[UA] High school one-shot idea: The play's the thing.

[Fidel Santiago]

Very good idea.

If you develop the idea I´m going to play it to my players, sure.

Ciao.

Fidel Santiago.

On 06/09/2007, Eslington ~ <eslington at gmail.com> wrote:
> I found this essay on life at high school and why it sucks on a blog I
> read fairly often:
> http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html
>
> I'd seen it before, but the last time, I didn't end up running it
> through my mental UA-filter. The result this time was the skeleton of
> an idea for a one-shot.
>
> ---
>
> Life for the nerds, geeks and losers of the school is hell, as is normal.
> Most of the students are too immature to understand why, and the
> teachers either don't care or feel helpless to change things.
>
> But not all of the students are normal.
> An impassioned young reporter for the school newspaper got a special
> order dumped on him by Mak Attax, and was awakened to his true nature,
> a low-level Chronicler avatar. He has seen the truth behind the
> school's situation, and wants everyone to know it.
> Unfortunately the cowardly editor doesn't want him to rock the boat
> (and endanger his position as editor, his ticket to the ivy league)
> with his controversial article, and most of the student body would
> probably ignore or dismiss a leaflet campaign since the ideas can't be
> expressed simply enough.
>
> A more daring plan is called for, and the play's the thing.
>
> The drama club are staging a production a week from now, and the
> Chronicler has seen the perfect place to slip in an extra scene to the
> play to send his message to the masses in a suitably dramatic and
> memorable fashion.
> He has an in with one or two drama club members, since he knows the
> people in charge wouldn't appreciate him messing with their
> production, and he has the aid of the local Mak and teenage
> Oneriomancer who dropped the special order on him, who's willing to
> help him confound anyone who stands in their way and crank up the
> impact of the Chronicler's scene.
>
> But something is rotten in the school that will make things difficult
> for the meddlesome bard.
> -Maybe the True Queen of the in-crowd, who knows the truth and wields
> it as a weapon, has found out about his plan and is quietly placing
> obstacles in his path.
> -Maybe a local Sleeper cabal have been watching the Mak, know they
> can't risk the scene going out as planned (And hey, they may be right
> about the whole sleeping tiger deal) but are having a hard time
> infiltrating a building full of teenagers and suspicious adults with
> the dead-eyed weirdos that make up their occult troubleshooter squad.
> (And this is one problem they probably can't /literally/ shoot.)
> -Maybe someone plans to highjack the event for their own purposes. An
> irascamancer out for a major charge? A rival of an uninvolved actor?
> -Or maybe just the mundane difficulties of teachers who crave
> stability, club budget cuts or concerned parents who think the play is
> a tad controversial.
>
> ---
>
> More explicitly, the elements are:
>
> Protagonist PCs:
> -The Chronicler
> -The Oneriomancer
> -At least one actor or other member of the drama club.
> -Probably one more to round the group to four. In gamist terms an
> "optional" character.
>
> Antagonists
> -See suggestions above.
>
> Themes
> -Isolation/imprisonment
> -Cliques/tribalism
>
> Motifs
> -Shakespearean imagery/references.
> -Unconscious, sometimes irrational actions and assumptions.
> -Tiredness
> -Media
> -Pointless busy-work.
>
> Game elements
> -Probably low action and more of a focus on intrigue/misdirection,
> since as teenagers the PCs probably don't want to be going around
> breaking bones.
>
> ---
>
> What do you think sirs?
>
> Ideas and suggestions encouraged, especially for antagonists and a
> good play to use.
> _______________________________________________
> UA mailing list
> UA at lists.unknown-armies.com
> http://lists.unknown-armies.com/mailman/listinfo/ua
>


-- 
Fidel Santiago.
//-----------//
http://www.fortunaprimigenia.org