[UA] Otherwheres

[Royal Minister of Stuff]

Boy, I'm still dizzy on how to address ON-topic
messages.

Otherspace Comments follow:

--- Matthew Rowan Norwood <matt at adsubtract.com> wrote:
> UA is very
> explicit in its contention
> that _this_ is the real world. This, the one where
> I'm pounding my meaty
> fist into your magic-working gut again and again
> until all your
> memorized mystical correspondences disintegrate into
> pleas for your
> mommy and instead of aligning your spirit with the
> Ein Sof you're
> convinced that I am God as long as I will stop
> hurting you. And if a
> Duke runs into a ragged, bearded sage on the street
> who talks about
> urgent problems in the Umbral Realms, the Duke does
> what everyone else
> does: tells him he doesn't _have_ any spare change.
> 
> I really like Oneiromancy, for example, because it
> steers clear of all
> the "dream magic" cliches from RPGs. Dreams are the
> children of an idle
> brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy.  This does
> not mean that
> they're not magical, but then getting drunk and
> making lots of money and
> acting in porn movies are also magical. I would love
> to write up an
> Oneiromancer (or better yet, just a groupie
> following around the
> 101001101 from rave to rave) who's wrapped up in the
> amazing spiritual
> significance of how the magic allows him to connect
> to entire other
> realities and interact with powerful spirits of the
> dreamlands, when
> really he's just spiralling into solipsism and
> narcissism.

<snip>

> Finally, there is the world Beyond The Veil. I
> applaud your decision to
> draw, um, a veil over that. If we're lucky, it will
> be years before we
> see supplements with

<Let's just snip it and call it "weird space stories,"
or Fantastic Space Yarns with Magic Starships, shall
we?>

> Not that
> there's anything wrong with that kind of game, mind
> you, it just doesn't
> play on UA's unique srengths.
> 
> -Matt Norwood

Well, that Roger Dean-reality stuff doesn't play on
the unique Strengths of UA's WORLD, certainly, but I
like the game's SYSTEM enough to consider pitching it
to people who play in the /Planescape/ or
/Spelljammer/ or WoD Umbral settings.

I certainly like the way magic and avatars are handled
enough to slip them into other game settings.  And I
like the "Yes, Virginia, you have a soul" bits to UA.

Is this because of the humanist perspective?  Hell
yes.  I prefer Chelsea Quinn Yarboro to Anne Rice any
day.

Any system which makes character creation quicker and
more customized or personal appeals to me (FUDGE was
my favourite before UA came along. Well, FUDGE and
CF.)

Crap. I'm rambling.  What I meant to say is: Norwood
is right, more or less, but that shouldn't keep
intrepid game masters from implementing the UA System,
even the general "people can do it" approach in other
game settings.  (I have played too many shafted
hobbits not to admire a system where "mundanes" have
as good a chance at kicking butt as mages, yet magic
still grants a unique "edge.")

Okay, that's as clear as I'm gonna get this morning. 
It's morning here.  I've been up all night.

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

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

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