"Perdido Street Station" and urban gaming

[JPL]

I'm halfway through "Perdido Street Station" by China Mieville. Awsome book for gamers, featuring a city that's not unlike Sigil in its diversity and colorfulness.

Now that me and the boys are working on a once-a-month game [after many months of gamelessness], I'm tempted to try an urban game in a city where any kind of crazy stuff can happen.

Instead of a conventional "adventuring party", maybe a looser association of characters...guys with day jobs, y'know? [Since I anticipate a rather loose association of players, given our geographical dispersal and busy schedules].

I'm particularly into the idea of an urban druid, with a dire rat companion, who's taken it upon himself to protect the ecology of this urban jungle, from pigeons to rats to stray animals to the basilisks living in the sewers...

And you can always pull up a manhole cover and do a dungeon crawl...

 

[Desdichado]

Go for it, man! I love that kind of game. Although I haven't read Perdido Street Station yet, I actually have a copy and hope to have it done in the next few weeks.

 

[Liminal Syzygy]

The great thing about Perdido Street Station and gaming is... (minor spoiler alert)

Spoiler

the clear reference to gaming and the adventuring party that Mieville put in the books... "They were immediately and absolutely recognizable as adventurers. They were hardy and dangerous, lawless, stripped of allegiance or morality, living off their wits, stealing and killing, hiring themselves out to whoever and whatever came... They were scum who died violent deaths, hanging on to a certain cachet among the impressionable through their undeniable bravery and their occasionally impressive exploits"

 

[JPL]

I believe China has said that he'd be hip to seeing the world as an RPG once it's a bit more developed [with at least a trilogy in the bag, I guess].

I like the idea of socialism and an exploited working class and an oppressive elite, too. Not the sort of thing one often sees in a fantasy world [other than the Communist dwarves in Chainmail, which is a very cool idea].

 

[Carnifex]

Well, Perdido and The Scar certainly influenced my writing of Steam & Steel, as well as something new I'm writing at the moment

Really, really good stuff, China Mieville's work.

 

[Aaron L]

I like the idea of socialism and an exploited working class and an oppressive elite, too. Not the sort of thing one often sees in a fantasy world [other than the Communist dwarves in Chainmail, which is a very cool idea].

Oh, I think ya see it all the time! It's called feudalism

 

[JPL]

Oh, I think ya see it all the time! It's called feudalism

Good point.

But a [somewhat] organized call for revolution, and the dangerous idea that such a rebellion might be philosophically/morally justified, is new.

And that's one of the things I always liked about Planescape --- the introduction of some distinctly different philosophies, from atheism to Objectivism, to a fantasy setting.

It's like if the uruk-hai formed a union...

 

[Desdichado]

Good point.

But a [somewhat] organized call for revolution, and the dangerous idea that such a rebellion might be philosophically/morally justified, is new.

Yeah, I never heard of that before **cough Spartacus cough*** Moses*** hack, cough ***

 

[JPL]

Yeah, I never heard of that before **cough Spartacus cough*** Moses*** hack, cough ***

Interesting. It's sad, really, how the Judeo-Christian "revolution" didn't result in a truely egalitarian society. There's always been someone around to corrupt "love thy neighbor" into "divine right of kings."

Let me rephrase and say that introducing some anachronistic philosophies and movements into an essentially medieval genre like fantasy [socialism, Darwinism, atheism, social equality] makes for interesting writing/gaming.

 

[Pielorinho]

Careful, JPL, careful....

That said, I do think it's clear that Mieville's revolution was along socialist lines: rather than being a charismatic movement with a single, well-defined leader, it basically involved an angry union. There were no religious overtones in the movement. The folks involved had something of a Marxist class-consciousness.

It really was something I hadn't seen in fantasy fiction before.

Daniel