[UA] Hesitation - Market research ;-)

[Robin Pfeifer]

I can't remember how long exactly I hesitated regarding UA, but it was quite
some time. I heard about the game first on some newsletter and didn't read
the reviews because the name 'Unknown Armies' felt like just another
wargame; maybe something in the Warhammer or Battletech category, something
about which I couldn't care less. This name would never by itself have
triggered the connotation of a game even remotely like what it actually is.
Add to that the fact that I'm in Germany and no game store owner in the
vicinity (there are three, and that's stretching the term 'vicinity') had
even heard about the game back then, and you can see that I was not exactly
exposed to it.

Then the game was mentioned favourably on a Kult list IIRC and that made me
read the reviews. I ordered the core book, then went to the Essen games show
last October (the best place in Germany to get relatively rare games) and
bought all the other books, with one exception (TNI) apparently getting the
last-of-its-kind on the show of each book. Hush Hush was not out then, but I
ordered that one later as well.

I would say that the game is somewhere in the middle of a triangle the
corners of which are made up by Mage, Kult and Nobilis. I don't crossover
between games usually, but these three are the closest relatives.

I used to play Das Schwarze Auge which is for German gamers what D&D is for
US gamers. I went on (no order of any kind) to Stormbringer, CoC, Shadowrun,
Cyberspace, MERP, some Earthdawn, Pendragon, Tales from the Floating
Vagabond, Skyrealms of Jorune, Paranoia, Kult and the World of Darkness
games; I collected but have not yet played Nobilis, Over the Edge, Dark
Conspiracy, Nephilim, In Nomine, SLA Industries, Dark Space and an obscure
German game called Serials which is about serial killers in the Neil Gaiman
/ Sandman fashion (remember the serial convention?). I doubtlessly forgot
something. Ah, and I never ever played any D&D, which makes me somewhat
unique.

Let me just add that I'm glad I own all of UA with six books (so far), just
looking at my two and a half shelves of WW books makes my purse cringe. But
thanks to their heavy introduction of metaplot they have all but managed to
estrange me, so I'm no longer a compulsive WW buyer.

Robin


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