Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

Saturday, July 16, 2011

The Mundane Gives Value to Rarity

As I mentioned earlier today, I'm spending the weekend at my family's place in the Poconos.  I'm a city boy that spent my summers in the country, and for a number of years had 2 gaming groups - one in the outer boroughs of NYC, and one up here in the Poconos.  I like to think it kept me in balance during my formative years ;)

In my time in the country I've seen numberless deer (including an albino one), numerous wild turkeys and pheasants, black bear and their young, possums, skunks... not counting owls, hawks, hummingbirds and I'm sure an assortment of animals I've forgotten.

I've never seen a fox until tonight, in my own backyard.  I thought it was a very large cat until it stood up and pranced off - and it was f'n cool as all shit!  Cause I've never seen one before.

One thing that Raggi definitely got right with his Weird Fantasy rules was the importance of making certain adversaries rare or even unique.  It makes the moment special and stand out amongst the mundane.  Where he get's it wrong in my opinion, is he leaves out the mundane and fails to provide the rules necessary to create the special and unique.

Tonight's fox sighting was special not just because I'd never seen one in the wild before, but because I'd seen so much of everything else and had yet to see a fox.  If everything is special and unique then they fail to be special, and unique loses value.

I just wish I had a camera with me so I could have taken a pic.  Eh, my mind took the pic, and that's the same camera I use while gaming.  It will have to suffice ;)

3 comments:

  1. I came about 15 feet from a wild moose once. Looking back, I am surprised I lived through it.

    I was a dumb teenager skipping down a trail in a national park. I was with my parents, but dangerously (in hindsight) too far ahead of them on the trail. I was not fucking paying attention, basically. Just fucking around in my mind.

    I hear a sound and look up and I am like right next to a huge fucking moose. And they had a baby moose with them. So while I didn't check the genitals, probably a female moose and her baby.

    Amazingly, I was able to back away slowly without being crushed and gored to death.

    Suck that, Sarah Palin!

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  2. The most dangerous animal I've ever encountered was a cat on crack - fucker was climbing curtains and rending flesh - Emergency Service Unit's first attempt to dart missed, ricocheted off the fridge and into a fellow rookie's leg - he went down pretty fast with a numbed out leg. Second dart got the cat ;)

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  3. http://www.stupidvideos.com/video/animals/Pet_Of_The_Week/#974

    Your comments reminded me of this cat. By the way foxes are amazing animals and uber-cool.

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