In reply to helbent4 (msg # 131):
First off, happy holiday season!
Second, RIP to my father-in-law, Allan Patenaude. Al died last month at 70 from complications of liver failure (caused by medication for a heart condition). He is the OOC real-life inspiration for this game's IC intelligence chief, Alain Belanger. The real Al Patenaude joined the CF and was a Van Doo (Royal 22e Régiment) and then a commando in the Airborne in the late 60's and early 70's. He left the army due to a leg injury sustained from abseiling from a helicopter. After, he married and dragged his young family up North to Nunavut (then Alert Bay) NWT. (If anyone is familiar with "Ice Road Truckers", that is where the Ice Road terminates.) There my wife Michelle as a young child named his dog, a wolf-husky cross and lead sled dog, "Muffin". In his 30's he attended Simon Fraser University here in BC and earned a doctorate in Criminology. He became a professor and head of department at the University of Regina and then the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago. (Before then he also taught in Little Rock, AR and Salt Lake City UT.) He was even a gamer as well, having joined SFU's game club and played some D&D while there. Every once in a while I'd pick his brains about the military, or criminology, for gaming.
My favourite story about him was how he literally (not just figuratively) interrogated me on his first visit to see me. (He was teaching in the US and had returned to renew his work visa.) Mish had told me he was in the Van Doos (which is a very well-regarded regiment in and of itself) but it was when she mentioned he had also "jumped out of perfectly good airplanes for a living" and I started asking more probing questions I realised he'd also been in the Airborne, Canada's Special Operations unit of the time. Anyways, his method was not to waterboard me. And being fair, he warned me ahead of time he would do this by mentioning in a phone call the best way to interrogate someone was to say nothing. Let them do the talking. Sure enough on that weekend he didn't exactly give me the silent treatment but he sat back and let me fill the awkward silence with talk. After, I thought he hated me. Michelle said, no, he really did like me. If he didn't I would know. After all, this is a guy who didn't like a boyfriend of hers named Richard and called him "Dick" to his face. It wasn't until I remembered his prior comment I realised what he was (or might have been) really up to.
https://leaderpost.remembering...patenaude-1089037390
His NPC counter-part in this game was the HOD for Criminology at UBC, Alain Belanger. (Belanger being a common French-Canadian name and "Alain" being Al's birth name.) This NPC was also a CF veteran (Van Doos and Airborne). During and after the war he took over uni security as the "Provost" organising the Militia (in addition to the RCMP detachment) and building up an intelligence network in the city, which the government has been making good use of in its pacification efforts.
Anyways, I'll have an IC post up soon!
Tony
