Carson and I like to dine out at a local pub that does a good hamburger, a very good potato coddle, and a decent full breakfast (I like the coddle and the hamburger, Carson is mad for the full breakfast) (yes we do know what's in black pudding, your point?). The ambiance is good, it sits right on the river, and they serve coke products.
What they don't do well is dessert. I'm not really sure why, but they routinely miss the mark. One of their best, most consistent desserts is their bread pudding. I like it in the traditional way served with heavy cream (they will also serve it with ice cream). The last time I was in, I ordered the bread pudding with heavy cream. When the dessert arrived it was clear the poor skinny waif had no idea what heavy cream was because instead of pudding with a bit of high-fat dairy I was served a bowl full of milk with a little bit of pudding. She had clearly understood "heavy cream" as "heavy on the cream."
It took me the better part of the night to figure out why she had drowned the bread pudding in milk; when I finally did, I couldn't stop laughing. Now when one of us misunderstands the other Carson and I will look over and say "heavy cream." We can't help but laugh. But seriously what has happened to our culinary traditions when waitresses don't know what heavy cream is? I despair sometimes.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
DMing the Bible: Table Talk
Introduction:
Though this series not intended to be a verse by verse commentary, this third installment will focus on the third chapter in Genesis. In the first two chapters the world and all its fullness was created. The human species received gender and gave us our first cast of characters. Chapter three continues the distinctive j-source narrative as it explains why humans live in the desert instead of the lush garden setting for which God had created us.
The Text:
The first verse of chapter three introduces one further character, the serpent. The word used here is really garden variety snake, but in the Ancient Near East (ANE) the snake was viewed as a creature of supernatural quality. Because a snake will from time to time shed its skin and appear rejuvenated, they were believed to be immortal. Let's take a minute to talk about the serpent as it functions in this tale. I believe if we are to take this tale as a proto-"just so story," it would be inappropriate to draw the character of the serpent out as an allegorical figure. This is simply a character in a fable, and in the rest of our lives we do not need to identify talking animals in fables as agents or personifications of evil. The serpent approaches the woman and engages her in a conversation about the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil
In Genesis 2:16-17, God explains to the human creature that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is off limits for eating. By the time Eve and the serpent discuss the fruit of said tree, she has constructed a second layer of defensive legislation that prohibits not just eating the fruit of the tree but also touching it. The serpent suggest that it is not true that eating the fruit will kill you, but that the reason God gave humanity this rule is to keep you from being like gods yourself. Indeed Eve eats the fruit and gives some to Adam who also eats (though without first debating the question as Eve had done), and it turns out that they didn't die. The realized all kinds of things about themselves and their situation.
God, in the habit of walking in the garden, finds the people and gets Adam to tattle on Eve. In the punishment phase of the trial God makes the world as people living in the ANE would find very familiar: snakes slither about and engender fear and loathing from people, pregnancy is difficult and dangerous for mother and child, the genders are not equal, and agriculture is difficult and thankless. As a kicker at the end of the story we discover that the knowledge of good and evil did make humanity like the gods, to protect them from immortality, God must send them away from the garden. And that's a story about why the world is the way it is.
The Game:
If this story were a game session, the plot places PC's (Adam and Eve) in a position where through conversation they must decide between competing claims of two NPC's. As a DM, I love running this kind of session. I enjoy the side of D&D that encourages people to think through problems and decide upon courses of action. This kind of play demands that people stay more or less in character during play; it certainly means that players need to avoid "table talk."
I define table talk thusly: conversation that sounds like it might just be happening in character. For example anything that would prompt a DM to exclaim "Did you really say THAT?!?!?" or "You did WHAT??" is probably table talk. Here are some solutions.
Though this series not intended to be a verse by verse commentary, this third installment will focus on the third chapter in Genesis. In the first two chapters the world and all its fullness was created. The human species received gender and gave us our first cast of characters. Chapter three continues the distinctive j-source narrative as it explains why humans live in the desert instead of the lush garden setting for which God had created us.
