[UA] Demourgy: GM comments

[Bryant Durrell]

On Mon, Apr 03, 2000 at 04:48:47PM -0400, Peter Hindman wrote:
>    OK, as promised (if not requested), my own comments on this school,
> plus notes on the eeeeeevil distortions I've wrought upon it.  I should
> say up front that a lot of what I've done is strongly reminiscent of
> Cryptomancy.  Bryant Durrell can testify that I'd already worked out most
> of it months before PoMoMa came out, however.

I testify.  The correspondences are interesting; there's clearly room
for both.

>    The Southern Demourgist school didn't re-appear until late in the
> Renaissance; at this time, it was strongly involved with early Masonic
> groups (which gives some support to the idea that its ties to the original
> were mostly mythical).

I'm keeping this around cause I wanna say more about it in a bit.

>    There are two very important things to note here:
> 
>    1:  Democracy is a system of direct rule by the citizenry.  The idea
> that the citizenry should constitite all adults is fairly recent; it was
> usually restricted to 'all adult male landowners', 'all adult males of a
> certain nation', or a similar variant.
> 
>    2:  The Athenians kept slaves.
> 
>    American Demourgists were among the most enthusiastic proponents of the
> plantation system.  Later, they became firebrand propagandists for the
> notion of state's rights.

These two points are my favorite part of the school, I note.

> >      The People, the mass of humanity, voting and non, that
> > make up a community.
> >      Will of the People, as expressed by legitimate and fair
> > elections.  The Demourgist may ignore the dictates of imperfect
> > democracy in their plans (and for their Taboo).
> 
>    Sean's writeup is from a European Demourgist perspective.  The American
> school has drifted in a different direction, and is more focused on
> preserving, developing, and focussing the _identity_ of a given polis,
> which can be more narrowly defined.

This seems to me to fit in nicely with the Masonic influences on the old
Southern School; a citizenry of the elite certainly does.  It's a short
step from developing to defining.  See also Rousseau's question about
free will -- do we preserve the will of the people better by giving them
what they want, or what they /think/ they want?

Was Starship Troopers a Demourgist manuscript?

> >      Stats
> >      Generate a Minor Charge: Contribute to building or
> > maintaining democracy in a small way.  Distribute pamphlets,
> > vote in an election, collect signatures, discuss politics at length,
> > inspire others to run for office, get fairly elected to a local
> > political or union post.
> >      Generate a Significant Charge: Make a major contribution
> > to democracy.  Start a mass movement to support democracy,
> > form a union, successful spearhead revision of laws to improve
> > voter access, get fairly elected to a state or national post in
> > government.
> >      Generate a Major Charge: Bring democracy to those who
> > have lived under tyranny (or other incredible contributions to
> > democracy).
> 
>    These are pretty damned tough requirements for a charge, IMO; they also
> don't quite seem right to me, but I don't have any good ideas right now.

Discuss politics at length is not too hard.  The other minor charge
ideas might be better as sig charges.  Hm.  Write and publish an essay
on some aspect of democracy?  I can turn out 1K readable words in an 
hour if I'm writing on a familiar subject...

>    The American school has different requirements.  I'm not sure what they
> are yet, but the person who convinced the Southern states to work the old
> Confederate flag into their state flags after the passage of the Civil
> Rights Act got a major.

Further the cause of your chosen polis.

> >      The blast has no range and must be combined with a
> > normal hand to hand attack (though it cannot be split between
> > multiple opponents).  The damage from the spell adds to that of
> > the hand to hand attack and can provide some spectacular special
> > effects (like tossing the target across the room).  At the GM
> > discretion the spell may do extra damage against a target who is
> > particularly hated by the people.  The spell must be successfully
> > cast before the attack is rolled and the effect remains until
> > discharged or until three rounds have passed.
> 
>    1 minor charge for a blast is way too little for this school, I think.
> I'm thinking that it should be between 3 minor and 1 significant.
> Suggestions?

It's a weakish blast, in that it needs the hand to hand.  2 minor?

-- 
  Bryant Durrell [] durrell at innocence.com [] http://www.innocence.com/~durrell
 [----------------------------------------------------------------------------]
   "What is truth?  Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside
    from it, I would keep to the truth and let God go."  -- Johannes Eckhard

_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua