[UA] Dueling Banjos

[Eric Brennan]

----- Original Message -----
From: <holycrow at mindspring.com>

> RPGs have always focussed on cities.  (Except FRPGs, which always seem
focussed on unexplored ruins and wilderness.  Odd, that.)  I think there's
just an unspoken expectation that a contemporary paranormal game will be set
in a city -- probably a leftover from V:tM (if you're coming at it from the
mainstream) or OTE (if you're approaching from the lunatic fringe).  Do
y'all think there's a good reason for this?  Or should UA shift its focus
away from cities?

    I would vote for a shift away from cities--or at least equal time for
the boonies.  I live in a rural area, and let me tell you, what we lack in
population, we make up for in space.  We're forty minutes from the Big
City/Hellhole of DC and an hour and fifteen minutes from Baltimore, which
lets you have fun in an Urban adventure, but still lets you play with the
entire country-backwoods thing.  Anything could exist in this weird farming
town or that tiny hamlet.
      Besides, for me, the one thing in the rulebook that I didn't think was
properly explored was that cool idea for the redneck clan of occultists on
pg. 117.
    And rural doesn't have to mean farms.  The west is full of miles of
empty highway, where anything could exist just out of sight of the
Interstate.  I've never been more "creeped out" than when I had been driving
for hours after midnight in East Texas.  You feel like you're on another
planet.

> Personally, I like the idea of the non-urban shift.  (1) It's different,
and all other things being equal, I think it's more fun to try something new
than try the same old thing.

    And there're just as many cool tropes to play with as in cities.  Garth
Ennis hit a lot of them in Preacher--the entire Angellville crew would make
a great UA GMC group.

--Eric




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