Sean Nittner

As promised in the last post, here’s our review of all the Christmas Markets we visited in Paris, Strasbourg, and Berlin. Most of them were intentional destinations, but a few we found on accident. Bonus!

A bunch of pictures (from various markets) at the end)

Paris

We had lots of Markets on our list and made it to most of them. Sometimes more than one in a day!!

Abbesses

• Surprise market 4/5 – is this a market?
• Foot long “American hotdog sandwich” with onions 4/5 – tasty!
• Giant pot of scalloped potatoes 5/5 – enticing
• Size 2/5 – petit
• Metro station “in the market” 5/5

St Germaine

• Hard to find even though right next to a metro station 2/5
• Located on the sidewalk, very crowded 3/5
• First titanic nougat sighting 5/5
• Rings worth trying on 3/5

Jardin de Tuileries 

• Size 7/5 – so big 
• Rides 5/5 – you could get in a bubble and there was a slide and the biggest Ferris wheel ever
• Singing Reindeer Heads 5/5 for three part harmony
• Elevated floor so we didn’t walk in the mud 4/5
• Fire safety 1/5 – impossible to escape. Three exits in the whole thing. 
• Fun house 2/5 – no adults allowed
• Market variety 2/5 – same as everyone. More cashmere scarves. 

City Hall

• Atmosphere 5/5 – very pretty. Cute Christmas displays. 
• Unconventional Christmas animals – 4/5 Christmas dung beetle
• Cute carousel 5/5 – double decker, very cute. 
• Hot wine (vin chaud) – 5/5 tasty and didn’t reek of alcohol 
• Random stranger who liked San Diego more than LA and her cute dog Tresor (Treasure) 5/5. 
• Lights, decorations, and room to move around 5/5

St Michel

• Also surprise, delightful 5/5
• Ginormous nougat 5/5 – still a mystery
• Bitchin fountain 4/5 – needed lighting
• Shopping 5/5 – breadstick pens. 

Feeries d’Auteuil

• Shoppable 4/5 – found gifts!
• Handmade and second hand goodies 5/5
• Chocolat Chaud 3/5 – serviceable 
• Location 3/5 off the path, wrong side of the river
• Church vibes 2/5 didn’t need em
• Arts and Crafts 3.5/5 – hand made mosaics 

Paris markets overall

• public transportation 3/5 – Metro was great but buying tickets was infuriating. We tried MULTIPLE times!
• Taxi drivers 5/5 – Antoni was amazing. Did a 25 min drive in 15 without breaking a sweat AND told us about Paris monument along the way!
• Eiffel Tower 4/5 – views were great. There was champagne AND a bathroom at the top. But the line ride was horrible. 
• Cult of Angelina 5/5 – Sean’s new religion. Best hot chocolate on the planet. 
• Christmas markets overall 3/5 – a little underwhelming and most of the vendors had the same items. 

Strasbourg

Probably the most famous Christmas Markets in the world. That and my sister moved there a year ago, so of course we had to go!

Off Market

• About what we expected from Paris. Paris 4, Strasbourg 2. 

Place Kléber 

• Big tree 5/5
• Carrousel only kids could ride 1/5
• Vin Chaud Blanc very tasty 4/5
• Bretzel beignet actually just a pretzel with chocolate – 2/5 tricksy
• Souvenir cups 5/5 (just the ones we wanted(

Cathedral Markets 

• Short King and Old Man Nutcrackers 5/5 – picked them both up!
• Souvenir cups 2/5 (not the ones we wanted)
• Oppressive church bells 0/5 – they went on so long and they were so loud. 

Place Benjamin Zix

• Cute 4/5
• By the River 4/5

Advent Village in Petite France

• Respect for Advent calendar display 3/5 (broken doors!)
• On a little island and very cute 5/5
• Cute game of tossing things between islands but you couldn’t actually play it 2/5
• Location 5/5 – inception of Frances (Petite France inside Petite France inside…)

Place Broglie

• Light show with explanation in English 5/5 – educational
• Long orderly row (except at the very end) 4/5
• Actual Santa taking pics with kids 5/5
• Tree forest 4/5

All the others we didn’t even realize they were separate markets because the blurred together 

• Location 5/5 – continuous Christmas

Terrasse Rohan

• Quaint 3/5
• Accidental market 4/5
• Decor 3.5/5 cool hanging gingerbread men

Marche-Aux Poissons

• Big tree 4/5 – but not the biggest!

