Gaspys.

[Riev]

This is just a general reminder that "Gaspys" are a thing, as I recently found out. They're "popular" in Allanak and "everyone thinks theirs is the best" but I wonder just how many players even know the exist.

[BadSkeelz]

I have a great gaspy.

(seriously wtf is a gaspy? I thought this thread was about gay gypsies or something)

[Barsook]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatsby_(sandwich)

That?

[Bushranger]

Flat bread with toppings and sauces. Think a nice slice of pizza just not called pizza because that's anachronistic.

[Feco]

I have no idea what you're talking about.

[TheGoose]

Never even heard of this.

[Miradus]

There was someone in Allanak making them and giving them out. They were cool (and she was an amazing roleplayer) but I didn't picture pizza from the description. I was thinking like a Chicago style hot dog.

Or maybe a hot pocket.

[th3kaiser]

I mean, I guess you can remind us but as I've never ever heard of it, I'm going to treat it as if I've never heard of it.

Also, do you mean something like a Lahmajoun?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahmajoun

[Lizzie]

Looks like lamajoun is just an arabic version of a pizza. If Zalanthans want to call it a gaspy, that's fine.

[Renenutet]

Let me tell you about Gaspies.

About two years ago I was researching global street foods, while thinking about ways to make Zalanthan treats for the Arboretum. What I wanted were foods that were grounded enough in real life to be relatable, but not so familiar as to be, you know, sandwiches. I'd been researching, writing and re-writing foods for weeks when I wrote the description for the first gaspy.

Barsook is right that South African Gatsbies were the inspiration. The idea there is you take whatever stuff you've got and throw it on bread and sell it. Voila! Zalanthan gaspies  would probably be on flatbread, or maybe travel cakes. Well, bread.

This lead to a conversation about why a gaspy is ok but a sandwhich is not.  My thoughts on that are that all long as there has been bread people have been throwing stuff on it and wrapping stuff in it. The idea of a sandwhich is pretty universal. The sliced loaf and title sandwich,more the name than the slicing, are what takes us out of this beautifully rendered game world and puts us back behind the screen of a computer.

If I'm honest I confess that maybe the name Gaspy  is too close to Gatsby. It bothers me. What I liked though was the idea of a mess of stuff and bread and sauce that just leaves you breathless.

Since we've been discussing what it is that makes a gaspy a gaspy and not just some stuff on some bread. Part of the answer is Sauce. And part of it is less easily expressed. It's got to really come together into something more than the sum of its parts.

[BadSkeelz]

This thread makes me hungry.

I also remember watching Naomi Salarr eat what I'm pretty sure was the last fried kalan sandwich in existence. Even as a newbie I knew I was witnessing a historic moment. I always found the anal retentiveness around that particular term more jarring than any in-game appearance of it.

I find my reaction odd because normally I try and take pains to purge non-Zalanthan words and phrases from my in-game vocabulary. Until I get drunk and call someone a dude by mistake.

[sleepyhead]

I remember someone using the word "sandwich" around another PC. The second PC asked, "What the fuck is a sandwich?" PC A seemed surprised that PC B had never heard of "the Kadian sandwich." Shortly after that, sammiches were retconned, and I later learned PC B was almost certainly a staff avatar. It seemed almost like PC A's mention of sandwiches alerted staff (via PC B) that a few sandwich items still existed, and that led them to be purged from the game.

It's your fault, PC A! I can't remember who you are, but it's all your fault!

[FamousAmos]

They actually sort of look like a donair

[whitt]

zomg.  Gyros are the best thing ever.

[John]

Are falafels in game? Because I'd find that jarring as all hell. Then again, we have kebobs so internal consistency has never been a big thing. And with how international the playerbase is, any term will eventually be a "common everyday term" for someone.

[Miradus]

Yeah, you have to let some of the vernacular go.

It seems strange to pick on "sandwiches" when we have no problem at all with tomahawks, kukris, and rondel daggers.

[Riev]

They actually sort of look like a donair

This is kind of how I imagined them, although by description I can totally see a gaspy being a Zalanthan slice of pizza.

I'm glad I brought this up, because for such a "famous" food design, I never see them.

[BadSkeelz]

Donners and gyros derive their name from the cooking style. If we truly want a "Zalanthan" term for this new foodstuff (Which I've yet to personally encounter, sadly), it sounds like a 'pile' would be most thematic. Especially if they're sold near The Pile.

