From: owner-deltagreen-digest@nocturne.org (deltagreen-digest) To: deltagreen-digest@nocturne.org Subject: deltagreen-digest V2 #20 Reply-To: Delta Green List Sender: owner-deltagreen-digest@nocturne.org Errors-To: owner-deltagreen-digest@nocturne.org Precedence: bulk deltagreen-digest Wednesday, August 4 1999 Volume 02 : Number 020 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 03 Aug 1999 17:37:47 +0200 From: Davide Mana Subject: Re: DG: Hollywood swingin' Greetings again. >Or even more easily - the Rastafari. Was haille Selassie or his father >Nyarlathotep in disguise? Consider the way poor old Haille Selassie became so popular in jamaica - his visit was connected with aprovidential rainfall putting an end to a long draught. If that's not your basic "impress the natives" trick.... And that's about it. Davide Mana [whose grandfather tended the Ras Tafari gardensa as a POW during the Fascist Regime glorious African campaigns] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Aug 1999 17:52:37 +0200 From: Davide Mana Subject: Re: DG: Re: deltagreen-digest V2 #17 Cheers. John Goodrich read us the Eng. Lit. riot act and added > REDG: I think it may be time to employ more of these techniques in our >role-playing. The flashback seldom is used, except as a narrative device. >What about creating memories by having the players actually role-play them >out? This is more work for the GM, certainly, as you can never be certain >what the players are going to do, but I think that the rewards would >definitely offset the bother, if used in moderation. As a committed Noir fan, I have in my past a highly entertaining (If I may say so myself) scenario starting "in subjective" - in the sense that the players/spectators don't "see" the characters, but see through their eyes for the first ten minutes or so of action ("Dark Passage" docet). I explain - the story begins with a small passenger ship sinking somewhere west off the coast of Africa. So when all the players were sitting around our table I just sprayed them with a water-gun (it was summer and we were playing on my terrace), started a terrific alarm-bell tape and in fast and got them running by having them . waking up in a tilting cabin with a few inches of cold water on the floor . fumbling for the exit . finding the way out . reaching or swimming in cold water for a boat . spending a whole night lost somewhere in the Atlantic As the sun set over pretty snappy players, I finally had them "randomly selecting" (yeah, right ;>) their character sheets. Only in that moment the characters were able to control the situation long enough to be something more than faceless survivors. The result was perfect - ten highly tense minutes of generic die rolling, chaos and desperation in which fear and hurry simply made all the stats in the world useless, and a great way to get the scenario going. I also experimented with flashbacks, but they work better with small teams (my seven ottentots are a bit too much to handle in similar situations). And here sto showing off. Be seeing you. Davide Mana ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Aug 1999 17:58:50 +0200 From: Davide Mana Subject: Re: DG: Re: DGML Knowledge Pool Oh, no! The Keeper of the List Himself wrote >provide Monsignor Mana a copy for the Ice Cave, if he wishes. Thanks, Chris, but "monsignor" is a little too much. It's true that next year I'll be working for the Turin Bishop, doing crowd control during the Turin Shroud Exibition, but my position inside the Roman Church (as well as my canonization process) are still in a state of suspension. But I'll have lots of insider infos, anyway. Cheers! Davide Mana ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 14:29:50 EDT From: ScottSaylo@aol.com Subject: Re: DG: Re: DGML Knowledge Pool In a message dated 8/3/99 12:54:18 PM EST, doctor.dee@iol.it writes: << It's true that next year I'll be working for the Turin Bishop, doing crowd control during the Turin Shroud Exibition, but my position inside the Roman Church (as well as my canonization process) are still in a state of suspension. But I'll have lots of insider infos, anyway. >> Interesting project! Lots of DG tie ins! Your infor )after the fact of course) about how these events get handled as well as the chance to actually see the Shroud and the security will be information that interests us all. I do hope you will share within the limitations of your contractual bounds - of course! If you don't share just remember, people who have friends who have green triangle on their dossiers have other friends who do NOT have green triangles on their dossiers. Someone might accidently let fall the name and city of a certain Italian involved in the Shroud security in exchange for a tape of the "debriefing". ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 14:40:08 -0400 From: BRUCE BALLON Subject: Re: DG: Reefer Madness! -Reply -Reply >>> 08/03/99 12:50pm >>> Wrote about Absinthe re:pIcts and such. Here is a link to some more hisotry of the drink: http://www.njin.net/~flopez/html/english/a/absinthe.htm I just looked about the 'net, and there are a couple of companies distributing it again, including the united states. DG relevance: Well, the stuff is green, ain't it? Although, its effects and its association to artisits makes one wonder why it wasn't yellow.... then again, I suppose drinking yellow substances that taste horrible reminds one of urine...(exception Apple Juice?). Perhaps the insanity inducing effects of the drink allowed artists to be even more receptive to the Muses of the Mythos. Enough Flight of ideas Bruce ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 14:50:04 EDT From: ScottSaylo@aol.com Subject: Re: DG: Reefer Madness! -Reply -Reply In a message dated 8/3/99 1:39:26 PM EST, BBALLON@arf.org writes: << I just looked about the 'net, and there are a couple of companies distributing it again, including the united states. >> A "safe" absinthe, yes. The real stuff, no. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 10:20:43 -0700 From: Phil A Posehn Subject: Re: DG: Reefer Madness! -Reply I believe the active element in Absinthe is Wormwood. Phil On Tue, 3 Aug 1999 12:50:54 EDT ScottSaylo@aol.com writes: >In a message dated 8/3/99 11:27:39 AM EST, BBALLON@arf.org writes: > ><< wed now for more than 8 decades, it is finally coming > back in Europe. Used to cause the 'Green Muses' for poets.. i.e. >after > drinking the emerald alcoholic beverage, most people ended up with > alcohol intoxication and deliriums.... >> > > >Absinthe a thickish emerald green liquid was poured into Pernot and >drunk >while the green clouds swirled in the water. Absinthe is a variety of >anisette whose distillation is all but a lost art. It is illegal to >make, an >art that may go back to ancient Pictish peoples (Picardy), The Celts >knew how >to make it and may have reserved it for ceremonial pruposes. Anyone >who >offers to sell it to you today is probably selling you anisette with a >little >green food coloring. ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 16:19:04 -0400 From: BRUCE BALLON Subject: Re: DG: Reefer Madness! -Reply -Reply -Reply Hmmm... well, I guess we shall have to watch prospectively those who drink it. I'm sure NWI's subsidiary liquor companies are marketing it for some reason. >>> 08/03/99 02:50pm >>> In a message dated 8/3/99 1:39:26 PM EST, BBALLON@arf.org writes: << I just looked about the 'net, and there are a couple of companies distributing it again, including the united states. >> A "safe" absinthe, yes. The real stuff, no. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 22:25:48 +0200 From: EHuelshoff@t-online.de (Eckhard Huelshoff) Subject: DG: New Kennedy Theory Good Evening. In a news magazine I've seen today a new theory about the death of JFK jr. was mentioned: An Author from Israel suspects the Mossad to have killed him. He says that witnesses saw an explosion in mid-air and in the author's opinion the mossad planted a bomb in the luggage area of Kennedy's plane. He says that the Mossad did that because Kennedy investigated the Rabin assassination and Israel's secret service wanted to keep certain things a secret. ECKHARD ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 17:02:53 EDT From: LizardRoi@aol.com Subject: Re: DG: Reefer Madness! -Reply In a message dated 99-08-03 14:59:49 EDT, you write: << I believe the active element in Absinthe is Wormwood. Phil >> Pernod is absinthe without the wormwood. I believe in Portugal (this is info circa early 80s) kits for making authentic absinthe were sold. They gave you the ingredients (including wormwood) and instructions and you did the home brewing. Mark McFadden ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 17:10:15 EDT From: LizardRoi@aol.com Subject: DG: Ras Tafari In a message dated 99-08-03 13:47:04 EDT, you write: << Consider the way poor old Haille Selassie became so popular in jamaica - his visit was connected with aprovidential rainfall putting an end to a long draught. If that's not your basic "impress the natives" trick.... And that's about it. >> According to the Rastafaris, Haille Selassie is\was the messiah. According to their interpretation of the bible, the kings of Ethiopia are the last remaining bloodline of the House of David. Mark McFadden I and I say, it's as valid as anyone elses claims. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 17:15:34 EDT From: ScottSaylo@aol.com Subject: Re: DG: Ras Tafari In a message dated 8/3/99 4:13:58 PM EST, LizardRoi@aol.com writes: << According to the Rastafaris, Haille Selassie is\was the messiah. According to their interpretation of the bible, the kings of Ethiopia are the last remaining bloodline of the House of David. Mark McFadden I and I say, it's as valid as anyone elses claims. >> I and I and Ja tend to agree. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 12:05:32 +0900 From: "David Farnell" Subject: DG: Re: Church of the Yakuza From: Graeme Price: > This one merits attention, if only for the sheer unlikeliness of it all: > http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_410000/410080.stm > Makes you wonder what you might find in the collection plate (he said, > cynically). Perhaps there's a scenario seed in there somewhere (ex-yakusa > starts cult?). Actually, I've already considered him for a DG Friendly (this is the 3rd story I've read about him). Perhaps he converted after finding out some of the dark truth behind the Yakuza / Ultranationalist / Unit 731 connections (turning the Emperor into a God for real, perhaps). Now he attracts more Yakuza converts and organizes them into Japan's own little DG / St. Jerome organization. Definitely a group to contact and assess. Dave ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 18:38:11 -0500 (CDT) From: MSubias@ix.netcom.com Subject: DG: Reefer madness and revisionist history - -B said.. "Okay, to start with, the phrase "revisionist history" applies to every damn text book or documentary or lecture that you have ever heard. Anyone, and I mean everyone, who looks back at an event and makes the mental acrobatics to catalogue, interpret, rationalise, and then disseminate that event is putting their own spin onto it." Sorry as Ph.D student in history who has studied how scholars _do_ history, you are flat out wrong. Revisionist history is not merely history "with a spin," or with a bias, but is historical writing that contradicts and strongly challenges established historical beliefs. For example, in the late nineteenth century a scholar named Turner wrote about the closing of the American West, and his view (which I'll not go into here) became the _traditionalist_ way of looking at Western history, and was not in any way "revisionist." Later, scholars who disagreed with Turner's thesis _challenged_ his arguments, and these challengers of the status quo were _revisionists_. I have studied other examples of traditionalsm vs revisionism in the area of the Mexican Revolution, FDR and the New Deal, American Slavery, and other areas. This traditional vs revisionist exchange is a constant in scholarship, and not limited to Turner. It is not even limited to the field of history. I can give other example of traditional vs revisionist, but I suspect that you all get the idea. Revisionism is not inherently good or bad. It is however a technical term in scholarship, and should be used accurately. Those who try to claim that drug use in the U.S. is a modern phenomenon, and that it has not been a normal part of our lives for over two centuries are clearly dishonest. Hemp fabric was worn and made into sails, hemp paper was written on, cannabis was used as a pain reliever, and I suspect that it had other uses too. Drug warriors seldom if ever honestly argue from a standpoint of the facts when disscussing the industrial or therapeutic value of hemp and cannabis (let along other drugs). Marco ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 10:03:27 +0900 From: "David Farnell" Subject: DG: Just plain mad about Reefer Madness! Righto--once again, compressed for your convenience. From: > ObDG: The drug wars aren't about drugs, they are about control. Declare > something illegal and you make instant criminals. Guilty people are easy to > control; all you have to do is act like you are going to look closer if they > step out of line. Reminds me of "Over the Edge"--on the island republic, all recreational drugs were illegal AND imported in large quantities by the government. Most of the largely out-of-work population were heavily addicted to various drugs we've never even heard of (some extremely cool ones for use in a game, BTW). That way, the cops (who did double duty as death squads) could arrest anyone anytime under suspicion of drug use. Of course they only did this if they had some other reason to arrest you. Hmm, sounds like a slight exaggeration of a certain country I know. Re: Humboldt County hemp farmers: Definitely DG material! Combine it with the news story that started this whole thread--hippie / mountain man dope commune gets dusted with MJ-12 experimental fungus. Something REALLY BAD happens, and DG has to go in to clean it up. Toss in a bunch of tripped-out flower-child types as guides ("Hey, man, y'know, you keep waving that gun around, yer just POURIN' out those negative vibes!") and a tribe of Black Lotus-growing hill Tcho-tchos (with scarred-up warriors and penile implants). YES! From: : > Okay, to start with, the phrase "revisionist history" applies to every > damn text book or documentary or lecture that you have ever heard. I agree with you absolutely. I always have a bitter laugh and think "glass houses" when the US makes a stink about Japan's revisionist school textbooks, which HEAVILY whitewash the events of WW2 and leave the impression that Japan was the victim. The accusation is true, but at the same time, go back to original sources and read up on why we dropped the atomic bombs. You'll quickly realize that what they teach in American textbooks is just as whitewashed. (The censorship comes from the bottom up in the US rather than the top down, however.) >But > that is a singular part of the