Quote:
Originally Posted by RussellinToronto
Yes, "netherworld" is a good word for it. My father retired to West Palm so I got to know a bit of that part of Fla. but I never saw truestoryteller's world. And am just as glad to have missed it. (I've played in some of those afterhour games in Edmonton, but the lowlife there is not nearly so low ...) I sent one of my friends the link and described it as "homegame noir".
I feel pretty much the same way. I enjoy the TST thread in a vicarious kind of way, as someone who exists on the fringes of the underground homegame world and doesn't want to descend much deeper. I dabbled in the
Houston home game scene and have access to a few Nola underground games. I go, occasionally, but am not that enthused for the usual reasons—safety, potential cheating/collusion,the general shadiness/degen atmosphere. There's also a weird dynamic that exists in these games—TST has touched on it—in which you "know" most of the players and thus don't go as hard vs them as you normally would. It's always easier on the conscience to stack an anonymous whale.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RussellinToronto
For those who were reading it as it was posted, thread's like that move us toward the first experience of storytelling, where the listening audience interacts with the bard as the story unfolds and the teller can get some sense of what the audience responds to and wants.
Yeah, I like that aspect of his thread and of PGCs in general. It seems like his poasts have slowed down but that he plans to continue with the stories...
Quote:
Originally Posted by RussellinToronto
As much as I found the poker degeneracy fascinating to read about (and I got a picture of the omnipresence and easy acceptance of guns and drugs in American culture that no CNN story could ever give me), the more general degenerancy of the warmdark thread doesn't involve me in the same way.
But I'm open to other recommendations ...
I'm also interested in the degen side of poker—addiction, problem gambling, underground games, crime, etc—and would enjoy hearing recs as well, if anyone has them. It's a subject I haven't explored all that much and don't have much personal experience with. Just last night I was chatting with a friend about how, for both of us, we're closer to the "nit" than the "degen" side of the gambling spectrum, and that obviously shapes my experiences inside the poker world.
Only rec that comes to mind is King Krab's
PGC (and subsequent book). I actually have the book, thanks to a generous 2+2er, but haven't read it.