[UA] Re: Gardener

[Matt Norwood]

> Maybe a level of abstraction would help with this Archetype.  Its symbols
> and regalia are all vegetable, in the same way that the True King's
> trappings are feudal.  But as you can have a True King of the American
> Party or a True King of South American Communists, you could also have "The
> Gardener of 67th Street" or "The Gardener of Children" or "The Gardener of
> the Ku Klux Klan."

Eh. Honestly, I thought that publishing the True King really
threw everyone off the idea of UA avatars. It was too abstract,
especially after we had all read the "unshaven guy on a
motorcycle with a big gun" archetype in the core book. The True
King could replace almost every other archetype in the game --
the Healer becomes the True King of Hospitals, the Flying Woman
becomes the Ture King of Rape Crisis Centers, the Pilgrim becomes
the True King of Route 66. And it's too saccharine. An aspiring
True King in UA should make a decision: am I going to be a
Demagogue, a Trickster, a Confessor, a Merchant, a Martyr, a
Peacemaker? Each of these lends some real flavor and depth to the
character of a leader, and they're all more appropriate for a
game that's all about power and obsession.

Thre might well be room for some kind of "reaper" or
"weed-killer" archetype in a metaphorical sense, but I'd just
make that a specific personal spin on the Dark Stalker or the
Executioner. I like archetypes with a concrete basis, like the
ones in the core rulebook. I saw the gardener as an
agriculturalist, and his post-modern form is probably the genetic
engineer. There's probably a mid-level avatar working in a lab at
Monsanto today, and a new ascension is due in a few years when we
all start eating plants that are _drastically_ different from
anything anyone has seen in millenia: golden rice being a perfect
example. (Interview with the creator here:
http://www.fumento.com/goldenrice.html) I suppose I also mixed in
elements from lots of sources people have mentioned: Swamp Thing,
environmentalism, fertility gods etc. I could see a Gardener (or
Green Man) who takes the whole world ecosystem as his Garden, or
one who focuses on a single species of plant. I didn't have an
ideology in mind: pro-human and pro-agriculture, or pro-Earth and
anti-human. There's lots of room for a dark side here (see Swamp
Thing and radical environmentalism for examples), and it could go
in lots of different directions. For a taboo, I'm not a fan of
the one I suggested, but I also don't like the other ones posted.
Maybe we should look to other "professional" archetypes for
guidance: the Confessor and the Healer, say, or the Pilgrim. Or
Urbanomancy? Maybe the Gardener has to spend most of his time
among plants? Still pretty lame...

Matt Norwood

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