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[RPG Theory] Hidden Depths
Aug. 7th, 2009 11:32 amSo ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bruceb’s previews and musings on his New Horizons project got met thinking about the question of “hidden” aspects in FATE: essentially aspects that were not only both good and bad (as many aspects are) but often advantageous and disadvantageous simultaneously. Many of these revolve around what might be called secret or hidden aspects, where using them could be helpful, but revealing that you have them could be detrimental.
Take the example of a masked hero in the American South in the 1920s. Nobody knows that beneath his full face-mask and gloves is a black man fighting against injustice (and adopting at least one of the motifs of the Klan – like most masked heroes, the guy has issues). Faced with an angry black mob and the need to calm them, our hero could take off his mask (or even just one of his gloves), revealing his true race and color, even though he risks further inflaming the mob, to say nothing of exposing the truth to the white journalist who has been his sometime ally. How will he write about it in the next day’s paper?
Another is the “Silver Age” Promenthea from Alan Moore’s comic series: nobody knows the heroine Promethea is really a gay man named Bill, including her sometime FBI boyfriend! Given her magical origins and adventures, there are certainly occasions when the aspect “Transgendered,” “Both Man and Woman” (or however it is expressed on the character sheet) could come into play, but does Promethea dare reveal her secret? Readers of the series know the repercussions of such a decision.
Strikes me there’s a potentially interesting dynamic in the tension between tagging a hidden aspect for an advantage and revealing (and thereby compelling) the same aspect in the process. Sadly, I’ve no time to go delving for it right now in these final days before GenCon.
bruceb’s previews and musings on his New Horizons project got met thinking about the question of “hidden” aspects in FATE: essentially aspects that were not only both good and bad (as many aspects are) but often advantageous and disadvantageous simultaneously. Many of these revolve around what might be called secret or hidden aspects, where using them could be helpful, but revealing that you have them could be detrimental.Take the example of a masked hero in the American South in the 1920s. Nobody knows that beneath his full face-mask and gloves is a black man fighting against injustice (and adopting at least one of the motifs of the Klan – like most masked heroes, the guy has issues). Faced with an angry black mob and the need to calm them, our hero could take off his mask (or even just one of his gloves), revealing his true race and color, even though he risks further inflaming the mob, to say nothing of exposing the truth to the white journalist who has been his sometime ally. How will he write about it in the next day’s paper?
Another is the “Silver Age” Promenthea from Alan Moore’s comic series: nobody knows the heroine Promethea is really a gay man named Bill, including her sometime FBI boyfriend! Given her magical origins and adventures, there are certainly occasions when the aspect “Transgendered,” “Both Man and Woman” (or however it is expressed on the character sheet) could come into play, but does Promethea dare reveal her secret? Readers of the series know the repercussions of such a decision.
Strikes me there’s a potentially interesting dynamic in the tension between tagging a hidden aspect for an advantage and revealing (and thereby compelling) the same aspect in the process. Sadly, I’ve no time to go delving for it right now in these final days before GenCon.
