[UA] Reactive vs Proactive Players

[Frank Cord Lohmann]

On 9/14/06, Chris Cooper <insectking at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Okay let me put this down.

In your list, you definitively forgot the supportive NPC...

> Should a GM cut off a few of the PC's fingers with a
> secature, or merely slam them with heartbreak all the time?

Oddly enough, it seems to me that bodily mutilating reactive players'
characters only serves to disconnect them from the game, while
emotional trauma draws them in. In light of what Chad wrote earlier, I
think bodily mutilation might also be seen as some sort of
"punishment" for doing something "wrong", for missing what the GM had
intended, by the reactive player.

So yeah, heartbreak.

> This then could devolve into a He Said She Said
> exercise in Rape in RPGs.

Errr... What? Where did this come from, and what's it supposed to mean?

> This is fine for a UA Global game but what about a starting UA cabal?

For a achy-breaky-heart angle, have all the PCs start the game in love
with  the same NPC, who subsequently disappears under strange
circumstances, leaving the PCs heartbroken, minus their
money/car/stereo/dog/other precious thing and being suspected by the
authorities of being responsibly for the disappearance. The best
chance for clearing their names for the PCs is to find the NPC, which
should also settle the question of whom he/she really loved (and was
it a "he" or a "she" anyway?). Give the PCs a wisecracking sidekick a
la Eugene De La Rue, make the NPC an Amoromancer / Mystic
Hempaphrodite / rogue Pronomancer / Annihilomancer with a sense of
humour / embodyment of the Naked Goddess on earth / bored brat that
likes to play wicked games, sprinkle in generous helpings of OU
wierdness that the sidekick can offer advice on, and - depending on
what you prefer, make it either "Outrageous Fortune" or "Memento"
mood-wise. Voila - instant campaign... 8)