[Favourite Games] Unknown Armies
This is the forth installment of my ‘unordered’ Top 5 RPGs (for the previous entries see here, here and here).
Unknown Armies (Atlas Games)
Probably one of the most ambitious and yet 'open' RPGs I've ever played or run, Unknown Armies really is the pinnacle of game design for both John Tynes and Greg Stolze. The game and setting, I have read, arose from John Tyne's urge to create a mythos for himself; one that would replicate, yet modernise a mythology similar to that seen in the Lovecraft (and related) stories. At that point (the late 90s), John was best known for his work on the Call of Cthulhu line, through Pagan Publishing, although by this point the company's output had shrunk to a trickle (probably the result the group getting older), and it seemed he needed a new direction for his creatively.
In this he turned to Greg Stolze, a game mechanics genius (I personally think of Stolze and Robin Law as being the only two RPG writers who consistently, and successfully, look to take RPG mechanics in new directions), who developed a light yet detailed game system for this new game. The result of this collaboration is astounding, especially when one takes time to look at what the game is actually about. Imagine a grand and yet unorganised conspiracy, where magical powers are available to those who risk or sacrifice enough, and are encompassed in a world where dozens of factions clash in their attempts to bring about their own version of utopia; that's Unknown Armies. I suppose the tag line in the 2nd edition of the game says it all - A Roleplaying game of Power and Consequences...
But beyond that the game seems to tap into my love for controlled chaos, a world which is rational and yet irrational in the same sense, and a setting that doesn't always rely on monsters to be the 'bad guys'. I first played a session of UA back in the early 2000s, directly after attending my first Kapcon, actually, and was taken by the depth and direction the game seemed to want to take. I don't think it was quite right for our group at the time, but the first seeds were there. It wasn't until 07 that I really got back into the game, and this was mainly due to research I was doing into the new Dark Conspiracy system I was developing; parts of UA explain/guide play in a way that really wanted to replicate in DC.
That said, I didn't get to run any UA until 2010, when after arriving home (again after a Kapcon), I saw the music video - In Pursuit of Happiness by Kid Cudi. This was an interesting song (which is really catchy), that to me told a story of someone who despite having everything was still looking for something better in the next 'experience'. The interesting thing is the artist talks about how while everything is great on the outside, internally he faces numerous challenges. The music video ends with a great scene, where the 'drunk' Kid Cudi, staggers into the bathroom (protesting at his overly drunken state) only to discover another very different version of himself already there. To me this was a perfect UA story, what if you could 'pursue' happiness and what would you risk/change to achieve it...
The game, while being affected greatly by logistics, explored these ideas, with all the characters finding themselves changed both for the better and worse, and having to decide if these changes were actually any better. Of course, they eventually discover that the changes weren't exactly theirs to decide, and that the antagonist in the story had been using their 'timeline' in an attempt to make for himself a better life. In the end the characters were as much victims to the change as their friends and family were. And that to me is the appeal of UA - the power and consequence, the mundane power that offers the extraordinary, and the opportunity to explore ideas that would never work in any other RPG I could imagine...
As an aside, for some reason the music of Bob Dylan (especially his Blood on the Tracks album) reeks UA to me. I can't hear the Dylan song with out thinking of this game and setting...
Unknown Armies (Atlas Games)
Probably one of the most ambitious and yet 'open' RPGs I've ever played or run, Unknown Armies really is the pinnacle of game design for both John Tynes and Greg Stolze. The game and setting, I have read, arose from John Tyne's urge to create a mythos for himself; one that would replicate, yet modernise a mythology similar to that seen in the Lovecraft (and related) stories. At that point (the late 90s), John was best known for his work on the Call of Cthulhu line, through Pagan Publishing, although by this point the company's output had shrunk to a trickle (probably the result the group getting older), and it seemed he needed a new direction for his creatively.
In this he turned to Greg Stolze, a game mechanics genius (I personally think of Stolze and Robin Law as being the only two RPG writers who consistently, and successfully, look to take RPG mechanics in new directions), who developed a light yet detailed game system for this new game. The result of this collaboration is astounding, especially when one takes time to look at what the game is actually about. Imagine a grand and yet unorganised conspiracy, where magical powers are available to those who risk or sacrifice enough, and are encompassed in a world where dozens of factions clash in their attempts to bring about their own version of utopia; that's Unknown Armies. I suppose the tag line in the 2nd edition of the game says it all - A Roleplaying game of Power and Consequences...
But beyond that the game seems to tap into my love for controlled chaos, a world which is rational and yet irrational in the same sense, and a setting that doesn't always rely on monsters to be the 'bad guys'. I first played a session of UA back in the early 2000s, directly after attending my first Kapcon, actually, and was taken by the depth and direction the game seemed to want to take. I don't think it was quite right for our group at the time, but the first seeds were there. It wasn't until 07 that I really got back into the game, and this was mainly due to research I was doing into the new Dark Conspiracy system I was developing; parts of UA explain/guide play in a way that really wanted to replicate in DC.
That said, I didn't get to run any UA until 2010, when after arriving home (again after a Kapcon), I saw the music video - In Pursuit of Happiness by Kid Cudi. This was an interesting song (which is really catchy), that to me told a story of someone who despite having everything was still looking for something better in the next 'experience'. The interesting thing is the artist talks about how while everything is great on the outside, internally he faces numerous challenges. The music video ends with a great scene, where the 'drunk' Kid Cudi, staggers into the bathroom (protesting at his overly drunken state) only to discover another very different version of himself already there. To me this was a perfect UA story, what if you could 'pursue' happiness and what would you risk/change to achieve it...
The game, while being affected greatly by logistics, explored these ideas, with all the characters finding themselves changed both for the better and worse, and having to decide if these changes were actually any better. Of course, they eventually discover that the changes weren't exactly theirs to decide, and that the antagonist in the story had been using their 'timeline' in an attempt to make for himself a better life. In the end the characters were as much victims to the change as their friends and family were. And that to me is the appeal of UA - the power and consequence, the mundane power that offers the extraordinary, and the opportunity to explore ideas that would never work in any other RPG I could imagine...
As an aside, for some reason the music of Bob Dylan (especially his Blood on the Tracks album) reeks UA to me. I can't hear the Dylan song with out thinking of this game and setting...