cinematic v. horrific, or what i did on my summer vacation

[Bryant Durrell]

On Thu, Feb 25, 1999 at 10:32:23AM -0800, sp!ke wrote:
> >Of course, Mage is a bit more cinematic than horrific... but there's
> >some horror in there.
> 
> question:
> 
> what's up with all these buzz-words floating around game-geekland?  what's
> the difference between horrific and cinematic (i think i know...but just
> wonder what everyone else thinks)?  i think that UA definitely falls closer
> to the cinematic side, having more in common with a game like feng shui
> than with kult.

Interesting question, really.  I think horror can be cinematic.  I 
think cinematic is currently used in gaming to mean... pulpish action.
Having your PC jump off the cliff with the cool certainty that the GM
will reward your boldness by providing a helicopter.  But there's more
to cinema than that.

> people.  it's about people.  people in love, in hate, in conflict...buttin'
> heads, kickin' ass and takin' the money.  it's pulp fiction...stories about
> interesting/funny/violent/strange people with fucked-up jobs (can i say
> jobs?).  or not...'cause don't forget about the suitcase (it was a
> lightbulb, btw...).  magick -- power -- is the mcguffin...people who have
> it wanna keep it and/or get more of it.  people who don't have it wanna
> destroy it or get some of their own.  remove all the hocus-pocus and ua
> still kicks ass.  elmore leonard crossed with evil dead.  word.

Yeah.  UA is not the be-all and end-all of occult games (that's Nephilim.
hey, don't hurt me.)  Not to critique -- everyone should do what they
want with their own games -- but I can't see using UA unless you're going
to go for the dirty low down aesthetic.  The game is based on a pomo
concept; old school stuff is deliberately cut out.

Well, hm, that's not quite true.  There's part of me that would like to
see a historical UA sourcebook -- Unknown Armies:  Georgian, or something
like that.  Lace and steel and magick.

-- 
  Bryant Durrell [] durrell at innocence.com [] http://www.innocence.com/~durrell
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      "Men and women, women and men.  It will never work."  -- Erica Jong