revolutionaries....or Revolutionaries linking the party to the current Government because of past aid.
In any event, the party is trying to accomplish the 'mission' while being chased by fervent 'lynch (beheading) mobs'
Having the Adventurers have to do things completely in stealth, except for the few contacts they have, could be very fun.
I would have a artifact of Chaos that needed to be returned to the outer planes as it threatened to drive the entire region into madness.
Is this set in the past, then?
That's a great idea!!
We definetly need a random government table. Roll once per week. Or roll a d10 to show how many days this one will last.
Would be fun to see what the party would do if some of them are cast as villains by this week's rulers - and glorified by next week's.
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The church of Iomedae is discredited, it has failed the people of Galt. I would have its churches cast down by angry mobs, and its priests hounded out of town (in the best case scenarios).
The with the failure of Iomedae those interested in law and order would turn to people who aren't so goody goody about establishing law and order.... Now I wonder who that would be?
its NOT our fault! we were in Mediav!
it was Abadar in his ill begooten neutal status where they condone good and evil depending in how much money enter the coffers!!
but we will restablish Justice... one heart at atime, one town at a time... we will be relntless... true justice would prevail... not the mockery of the Terror!
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I would have a artifact of Chaos that needed to be returned to the outer planes as it threatened to drive the entire region into madness.Is this set in the past, then?
i believe Galt existance created such artifact... madness prevails
i imagine an adventure by nick logue where the party is imprisoned... but the council is benevolent... they are not tobe killed... they are to be helped... they are sent to a Sanatorium... for medical care... just a few weeks...
any bets who keeps his/her sanity if they are not able to escape? :D
- intrigue... who is this new messiahs promising freedom from the anarchy... the players are offered to help and a place in the new goverment... they need to be discrete, they need to have secret meetings... raids by night...
and what happens when they win? would the messiah keep its word... while ushering Galtinto another madness tantrum... or would he dislodge himself of those who helped him attain power... "off with their heads?"
but we will restablish Justice...
... one rack at a time... one pyre at a time... one "smitten" "injustice-doer" at a time. Right?
Don't underestimate that! It's like getting the ocean wet - there's already so much around, you need to make an extra effort to succeed!
But I'll soldier on like a trooper. Except when I'm troopering like a soldier. Both the Abyss and Elysium - not to mention Limbo - depend on me.
i believe Galt existance created such artifact... madness prevails
Thanks, Montalve. I find this idea much more interesting. "Object creates conditions" stories are very common and "conditions create object" stories are rarer, it seems. But even aside from frequency, I believe there is a more important reason: it is scarier. Being able to blame madness on an outside object is comforting. But the Terror? The Holocaust? Stalin's purges? The Cultural Revolution? All caused by humans, human evil, and human madness. That you or I are to blame is much scarier to me than "the macguffin did it."
Smarter than your average ghouls, these ones. How about some more intelligent undead?
Something most games forget... ghouls are smarter than people. Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 12.
I definitely see Calistria well represented, though ultimately "playing all sides", so to speak. Sivhana(secrets) - the secret Grey order could be an Evil Sivhana sect, perverting/co-opting the revolution? - and Desna(dreams) both seem like they could have an interesting role... Although it cuts close to Eberron, some sort of Dream-Realm manifestation seems like it would be intriguing in this setting... Galt's "higher modernity" coincidentally matching Eberron. I'd also like to see Varisian gypsies & Harrow play a role, though a Kellid derived population also makes sense (intro'ing shamanic themes?)
If we see it dealt with in an AP, I actually feel that introducing some "external" dynamic from the East would be very cool - perhaps Taldoran intrigues against Qadira in the Casmaron hinterlands spilling over, or an exotic mystical sect with Vudran overtones - Chaos Dream Monks? I also think it's important that "the Revolution" not be portrayed WHOLELY in a negative way, but so that Good PCs could still even support/identify with the revolution - I think that enables alot more nuance than JUST "CN mayhem". (For context, I don't feel that Andoran will really be the "goody goody" place some think it will - their discreet alliance with Druma just seems too suspicious to me)
The Gray Monk-Undead thing is interesting, and it immediately suggests to me some connection with Geb - since Undead have a good thing going there generally, why would they need to leave? They may be 'criminals', or marginal to the Geb power structure, and need to strike out on their own...? That said, I think Undead can be over-done, and I'd be happy for Galt not to become overly Undead-themed... There's Ustalav and Osirion and Geb for that!