The Text:
The first verse of chapter three introduces one further character, the serpent. The word used here is really garden variety snake, but in the Ancient Near East (ANE) the snake was viewed as a creature of supernatural quality. Because a snake will from time to time shed its skin and appear rejuvenated, they were believed to be immortal. Let's take a minute to talk about the serpent as it functions in this tale. I believe if we are to take this tale as a proto-"just so story," it would be inappropriate to draw the character of the serpent out as an allegorical figure. This is simply a character in a fable, and in the rest of our lives we do not need to identify talking animals in fables as agents or personifications of evil. The serpent approaches the woman and engages her in a conversation about the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil
In Genesis 2:16-17, God explains to the human creature that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is off limits for eating. By the time Eve and the serpent discuss the fruit of said tree, she has constructed a second layer of defensive legislation that prohibits not just eating the fruit of the tree but also touching it. The serpent suggest that it is not true that eating the fruit will kill you, but that the reason God gave humanity this rule is to keep you from being like gods yourself. Indeed Eve eats the fruit and gives some to Adam who also eats (though without first debating the question as Eve had done), and it turns out that they didn't die. The realized all kinds of things about themselves and their situation.
God, in the habit of walking in the garden, finds the people and gets Adam to tattle on Eve. In the punishment phase of the trial God makes the world as people living in the ANE would find very familiar: snakes slither about and engender fear and loathing from people, pregnancy is difficult and dangerous for mother and child, the genders are not equal, and agriculture is difficult and thankless. As a kicker at the end of the story we discover that the knowledge of good and evil did make humanity like the gods, to protect them from immortality, God must send them away from the garden. And that's a story about why the world is the way it is.
The Game:
If this story were a game session, the plot places PC's (Adam and Eve) in a position where through conversation they must decide between competing claims of two NPC's. As a DM, I love running this kind of session. I enjoy the side of D&D that encourages people to think through problems and decide upon courses of action. This kind of play demands that people stay more or less in character during play; it certainly means that players need to avoid "table talk."
I define table talk thusly: conversation that sounds like it might just be happening in character. For example anything that would prompt a DM to exclaim "Did you really say THAT?!?!?" or "You did WHAT??" is probably table talk. Here are some solutions.
- Character "voice":The group with whom I play includes only one or two players routinely use an alternate voice for their characters, and so they have fairly adroitly avoided having jokes the make wind up in the mouths of their characters. This doesn't mean of course everybody has to play with crazy accents or affected speech impediments, but it may mean that a character may have a particular phrase that only gets used in character particularly at the head of a dialogue block.
- The White Flag: My husband, Carson, is the most likely of our group to wander afoul of table talk. He likes to play out alternatives to the scene during the session (alternatives that would probably have horrible horrible consequences). Our group has basically agreed to let Carson say whatever he wants, with the knowledge that it will be counted as "in-character" unless he holds aloft a piece of white paper set aside just for this task. Whatever Carson says when the paper is up doesn't count. This is a rule that we only apply to one person, but it works for us given the nature of the group.
Friday, September 21, 2007
DMing the Bible: Gender Games
Introduction:
Last time we looked at the beginning of the Bible and the first of the creation stories. This time I thought we might look at the second of these stories. The first creation account is poetic, almost liturgical, which is appropriate as the first story is believed to come from a scripturally forebear known as the "priestly source" or "p-source." The account that is featured in chapter 2 is drawn from what Christian Biblical Scholars call the Yahwist tradition or the "j-source" (because when Germans transliterate Hebrew the letter 'yod' becomes a 'j'). The account is more personal, a little more fable-like, and the one the one that is easier to put on Sunday School felt boards.
The Text:
God again creates the world out of an extant collection of matter. In the first tale the material was described as water; this time the land is described as barren and desolate for lack of moisture. God makes a man-creature, a dust-thing, as one of the first creative acts. Notice I didn't say man; the word in Hebrew is most closely related to the word for dirt. In translation, the word is sometimes rendered human or human-being; what is most important to keep in mind is that until we get to verse 23 "the man" does not indicate a male gendered person.