Place de Temple Neuf

• Cute surprise market 5 out of High Fives all around
• Not too crowded 3/5
• Location 4/5 – nice corner of the city 

Strasbourg markets overall

• Year round Christmas shops 4/5
• Variety of market goods (not all the same stuff like Paris) 5/5
• Alsatian Museum 1/5 spoons (only one spoon)
• Surprise taxi lane 1/5 – why is this car driving on a walking path?
• Stuffed bears all over 4/5 – cute but a little weird 
• Christmas Markets 5/5 – they were great and they were everywhere! You couldn’t miss them!

Berlin

The final leg of our trip and a chance to catch up with friends we haven’t seen in years. Berlin was wonderful. Here’s the run down!

Gendarmenmarkt

• Entry fee 1/5 euros – first time we were charged but a very quick queue
• Hot wine 5/5 – new Christmas mugs
• Crowds 2/5 – packed like Strasbourg 
• Ornament game 4/5 – Adorable
• Hard pretzel 3/5 – it was fiiiiine
• Gendarmerie close by 5/5 – so good 

Alexanderplatz

• Giant Christmas “pyramid” 5/5 – we have one of those at home with candles!
• Bratwurst 5/5 – first in Germany, did not disappoint!
• Weird ass Christmas tunes 1/5 – is it trying to be K-pop?
• World clock 5/5 – on time, we assume. 

City Weihnachtsmarkt

• Square pyramid trees 5/5 – pointy!
• Ornament photo opp 5/5 – adorable!
• Big ass tree 4/5 – not as big as Strasbourg 
• Cathedral 5/5 – Bonus history lesson. Educational!
• Sean as sparkly Santa 5/5

Potsdamer platz 

• Big ass slide 5/5
• Karen and Sean sliding together like the most adorable people on the planet 10/5

St Lucia (or Kollwitzkiez)

• Ye olde 5/5 
• Big moose head 5/5
• Glughwein with amertto 5/5 – tasty and best ceramic mugs 
• Yurt 4/5 – it’s a yurt!
• Kaiserschmarrn 5/5 – had apple sauce and filled me with nostalgia 
• Vibes 4/5
• Very dark 3/5

Historische Weihnacht

• Kind of hard to find 2/5 – is this a trick?
• Vibes 3/5 -much better at night
• Axe throwing 6/7 – Sean had good luck. Bear’s eye!
• Axe throwing 1/7 – those axes are cold, badly weighted, and not sharp. Rigged!
• Fire pits 1/5 – only one and it was surrounded by locals the whole time. 
• Glogg 5/5 – Achievement unlocked. 
• Cutest little Ferris Wheel 4/5 – no adult allowed
• Fire dancing at 5pm – 4/5 very fun but all the jokes were in German and we couldn’t understand them. Sounded funny though!
• Bratwurst 4/5 – solid sausage. Difficult mustard and ketchup dispenser (big pot with a wooden spoon)

Weinknachtsmarks von dem Schloss Charlottenburg 

• Bonus market 5/5 – came for the palace and got a Christmas market too!
• Viewing platform 5/5
• Credit card acceptance 1/5 – no gluhwein for us 
• ATM usability 0/5 – did not work 
• Live bands (plural) 5/5 – they were nice
• Ornament game 3/5 – not much else to buy. 
• Indoor stalls 4/5 – warm but crowded
• Place light show 4/5 – it was cute 

Berliner Weihnachtszeit Rotes Rathaus

• Ferris Wheel 5/5 – it was good. Private car for smooches. 
• Gluhwein with amaretto 5/5 – very tasty and warm!
• Tree bread? 6/5 – so good. Heaven!
• Nukspezialitäten (candied almonds) 4/5 – they were fine. Just a little warm 
• Maroni (roasted chestnuts) 2/5 – overrated. Even the vendor didn’t seem to like them. He tried to encourage us to buy less. 
• Santa on a flying sleigh – 5/5 – a real Santa up there!!
• Ice Skating 4/5 – looked but our feet were too cold already and the lines were long. Some concern about the trash bins on the ice. 
• Dope snow globes 5/5 – candlestick, TV, and ornaments!

Berlin overall

• Space to walk 4/5 – nice to have room to walk
• Haunted playground 5/5 – a witch definitely lives here. The ice on all the playground surfaces was a bonus!
• View from the TV tower 5/5 – you could see so far!!! 
• TV tower restaurant 4/5 – Yummy cake but it was too spinny!
• Museum Island 5/5 – finally museums in their natural habitat. Our pass was only supposed to work for one museum but (as promised by our first ticket desk agent) nobody checked!
• Berlin 5/5 – great markets with a ton of variation (competing glogg, axe throwing, ice skating, Christmas pyramids, slides, ornament picture ops)

Pics or it didn’t happen!

