[UA] UA Online.

[Epoch]

On Mon, 16 Jul 2001, Simon Foston wrote:

> 
> 
>      For quite some time now I've been wondering how well an online Multi
> User game based on Unknown Armies would work, and I've come to the
> conclusion that if I could get everything up and running properly, it
> could be pretty damn good. In case anyone is wondering what I'm talking
> about, a MU game is a text-based online RPG, with a grid of locations,
> coded character systems and game mechanics, and a team of GMs and coding
> experts keeping the whole thing going. There are an awful lot of horror
> MUs based on White Wolf games, and I reckon it's time to try something a
> bit more interesting.

Okay, my credentials pretty quickly:  I got into MU*'s from anime chat
type things, found roleplaying MU*'s through one of the big lists, got
fairly intensely into World of Darkness games as a player for about four
years, did some work as an admin, got disenchanted with the whole deal to
a large extent, still occaisionally play on a Witchcraft (Eden Studios
game) MUX.

I thought about a UA MU* when I first joined this list, and asked T&S
about whether or not they'd sanction such a thing.  Tynes, at the time,
said that he had no problem with it if a disclaimer (he sent the
wording) was attached that indicated their intellectual property.

That said, UA is a game of "furious action and transcendental horror."  As
anyone who's played on a WoD MU* knows, there is no horror involved in a
MU*, unless you're just horrified beyond imagination by spelling
mistakes.  Horror requires a certain delicate atmosphere, a gradual
immersion in a world that's twisted and strange, a building of tension
that puts you on the edge of your seat.  One person who's multi-MUing on
six other windows and TSing in three will utterly destroy the mood.

That's not a huge deal, because it's so hard to create a sense of horror
in gaming that nobody really expects it.

Of course, a UA MU* wouldn't be full of furious action, either, at least,
not if you take a page from the WoD games and have a game in which people
are discouraged from "standing out" amongst the mundanes and in which you
can generally speaking only have potentially deadly combat with an admin
keeping an eye on things.  There's just /never/ enough staff attention to
make action a huge part of any game.

So, you have to ask yourself, what /is/ a potential UA MU* about?  The WoD
model has generally primarily been about the society of the city in which
the game is set.  That is, the Prince is a Ventrue, how do you, a Malk,
react.  Or, who will be the next Alpha of the caern or whatever.  The
workings of the little mini-cliques and circles of the Supers Spheres are
the main point of interest, and often the main source of plots.  This fits
well into what MU*'s are good at -- immersive social RP -- because it's
the sort of theme which can be advanced and evolved through social RP.

Once you've decided what the UA MU* is about, you have to ask what it
gives you that a WoD MU* doesn't.  And I don't think that
"Entropomancers" is enough of an answer.  There has to be something which
plays into the strengths of UA that WoD games don't have, for you to have
any chance of wooing people to an unfamiliar game system.  Good players
and attentive staff will /not/ do it -- people are really conservative
about learning new game systems.

When I was contemplating a UA MU*, I wanted to tap into UA's concept of
(my term) "transcendent weirdness."  I got into UA because I loved Tim
Powers' books so much, and it's that sort of "beneath the seams of our
everday actions" feel of some of the fantastic elements that, I felt, was
unique to the game and worthwile to play in the MU* format.

Anyhow, that's just a few random musings.  Good luck with it if you decide
to go through with the project -- I don't envy MU* Gods, and I never will.

Mike

--
"Go to your happy place, Piro:  Sad girls in snow!"
	www.megatokyo.com


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