God places this creation in a garden where all sorts of fruits and vegetables veritably spring out of the ground (can you tell this account was written by desert subsistence farmers?). The garden is feed by the four great rivers that provided water for much of ancient Mesopotamia.
God gives the creature the task of managing the garden. God decides that being alone on the earth is not the way life should be for the creature. God makes all the animals just to see if the a match for the creature. God brings each animal not just for a blind date, but also so that the human can name all the other creatures. God and the human run through every animal, but no partner was found. Male and female are created when God splits the creature in two (check out Rabbinic interpretations of this story for very specific ideas about how the split took place).
The Game:
Most games of Dungeons and Dragons use as backdrops richly detailed worlds that have at their hearts the late middle ages or Renaissance Europe. This was not a time well noted for sweeping equality between the genders. Truth be told our own time is not known for sweeping equality between the genders. The designers of the third (and later) edition D&D took great pains to distribute gendered language evenly making it clear the they were trying to describe a world where men and women were equal partners in the waging of war and the building of civilizations. My interpretation of the text (Genesis 2:4b-25) suggests that in God's world design the genders were also supposed to be equal partners
With all of that said, it is very difficult to fully eradicate gender roles from role playing sessions. Here are some suggestions:
1. Watch your NPC's: Are your bar keeps always wenches? Is the head honcho of the land always the King, noble Lord, or Herr Mayor? Try writing against the period stereotype. If you use pre-generated materials see if they are balanced--most materials can be gender swapped on the fly (just give the physical description a look-see first, and tweak as needed
2. Consider the options: If there is simply no way to even the actual distribution of males to females, check out the wide spectrum of masculinity and femininity. Is it possible the Master at Arms is a gentle and nurturing man? Can the mayor's socialite wife lead the local athletic efforts?
3. Roll with it: Be unambiguous about the values of a society that does not hold either males or females in high regard. Use the tensions of unjust gender roles as a plot point or opportunity for players to shine in problem solving or role playing.
Last time we looked at the beginning of the Bible and the first of the creation stories. This time I thought we might look at the second of these stories. The first creation account is poetic, almost liturgical, which is appropriate as the first story is believed to come from a scripturally forebear known as the "priestly source" or "p-source." The account that is featured in chapter 2 is drawn from what Christian Biblical Scholars call the Yahwist tradition or the "j-source" (because when Germans transliterate Hebrew the letter 'yod' becomes a 'j'). The account is more personal, a little more fable-like, and the one the one that is easier to put on Sunday School felt boards.
The Text:
God again creates the world out of an extant collection of matter. In the first tale the material was described as water; this time the land is described as barren and desolate for lack of moisture. God makes a man-creature, a dust-thing, as one of the first creative acts. Notice I didn't say man; the word in Hebrew is most closely related to the word for dirt. In translation, the word is sometimes rendered human or human-being; what is most important to keep in mind is that until we get to verse 23 "the man" does not indicate a male gendered person.
God places this creation in a garden where all sorts of fruits and vegetables veritably spring out of the ground (can you tell this account was written by desert subsistence farmers?). The garden is feed by the four great rivers that provided water for much of ancient Mesopotamia.
God gives the creature the task of managing the garden. God decides that being alone on the earth is not the way life should be for the creature. God makes all the animals just to see if the a match for the creature. God brings each animal not just for a blind date, but also so that the human can name all the other creatures. God and the human run through every animal, but no partner was found. Male and female are created when God splits the creature in two (check out Rabbinic interpretations of this story for very specific ideas about how the split took place).
