[UA] The Ethernaut

[Hammons, Jade]

I'm impressed it was read, it was so stream of conscious. Yes, much
later I realized it had no taboo, and like I said, it was suffering
concept creep. Like many of my schools it seems to have developed 2
paths. I just keep throwing ideas on the wall until somethings sticks.

I have an interesting taboo idea for the 'stalkers', 'voyeurs' or
sociomancers or whatever you would like to call them. 

	The Sociomancer must observe, it is taboo for them to interact
in any meaningful way; it's not that they don't want to, or can't, it's
that the statosphere actively discourages it. Sometimes it is easier for
them to stand there and watch a shot person bleed to death instead of
helping them. Each of their charges is a potential change in the
environment, an x factor, a butterfly effect. And as observers they are
well aware of it. For the Logomancer, the paradox is themselves. Sure
they can tell their mom they love them, they can catch that falling
baby, they can save the bleeding guys life. They just pray the
statosphere doesn't notice. Painfully aware that the slightest change in
a system could create unforseen changes, the Logomancer is only able to
drain their potential energy (charges) through controled means (spells),
if a logomancer interacts personally in a situation, and it is not a
trivial situation, there is a chance that their potential will warp the
situation. In game terms any situation they interact with directly which
would have gained them a charge were they just to have observed causes
their power to well up and release an unnatural phenomena. This
phenomena is equal to the highest level charge the sociomancer is
currently carrying, woe be to the involved sociomancer with a major
charge. For this reason, sociomancers tend to be minor adepts, and spend
charges quick, or powerful and stoically standoffish. The phenomena is
less of the bleeding walls type, and mor of the altering the way things
should be type. For example, saving the bleeding man may warp the bullet
and the evidence so that the police charge an innocent man for the
shooting and the real killer gets away scot free. And if that situation
was a significant situation, the evidence will probably be damning,
taking an innocent's life away to rot in prison or suffer a lethal
injection, while the shooter's gun may become a minor artifact and from
then on never fire a bullet that can be traced back to that gun.


Yeah it's long, but I'm a fan of Taboo Means Something, as opposed to
Taboo makes your charges go away

Jade Hammons

"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be
normal." - Albert Camus




-----Original Message-----
From: ua-bounces at lists.unknown-armies.com
[mailto:ua-bounces at lists.unknown-armies.com]On Behalf Of Erik Lee
Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2004 2:24 PM
To: ua at lists.unknown-armies.com
Subject: Re: [UA] The Ethernaut


>Sounds interesting. But what do you think could the taboo be? No human
>interaction whatsoever? Such a being could hardly be a PC, I fear.

How about no emotionally significant human interaction?  For example,
making 
small-talk or going to the store and asking for assistance in finding 
something is okay, but on the other hand, he can't tell his best friend
how 
glad he is to have the guy around or couldn't tell his mother how much
he 
really loves her without breaking taboo as the observer becomes too
involved 
with his subjects.

It would probably still be a b*tch to play, but it could perhaps be fun
to 
play a character with such an inner dichotomy if you have the right 
player(s) and GM.

-Erik

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