Unknown Armies Primer.
Here's something I've cooked up as a sort of Unknown Armies primer for my thursday gaming group.
You're all obligated welcome to read and provide C&C of course.
(The formatting's a little wonky, I know. I want to keep it to four pages in Word.)
----
Long ago, last week or as the first thing you remember, you saw something that changed your life.
Something strange and impossible. Unnatural. Or perhaps all too real and natural.
Some would choose to deny it, let themselves forget it or turn around and walk away.
Let the white rabbit get to his very important date
Not you though.
You’ve seen there’s more to this world than meets the eye. Something going on behind the 7-11s, the highways and the TV stations.
And whether it’s everything you’ve ever wanted, personal demons you must confront, or just sheer curiosity, you’re going back for more.
The dews drop slowly and dreams gather: unknown spears
Suddenly hurtle before my dream-awakened eyes,
And then the clash of fallen horsemen and the cries
Of unknown perishing armies beat about my ears.
-W.B. Yeates, The Valley of the Black Pig (1896)
Unknown Armies
What would you risk to change the world?
Gee whiz Mister Gee-Em, what the heck is Unknown Armies?
Well, the first edition tagline was “A roleplaying game of transcendental horror and furious action” For second edition it’s “A roleplaying game of power and consequences.”
But really, the game is what you make of it.
Here’s where we start.
We’re not in Narnia, Endor or anything like that:
-The setting is post-millennial earth, probably in America.
-The occult exists but usually is hidden from public view by occult practitioners, public disbelief and rarity.
-The mundane characters are relatively close to normal humans. Which isn’t to say you can’t meet or play badasses and amazing geniuses, just that your abilities are within the range of “real world” people.
-It’s really weird. Though it’s kind of hard to explain exactly how it’s weird.
In terms of tone:
-The Mundane and the Supernatural.
Think of Pulp Fiction for a second. In between the guns, drugs and miraculous events, the main characters still have silence-filling conversations about fast food, argue about sexual boundaries and talk about trashy television shows. So it is in the world of unknown armies, our world, where sorcerers panhandle in the streets, Golems drive buses and godlike beings reach down to touch mad fools in the intimate parts of their minds.
-Start ignorant, grow wise. You start off a relatively sane, balanced person, go down the rabbit hole and, maybe, surface one day a different person.
-Obsession. You and many of the people you will meet are unusually driven. They want something. Badly. Bad enough to risk their lives, their sanity and even their souls.
Sometimes it’s a question of what you are willing to sacrifice to get what you want, to uphold your morals or to survive.
-Madness.
Speaking of risking your sanity, people tend to go a bit nuts. They can become inured to the horrors of the world, haunted by things they’ve seen and done or, most often, both at once.
-Combat is deadly and scary.
Think of yourself for a moment. Would you personally ever want to deal with a bullet in your thigh? Or see someone stabbed in the gut?
Humans are fragile creatures, and if you take a lot of hits you’re going to have a hard time doing anything. Coupled to that is your ability to actually cope with what you’re seeing. Sure, you can get used to seeing people being killed, but would you really want to sit next to someone on the bus if they could snap your neck without changing expression?
Oh, and killing folks is kind of illegal. Try to avoid it.
You
Characters! We all love to make characters, don’t we? (The correct answer is yes.)
For your character, I suggest you think of the following. (We can work out the crunchy details at Character Gen.)
-A reason to hang around with/stick with the other characters.
Since this is a group game, it’s easiest if you all know each other or have some kind of association. Maybe you all go to the same Kung-Fu Dojo on Thursdays. Maybe Jim works with Mabel who’s Ned’s girlfriend and Ned’s in Sarah’s band. Or something.
(It’d be best if we collaborate on this idea, whether you all work together at an office or you’re a travelling band of mystery solving bohemians or something.)
-Think of an overview of who your character is, and a short summary.
Draw on archetypes, personalities and other characters if you like. For example:
“Good Cop: You’re an earnest, dedicated person who tries their best to live up to their ideals.”
“Leo: A born leader, but arrogant with a need for approval. Good at dealing with subordinates.”
“Professor Snape: You’re a jerk, but you don’t care what others think of you. When something needs to be done, you can get it done without hesitation.”
-Your passions.
When it comes down to it, underneath the reason, consideration and thought is raw emotion. As any respectable psychologist will tell you, the mind’s control over the human heart is like a midget riding a grizzly bear.
Your purest emotions are represented by your Rage, Fear and Noble Passions.
Whether it’s double-talking gossips or incompetent drivers, there’s something which pisses you off more than anything, and you can invoke your Rage Passion to smack it down, lash out or unleash your fury upon it.
When the Ministry of Love takes you into Room 101 to face your greatest fear, what will you find there? Sometimes this is physical (“Being stabbed”) and sometimes it’s a more internal fear (“I’m never going to live up to the expectations of people around me”) but whatever it is, you can invoke your Fear Passion to try to escape from it.
(And of course, if you’re face by your greatest fear in a stressful situation, you might find yourself overwhelmed.)
Your Noble Passion drives you to make the world a better place in some way. Whether it’s mercy, a desire to help the poor or an opportunity to bring truth to the masses, you can invoke this passion when the opportunity comes to show your truest, highest self.
