Unknown Armies

Let’s discuss some unknown armies:
I've got an unknown armies game (2e) to run involving a street level campaign where a group of rag-tag highschool students get caught in a war between a cult of videomancers who plan to suck the town into an old 50's sitcom called Dinner at Judy's and another cult lead by 2 epideromancers who found a ritual that lets them meld flesh with each other and their trailer trash followers.
So far one character, some kid detective type, ended up seeing some freaky stuff when they saw some trailer trash girl rip off the skin of a class pet and slowly glue it back on with her bare hands (I had to do a test run to see if I could run the game). But with no injury to the ferret or himself (girl had grabbed his leg and her fingers flesh melded through temporarily) no one believes him.

The Videomancer cult is collecting props from the TV show to use in the ritual, but to the few manipulated clued in mundanes they have to the cult (including a person running for town mayor) they are using their powers to bring the 50’s style morals back to the community, not suck the community into a TV. They have mass manipulation on their side as the cult’s constant spell weaving has made the town become more like the TV show they worship.

The epideromancer cult on the other hand, is just two Epideromancers who found a following amongst the marginalized youth and through PCP fueled ritual can make everyone one in a literal sense. This flesh melding ritual lets them not only exchange stats and body features, but also exchange minor spells amongst their followers. They want to take over the town in terms of armed gang war rebellion.

Naturally the two secret powers hate each other and seek to wipe the other one out. Enter the PCs to put a wrench in either plan.

Got any advice for a first time Unknown Armies DM? All my players are in the dark about the setting so it’ll fun to spring some weird stuff their way.

Seed family members into the cults. That way the players can have ducked up moral choices and should go full murderhobo as a last resort

Vicious, I like it. The one player that I ran the test didn't mention too much about family, but I'll try to push the other players to flesh out family more

Is this a small town? Because if so it's reasonable to assume that everyone has relations around.

I based it around small towns I knew around New Jersey. I'm bad at figuring out population size for these things, but around 15,000 people? Could be the suburbs near NYC

Also, when I ran I had my high schoolers encounter an artifact that would be complete useless outside of highschool. It was a beer bottle that when used in Spin the Bottle would force the other person to do what was dared, no matter if they wanted too or not. Being highschoolers and part of a cult that used the angest/drama created by this as fuel, things got dark quickly. When the players tried to break the bottle once things got creepy, they couldn't. It'd bounce off walls and ignore being driven over. The players never thought to dare someone to break the bottle. That would have done it.

OP here looking for advice running the game as well. It seems like you can rack up hardened/failed notches pretty quickly. In the test, the player got 2 hardened notches in unnatural from seeing the ferret get skinned and being hit with a blast.
Am I dishing out notches right or is that way too fast even for unknown armies.

So odds are everyone knows someone, with decent odds of family in the area. From a similar area, so I got what you are going for. Don't forget to throw in subtle class distinctions and unconscious racism.

I ran into the same problem which caused the game to fizzle out. I'd say use the book as guidelines but only give out notches when it feels right. The ferret thing was worth one, maybe not two.

Wait, are you the guy who had the exe skin head and the black kid in the same party? If so, you're campaign inspired me to make mine! I liked the idea of highschool kids being exposed to some fucked up shit. How did your campaign end?

That's what I'm trying to do with the two cults. The videomancer cult is based in a more posh part of the town, while the trailer trash cult is based obviously in a poorer part. I hope not to make it too obvious though.

Yeah, I think I'll take your advice on that. Maybe throw in some sort of resistance check from previous experiences to prevent a hardened notch.

That's me! It ended because it went beyond the oneshot it should have been and one of the players turned out to be 12. This was an established group I had joined and no one had fucking vetted this girl beforehand. So the story fell apart as I tried to explain where her character was after I kicked her from the game.

Damn that sucks. It sounded really promising. Ever had a chance to run another one? Also was that penis monster father thing suppose to be some kind of tame carnal?

That sucks, ever got the chance to run another game? Also was that penis monster father thing suppose to be some kind of tame carnal?

An idea that'd be creepy is to have the cult members take on names and functions of the characters from the show. So Mr. Haroldson is now the mailman, instead of being Hank the high school math teacher. Changes like that in NPCs the characters have to interact with will make a splash

That's actually a really good idea. I wanted to the videomancer cult's influences to be more subtle while the Epideromancer group to be more direct. I was also thinking as the game went on to make players make notice checks and see the houses begin to look the same and maybe occasionally their vision turns black and white like an old TV.

It was supposed to be an illusion of the emo girl's feelings and psychosexual image of her abusive father. I did include a charnal though later on. The 12 year old wanted to be mask magic person so I had to break her down and get her in touch with the emotions she needed to get invested in magic as an obsession. Now, she had written in sexual abuse by her father in her backstory so that became a huge plot point as she must confront that to move on in her life. Things got worse as the emotionally immature girl wasn't doing that and literally just taking it while being vocally defiant. Long story short, other players kill Dad, find a charnal in the basement where it was in a feedback loop with the Dad of fucked up energy, and Mom went from being abused to taking on the role of the abuser as she suffered a mental breakdown now that the center of her life(her husband the abuser) disappeared.