enslavement. Which leads me to where I was > headed. Drugs are slavery. Alcohol, Marijuania, television, the internet, > caffeine, McDonalds, cocaine, you name it, anything that caters to the > "highly developed" sensors in the brain. Again, I agree. I'm a big-time caffeine addict, and I'm mentally addicted to email and sunflower seeds, but I don't drink or smoke, and even if marijuana was made legal tomorrow, I wouldn't be smoking it. (I am very interested in getting hemp legalized for industrial purposes again, as it's much more environmentally friendly than cotton or the pulp-wood industry.) Except for making marijuana legal for medical purposes, I'm not particularly interested one way or the other about legalizing it. And I'm very much against legalization of cocaine, heroine, and their relatives--look at those poor bastards in the backwoods of Burma and Cambodia. Drugs can be major enslavers (among all the other enslavers in life). But it can depend on one's approach to them. Peyote is used ritually in some native religions, and doesn't enslave. That's because of the setting and the psychological approach to the use of the drug--not to "get high," but to do something really important and perhaps even fraught with danger. Thus, those IN POWER (dum-dum-duuuuummm) not only want to make such psychoactives illegal (to prevent access to the Dreamlands and such), but also encourage a stupid-user culture whereby all sacredness / mysticism is stripped away and it becomes just another TV / McDonald's / Disneyland replacement--a way to fight boredom or hopelessness by turning off the brain. The user gets caught up in a cycle of samsara and is thrown right off track in his attempts to transcend. Creation of new, designer drugs with immensely enhanced power that whacks you right out of your gourd is a good way to enslave, too (coca [sacred activator] to cocaine [rich-boy's enslaver] to crack [poor-boy's enslaver]). > I guess I should just come out and say that I had > numerous arguments with my housemate/friend concerning the pros and cons > of this whole situation, and while I understand that it, among hundreds > of other issues, is still a question unresolved in our society today, I > really would hate to see a spillover into the list about something which > so fundamentally betrays the ideas of Delta Green. Well, I certainly don't want this to blow up and cause problems on the List. I realize I'm somewhat at fault here for not making clear when I was writing in DG-mode and when I was writing in RW (real-world) mode--I sort of drifted in and out. Still doing it in this post, I suppose. Anyway, I feel pretty open-minded both ways on the legalization issue. But that's not the point here--the point is whether pot (and other drugs) can be used to do all sorts of cool stuff /in the game/, and how we should use them. So I think it's probably time to turn this conversation away from the "Should it be illegal?" branch (which has already gotten a good airing out--don't want to have another monster thread) and move into "What does pot (and other drugs) do when used ritually, etc?" Again, /in the game/. I'm thinking let's make a "recipe" for Liao Drug (include some totally bogus ingredients, so it's impossible to make in the RW, so as to prevent idiots from really trying to make it), Shane's Aklo, Alamout Black, etc., and their effects IN DETAIL (including results of over-use). All this so we can improve our GMing. Oh, and good scenario seed, BTW. From: Eckhard Huelshoff: > But obviously there are chemical receptors in our brains that do react to certain > substances. And then there are plants that produce these substances. Therefore > one could argue that it is somehow "natural". One might even think that nature, > god, the outer gods did that on purpose. That's definitely a point to consider. The Mi-Go taketh away our telepathic abilities, but maybe we still have the castrated remnants...someone (a Mi-Go rebel? a K'n-Yanni superscientist?) modifies a simple fibrous plant to carry a chemical that, used properly, can reconnect to those receptors and awaken the abilities. Of course, you're, well, high when you've got those abilities. Kind of like the mini-scenario that came with the Keeper's Screen a few years ago: evil leprechauns in the sewers, but you can only see them by getting drunk. So you've got a bunch of drunk characters wandering around the sewers with Tommy guns. Ouch. > You're right: "every culture has found something to get high on" > These are the drugs that are considered legal, it's the ones that come from > somewhere else that are made illegal. > Therefore the drug wars are not only about control, they are also about > xenophobia. That's oversimplified. Opium, while not quite native to China, has been there a long time, and was once quite popular. It's now illegal for a very good reason, as it nearly destroyed the country. And alcohol was made illegal in the US for a few years, with disastrous results. Xenophobia is certainly an element, as is control, but it's all mixed together