Forum Replies Created
The TimI find UA to be a great setting to tweak with. There are a lot of good ideas here and on the list that don’t fit with the printed material. One example from the forum is the example of the godwalker of the Merchant dealing with Satan. On the list it would be the Nazi alternate history thing.
The first time you run victims, er players, through UA it is nice to play by the books. Get people used to the rules, the feel and the way the cosmos works. Then the next times make some of the rumors here true and mess with the cosmology to keep the player’s guessing. It is also fun to make rumors that were false in a previous campaign true in a later one.
The TimI use rumours as story seeds. The characters are awash in rumours and if one hits up with their goals they are likely to persue it.
The rumour section here can be great for that. If the players are following some agenda (hunting for a dipsomancer for instance) and a rumour regarding alcohol, dispomancy or something like that is put up it can give ideas for where to lead them or even better pop up when they shake down people for information. Sure it is likely to be crap but it fits into their investigation and helps them get a solid feel for the world.
The TimYa I admit that it isn’t in the book and that it is my interpretation of what would happen. It was the anti-archetype bit that sent me think down this path. I’m not saying it is wrong to have them get back in but I’d prefer them to be a little off from most people.
As for the main point of the thread which has been totally lost the main problem with multi-person Archetypes is that people will see the two individuals as that, individuals. They need to be seen as the same person, IMO, to Ascend as the same Archetype. If you trick people into thinking you are both one person and both of you happen to be channeling an Archetype or trying to make one, well that drifts away from your origional question and into the place where head aches come from.
I think each multi-person Archetype can be decomposed into component Archetypes. I do however think it is interesting to allow Avatars to interact in strange ways. Like if you get a Maiden, a Mother and a Crone all in one place you can get prophecy out of them. Or if you get a Trickster and a Two-Faced Man on the same side you’d better watch out or else you may become their Fool. I think that certain sets of mythic interactions that have a strong tendancy to play out when you bring lots of Archetypes into a situation are neat.
The TimNever seen “Fly to Heaven?” but even in that as I understand it is about the masses. Statosphere clearly states that clergy members are there at the whim of the masses. The job of the clergy is to give people the world they deserve, the world they secretly want. By attention and belief humanity elects those who will remake the world.
Now for the stuf that isn’t in the books and is just my opinion which is what I think we’re having a false disagreement about. I think that once you’ve been booted out of the IC you are no longer a person in the way you were before. You no longer get a vote and can no longer hold office. You know how the game works and so you could try to stack the clergy better than most if you wanted to but you’ll never be let back in.
The TimI think that once you’ve been ejected from the clergy you get pushed out of the range of normal humanity so you can’t be an Avatar or reascend. I’m sure you get creepy powers and you could probably help send up new people to stack the clergy but your place in the universe is no longer as a representative of the will of the masses.
The TimIt isn’t always the case that the identity of the person is cleared away. From what I gather that was a special effect of the Naked Goddess Ascension.
When someone Ascends a direct channel is opened between the spot and the statosphere. The actual person is drawn up into the statosphere while the body seems to be unmade. So it doesn’t just vanish and go somewhere else because the statosphere isn’t really a where. The white light is probably some of the body being returned to the universe as energy.
So reality doesn’t really have to deal with a vanishing, or at least the vanishing is the least of the problems caused for reality. The statosphere has smacked into it. Metaphorically the wires are exposed, the man behind the current is glimpsed and for a moment the audiance may get to see back stage. That’s why seeing an Ascension is mind blowing. You see how things Really Work.
I’m almost convinced that the weird stuff that happens is reality’s attempt to distract people from the real deal. Drop a few natural artifacts, turn someone inside out and make a dog that speaks Latin and suddenly people are no longer interested in the cosmic truth that was just reveiled. Instead they are hunting for blades of grass made of titanium.
The TimI think it means that the Fool is set up with a life and death situation that requires the shrewdness of a first grader to survive. Or the Warrior finds that the person she loves the most is on the other side. I’d also say there is a chance the test isn’t the real deal. It could just be a set up for the actual test or an event that was going to happen anyway that the existing clergy member threw at the godwalker as part of the battle.
Additionally I’d say the godwalker can’t just limp through it. The moment has to be seized. Everything is about presenting yourself as the Archetype. People who see the test will be dazzled and won’t see a man jumping after his lucky coin or a woman shooting her brother. They’ll see the Fool plunging head long into the Abyss laughing and they’ll see the Warrior destroying an enemy with no concern for anything but the cause.
That’s how I read it at least.
The TimI do a combination of those methods. Going with the rumours in UA2 I present a sheet of things they’ve heard before the game starts. It includes the highly theoretical ones which are hard to examine with short term goals. The rest I let them get from NPCs, either by over hearing it or it comming up as they talk shop. I imagine a lot of the meetings in the occult underground involve rumour swapping.