Would you mind linking me the screen cap? I lost mine in a computer move.

Sorry mate, I actually don't have it either. I just remembered the story.

Oh, that's great! What I might suggest for the trailer people is for them to throw raves and bonfire parties to attract new blood. Teens will flock to that shit, get cultified, and become part of the army to sweep over the town. Is there an look or philosophy the epis are following?

No problem, it's rattling around here somewhere

They follow a very generic have fun and fuck the man type philosophy. The fleshmelding ritual is the ultimate high for them and they don't mind sharing it with people willing to give them the PCP necessary for the ritual, money and protection in return for partaking in the ritual and getting the reputation of being part of the new tough gang.

I'm open to any suggestions though. I have trouble writing out their motives besides fuck the police/school/grown ups ect.

I was thinking of adding an avatar of the rebel or outsider there too to be the motivator if I feel the actual epis are too hippy dippy to get off their asses

As written the outsider is very sexual and is all about forcing people to confront their inner biases. The rebel might work better but would be very obvious. What could be interesting is an anhilomancer coopting the hippy movement as a way to actually force the world to renounce everything, including their own bodies. His goal might be to have everyone merged into a Chronenberg monster ball so their souls can gestalt and refine.

Now that's interesting. My only fear is the game becoming too adept heavy, but I will keep that in mind.

If that's a fear, then how about an Avatar of the Mother? Her real kid was killed during a drug bust a few years ago so she has adopted the trailer trash as her brood. The new mayor, however, has been sending cops into the park to get more arrests on record and make himself look better. Her paranoia and greif kick in, radicalizing her and the brood, leading to her being willing to sacrifice a few to keep the whole safe even if it means burning down the town

This avatar also will bring conflict with the videoheads since she both is and isn't the perfect mother, which goes against what their view of a sitcom perfect mom should be. By bucking the trends yet embracing them, it distorts their worldview.

I actually like that one and might take have to use that. Maybe one of the epis could be one.

Also a problem I just realized I had while running the test was the player getting really frustrated by the low chance of success they had with skill checks and such. Should I just have them role less during the actual game, or give them buffs due to circumstance and such like in combat. maybe emphasize taking people by surprise and all.

Also stealing this. Maybe with the rise of things of Sixteen and pregnant the world view is shifting so even the videoheads major spell isn't as effective.

the big bad videomancer actually was a mother (not the archetype) herself until she had a miscarriage, husband leaves her, and she just sat in the room watching the sitcom until her mind cracked enough for videomancy.

It's honestly just that the system is set up where you will fail a lot even at things you are good at. Best advice is to roll ONLY WHEN ABSOLUTELY VITAL and to be generous with bonuses. If they take them for granted and do stupid shit, let them get crushed.

Ah shit, mom off! It's a race to see who is the world's worst mother!

I like it! I think I want motherhood to be a larger theme in this campaign, I just need to find a way to do it subtly so I don't beat my players over the head with it. Especially with the big bad having ties with motherhood too. What's the best way to reveal that bit of backstory you guys think?

My first thought is that both moms are part of a support group of some sort. Trailer mom tries to get help, tv mom is trying to make the others "better" than they are now. Or they are both part of a PTA-like organization. Explains why they'd be in the background of the story through out, why the players might need to talk to them and how the players can start to learn more about these two women

And in small towns everyone talks. If someone dies the whole town will know by sundown. Rumors and gossip last longer than the real news. If anyone asks about the moms, someone should know

I like the idea of both being part of the PTA and a support group. Maybe as the PC's investigate where the leader of the Epi cult goes to on sundays they stumble upon her secret and the videoheads secret as well (Though I am making the head videohead a secret, the PC's think the guy running for mayor is actually the head of the cult when he's just a figure head)

meant to respond to

Anyway, this was fun. I'm going to pass out now. If you want to continue to bounce around ideas, put down your skype name and I'll contact you

Crazy idea: Osiris is a transexual god, and only gains the throne of the underworld after losing male genitalia.

How do I work this into a UA character concept?

Well, sounds like the kind of thing someone who walks the path of the Mystic Hermaphrodite would think, at least until they learned the truth of Avatars/Godwalkers/the Statosphere.

That's actually how Unknown Armies does it normally. Normally you can just go without a check if your notches are higher than the difficulty.

Not only is what said good advice, but the Unknown Armies skill check system has maximum difficulty as its default difficultly.

Basically, an unmodified skill check is supposed to happen only under extreme circumstances. I forgot which page, but it specifically says that in the book.

The GM is supposed to give out bonuses when you are not in life and death situations.