[UA] Bad Reactions to UA?

[Joshua Knorr]

>     What's odd is that the players (my players) who loved Mage
> were the ones
> who were "ennh" on UA.

I may be able to shed a little light on this, as someone who is a pretty big
Mage fan and somewhat turned off by some portions of UA.

In Mage, not only is magick powerful, it can be a force for good *for the
person using it*.  As a mage becomes more proficient, he becomes more
enlightened about the nature of the universe (as opposed to his paradigm,
which is the way he thought the universe worked), and this opens up the
potential for that mage to become a better human being.

In Unknown Armies, magick is ultimately destructive and degenerative for the
person using it.  To be obsessed enough about something, anything, to use
that obsession for magick can only be unhealthy.  You may be able to do good
things with your magick, but in the end you are personally going to pay a
high and unavoidable price that will leave you boned.  An adept who pursues
magick hard enough and long enough to become good at it is either going to
burn out (Dirk Allen) or become so twisted that he or she is no longer a
sympathetic and playable character.  (The Freak)

The other alternative is to dabble - know enough to have a little power but
not enough to warp you, which doesn't seem really viable given the spirit
and mood of UA.  Either your obsession eventually fades to the point where
you can no longer work magick, or you run across a bigger fish who has made
the sacrifices you were unwilling to and wants someone you've got.  Either
way, you're hosed.

Playing an adept is about getting as much mileage out of the downward spiral
as possible before it becomes untenable.  As a matter of personal taste, I
don't like downward spiral games.  I never have and I probably never will.
If I want to eke out small victories against superior odds, that's what life
is for.

Josh
"If there's any girls there, I wanna DO THEM!"


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