Concept theme - Note 5979

Area: Announcements - Note #5979
 From: Tyr
 To: all 
 Cc: 
 Subj: Concept Theme
 Time: Fri Dec 2 06:30:32 2011
 I've added a new helpfile to help people understand concepts, it's called
 concept theme and is reproduced below. 
 Part of the theme of the Buffyverse is that power is bought or given at the
 cost of your humanity. We see throughout the show that Buffy laments her
 lack of a human life, she wishes almost constantly to just be a normal girl
 but can't be. A slayer is essentially part demon, gifted with supernatural
 strength but also cursed with prophetic dreams of evil and a destiny to
 battle it which will always bring her and the forces of darkness together. 
 We see her calling mess up her real life over and over, at times rendering
 her homeless, getting her expelled, costing her normal relationships or a
 non minimum wage job. We see again in Willow, a character who begins as
 very human and very happy. But who as she practices magic and becomes more
 powerful has that power consume her life. Destroy her relationship, cost
 her the trust of her friends, and even her own willpower and sanity. 
 It is even more pronounced in Angel, where we see him as someone who yearns
 for a normal life, to just be able to go out into the sun, to be with his
 true love or enjoy the taste of ice cream. But he cannot, when he is given
 this, he is overjoyed and could not be happier. That is until he realises
 that it's come at the cost of his ability to fight, that he cannot have
 both. And so in the end he gives it back. 
 In our game this trade off is represented with concepts, as you progress up
 the concept chart the archetypes become less and less human. A human would
 struggle to make it into the 40s, they could make it there if they have
 years of training or experience, advanced weaponry etc. But even then
 they'd be giving up some of their humanity to achieve it, a level of
 dedication is required that costs much of their human life. This is best
 typified in the journey of Wesley, who we see in Angel progress to a 40s
 concept character when his throat is cut and he is abandoned by the people
 he cares about. He becomes consequently more jaded, and cynical, a colder
 and unhappier man. But also for it a more capable demon hunter, with a cool
 expanding sword. 
 While those in their 40s could probably return to a human life, for those in
 their 50s it's impossible. At this point they are not entirely human any
 more, part machine or monster or magic. It's difficult to go be your every
 day business man with a robot arm or a magic addiction, no matter how much
 you might want it. And if they move into 60s they're now more their power
 than they are human, they wouldn't recognise a human life enough to know
 they should want it, this is why so few heroes are ever this powerful. 
 Because they've lost touch with humanity too much to care about fighting for
 it. 
 This is the poetry of the world, but also the tragedy. The heroes of the
 Buffyverse give up their humanity so that the ordinary people can enjoy
 theirs, can have the privilege of being normal, human and weak. 
 It may be tempting at times to try to milk the most you can out of your
 concepts, or even come up with modifiers and the like that you can argue
 technically fulfill some criteria even while having no effect on the actual
 character. I mean if you can have the best of both worlds, why not? Isn't
 it everyone's fantasy to be some person who has a good and happy human life,
 while also being able to pull the heads off Turok'hans? But in the end you
 will just make that power meaningless and hollow, and the character
 themselves not a real person, but rather little more than a combat twink.
Category:Announcements
Category:Tyr