intro

i ran a UA3 demo at a local rpg meetup. i used the Maria in three parts introductory module. I’d like to share a report of how things went.

i have way more to say than i thought i did so i’m splitting it into two parts: the prep and the run.

prep

goals

i had two objectives for the session:

• Run a fun rpg session for everyone.
• Run a fun UA session for everyone.

the session needs to be fun in a way that’s unique to Unknown Armies. i’ll elaborate on what that means in terms of look/feel in the second post. In terms of game mechanics. i wanted to make sure that the group engages with the most idiosyncratic unknown armies rules during the session:

• The shock gauge.
  • To resist Stress Checks.
  • As attribute rating for other tests.
• Identities, both magickal and mundane.
  • replace attributes for rolls.
  • spell casting.
  • determinants of behavior
    • things to do to gain charges.
    • things to avoid so that you don’t lose your charges.

read the module

After reading the module, I assessed much of i could remove and still fulfill my two objectives. 50%; i concluded.

this informed the rest of my prep.

the marketing

the flyer

first things first: i made this (⬇️) flyer to building some extra hype for the game.

the pitch

i wrote this short sales pitch for the game to attract the interest of players were still unconvinced by the flyer:

Maria, a fellow occultist, was spit into three parts by an artifact. Now the three Marias are wrecking havoc at the local hospital. Meanwhile, the demon responsible is after your friend, and fellow occultist, Renee.

You don’t really care a whole lot about Maria, but she knows how to stop the demon that’s after Renee. You care a lot about Renee, so you’ll do everything in your power to stop that demon.

i tried to do a couple of things here:

• set the mood and tone.
  • you are an occultist like maria and renee.
  • you don’t give a shit about maria, but you care a lot about renee.
    • she is either a shitty person or you are a shitty person. it doesn’t really matter.
  • you have the power or means to help renee deal with a demon.
    • magick!!!
      • “the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the will” according to Crowley.
• give the players everything they needed to get to the module’s epic conclusion right off the bat.
  • a clear problem and enough information to solve that problem.
• speed things up.
  • by removing the “investigation” portion of the session.
    • i was able to reduce the number of locations from 4 locations to
      • The hospital where the characters interface with maria
      • maria’s house where the characters will interface with the demon and renee.
  • skip the boring exposition parts.
  • open the door for some serious occult mayhem and chaos as early in the session as i possibly could.
    • started the session in media res.
      • told the characters to pick who to fight next:
        • the three marias in the hospital.
        • the demon hunting down your friend.

module notes

my note taking approach is heavily influenced by the concept of encapsulation from object orientated design. i treat characters, npcs and locations as independent objects. each object has internal data that it needs to do its thing and different methods to interact with other objects.

this approach helps me decouple characters and locations from plot; which makes it easier for an organic story to emerge from the events that took place in the session.

i filled 5 index cards with notes. one index card for each npc and location.

npc cards have:

• the goal the character is currently pursuing.
• stats and other systems related stuff.
• how the character interfaces with other objects.

location cards contain the same information sans a goal.

pre-gens

i printed out character sheets for the 4 pregens provided by the module.

i wrote guidelines for players that wanted to modify their characters. They are mostly just guard rails to speed things up.

here’s an example for your perusal:

# The Cinemancer 

## You at a high level

### Exposure to the Occult Underground
- Renee saved you from a serious ass-whopping once. You exchanged phone numbers. 
- You know this film-bro dude that also happens to be a budding cinemancer . He clued you into into the occult underground and the mysteries of cinemancy.

### Fill in the Blanks
- What did you do to deserve an ass-whopping that day? 
- What do you do for a living? **Remember that you lose all your charges if you don't ensure that all cliches are followed through.** 

## Game Stuff
### What Are Adepts?
- Practitioners of magick who follow specific traditions. 
- They have to embrace the paradox of their tradition in order to build up minor and significant charges.
	- To cast a spell, they roll their Adept Identity. 
	- If the roll passes, the spell works and the charges are spent.
	- If the roll fails, the spell doesn’t work, but the charges are not spent.
- To get more charges, adepts must perform the activities listed under Generating a Charge section of their character sheet.
 
### Cinemancy (At a high Level)
- Cinemancy uses Magick to make movie cliche’s real. (After all, everybody knows about them already.) Magick just gives the cliche a push to manifest in our world. 
- Known as Auteurs, Cliches, Tropers
- Central paradox in Cinemancy is that movies are fake but more accepted than reality.  

end of part 1

and after all this, i felt ready to run ua for two strangers at a local meetup.

i’ll finish the report next post!