with actual need for regulation, culture clashes (one culture may be able to handle a drug better than another--compare use and abuse of alcohol in Germany and Russia), and other factors. > BTW: Isn't it strange that while many writers that wrote stuff that is > inspirational for DG or CoC purposes were "at least" alcoholics, while good old > HPL's only vice seems to have been sugar abuse? HPL needed no artificial enhancement. Something I really respect about him. Still, I can't help but wish I could spike his tea with LSD and leave him in a room with a pencil and some paper... From: Jay: > True, they might have been smoking some of it, but at the time hemp for rope > was an important cash crop. I think to project much more meaning to such > letters than that is wishful thinking on the part of the pro-marijuana folks. That's why I'm wanting real confirmation. I tend to think it's likely they did sample the crop. In the end, though, I wouldn't say that it follows that such info is good support for "legalizing it, mon." I mean, I like William Burroughs' stories. William Burroughs was a heroine addict. Do I think that gives me an excuse to shoot up? Gimme a break. To me, the whole question of whether Washington toked it up is merely a historical curiosity--until you get into the DG-relevant inquiry into whether certain drugs allow Dreamlands access and other psychic / extra-dimensional transformations. Then you can get into the whole Masonic thing, the Illuminati, the bizarre assertion that the REAL George Washington was replaced by Adam Weisshaupt, questions about whether the creation of the USA was just a plot by a sinister society, etc. From: Phil A Posehn: > For what it's worth I can give partial validation to the Washington > story, but can no longer cite sources. I did an article on hemp a few > years ago and remember finding out that Washington REQUIRED a perecentage > of land to grow hemp. But these were /good/ sources? Not that I doubt you, really--I've heard this dozens of times--but I'm just being paranoid about disinformation lately. Old urban legends have a way of getting quoted by professors eventually. And Phil--don't forget to SNIP! From: : > Pernod is absinthe without the wormwood. I believe in Portugal (this is info > circa early 80s) kits for making authentic absinthe were sold. They gave you > the ingredients (including wormwood) and instructions and you did the home > brewing. Wormwood is pretty seriously poisonous, isn't it? Of course, alcohol is a poison too. Right, I'm off to work! Dave ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Aug 1999 21:57:13 -0400 From: Greg Muir Subject: Re: DG: Lewinsky Crash Eckhard Huelshoff wrote: > > Good Morning. > > I just heard on the news that Monika Lewinsky got hurt after she lost control > over her car on a Californian Highway. > > May somebody have messed around with her brakes? > Probably was too busy with the gent in the passenger seat. :) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Aug 1999 22:07:14 -0400 From: Greg Muir Subject: Re: DG: Church of the Yakuza Graeme Price wrote: > > This one merits attention, if only for the sheer unlikeliness of it all: > > http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_410000/410080.stm > > Makes you wonder what you might find in the collection plate (he said, > cynically). Perhaps there's a scenario seed in there somewhere (ex-yakusa > starts cult?). > Word of advice: do NOT fall asleep during the service. They frown upon that sort of thing. :) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 23:46:46 EDT From: ScottSaylo@aol.com Subject: Re: DG: Church of the Yakuza In a message dated 8/3/99 9:09:11 PM Central Daylight Time, gregmuir@flinet.com writes: << > Makes you wonder what you might find in the collection plate (he said, > cynically). Perhaps there's a scenario seed in there somewhere (ex-yakusa > starts cult?). > Word of advice: do NOT fall asleep during the service. They frown upon that sort of thing. >> I can just see "Bring a Guest Night" at the church. THey pass the collection plate and the woman in the tasteful blue suit shrieks when she sees mixed in with the currency the occasional severed little finger joint. a real Kodak moment! ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 1999 09:00:08 BST From: "Jacob Busby Bsc." Subject: DG: Drugs in Cthulhu Scenarios From: Jacob Busby, IT Consultant, Tech Futures, IT Data Centre, Hampshire County Council, The Castle, Winchester. Tel: (01962) 845375 The recent list discussion on drugs brought to mind a few published scenarii S P O I L E R S In "The Gates of Delirium" from "The stars are right" the villain of the piece has been using the Laio Drug, which allows (ab)users to gain glimpses of the Mythos. So... 1) Is the Laio Drug illegal or can it be brought into the country legally? If not, can it be brought into the country by backdoor means - such as a chemical compound for NWI or a pharmaceutical concoction for certain rare diseases, subject to government controls? 