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Unknown Armies
Unknown Armies: Book Two: Run
An occult game about broken people conspiring to fix the world.
It's about humanity and how the most obsessed among us have the power to alter reality until it aligns with their fevered desires.
It's about getting what you want despite others trying to keep it from you.
What would you risk to change the world? Your friends? Your family? Your health? Your sanity? Magick finds a way to ask the very most from you, until you achieve what you want or you are left with nothing.
Unknown Armies characters are broken, obsessed people, and you play one of them.
The third edition of this cult classic roleplaying game. Confront your character's mental and emotional health with detailed rules for significant trauma and shock.
Strive to accomplish a self-assigned goal in order to get what you want.
As part of a cabal, you help others to achieve their own goals, as well as a group objective that can — and will — have long-lasting consequences.
Created by Greg Stolze and John Tynes, Unknown Armies presents an entirely original yet disturbingly familiar approach to mystery, horror, and action in roleplaying games.
This new edition, helmed by Stolze and funded through the tremendous success of a Kickstarter campaign, also features the diverse talents of a cabal of contributors: Aaron Acevedo, Cam Banks, Tim Dedopulos, Thomas Deeny, Jason Engle, Shoshana Kessock, Sophie Lagacé, Chris Lites, W.J. MacGuffin, Ryan Macklin, Colleen Riley, Chad Underkoffler, Monica Valentinelli, and Filamena Young.
It's about humanity and how the most obsessed among us have the power to alter reality until it aligns with their fevered desires.
It's about getting what you want despite others trying to keep it from you.
What would you risk to change the world? Your friends? Your family? Your health? Your sanity? Magick finds a way to ask the very most from you, until you achieve what you want or you are left with nothing.
Unknown Armies characters are broken, obsessed people, and you play one of them.
The third edition of this cult classic roleplaying game. Confront your character's mental and emotional health with detailed rules for significant trauma and shock.
Strive to accomplish a self-assigned goal in order to get what you want.
As part of a cabal, you help others to achieve their own goals, as well as a group objective that can — and will — have long-lasting consequences.
Created by Greg Stolze and John Tynes, Unknown Armies presents an entirely original yet disturbingly familiar approach to mystery, horror, and action in roleplaying games.
This new edition, helmed by Stolze and funded through the tremendous success of a Kickstarter campaign, also features the diverse talents of a cabal of contributors: Aaron Acevedo, Cam Banks, Tim Dedopulos, Thomas Deeny, Jason Engle, Shoshana Kessock, Sophie Lagacé, Chris Lites, W.J. MacGuffin, Ryan Macklin, Colleen Riley, Chad Underkoffler, Monica Valentinelli, and Filamena Young.
126 pages, ebook
Published January 1, 2016
2 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Greg Stolze
146 books57 followersGreg Stolze (born 1970) is an American novelist and writer, whose work has mainly focused on properties derived from role-playing games.
Stolze has contributed to numerous role-playing game books for White Wolf Game Studio and Atlas Games, including Demon: the Fallen. Some of Stolze's recent work has been self-published using the "ransom method", whereby the game is only released when enough potential buyers have contributed enough money to reach a threshold set by the author.
Together with John Tynes he created and wrote the role-playing game Unknown Armies, published by Atlas Games. He has also co-written the free game NEMESIS, which uses the One-Roll Engine presented in Godlike and the so called Madness Meter derived from Unknown Armies.
Stolze has contributed to numerous role-playing game books for White Wolf Game Studio and Atlas Games, including Demon: the Fallen. Some of Stolze's recent work has been self-published using the "ransom method", whereby the game is only released when enough potential buyers have contributed enough money to reach a threshold set by the author.
Together with John Tynes he created and wrote the role-playing game Unknown Armies, published by Atlas Games. He has also co-written the free game NEMESIS, which uses the One-Roll Engine presented in Godlike and the so called Madness Meter derived from Unknown Armies.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 13, 2021
El segundo libro de la tercera edición de “Unknown Armies” está enfocado a dos cosas: darte las herramientas necesarias para dirigir una partida y un montón de ideas a partir de ambientación que reúne organizaciones secretas, personajes, enemigos y lugares.
Sigue con la estupenda manera de escribir de Greg Stolze y, pese a que hay un montón de personas colaborando detrás del libro, se nota la mano de Stolze en encajarlo todo y darle un mismo tono: directo y sugerente.
La primera parte es quizá la más densa, pues incluye todas las mecánicas y reglas que hay que seguir a la hora de empezar una campaña de UA con tus jugadores. Es un trabajo coordinado entre director de juego y jugadores, con muchos elementos que se llevan actualmente en otros juegos narrativos: rollo PbtA o Fate.
Luego vienen un montón de consejos, ideas y reglas para que tus partidas no decaigan en lo repetitivo, sean siempre un desafío interesante para los jugadores y respeten la idea que el canon UA plantea. Algunas son muy enriquecedoras y perfectamente aplicables a otros juegos o maneras de dirigir. Se explica la importancia de los personajes, sus cábalas (la organización de los jugadores en el juego), el escenario que les rodea, la importancia de la planificación cuando no hay sesiones de juego, las relaciones, los antagonistas… Vamos, que John Wick mola mucho y escribe muy bien también sobre estas cosas, pero yo creo que Stolze está a un nivel similar y no es tan reconocido, porque igual a veces no es tan contundente y polémico en sus afirmaciones (buenas y malas).
Y ya, a mitad de libro, empieza la chicha en ambientación UA. En el primer libro ya encontramos una explicación general de este universo tan parecido al nuestro. Aquí ya vemos desarrolladas (todo lo que se puede desarrollar algo en un mundo donde no todo es lo que parece y es difícil discernir la mentira de la realidad) un montón de organizaciones secretas y mágicas, sus personajes más importantes, sus guerras internas y con el mundo mágico y no mágico, algunos de sus rituales, cómo se organizan, qué ha pasado con ellas desde la primera edición que salió en español. La Nueva Inquisición, los Lecheros (me han flipado), Mak Attax, Ordo Corpulentis, los Durmientes, la Secta de la Diosa Desnuda… son algunos de los ejemplos que vamos a encontrar en este libro.
Por último también encontraremos un capítulo dedicado a otras criaturas o seres que pueden entrar en nuestro plano, como los demonios o espectros. Cierra el libro otro capítulo muy breve sobre localizaciones con algunos ejemplos que se conoce en el submundo ocultista y podemos incorporar en nuestras campañas.
Al final encontraremos también las hojas de personaje que no estaban incluidas en el primer libro (no entiendo por qué) pero que podemos descargar desde la página web de Edge Entertainment.
En general me ha parecido un buen libro, especialmente toda la parte de consejos y la ambientación sobre las organizaciones antagonistas, que es un auténtico disparador de ideas originales y divertidas para campañas y aventuras. También he encontrado un montón de párrafos y secciones magistrales o irreverentes, con mucha carga irónica. Por ejemplo, dentro del juego la magia (la mayoría de las veces) solo se puede realizar si tienes cargas mágicas. Es algo parecido a los puntos de magia, solo que aquí las hay de tres tamaños: pequeña, intermedia o mayor. Para conseguir estas cargas, dependiendo del tipo de magia que practiques, es algo complicado, costoso y siempre contrario (paradoja) a lo que genera tu magia. Bueno, cuento todo esto porque hay una organización (Mak Attax) que se dedica a infiltrarse en esa cadena de hamburgueserías tan famosa para meter cargas mágicas entre las hamburguesas de sus clientes, al azar. Solo para liberar magia y acostumbrar a la civilización a que vive en un mundo mágico. No voy a entrar en lo que opinan otras organizaciones al respecto y evidenciar porque hay tantos conflictos entre ellas. La cuestión es que para que un integrante de Mak Attax pueda generar esas cargas mágicas que luego transferirá en un Happy Meal igual tiene que hacer algunos excesos con el “[…] alcohol, de arriesgar su vida innecesariamente, de la traición, de los conejos, del vudú tradicional, de los coches, de consumir noticias de medios de comunicación de extrema derecha […]”. ¡Noticias de medios de extrema derecha! Si eso fuera así, España sería un país lleno de magia y tendríamos entre nosotros a auténticos liches y nigromantes. Solo que al ser UA, se les conocería como Los Aguiluchos. O practicarían la Pollarranciedad, una escuela de magia basada en el odio y los cayetanos.
Stolze me flipa.
Sigue con la estupenda manera de escribir de Greg Stolze y, pese a que hay un montón de personas colaborando detrás del libro, se nota la mano de Stolze en encajarlo todo y darle un mismo tono: directo y sugerente.
La primera parte es quizá la más densa, pues incluye todas las mecánicas y reglas que hay que seguir a la hora de empezar una campaña de UA con tus jugadores. Es un trabajo coordinado entre director de juego y jugadores, con muchos elementos que se llevan actualmente en otros juegos narrativos: rollo PbtA o Fate.