Three Musketeers (and its sequels) ... Countess d'Winter ... Oliver Cromwell and the execution of royalty ... a touch of Jack the Ripper ...
All very good ideas. Really, reading a good detailed history of the real French Revolution can give you hundreds of ideas for adaptation to Golarion.
So many things possible to do. And how's this for the question of the hour -- what happens to all those souls trapped within each Long Knife? Are they slowly going insane from the imprisonment? Combining into something monstrous? Breaking down into parts of their former selves? What would happen when a band of adventurers destroys the local Long Knife? <eg> "Wolf in the Fold" anyone? ::rubbing hands and cackling gleefully::
Yes. This is something I definitely want to see covered.
"The sun's gone down and the moon's turned red,
The masters and the servants are all dead,
Quickly now, quickly now, off to bed,
The hatchetmen are coming for your head."
-- banned Galtan lullaby.
*Gasps in awe*
Please show this to the designers. If they ever do a Galtan adventure, this needs to be used.
I've been trying to pimp Eric Hinkle's ghoulish ideas on the Gray Gardeners out. I loved the whole thread, but Eric's last two posts are particularly germane to Galt and religious conflict. (It immediately hooked up in my mind with documentaries I've seen on the Paris catacombs.) In case you don't have the Campaign Setting.I think that the religious conflict would be very interesting.
The Norgorberians of course will be reaping the benefits as Galt is all that the Grey Master could wish for.
The with the failure of Iomedae those interested in law and order would turn to people who aren't so goody goody about establishing law and order.... Now I wonder who that would be?
You like that idea? *blush* Thank you. I hope something gets done with all these bits about Galt eventually.
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i believe Galt existance created such artifact... madness prevailsThanks, Montalve. I find this idea much more interesting. "Object creates conditions" stories are very common and "conditions create object" stories are rarer, it seems. But even aside from frequency, I believe there is a more important reason: it is scarier. Being able to blame madness on an outside object is comforting. But the Terror? The Holocaust? Stalin's purges? The Cultural Revolution? All caused by humans, human evil, and human madness. That you or I are to blame is much scarier to me than "the macguffin did it."
ohh I very much agree...
its human to blame something else instead in soulsearch and discover the problem is inside...its the way haunts are created... the problem... now the problem is ciclic... the situation creates item... items enforce situation... situation feed item... how much until the madness escalates to a realy breaking point
or more important... what else this madness can fuel?
Just a late side comment: What if the soul-trapping guillotines were LE intelligent magical items bent on devouring souls and using revolutionary committees to assist them?
Although I like the ghouls too. Perhaps the guillotines and the ghouls have a certain "understanding" - they get the bodies, and "Madam" gets the souls.
PS: I like Galt A LOT and if I were to ever run a different campaign, it would be there. Perhaps the group would be an insipid political party seeking to restore the revolution...
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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i imagine an adventure by nick logue where the party is imprisoned... but the council is benevolent... they are not tobe killed... they are to be helped... they are sent to a Sanatorium... for medical care... just a few weeks...
any bets who keeps his/her sanity if they are not able to escape? :D
....
I really, really like this. I like it bad. 1st level adventure then?
If I ran a campaign in Galt, what would I run? And yes, some of the ideas are blatently stolen from existing APs.
-PCs are called together by a powerful sorcerer who's soul is bound to one of the blades. Each of the players must choose a character trait giving them a reason why they would want to risk life and soul going into the country. The sorcerer's soul requests his help his soul and many other souls rest in peace by destroying the blade.
-Players save village near border so overwhelmed with infighting that they fail to realize that kobolds (wahoo!!!) have been instigating most of the problems (more yummy babies for the kobold king). Searching through the kobold's stuff, they find a note written in Draconic from a Mr X (placeholder) telling the kobolds to cause lots of problems and be careful not to be seen.