The Game:
Most games of Dungeons and Dragons use as backdrops richly detailed worlds that have at their hearts the late middle ages or Renaissance Europe. This was not a time well noted for sweeping equality between the genders. Truth be told our own time is not known for sweeping equality between the genders. The designers of the third (and later) edition D&D took great pains to distribute gendered language evenly making it clear the they were trying to describe a world where men and women were equal partners in the waging of war and the building of civilizations. My interpretation of the text (Genesis 2:4b-25) suggests that in God's world design the genders were also supposed to be equal partners
With all of that said, it is very difficult to fully eradicate gender roles from role playing sessions. Here are some suggestions:
1. Watch your NPC's: Are your bar keeps always wenches? Is the head honcho of the land always the King, noble Lord, or Herr Mayor? Try writing against the period stereotype. If you use pre-generated materials see if they are balanced--most materials can be gender swapped on the fly (just give the physical description a look-see first, and tweak as needed
2. Consider the options: If there is simply no way to even the actual distribution of males to females, check out the wide spectrum of masculinity and femininity. Is it possible the Master at Arms is a gentle and nurturing man? Can the mayor's socialite wife lead the local athletic efforts?
3. Roll with it: Be unambiguous about the values of a society that does not hold either males or females in high regard. Use the tensions of unjust gender roles as a plot point or opportunity for players to shine in problem solving or role playing.
Neil Gaiman's Stardust
Carson and I went to see Stardust at the theater last night. He had been reluctant to go, having not read the book. I had been anticipating it for months before it was released. I was also a little apprehensive. The seeming over-emphasis in the publicity on the characters played by DeNiro and Pfeiffer concerned me. I was worried that the transition from novel to film would render a delicate and nuanced plot into a broad comedy or stereotypical witch and wizard fantasy (not of course that I mind either type of film in general). As we purchased our tickets the manager of the theater gave it a raving reveiw, saying that he had purhaps enjoyed the movie even more than he enjoyed the book.
Now, I don't have to tell any of you how exceptionally rare it is that a movie holds even a candle to a book let alone shine as brightly. Stardust however both as film and novel told a charming and sensitive story. I would recomend this film to just about anybody.
Now, I don't have to tell any of you how exceptionally rare it is that a movie holds even a candle to a book let alone shine as brightly. Stardust however both as film and novel told a charming and sensitive story. I would recomend this film to just about anybody.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
DMing the Bible: When God Began Creating
Introduction:
For our first outing into scripture I thought we might begin at the beginning. The beginnings of the Genesis (a book the by its very name talks about beginning) are not in fact believed to be the oldest parts of Scripture (that honor probably lies in the text of Job), but they are of course the most foundational. Humanity has been for time immemorial as concerned with what came before as with what happens next. Large portions of the oral tradition are dedicated to describing the beginnings of thing, and the traditions that contributed to the formation of the Bible were no exception. In Genesis we have two different stories about the making of the world.
The Text:
Genesis 1:1-2:4 is the first of these accounts, and the one I'd like to use as springboard this week. The text as it was written in Hebrew carries a bit more ambiguity that does any one English translation. For example "Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'arets." Can satisfactorily be translated "When God began to create the heavens and the earth", "In the beginning when God created the heaven and the earth", or "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." In this account of the creation though there was matter already present there was still the need for divine creative endeavor to render either heavens or earth as fully created.
The matter that existed prior to creation was all jumbled up and God set about making things better (or good if you prefer). God sends the divine breath, or wind, or Spirit out over the world as it stood and separates light from dark, rain and clouds from terrestrial waters, water from dry land, and seasons from one another. Once proper order had been established the earth could bring forth plants and animals of every sort. After all of this God says (to somebody, but we're left to wonder who) lets make women and men in our image, lets make humankind like us in this natural world. Having done all these things God declares it all very good and takes a day to reflect on the labor of creation.
The Game:
This seems like a lovely text to keep as a conversation partner when considering what was once called the ethical alignments (i.e. Law and Chaos). While it may be argued that the struggle between the moral alignments (Good and Evil) lies at the heart of the majority of global conflicts in fantasy settings, it is not to say that it is the only way it has to be. The campaign setting of Dragonlance, for example, features the lawfully aligned people of Krynn, good and evil alike, battling against the forces of chaos.
