One other thing that might play into things- Montreal may be steeped in traditionalism, but the music scene there is tremendously vibrant- it's home to the largest jazz festival in the world, for one thing (the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal), and is the hometown of Jazz legend Oscar Peterson. Most of the group Simple Plan apparently hails from there too (whether this is a plus or a minus depends on perspective, I guess...), and there are a surprising number of actors and whatnot hailing from the area- it's got a very strong creative community, I guess is what I'm saying.
Some brief Montreal notes that might help-
Hockey is somewhere on the borderline between being Canada's national sport (well, national winter sport- summer sport is lacrosse, which is even
more violent) and our national religion, and almost nowhere more so than Montreal.
If any of your PCs make the mistake of wearing a hockey jersey for the wrong team (i.e. any team except the Montreal Canadiens, the town's beloved 'Habs'), they run a rather stronger risk than an American would expect of being dragged into an alley and having the crap beaten out of them, especially during playoff season... and
especially if they're dumb enough to wear a Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, or Ottawa Senators jersey, the hated traditional enemies of the Habs).
We Canucks, as a general rule, are not given to violence... except on hockey night. Apparently it's our biggest outlet for repressed aggression
That being said, at one of my old jobs, they referred to freaking out and attempting to beat whatever you were trying to repair to death with the heaviest tool available as 'going French-Canadian on it'. The French are a passionate people, and French-Canadians are no exception
That being said, the 'cheese-eating surrender monkey' stereotype... doesn't... really work here in the Great White North. A French-Canadian is rather more likely to rip the white cloth off and attempt to bean you with the pole than to surrender if you try giving them a white flag.
If you play a game that shuttles back and forth between Boston and Montreal ('close' is relative here- it's still a ~5 hour drive- could be fun if the group has a full-on White Court wizard... 'what do you mean, the car broke down
again?'), the Francophones of Montreal will be far more willing to (try to) speak English to them if they clarify that the PCs are American- if they think that they're from Ontario, they'll get French or nothing (or maybe some verbal abuse...). Also, native Francophones tend to speak very very fast, no matter what language they're speaking.
Aaaand as one final note, the Candian opinion of American beer is rather low. 'Water' being the more polite end of the spectrum, and 'watered-down horse piss' being the... less polite end. At the very least, if the PCs wander into a Montreal bar and try to order a Bud Light, they're likely to get some mockery. And possibly free beer, if any of the other patrons are in a good enough mood, since they'll want to demonstrate what 'real beer' tastes like... which in turn could possibly lead to a (largely good-natured) bar brawl over which brewery makes better beer. Followed by more free beer as both (or more...) sides attempt to sway the PCs to their side of the 'conflict'
Granted, all that's not
terribly likely in modern Montreal... but I'm not sure there's anywhere in the world that I'd be less surprised at it happening.
(Disclaimer: while I am Canadian, the closest I've been to Montreal was a brief stay in Toronto years ago. If you need firsthand info on Vancouver or Edmonton, I can probably help. Montreal not so much- this is all based on limited interaction with French-Canadians and reading
)
Originally Posted by TeChameleon
One other thing that might play into things- Montreal may be steeped in traditionalism, but the music scene there is tremendously vibrant- it's home to the largest jazz festival in the world, for one thing (the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal), and is the hometown of Jazz legend Oscar Peterson. Most of the group Simple Plan apparently hails from there too (whether this is a plus or a minus depends on perspective, I guess...), and there are a surprising number of actors and whatnot hailing from the area- it's got a very strong creative community, I guess is what I'm saying.
Re: Dresden Files Game
Check Out
Reply With Quote