[UA] A Few of My Favorite Things

[Mike Lake]

This adventure held no appeal for me, despite the cool "I'm a gun!" image.
The players are arbitrarily yanked into a pocket universe with only one
significant thing to deal with at a time.  The rest of the universe is
essentially inert, and if the players don't like the dish that's set before
them, they're stuck.  Even if they are interested, the adventure offers
limited (even unique) solutions to each obstacle; trying anything else gets
a narrative-stopping "it doesn't work; try something else."  For example,
clever ideas for weapons against the carnivorous cars destroy a few, but
don't change the situation one iota.

"That doesn't work; try something else," repeated until the players get the
right solution is a recipe for frustration.  My players hated "Last Chance
Brains" from the Weather the Cuckoo Likes supplement for OtE.  (The
reality-bending Koanhead locks PCs in a pocket universe and won't let them
out until they jump through a series of arbitrary hoops.)  I played a lousy
con game of Toon wherein PCs had to chase a runaway ambulance--nothing
worked until thirty minutes had passed, and the GM decided it was time to
move to the next scenario.  There's a great mea culpa article in Pyramid,
wherein a GM confesses to locking his players in a pocket universe populated
by one old man, and allowing them out only when they learned to begin every
sentence with a vowel.

Do not do this.