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Cyrai posted:I really like the concept of the system, especially the adepts, but it seems like it would be really hard to actually run. I can't think of a campaign hook that would hold a group together. Everyone would run off, trying to follow their own addiction, completely ignoring the plot hook and maybe the other players. They'd almost certainly destroy themselves before they're 'done' with their addiction, and then the game would fall apart. For that matter, I can't even imagine what a plot hook would be for a game of Unknown Armies. How do you run this? The way to run Unknown Armies is to basically take the plot of any Tarantino or Coen brothers or Robert Rodriguez movie, or maybe your favorite Cormac McCarthy novel, and pretend what would happen if half the people in it could do magic, or were acting the way they act to fulfill some bizarre magic ritual. For example you could do something like Se7en or Silence of the Lambs, or any classic serial killer film and have the killer be an adept or an avatar or just some dude doing a weird ritual. Or you could do something like Scooby Doo where you had a bunch of adept buddies gathered together to do their own thing and solve periodic mysteries for fun and profit. Or you could basically have a version of Ghost Hunters that was actually legit. The setting also provides multiple groups that the players can be involved with: The New Inquisition (the magic mob) is a good one, or there's Mak Attax if you're feeling a little sillier, or the Sleepers if you want to play a spin on maintaining the Masquerade. Basically everyone and everything in the setting is a great hook - like the artifact box full of trapped demonic souls that some people theorize is hell. I believe that Mak Attax, well-intentioned idiots that they are, actually want to OPEN it. Unless your players are douchebags it's quite possible to create a functional group and slot it right into the setting, at least in my experience. EDIT: If you're more curious, check out the Unknown Armies book "One Shots", which has several really good ones. Even if you don't want to play Unknown Armies, I would say this book is worth getting, because many of them could work in almost any setting.
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May 21, 2010 22:12
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Impermanent posted:After you read Unknown Armies, everything you see becomes Unknown Armies. The Colbert Report ripping on O'Reily becomes a an upstart challenging the old Godwalker of the Demagogue. Wikileaks becomes a platform for the attempted ascension of the Anonymous Whistleblower. The old guy who comes into your local diner every day, pays in lint, mutters about the dogs he's seen, and gets coffee and a bagel becomes a burnt out Urbanomancer. This is exactly correct. Another thing I really liked was how the different types of adept all work on the same principle (get three flavors of charges, spend 'em for magic) but that the way each school gains or loses all charges influences how they play. So you've got something like the Bibliomancer, who can store up massive amounts of charges, but only gains them by purchasing rare books vs. something like the Dipsomancer, who gains juice from drinking alcohol and can generate a BUNCH of charges in a short amount of time, but loses them as soon as he passes out or sobers up, and is of course rip roaring drunk and clumsy the entire time. It's a completely different economy. My favorite is the Oneiromancer, who gains charges from staying awake, and loses them all by falling asleep. A day or two into this cycle, he's a powerhouse, but he's also a barely functional, incoherent zombie struggling through sleep deprivation to do anything. I sure hope you don't need him to drive somewhere! And as soon as he falls asleep, he's utterly helpless.
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May 22, 2010 05:42
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Cyrai posted:Most Adepts also have a blast, usually a minor and a significant blast. These are the damage dealing spells of an adept. The blasts are another awesome part of the game. They could have just had them straight up be damage, but they took the time to add some nice flavor to them. For example, the Oneiromancer blasts you with a nightmare so bad that having it might just drive you crazy, but if you can stay awake until he falls asleep, it fades harmlessly away. Nothing beats the Plutomancer's blast, though, which manifests by making you gently caress yourself up. Slam your fingers in the door, shove your foot in a lawnmower, jump into traffic. And God help you if you're holding a gun at the time... The Plutomancer is one of my favorites because it embraces player character tropes and backhands them at the same time. See, the Plutomancer gets charges when he gets money, and players love to get money. But if the Plutomancer ever spends too much money at once, he breaks his taboo and loses everything. To be a Plutomancer is to be a guy who is always chasing money and who might be rolling in it, but who can never spend it. That Rough Beast fucked around with this message at 07:34 on May 22, 2010 |
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May 22, 2010 07:30
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I don't think there's a no-stacking rule, because Body Like Iron allows you to get up to 250 Wound points, 3 points at a time. I know of at least one Epideromancer statted out with something like 200 Wound Points, so it's definitely supposed to be part of the system. I think you've got it right - Master of Flesh is really only useful for boosting your stats over 85. The only circumstance I can see it being used to give wound points is if you were dying thanks to a self-inflicted injury which regeneration could not heal, like maybe the one used to collect a major charge, and you just didn't have time to cast multiple Body Like Iron spells. I dunno, that's weak as hell as a justification, though. That Rough Beast fucked around with this message at 06:30 on May 26, 2010 |
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May 26, 2010 06:26
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Some more: Personamancers get their abilities by impersonating others. To generate a major charge, they have to fool an audience of at least ten million people by, for example, posing as the President on a TV broadcast. Narco-Alchemists get their abilities by creating magical drugs. The book flat out says that they don't know how to make a major charge yet, "but everyone's trying." Urbanomancers draw their energy from the urban environment. To generate a major charge, they must generate powerful, city-wide change. The book suggests the Great Fire of London as a baseline. Videomancers get their power by watching TV. No, I mean watching TV obsessively, and if they ever miss the show(s) they've chosen, they lose all their charges. What if those shows change to be scheduled opposite each other? Well, that's a bitch. The Videomancer gets a major charge by starring in his favorite program and appearing onscreen at least 50% of the time. These are just the ones from the corebook. I hope that it's obvious from reading these that getting a major charge is going to be a pain in the rear end and a plot point in itself. The best way to deal with the idea of there being major charges spent in the world is just to assume that the world is the way it is at least in part because magic made it that way. The brilliant thing about the setting is that the idea of people trying to get charges and magical power explains all kinds of absolutely aberrant behavior that really happens. On the grim side, a scenario was published in 1999 about a dude taking over an airliner and crashing it into Chicago in a massive suicidal explosion so he can ascend as the archetype of the Terrorist.
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May 26, 2010 18:35
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