It is fairly safe to say that God, as described in Genesis, is operating in a Lawful world view. However unlike many constructed worlds in role playing, there is not a diametrically opposed deity featured in the story. The chaos just is, and God's effort on the behalf of order are not explicitly opposed.
As a DM, it is sometimes tempting to make things tidy and symmetrical for your players. Lawful paladins find natural enmity with the chaotic Robber-king. Having an interesting villain lends face to the forces of disquietude that have been raising the anxiety of local town halls or noble lords. What about the times when things just are? While I would not suggest making a villain-less plot line the major feature of your next campaign, it may be interesting to engage lawful characters of mid to high levels in rectifying chaos caused by a world/ plane's natural process.
For our first outing into scripture I thought we might begin at the beginning. The beginnings of the Genesis (a book the by its very name talks about beginning) are not in fact believed to be the oldest parts of Scripture (that honor probably lies in the text of Job), but they are of course the most foundational. Humanity has been for time immemorial as concerned with what came before as with what happens next. Large portions of the oral tradition are dedicated to describing the beginnings of thing, and the traditions that contributed to the formation of the Bible were no exception. In Genesis we have two different stories about the making of the world.
The Text:
Genesis 1:1-2:4 is the first of these accounts, and the one I'd like to use as springboard this week. The text as it was written in Hebrew carries a bit more ambiguity that does any one English translation. For example "Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'arets." Can satisfactorily be translated "When God began to create the heavens and the earth", "In the beginning when God created the heaven and the earth", or "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." In this account of the creation though there was matter already present there was still the need for divine creative endeavor to render either heavens or earth as fully created.
The matter that existed prior to creation was all jumbled up and God set about making things better (or good if you prefer). God sends the divine breath, or wind, or Spirit out over the world as it stood and separates light from dark, rain and clouds from terrestrial waters, water from dry land, and seasons from one another. Once proper order had been established the earth could bring forth plants and animals of every sort. After all of this God says (to somebody, but we're left to wonder who) lets make women and men in our image, lets make humankind like us in this natural world. Having done all these things God declares it all very good and takes a day to reflect on the labor of creation.
The Game:
This seems like a lovely text to keep as a conversation partner when considering what was once called the ethical alignments (i.e. Law and Chaos). While it may be argued that the struggle between the moral alignments (Good and Evil) lies at the heart of the majority of global conflicts in fantasy settings, it is not to say that it is the only way it has to be. The campaign setting of Dragonlance, for example, features the lawfully aligned people of Krynn, good and evil alike, battling against the forces of chaos.
It is fairly safe to say that God, as described in Genesis, is operating in a Lawful world view. However unlike many constructed worlds in role playing, there is not a diametrically opposed deity featured in the story. The chaos just is, and God's effort on the behalf of order are not explicitly opposed.
As a DM, it is sometimes tempting to make things tidy and symmetrical for your players. Lawful paladins find natural enmity with the chaotic Robber-king. Having an interesting villain lends face to the forces of disquietude that have been raising the anxiety of local town halls or noble lords. What about the times when things just are? While I would not suggest making a villain-less plot line the major feature of your next campaign, it may be interesting to engage lawful characters of mid to high levels in rectifying chaos caused by a world/ plane's natural process.
DMing the Bible: the beginning
Apologia:
As the series title has indubitably raised anxiety in a few of you let me first of all spend some time talking about Role Play (in particular D&D), religion, and civility. As my user profile notes I am both a minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and an enthusiast of role playing games (btw the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a denomination of withing the wider religion of Christianity Check this out for more info). I see no inherent contradiction between the two in much the same way Christian Cubs fans see no basic conflict in their love of God and their enjoyment of Wrigley Field and baseball.
