Atlantis (was: Re: [UA] Commercial)

[Nick Wedig]

>Which brings me to the UA tie-in.  Con Artists have
>got to be a major problem in the Occult Underground. 
>Lucius Zarcia is an example, but probably not the best
>example of one, but Dr. Henrietta Apoida is.  A con
>artist does not always have to pretend to have magic
>powers to pull off a dodge.  In fact, pretending to be
>on to illegal money-making schemes, slightly immoral
>procurement and, well, cheap sex are just as
>profitable as fortune telling and faith healing. 

_American Gods_ by Neil Gaiman deals a lot with cons, and also happens to be fairly good UA material otherwise.  Step by step explanations of how to run simple or complex cons.  In particular, one of the points made is that it's easier to con someone who's unethical, because greed is a big factor.

>That's because a good con artist knows how to use "the
>blow off" and this should work on the average player,
>too.  The Blow Off makes the victim of a con unlikely
>or unwilling to go to the authorities.  Say you have
>your players run into a real slick customer named
>"Soapy" (There was a Colorado con artist named "Soapy"
>Smith, kind of a local legend.)

Soapy Smith is also mentioned at one point (his name is used as an example in explaining a con)

One of the things that amused me about Aleister Crowley was some debunking of psychic/mystic type frauds.  Especially so if he was a similar fraud himself (makes for fairly good cover then, or does it?)

Mr. Teapot
guessed one of the secrets to AG before opening the book

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