[UA] Re: The End of the World, and so on.

[John C]

>John C wrote
>>Something based on
>>Alchemy could be interesting -- it has a ready-made paradox, if you go 
>>with
>>the idea of purification of the soul coming through experimenting with 
>>base
>>matter.)
>
>I actually have had an idea about this floating around in my head for a
>couple of weeks. I've had two players now reject Dipsomancy  and instead 
>ask
>if there was a school based on drug use. I turned them down, thinking, "Why
>mess with what works?" It seems to me if you change the charge gathering,
>you change the taboo and the effects too. Then it hit me: alchemy. I
>personally think Alchemy as a magick school is dead. It was an old-school
>magick that lost it's potency when it was replaced by a new, more pomo 
>form.

I'm going to use Alchemy as an almost but not quite dead form of magick.  
Much like the old school Clockworkers, but even more rare.  It's going to be 
like Sanctomancy; a form of magick that's passed down from family member to 
family member.

>So Narcomancy is like a pomo alchemy. You are trying to achieve a perfect
>spiritual purification by altering the base matter of your body. There's 
>the
>taboo. You'd get minor charges from taking a hit of a drug. You'd get
>significant charges from trying some combination of drugs you'd never tried
>before (the first time you take any drug, or if you combine them in a new
>way in your body). I can't think of a major charge. Perhaps it could be an
>old-school throwback like generating a new Philosopher's Stone ( in the 
>vein
>of Oneiromancy's major charge). I haven't gotten around to thinking about
>formula spells or any of that. What do you guys think?

Drug use would be important, but I can see drug *creation* playing just as 
big a role.  Creating the "ultimate" drug could be their version of the 
Philosopher's stone, whatever "ultimate" might mean.

John Crimmins                     john1x at hotmail.com
     http://www.voicenet.com/~johncrim/index.html
   "Yes, I am acquainted with Mr. DePalma," Dr. Hsu said.  "He was
my pupil years ago.  A young man not without talent, but slapdash,
and huckle-muckle in his worksmanship."
   "What did you say?" the mayor asked.
   "He's a jerk," Dr. Hsu Ting Feng said.
           -- Daniel Pinkwater, _The Hoboken Chicken Emergency_

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