| From: | Doctor Doom <JCH8169@*****.TAMU.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Motley Collection of Commentary |
| Date: | Thu, 24 Mar 1994 23:49:56 -0600 |
>characters using the book rules. Unfortunately, I was not
>aware that one was indeed a contact monger. By putting prior
>A into his money he bought several buddies/friends, and MAJOR
>amount of contacts.
My counsel would be to avoid anthing overtly heavy-handed such as en masse
assassinations or other proposals of similar ilk. No one enjoys a Game Master
who is seen as acting in a wholly arbitrary manner.
Do remember that as Game Master, however, you control these contacts, and as
such, you are the final arbiter of whe'er they possess the knowledge sought by
the player. They are not "sure-fire" data dissiminators by any means.
Also I would second the suggestion that you insist upon the role-playing ( as
opposed to ROLL-playing ) all interactions with contacts. In a practical
sense, this shall have the effect of dissuading him from appealing to large
numbers of contacts for any given task, if for no other reason than time
constraints. This also treats the contacts as real people, which is, after
all, what they should be to the characters, and thus it lends realism to the
campaign.
If on the other hand, he insists upon his inordinate dependence upon his
contacts, orchestrate a situation where he is due to circumstances unable
to utilize them -- and watch him slowly asphyxiate as a fish out of water.
2. Von Chris Siebenmann:
>| Somehow I can't see another wave of McCarthyism going around again. [..]
> The War on Drugs: McCarthyism for the nineties.
I would disagree with this. Senator Joseph McCarthy's (smear) campaign was
based on fear not prohibition.
It wasn't the enforcement of law, it was the fostering, furthering, and
flagrant exploitation of political paranoia also infused with measure of
desire to seize the limelight and achieve personal ends.
The contemprory campaign against narcotics and other controlled substances
appears to embrace more an issue of morality than political alignment.
Although I, and many others, may consider a advocation of authoritarian
socialism to be intellectually suspect, few aside from those caught up in an
Red Scare emotional furor or similar non-rational approach would consider it
/morally/ wrong.
My personal opinion is that the mindset of investigative, scandal-mongering
reporting, otherwise known as yellow-journalism, has (in the above regards) far
greater similarity to the McCarthy Era in its attempt to achieve fame and
fortune via attacking and tearing down those of power or influence than does
the War on Drugs.
3. Von Joshua James Harrison:
>I disagree... according to the SR Novel "Night's Pawn" (written by Tom Dowd)
>music (even recorded music) on the Astral Plane is not heard as music, but as
>the emotional content of the composer, pouring out in the notes. If you read
>the introduction, Mozart's Requiem is being played when the two mages go into
>Astral Combat, and the music is described as the emotional pain and torment of
>the composer, rather than actual musical notes.
Are you certain it was the composer's mental state rather than the emotion
expressed in the piece of music?
I had always thought that it was the emotional content of the object itself
rather than the mood of the person who fabricated it. That is to say, for
example, if one were to receive a wedding announcement, one would "assense"
happiness (one would hope) rather than, say, the irritated emotions of a
employee at the printer's forced to work after hours to complete a rush order.
Certainly, a person's mindset is a factor into what is likely to be expressed
in the specific medium, such as a composer's feelings being instilled in his
music -- as that was his purpose. Although this may not necessarily be the
case: Some of Tchaikovsky's most joyous and flamboyant pieces were written
during times of his deepest despondency.
>Of course, the intensity of this varies, depending on the music... Mozart's
>Requiem is very emotional... I don't think that elevator muzak would be very
>interesting on the astral, if you could hear it at all...
What is the sound of being bored night unto tears?
Imagine Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, or one of Wagner's overtures.
4. Von Stefan Hahn:
>One also wonders if music has an astral(emotional) presence, then wouldn't a
>painting or sculpture or other work of art have a palpable astral(emotional)
>presence.
Presence may be an inaccurate term here. Certainly elements of art could have
an perceptible emotional /impression/.
> In that case, (we're extrpolating here) consider the shadowsurgeon who
>takes such pride in his custom-designed work that each is, to him, a real work
>of art.
> See where I'm getting?
How are you going to read this "art"? I do not feel that it is the emotions of
the creator per se which are being sense, rather it is what the creator
intended for his artistic endeavor to /convey/. I cannot concieve how bioware
could serve as a medium for the convenyance of emotion, unless the observor
had a hobby in biomedical science.
Colonel Count von Hohenzollern und von Doom, DMSc, DSc, PhD.
Doom Technologies & Weapon Systems -- Dark Thought Publications
>>> Working on solutions best left in the dark.
<<<
[ Doctor Doom : jch8169@********.tamu.edu ]
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