2) DG has agents and friendlies in the DEA. If they discover traces of the Laio drug what do they do after they've confiscated it? What happens to users of Laio? Who's been supplying it? If The Fate have been supplying it, does DG risk a confrontation with them? In "The Madness of the Twilight Queen" from "Hollow Winds" a Mythos beast is trying to weaken peoples resistance (POW) and hence the power of an occult creature which is opposing it. This raises the uses of drugs to weaken POW and hence resistance to the Mythos. Additionally, the Drug allows users to travel to another dimension. Again the scenario can be positted as a DEA investigation. _________ I think that I shall never see /__ __/ /__ a billboard lovely as a tree. __/ / / . / /___/ /____/ Ogden Nash, Song of the open road ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 04:11:14 EDT From: LizardRoi@aol.com Subject: DG: Heads of State [Thomas Jefferson's study] THOMAS JEFFERSON and GEORGE WASHINGTON have their boots off and are lounging in prototype leather and dried legume chairs of Jefferson's design, which he proposes to call Bag O'Bean Chairs. Tacked to the walls are samples of a new art form that Jefferson is studying. New, artificial pigments are used in paint applied to black velvet flocked wallpaper. Jefferson displays them dramatically, lit by focussed flickering candlelight through glass balls filled with colored water. From outside a wailing tenor saxophone testifies in strange, unpredictable feints and attacks. The room is wreathed in smoke. The smoke originates from a corncob pipe that Jefferson is absent-mindedly extending to Washington, while intent on a machined brass device that he is making adjustments to. The pipe is just out of Washington's reach and he is thrashing in his chair like turtle rolled on its back. WASHINGTON: Damn your eyes Thomas, stop fiddling with whatever that is and hand me the poxy pipe. JEFFERSON: Hmmm? Oh. Here. I was reading some findings of Signor Venturi and applied them to the mechanisms of a pipe. It requires a measure of coordination, but I find it deals with the problems of temperature and volume efficaciously. I don't know what to call it, though. WASHINGTON (once again flailing wildly): Well throw it over here. I'll be in this fucking chair for the duration. Washington misses the catch and the device makes a distinct BONG! When it strikes the wood floor. BOTH: Hmmmmmmmm. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN and ADAM WEISHAUPT enter the room. Franklin has one foot bandaged and is using a cane. Weishaupt looks almost exactly like Washington, and is wearing a large fake mustache. FRANKLIN: I hope that's Monticello Gold I smell, Tommy, because my gout is tormenting me. Lads, I would like to introduce Herr Weishaupt of the Bavarian Illuminated temple. A Brother in the Craft, so don't get your aprons in a bunch. I'll retreat to the chaise if you don't mind Tommy, if I crawl into one of your man-traps you will have a permanent fixture in your study. WEISHAUPT: Herr Jefferson, wo is , who is the schwartze with the horn playing outside? The melody I have before not heard. JEFFERSON: He's a freeman. I think he calls himself the King of Breeches, or something like that. Sally tells me he's a hoodoo man. WEISHAUPT: Who do man? WASHINGTON and FRANKLIN: Sally? JEFFERSON: A hoodoo man. A voudon. WASHINGTON: Damn me for a cross-eyed whore's get, but you look familiar sir. Could we be relations? Will someone for the sake of Nature's God throw me a fucking rope? FRANKLIN: Tommy, give the Widow's Son a hand and pass me whatever that gadget is that he's waving around. WASHINGTON: Catch. The contraption strikes the floor with a resonant BONG! ALL: Hmmmmm. [Later] The saxophone is wailing Pink Floyd and the room's air is nearly opaque. WEISHAUPT: No, I am Spartacus. WASHINGTON: No, I am Spartacus. (Collapses in a giggle fit.) WEISHAUPT: No, I mean I am der, the Spartacus with the pamphlet making. You have maybe read "If You're So Smart, How Come You're Not Rich?" or "Royalty, Shmoyalty" or "Chicken Soup For The Zeitgeist"? I vas a Book of the Month Club Alternate, so stick that in your, uh, smoking thing and smoke it Mr. Smarty Washington with your wooden teeth. Where was I? WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON and FRANKLIN: I AM SPARTACUS! (Collapse in giggle fits) WEISHAUPT: You Americans, always with the joking. (adjusts his mustache which is apparently sprouting from his chin) [Later] The saxophone croons an homage to Bird. WASHINGTON: You mean I could fight a war on an expenfe account? WEISHAUPT: It is, how would you say, voudon economics. Supplies are bought at wartime prices and paid with wartime paper. But you turn in your expense report after you have a stable currency. WASHINGTON: What if I lose? FRANKLIN: Then we will surely hang together in less salubrious circumstances. Which way was the smoke thing traveling? JEFFERSON: Widdershins. Hand me the Venturistat. FRANKLIN: The what? JEFFERSON: (sigh) The smoke thing. WEISHAUPT: The English use good German mercenaries you know. And England is very far away. The King is mad. You may never get this chance again. The saxophone drifts hypnotically into a Kenny G. medley. WASHINGTON: These are not the druids we're looking for. JEFFERSON: What was that you were saying earlier about shooting from behind rocks? FRANKLIN: While the English wear red coats and march in a straight line? WEISHAUPT: Ja. It's true. There is nothing in the rulebook that says you have to stand in an open field pounding drums. I looked it up. WASHINGTON: Well, slap my arse and call me Sally. JEFFERSON: Hey! [Later] The saxophone is playing a jaunty dance tune. WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON, FRANKLIN and WEISHAUPT are lying on the floor head to head. We see the Founding Fathers arrayed like June Taylor dancers, they mime dancing to the music and they form ever-changing snowflake shapes when viewed from directly overhead. WASHINGTON: What is that song? I could swear I know it from somewhere. WEISHAUPT: It is an English song. It is called "The World Turned Upside-Down". WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON and FRANKLIN: Huh huh. Cool. And the rest is history. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 10:50:49 GMT0BST From: Robert Thomas Subject: Re: DG: Just plain mad! Hello All, Eckhard wrote: > becole@juno.com schrieb: > > [ snip ] > > The only "natural" that plays into it is Nature, from which > > it came. We evolved / were designed with specialized sets of chemical > > receptors. There are no chemcial receptors in the lungs that would lead > > one to believe that we were evolved / created to inhale smoke of any > > sort. > > But obviously there are chemical receptors in our brains that do react to certain > substances. And then there are plants that produce these substances. Therefore > one could argue that it is somehow "natural". One might even think that nature, > god, the outer gods did that on purpose. Just to chip in on the Hemp issue, why is it necessary to smoke it? Much more fun and you get a lot higher if you make space cakes. Now thats a way to take care of security guards. Make up a batch of space cakes get guards high which gets them sacked for drug abuse at the next "random" check and have your own replacements ready to apply for the jobs. Makes breaking and entering a piece of cake. (good pun punmeister Graeme?) Rob. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 13:04:07 +0200 From: "Florian R. Hanke" Subject: DG: Countdown Hello all, First of all, good luck to the Pagans at GenCon! And if any of you lucky fellows gets a copy of Countdown (or any of the new books, also maybe Mountains of Madness, but this one's not yet printed(?)) there, I'd be glad to see any previews (as appetizers). Thanks. Regards, Florian Hanke P.S: btw, there's a writeup on ethical dilemmas in CoC on rpg.net: http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/press/press.1110.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 12:57:53 +0200 From: "MERMOUD Patrice" Subject: DG: Flashbacks and the like... John Goodrich (Olaughing@aol.com) wrote : >REDG: I think it may be time to employ more of these techniques in >our role-playing. The flashback seldom is used, except as a narrative >device. What about creating memories by having the players actually >role-play them out? This is more work for the GM, certainly, as you >can never be certain what the players are going to do, but I think >that the rewards would definitely offset the bother, if used in >moderation. Some RPGs already recommand this approach (Amber DRPG for instance), to make the character's memories more vivid than just a "you sure remember this guy from your high school years...". It sure must be used with moderation and to make players get a feel for a place or NPC rather than to really advance the story (hey what if in one of his weekly flashbacks, Duncan had cut the head of the immortal whose encounter caused the flashback to occur ? Now THAT would have made a hell of an episode... Well actually it occured something similar in the last season when Mac encountered the Evil One incarnated in the guise of one of his old nemesis...) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 18:43:29 +0900 From: "David Farnell" Subject: DG: Re: Drugs in Cthulhu Scenarios / Revisionism From: Jacob Busby Bsc.: > The recent list discussion on drugs brought to mind a few published scenarii > > S > P > O > I > L > E > R > S > 1) Is the Laio Drug illegal or can it be brought into the country legally? If > not, can it be brought into the country by backdoor means - such as a > chemical compound for NWI or a pharmaceutical concoction for certain rare > diseases, subject to government controls? For the first question, I would say while the compound itself isn't illegal (not having been classified), the components are. A quick skim of the scenario didn't reveal the composition of the drug, but it did indicate that users develop a high tolerance to morphine, which means there must be an opiate involved. Which only makes sense. For the