Unknown Armies Inspiration
From: YellowSign Posted on: Jun-29 9:50 pm
To: ALL
Message: 659.1

OK, how about this?
I don't know if it's been discussed before, but what are some of the best sources for inspiration you've had for Unknown Armies?

Movies: Ninth Gate, Frailty, May, Requiem for a Dream, Ghost Dog, Se7en, One Hour Photo, and Identity (until they discover the truth...Man that ending is stupid).

Music: PJ Harvey, Lords of Acid, Queens of the Stone Age, This Mortal Coil, Tori Amos.

Books: Anything by Barry Gifford.

Also, I just watched The Jacket, and The Mechanist. Both have some great mood stuff. Thinking back, there's also Memento, Clean Shaven, Spider, and Venilla Sky.

Anyone else?


Edited 7/5/2005 1:06 am ET by YellowSign
From: John Nephew Posted on: Jul-25 5:17 pm
To: YellowSign
Message: 659.2
in reply to: 659.1

Movie suggestion:

Intacto

TV:

Carnivale (from HBO, now on DVD)

From: Tuura Posted on: Jul-29 7:28 pm
To: YellowSign
Message: 659.3
in reply to: 659.1

Jeez YellowSign, given your lists of movies, your lists of games, even suggesting Rus to me a while back (I own it already), it seems like we are like minded. Maybe I ought to break down and buy Unknown Armies! So is 2nd edition that much better than 1st. I ask because if I can save cash buying an old 1st edition should I do it, or should I hold out for UA2?

Chuck

From: YellowSign Posted on: Jul-30 10:13 am
To: John Nephew
Message: 659.4
in reply to: 659.2
I just watched Intacto, and man were you right. That movie was great, and spot on. Carnival is a great show as well, so of course it's being dropped.
I can't believe I didn't mention the movie I always use as an example, Lost Highway. I was thinking of some others as well, like Dance with the Devil, Mulholland Drive, the Butterfly Effect, and to a lesser degree, Donnie Darko, Lord of Illusions, and Unbreakable.
Of course I'm a huge movie guy (movies being one of the three things I'm really into) and I've always culled through them for inspiration for one of my other interests, gaming. For me a movie isn't truely bad unless I walk away without one spawned idea...House of the Dead, I'm looking at you.
From: YellowSign Posted on: Jul-30 10:23 am
To: Tuura
Message: 659.5
in reply to: 659.3
As far as Second Ed goes, I'm not sure yet. I only have first.
I'd been mostly out of the gaming loop for several years after getting done at the game store I used to work at, and I didn't know there was a Second ed until I started checking out the Atlas site a few months ago. Now there's a new store near by that's just getting started and I'm trying to get back into gaming.
Second Ed sounds great though. If I understand correctly, it makes it a lot easier to play the game in different ways. By that I mean, if I want to run a one shot where the charaters have nothing whatsoever to do with the mystical ellements of the game (magic, godwalkers, whatever), it should now be much more simple a task. As there are several very different ways to run the game (and play the game) it seems like a cool thing to seperate them in some way, and I think that's what happened.
I'm hoping to get a copy soon.
From: Michelle Nephew Posted on: Aug-5 2:46 pm
To: Tuura
Message: 659.6
in reply to: 659.3

Hi there. The 2nd edition rules are pretty much the same as 1st edition, but it adds material from Postmodern Magic and Statosphere that the designers thought of as being "core." More noticably, it spends a lot more time talking about how to go about running an Unknown Armies game, talking about things like plot and setting, in response to complaints that went along the lines of "Wow! What an amazingly cool game! Um ... how am I supposed to actually start playing it?" The organization of the 2nd edition is completely overhauled to be more useful to the GM (as YellowSign noted). The book is divided into sections reflecting three campaign levels -- street level, global level, and cosmic level -- based on how much knowledge and power you want in your game. It's really a lot more approachable than the first edition.

Michelle Nephew
Atlas Games