I'd also like to propose the following etymology for our poor maligned friend the Sandwich

Sandwich, n.
A foodstuff consisting of two pieces of bread between which other ingredients are placed. A corruption of 'sand witch', who are renowned for their ability to summon barely-edible bread and meat into existence. By combining the two ingredients they were able to create a slightly more appetizing dish.

[Riev]

It could be a flat-wrap, a donair, I don't entirely mind gaspy so long as a few more come into play and it CAN be an "Allanaki staple".

I just didn't know they were a THING. Until I saw one, and in its description it mentioned how they're popular around Allanak, despite being sold out of the high-end bar.

[Lizzie]

We have raptor nuggets in dipping sauce (chicken mcnuggets). We have buffalo wings (read the description some time). We have bearnaise sauce, hollandaise sauce, kefir, and coffee. Most of the food our characters eat were blatantly ripped from real life, and given a zalanthan sdesc. For me, the word gaspy makes me think someone wanted to make a flatbread pizza, and knew the word wasn't allowed, and they were watching the Great Gatsby on Netflix and decided gaspy would make a good "pretend pizza" name. It doesn't matter whether or not that's how it happened, it's how I feel when I see the word in the game.

[Miradus]

When I was first handed one, they used joybane on it.

And so I thought it was a gaspy because .. you gasped for air while you ate it because it was so spicy.

[John]

Have horses been removed from the game? I remember back around 2002 there was talk of a templar with a horse, and it had a near legendary status  (can't remember if I ever saw it or just heard about it).

[Riev]

Have horses been removed from the game? I remember back around 2002 there was talk of a templar with a horse, and it had a near legendary status  (can't remember if I ever saw it or just heard about it).

There was a time when a certain clan could purchase a cloven-hoofed horse, or something like that.

People didn't because other, more established mounts were better.

[Pale Horse]

Have horses been removed from the game? I remember back around 2002 there was talk of a templar with a horse, and it had a near legendary status  (can't remember if I ever saw it or just heard about it).

So far as I am aware, horses have not been retconned but they aren't available at the moment.

[John]

Thanks for the responses. My ultimate point was: sometimes things are cool even if they don't belong. Often times their removal will mean the game is less for it (e.g. flashpowder. So cool and so disappointed I never got to play with it)

[Riev]

Thanks for the responses. My ultimate point was: sometimes things are cool even if they don't belong. Often times their removal will mean the game is less for it (e.g. flashpowder. So cool and so disappointed I never got to play with it)

I understand that for some, things can be a bit jarring (like lensed sunslits, because how do we make lenses, etc). But I feel like coming up with a Zalanthan term for something that is iconic to Western culture isn't a terrible thing. I think "gaspy" is a funny word that means nothing, and I totally understand why we can't have "chalton cord-long subs", but sometimes it goes too far.

Horses exist. They're just rare and not acclimated to desert life like beetles are, etc.

Flashpower, though... the skill that involved it was volatile, and I imagine every couple months someone would twink-master the relevant skill and start trying to create thrown bombs, or terrorist-bomb buildings. In a game where its supposed to be difficult to make lasting change (low fantasy), it put too much power in a 0-karma mundane class (imo).

On topic - If Gaspys were meant to be an allanaki staple, shouldn't there be more?

[Miradus]

Like a lot of things in Arm, if it's player driven, when that player dies then the thing dies. Sometimes a couple of others will pick up the ball and run with it for a time, but most things rely on the enthusiasm of a couple of players to become part of the continuity of the game.

[John]

In a game where its supposed to be difficult to make lasting change (low fantasy)

That is such a non-sequitor and I don't even know how to respond. There is nothing about "low fantasy" that equals "player's can't have lasting impact on the game world unless they're sponsored/got lots of karma".

[Molten Heart]

.

[Riev]

In a game where its supposed to be difficult to make lasting change (low fantasy)

That is such a non-sequitor and I don't even know how to respond. There is nothing about "low fantasy" that equals "player's can't have lasting impact on the game world unless they're sponsored/got lots of karma".

When we're talking "low fantasy", are we talking about low magick? Or something else?

Its a conversation for another thread, but typically low-fantasy means you aren't the world-changing legends, you're the dirt-poor trying-to-make-it common man who might rise up in station but he'll always be outmatched.

Low Magick is more about no full wizards and sorcerors flitting around dimensions, but instead its more localized and "mysterious"

[Akariel]

This thread seems to be derailing from the topic at hand, maybe this new conversation could move to a new thread?

[Molten Heart]

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