Luego vienen un montón de consejos, ideas y reglas para que tus partidas no decaigan en lo repetitivo, sean siempre un desafío interesante para los jugadores y respeten la idea que el canon UA plantea. Algunas son muy enriquecedoras y perfectamente aplicables a otros juegos o maneras de dirigir. Se explica la importancia de los personajes, sus cábalas (la organización de los jugadores en el juego), el escenario que les rodea, la importancia de la planificación cuando no hay sesiones de juego, las relaciones, los antagonistas… Vamos, que John Wick mola mucho y escribe muy bien también sobre estas cosas, pero yo creo que Stolze está a un nivel similar y no es tan reconocido, porque igual a veces no es tan contundente y polémico en sus afirmaciones (buenas y malas).
Y ya, a mitad de libro, empieza la chicha en ambientación UA. En el primer libro ya encontramos una explicación general de este universo tan parecido al nuestro. Aquí ya vemos desarrolladas (todo lo que se puede desarrollar algo en un mundo donde no todo es lo que parece y es difícil discernir la mentira de la realidad) un montón de organizaciones secretas y mágicas, sus personajes más importantes, sus guerras internas y con el mundo mágico y no mágico, algunos de sus rituales, cómo se organizan, qué ha pasado con ellas desde la primera edición que salió en español. La Nueva Inquisición, los Lecheros (me han flipado), Mak Attax, Ordo Corpulentis, los Durmientes, la Secta de la Diosa Desnuda… son algunos de los ejemplos que vamos a encontrar en este libro.
Por último también encontraremos un capítulo dedicado a otras criaturas o seres que pueden entrar en nuestro plano, como los demonios o espectros. Cierra el libro otro capítulo muy breve sobre localizaciones con algunos ejemplos que se conoce en el submundo ocultista y podemos incorporar en nuestras campañas.
Al final encontraremos también las hojas de personaje que no estaban incluidas en el primer libro (no entiendo por qué) pero que podemos descargar desde la página web de Edge Entertainment.
En general me ha parecido un buen libro, especialmente toda la parte de consejos y la ambientación sobre las organizaciones antagonistas, que es un auténtico disparador de ideas originales y divertidas para campañas y aventuras. También he encontrado un montón de párrafos y secciones magistrales o irreverentes, con mucha carga irónica. Por ejemplo, dentro del juego la magia (la mayoría de las veces) solo se puede realizar si tienes cargas mágicas. Es algo parecido a los puntos de magia, solo que aquí las hay de tres tamaños: pequeña, intermedia o mayor. Para conseguir estas cargas, dependiendo del tipo de magia que practiques, es algo complicado, costoso y siempre contrario (paradoja) a lo que genera tu magia. Bueno, cuento todo esto porque hay una organización (Mak Attax) que se dedica a infiltrarse en esa cadena de hamburgueserías tan famosa para meter cargas mágicas entre las hamburguesas de sus clientes, al azar. Solo para liberar magia y acostumbrar a la civilización a que vive en un mundo mágico. No voy a entrar en lo que opinan otras organizaciones al respecto y evidenciar porque hay tantos conflictos entre ellas. La cuestión es que para que un integrante de Mak Attax pueda generar esas cargas mágicas que luego transferirá en un Happy Meal igual tiene que hacer algunos excesos con el “[…] alcohol, de arriesgar su vida innecesariamente, de la traición, de los conejos, del vudú tradicional, de los coches, de consumir noticias de medios de comunicación de extrema derecha […]”. ¡Noticias de medios de extrema derecha! Si eso fuera así, España sería un país lleno de magia y tendríamos entre nosotros a auténticos liches y nigromantes. Solo que al ser UA, se les conocería como Los Aguiluchos. O practicarían la Pollarranciedad, una escuela de magia basada en el odio y los cayetanos.
Stolze me flipa.
October 10, 2019
There is much to love with this book. Much... So much that I cant see me have time to use even half of all the great ideas that it contains.
Its hard to rewiev it without having played it, but I think it has some great stuff.
First, the how to create your cabal and your campainge has a lot of good ideas. I am very interested to try these in the future. It do put a lot of weight (in the beginning) from the GMs sholders over to the players and I think that is a great idea in a game of this kind. It is supposed to be about what the players want (what they really, really want (sorry)). And after that the GM can start to put up roadblocks in their way. But this can also be a negative for some players that is in it for other reasons then what UA is about. So, again, I think this is a game that will be fantastic, if you have the right group. With the wrong group it might just fall flat. I hope I have the right group, becouse this is some excelent stuff.
