[UA] The Bad Influence, and some Miriachi's

[Royal Minister of Stuff]

--- Infamous36 <theinfamous36 at ivebeenframed.com>
wrote:
> Thanks for the thoughts on the Bad Influence.  I
> like the Ministers
> approach to have someone else take the fall for the
> Bad Influence(I think
> it was the Minister who added that.)

> 
> Also Could someone please give me some sort of idea
> on what IS too
> powerful,because i've seen several of those on
> things ive sent to the lis.

I think what people are talking about is that some of
your suggestions, while interesting, haven't had a
feeling of sacrifice or, dare I say it, humility. 
Since I remember and liked the Bad Infleunce, I'll use
that as an example.  The channels you chose allowed
the character to draw followers, be immune from harm
and infleunce people.  That's a whole bunch of juju
right there without any real balance or sacrifice.  To
a lot of gamers, just being disliked isn't that much
of an inconvenience, because we grew up being weird
and ostracized (or alienating ourselves) anyway and
know how to deal with it (more or less.)  Also, don't
forget that the Bad Influence picture you painted is
only disliked by authority figures and "straights,"
young folk and dynamic individuals do seem attracted
to such figures as Eminem and Manson.  

I think the big one that rang people's bells was the
immunity factor you included in the channels.  I know
one of the reasons I liked UA is that, early on in the
Rulebook, it encourages you to avoid "safe" characters
and the Bad Influence's immunity is a pretty big
example of that.  The reason I suggested that the Bad
Influence transfers pain and trouble to followers is
that it twists the idea of responsibility and provides
the immunity you seemed to be seeking, while at the
same time causing a real delimma to deal with: you
need followers for the powers to be effective, but you
always get them in trouble and you can't recruit
followers for "good" or normal reasons, only for
outrageous and dangerous reasons.  That adds the risk
and human interest which, I hope, UA-ifies things.

Also, we know you're probably under 20 and we're
stodgy old RPG bastards who fear your inate youthful
power.  (I myself, am an unhealthy 30 with an all-but
worthless bachelor's degree and 7 years in Portland to regret.)

=====
-- Rp Bowman, Royal Minister of Stuff
The Electronic Nation of Yokeltania:
http://www.geocities.com/yokeltania/

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