Greg Stolze (Unknown Armies, One Roll Engine) Appreciation Station

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Greg Stolze (Unknown Armies, One Roll Engine) Appreciation Station

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Squidster posted:

Can you share a few examples of the hoops you put players through to get a major charge?

Plutomancers, who use (other peoples') money to work magic, need to acquire $100 million in one lump sum.

Cliomancers, who use historical significance to fuel their magic, get a major charge for being the first cliomancer to visit an important historical site. Tranquility Base (on the moon) has a charge waiting to be harvested, as soon as some cliomancer figures out how to get there...

Epideromancers, who power themselves with pain and self-mutilation, have to permanently remove a body part (hand, nose, eye, etc.) to generate a major charge.

Entropomancers, who run on risk and luck, must risk their lives and the lives of at least 10 innocent bystanders on at least a 90/10 proposition.

Are you getting the sense that in UA, the quest for magical power tends to ruin your life and the lives of the people around you?

# ¿ May 26, 2010 16:54

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 19:25

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

DeclaredYuppie posted:

The relatively high chance that they will die?

This. Also, you can't use magic to get magic charges. You can't teleport away or turn your body to stone or exchange places with your homunculus at the last moment, because that would mean you weren't really putting yourself at risk, and thus - no charge.

Also, assuming you survive all that, you're still identified as "that guy who tasered a Greyhound driver and drove a bus full of screaming people into an abutment." Your mundane life is now a shambles. Hope you can magick up a good lawyer, 'cause you're going to need it.

# ¿ May 26, 2010 20:59

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Tolervi posted:

:19bux:

What I like about the default Reign setting is it is more a "fantasy setting" than a "thinly-veiled real-world fantasy analog." It is much less bland than "fantasy middle ages Europe" (or even "fantasy post-WWI Europe," IMO).

It's the rare fantasy setting that dares to be a little, you know, fantastic. So naturally grognards hate it and nitpick it for being "unrealistic".

# ¿ May 28, 2010 17:08

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Robotic Folksinger posted:

From what I hear Unknown Armies sounds awesome. Do I only need the core book or are all the cool magic schools found in various splatbooks?

The UA core book has all you need. Really. The closest thing to an essential supplement is Post-Modern Magic, which has a bunch more magick schools, but the best of those have been incorporated into the core book.

The only other "crunch" supplement is Statosphere (additional details for adepts, avatars, the House of Renunciation, and the Comte de Saint-Germaine). It's neat but far from essential.

All the other books are either splat books describing the various factions (Break Today, Hush Hush, Lawyers Guns & Money) or adventures (One-Shots, Weep, To Go, Ascension of the Magdalene). All of which are good, none of which are necessary. UA is something of an bizarro-world gameline compared to many other 90s RPGs (which are full of books that aren't very good but necessary to figure out what's going on and to keep up with the metaplot).

# ¿ Jun 9, 2010 06:14

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Veritek83 posted:

As a big Tim Powers fan, I think I'm obligated to pick up UA. Also, the Companies mechanic in Reign seems like something I've been loooking for for quite some time.

The original high-concept "elevator pitch" for UA was "Tim Powers meets James Ellroy and Quentin Tarrantino." So, yeah, you're obligated to pick it up.

Reign has a short $10 handbook edition that just came out that's missing the (delightfully weird) default fantasy setting (but has all of the system material). Reign Enchiridion Edition or something like that.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2010 05:15

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Greg Stolze (Unknown Armies, One Roll Engine) Appreciation Station