[UA] Stolze's Schaudenfraude (was: Re: [UA] Bill In Three Persons Survey)

[Chris Milne]

On Wednesday, December 13, 2000 5:05 PM, Chad Underkoffler wrote:

> I'm not sure that that's the game's tone. Indeed, from at least
> one unpublished review I've seen, the reviewer thought UA was
> going the splatbook "bigger, better, tougher, now!" route.

Hmmm. Was there any reason given? Was it a perceived proliferation of 
semi-immortal characters (The Bad Man, Lucifuge, the Grail Knights et 
al)? It's not the way I see UA at all. The corebook was very upfront 
about the key power players, The Freak, Le Comte, Alex Abel, The 
Sleepers, and I don't see that as having changed. They haven't been 
surpassed by other individuals or organisations.

>
> I think UA's tone is overall one of humanity, and perhaps it
> focuses a bit too much on how we are sneaky, neurotic, and
> power-hungry. Tainted by selfishness.

Maybe. But just about any practitioner of magick, or most members of 
the OU would be selfish. So perhaps this is justified. Maybe the 
upcoming Mak Attax book will change our perceptions, they being 
probably the closest to good guys that the OU gets.

>
> Am I oversimplifying?

I don't think so. To me, UA is a dark game, not heroic. I imagine 
that's more or less the view of most UA players. But throughout the 
books, there are options and viewpoints that could be taken as 
positive. Alex Abel could be trying to make the world a better place. 
The Sleepers are trying to prevent a war breaking out amongst 
humanity. OK, so they're not doing it in the nicest way possible, but 
that just means they're not purely heroic. For want of a better 
description, it would, IMO, be perfectly possible to play a "darkly 
heroic" UA game. I'm sure somebody, somewhere, is.

> Chad Underkoffler [chadu at yahoo.com]



Chris Milne

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