Jun. 12th, 2019 03:11 pm
The bodies in the earth
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muckefuckThe more I read up on Mexican history, the more I begin to wonder what part of Mexico City isn't built on top of or underneath a pile of corpses. I knew about the Tlatelolco Massacre--I've even read a novella set during it--but I'd never heard of the Corpus Christi Massacre only three years later. Apparently there was an attempt a decade ago to try Luis Echeverría Álvarez (Interior Minister during Tlatelolco and President during Corpus Christi) for "genocide" but it ultimately failed.
Tlatelolco came up in the game last night. We needed to find angels and I asked JB, "Where do they congregate?" He said places where people go to pray, like cemeteries and I replied, "Tlatelolco is right there, if that's not too close to the bone." What a way to find out that the father of one of the players was a professor at UNAM in 1968 who shortly after left behind both the country and the teaching profession.
In general, JB and Jiggly were patient with my enthusiasm for real-world details. (When he saw my annotated maps of the city centre, JB nervously joked, "Maybe you should be running this game!") Only once--after I'd explained that space was too much at a premium in CDMX for the expansive cemeteries we're used to here--did Jiggly feel it necessary to remark, "Well, this is happening in our fantasy version of Mexico City anyway."
Afterwards I was wondering why it matters so much to me to get certain details right. I think what it comes down to is that, if you don't, then you end up substituting them with what you know. And since what we all know best is the Midwest, that leads to every urban setting becoming another thinly-varnished version of Chicago.
I'll be the first to say there's nothing at all wrong with Chicago as an urban setting; the Unknown Armies game we set here was one of the best campaigns I've ever participated in. But part of what motivates my desire to roleplay is to explore worlds that I can't otherwise visit. It's not just a minor detail that, say, New Orleans cemeteries are built above ground because of the high water table and the risk of flooding. All those mausolea are one of the things that makes New Orleans New Orleans--and if you don't want that look and feel, then why choose that as a setting?
Obviously not every details is of equal importance in constructing verisimilitude and we're still working out what sets the DF apart, but I think the lack of (unpaved) open space is one of those things, just like nearness to being submerged is for NOLA. Jiggly's mantra is "let's play to find out", but there's some things you need to know going in to inform that play unless you're content with it remaining completely on the surface.
Tlatelolco came up in the game last night. We needed to find angels and I asked JB, "Where do they congregate?" He said places where people go to pray, like cemeteries and I replied, "Tlatelolco is right there, if that's not too close to the bone." What a way to find out that the father of one of the players was a professor at UNAM in 1968 who shortly after left behind both the country and the teaching profession.
In general, JB and Jiggly were patient with my enthusiasm for real-world details. (When he saw my annotated maps of the city centre, JB nervously joked, "Maybe you should be running this game!") Only once--after I'd explained that space was too much at a premium in CDMX for the expansive cemeteries we're used to here--did Jiggly feel it necessary to remark, "Well, this is happening in our fantasy version of Mexico City anyway."
Afterwards I was wondering why it matters so much to me to get certain details right. I think what it comes down to is that, if you don't, then you end up substituting them with what you know. And since what we all know best is the Midwest, that leads to every urban setting becoming another thinly-varnished version of Chicago.
I'll be the first to say there's nothing at all wrong with Chicago as an urban setting; the Unknown Armies game we set here was one of the best campaigns I've ever participated in. But part of what motivates my desire to roleplay is to explore worlds that I can't otherwise visit. It's not just a minor detail that, say, New Orleans cemeteries are built above ground because of the high water table and the risk of flooding. All those mausolea are one of the things that makes New Orleans New Orleans--and if you don't want that look and feel, then why choose that as a setting?
Obviously not every details is of equal importance in constructing verisimilitude and we're still working out what sets the DF apart, but I think the lack of (unpaved) open space is one of those things, just like nearness to being submerged is for NOLA. Jiggly's mantra is "let's play to find out", but there's some things you need to know going in to inform that play unless you're content with it remaining completely on the surface.
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