-Players receive information that some underground movement in Woodedge would know something about Mr. X. PC's need to prove they are not searching for traitors and prove their worth stealing the city's guillotine.
-Executions are haulted while the guillotine is missing, but a major manhunt is on for the missing guillotine and those that stole it. Players need to get it out of the city and safely to the other side of the border Kyonin so they can study the item and hopefully find a way to destroy it.
-Players find a library in Kyonin that details an item like this and uncover that it require to be manufactured on a strongly aligned Evil plane. There's a way to destroy it, but the ritual requires very particular MacGuffins. Players retrieve stuff. Have first brush with a Grey Gardener.
-Players break blade (levels 6-8ish). Souls do not goto final rest but instead have some kind of daemonic taint to them and ...
(gotta get back to work, will finish later)
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I really, really like this. I like it bad. 1st level adventure then?i imagine an adventure by nick logue where the party is imprisoned... but the council is benevolent... they are not tobe killed... they are to be helped... they are sent to a Sanatorium... for medical care... just a few weeks...
any bets who keeps his/her sanity if they are not able to escape? :D
....
for maximum effect
yesif you want higher level... well party needs to take someone out of sanatorium... but that way leads to madness... literally... somehow themadness of the country and the sanitarioum focused strongly in the building making it half a gateto the realm ofchaos... just spewing enough energy so the madmen can meke their fantasies... reality
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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Smarter than your average ghouls, these ones. How about some more intelligent undead?Something most games forget... ghouls are smarter than people. Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 12.
Wow. You're right. But still, something about running an organization and using bureaucracy to feed them seems to be "unghoul-like". I wonder though, the flavor text from ghouls says that ghouls may be created on the death of those "who have savored the taste of the flesh of people." What if our gray gardeners are flesh-eating, ghoul-loving, death revelling manipulators of some sort? There could be humans amongst the living members of the order but ghouls at the center. The living gray gardeners aspire to become ghouls!
Smarter than your average ghouls
I'd hate to peek into a ghoul's picanic bastket, but Demiurge is right. (And that's just the normal ghoul.) I wonder if the success of zombies in popular culture have effected the way we read the ghoul?* Baur's takes on the ghoul in the thread linked above seem to envision the intelligent, organized ghoul.
What other kinds of institutions would have been started by an idealistic revolution in an advanced country that would turn oppressive once the means of bureaucracy were turned and twisted by runaway fear, tyranny, demagoguery, etc? Hospitals? Schools? Prisons? Temples? These could all become hellish organizations for PCs stuck in Galt.
*I speak at least for myself. After reading what I now think of as the Baur-Hinkle thread, I had to go back to the MM to convince myself I'd been thinking all wrong about ghouls.
Wow. You're right. But still, something about running an organization and using bureaucracy to feed them seems to be "unghoul-like". I wonder though, the flavor text from ghouls says that ghouls may be created on the death of those "who have savored the taste of the flesh of people." What if our gray gardeners are flesh-eating, ghoul-loving, death revelling manipulators of some sort? There could be humans amongst the living members of the order but ghouls at the center. The living gray gardeners aspire to become ghouls!Smarter than your average ghouls, these ones. How about some more intelligent undead?Something most games forget... ghouls are smarter than people. Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 12.
A human cult of Urgathoa or Kabiri with ghoulish leadership certainly works. Outcast ghasts used as suicide troops, traps in their lairs intended to season intruders before killing them...
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the problem of ghouls is the insatiable hunger...
thatis what limits them to be outside of society... but we have already an ghoulkindom in the underdark... so it has precedent
the ghoul-cannibal-human-appearing-family... is quite Ravenloft-like...i love the idea... humans with the attributes of ghouls, hidding in the middle of human society
more improtantly... why do you need an organization... you just need the guillotines' caretakers :D
the problem of ghouls is the insatiable hunger...
thatis what limits them to be outside of society... but we have already an ghoulkindom in the underdark... so it has precedentthe ghoul-cannibal-human-appearing-family... is quite Ravenloft-like...i love the idea... humans with the attributes of ghouls, hidding in the middle of human society
more improtantly... why do you need an organization... you just need the guillotines' caretakers :D
There's this old episode of Tales from the Crypt where this family of ghouls, disguised as humans (realistic masks), owns and operates a large cemetery and mortuary. After they bury the bodies, they dig upward from labyrinthine catacombs beneath the graveyard, snag the coffin and body therein, and feast.
