So instead of working on my research, I decided to procrastinate/reskin Blades in the Dark. I tried to convince my group to give it a shot, but its just too close to home for all of us.
Enjoy! And my apologies.
Welcome to….
ARCHAEOLOGISTS IN THE DIRT
Playbooks:
The Processualist – Just the numbers. Just the mathematical and spatial inferences that allow past behavior to be reconstructed. Evidence. We need evidence. Then the mathematical model can explain why we’re here. What do you mean what about people?
The Post-Processualist – It’s about the People! We can’t know what they did. That’s impossible. But we’re human. We can reach out and draw them into the present through the reflexive interpretation of their material culture! What do you mean what about evidence?
The Ecologist – What we’re fundamentally looking at is the continuous iteration of human environmental relationships. Without the Holocene Climate Optimum agriculture would have been impossible. It’s the ecological constraints that we operate within that drive human adaptation. What you mean what about now? Of course not. Global Warming is different. We’re causing that.
The Excavator – Theory is all well and good. But what we need is a god damn square hole that’s well recorded. If you can’t manage that, it’s all bullshit. Even if you can, it’s still probably all bullshit. What do you mean “then what’s the point?” I told you! Square holes!!!
The Student – I can’t believe I’m actually here. Yes. I’ll help. Whatever you need. Of course I don’t need to be payed! I’m just happy to be here!
The Tenured – I have 8 more articles in the pipeline, unfortunately I’ve only published 3 this year. Fieldwork? Yes. Eventually. But what’s really important is academic productivity. I’m sure I have a graduate student around her somewhere that can help you with your question. If you’re interested in that avenue, might I recommend you take a look at these 5 titles, 2 of them will require an additional language, but I’m sure you can fit that in…
The Colonialist – I remember this time in a Borneo cave when we uncovered a nest of snakes, one of them is mounted over there on my wall. It gave me a start I can tell you, unfortunately I had to kill them in self-defense. Thankfully I always have my Machete on me. What? Yes I mean of course I had some help… The local workers you know. Very resourceful… Anyway, I have some pictures of the Temple I discovered over here, you can see from the stone filigree…(I know stone filigree doesn’t exist. That’s the joke)
Stats/Actions:
INSIGHT
Intuition
Research
Survey
Munsell
PROWESS
Trowel
Illustrate
Publish
Dig/Move dirt
RESOLVE
Bureaucracy
Command
Consort
Sway
Seems legit.
Slightly more seriously, i love that in BitD this ridiculous jokey reskin is actually playable. The action-fiction connection is just so well done. But everyone here already knows that. Its just cool to see.
Ohhh you rolled a failure… that looks like we’ll have to start a 8-tick progress clock called ‘IRB paperwork’… Yeah you’ll need to finish that before we release any load to you in future scores.
Hahahaha. That’s what they get for bringing in living informants.
I love that Publish is under Prowess.
Jakob Oesinghaus The stress/trauma system doesn’t need to be altered even a little bit either.
Neither the spider. Just rename him the Dean. 🙂
Jakob Oesinghaus What exactly is the gag behind Publish being under Prowess? I’m asking for a friend.
Academia: Publish or Perish. Publish is to a serious academic as Skirmish is to a Cutter. It’s the the whole point of you. Re: Archaeologists. You can be the best excavator ever, but without “Publish…” well…
Wesley Williams IRB complications = brilliant.
What about factions? The NSF, University Budget office, History channel…