Anon1: Our DM has a practice, which he calls "The Palinka Effect." Anon1: Basically, he takes a utopian setting--whatever it is, it doesn't matter--and edits it so that it somehow shares a land border with Yugoslavia, adjusted for the time period. Anon1: He then runs through a century of history, treating that location as though it were a historic part of the Balkans. When he is done with that century, he presents the setting to us. Anon1: It is usually worth playing in. We applied this to Aldis, the kingdom of blue rose that receives all the attention (personally, I think Lar'tya would be cooler but whatever) and ended up with something too funny -not- to play. Anon2: That... is fucking magnificent. I mean, there's deconstructing a setting, and then there's... that. That's putting it through a machine, a grinder made of dark steel, with gnashing teeth of cold, hard reality. Your GM is amazing. Anon3: Interesting. Why the Balkans? Surely putting it in the heart of Africa would be crueler? Anon1: Too direct. Africa is merely a violent shithole. This way, the country slowly becomes Yugoslavia. It's subversive.
