Perspectives

When I lived in inner Sydney, I lived among a diverse community of cultures and subcultures, all mingling to produce something dynamic and vibrant, everyone west of a certain point (Strathfield) was uncultured, a bogan, Everyone outside the Sydney basin was either a country hick living in the outback, or someone from a deviant place like Brisbane (where the people at least had the common decency to play a real sport), or Melbourne (where everyone is up themselves, and they don't even play real football).

When I lived in outer western Sydney, I lived among real people who valued their families, and everyone east of a certain point (Parramatta or Strathfield... depending on who I talked to, or how far out I lived) was either a corporate money-hungry yuppy, or a homeless bum, either way their life was the city. From the perspective of western Sydney, everyone outside the Sydney basin was either a country hick living in the outback, or someone from a deviant place like Brisbane (where the people at least had the common decency to play a real sport), or Melbourne (where everyone is up themselves, and they don't even play real football).

Now I live outside the Sydney basin, in an area others considered the outback, everyone in Sydney is selfish junkie, they don't know what life is like on the land... Brisbane and Melbourne aren't much better.

It's a bit of a case where it's I against my brother, I and my brother against our cousin, I and my cousin against the outsider. Groups close together look for reasons to differentiate themselves, but groups detached from the community are bundled together into stereotypes.

I want to reflect some of this in Walkabout, and I'm thinking that the best way to do this would be via splat-books. In this regard the idea that's inspiring me is the series of Clanbooks in Vampire the Masquerade, or the Tribebooks in Werewolf the Apocalypse. Each gives a stronger persoective of a specific group eithin the setting, explaining their outlook on the world, their twist on the setting's lore, the ways they divide themselves up.

But it's a big job... I don't know if I can do it myself.

Comments

Glenn Robinson said…
Gosh, that's just the sort of introspective nonsense I'd expect from someone on the East coast 😉

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