Cantr Sightings

[EchoMan]

A thread for Cantr sightings, or Cantr related things seen IRL (in real life).

I just watched an episode of a sci-fi show called Harsh Realm. The main character there is named Thomas Hobbes. Ring any bells?

[Marian]

Of course Thomas Hobbes was a real historical person so I'm not sure that counts...

...I did hear there was some hack named R.A. Salvatore totally ripping off the DoUrdens though.

[caged_bird_sings]

I posted this somewhere before I think. Miserable and scary, but...

A month or two ago (don't remember exactly when) a man in his thirties was killed by a crossbow in Toronto. I thought that only happened in Cantr and on Criminal Minds

[EchoMan]

Of course Thomas Hobbes was a real historical person so I'm not sure that counts...

...I did hear there was some hack named R.A. Salvatore totally ripping off the DoUrdens though.

As I wrote "Cantr related things seen IRL". I saw a character in a show named Thomas Hobbes, and I know the name mostly from Cantr. So it applies. What you yourself refer to is IRL things seen in Cantr, which is, if not a CRB, at least bad taste. (Naming the char Thomas Hobbes, if in fact that is some famous historical person, could have been a case of bad taste too).

[SumBum]

Wax museums. Lifelike figures arranged in such a way that you can't really tell who is actually living and who is a wax statue.

The thought occurred to me earlier today that Cantr would be very creepy in that aspect. Not knowing who was really awake at any given moment, who was just pretending to sleep yet watching you all the while, or who was standing there basically dead until their body collapses from starvation. And all of them either poised at their work or just sort of hanging around in an unspecified position.

[Marian]

Wax museums. Lifelike figures arranged in such a way that you can't really tell who is actually living and who is a wax statue.

The thought occurred to me earlier today that Cantr would be very creepy in that aspect. Not knowing who was really awake at any given moment, who was just pretending to sleep yet watching you all the while, or who was standing there basically dead until their body collapses from starvation. And all of them either poised at their work or just sort of hanging around in an unspecified position.

No matter how hard I try to picture and interact with a Cantr town as a town, I almost always wind up with the same picture in my head: rows and rows of buildings to one side, most of them crumbling, with rows of vehicles parked opposite, and a backdrop of fields/woods/mountains/beaches/whatever surrounding a central clearing where people stand here and there working. And of course, the unblinking, glassy-eyed stares of the ever-present sleepers, standing stock still wherever the sickness struck them and just staring.

[Snake_byte]

I posted this somewhere before I think. Miserable and scary, but...

A month or two ago (don't remember exactly when) a man in his thirties was killed by a crossbow in Toronto. I thought that only happened in Cantr and on Criminal Minds

In the library! LOL I know exactly what you're talking about. I feel so bad to laugh at something like that but I can't stop!

[Doug R.]

The show Lost reminded me a lot of Cantr, specifically the dynamics of the various groups and the character drama. There's a lot of other things in common also if you stretch your imagination a bit. The plane crash was like spawning. Hell, they even both have Blackrocks. The Others are like Alyssa Moore, coming and dragging you off in your sleep, and I can't tell you how many Ben Linus-like characters I've met in Cantr. I've played one. Pretty much every Lost character can be found in Cantr somewhere. Oh, yea, and all the weird unexplainable stuff on the island = bugs in Cantr.

[nitefyre]

The show Lost reminded me a lot of Cantr, specifically the dynamics of the various groups and the character drama. There's a lot of other things in common also if you stretch your imagination a bit. The plane crash was like spawning. Hell, they even both have Blackrocks. The Others are like Alyssa Moore, coming and dragging you off in your sleep, and I can't tell you how many Ben Linus-like characters I've met in Cantr. I've played one. Pretty much every Lost character can be found in Cantr somewhere. Oh, yea, and all the weird unexplainable stuff on the island = bugs in Cantr.

and the Locke connection there too, but that came after Cantr's

Of course Thomas Hobbes was a real historical person so I'm not sure that counts...

...I did hear there was some hack named R.A. Salvatore totally ripping off the DoUrdens though.

As I wrote "Cantr related things seen IRL". I saw a character in a show named Thomas Hobbes, and I know the name mostly from Cantr. So it applies. What you yourself refer to is IRL things seen in Cantr, which is, if not a CRB, at least bad taste. (Naming the char Thomas Hobbes, if in fact that is some famous historical person, could have been a case of bad taste too).

This has arisen before in the forums, and

However, by this time, nearly a decade after first spawning in Naron, Thomas was faced with critical and serious issues in his personal career. Unknowingly, at the time, he was about to make the most fateful decision any character of mine has since had to make, and that was to desert all he had worked for. The town of Naron, his inspiration, and perhaps, his infatuation, was dropped after a lengthy deliberation. He had earned the rank of Captain, Commander of Naron, since his appointment by General Sestar Gartaff, the epitome of his worldly aspirations up until that time. Finally, just before daybreak of 795, he said goodbye to Naron, and greeted his new occupation, the Hobbes Encyclopedia.

To sidestep my character's conviction for the moment and to look at my own, out-of-character state of mind, I could say that I was excited. Nothing to this degree had ever unraveled in Cantr before, so the idea was completely novel to me. The name Thomas Hobbes comes from the English political philosopher who wrote the Leviathan. The real life persona's political beliefs centered on people being essentially evil; they required strict authoritative measures to keep them under control. The other pole would be represented by John Locke, another English philosopher, who believed people were created with a tabula rasa, or blank slate, and so were born free and good. Since I have had characters by both names, chosen by the misleading description of the game, I asked myself at the time if I would play them due to these out-of-character influences. I said no, I wouldn't, I would base their characters on their environments.

The Lad Empire was always criticized in the Forums for being dark, evil, and oppressive, not unlike the government that the real life Thomas Hobbes probably believed was essential to rule the brutish element of society, the people. Locke, on the other hand, was raised in the Mid-North Union, and born into Drojf, where the Nosse sung gleeful songs, having faith in the populace in general. This coincidence continues to irk me to some degree, since it seems the in game conditions have provided for correlation between the in character and out of character personas.

The Zine is currently down but there's a cached page when you google for it. I would also add that it wasn't unusual for the game to find characters with OOC-inspirations, though I think this one was less distracting than others, since as you said this was what led you to the actual philosophers.

[Alladinsane]

I just thought that I should mention that R.A. Salvatore has been writing for a while now (his first novel was 1988). I have only read one of his books and not even the whole thing (long story why I didn't finish) but I was quite impressed with his ability to capture the internal thoughts of some albino Drow elf iirc. I even want to say that his name was 'Dante' which reminds me of a character IG.

The 'hack' has sold over 10mil books in the last 22+ yrs, I guess they are mostly dealing with Dungeons and Dragons adaptations. This is neither to endorse him or condemn him, just to inform.
-=-=-=-=-=
I do not know if his references to the Duorden (sp?) came from him or if he is a player of our fine game. Its just interesting trivia of clarification.

[mojomuppet]

I just thought that I should mention that R.A. Salvatore has been writing for a while now (his first novel was 1988). I have only read one of his books and not even the whole thing (long story why I didn't finish) but I was quite impressed with his ability to capture the internal thoughts of some albino Drow elf iirc. I even want to say that his name was 'Dante' which reminds me of a character IG.

The 'hack' has sold over 10mil books in the last 22+ yrs, I guess they are mostly dealing with Dungeons and Dragons adaptations. This is neither to endorse him or condemn him, just to inform.
-=-=-=-=-=
I do not know if his references to the Duorden (sp?) came from him or if he is a player of our fine game. Its just interesting trivia of clarification.

I saw this post on its way as soon as I read the first one.

I had a similar encounter with the name Saladin the other day, my eyes almost bugged out until I googled it to see it was the name of some man I slept through leaning about in history class. After I tried to read about him I understood why...and amazingly the char does just about the same for me. Zzzzzz! Did you leave your glory in your other pants dude?

[Alladinsane]

Saladin...Wasn't he the persian(?) general who fought against the crusaders?

[mojomuppet]

Saladin...Wasn't he the persian(?) general who fought against the crusaders?

The wiki on him is like trying to read... I cant even explain it, just bad.

[Joshuamonkey]

I decided to see how you could find Cantr on Google indirectly. Searching for crossbow "iron shield" potato brings up a link to the Webzine at the end of the third results page.
Searching for "medium wooden shaft" brings up Cantr as the first result. In fact there were only two results that weren't Cantr.
Searching for raker galleon brought up Cantr as the second result.
Searching for "man in his twenties" brought up Cantr on the third page because of this:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/general-introductions/10703-you-see-man-his-twenties-attack-ice-using-his-fist.html
Searching for "you see a man in his twenties" brings up Cantr right away.
Searching for "you novicely" brings up Cantr as the second result.
I didn't find Cantr by searching for "you expertly hit", but "you expertly stab" brought up my old post as the first result.

[Chris]

I haven't read R.A. Salvatore, but he must be pretty amazing to find out about the DoUrden in Cantr and take a time machine back to 1988 to write a character named Drizzt Do'Urden.