Beyond The Storm - Gaming in New Orleans

An anonymous reader writes: "A group of game designers from the pen and paper world have come together to create a sourcebook about the city of New Orleans. The pdf book includes fiction, mini-games, and source material for using the Big Easy in settings from fantasy to Cyberpunk. The book includes contributions from gaming talents such as Matt Forbeck, Adam Jury, Sean Riley, and Seth Johnson." From the introduction: "It is a collection of visions of New Orleans and its environs. When I sent out my call for contributors, I said that I believed that modern role-playing games owed a debt of creativity to New Orleans and her culture. I still believe that. Th is book is a way for writers and artists to repay that debt in part. Th ose involved in the creative professions might not always have extra cash laying around to contribute, but they do have their muse. And I firmly believe that every individual who contributed to this project shared generously from their muse."

Isn't that nice...

[Blaaguuu]

Well, not too long ago, me and my family were cleanign out our little office room, and found a massive stack of fairly old video games that none of us play anymore. We were going to throw them ina box in the attic, but a friend mentioned he was donating lots of his random stuff to an organization that was taking it to new orleans survivors... so we gave him all of our old games to add to his loot. Im not sure how many of the survivors had/have access to computers, but that seems like a much more interesting "Gaming in New Orleans" story to me... hopefully someone down there was able to get away from the chaos fora few minutes, and enjoy a game of WarCraft 2.

New Orleans Resident Here

[EngineeringMarvel]

I was born and raised in the New Orleans metro area. I have a house in a N.O. suburb that was damaged during the hurricane (no flooding in my neighborhood) and I have many family member, friends, and co-workers whom have suffered extensive damage, including complete losses to flooding. I returned to the city 2 weeks after the storm and I have been here working at my job ever since.

I am a casual gamer and I wanted to add that video games has been a main form of therapy for myself and a few of my colleagues. You have to understand, this city use to have so many forms of entertainment, especially for a male in his mid-20s. I use to play volleyball and flag football, go bar-hopping etc, and almost all of that is gone now. So that leaves me with a lot more free time. Granted, I use a lot of that to fix up my house, but using all my free time just to do work will drive anyone crazy. In comes gaming. World Of Warcraft, Battlefield 2, and a few other games have been a main source of relaxation and entertainment. Not to mention, it can act as a small social network, which helps relieve the stress of not having the same social oppurtunities than before. I know this is not directly related to the article, but thought it had some relevance.

As for the article, the book has potential, because it's not just the buildings, Bourbon St, and Mardi Gras that make up New Orleans, but the attitude of the people that live here is probably the most important. There is a reason we can have a big open party for 2 weeks straight here. It's because the people are laid back and fun driven enough to allow their town to be turned into one big party. Otherwise, Mardi Gras would turn into one big riot of locals against tourists. There aren't many cities that could open up their doors like we do down here on a yearly basis. It's a ashame that so many people and regions have already closed their doors to us after Katrina after our city has kept it's arms open to everyone for so long.