[UA] What You Want, Baby I Got It (long)

[Markleford Friedman]

Gregory Paul Stolze writes:
> The clear big winner is "Grand Secrets" -- the book that would,
> of course, be hardest to write and about which the least was said.

One thing about GS that you might want to watch for: if players see
the GM pull out "Grand Secrets", they're going to immediately sense a
"scooby" even if they haven't looked past the back cover blurb.

Yeah, it's meta-gaming, but it happens...

On the other hand, would anyone be against throwing red herring
scenarios in with the other "One Shots" material just to mix it up?

> There were also several people who liked the idea of a single, big city
> book, with split opinions about fictional cities vs. real cities. [...]
> BUT... how about this for a compromise?  A single book
> split into two sections. [...]

Excellent idea; best of both worlds.  I'd buy it!

I was talking to a friend about the citybook issue.  His wishlist
includes (different offset for his words)...

- 1.  Generic locations, with maps, that PC's can frequent or use.  
- (example, in the Noir RPG, they even go so far as to define the
- campaign location as "The City" without making any geographical
- benchmark.  It resembles the movie "Dark City" that way.  Another
- example is the exemplary Sprawl Sites sourcebook for Shadowrun, that
- just featured generic near-future buildings and location.  I use that
- for everything).
-
- 2.  Short, even one-page adventure ideas.  Keep it loose and short, to
- allow for the greatest range of use between diverse groups.
-
- 3.  A section in which the playtesting GM's for the game reveal what
- they found to be the most successful and least successful campaign ideas
- they had.  Loopholes, clever plots, "group concept" ideas, etc...  Just
- to get the creative juices flowing.

I suppose my preferences echo these, as well.

Take it as you will...

- m