Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > Roleplaying in General

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 07-29-2019, 07:31 PM   #31
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Curious Local Customs

Banking is supported by other institutions that would not normally be expected to take part. Two examples:

Gaming Halls allow patrons, instead of cashing chips to maintain an internal account and receive interest. The money can sometimes be invested as at a bank. Some gaming halls have evolved into banks proper and only deal in gambling as a side business.

Museums rent expensive pieces from rich patrons. Purchasing art objects is a way to store money (come to think of it they may actually do that but whatever).
.................

Military units raise money for veterans and dependents trusts, gathering places for personal, "bling of war", etc by holding athletic tournaments and inviting civilians to watch. These can include such things as jousting, polo, or whatever.
--------
Bullfighting is still a regular sport on this planet. After a bullfight a successful matador is presented with the horns as a trophy. A feast is held. The most successful matador also ceremonially eats the bulls' deep-fried, um, "oysters" as a symbol of the triumph of his superior masculinity (if it's a female matador, it is considered just as cool-it proves her femininity is triumphant over the bulls' masculinity-and the same thing is done). The noble presiding over the feast orders the first cut to be given to anyone in his or her domain whom he feels has properly distinguished himself). The rest is given to the cowboys who separated the bulls for the days entertainment from their herd.

Cattle from the fighting breed that do not measure up to arena quality are traditionally castrated and "leatherfied" when they reach the proper age. However Kefir from cows of that breed are considered a properly "macho" drink.
-----
Working animals are still used in many rural places. They are ideally retired and pastured when they can work no more (I got that one from a story I read about a squire who bought up some army surplus warhorses after Waterloo and let them loose in his pasture and watched them do drills on their own as if they were still in the army). This one will have to be worked on as not all owners can afford to have useless stock around.
---------------
Gambling is a favorite activity and bets are placed on almost everything. This can include a political event, the outcome of a military action, the first ship into port in a given year, etc. The intelligence services keep a weather eye out on this as gamblers are automatic ad hoc spies.
------
In nighttime, especially on weekends, every hospitality establishment is linked electronically. There is a giant storytelling session going on akin to Canterebury Tales or Wayside Inn-in every place that can be reached by the link. In some cases it is done from home and people eat take-out and listen to entertainment online. Indeed several famous short-story and poetry anthologies have been made with this as a theme.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison

Last edited by jason taylor; 07-29-2019 at 07:50 PM.
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-29-2019, 11:28 PM   #32
Bengt
 
Bengt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Ronneby, Sweden
Default Re: Curious Local Customs

Quote:
Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
Gambling is a favorite activity and bets are placed on almost everything. This can include a political event, the outcome of a military action, the first ship into port in a given year, etc. The intelligence services keep a weather eye out on this as gamblers are automatic ad hoc spies.
If everyone gambles all the time, why would intelligence services think that was a sign of them being spies? And even if they did, how could they possibly have the man power to watch them?
Bengt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-30-2019, 12:16 AM   #33
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Curious Local Customs

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bengt View Post
If everyone gambles all the time, why would intelligence services think that was a sign of them being spies? And even if they did, how could they possibly have the man power to watch them?
It's not a sign of them being spies as in, "targets for counterintelligence". Spies was really a bad description. It's a sign of them being a place to go for intelligence. "Open Sources" is a better description.

It is really no different than someone perusing periodicals. And gambling a lot is certainly not considered a sign of being an enemy agent. If someone is successful at it, it is a sign to pay attention to them. That is, people who want information will gravitate to successful gamblers, bookies, and what not.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison

Last edited by jason taylor; 07-30-2019 at 12:20 AM.
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-30-2019, 07:42 AM   #34
RogerBW
 
RogerBW's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: near London, UK
Default Re: Curious Local Customs

Quote:
Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
Gambling is a favorite activity and bets are placed on almost everything. This can include a political event, the outcome of a military action, the first ship into port in a given year, etc. The intelligence services keep a weather eye out on this as gamblers are automatic ad hoc spies.
This readily turns into a prediction market. Which means there are certain sorts of bet you have to restrict, such as "person X will die within the next week".
RogerBW is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 07-30-2019, 09:48 AM   #35
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Curious Local Customs

Quote:
Originally Posted by RogerBW View Post
This readily turns into a prediction market. Which means there are certain sorts of bet you have to restrict, such as "person X will die within the next week".
The power to cheat must, I suppose be an assumption. The better must be able to encourage the death of X next week.

Really that sort of thing is no different than fight-fixing which we already have.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-30-2019, 11:10 AM   #36
RogerBW
 
RogerBW's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: near London, UK
Default Re: Curious Local Customs

Quote:
Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
The power to cheat must, I suppose be an assumption. The better must be able to encourage the death of X next week.

Really that sort of thing is no different than fight-fixing which we already have.
Well, it's no different from assassination for pay, which we already have… but we still try to make it difficult to achieve. Sure, the guy who wins the bet will get investigated… but he now has an entirely legal way to get paid for the assassination.
RogerBW is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 07-30-2019, 02:59 PM   #37
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Curious Local Customs

Quote:
Originally Posted by RogerBW View Post
but he now has an entirely legal way to get paid for the assassination.
That's not really a difference, though. There's already an entirely legal way to pay assassins. Give them money. Nothing illegal about that -- or any of the other ways to exchange value that are routinely used in contracts.

What's illegal is the assassination. Same thing here. This society would just throw in a law that says it's illegal to profit from a crime (we already have those, after all).

Also, they might declare that it's a crime to pay out to winners if they're found guilty -- possibly also if the event is under investigation for a crime. (Feel free to invent your own variations). In some cases, this would lead to a refusal by the market-makers to cover some types of events simply because it wasn't worth the trouble or the chance of being turned into an accomplice.
Anaraxes is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 07-30-2019, 06:04 PM   #38
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Curious Local Customs

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
That's not really a difference, though. There's already an entirely legal way to pay assassins. Give them money. Nothing illegal about that -- or any of the other ways to exchange value that are routinely used in contracts.

What's illegal is the assassination. Same thing here. This society would just throw in a law that says it's illegal to profit from a crime (we already have those, after all).

Also, they might declare that it's a crime to pay out to winners if they're found guilty -- possibly also if the event is under investigation for a crime. (Feel free to invent your own variations). In some cases, this would lead to a refusal by the market-makers to cover some types of events simply because it wasn't worth the trouble or the chance of being turned into an accomplice.
Unless it is a celebrity (or black humor at the ICU) is is no reason to bet on the death of someone in which case there will be far more betting than are suspects.

In certain cases the death of a given person is a POLITICAL event. If it is proved to be an assassination it would probably be for political purposes (I suspect the elimination of Olympias of Macedon was not motivated by desire to win a bet).
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-30-2019, 06:18 PM   #39
David Johnston2
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: Curious Local Customs

Quote:
Originally Posted by RyanW View Post
They take grammar very serious.
They take grammar seriously
David Johnston2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-30-2019, 06:25 PM   #40
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Curious Local Customs

This one is an adaptation from Andromeda's Nietscheans* but actually a rather plausible custom. It is considered an honor not only to have venerable ancestors but a worthy ambition and sometimes a duty to make one's posterity proud of one.

This means that a lot of times people will refrain from deeds that would otherwise gain wealth or power for reasons that are in a sense selfish. They are trying to gain fame in the future.

Naturally of course most believe in an afterlife and many believe that a reward (or punishment as it may be) is to see both what ones descendants and ones ancestors think of one.

* In that case it was justified by what amounted to a Social Darwinistic religion which believed that achievement proved one good breeding in the literal sense of the word. One could actually believe such a thing might exist but I adapted the idea in a softer and less amoral form to suit my needs.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison

Last edited by jason taylor; 07-30-2019 at 06:29 PM.
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:51 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.