Unknown Armies Rumors Thread: Indulge Your Obsession

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Unknown Armies Rumors Thread: Indulge Your Obsession

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Can we use this thread to brainstorm ideas for Adept Schools and Avatars too?

If anyone is game, here's the basics for The Ludomancer

Strange Matter fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Jun 16, 2015

# ¿ Jun 16, 2015 19:18

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# ¿ May 19, 2024 16:29

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Impermanent posted:

You may want to avoid games of chance altogether, as playing with probability hones in on Entropomancer turf. I'm thinking specifically of "Loaded Dice" here. Similarly, wagering memories is really something set aside for Mechanomancers. Instead, play up more of the angle intimated by Nash's Equilibrium.

Also, I suggest adding "must play the game that is the target of their obsession when challenged" to prevent hoarding.

Some minor spell ideas:

Yomi: You can, for 1 charge, hold a conversation through a game, with no outside communication taking place. A simple game like Rock Paper Scissors could allow you to quietly and instantly communicate a short plan like "wait for me to jump over the bar, then shoot the bartender while he's distracted." While a chess match would be a complicated, hours-long conversation with an eventual conclusion.

Draco Defense: (1 - 3 sig) The building you are located in is completely impervious to either physical or magickal for as many days as significant charges you use.

Divine Move: You may flip-flop a single, specific action determined at the time you cast this spell, within one minute to one hour of the time it is cast.

Excellent suggestions, especially the "must play your obsessed game when challenged" part.

I'll avoid giving them powers based on probability, but they can still charge up using games of chance. My thought process there is that it's probably the worst possible option for them because, unlike Entropomancers who charge up simply by exposing themselves to risk, Ludomancers actually have to win in order to earn their Charges, which adds an extra level of difficulty.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2015 22:53

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

MTV cancelled Jackass after only three seasons due to pressure from underground entities over the sheer amount of Entropomantic and Epideromantic energy being generated across the American midwest. They were afraid that an entire generation of America's youth was on the verge of completely decohering from reality.

They killed Ryan Dunn as a warning to the rest of them, especially Knoxville. He was starting to get ideas.

Strange Matter fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Jun 17, 2015

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 02:45

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Count Chocula posted:

If that's true, than what are they going to do to prevent all the Entropomantic chaos that spawned from Fury Road? Because everyone feels charged up after watching it. And that's because, in a variant of a Max Attax ritual, half the people who watched it picked up a Minor charge. Most people just waste it, but Entropomancer know what they need to do to make it a Sig charge...
By the way, I heard that if you watch the movie and focus on everything BUT Furiousa's arm, you can see it moving by itself in certain scenes. And I'm not saying that's sign language, but a motivated Mechanomancer could learn a few things... He'd have to give up more than his memories though.

The Sleepers are more worried about the Motor-Shamans than the bodybags where Fury Road is concerned.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 04:54

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Lithium-ion batteries are natural magick sinks that convert charges into neutrinos. This is preventing the creation of schools focusing on electronic gadgets from forming and posing a serious threat to the coherence of reality by the sheer number of potential adepts.

Impermanent posted:

I think that's fair. It gives them, in terms they would use, an out to play to. This archetype has a really interesting angle on it. I can see it creating "heart of the cards" type yu-gi character or a more cerebral SAW-like villain, depending on circumstance. What is your idea for its driving paradox?

Ludomancers see the world through a lens of game theory and mechanics, but real life doesn't play along. They are driven to impose rules upon the chaos of human society, but true games are built upon their rules, not the other way around. Any sane person would recognize what they are doing as a fool's errand. Really hardcore Ludomancers believe that those rules do exist and their peers simply aren't looking hard enough.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 13:34

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

AlanWhats posted:

An excuse to write dumb rumors/fiction for an amazing game? Don't mind if I do!

quote:
Brett Hart

I KNEW IT!

# ¿ Jun 18, 2015 13:12

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Ratoslov posted:

There is no videogame related adept school. There is no videogame-related avatar. There are no videogame-related rituals. Videomancers cannot charge off of videogames or videogame streaming shows, no matter how hard they try. There are no occult video-game artifacts. Why?

Ever wonder why Atari buried their E.T. carts in the desert encased in concrete instead of just scrapping them? Doesn't that seem...theatrical? It's because it was part of a ritual. The Sleepers saw the potential of the medium and squashed it, and ever since it's been a magickal wasteland. But of course that company from Ottawa dug them up, so all bets are off ow.

The question is, what form will it take? Will there be Virtuamancer Adepts running the streets, trying to nab high scores over each other? Or is there a host of unconscious Avatars secretly channeling The Player of Games who will soon awaken?

# ¿ Jun 25, 2015 22:29

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Count Chocula posted:

That's what you heard? I heard games are magical dead zones. A Merchant can't get rich selling WoW poo poo, and you could be drinking 300 year old wine out of Lord Byron's skull, but if you're playing Doom at the same time your Dipsomancer rear end ain't getting anything but a hangover. The real fun is the hackers who figured out how to turn on Candy Crush remotely on some people's phones... 'course if you're real heavy into this poo poo, why do you even have a phone?

Here's what I heard, and it's because I have an uncle who worked at Nintendo (in the mail room).

You know the console warrior BS that creeps up on forums and message boards? That's just the tip of the iceberg. There are real warriors out there-- digital holy knights who kill each other over their platforms of choice. The success of each generation is actually foreordained at a secret battleground every three years in Tokyo. The magic power unleashed is channeled into the creative drive of the developers and into the influence of their marketing.

Sega never recovered from their crushing defeat in 1993 which doomed the Saturn, and the industry is only now emerging from the arcane fallout of Nintendo's complete domination of the proceedings in 2005. Nobody saw that one coming.

Good ol' uncle Walt. He'll be missed.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2015 18:45

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Dammit Who? posted:

Speaking of "Go Set a Watchman": so everyone's all up in arms about how the Atticus is practically a different character from Mockingbird, yeah? Well here's the thing-- go back and read the first book again. I bet those words look a lot different from how they did when you read it in high school.

Coincidentally, I heard a rumor about a rash of sudden resignation of English teachers in the past month...

# ¿ Jul 20, 2015 16:40

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# ¿ May 19, 2024 16:29

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Count Chocula posted:

There's also a Lester Bangs exceed about getting a massive charge from taking the drugs that were in Elvis' gut when he died.

Les Paul, who was a secret Mechanomancer, used that exact procedure to fuel the Major Clockwork that the rest of the world recognizes as Keith Richards. Most of the major deaths in popular music, from Jimi Hendrix to Amy Winehouse, were engineered as rituals to keep him going.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2015 19:39

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Unknown Armies Rumors Thread: Indulge Your Obsession