second question, hell yeah. Not even a great amount of government oversight, really, judging from the recent news story in which a prof ODed on medical-grade cocaine after ordering it from the government for research purposes. Big businesses could easily import reasonable quantities for research--larger quantities (enough to start a distribution network) would require more care. But as NWI has its own fleet of jets, its own ships, etc, they probably move tons of illegal materials around all the time. Buying off the watchdogs isn't so hard either. And imagine the rep: Old-time inspector to new guy, "Listen, son, you don't want to be looking into their boxes. Last guy who did that...well, nobody really knows what happened to him, but there's stories. Just stamp the manifest and wave 'em through." > 2) DG has agents and Friendlies in the DEA. If they discover traces of the Laio > drug what do they do after they've confiscated it? What happens to users of > Laio? Who's been supplying it? If The Fate have been supplying it, does DG > risk a confrontation with them? I actually covered this in a scenario--it was a relative of Liao, made from ground-up mutant centipedes that had eaten the effluvium of Formless Spawns, mixed in with the other Liao components (whatever they are). Eventually it led them to a village in Mexico. One girl who had become addicted (and who had gotten a centipede spinal implantation, the only way to survive after addiction) was taken into DG custody (the players were all Friendlies in that campaign). They never heard from her again. Since the mutant centipede in her spine was supplying her with a constant supply of pure Liao-like chemical compound, she was constantly mind-travelling through time and other dimensions. DG now uses her as a sort of "mad prophet." Results are unpredictable--she no longer speaks very coherently, and eventually she'll probably run across a Hound of Tindalos and that'll be that. Should be an interesting surprise for the agents who are attending her at the time, though. Shane Ivey had an interesting campaign in which a drug called Aklo (IIRC) played a part. Care to share, Shane? AND, once again splicing things together, From: : > Sorry as Ph.D student in history who has studied how scholars _do_ history, you are flat out > wrong. Revisionist history is not merely history "with a spin," or with a bias, but is > historical writing that contradicts and strongly challenges established historical beliefs. Y'know, I should have caught that. Didn't see this one until after I'd sent the other post, though. Anyway, you're right--it's a misuse of the term. On the other hand, B's points about the plasticity of history are definitely something to keep in mind. It also brings to mind the plasticity of word meanings. You've clearly explained the meaning from the perspective of historians, but in society at large, "revisionist history" has a negative connotation, because it means "history that says the stuff you were taught in school wasn't quite right." And that's scary--brings into question the whole basis of our society, all the myths (true and not so true) which together define who we are (and I'm talking about every nation, not just the USA). Threaten that, and you threaten people's identities (most people, anyway). Also, it disillusions people in another way--they start to think that "the new version" of events is just as unreal as the old version they learned in school. > Revisionism is not inherently good or bad. It is however a technical term in scholarship, and > should be used accurately. Yes. Orwell pointed out the dangers of too much plasticity in word-meaning. OTOH, there's no stopping the changes in meaning--all you can do is point it out and hope for the best. > Those who try to claim that drug use in the U.S. is a modern phenomenon, and that it has not > been a normal part of our lives for over two centuries are clearly dishonest. Now that's a bit strong--remember that the average person is exposed to very little of that history, and most of it is unclear and hard to judge. That's why I've been calling for confirmation of such points, because I don't want to perpetuate what might be rumors. I know that sounds strange from a conspiracy-theory spinner like me, but if I can't keep straight what's RW and what's a tool for a game, I'll be getting fitted for a straight jacket, and the ones in Japan are too damn small! >Hemp fabric was > worn and made into sails, hemp paper was written on, cannabis was used as a pain reliever, and I > suspect that it had other uses too. See? You SUSPECT! Come one, mon, did they toke it up or not? > Drug warriors seldom if ever honestly argue from a > standpoint of the facts when discussing the industrial or therapeutic value of hemp and > cannabis (let along other drugs). Well, B wasn't addressing the industrial / therapeutic values--just the "getting high" part. You can't really fault him for focusing his argument. Dave ------------------------------ End of deltagreen-digest V2 #20 *******************************