[UA] UnderWorld as UA Campaign Inspiration

[Royal Minister of Stuff]

The game of UnderWorld I played did anything BUT
inspire me.  As an rabid fan of fairy tale crap, I
thought I would at least enjoy the atmosphere, but the
whole game has a kind of patronizing and hollow feel,
like it should have come out from whi- woops, better
not say that.

Anyway, the whole "field of magic" schtick kind of
gets to me.  Nothing kills my sense of wonder like the
half-odyllic concepts which make up "the Radiance." 
The idea of strange, dirty creatures peering in
windows as children sleep and knocking over
dustbins/trashcans finds itself not only hobbled but
completely erased by magic that "only works
underground."

On the other hand, the idea of some kind of
underground Otherworld is pretty central to some of
the world's most excellent folklore.  Dimly-lit,
secret places have a kind of magic all their own; the
promise that something's lurking down there. It might
nasty, it might be friendly and it might be nothing,
but it awaits.  Also, vast underground mazes and
tunnel systems and old cellars make excellent storage
spaces for impossible creatures and mechanomancer
rejects.

The idea of an underworld has to coexist with the idea
that you can enter and leave it -not that anyone is
permanently stuck there.

There's a story called "The Bear's Son," in which a
supernaturally strong hero and his three
magically-gifted companions travel to the underworld
in search of three stolen princesses.  The descend to
the underworld on a rope, defeat Monster X and then
make their way to the upper world.  As the Bear's Son
passes each individual princess up to the next waiting
companion, the companion and the princess fall in love
and run off together, until the Bear's Son is left in
the underworld all alone -without even a rope to climb
out.

Later on, he kills some monsters to get out and hunts
down the now-married companions one-by-one.  He kills
them out of frustration.  

That's what I felt like doing to the GM who ran
Underworld, especially after the third time I had to
flip those stupid coins and fish one out from under
the sofa.  I had the same problem with all the dice in
Shadow Run and, um, that one other game system it
offends people to critique.

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