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There's this old episode of Tales from the Crypt where this family of ghouls, disguised as humans (realistic masks), owns and operates a large cemetery and mortuary. After they bury the bodies, they dig upward from labyrinthine catacombs beneath the graveyard, snag the coffin and body therein, and feast.
mmm interesting, quite interesting
I didn't sawalot of Talesof the Crypt shows... they aired a few sometimes... sometimes rerun... not every show from there arrived here... or in an hour i could watch them
Yeah...as I posted elsewhere, if the Gray Gardeners were ghouls (or, as suggested here, ghoul-friendly with a ghoulish cabal at their center), there'd be a strong impetus for them to try to take over all mortuary services...mm-mmm...finger lickin' good.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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What happened to the thieves' guilds when the revolution started? I imagine that they very quickly became the secret police.
Which spells are prohibited in Galt? Which spells can only be used by those with the right revolutionary credentials? Which spells are used to show people the error of their ways?
Is 'counter-revolutionary' a favoured class for rangers? How many rangers are employed in tracking down those who would hinder the endless revolution?
How much do I get for turning in my neighbour, the bard, for singing songs praising the former revolutionary council?
Assassins and Rangers (Favored Enemy:Human) would flourish.
Nice touch on the Thieves' Guild, TD. And the new 'rogues' would be displaced former nobility who escaped the chopping block.
As to magic, I imagine the (current) local revolutionary would license patriotic wielders of arcane magic on behalf of the state.
mmm interesting, quite interesting
I didn't sawalot of Talesof the Crypt shows... they aired a few sometimes... sometimes rerun... not every show from there arrived here... or in an hour i could watch them
The episode is called "Mournin' Mess." Ah, Tales from the Crypt is the best; it's filled with all kinds of campy goodness!
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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As to magic, I imagine the (current) local revolutionary would license patriotic wielders of arcane magic on behalf of the state.
Yeah, but I bet Mind Blank is 'counter-revolutionary'. What other spells would be opposed by a state heavily invested in your correct understanding of the rightness of revolutionary thought?
Yeah. I would think Mind Blank would fall into a whole category of magic that would be super-regulated. But the state would reserve the power of using it on some of their own agents who infiltrate counter-revolutionary groups.
And with today's counter-revolutionaries being tomorrow's government, and today's patriots being tomorrow's enemies of the revolution, there would always be a particularly swarmy, adaptable population in the state that would be able to successfully migrate from one regime to another, always coming out smelling like a sans-culotte.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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And with today's counter-revolutionaries being tomorrow's government, and today's patriots being tomorrow's enemies of the revolution, there would always be a particularly swarmy, adaptable population in the state that would be able to successfully migrate from one regime to another, always coming out smelling like a sans-culotte.
Yes, right after the revolution many of those who served Cheliax would have stepped forward and described in precise detail how inefficient they were in their duties to Cheliax. Their total inability to put in an hour's work during a 12 hour work day -- something verified by their co-workers about to be marched off for re-education -- is put forward as evidence of their covert resistance. The revolution accepts this as proof of revolutionary intent and subsequent revolutionary councils do the same.
Consequently, a few, smarmy, vere adaptable individuals who are quite adept at never managing to accomplish anything that would be deemed suspiciously productive by the next transitional revolutionary council would survive for decades. At least one of these would be an NPC of some significance.
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The episode is called "Mournin' Mess." Ah, Tales from the Crypt is the best; it's filled with all kinds of campy goodness!
mmm interesting, quite interesting
I didn't sawalot of Talesof the Crypt shows... they aired a few sometimes... sometimes rerun... not every show from there arrived here... or in an hour i could watch them
thanks Hank