Passions say a lot about your character and have an actual in-game effect, but we’ll get to that when the time comes.
-Obsession
There may be something which you think about a lot, which even informs the way you think about unrelated topics.
A person obsessed with personal toughness may work out, get into fights over matters of pride or buy a flashy red sports car when they only really need a Mini.
Having an obsession grants you the ability to “flip-flop” rolls with one skill that relates to the obsession, improving both your chances of success and control over your level of success.
You get only one supped-up skill out of this, but the same type of obsession could apply to a variety of skills. (Being obsessively competitive could make you a great fighter, surgeon or poker player, for example.)
If you’re angling to play an adept, then your obsession must touch upon they type of magick you work. Discuss this with your friendly local GM.
(Avatars and dedicated ritual experts are not bound by an obsession requirement.)
Your character doesn’t need an obsession, if you want to be a more balanced person, or you could opt to leave it blank and see if your character runs into something which revolutionises their way of thinking.
-What you can do.
Think a bit about what kind of skills or abilities you’d like to have. We’ll work on those at character creation.
Bear in mind that while you’re (hopefully) an effective investigator/asskicker/occult underground player you’re also a real person. Don’t be afraid to take mundane hobby skills and the like.
This might also be a good time to think about what your character does for a living, whether it’s a menial office job, driving an ambulance or flipping burgers.
(If you want big-earning jobs, you’ll probably need to invest in some appropriate skills. And of course, worry about how being possessed, shot or flayed alive and preserved in alcohol will effect your career prospects.)
-Other things.
Pick at least three of these things and give me a few lines about them:
-Your Trigger Event. (Reccomended.) An encounter with the supernatural which got you curious about the world behind the mundane.
-A person who is important to you. Be it your Aunt Rose who raised you to be a good person, or Princess Di, who inspired you to spend your time helping those in need.
-An anecdote. Not necessarily something funny or weird, just something unusual that informs your character.
-Haunts. Places you like to go, or visit often that are important to you.
-Beliefs. Religious, political or just something you believe others may disagree with.
-The worst thing you ever did. Good for 50% of your recommended daily allowance of angst.
-Something that’s just plain interesting about you.
-Finally, something that you, as a player, would like to occur.
Not necessarily to your character’s benefit or detriment. Just something you’d like me to work in, if possible.
No guarantees, mind. “I win sixty million in the lottery” or “Judgement Day” is less likely to be granted than “I meet my long lost brother” or “My character encounters his one weakness, sexy librarian-type chicks” or “We have a dangerous car chase through a mall or a parade or something.”
You're all obligated welcome to read and provide C&C of course.
(The formatting's a little wonky, I know. I want to keep it to four pages in Word.)
----
Long ago, last week or as the first thing you remember, you saw something that changed your life.
Something strange and impossible. Unnatural. Or perhaps all too real and natural.
Some would choose to deny it, let themselves forget it or turn around and walk away.
Let the white rabbit get to his very important date
Not you though.
You’ve seen there’s more to this world than meets the eye. Something going on behind the 7-11s, the highways and the TV stations.
And whether it’s everything you’ve ever wanted, personal demons you must confront, or just sheer curiosity, you’re going back for more.
The dews drop slowly and dreams gather: unknown spears
Suddenly hurtle before my dream-awakened eyes,
And then the clash of fallen horsemen and the cries
Of unknown perishing armies beat about my ears.
-W.B. Yeates, The Valley of the Black Pig (1896)
Unknown Armies
What would you risk to change the world?
Gee whiz Mister Gee-Em, what the heck is Unknown Armies?
Well, the first edition tagline was “A roleplaying game of transcendental horror and furious action” For second edition it’s “A roleplaying game of power and consequences.”
But really, the game is what you make of it.
Here’s where we start.
We’re not in Narnia, Endor or anything like that:
-The setting is post-millennial earth, probably in America.
-The occult exists but usually is hidden from public view by occult practitioners, public disbelief and rarity.
-The mundane characters are relatively close to normal humans. Which isn’t to say you can’t meet or play badasses and amazing geniuses, just that your abilities are within the range of “real world” people.
-It’s really weird. Though it’s kind of hard to explain exactly how it’s weird.
In terms of tone:
-The Mundane and the Supernatural.
Think of Pulp Fiction for a second. In between the guns, drugs and miraculous events, the main characters still have silence-filling conversations about fast food, argue about sexual boundaries and talk about trashy television shows. So it is in the world of unknown armies, our world, where sorcerers panhandle in the streets, Golems drive buses and godlike beings reach down to touch mad fools in the intimate parts of their minds.
-Start ignorant, grow wise. You start off a relatively sane, balanced person, go down the rabbit hole and, maybe, surface one day a different person.
-Obsession. You and many of the people you will meet are unusually driven. They want something. Badly. Bad enough to risk their lives, their sanity and even their souls.
Sometimes it’s a question of what you are willing to sacrifice to get what you want, to uphold your morals or to survive.
-Madness.
Speaking of risking your sanity, people tend to go a bit nuts. They can become inured to the horrors of the world, haunted by things they’ve seen and done or, most often, both at once.
