[UA] Kevin Matchstick

[Matthew Rowan Norwood]

> What brings this fully on-topic is an idea I had a
> while ago, concerning dual archetypes.  While it's
> fairly sensible for there to be dual archetypes
> (the lovers, the twins, etc.), what about certain
> archetypes bringing about archetypes in others?
> For instance, the True King tends to create a
> Necessary Servant, and a Hero brings about a
> Villain.  You could give a one time bonus to the
> other's Avatar score, which remains if and only if
> the person ties his future to the Original.  If
> they seperate for any length of time, and the
> Other doesn't maintain the connection (by keeping
> the memory alive), the bonus is forever lost.

Yeah, I think a bunch of people on the list discussed something like
this: "families" of avatars and such. My contribution was the
Changeling/Avatar connection, where there were "societies" of avatars
who held court or generally hung out together. The interactions among
avatars would follow standard lines of mythological meaning: True King
to Fool to Necessary Servant to Rebel, with alliances, rivalries,
etcetera based on avatar relation. Stylized theater forms (e.g. Commedia
Dell Arte, religious rituals) tap into this dance of archetypes.

I don't think any rules need to written up for this kind of thing, but
some examples of such synergistic interactions might be cool. The only
hints of this that I can think of from the rulebooks is the way that two
Necessary Servants can recognize each other and the way the Dark Stalker
doesn't get along with the Masterless Man.
 
> One thing about the on-topic / off-topic fal der
> all:  It's been my experience that once we set up
> a mechanism to distinguish the two, it legitimizes
> the existence of the OT beasties, resulting in a
> HUGE upswell in off-topic posts.  It's best to
> rely on invisible pressures to keep the OT demons
> at bay.  

That does sound like a possible danger. Still, I'd much rather have a
folder of OT posts that I can ignore knowing that I'm not missing out on
any UA discussion, even if that folder gets overstuffed.

> In reality, the OT-label advocates really
> want A-Mailing-List-With-Stuff-That-Interests-Me,
> and no amount of labeling one way or another will
> provide that exactly.

Well, sure, isn't that what everyone wants? I don't think it's too hard
for a poster to this list to come up with a UA angle for each of their
posts; like James O'Rance said, with a game like UA that's laughably
easy. And if you can't couch your thought in UA terms, then is it so bad
to have to mark up the subject before sending it to a UA list?

Matt Norwood

_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua