Random thought...

[ffutures]

In Thorne Smith's books quite a lot seems to happen as a result of drinking / getting drunk, often with magical consequences.

It occurs to me that the magic rules are going to have to have a section called "The Power of Positive Drinking"

Or has someone already done this?

Comments

[maviscruet.livejournal.com]

Oh yes...... that sounds fun. Not sure if anybody else has ever done that... but it's still a cool idea.....

[booster17.livejournal.com]

*groans at the pun*

[doctor-toc.livejournal.com]

Hehehehe. I like it. Don't think it's been done before.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I'd bet the pun has been used before.

FX: the clickety-click of googling...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22power+of+positive+drinking%22&btnG=Google+Search

3,610 hits, beginning with an eponymous Lou Reed song.

You might still be the first guy to use it in a game. Though the concept--character acquires unusual powers when drunk-- seems to show up a lot in fiction. Example: Kuttner's Gallagher the inventor.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[7th-son.livejournal.com]

[i]Unknown Armies[/i] by Atlas Games has "dipsomancy," which is the magic of alcohol. But thematically it's the opposite of "positive drinking," its theme is [i]cheating[/i]. It's the quick and easy road to power -- the one that you have to be stupid to take. You can throw some mighty magic whammies when drunk, but its also a death wish that inevitably causes you to lose everything important to you.

Don't let this single interpretation of drink-magic keep you from doing your own, though.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I was thinking more of booze as an enabler, something that lets people reach the weird frame of mind where magic seems to make sense, so I don't think it's close enough to the same idea to be a problem.

[7th-son.livejournal.com]

Yeah, despite the occasional cosmic-ascenscion plot, Unknown Armies is at its core a horror game, and that means its magic systems are all about sacrifice, obsession, and the "dark side" of magic. From what you have described, you're current project has a much more optimistic view of magic and the universe, more along the lines of something Alan Moore would write about in Promethea (though, presumably, easier for the rubes to understand).

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I think that the typical player character in this setting will be a moderately wealthy suburbanite, probably possessing a wife and mistress, who finds himself accidentally involved in a series of increasingly silly magical events. I'll probably be basing the character stuff on the melodrama rules (part of the revised FF rules) with stereotyped roles such as "henpecked husband", "tippling clergyman", "vamp" (seductress, not a literal vampire (usually)), etc. The magic will probably be a mixture of the existing magic rules, some random factors, and some comedy ideas.