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

[Kevin Mowery]

Kevin "Professor Bobo" Mowery _____________________ profbobo at io.com
"The entire dismemberment of Vash Gar reveals an ignorance of anatomy so 
deep that I begin to question whether the author does, indeed, have a
body."
                       --ratmm's Norb on the "Seven Stars MSTing"
     **See the "Seven Stars MSTing" at http://www.io.com/~profbobo **
                           

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> From: Gregory Paul Stolze <holycrow at mindspring.com>
> To: UA at purpletape.cs.uchicago.edu
> Subject: [UA] What You Want, Baby I Got It (long)
> Date: Friday, February 12, 1999 1:20 PM
> 
> The clear big winner is "Grand Secrets" -- the book that would, of
course,
> be hardest to write and about which the least was said.  Let me clarify:
I
> envision "Grand Secrets" to be a book of stuff that LOOKS supernatural
but
> ISN'T.  If you thought it was a grab bag of fiddly occult stuff, that's
> "Postmodern Magick," which is somewhere in the mill right now.  

	Personally, I like the idea of a book of adventures that are just wierd,
but mundane, stuff.  It's good to keep people on their toes.  And I think
the reason so many people voted for it is *because* it would be the hardest
to write.  Apparently we're all sitting down and coming up with our own
magickal schools and archetypes and such.  But the Mothman?  How the heck
does that fit into UA?

> There were also several people who liked the idea of a single, big city
> book, with split opinions about fictional cities vs. real cities.  I'll
> throw my hat into the ring on this issue: I prefer real cities to
fictional
> because of the historic grounding of UA.  Everyone knows where the Statue
> of Liberty is.  BUT... how about this for a compromise?  A single book
> split into two sections.  The first section is generic city stuff -
> settings, ideas and individuals who can be stuck anywhere.  The second
half
> would be SPECIFIC city stuff - chapters on Seattle, Chicago, New York,
> London, L.A., San Francisco, D.C. or whatever - giving the local history,
> the local cabals and the local STUFF.  If you set your game in Chicago,
you
> can use the specific stuff and all the generic stuff.  If you set your
game
> in a fictional burg, you can still use the generic stuff while saving the
> specific stuff for use if your characters ever decide to beard the NG
cult
> in its den or go get some cliomancy charges off the Washington Monument.

	I think this is a great idea.  So one book, many cities, lots of generic
stuff?  I'd certainly buy that.  (Heck, even putting two or three
thematically-linked cities into one book with some generic stuff would be
good, and you could publish more than one book.)  I'd also like to see
stuff on cities that aren't generally thought of as prime places for
adventure.  Sure, everyone wants to set their games in New York, Chicago,
and Los Angeles.  What about Minneapolis-St. Paul or Orlando (tell me that
Disneyworld's not as creepy as anything in UA)?

> 
> -G.
> 
> 
> 1899 Phrenologist: Your son has the sloping forehead of a sexual deviant:
> better put him in an asylum.
> 1999 Gene Therapist: Your fetus has the "date rape" gene.  Better abort.