-Combat is deadly and scary.
Think of yourself for a moment. Would you personally ever want to deal with a bullet in your thigh? Or see someone stabbed in the gut?
Humans are fragile creatures, and if you take a lot of hits you’re going to have a hard time doing anything. Coupled to that is your ability to actually cope with what you’re seeing. Sure, you can get used to seeing people being killed, but would you really want to sit next to someone on the bus if they could snap your neck without changing expression?
Oh, and killing folks is kind of illegal. Try to avoid it.
You
Characters! We all love to make characters, don’t we? (The correct answer is yes.)
For your character, I suggest you think of the following. (We can work out the crunchy details at Character Gen.)
-A reason to hang around with/stick with the other characters.
Since this is a group game, it’s easiest if you all know each other or have some kind of association. Maybe you all go to the same Kung-Fu Dojo on Thursdays. Maybe Jim works with Mabel who’s Ned’s girlfriend and Ned’s in Sarah’s band. Or something.
(It’d be best if we collaborate on this idea, whether you all work together at an office or you’re a travelling band of mystery solving bohemians or something.)
-Think of an overview of who your character is, and a short summary.
Draw on archetypes, personalities and other characters if you like. For example:
“Good Cop: You’re an earnest, dedicated person who tries their best to live up to their ideals.”
“Leo: A born leader, but arrogant with a need for approval. Good at dealing with subordinates.”
“Professor Snape: You’re a jerk, but you don’t care what others think of you. When something needs to be done, you can get it done without hesitation.”
-Your passions.
When it comes down to it, underneath the reason, consideration and thought is raw emotion. As any respectable psychologist will tell you, the mind’s control over the human heart is like a midget riding a grizzly bear.
Your purest emotions are represented by your Rage, Fear and Noble Passions.
Whether it’s double-talking gossips or incompetent drivers, there’s something which pisses you off more than anything, and you can invoke your Rage Passion to smack it down, lash out or unleash your fury upon it.
When the Ministry of Love takes you into Room 101 to face your greatest fear, what will you find there? Sometimes this is physical (“Being stabbed”) and sometimes it’s a more internal fear (“I’m never going to live up to the expectations of people around me”) but whatever it is, you can invoke your Fear Passion to try to escape from it.
(And of course, if you’re face by your greatest fear in a stressful situation, you might find yourself overwhelmed.)
Your Noble Passion drives you to make the world a better place in some way. Whether it’s mercy, a desire to help the poor or an opportunity to bring truth to the masses, you can invoke this passion when the opportunity comes to show your truest, highest self.
Passions say a lot about your character and have an actual in-game effect, but we’ll get to that when the time comes.
-Obsession
There may be something which you think about a lot, which even informs the way you think about unrelated topics.
A person obsessed with personal toughness may work out, get into fights over matters of pride or buy a flashy red sports car when they only really need a Mini.
Having an obsession grants you the ability to “flip-flop” rolls with one skill that relates to the obsession, improving both your chances of success and control over your level of success.
You get only one supped-up skill out of this, but the same type of obsession could apply to a variety of skills. (Being obsessively competitive could make you a great fighter, surgeon or poker player, for example.)
If you’re angling to play an adept, then your obsession must touch upon they type of magick you work. Discuss this with your friendly local GM.
(Avatars and dedicated ritual experts are not bound by an obsession requirement.)
Your character doesn’t need an obsession, if you want to be a more balanced person, or you could opt to leave it blank and see if your character runs into something which revolutionises their way of thinking.
-What you can do.
Think a bit about what kind of skills or abilities you’d like to have. We’ll work on those at character creation.
Bear in mind that while you’re (hopefully) an effective investigator/asskicker/occult underground player you’re also a real person. Don’t be afraid to take mundane hobby skills and the like.
This might also be a good time to think about what your character does for a living, whether it’s a menial office job, driving an ambulance or flipping burgers.
(If you want big-earning jobs, you’ll probably need to invest in some appropriate skills. And of course, worry about how being possessed, shot or flayed alive and preserved in alcohol will effect your career prospects.)
-Other things.
Pick at least three of these things and give me a few lines about them:
-Your Trigger Event. (Reccomended.) An encounter with the supernatural which got you curious about the world behind the mundane.
-A person who is important to you. Be it your Aunt Rose who raised you to be a good person, or Princess Di, who inspired you to spend your time helping those in need.
-An anecdote. Not necessarily something funny or weird, just something unusual that informs your character.
-Haunts. Places you like to go, or visit often that are important to you.
-Beliefs. Religious, political or just something you believe others may disagree with.
-The worst thing you ever did. Good for 50% of your recommended daily allowance of angst.
-Something that’s just plain interesting about you.
-Finally, something that you, as a player, would like to occur.
Not necessarily to your character’s benefit or detriment. Just something you’d like me to work in, if possible.
No guarantees, mind. “I win sixty million in the lottery” or “Judgement Day” is less likely to be granted than “I meet my long lost brother” or “My character encounters his one weakness, sexy librarian-type chicks” or “We have a dangerous car chase through a mall or a parade or something.”