The second part is to flesh out the world with some people, Things and organisations. All fun and usefull. Also, there is a short chapter that only deals with riots. Is that so common in UA that it needs its own chapter? I guess I will see.
So if you have players that really like to ROLEplay and are happy to grab the story and make it their own, this is som good stuff. If you have players that want to get handed a mission or an investigation. I think this might be ... less good? But even so, there is still a lot of fun stuff in this one that might be able to be mined for ideas to other games. Even if UA is a bit special.
Its hard to rewiev it without having played it, but I think it has some great stuff.
First, the how to create your cabal and your campainge has a lot of good ideas. I am very interested to try these in the future. It do put a lot of weight (in the beginning) from the GMs sholders over to the players and I think that is a great idea in a game of this kind. It is supposed to be about what the players want (what they really, really want (sorry)). And after that the GM can start to put up roadblocks in their way. But this can also be a negative for some players that is in it for other reasons then what UA is about. So, again, I think this is a game that will be fantastic, if you have the right group. With the wrong group it might just fall flat. I hope I have the right group, becouse this is some excelent stuff.
The second part is to flesh out the world with some people, Things and organisations. All fun and usefull. Also, there is a short chapter that only deals with riots. Is that so common in UA that it needs its own chapter? I guess I will see.
So if you have players that really like to ROLEplay and are happy to grab the story and make it their own, this is som good stuff. If you have players that want to get handed a mission or an investigation. I think this might be ... less good? But even so, there is still a lot of fun stuff in this one that might be able to be mined for ideas to other games. Even if UA is a bit special.
March 24, 2018
This book provided some clarifications about running an Unknown Armies campaign (using a collaborative effort between the Game Master and the players). I still have my concerns about how players of potentially competing practices and such will have to, in-character, interact effectively and efficiently with each other toward a common goal, but I assume that this dynamic will have to be worked out between the GM and players.
I did enjoy the collaborative "corkboard" exercise of coming up with a campaign objective, and liked how the author used examples to demonstrate how this process works. This seems like an appealing and engaging method that could be used in most RPGs and I might use a similar process in a future game. The inclusion of some basic "how to" Game Master and run an RPG information was also a positive addition.
I did enjoy the collaborative "corkboard" exercise of coming up with a campaign objective, and liked how the author used examples to demonstrate how this process works. This seems like an appealing and engaging method that could be used in most RPGs and I might use a similar process in a future game. The inclusion of some basic "how to" Game Master and run an RPG information was also a positive addition.
September 27, 2022
Unknown Armies is weird. But it's a fun weird.
This is the "GM Guide" book of the UA 3rd Edition set. It contains a lot of general advice for running the game (and advice that would work for running any horror game, really). There is a reiteration of mechanics as well as an extended sequence for character creation. Moreso than any other game, effort is put in to stressing how important it is that the party gels. Characters really need to be created together to ensure that they work together well. This book also has the character sheet and the fact that the sheet is here instead of in the player's book is infuriating as it made following the mechanics description rather difficult.
But the book isn't all dry paragraphs on how to run the game. There's also a lengthy gazetteer on NPC cabals of cosmic importance. And this is where the book gets really interesting and you start to see where Unknown Armies shines: weird-ass urban fantasy horror ideas. Like Flex Echo: A secret government program that almost accidentally involved the occult when one of the programmers used a homunculus as a basis for the software. The programmer was murdered by the program director and now the program seeks out international terrorists and adepts. The program itself also has a degree of sentience and could turn against its director. It also gains and distributes power through information gathering on the internet - sometimes directly.
There are more mundane groups like the cabal of hyper-patriotic religious cannibals who see it as their duty to spread American hegemony across the globe. Or the Mak Attaxers who believe in a sort of anarchistic magick-for-all approach and so get their members jobs in popular fast food restaurants where they occasionally dump a charge of magick into the food of an unsuspecting pony. And this is where I think Unknown Armies excels in its world building: These groups aren't always evil by any conventional definition but they also build from aspects of our world. It takes normal occurrences like annoying internet quizzes or American super patriotism and exaggerates them with a twist of horror and a garnish of occult significance. It's social commentary that hits disturbingly close to home and this accentuates the horror of it all.