Pics in some random WordPress upload order!

Videos of some particular good spots

The Alsatian Christmas story featuring Hans Trapp), Christkindel, and St. Lucia (who is both Jesus and a teenage girl who sets things on fire).

Schlager, pop Christmas songs in Berlin. Everyone was cringing but I was bouncing to it!

The creation of Kaiserschmarrn, a treat my dad used to make at Christmas (which I do now as well). I’ve never had any that wasn’t made by a Nittner before!

Fire Dancing at Historische Weihnacht (part 1)

Fire Dancing at Historische Weihnacht (part 2)

We are traveling home from our July 2020 European vacation…that we finally made in Winter 2022! Our plan was to visit Paris, Strasbourg, and Berlin, to visit Christmas Markets (see next post), to visit museums, to relax, and (for me) to drink hot chocolate everywhere I went.

Just before leaving I asked Sophie Lagacé if she would get on a call with me to help me pronounce two very important phrases: chocolat chaud and pain au chocolat. Thankfully she prepared me well!

Paris

I intentionally didn’t do much research on where to find the best chocolat chaud I could, I just wanted to try it wherever we went, so while some of these places are exceptional, most are just the places we happened to be. Here goes the rating, based on the official S&K Review Metrics^TM.

Pictures included when I remembered to take them!

Boulangerie Léonie 

• First hot chocolate ordered in French. 3/5 – very bad pronunciation but i did it!
• Obligatory croissant 4/5 – nom nom nom
• Checkout process 2/5 – had to wait while others completed their orders for “reasons”
• “Surprise door” 3/5 – backed up the line and confused other people. 
• Delicious hot chocolate 5/5 – perfect for dipping my croissant. 

Lieu de Pâtisserie

• Open late 5/5
• Super friendly 5/5
• Chocolate eclair 5/5 – bonus
• Only “cafe” after passing five other “cafes” 5/5
• Yummy hot chocolate 3.5/5

Angelina (hot chocolate stand)

• 1000/5 unparalleled hot chocolate. A full meal in a cup. One sip is enough to fill a man’s stomach for three days and teach his soul enlightenment in a moment.

Angelina (eating inside)

• Line ride 2/5 – pretty slow
• Service 10/5 – Constance loved us and she is my hero. She’s the best. 
• Almost too much of a good thing 4/5 – we were so full we couldn’t finish our croissants. 
• Bomb ass eggs Benny – 5/5. 
• Brunch should come with a warning and a free t-shirt if you finish it all (we didn’t) 4/5 – damn it was good, it it was dangerous. 
• Hazelnut crepe that put Nutella to shame 5/5
• Height of luxury 5/5
• Life changing hot chocolate that sparked a conversation with Constance 1000/5. 

Dunkerque

• Only place open when it said it would be open 5/5
• Very cute location, pitcher, and coasters 5/5 – Sean took lots of pictures 
• Yummy hot chocolate I ordered in French and didn’t totally fumble 4/5
• Soft boiled eggs with “soldiers” 5/5 – toasted breadsticks to dip in your egg. Amazing!!

Angelina (in Versailles)

• Vibes 3/5
• Finally got an advent calendar 5/5
• Angelina’s Hot Chocolate 5/5 – am I spoiled now?

Maha’s chocolatier stand at a Christmas market

• Slice of cake do only .5 eu more 5/5
• Tasty hot chocolate 3.5/5 

Du Pain et des Idees 

• Great pudding 5/5
• Unremarkable chocolat 3/5

Strasbourg

I loved a LOT about Strasbourg. The Christmas everywhere vibe, the markets, the rivers, Petite France, seeing my sister, brother-in-law, and niece, and how easy it was to find everything and get everywhere (easiest metro to use of the three cities we were in). One thing I didn’t love however, was the hot chocolate. Most of it was made from instant machines (which I usually only found out after I ordered it) and you know, tasted like Swiss Miss. *sad trombone noise*

Au Petit Artisan

• Instant from a machine 1/5
• Small but cute 3/5 – petit
• Friendly service 4/5 – managed to get by with our limited French. 
• Location 5/5 – right around the corner from our apartment.

Art Cafe in the Museum of Modern Art

• hidden location 5/5 – very secret. Almost had to pay museum entrance to get in. Hidden stairs! Don’t use the chute!
• Language barrier 0/5 – no fucks given 
• Surprise blueberry tart 4/5 – for not knowing what I ordered, I was very pleased!
• Actual hot cocoa 1/5 – more instant stuff 🙁

Cafe Bretelles

• No room in the inn 1/5
• Auto switching to English 4/5 – very friendly server 
• Couldn’t practice our French 2/5 (“what?” and a confused look when I said choclat chaud)
• Actual hot coco 1/5 – instant again I’m pretty sure. 

Le Quai 67

• Cute heart in foam 5/5
• Friendly server 5/5 – Clocked us as Americans (or at the very least English speakers) the moment we walked in the door, but was super friendly. Wished we could have gone back but we discovered this place too late!
• Chocolate with extra chocolate on the side 5/5 – Brownie was dense and delicious.
• Hot cocoa 4/5 – Hand made for the first time not instant powder!

Berlin

All the instant powder mixes I had in Strasbourg left me a little lackluster, but we persevered in Berlin and I’m glad we did!

44 Brekke

• Cute cream hearts 5/5
• Not instant hot chocolate 5/5
• With Yvonne and Dave 5/5 – Frands!
• Tasty 3/5
• Egg drop as well 5/5 – best egg sandwich I can remember!

Einstein Kaffee

• Legendary food court 5/5 – they had table service!
• Tall glass instead of mug 3/5
• Pretty yummy 4/5

Mondrean Hotel Breakfast Buffet 

• No toes had to be frozen in search of this hot cocoa 5/5
• Instant 1/5
• Cool machine 3/5

CU29

• WTF Kitty Robot ??? 5/5 – adorable..for now. 
• Whipped cream game 5/5 – there was a lot, it was tasty, and had chocolate sprinkles. 
• Hot chocolate itself 3/5 – good, not instant. Not too sweet. 
• Mikael 5/5 – very friendly server, told us the story of his future kitty robot overlord. 

Coffee Brothers

• Accidental Frankfurt airport re-routing 1/5
• But they hot chocolate wasn’t instant 5/5
• Hot chocolate overall 3/5 – not bad

And that’s it. We’re flying home now… with a giant tin of Angelina’s chocolat chaud in our bags!!!

I was in a crowded restaurant where I didn’t speak the language and I was having a hard time getting the server’s attention. It seemed like the place was full of regulars who were very comfortable. They were laughing and joking and seemed at ease. Meanwhile I was trying to be polite, but also very much needed to get the bill, pay the bill, and get out to catch a train. I didn’t want too aggressive, but I wanted to be noticed, which got me thinking about a Risky Standard challenges.

The Leaky Bucket

The crew of scoundrels enters the half subterranean tavern festooned with the titular buckets to catch the drips coming from the ceiling and the place is filled with a mix of Lampblacks, Crows, and a few locals invariably intertwined with one or both gang. Bazso Baz sits at a table in the back, surrounded by his lieutenants, who form a wall of conversation. Nobody is paying attention to you, and when they do give you a look it’s a sneer indicating you don’t belong here. One wrong move here will get you kicked out of the bar, beaten up, or worse. How will you get his attention?

Factors that influence position or effect:

• Do you know anyone here? (Could improve position if you do, might reduce effect if you don’t)
• Are you affiliated with the Red Sashes (Desperate situation right off the bat).

Possible consequences:

• Gaining Picket, Bazso, or another patron as an enemy.
• Kicked out (lost opportunity).
• Level 1 Harm (Beaten up).

Tons of other factors can go into this, but I think “how do I fit into a place that isn’t welcoming to me” is a good one to ask when navigating unfamiliar factions.

Content warning: ghosts, death, and the insinuation of gruesome violence.

I don’t have the book on me, but from what I remember, the experience of being in the presence of ghosts in Blades in the Dark is a combination of electrical currents (lights lighter, electric sparks, etc) and cold (hairs stand on end, shivers, windows frost over, etc).

The effect causes fear and your choice as a player is to freeze in place or run away. With a resistance roll you can instead choose to act on your own accord. However, as a GM I’ve notice the impact of saying “you feel a sudden chill wash over you” does diminish after a while. So I’ve been thinking about ghosts and what they carry with them…the memories of their death! I think experiencing them might cause the same fear as the physiological reactions we’re used to describing.

Next time my players encounter a ghost, here’s something I’m going to try:

Memories

• You remember standing at the top of a narrow stairway leading down into a dimly lit basement full of rusted and weathered carpentry tools. You know you must descend, and you equally know that one of the stairs will break under your weight.
• You have a memory of a man with a silver broach in the shape of a cross. His look is cold and calculating, sizing you up as though judging the weight of your bones once taken from your body. He holds a knife in his hand…not it’s smaller, thinner… a razor, dripping with your blood.
• The steamship Medon slowly plods across the wine dark void sea. The waters are so still you can make out your reflection in them. Two dark eyes, the color lost in the sea, a hawk nose, and thin lips covering pointed teeth…so many…more than you could possibly have. Something is rising from beneath and your image fades as the water parts, torn open by jagged teeth…
• You hear the pounding of a Bluecoats bludgeon on the weatherworn and rotted door to your families home. Your father stands int front of you with a ball pein hammer in his hand. He’s going to be the first one to die.

These are just some ideas. If you know how a ghost died in your own game, maybe that’s something you want to share with your players. As a matter of safety and consent I think it’s important to judge how long these descriptions are. I’m inclined to give a short description as that both leaves things to the players imagination and minimized the time when they are unable to say “nooooooope, I’m going to resist that shit” if they aren’t feeling it.

What are your favorite ways to introduce ghosts (or other scary supernatural entities) in your game?

I couldn’t sleep last night. I woke up from a nightmare at 4am and laid in bed thinking till six when I finally gave up surrendered to the day beginning. The upshot? A 4-part clock to share for all you Aliens fans who are thinking about playing a game of Aliens Forged in the Dark.

Content warning: All the scary stuff that wakes me up from nightmares including the horror elements of the Aliens franchise (facehuggers, chest busters, etc).

First, a thought on clocks.

One thing I think gets overlooked when progressing a clock is the narrative impact of each tick. Sure, sometimes it’s enough to just say the guards are getting “more” suspicious until the finally sound the alarm when the Alert clock is full, but I’d much rather see that suspicion grow. Metal Gear Solid comes to mind. We start with “what was that noise?”, then a guard starts wandering in your direction, etc. It’s something we can see on screen and changes the situation. Stras Acimovic is the king of making each clock tick feel like it has very real consequence. A change of plans, collateral damage, a barbed insult that will make a forever enemy. Each tick is something real!

So, facehuggers, eh?

On that note, I had some thoughts about what it might look like if you encountered a facehugger and we started a clock to see if it implanted an egg. Here’s what I imagine a 4-tick clock might look like (thanks to Karen Twelves for talking to me about this at 6am and helping with the 3rd tick!).

1. Grapple and tackle. The Facehugger grabs a hold of you and depending on circumstances, knocks you down or otherwise has you grappled. At this point, removal is possible and must be done immediately. Most attempts to remove are risky if someone else is helping, desperate if you’re on your own. If removal isn’t complete very soon, add another tick.
2. Cynose-based paralytic poison administered which renders the new host (that’s you) unconscious and immobile. As a GM I’d likely describe the sting of the injection and a numbness overtaking the extremities. At this point removal is harder, any action from the poisoned victim is likely reduced effect (maybe down to zero effect if you’re alone, grappled, and poisoned, requiring a push just to make something happen, I know, scary).
3. Tail strangulation. This isn’t exactly the order it always happens in the movies, and frankly you can swap ticks two and three if you want. They are both terrifying! The tail wraps around your neck and now removal is extremely dangerous and possibly fatal. Cutting it causes the acid blood to spray and the grip is so tight it can easily break your neck before being wrenched off. I’d likely say any direct method of removal would be desperate no matter who is doing it and effect is still reduced. Level 3 harm (acid burns) or Level 4 harm (broken neck) are both on the table as complications depending on the means applied to remove it.
4. The ovipositor is inserted and a xenomorph embryo is implanted. The facehugger will remain inert for some time (ranging from a few minutes to a few hours before it falls off and dies, but the damage is done, and you’re now the carrier for an alien chestburster. Maybe you’ve got incredibly advanced medical facilities on hand, some kind of hive mind alien control to stop it? No, that’s okay, it’s quick to make new characters in this game.

Those are each terrible consequences Sean, why would you do all that for a clock tick?

It’s true, those are all awful and could be complete standalone consequences (often severe consequences) of their own…and I think that is fair game. They are both consequences with mechanical and fictional implications and they leading towards an even worse fate then the clock is full.

I certainly don’t think all clocks should be so dire, but I am a fan of making each tick feel real and concrete rather than an abstract “things are getting worse” meter we ignore until it fills.

Anywho, thanks for coming along this stuff-of-nightmares ride with me. I don’t suggest you actually use a clock like this (well, unless you’re playing an Aliens hack of Blades) but hopefully it offered some inspiration for the net time you start a 4-tick Alert clock and wonder what each tick could mean!