Recreation in Splicer

[The Baron of chaos]

Another thread devoted to non striclty militarist aspect of Splcier world.
Howe do the people of a Splicer Earth do for fun?
Practice Sport? They read books?(If still exist some)? Exist some form of Porn(biotic hookers....hmmm idea raising in my mind). Do they engag ein touranments of sort(in medieval times Tournaments were created to channel the destructive pulsions of the "knights" who will toherwise abuse on the nearest peasant...Guys the Middle Ages were not the romantic period you could think of).
Just curious

[slappy]

Here's a couple things from my notes I plan to expand upon:

Sports: Members of a warrior culture like House Artemis often find it difficult to leave their aggression on the battlefield. Sports and other physical competitions are the perfect way to blow off some steam during the downtime hours, but unfortunately, space is a precious commodity underground. The most popular forms of competition involve one-on-one contests like submission wrestling, arm wrestling, and sparring. There are hundreds of small workout rooms scattered throughout the underground haven that can be reserved for these activities. People also participate in team sports like football, soccer and, dodgeball, but there are only a few rooms available for this and the waiting list is substantial. House Artemis even allows its warriors to compete in full Host Armor, (although use of ranged weapons is strictly prohibited). Warlord Artemis considers it excellent practice plus their equipment naturally regenerates so there is virtually no risk of wasting resources. There are all manner of individual and team sports that are played in Host Armor, and it is becoming more popular than unarmored competition. Aside from all the small rooms, there is one large arena that can also be reserved for sports matches, sparring competitions, and tournaments. It is roughly half the size of a football field and it has stands built around it that can seat 5000 people. There are events going on twenty-four hours a day. Most of these events are free to the public, but popular matches like grudge matches between Dreadguard, team sparring sessions, or challenges for the title of Warlord of House Artemis usually have a rather steep admission fee.


Sun Rooms: Human beings need to see the sun periodically to maintain their mental and physical health. Unfortunately, even quick trips to the surface are incredibly dangerous, and the risk is not worth it. To help keep people sane, every Great House builds what they call Sun Rooms. These simple chambers have a large Glow Cell mounted on the ceiling to simulate an artificial sun. It generates the full spectrum of light like real sunlight (it can even feed photosynthetic creatures and devices and a person can actually get a sunburn if he or she is not careful). Most Sun Rooms are small stone chambers large enough for a few dozen people, but House Artemis built a huge chamber they call the Beach. This large dome can hold nearly two thousand people at a time. The ceiling is painted blue to simulate the sky, and it has a white sandy beach surrounding a large pond. It is one of the most popular spots in the underground haven. House Artemis also has dozens of smaller private sun chambers that can be rented out for private parties and romantic getaways. It is easy to throw a dimly lit dinner by candle light underground. The most sought after getaways are brightly lit picnic dinners.

[Aramanthus]

Interesting. What about sports that are present in our world. Just up the league for the enhanced end of it.

[Guy_LeDouche]

Hmm. This is a pretty interesting idea to think about.

As soon as I read this, I had one immediate thought. A game of "Hot Potato" played with a Bot head certainly would be interesting. The Splicer version of Juicer Football.

[The Baron of chaos]

Here some ideas I thought.

Gardening: Botany could not be the most interesting hobby, but in underground environment has double use. Cool down the over-excited minds of some traumatized warrior, and proved surprisingly good for Biotics, who need a serene calm place doing simple things. Taking care of bonsai is a good method. And second it help creating a comfortable environment(nobody like the idea of living in what look like the giant colon of an hyppopotamus)

Brothels: Ok kids, go to bed, NOW. Prostitution in most great houses is not outlawed, and generally only the exploitation of it outside the usual channels. Most prositutes are trained not just into carnal arts, but are trained in most field of entertaining and helping relaxing the battle worn Splicers. Included are massage, dance, singing, poetry, and most have also a psychologica preparation, ready to listen and understand(think Lady Esther -CSI classic recurring character). Information note: 30% of prostitutes are lesser biotic, with 1d4x10+10 Bio-E worth enhancements, generally everythig to add exotic features, increasing endurance and add some built in "work" equipment(like a bio-whip, or cute rabbit ears, enlarged ahem features) These Biotic Odalisque are used also as unconspicuous body guard and assasin. Exist Female and Male version, with females being the most common

Hunting: The most ancient sport of humankind, as Gardening, is not just a sport, but a profitable sourceof food, and valuabel genetic material. Favored by Dreadguards and Packmaster, follow peculiar rules and is one of the few sport to practice outside, so is quite dangerous, still is practiced on regular basis. It follow some simple rules, like using only bow and arrow and the help of the gorehouds, minus any long range weapon.

Warmount runs: LOVED by outriders, but Gorehounds running are quite spread too. The runs happne in spacial areas, who are always filled like tuna can, with the mounts runnig in a circuit chasing a pherormone coated bait. Bets are very common too, and are considered PART of the game

[Aramanthus]

Those are a list a great outdoor activities! Escellent choices.

[The Baron of chaos]

Yeah common man got the lower stick...as always.
Still in ancient time rulers knew the old motto "panem et circensem" .Is always wise thing organize pubblic entertaining events to allow the mass have some fun. Considering How *****ing depressing is the Splicer world(Rifts at least offer much more positive aspect, . And altarian warrior women are so much better looking than the machine's tools) . Also you talk about the undergroun GreatHouses as very small cramped spaces. Sort of D&D dungeons. But I think more like giant caverns with no so medieval looking cities(Middle age is so OVERestimated....I admit since I sustained an unversity exam on history of the middle age I grown jaded bout it....Lets' think more like Zion). And at least apubblic aren ofr sport, and pubblic events should be always part of the underground urbanistic plan. People should not focus too muchy into depressing thing like "machines ar emore than us, stronger than us and willw on eventually"
As for other recreational activity.
Pubs , saloon and taverns: Alchool run free in these place, as well as the usual entertaiment you could find there, largest ones offer even some blood sport tournaments, like gorehounds fight, Biotic Boxing. Never missing a private room devoted to card game(legend tell fo a Great House where the title of Warlord is decided on a tournament "NO-SLEEP" of Poker) and some stage show. The average common man prefer to waste all his little resource in these places rather than go home telling the same old tale to his kids. These are also the main working location for many Pro and bio-pro in the Great Houses
DRUGS: While the Warlords and Librairan try to keep these under control, Drugs are common, VERY VERY common, and easy VERY VERY easy to get on in Splcier earth. From allucinogen mushrooms, to PCP derived by "cooking" the testicles of a warmount, whatever you want to get stoned and tripping , well you can get. in some case Scarecrow are captured and drained of all their bodily fluids in order to derive small amount of a derivate of the Elixir Vitae, albeit much less effective than the original thing. Saint in theory can be a living drug, triggering any effect they wish, but few do so(albeit unpricnipled Saints can do that for fun and well "recreation" , Rohypnol anyone?! Remeber Alignment can be good to start but could drop over time nothing say a Saint cannot fell from grace)
Dance: Probably returning to the meaningful purpose of once time, Dancing events are attended by many many people(Rave party at Nth powaaaaaaahhhh ) with drugs and Alchool running freely(well more or less), For the upper class there more clasys events of course.
Theatre: Well part of those pubblic events mentioned above. Little difference form today, albeit for obvious reason masterpiece who give bad ideas to people, or are against what the ruling class perceive as good, or simply show the Warlord defects too much are forbidden to play. Other show include mimes, poetry declamations and such.
Music: without many recording tools, concerts take a new strenght, Techno.Jackers being the only one who can play metallic instruments and hig tech synthesizers.. The style fo music that is appreciated vary greatly. Note that with SOme effort, Is now possible to play old vinyl music disk, one weird creepy room filling living organs, but recording is still out of question. They are valuable object and source fo inspiration of new generation of bio-musicians. Generally playing an old disk is a pubblic experience , much like a concert. Librarians are know to collect MASSIVE collection of vinil records.
on this note. The only way to record music is a a race of genetically modified parrots. The can reply almost perfectly a song . Too bad they cannot store more than 5 song at times. The parrots can record alos spoken words (2-3 hours from one single voice or 45 minutes of more than one voice). They are valuable tools and don't sold to common men

[Aramanthus]

Those sound reasonable to there society! Those are great suggestions!

[bigbobsr6000]

Art: Painting, sculpting, pottery, etc. Is very theraputic and allows one to wind down. Take their mind off things and just concentrate on the art work at hand. Plus, it can be shared with the rest of the House by displaying in the various rooms. The pottery could be made as usefull every day items.

Music: Listening, composing. playing and conductiong small bands or orchestras. All can be used to relieve tension in most people. Plus, they could be at sporting events adding music much like bands today at shool sports.

Sumo Wrestling: Doesn't need much room except for the audience. See who can push the other out of the ring first. Simple enough, right?

Dung Bettle Racing: Speaking from personal experience in Desert Shield and Desert Storm (retired Army) this really worked to take our mind of things and needs very little room. Get a bunch of dung beetles paint a number on back, put in jar. Then in the center of a 4-5 foot diameter circle traced in the sand you turn the jar upside down and pull it up spilling out the dung beeltes. First one out of the circle wins. We had bets and such like horse racing.

Games for the kiddies: Bean Pod Toss, Dunk the "robot" (person disguised as one), Wreath Ring Toss at sticks, (well you get the idea)

Darts: Especially at the Pubs. Wooden carved darts with super-tough thorns for points and feathers for fins, if possible. If not, stiffed cloth or stiff plant leaves cut to specs. Dart board of soft pine, cork if available. Possibly some kind of self-healing soft wood. One would need to practice strength control as not to smash the stuff.

Bowling: Not the traditional alleys today. Just some hard wood pins and a few smooth rounded small boulders. Like the sport orginally started out. All you need is a relatively smooth floor about 30 feet long and mark out approach lane and boundry lines on the floor. Don't forget the ole pin boy. This could be a family sport and league tournaments as well. One rule: throwing the boulder or smashing the pins to bits is a definite disqualification. This would teach strength control as well.

These are just a few off the top of my head, Enjoy

[Aramanthus]

Another set of great recreational stuff people would be doing in their off time. I agree!

[The Baron of chaos]

Great stuff. I truly never thought bout bowling.

[bigbobsr6000]

Chess
Checkers
Dominoes
Dice Games

Gambling: Bet on sport events, games, anything.

Card Games: If not cards of today a version of some kind. People thru the ages have eventually come up with cards especially for gambling.

Spas: Some houses if not all could have underground hot springs feeding spa rooms. Hot tubs, suanas, heated pools for swimming and etc.

Swimming: See Spas for heated pools. Or for those who like, natural pools not heated. Nice cool/cold dip. Refreshing.

Massage: A nice deep tissue massage to work those battle kinks, aches and pains. Get that lower back pain gone.

Culinary Arts: Cooking, creating gourmet meals for one to many. I actually enjoy cooking up stuff. Again, takes your mind off troubles by concentrating on the meal at hand.

Some more for your recreation relaxaition.

[Aramanthus]

Some more great ideas! Thank you for keeping them coming!