The format is still trifling. I don't think this game benefited from being split into multiple core books (Technically there are 5 although only 3 are in print). I think this book and the player's book should have been combined if only so the character creation rules were fully laid out for everyone and the damn character sheet would be right there. Still, it's a good book and I think together Book 1 and Book 2 average out to be pretty damn good. The interior art is again disgusting and I love it. Most is manipulated photography but there are plenty of the voyeuristic images of the paranoid which gross body horror pieces intermixed. It's well placed with the starkly visceral images meted out slowly over the course of book.
This is the "GM Guide" book of the UA 3rd Edition set. It contains a lot of general advice for running the game (and advice that would work for running any horror game, really). There is a reiteration of mechanics as well as an extended sequence for character creation. Moreso than any other game, effort is put in to stressing how important it is that the party gels. Characters really need to be created together to ensure that they work together well. This book also has the character sheet and the fact that the sheet is here instead of in the player's book is infuriating as it made following the mechanics description rather difficult.
But the book isn't all dry paragraphs on how to run the game. There's also a lengthy gazetteer on NPC cabals of cosmic importance. And this is where the book gets really interesting and you start to see where Unknown Armies shines: weird-ass urban fantasy horror ideas. Like Flex Echo: A secret government program that almost accidentally involved the occult when one of the programmers used a homunculus as a basis for the software. The programmer was murdered by the program director and now the program seeks out international terrorists and adepts. The program itself also has a degree of sentience and could turn against its director. It also gains and distributes power through information gathering on the internet - sometimes directly.
There are more mundane groups like the cabal of hyper-patriotic religious cannibals who see it as their duty to spread American hegemony across the globe. Or the Mak Attaxers who believe in a sort of anarchistic magick-for-all approach and so get their members jobs in popular fast food restaurants where they occasionally dump a charge of magick into the food of an unsuspecting pony. And this is where I think Unknown Armies excels in its world building: These groups aren't always evil by any conventional definition but they also build from aspects of our world. It takes normal occurrences like annoying internet quizzes or American super patriotism and exaggerates them with a twist of horror and a garnish of occult significance. It's social commentary that hits disturbingly close to home and this accentuates the horror of it all.
The format is still trifling. I don't think this game benefited from being split into multiple core books (Technically there are 5 although only 3 are in print). I think this book and the player's book should have been combined if only so the character creation rules were fully laid out for everyone and the damn character sheet would be right there. Still, it's a good book and I think together Book 1 and Book 2 average out to be pretty damn good. The interior art is again disgusting and I love it. Most is manipulated photography but there are plenty of the voyeuristic images of the paranoid which gross body horror pieces intermixed. It's well placed with the starkly visceral images meted out slowly over the course of book.
July 11, 2018
I can't get over how much I like this game. The section for the GM is, as in previous editions, very good advice for running pretty much any game. The concepts of Antagonist Phase and Mediation Phase as a way to build the story around, to consider the between-session time the GM takes to prepare the story as an integral part of the game might not be revolutionary but it certainly can change the way you see the game (“It is my fun time too!”). The Objectives mechanics is a fantastic way of achieving personal goals without getting too distracted from what might be the main plot of the story. And creating cabals like a conspiracy theory board? Brilliant. Yes, it is like Fiasco, but come on! Conspiracy Theory Board. Now I am waiting for the necessary accessory, or I will need to get a Polaroid.
The Antagonist section? I am sure there is plenty of debate out there, but I think it was a smart move to keep most of the big organizations (TNI, Mak Attak, The Cult of the Naked Goddess…) but change them…substantially. Sure, if you like your old Sleepers, you can keep your old Sleepers, but the world has changed since second edition and the occult underground is nothing but volatile. Somethings remain mostly unchanged: The House of Renunciation is as creepy as always, an absolute hell regardless of your believes.Just great.
The Antagonist section? I am sure there is plenty of debate out there, but I think it was a smart move to keep most of the big organizations (TNI, Mak Attak, The Cult of the Naked Goddess…) but change them…substantially. Sure, if you like your old Sleepers, you can keep your old Sleepers, but the world has changed since second edition and the occult underground is nothing but volatile. Somethings remain mostly unchanged: The House of Renunciation is as creepy as always, an absolute hell regardless of your believes.Just great.
December 21, 2022
GM book, with perhaps the best support and advice for running a modern-day occult horror game by the seat of your pants that has ever been offered. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
March 15, 2021
One of the best insights on planning/running a game not ust when it comes to UA but RPGs in general.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews