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"So here we are, beautiful scenic China!"
"I hear there's a wall somewhere; can we go see that?"
Oh no, that's nowhere near here.
"How about some pandas?"
Nope. We don't have anything like that.
"Those clay soldiers?"
Heavens no!
"So what are we going to do?"
Let's walk to the train station and back. They've got a sculpture donated
by a school in Seattle.
So here's the thing about travelling compared to in-game adventuring.
Unless you're playing a game of Accountants in Cubicleland travelling for
adventurers is all about going where the, erm, adventure is. GMs try to
make sure the locales are interesting and everyone has a wonderful time.
Often those adventures take place in the coolest places the world has to
offer. There's not a lot of reason for a climactic battle with the big
bad to take place in a ten by ten room instead of somewhere cool.
As a traveller in real life though, there are real reasons to go places
that aren't cool. Staying away from the biggest most famous places
becomes an artform for many backpackers. Just like some gamers turn their
noses up at any mainstream/popular games, there are just as many
independent travel snobs. "If you aren't the only foreign visitor at a
place then what is the point of being there?" is sort of the idea. Like
going somewhere famous is exactly the same as signing up for a senior
citizens' bus tour of Christmas lights or something.
I'm a bit guilty of this in both my gaming habits and my travelling. I've
assiduously avoided western Europe because "everyone goes there." Within
a game if "everyone goes there" you're probably set for the beginning of
an adventure. You don't want to go to some boring little nowhere place
because they're boring.
But in games we also have that tradition of starting an adventure
somewhere out in the ass-end of nowhere because the heroes are the only
capable people around. So there's adventure to be had if you've got an
in-demand skillset, I guess. And there's usually the idea that there's
some language facility between the Boringland people and the heroes.
This is my problem in most of the places I've been. The only people who I
can communicate with know English. This implies a certain level of
schooling and stuff which the peasant farmers who make up a mediocre
village in the middle of Boringland probably don't have. My friend and I
often lament how the people we would most like to talk to in our boring
city wouldn't even be able to recognize standard Chinese (what we've been
learning) if it came up and slapped them in the face. The prostitutes and
freelance refrigerator carriers have lives that would be interesting (to
us) but it's almost completely inaccessible to a tourist. Which is
frustrating.
The other reason for an adventurer wannabe to go to these boring little
countries is because they're usually way cheaper. When your money
actually lasts the way a D&D gold piece should, you can take your time and
find the weird little things. The more subtle adventures that might not
cry out to you as you cry poverty in Paris or wherever. Maybe I'm wrong
and am just projecting because I'm jealous.
By the time you're reading this I'm in (or have been in) Moldova. Why go
to Moldova? Because I don't know anyone who's ever been there. Will it
be an exciting place? Probably not. I'm a little discouraged by Tony
Hawks' book Playing the Moldovans at Tennis but we'll see.
And that's been the point of this past however many months of the G2H2.
We don't necessarily know what places are like until we go there. And
even then you probably won't know much.
Next month I'll be talking about the travellers' return. See you then.
J Unrau
Hungry J Propaganda
www.djs5.com/hjp/ |