This section is called Apologia because I want to give an explanation I hope will persuade those who are uncertain. Though wittier people than I have placed fingers to keyboard as apologists of role playing to the Christian community, I would like to throw in my two cents. As a Christian I believe that in the person of Jesus, God redeems the world. Reconciling all things through the power of God's amazing love. This activity of reconciliation and redemption is lived out on both the individual and the cosmic scale. On the individual scale God calls people away from broken lives and into new a life and an experience of unparalleled wholeness. Nothing in the experience of a healthy role-playing group damages a person's ability to live such a wholly holy life.
Children, listen to me; if you take part in a group where you do not feel you are safe to be the person you are called to be, if you find yourself in the midst of a group of people who will not accept you as a unique and lovely Child of God-- I don't care where you met these people: at church, at role-playing, at school --get away from them post-haste. People like that are not pursuing a hobby, worshiping God, or attending to their studies they are being abusive. Call it what it is and find yourself a new group with whom to hang.
Methodology:
Here on out I will be looking at Biblical texts with the eyes of a Biblical Scholar and as a Dungeon Master. I will select these texts at whim. I have in mind to talk some about character classes of all types, alignments, play techniques, campaign settings, plot devices, and combat mechanics (oh it's in there, and I won't even have to stretch). Biblical Quotes will come from the New Revised Standard Version, and role playing materials will come mostly from core rulebooks of Dungeons and Dragons version 3.5. You may find it handy to have access to these materials.
As the series title has indubitably raised anxiety in a few of you let me first of all spend some time talking about Role Play (in particular D&D), religion, and civility. As my user profile notes I am both a minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and an enthusiast of role playing games (btw the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a denomination of withing the wider religion of Christianity Check this out for more info). I see no inherent contradiction between the two in much the same way Christian Cubs fans see no basic conflict in their love of God and their enjoyment of Wrigley Field and baseball.
This section is called Apologia because I want to give an explanation I hope will persuade those who are uncertain. Though wittier people than I have placed fingers to keyboard as apologists of role playing to the Christian community, I would like to throw in my two cents. As a Christian I believe that in the person of Jesus, God redeems the world. Reconciling all things through the power of God's amazing love. This activity of reconciliation and redemption is lived out on both the individual and the cosmic scale. On the individual scale God calls people away from broken lives and into new a life and an experience of unparalleled wholeness. Nothing in the experience of a healthy role-playing group damages a person's ability to live such a wholly holy life.
Children, listen to me; if you take part in a group where you do not feel you are safe to be the person you are called to be, if you find yourself in the midst of a group of people who will not accept you as a unique and lovely Child of God-- I don't care where you met these people: at church, at role-playing, at school --get away from them post-haste. People like that are not pursuing a hobby, worshiping God, or attending to their studies they are being abusive. Call it what it is and find yourself a new group with whom to hang.
Methodology:
Here on out I will be looking at Biblical texts with the eyes of a Biblical Scholar and as a Dungeon Master. I will select these texts at whim. I have in mind to talk some about character classes of all types, alignments, play techniques, campaign settings, plot devices, and combat mechanics (oh it's in there, and I won't even have to stretch). Biblical Quotes will come from the New Revised Standard Version, and role playing materials will come mostly from core rulebooks of Dungeons and Dragons version 3.5. You may find it handy to have access to these materials.
Return of the bride of Where I've Been
I know that in general blogs only are useful if they are updated from time to time. This, however has been one of the most serious weak points of any of the blogs yours truly has attempted to begin.
During the Summer months I was away working in a local congregation as their substitute senior minister. It was an amazing experience, and one that I know will ride close in my heart for a long while to come.
I am back now...and Wry Juxtaposition has received a face-lift in honor of a new series I am beginning in just a few minutes that will hopefully be a weekly feature of this blog
During the Summer months I was away working in a local congregation as their substitute senior minister. It was an amazing experience, and one that I know will ride close in my heart for a long while to come.
I am back now...and Wry Juxtaposition has received a face-lift in honor of a new series I am beginning in just a few minutes that will hopefully be a weekly feature of this blog
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